Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EnvironmentalScience Processes & Impacts

Metals are an important atmospheric aerosol component; their impacts on health and the environment depend also on their solubility, dissolution kinetics and chemical form in which they are present in the aerosol ( e.g. , oxidation state, inorganic salt or oxide/hydroxide, organic complex). In this study, we investigated the impact of fog processing on the solubility and dissolution of metals in PM 2.5 samples collected in an urban background site in Padova (Italy). For each sample, we determined the solubility and dissolution kinetics of 17 elements in a solution simulating fog water in the winter season in the Po Valley (pH 4.7, T 5 (cid:1) C, and water content (cid:3) 0.5 g m (cid:4) 3 ). We also determined water-soluble inorganic and organic compounds having ligand properties. We used the model E-AIM IV to calculate the aerosol liquid water (ALW) content and pH, and we used the model Visual MinteQ to determine the speciation picture of the most important elements under conditions of both deliquescent aerosol (ALW and pH calculated using E-AIM IV, ambient temperature) and simulated fog. We found that the dissolution of Al, Cu, and Fe metal ions, predicted to be largely coordinated with organic compounds under fog conditions, was either immediate or considerably faster in samples collected on days with observed fog events compared with those collected on days having drier conditions. For readily soluble elements, such as As, Cd, Cr, Sr, and Zn, such an e ﬀ ect was not observed. Our study highlights the importance of coordination chemistry in atmospheric aerosol and fog in determining the bioavailability of particle-bound metals.
Distributed Model Predictive Control for Coupled Nonlinear Systems via Two-Channel Event- Triggered Transmission Scheme

This paper investigates the issue of event-triggered distributed model predictive control for coupled nonlinear systems with additive disturbances. Specifically, this paper proposes two event-triggered strategies, which are incorporated into the sensor and model predictive control (MPC) based controller for each subsystem, respectively. A limited-information-based control scheme is constructed using two-channel even-triggered transmissions. The scheme proposed achieves efficient reduction in both the transmission rates of the sensor and the resource consumption associated with optimization problem, as well as, enhances the real-world operational capability through the utilization of a sample-and-hold technique. This technique allows the actual control inputs to be derived by discretizing the continuous optimal control trajectory. This paper shows rigorously that the mutual influences invoked by dynamic coupling are bounded and the Zeno behavior is excluded entirely. Also, the sufficient conditions are developed to ensure the algorithm feasibility and the convergence of the overall system to a bounded set. Finally, a practical example is presented and comparisons are made to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
International Journal of Surgery Case Reports Aneurysmal Degeneration of Vein Conduit Used for Vascular Reconstruction—case Report and Literature Review

INTRODUCTION: Popliteal artery aneurysms (PAA) are the most prevalent form of peripheral arterial aneurysms. Greater saphenous vein grafts and endoaneurysmorrhaphy remains the mainstay therapy for open repair of PAA. True aneurysmal degeneration of lower extremity infrainguinal autologous vein grafts are relatively rare and its etiology is not completely understood. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 57-year-old man with recurrent autologous venous graft aneurysmal dilatations following a surgical popliteal artery aneurysm repair. DISCUSSION: The pathogenesis of true aneurysmal graft dilatation remains speculative with possible pathogenesis including progression of underlying atherosclerosis, systemic dilating diathesis, autologous venous graft varicosities, low-grade infections and post-stenotic dilatations. Management of venous graft aneurysms should be subjected to the same criteria as other aneurysms. Diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion. The initial study of choice is duplex ultrasonography as it can diagnose the aneurysm and distinguish it from other popliteal masses, provide accurately measurements and identify thrombus within the aneurysm. Once diagnosed, surgical repair should be performed as soon as possible as graft dilatation tends to occur overtime and is typically followed by a rapid increase in size over a short period of time. CONCLUSION: Aneurysmal degeneration of autologous saphenous venous graft following PAA repairs occur infrequently. Its etiology remains largely speculative. Accurate diagnosis and early surgical intervention can prevent progression of aneurysmal dilatation and minimize the potential of complications.
Six Billion and Counting: Population Growth and Food Security in the 21st Century

Despite substantial advances in family health and family planning over the past 30 years, global population has continued to grow by about 80 million people each year, with the total surpassing 6 billion people in 1999. Six Billion and Counting examines the consequences of continuing population growth for the world's resource systems and for national and global food security. The authors offer a sober analysis of a complex and alarming situation. They assess the progress the world has made in controlling population growth and point to the areas where future difficulties will lie. They describe the effects of rapid population growth on social and economic conditions and on natural resources, and they consider what population growth will mean for the food security of poor people and poor countries. In addition, they address how sociocultural norms and the roles of women and children in traditional societies affect birth rates. According to the authors, neither the population "pessimists," who predict that population growth will lead to a catastrophic exhaustion of natural resources, nor the population "optimists," who predict that technological advances can solve all of the problems raised by population growth, offer the most useful approach to this problem. Instead, Leisinger and his coauthors argue that new technologies mitigating the harmful effects of rapid population growth can give the world valuable time to take the complex and multifaceted steps needed to reduce population growth rates to sustainable levels.
Glacier inventory for the Northern Patagonia Icefield, Chile, and variations 1944/45 to 1985/86

The 28 outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonia Icefield, Chile, with a total contiguous surface area of about 4200 km2, were inventoried in a detailed statistical manner. The San Quintin and San Rafael glaciers, each with an area of about 760 km2, are the two largest. Equilibrium lines are estimated at elevations of 900 to 1350 m, separating the total area into an accumulation area of 2578 km2 and an ablation area of 1550 km2.The variation of 22 major glaciers between 1944/45 and 1985/86 was elucidated and an annual average rate of recession of up to 68 m yr–1 was determined. One glacier showed almost no change at all, while the southwestern snout of the Reicher Glacier showed a net advance, although small. A decrease in accumulation in the icefield has caused this general recession. However, the individual variation was probably governed by one of or a combination of the following four factors: (1) orographic situation of the accumulation area, i.e., whether it is located on the leeward (eastern) or wi.
Information Theory: Coding Theorems for Discrete Memoryless Systems

Csiszr and Krner's book is widely regarded as a classic in the field of information theory, providing deep insights and expert treatment of the key theoretical issues. It includes in-depth coverage of the mathematics of reliable information transmission, both in two-terminal and multi-terminal network scenarios. Updated and considerably expanded, this new edition presents unique discussions of information theoretic secrecy and of zero-error information theory, including the deep connections of the latter with extremal combinatorics. The presentations of all core subjects are self contained, even the advanced topics, which helps readers to understand the important connections between seemingly different problems. Finally, 320 end-of-chapter problems, together with helpful solving hints, allow readers to develop a full command of the mathematical techniques. It is an ideal resource for graduate students and researchers in electrical and electronic engineering, computer science and applied mathematics.
Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to Mobile HCI2010, the 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, and to Lisboa, Portugal. For the first time MobileHCI takes place in Portugal and is organised by the University of Lisboa, with the collaboration of the New University of Lisboa and the research centres LaSIGE and CITI, and in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI and ACM SIGMOBILE. Starting in 1998 in Glasgow, MobileHCI is now on its 12th edition and it is the leading conference in the field of Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. The MobileHCI series provides a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges and potential solutions for effective interaction with mobile systems and services. It covers the design, evaluation and application of techniques and approaches for mobile and wearable computing devices and services. MobileHCI 2010 call for papers attracted many researchers and practitioners in the area receiving a total of 111 full papers and 114 short papers. Through a very thorough review process, we were able to accept 26 full papers and 20 short papers in a very competitive process. The acceptance rate for full papers was 23.4% and for short papers was 17.5%. In addition to the full and short papers, MobileHCI 2010 includes other submission categories that promote different types of interactions among the participants (workshops, panels, industrial case studies, a design competition, future innovations, posters, demos and experiences, and a doctoral consortium). This year, the programme includes three notable invited speakers, Patrick Baudish from the Hasso Plattner Institute, Josh Ulm from Vodafone UK, and Scott Jenson from Google USA, with mixed industry and academic backgrounds sharing their innovative work and experiences with the conference participants. The Programme Committee was fundamental in reaching the final high quality programme. As a new approach, the rigorous review process included Associate Chairs and Programme Committee members. Each paper was reviewed by at least three PC members (most of the papers by four or five) and was assigned to an Associate Chair that moderated online discussions to reach a final set of reviews for each paper. The Programme Chair and the Associate Chairs met in Lisboa in March 2010 to make the final decisions for the conference. In total, more than 1100 reviews were generated over the several categories of the programme.
The impact of visually simulated self-motion on predicting object motion

To interact successfully with moving objects in our environment we need to be able to predict their behavior. Predicting the position of a moving object requires an estimate of its velocity. When flow parsing during self-motion is incomplete – that is, when some of the retinal motion created by self-motion is incorrectly attributed to object motion – object velocity estimates become biased. Further, the process of flow parsing should add noise and lead to object velocity judgements being more variable during selfmotion. Biases and lowered precision in velocity estimation should then translate to biases and lowered precision in motion extrapolation. We investigated this relationship between self-motion, velocity estimation and motion extrapolation with two tasks performed in a realistic virtual reality (VR) environment: first, participants were shown a ball moving laterally which disappeared after a certain time. They then indicated by button press when they thought the ball would have hit a target rectangle positioned in the environment. While the ball was visible, participants sometimes experienced simultaneous visual lateral self-motion in either the same or in the opposite direction of the ball. The second task was a two-interval forced choice task in which participants judged which of two motions was faster: in one interval they saw the same ball they observed in the first task while in the other they saw a ball cloud whose speed was controlled by a PEST staircase. While observing the single ball, they were again moved visually either in the same or opposite direction as the ball or they remained static. We found the expected biases in estimated time-to-contact, while for the speed estimation task, this was only the case when the ball and observer were moving in opposite directions. Our hypotheses regarding precision were largely unsupported by the data. Overall, we draw several conclusions from this experiment: first, incomplete flow parsing can affect motion prediction. Further, it suggests that time-to-contact estimation and speed judgements are determined by partially different mechanisms. Finally, and perhaps most strikingly, there appear to be certain compensatory mechanisms at play that allow for much higher-than-expected precision when observers are experiencing self-motion – even when self-motion is simulated only visually.
Thunderstorm lightning and radar characteristics: insights on electrification and severe weather forecasting

Thunderstorm Lightning and Radar Characteristics: Insights on Electrification and Severe Weather Forecasting. (December 2005) Scott Michael Steiger, B.S., State University of New York at Oswego; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Richard E. Orville Total lightning mapping, along with radar and NLDN cloud-to-ground lightning data, can be used to diagnose the severity of a storm. Analysis of the 13 October 2001 supercell event (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas), some supercells of which were tornadic, shows that LDAR II lightning source heights (quartile, median, and 95 percentile heights) increased as the storms intensified. Most of the total lightning occurred where reflectivity cores extended upwards and within regions of reflectivity gradient rather than in reflectivity cores. A total lightning hole was associated with an intense, nontornadic supercell on 6 April 2003. This feature was nonexistent from all supercells analyzed during the 13 October case. During tornadogenesis, the radar and LDAR II data indicated updraft weakening. The height of the 30 dBZ radar top began to descend approximately 10 minutes (2 volume scans) before tornado touchdown in one storm. Total lightning and CG flash rates decreased by up to a factor of 5 to a minimum during an F2 tornado touchdown associated with this storm. LDAR II source heights all showed descent by 2-4 km
Smith ScholarWorks Smith ScholarWorks

This paper attends specifically to what I call “disclosure datasets” - tabular datasets produced in accordance with laws requiring various kinds of disclosure. For the purposes of this paper, the most significant defining feature of disclosure datasets is that they aggregate information produced and reported by the same institutions they are meant to hold accountable. Through a series of case studies of disclosure datasets in the United States, I specifically draw attention to two concerns with disclosure datasets: First, for disclosure datasets, there is often political and social mobilization around the definitions that determine reporting thresholds, which in turn implicates what observations end up in the dataset. Changes in reporting thresholds can be traced along changes in political party power as the aims to promote accountability through mandated disclosure often get pitted against the aims to reduce regulatory burden. Second, for disclosure datasets, the observational unit – what is ultimately being counted in the data – is often not a person, institution, or action but instead a form that the reporting institution is required by law to fill out. Forms infrastructure the information that ends up in the dataset in notable ways. This work contributes to recent calls to promote the transparency and accountability of data science work through improved inquiry into and documentation of the social lineages of source datasets. The analysis of disclosure datasets presented in this paper poses important questions regarding what ultimately gets documented in the data, along with the representativeness and usefulness of these accountability mechanisms.
Linearized inversion for fault rupture behavior: Application to the 1984 Morgan Hill, California, earthquake

We present a technique to infer the rupture history of an earthquake from near-source records of ground motion. Unlike most previous studies, each point on the fault is assumed to slip only once, when the rupture front passes, with a spatially variable slip intensity. In this parameterization the data are linearly related to slip intensity but nonlinearly related to rupture time. We perform a linearized inversion for slip intensity and rupture time by iteratively perturbing an assumed starting model. The inverse problem for the model perturbation is solved using a tomographic back projection technique. Smoothing and inequality constraints are applied to ensure that the resulting solution is stable and feasible. Asymptotic ray theory is used to calculate theoretical seismograms and partial derivatives with respect to model parameters. In test cases with noisy synthetic data sets we found that it is possible to distinguish between rupture models having variable slip amplitude and models having variable rupture velocity, provided the station coverage is adequate. We apply the technique to recordings of the April 24, 1984, Morgan Hill earthquake. The results indicate that slip amplitude on the fault plane was extremely variable and that the rupture front did not propagate uniformly away from the hypocenter. In particular, rupture was delayed on a 12 km2 section of the fault approximately 14 km to the southeast of the hypocenter. The rupture front surrounded the region, which subsequently failed with a component of rupture propagation back toward the hypocenter. Similar behavior has been observed in dynamic rupture models with stress or strength inhomogeneities. This segment of the fault ruptured with a large slip amplitude, releasing 12% of the total seismic moment from 4% of the total area of the aftershock zone. The surface trace of this section of the fault is characterized by a complex left step that could act to increase the normal stress acting across the fault. However, the distribution of aftershocks suggests that the fault at depth is simpler and that it may bend to the right. In either case, our rupture model suggests that this segment of the fault represents an asperity, which initially resisted rupture but eventually ruptured massively. We estimate the shear fracture energy for this earthquake to be 2×106 J/m2.
SHRIMP U-Pb Zircon Geochronology of the Jiuling Granitic Complex Batholith in Jiangxi Province

The Jiuling granitic batholith in Jiangxi Province crops out at the southern margin of the Yangtze block, and it is the largest Neoproterozoic granitoid intrusion in South China. The granitic complex has long been considered to consist of Jinningian granites, Hercynian granites and Yanshanian granites. In this paper, a SHRIMP U-Pb zircon geochronological study on this complex has been performed on the basis of detailed field research. The 206Pb/ 238U age of granite thought to be formed in the Neoproterozoic is (828±8)Ma, while the age of one sample from Ganfang granite thought to be formed in the Hercynian is (820±10)Ma, which suggests there is no Hercynian granite in this area. Combined with other new geochronological data, it seems that there is no proof of Caledonian-Hercynian magmatic activity within the Yangtze block, which may infer that there is no Caledonian-Hercynian intrusion in the interior of the Yangtze block. The age of a sample thought to be formed in the Yanshanian is (151.4±2.4)Ma, which confirms previous results. A few inherited zircons record Mesoproterozoic age information, which may represent the ages of the granite source rocks.
Recent advances in understanding the role of HES6 in cancers

The NOTCH signaling system regulates a variety of cellular processes during embryonic development and homeostasis maintenance in different tissues and contexts. Hence, dysregulation of NOTCH signaling is associated with a plethora of human cancers, and there have been multiple efforts to target key components of this pathway. In this review, we briefly highlight the latest research advances in understanding HES6, a poorly studied component of the NOTCH pathway. We summarize the role of HES6 in cancers with a focus on uveal melanoma. Finally, we discuss the ongoing efforts to target the NOTCH-HES6 axis in cancers.
Conference on ‘ Nutrition and health : cell to community ’ Symposium 2 : Exercise and protein nutrition Dietary protein and exercise training in ageing

Ageing is accompanied by a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, leading to the loss of functional capacity and an increased risk for developing chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes. The age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass results from a chronic disruption in the balance between muscle protein synthesis and degradation. As basal muscle protein synthesis rates are likely not different between healthy young and elderly human subjects, it was proposed that muscles from older adults lack the ability to regulate the protein synthetic response to anabolic stimuli, such as food intake and physical activity. Indeed, the dose– response relationship between myofibrillar protein synthesis and the availability of essential amino acids and/or resistance exercise intensity is shifted down and to the right in elderly human subjects. This so-called ‘anabolic resistance’ represents a key factor responsible for the age-related decline in skeletal muscle mass. Interestingly, long-term resistance exercise training is effective as a therapeutic intervention to augment skeletal muscle mass, and improves functional performance in the elderly. The consumption of different types of proteins, i.e. protein hydrolysates, can have different stimulatory effects on muscle protein synthesis in the elderly, which may be due to their higher rate of digestion and absorption. Current research aims to elucidate the interactions between nutrition, exercise and the skeletal muscle adaptive response that will define more effective strategies to maximise the therapeutic benefits of lifestyle interventions in the elderly.