Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Background: Treatment objectives for dyspepsia include improvements in both symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There is a lack of disease-specific instruments measuring HRQoL in South East Asian dyspeptics. Objectives: To validate English and locally translated version of the Short-Form Nepean Dyspepsia Index (SF-NDI) in Malaysian patients who consult for dyspepsia. Methods: The English version of the SF-NDI was culturally adapted locally and a Malay translation was developed using standard procedures. English and Malay versions of the SF-NDI were assessed against the SF-36 and the Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire (LDQ), examining internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity. Results: Pilot testing of the translated Malay and original English versions of the SF-NDI in twenty subjects did not identify any cross-cultural adaptation problems. 143 patients (86 English-speaking and 57 Malay speaking) with dyspepsia were interviewed and the overall response rate was 100% with nil missing data. The median total SF-NDI score for both languages were 72.5 and 60.0 respectively. Test-retest reliability was good with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.90 (English) and 0.83 (Malay), while internal consistency of SF-NDI subscales revealed α values ranging from 0.83 – 0.88 (English) and 0.83 – 0.90 (Malay). In both languages, SF-NDI sub-scales and total score demonstrated lower values in patients with more severe symptoms and in patients with functional vs organic dyspepsia (known groups validity), although these were less marked in the Malay language version. There was moderate to good correlation (r = 0.3 – 0.6) between all SF-NDI subscales and various domains of the SF-36 (convergent validity). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that both English and Malay versions of the SF-NDI are reliable and probably valid instruments for measuring HRQoL in Malaysian patients with dyspepsia. Published: 23 May 2009 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:45 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-45 Received: 25 January 2008 Accepted: 23 May 2009 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/7/1/45 © 2009 Mahadeva et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
University of Innsbruck Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Communication , cooperation and collusion in team tournaments – An experimental study

We study the effects of communication in an experimental tournament between teams. When teams, rather than individuals, compete for a prize there is a need for intra-team coordination in order to win the inter-team competition. Introducing communication in such situations may have ambiguous effects on effort choices. Communication within teams may promote higher efforts by mitigating the internal free-rider problem. Communication between competing teams may lead to collusion, thereby reducing efforts. In our experiment we control the channels of communication by letting subjects communicate through an electronic chat. We find, indeed, that communication within teams increases efforts and communication between teams reduces efforts. We use team members’ dialogues to explain these effects of communication, and check the robustness of our results. JEL-classification: C92, J33
Detection and analysis of a transient energy burst with beamforming of multiple teleseismic phases

Lise Retailleau,1, ∗ Matthieu Landès,2 Lucia Gualtieri,3 Nikolai M. Shapiro,4,5 Michel Campillo,1 Philippe Roux1 and Jocelyn Guilbert6 1Institut des Sciences de la Terre, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France. E-mail: retaille@stanford.edu 2Euro-Med Seismological Centre, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France 3Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA 4Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CNRS (UMS 7154), F-75005 Paris, France 5Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FEB RAS, 9 Piip Boulevard, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683000, Russia 6CEA/DAM/DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France
Evaluation of protein docking predictions using Hex 3.1 in CAPRI rounds 1 and 2

This article describes and reviews our efforts using Hex 3.1 to predict the docking modes of the seven target protein–protein complexes presented in the CAPRI (Critical Assessment of Predicted Interactions) blind docking trial. For each target, the structure of at least one of the docking partners was given in its unbound form, and several of the targets involved large multimeric structures (e.g., Lactobacillus HPr kinase, hemagglutinin, bovine rotavirus VP6). Here we describe several enhancements to our original spherical polar Fourier docking correlation algorithm. For example, a novel surface sphere smothering algorithm is introduced to generate multiple local coordinate systems around the surface of a large receptor molecule, which may be used to define a small number of initial ligand‐docking orientations distributed over the receptor surface. High‐resolution spherical polar docking correlations are performed over the resulting receptor surface patches, and candidate docking solutions are refined by using a novel soft molecular mechanics energy minimization procedure. Overall, this approach identified two good solutions at rank 5 or less for two of the seven CAPRI complexes. Subsequent analysis of our results shows that Hex 3.1 is able to place good solutions within a list of ≤20 for four of the seven targets. This finding shows that useful in silico protein–protein docking predictions can now be made with increasing confidence, even for very large macromolecular complexes. Proteins 2003;52:98–106. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Screening and Production of Lipase Producing Bacteria from Vegetable Oil Industry

Lipases are industrially important enzymes having applications in numerous industries. The present study aims to isolate different bacteria and screen them for lipase production. Oil spilled soil samples were collected from vegetable oil industry of Harur, Dharmapuri district. A total of thirteen morphologically distinct bacteria isolated were screened for lipase production in Tween 80 agar plate. Lipolytic activity was confirmed by zone of precipitation around the colony. Among thirteen isolates, six isolates exhibited lipolytic activity in plate assay. The bacterial isolate HLB7 produced high amount of lipase 2.6U/ml in lipase production medium by submerged fermentation was identified as Pseudomonas sp. The optimum incubation time, inoculum size, temperature and pH for lipase production were determined. The lipase production was maximum at incubation time 48 hr (3.26U/ml), Inoculum size 4% (4.37U/ml), temperature 40 ̊C (4.65U/ml) and pH 7 ( 4.95U/ml) by the Pseudomonas sp.
INVESTIGATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY LEVELS

The current research investigated the secondary school students’ environmental literacy levels and the effects of various variables on their environmental literacy levels. The study was carried out with the participation of 525 secondary school students (5 th , 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grades) selected from 6 different secondary schools in the city of Bitlis in Turkey in 2013-2014 school year. In order to collect the data in the study, “Elementary School Environmental Literacy Scale” was administered and in the analysis of the gathered data, descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U-Test and Kruskal Wallis H-Test were employed. At the end of the study, it was concluded that the students’ environmental literacy level is medium in general. While variables such as gender, wondering about news about the environment and nature and visit to natural areas in the last two years lead to significant differences among the students’ environmental literacy levels, grade level was found to be not leading to a significant difference among the students’ literacy levels. Article visualizations:
Substorm Onset Latitude and the Steadiness of Magnetospheric Convection

We study the role of substorms and steady magnetospheric convection (SMC) in magnetic flux transport in the magnetosphere, using observations of field‐aligned currents by the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment. We identify two classes of substorm, with onsets above and below 65° magnetic latitude, which display different nightside field‐aligned current morphologies. We show that the low‐latitude onsets develop a poleward‐expanding auroral bulge, and identify these as substorms that manifest ionospheric convection‐braking in the auroral bulge region as suggested by Grocott et al. (2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-591-2009). We show that the high‐latitude substorms, which do not experience braking, can evolve into SMC events if the interplanetary magnetic field remains southward for a prolonged period following onset. We conclude that during periods of ongoing driving, the magnetosphere displays repeated substorm activity or SMC depending on the rate of driving and the open magnetic flux content of the magnetosphere prior to onset. We speculate that sawtooth events are an extreme case of repeated onsets and that substorms triggered by northward‐turnings of the interplanetary magnetic field mark the cessation of periods of SMC. Our results provide a new explanation for the differing modes of response of the terrestrial system to solar wind‐magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling by invoking friction between the ionosphere and atmosphere.
Selective Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Low Cost Distorted Image Classification

Deep convolutional neural networks have proven to be well suited for image classification applications. However, if there is distortion in the image, the classification accuracy can be significantly degraded, even with state-of-the-art neural networks. The accuracy cannot be significantly improved by simply training with distorted images. Instead, this paper proposes a multiple neural network topology referred to as a selective deep convolutional neural network. By modifying existing state-of-the-art neural networks in the proposed manner, it is shown that a similar level of classification accuracy can be achieved, but at a significantly lower cost. The cost reduction is obtained primarily through the use of fewer weight parameters. Using fewer weights reduces the number of multiply-accumulate operations and also reduces the energy required for data accesses. Finally, it is shown that the effectiveness of the proposed selective deep convolutional neural network can be further improved by combining it with previously proposed network cost reduction methods.
PROOF COVER SHEET

Context: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common systemic auto-immune disease, which is characterized by chronic and symmetry synovial inflammation. Crocin has been reported to exhibit anti-inflammatory effects in animal models. Objective: This study investigates the anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects of crocin on type II collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in Wistar rats. Materials and methods: The CIA rat model was established and randomly divided into five groups with or without crocin treatment (10, 20 or 40mg/kg), which was started on day 21 after arthritis induction and persisted for 36 days. The symptoms and molecular mechanisms of CIA and crocin-treated CIA rats were compared and investigated. Results: CIA rats presented severe RA symptoms, including high arthritis score, paw swelling, joint inflammation, bone erosion, chondrocyte death, cartilage destruction, enhanced expressions of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, crocin could mitigate these symptoms. Crocin (40mg/kg) exhibited the most efficient therapeutic function on CIA rats: the histological scores of joint inflammation, bone erosion, chondrocyte death, cartilage surface erosion, and bone erosion of CIA rats receiving 40mg/kg crocin treatment were comparable to the normal rats. MMP-1, -3 and -13 protein expression levels of CIA rats with 40mg/kg crocin treatment were decreased to levels similar to normal rats. Moreover, crocin could also inhibit the expressions of TNF-a, IL-17, IL-6 and CXCL8 in serum and ankle tissues of CIA rats. Conclusions: In summary, crocin exhibits therapeutic potential for RA, by mitigating the symptoms and inhibiting the pro-inflammatory factor expressions. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 2 August 2017 Revised 27 September 2017 Accepted 21 February 2018
PROOF COVER SHEET

The study examined the effect of caffeine supplementation on match activities and development of fatigue during a football match. In a randomised, double-blind cross-over design, two experimental football games separated by 7 days were organised between the junior teams of two professional football clubs (17.6 ± 1.1 years (±s), 71.7 ± 6.9 kg, 15 13.9% ± 5.0% body fat). The players ingested either a capsule of 6 mg · kg b.w. caffeine or placebo (dextrose) 50 min prior to the matches. Match activities were assessed using the ZXY match analysis system, and a Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test–level 2 (Yo-Yo IR2) was conducted immediately post-game. Heart rate was monitored throughout the game, and blood samples were obtained at baseline, half-time and after the game. There were no differences between caffeine and placebo regarding total distance covered (10,062 ± 916 vs 9854 ± 901 m), high-intensity running (557 ± 178 vs 20 642 ± 240 m), sprinting distance (109 ± 58 vs 112 ± 69 m) or acceleration counts (123 ± 30 vs 126 ± 24). In both trials, players displayed lower (P < 0.05) values in total distance and acceleration counts in the last 15 min compared to all other 15-min periods of the matches. Post-game Yo-Yo IR2 performance was not different between game trials (caffeine: 829 ± 322 m; placebo 819 ± 289 m). In conclusion, oral caffeine administration does not appear to have an ergogenic effect in young football players during match play. 25
Discovery of Atmospheric‐Wind‐Driven Electric Currents in Saturn's Magnetosphere in the Gap Between Saturn and its Rings

Magnetic field observations obtained by the Cassini spacecraft as it traversed regions inside of Saturn's D ring packed a genuine surprise. The azimuthal component of the magnetic field recorded a consistent positive perturbation with a strength of 15–25 nT near closest approach. The closest approaches were near the equatorial plane of Saturn and were distributed narrowly around local noon and brought the spacecraft to within 2,550 km of Saturn's cloud tops. Modeling of this perturbation shows that it is not of internal origin but is produced by external currents that couple the low‐latitude northern ionosphere to the low‐latitude southern ionosphere. The azimuthal perturbations diminish at higher latitudes on field lines that connect to Saturn's icy rings. The sense of the current system suggests that the southern feet of the field lines in the ionosphere leads their northern counterparts. We show that the observed field perturbations are consistent with a field‐aligned current whose strength is ~1 MA/radian, that is, comparable in strength to the planetary‐period‐oscillation‐related current systems observed in the auroral zone. We show that the Lorentz force in the ionosphere extracts momentum from the faster moving low‐latitude zonal belt and delivers it to the northern ionosphere. We further show that the electric current is generated when the two ends of a field line are embedded in zonal flows with differing wind speeds in the low‐latitude thermosphere. The wind‐generated currents dissipate 2 × 1011W of thermal power, similar to the input from the solar extreme ultraviolet flux in this region.
Assessing hydrological connectivity development by using a photogrammetric technique with relative surface connection function (RSCf) in a plot-scale experiment

Understanding the development of hydrological connectivity (HC) is important for improving the prediction of overland flow generation and/or erosion processes in modeling all scales from plot to watershed. In this study we aim to reveal the links between the dynamics of HC and the evolution of the microtopographical features at the plot scale and to understand how the development of HC is affected by environmental factors (e.g., rainfall intensity and slope). We collected a loess soil from a small catchment of Loess Plateau of China, known for its high erosion susceptibility, and carried out sequential rainfall simulations with intensities of 25, 50, 70, and 86 mm h−1, and different slope surface gradients of 5°, 15°, and 25°. Hydrological conductivity development was assessed by means of a photogrammetric technique, a semivariogram analysis (in terms of parameters γ and l delivering information on microdepressions), and a simplified hydrograph and its derived relative surface connection function (RSCf), in terms of parameters C0, Cthr, and Dthr, representing the runoff generation process. The results suggest that slope played a predominant role in affecting the dynamics of the structural aspect of HC. Parameter γ after events (posterior-γ) showed an increasing trend as slope increased. The C0, as expected, was directly controlled by the rainfall intensity, while the Cthr was indirectly influenced by both rainfall intensity and slope gradient as result of the increase in Δγ. The increase in γ before events (i.e., prior-γ) exhibited a restricting role on the development of the functional aspect of HC on both moderate and steep slopes, i.e., the higher the prior-γ, the less developed the parameters of the functional HC. By relating the parameters C0, Cthr, and Dthr to the easily measured prior-γ and accounting for the microscale HC dynamic information, it is possible to improve the predictions of overland flow and soil loss generation.
AEWA international single species management plan for the greylag goose (anser anser): Northwest/Southwest European population

This draft International Single Species Management Plan (ISSMP) for the Greylag Goose (Anser anser) was developed in response to the AEWA Action Plan, which provides for developing ISSMPs for populations which cause significant damage, in particular, to crops and fisheries. In addition, it responds to AEWA Resolution 6.4, which requested the establishment of a multispecies goose management platform and process to address the sustainable use of goose populations and to provide for the resolution of human-goose conflicts targeting, as a matter of priority, Greylag and Barnacle (Branta leucopsis) Geese.
A new algorithm to retrieve SO2 layer height from UV backscattered measurements: Application to OMI and TROPOMI and comparison with other satellite datasets.

This work has been performed in the frame of the S5L2PP and TROPOMI projects. We acknowledge financial support from ESA S5P and Belgium Prodex TRACE-S5P projects. 1. Abstract BIRA-IASB has the responsibility of developing the SO2 retrieval algorithm for the Sentinel 5 (S5) UVN prototype processor. While the retrieval of SO2 vertical columns is similar as for TROPOMI/S5P (Theys et al., 2017), the S5 SO2 algorithm also includes an additional module to derive an effective SO2 layer height (LH) which is activated for enhanced SO2 vertical columns (typically >25 DU). Here we introduce the algorithm, which is based on an iterative SO2 optical depth fitting procedure. Although it makes use of a large look-up-table (of SO2 optical depth spectra), the scheme is adequately fast for an operational environment. We demonstrate the technique based on synthetic spectra and apply the algorithm to OMI and TROPOMI for a number of volcanic eruptions. Results are compared to other satellite datasets, such as CALIOP attenuated backscattered profiles and SO2 height estimates from MLS and IASI (Clarisse et al., 2014). In general, we find an excellent agreement with differences on the retrieved height of less than 1-2 km. The results for TROPOMI are discussed in more details because SO2 plume height data derived at high spatial resolution can provide added-value information on the eruption chronology. Plans for future work, including the possible implementation of a near-real-time SO2 plume height algorithm in the Support to Aviation Control Service (SACS), are addressed.
Temperature Control of the Variability of Tropical Tropopause Layer Cirrus Clouds

This study examines the temperature control of variability of tropical tropopause layer (TTL) cirrus clouds (i.e., clouds with bases higher than 14.5 km) by using 8 years (2006–2014) of observations from the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC). It is found that the temporal variability of vertical structure of TTL cirrus cloud fraction averaged between 15°N and 15°S can be well explained by the vertical temperature gradient below ~17.5 km but by the local temperature above for both seasonal and interannual time scales. It is also found that the TTL cirrus cloud fraction at a given altitude is best correlated with the temperature at a higher altitude and this vertical displacement increases with a decrease of the cirrus altitude. It is shown that the TTL cirrus cloud fractions at all altitudes are significantly correlated with tropical cold point tropopause (CPT) temperature. The plausible mechanisms that might be responsible for the observed relations between TTL cirrus fraction and temperature‐based variables are discussed, which include ice particle sediments, cooling associated with wave propagations, change of atmospheric stability, and vertical gradient of water vapor mixing ratio. We further examine the spatial covariability of TTL total cirrus cloud fraction and CPT temperature for the interannual time scale. It is found that the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and quasi‐biennial oscillation are the leading factors in controlling the spatial variability of the TTL cirrus clouds and temperatures.