Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of A New Mixed-Phase Cloud Microphysics Parameterization with the NCAR Climate Atmospheric Model (CAM3) and ARM Observations Fourth Quarter 2007 ARM Metric Report

Mixed-phase clouds are composed of a mixture of cloud droplets and ice crystals. The cloud microphysics in mixed-phase clouds can significantly impact cloud optical depth, cloud radiative forcing, and cloud coverage. However, the treatment of mixed-phase clouds in most current climate models is crude and the partitioning of condensed water into liquid droplets and ice crystals is prescribed as temperature dependent functions. In our previous 2007 ARM metric reports a new mixed-phase cloud microphysics parameterization (for ice nucleation and water vapor deposition) was documented and implemented in the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model Version 3 (CAM3). The new scheme was tested against the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mixed-phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) observations using the single column modeling and short-range weather forecast approaches. In this report this new parameterization is further tested with CAM3 in its climate simulations. It is shown that the predicted ice water content from CAM3 with the new parameterization is in better agreement with the ARM measurements at the Southern Great Plain (SGP) site for the mixed-phase clouds.
Tree height retrieval methods using POLInSAR coherence optimization

This paper investigates to what extent interferometric coherence optimization in radar polarimetry improves the performance of forest height inversion method using POLInSAR measured data. Based on repeat pass E-SAR data and the corresponding ground measured forest stand heights, several available forest height inversion methods are validated and compared together with coherence optimization algorithms such as the iteration for the maximization of the magnitude difference (BF-mag) coherence optimization algorithm and phase diversity (PD) coherence optimization algorithm. The results show that coherence phase optimization can improve the performance of the tree height retrieval method based on coherence phase information, but can not improve the performance of the retrieval method based on coherence amplitude information alone. Furthermore, an integrated inversion method, which combines coherence phase with coherence amplitude information and includes corresponding polarization coherence optimization and compensation of non-volume scattering decorrelation, is proposed and discussed.
A Fast Boundary Element Method for the Analysis of Fiber-Reinforced Composites Based on a Rigid-Inclusion Model

A new boundary element method (BEM) is developed for three-dimensional analysis of fiber-reinforced composites based on a rigid-inclusion model. Elasticity equations are solved in an elastic domain containing inclusions which can be assumed much stiffer than the host elastic medium. Therefore the inclusions can be treated as rigid ones with only six rigid-body displacements. It is shown that the boundary integral equation (BIE) in this case can be simplified and only the integral with the weakly-singular displacement kernel is present. The BEM accelerated with the fast multipole method is used to solve the established BIE. The developed BEM code is validated with the analytical solution for a rigid sphere in an infinite elastic domain and excellent agreement is achieved. Numerical examples of fiber-reinforced composites, with the number of fibers considered reaching above 5800 and total degrees of freedom above 10 millions, are solved successfully by the developed BEM. Effective Young’s moduli of fiber-reinforced composites are evaluated for uniformly and ‘‘randomly’’ distributed fibers with two different aspect ratios and volume fractions. The developed fast multipole BEM is demonstrated to be very promising for large-scale analysis of fiber-reinforced composites, when the fibers can be assumed rigid relative to the matrix materials. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1825436#
The role of myeloid differentiation factor 88 on mitochondrial dysfunction of peritoneal leukocytes during polymicrobial sepsis

Objective To investigate the role of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) on mitochondrial dysfunction of peritoneal leukocytes during polymicrobial sepsis. Material and methods Polymicrobial peritonitis, a clinically relevant mouse model of sepsis, was generated by cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) in both male C57BL/6J wild-type (WT) and MyD88 knockout (MyD88–/–) mice. Twenty-four hours after surgeries, peritoneal leukocytes were collected and four parameters of mitochondrial function, including total intracellular and mitochondrial ROS burst, mitochondrial membrane depolarization and ATP depletion, were measured by flow cytometry or ATP assay, and then compared. Results Polymicrobial sepsis led to a marked mitochondrial dysfunction of peritoneal leukocytes with total intracellular and mitochondrial ROS overproduction, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and reduced intracellular ATP production. In comparison, there was no significant difference in the extent of mitochondrial dysfunction of peritoneal leukocytes between WT and MyD88–/– septic mice. Conclusions MyD88 may be not sufficient to regulate mitochondrial dysfunction of peritoneal leukocytes during polymicrobial sepsis.
Prospective Validation of FibroTest in Comparison with Liver Stiffness for Predicting Liver Fibrosis in Asian Subjects with Chronic Hepatitis B

Background and Aims Diagnostic values of FibroTest (FT) for hepatic fibrosis have rarely been assessed in Asian chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. We aimed to validate its diagnostic performances in comparison with liver stiffness (LS). Methods From 2008 to 2010, 194 CHB patients who underwent liver biopsies along with FT and transient elastography were prospectively enrolled. Fibrosis stage was assessed according to the Batts and Ludwig system. Results To predict significant fibrosis (F≥2), advanced fibrosis (F≥3), and cirrhosis (F = 4), areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) of FT were 0.903, 0.907, and 0.866, comparable to those of LS (0.873, 0.897, and 0.910, respectively). Optimized cutoffs of FT to maximize sum of sensitivity and specificity were 0.32, 0.52, and 0.68 for F≥2, F≥3, and F = 4, while those of LS were 8.8, 10.2, and 14.1 kPa, respectively. According to FT and LS cutoffs, 123 (63.4%) and 124 (63.9%) patients were correctly classified consistent with histological fibrosis (F1, F2, F3, and F4), respectively. Overall concordance between each fibrosis stage estimated by FT and LS was observed in 111 patients, where 88 were correctly classified with histological results. A combination formula adding LS to FT (LS+FT) showed similar AUROC levels (0.885, 0.905, and 0.915), while another multiplying LS by FT (LS×FT) showed the best AUROCs (0.941, 0.931, and 0.929 for F≥2, F≥3, and F4, respectively). Conclusions FT provides good fibrosis prediction, with comparable outcomes to LS in Asian CHB patients. FT substantially reduces need for liver biopsy, especially when used in combination with LS.
Utility based underlay power control approach for dynamic spectrum allocation

In this paper, Utility based underlay power control approach for Dynamic Spectrum Allocation is proposed. The power control approach is treated as a game of non-cooperative nature where user's (here mobile stations) act selfishly and only concern with maximizing their utility (b/J) in terms of energy efficient. To obtain Pareto efficient result, a pricing factor is introduced in the utility function. The implementation of pricing factor results in obtaining socially optimum operating point i.e. convergence of non-cooperative game towards cooperative game. The proposed power control approach can be used effectively in the underlay approach of hierarchical access model for dynamic spectrum access (DSA) in cognitive radio technology.
Robust Non-Rigid Point Set Registration Using Student's-t Mixture Model

The Student's-t mixture model, which is heavily tailed and more robust than the Gaussian mixture model, has recently received great attention on image processing. In this paper, we propose a robust non-rigid point set registration algorithm using the Student's-t mixture model. Specifically, first, we consider the alignment of two point sets as a probability density estimation problem and treat one point set as Student's-t mixture model centroids. Then, we fit the Student's-t mixture model centroids to the other point set which is treated as data. Finally, we get the closed-form solutions of registration parameters, leading to a computationally efficient registration algorithm. The proposed algorithm is especially effective for addressing the non-rigid point set registration problem when significant amounts of noise and outliers are present. Moreover, less registration parameters have to be set manually for our algorithm compared to the popular coherent points drift (CPD) algorithm. We have compared our algorithm with other state-of-the-art registration algorithms on both 2D and 3D data with noise and outliers, where our non-rigid registration algorithm showed accurate results and outperformed the other algorithms.
Novel treatment strategy with autologous activated and expanded natural killer cells plus anti-myeloma drugs for multiple myeloma

ABSTRACT This proof-of-concept single-arm open-label phase I clinical trial (NCT02481934) studied the safety and efficacy of multiple infusions of activated and expanded natural killer (NKAE) cells in combination with anti-myeloma drugs in multiple myeloma patients. It included five patients with relapsed or refractory MM who had received two to seven prior lines of therapy; NK cells were expanded for 3 weeks with K562-mb15-41BBL cells. Patients received four cycles of pharmacological treatment with two infusions of 7.5 × 106 NKAEs/kg per cycle. NKAE generation, expansion, and NK monitoring was assessed using flow cytometry. Eighteen clinical-grade NKAE cell GMP-grade products were generated to obtain 627 × 106 NKAEs (range: 315–919 × 106) for the first infusion and 943 × 106 (range: 471–1481 × 106) for the second infusion with 90% (±7%) purity. Neutropenia grade II occurred in two patients and was related to chemotherapy. Of the five patients, four showed disease stabilization before the end of NKAE treatment, and two showed a 50% reduction in bone marrow infiltration and a long-term (>1 y) response. The NKAE cells had a highly cytotoxic phenotype and high cytotoxicity in vitro. Infused NKAE cells were detected in bone marrow and peripheral blood after infusions. Ex vivo expansion of autologous NK cells is feasible, NKAE cells are clinically active and the multiple infusions are well tolerated in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma.
Active learning using the data distribution for interactive image classification and retrieval

In the context of image search and classification, we describe an active learning strategy that relies on the intrinsic data distribution modeled as a mixture of Gaussians to speed up the learning of the target class using an interactive relevance feedback process. The contributions of our work are twofold: First, we introduce a new form of a semi-supervised C-SVM algorithm that exploits the intrinsic data distribution by working directly on equiprobable envelopes of Gaussian mixture components. Second, we introduce an active learning strategy which allows to interactively adjust the equiprobable envelopes in a small number of feedback steps. The proposed method allows the exploitation of the information contained in the unlabeled data and does not suffer from the drawbacks inherent to semi-supervised methods, e.g. computation time and memory requirements. Tests performed on a database of high-resolution satellite images and on a database of color images show that our system compares favorably, in terms of learning speed and ability to manage large volumes of data, to the classic approach using SVM active learning.
Preparing initial population of genetic algorithm for region growing parameter optimization

The processing of microscopic tissue images is nowadays done more and more using special immunodiagnostic-evaluation software products. Often to evaluate the samples, the first step is determining the number and location of cell nuclei. To do this, one of the most promising methods is the region growing, but this algorithm is very sensitive to the appropriate setting of different parameters. Due to the large number of parameters and due to the big set of possible values setting those parameters manually is a quite hard task, so we developed a genetic algorithm to optimize these values. The first step of the development is the statistical analysis of the parameters, and the determination of the important features, to extract valuable information for a to-be-implemented genetic algorithm that will perform the optimization.
Communication withdrawal in adolescent and young adult romantic relationships

Despite the widely-held notion that communication is essential to the maintenance of adult romantic relationships, few studies have tested whether communication is similarly important to adjustment in the romantic relationships of adolescents. It was hypothesized that because these early relationships are typically shorter and less committed than those of young adults that withdrawing from communication (e.g. becoming silent during a conflict, withholding grievances from partners, responding to partners in perfunctory ways) would contribute less to romantic relationship adjustment in adolescence. Samples of 26 adolescent couples (N = 52) and 60 young adult couples (N = 120) were recruited to examine withdrawal in late adolescent and young adult romantic relationships. A mixed-method design was employed whereby partners each provided self-report data on withdrawal in general and immediately following a laboratory task designed to examine relationship conflict in “real-time” that was later observationally coded. In addition, self-report measures were developed and administered to both partners in order to assess various reasons why partners might withdraw from communication (e.g., avoid getting hurt, protect the relationship, maintain privacy). No age differences in communication withdrawal emerged; however, several age differences, as well as gender differences, did emerge in the motives individuals cited for why they withdrew from their partners. Although it was hypothesized that withdrawing from communication would be more damaging to the relationships of young adults, withdrawal was linked to poor relationship adjustment regardless of age, suggesting that communication is an important factor to consider in adolescent romantic relationships.
The 5′-untranslated region of p16INK4a melanoma tumor suppressor acts as a cellular IRES, controlling mRNA translation under hypoxia through YBX1 binding

CDKN2A/p16INK4a is an essential tumor suppressor gene that controls cell cycle progression and replicative senescence. It is also the main melanoma susceptibility gene. Here we report that p16INK4a 5′UTR mRNA acts as a cellular Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES). The potential for p16INK4a 5′UTR to drive cap-independent translation was evaluated by dual-luciferase assays using bicistronic and monocistronic vectors. Results of reporters' relative activities coupled to control analyses for actual bicistronic mRNA transcription, indicated that the wild type p16INK4a 5′UTR could stimulate cap-independent translation. Notably, hypoxic stress and the treatment with mTOR inhibitors enhanced the translation-stimulating property of p16INK4a 5′UTR. RNA immunoprecipitation performed in melanoma-derived SK-Mel-28 and in a patient-derived lymphoblastoid cell line indicated that YBX1 can bind the wild type p16INK4a mRNA increasing its translation efficiency, particularly during hypoxic stress. Modulation of YBX1 expression further supported its involvement in cap-independent translation of the wild type p16INK4a but not a c. -42T>A variant. RNA SHAPE assays revealed local flexibility changes for the c. -42T>A variant at the predicted YBX1 binding site region. Our results indicate that p16INK4a 5′UTR contains a cellular IRES that can enhance mRNA translation efficiency, in part through YBX1.
Some New Thoughts on Conceptualizing Perceived Service Quality: A Hierarchical Approach

Through qualitative and empirical research, the authors find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a third-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has three subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. The authors test and support this conceptualization across four service industries. They consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations.
Adaptive Spectrum Selection for Cognitive Radio Networks

While essentially all the frequency is allocated to different wireless applications, observations provide evidence that usage of the spectrum is actually quite limited. Fortunately, cognitive radio technology offers an attractive solution to the reuse of under-utilized licensed spectrum. Therefore, proper channel selection mechanism and channel quality metric are essential to exploit the benefits of spectrum sharing. We propose a free time ratio (FTR) metric that captures channel quality. In addition, we also propose a distributed collaborative sensing scheme to ensure the robustness of the whole network. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the existing channel selection methods.
Replication and transcription on a collision course: eukaryotic regulation mechanisms and implications for DNA stability

DNA replication and transcription are vital cellular processes during which the genetic information is copied into complementary DNA and RNA molecules. Highly complex machineries required for DNA and RNA synthesis compete for the same DNA template, therefore being on a collision course. Unscheduled replication–transcription clashes alter the gene transcription program and generate replication stress, reducing fork speed. Molecular pathways and mechanisms that minimize the conflict between replication and transcription have been extensively characterized in prokaryotic cells and recently identified also in eukaryotes. A pathological outcome of replication–transcription collisions is the formation of stable RNA:DNA hybrids in molecular structures called R-loops. Growing evidence suggests that R-loop accumulation promotes both genetic and epigenetic instability, thus severely affecting genome functionality. In the present review, we summarize the current knowledge related to replication and transcription conflicts in eukaryotes, their consequences on genome stability and the pathways involved in their resolution. These findings are relevant to clarify the molecular basis of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Induction of murine peritoneal gamma/delta T cells and their role in resistance to bacterial infection

Previous studies have reported an association of gamma/delta T cells with microbial infection in both human lesions and murine infectious disease models. In this study we provide a comprehensive analysis of the conditions under which the induction of gamma/delta T cells occurs at a site of infection. We found a site-specific induction of gamma/delta T cells after the injection of Listeria monocytogenes in the peritoneal cavity of C3H mice. No changes were seen in the splenic or lymph node populations after these injections. Both the proportion and the absolute number of gamma/delta T cells increased in the peritoneal cavity. Additionally, when peritoneal T cells from Listeria- immune mice were restimulated in vitro, the induced gamma/delta T cells exhibited a greater expansion potential than the alpha/beta T cells. Neither the induced gamma/delta T cells nor those from normal mice expressed CD4 or CD8 on the cell surface. Thy-1 was expressed on only 29% of normal peritoneal gamma/delta T cells, but after intraperitoneal Listeria injection 65% of induced gamma/delta T cells expressed. Thy-1, Pgp-1 and CD45R expression on both normal and induced gamma/delta T cells was consistent with an activation phenotype. Significant increases in peritoneal gamma/delta T cells were not seen until 5-7 d after Listeria injection. The proportion of the CD3+ population expressing the gamma/delta T cell receptor remained elevated for 6-7 wk, while the absolute numbers of peritoneal gamma/delta T cells declined gradually over this time period, reflecting a decrease in both the number of lymphocytes and the percentage of these that were CD3+. Peak numbers of gamma/delta T cells were seen at day 10 with live microbes such as Listeria. A variety of microbes, toxins, mitogens, antigens, cytokines, and nonspecific inflammatory agents were evaluated for their ability to induce gamma/delta T cells in the peritoneal cavity. Both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as Mycobacteria were able to induce gamma/delta T cells that showed increased in vitro expansion potential. An exotoxin from a Gram- positive organism, listeriolysin-o, and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin from a Gram-negative organism were also effective. gamma/delta T cell responses to LPS were under lps gene control. Peak numbers of gamma/delta T cells were observed at day 3 after injection with exotoxins and endotoxins. Modifications that abrogated the virulence of a bacterial strain also eliminated the inductive effect for gamma/delta T cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Conceptual design of the beam source for the DEMO Neutral Beam Injectors

DEMO (DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant) is a proposed nuclear fusion power plant that is intended to follow the ITER experimental reactor. The main goal of DEMO will be to demonstrate the possibility to produce electric energy from the fusion reaction. The injection of high energy neutral beams is one of the main tools to heat the plasma up to fusion conditions. A conceptual design of the Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) for the DEMO fusion reactor, is currently being developed by Consorzio RFX in collaboration with other European research institutes. High efficiency and low recirculating power, which are fundamental requirements for the success of DEMO, have been taken into special consideration for the DEMO NBI. Moreover, particular attention has been paid to the issues related to reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability. A conceptual design of the beam source for the DEMO NBI is here presented featuring 20 sub-sources (two adjacent columns of 10 sub-sources each), following a modular design concept, with each sub-source featuring its radio frequency driver, capable of increasing the reliability and availability of the DEMO NBI. Copper grids with increasing size of the apertures have been adopted in the accelerator, with three main layouts of the apertures (circular apertures, slotted apertures and frame-like apertures for each sub-source). This design, permitting to significantly decrease the stripping losses in the accelerator without spoiling the beam optics, has been investigated with a self-consistent model able to study at the same time the magnetic field, the electrostatic field and the trajectory of the negative ions. Moreover, the status on the R&D carried out in Europe on the ion sources is presented.