Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uptake and localization of cadmium by Biscutella laevigata, a cadmium hyperaccumulator

Biscutella laevigata has recently been recognized as a species able to accumulate large amounts of cadmium. The experiments reported in this paper were conducted on two geographically isolated populations of B. laevigata in Poland. Both populations grow on metalliferous soils: a lead-zinc (calamine) waste heap in Bolesoaw near Olkusz (189 mg Cd/kg d.m.) and limestone rock in the West Tatra Mts (1.4–6.1 mg Cd/kg d.m.). The two populations were compared after cultivating them in medium containing cadmium salt (2–120 mg/dm 3 ) for 3–30 days. Root-to-shoot transport of cadmium was higher in the waste-heap population than in the mountain population. In the waste-heap population, large amounts of cadmium were transported to the oldest leaves, reaching levels even twice those of the mountain population. This shows that the ability to hyperaccumulate metals may be a property of a population, not an entire species, and that the ability to accumulate cadmium in the oldest (withering) leaves may be a way the plant eliminates the toxic metal. Histochemical detection of cadmium (with dithizone) in tissues showed that it was taken up by the root hairs and then transported through vascular bundles to the leaves. The surface cells of the leaves, the epiderm and hairs accumulated particularly large amounts of cadmium. The leaves of the B. laevigata waste-heap population are much more thickly covered by hairs than those of the mountain population; we suggest that the ability to accumulate cadmium in leaf hairs may be a mechanism of detoxifying and hyperaccumulating cadmium in the shoots of that population.
Comments on "Ultrasonic flow metering based on transit time differentials which are insensitive to flow profile"

In a 1983 paper by H. Lechner, published in this journal, it was claimed that sound propagation in a flowing media confined by a cylindrical waveguide is characterized by mode phase speeds which, for small flows, do not depend linearly on flow. In particular, Lechner concludes that the phase speed of the fundamental mode changes with minus two times the average upstream flow as compared to the phase speed at zero flow. Downstream, the phase speed of the same mode is left unchanged with flow. In this comment, it is shown that changes in mode phase speeds with respect to flow will change sign when the flow direction is reversed disproving Lechner’s claim. Numerical calculations based on Sodha et al.’s paper published in Acustica [41, 232–237 (1979)], being the basis of Lechner’s work as well as this work, support the present analytical results for all modes.
Design study of a detector insert for high resolution clinical PET imaging

A new design that takes advantage of an asymmetric geometry was proposed to improve the resolution of PET imaging. The design employs two sets of detectors with different resolutions. The high resolution detectors are placed near the object being imaged and the lower resolution detectors placed far away from the object. This geometry produces a magnified projection of the PET radioisotope distribution onto the detectors far away, allowing one to resolve structures smaller than the intrinsic resolution of the larger detectors. A detector insert based on this new geometry is proposed to allow coincidence between the insert and an existing PET scanner. The device will allow a clinical PET scanner to zoom-in to the regions of interest with improved image resolution. Preliminary data demonstrated significant improvement in image resolution with the new design. Individual components of the proposed device need to be optimized to achieve good sensitivity to support the improved resolution.
Damage-Free Plasma Etching Processes for Future Nanoscale Devices

For the past 30 years, plasma etching technology has led in the efforts to shrink the pattern size of ultra-large-scale integrated (ULSI) devices. However, inherent problems in the plasma processes, such as charge buildup and UV photon radiation, limit the etching performance for nanoscale devices. To overcome these problems and fabricate sub-10-nm devices in practice, neutral-beam etching has been proposed. In this paper, we introduce the ultimate etching processes using neutral-beam sources and discuss the fusion of top-down and bottom-up processing for future nanoscale devices. Neutral beams can perform atomically damage-free etching and surface modification of inorganic and organic materials. This technique is a promising candidate for the practical fabrication technology for future nano-devices.
NEW LITHOSTRATIGRAPHIC UNITS IN THE CROATIAN OFFSHORE AND THEIR DEFINITION IN THE «R» PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

New lithostratigraphic units in the Croatian offshore have been recently proposed, and are now used, especially in the Pleistocene and Holocene sediments. Two new formations in the Croatian part of Northern Adriatic have been previously named (Istra and Ivana), as well as recently three new lithostratigraphic members inside the Ivana Formation. In addition, name change of the Susak Formation has been proposed. Furthermore, in the Southern Dalmatia shallow offshore (i.e., palaeosediments of the Neretva River), the new Neretva Channel Formation has been recently named. It is divided into the Neretva Sands and the Mali Ston Bay Member. Due to the often descriptive task of the definition of the lithostratigraphic units, here the simplification of the task is made possible by the algorithm and the source code which are based on a sufficient number of measured porosity values in a vertical of a lithological unit or a depositional sequence. The algorithm directly defines the way of testing the hypothesis of the normal distribution of porosity values, and the code does it numerically and graphically. The normality test is performed with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Depending on the results of the hypothesis test (normal distribution of the measured values), it is simply evaluated if it is a homogeneous, permeable or non-permeable, or a heterogeneous lithostratigraphic unit, that always can be distinguished from top and base. Based on the result, and familiarity with the geographical location of the sample, the unit is easily named following the rules of lithostratigraphic nomenclature.
Thermal dosimetry and thermodynamics in test tubes and Petri dishes

Many in vitro experiments have been conducted during the past 50 years to explore the mechanisms of interaction between RF energy and living tissue. There has been practically no consideration given to the thermodynamic events taking place in the cell medium, which absorbs the bulk of the incident energy and evolves towards a temperature equilibrium condition during the exposure. This paper explores the different medium thermodynamic conditions arising during the exposure of cell preparations, depending on their heat exchange environments. The final goal is to determine if the thermodynamic conditions cause convective motion in the medium with possible biological consequences to the exposed cell preparations.
Electroanatomical Mapping of the Heart: Basic Concepts and Implications for the Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmias

The CARTO electroanatomical mapping system represents a paradigm shift in the ability to map the three‐dimensional anatomy of the heart and determine the cardiac electrical activity at any given mapped point. The system associates anatomical structure and electrophysiological data and displays the combined information in an easily readable, visual fashion. The system consists of a roving mapping catheter with small magnetic sensors in the tip, a fixed sensor that acts as a reference point, a low magnetic field generating pad, and a data acquisition and display system. When the roving catheter is moved in three‐dimensional space, its location in relation to the fixed sensor is monitored by the system, with a resolution of < 1 mm. By gating the acquisition of points in space to the cardiac electrical activity, points that represent both location and electrical activity at that location can be acquired and displayed on a computer screen. After acquiring a number of points, a three‐dimensional representation is constructed, and may be displayed from any viewing projection. Clinical applications of the system include defining the mechanisms of arrhythmias, designing ablation strategies, guiding ablations, and improving the safety of mapping and ablation procedures by allowing localization of critical cardiac structures such as the atrioventricular node and His bundle. The system holds the potential to both further our understanding of arrhythmias and increase the safety, efficacy, and efficiency of catheter ablation.
An Effective GLCM and Binary Pattern Schemes Based Classification for Rotation Invariant Fabric Textures

Textures are one of the basic features in visual searching, computational vision and also a general property of any surface having ambiguity. This paper presents a novel texture classification system which has a high tolerance against illumination variation. A Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and binary pattern based automated similarity identification and defect detection model is presented. Different features are calculated from both GLCM and binary patterns (LBP, LLBP, and SLBP). Then a new rotation-invariant, scale invariant steerable decomposition filter is applied to filter the four orientation sub bands of the image. The experimental results are evaluated and a comparative analysis has been performed for the four different feature types. Finally, the texture is classified by different classifiers (PNN, KNN and SVM) and the classification performance of each classifier is compared. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method produces more accuracy and better classification rate over other methods.
A Randomized, Observer-Blinded Determination of the Median Effective Volume of Local Anesthetic Required to Anesthetize the Sciatic Nerve in the Popliteal Fossa for Stimulating and Nonstimulating Perineural Catheters

Background and Objectives: Stimulating perineural catheters are developed to overcome technical problems of nonstimulating catheters, but their efficacy remains controversial. However, no volume-response study has compared success rates between stimulating and nonstimulating catheters. This study of stimulating versus nonstimulating catheters compares the minimal effective volume required to successfully block the sciatic nerve in 50% of patients scheduled for unilateral hallux valgus repair. Methods: Patients underwent unilateral sciatic nerve block in the popliteal fossa with mepivacaine 1.5%, using either a stimulating (STIM group) or a nonstimulating (NONSTIM group) popliteal catheter. The volume of mepivacaine started at 20 mL and was increased or decreased by increments of 2 mL in subsequent patients, depending on the efficacy of the block in the previous patient, using the technique of up-down sequential allocation described by Dixon (Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1991;15:47-50). Minimum effective volumes of local anesthetic were calculated using the formula of Dixon. Efficacy of block was defined by a complete sensory-motor block in the cutaneous distributions of the sciatic nerve associated with a pain-free surgery. Results: Twenty-four patients were included in each group. Median effective volume blocking the sciatic nerve was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in the STIM group (2.7 mL; 95% confidence interval, 0.5-4.9 mL) compared with the NONSTIM group (16.6 mL; 95% confidence interval, 15.2-18.0 mL). Conclusion: Stimulating popliteal catheters dramatically decrease the volume required to block the sciatic nerve in 50% of patients, compared with nonstimulating catheters.
An active contour model for medical image segmentation with application to brain CT image.

PURPOSE Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) segmentation in computed tomography (CT) is a key step in computer-aided detection (CAD) of acute ischemic stroke. Because of image noise, low contrast and intensity inhomogeneity, CSF segmentation has been a challenging task. A region-based active contour model, which is insensitive to contour initialization and robust to intensity inhomogeneity, was developed for segmenting CSF in brain CT images. METHODS The energy function of the region-based active contour model is composed of a range domain kernel function, a space domain kernel function, and an edge indicator function. By minimizing the energy function, the region of edge elements of the target could be automatically identified in images with less dependence on initial contours. The energy function was optimized by means of the deepest descent method with a level set framework. An overlap rate between segmentation results and the reference standard was used to assess the segmentation accuracy. The authors evaluated the performance of the proposed method on both synthetic data and real brain CT images. They also compared the performance level of our method to those of region-scalable fitting (RSF) and global convex segment (GCS) models. RESULTS For the experiment of CSF segmentation in 67 brain CT images, their method achieved an average overlap rate of 66% compared to the average overlap rates of 16% and 46% from the RSF model and the GCS model, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Their region-based active contour model has the ability to achieve accurate segmentation results in images with high noise level and intensity inhomogeneity. Therefore, their method has great potential in the segmentation of medical images and would be useful for developing CAD schemes for acute ischemic stroke in brain CT images.
UVB/UVA Radiation Activates a 48 kDa Myelin Basic Protein Kinase and Potentiates Wound Signaling in Tomato Leaves

We investigated the effect of UV radiation on early signaling events in the response of young tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) to wounding. Ultraviolet‐C (<280 nm) and UVB/UVA (280–390 nm) radiation both induced 48 kDa myelin basic protein kinase activity in leaves. The activation was associated with phosphorylation of tyrosine residues on the kinase, which is indicative of protein kinases of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase family. Ultraviolet‐C irradiation resulted in a strong proteinase inhibitor synthesis, as reported previously (Conconi et al., Nature 383, 826–829, 1996). Under the conditions used, UVB/UVA radiation did not induce proteinase inhibitor synthesis but resulted in a strong potentiation of systemic proteinase inhibitor synthesis in response to wounding. The UVB/UVA‐irradiated plants that were subsequently wounded accumulated 2.5–4‐fold higher levels of proteinase inhibitor I when compared to wounded non‐irradiated plants. The potentiating effect was most prominent in the systemic unwounded leaf of a wounded plant. Levels of 12‐oxo‐phytodienoic acid and jasmonic acid that have been well documented to increase in response to wounding were not detected in response to UVB/UVA irradiation alone. The effect of UVB/UVA radiation in potentiating plant defense signaling should be further considered as a factor that may influence the ecological balance between plants and their predators.
Immunophenotype as prognostic factor for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in patients undergoing clinical risk-adapted therapy.

BACKGROUND For patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the International Prognostic Index (IPI) predicts the likelihood for cure with chemotherapy. Biological parameters, including expression of Bcl-6, Bcl-2, CD10, major histocompatibility complex class II, and categorization as germinal center (GC) type have been described as IPI-independent prognostic factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS Biological parameters were evaluated retrospectively by immunohistochemistry in 60 consecutive DLBCL patients of the prerituximab era. Forty-one of 60 patients underwent a risk-adapted treatment strategy including autologous stem-cell transplantation for high-risk patients (age-adjusted IPI = 2-3; slow response to chemotherapy). RESULTS Bcl-6 expression was associated with superior overall survival (OS) independently of the IPI. Inferior progression-free survival (PFS) was independently correlated with high expression of Bcl-2 and low positivity for HLA-DR and CD10. Distinction into GC and non-GC DLBCL on the basis of Bcl-6, CD10, and IRF-4 expression had no independent prognostic value. Within the risk-adapted treatment strategy, only HLA-DR retained a prognostic impact on OS (P = 0.0058) and PFS (P = 0.0002). CONCLUSIONS In 60 patients with DLBCL treated with risk-adapted therapy, immunohistochemical subcategorization of DLBCL into GC and non-GC type has little clinical value. The IPI-associated risk appears to be mitigated by intensified upfront therapy. Low HLA-DR expression is associated with poor outcome after intensified upfront therapy. Therefore, additional treatment modalities appear to be required.
Accurate Estimation of Single-Phase Grid Voltage Fundamental Amplitude and Frequency by Using a Frequency Adaptive Linear Kalman Filter

This paper reports the performance of a linear Kalman filter (LKF)-based technique to estimate the single-phase grid voltage fundamental amplitude and frequency under distorted grid conditions. An enhanced frequency-locked loop is combined with the LKF to obtain the frequency adaptive capability of the technique. A frequency domain analysis is presented to show the effect of tuning the parameters of the LKF. When compared with a non-LKF, such as the extended KF, the technique is linear and computationally efficient, as it does not contain derivative operations and nonlinear terms. The technique is less affected by dc offset and harmonics, and also shows improved convergence property as compared with an extended complex KF. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the performance of the technique.
A Modified Bayes Information Criterion with Applications to the Analysis of Comparative Genomic Hybridization Data

Summary In the analysis of data generated by change‐point processes, one critical challenge is to determine the number of change‐points. The classic Bayes information criterion (BIC) statistic does not work well here because of irregularities in the likelihood function. By asymptotic approximation of the Bayes factor, we derive a modified BIC for the model of Brownian motion with changing drift. The modified BIC is similar to the classic BIC in the sense that the first term consists of the log likelihood, but it differs in the terms that penalize for model dimension. As an example of application, this new statistic is used to analyze array‐based comparative genomic hybridization (array‐CGH) data. Array‐CGH measures the number of chromosome copies at each genome location of a cell sample, and is useful for finding the regions of genome deletion and amplification in tumor cells. The modified BIC performs well compared to existing methods in accurately choosing the number of regions of changed copy number. Unlike existing methods, it does not rely on tuning parameters or intensive computing. Thus it is impartial and easier to understand and to use.
Nanopositioning for probe-based data storage [Applications of Control]

Probe-based data-storage devices are being considered as an ultra-high-density, small- form-factor alternative to conventional data storage. The probe-based data-storage concept is derived from scanning-probe microscopy, where nanometer-sharp tips are used to interrogate and manipulate matter down to the atomic scale. One implementation of this concept is based on a thermomechanical principle for storing and retrieving data encoded as nanometer-scale indentations in thin polymer films. Ultra-high densities of more than 1 Tb/in2 have been achieved with this scheme. A small-scaleprototype system comprising all of the elements of a probe- based data storage device has been developed. One of the key challenges is the positioning of the storage medium relative to the read/write probes with nanometer-scale accuracy. A microscanner with X/Y motion capability is used to position the storage medium. Position information along both scan directions is provided by a pair of thermal position sensors. In addition, medium-derived position information provides a measure of the cross-track deviations in the Y-scan direction. Control architectures for both scan directions are presented. The X control architecture relies on thermal position sensors alone, whereas the Y control architecture relies on both the thermal position sensors and the medium-derived PES. Nanometer-scale positioning accuracies are achieved over a bandwidth of a few hundred hertz. Read/write demonstrations with sufficiently low error rates demonstrate the efficacy of the nanopositioning schemes employed.
Dialectal Variation of Voice Quality in Taiwan Min: An EGG and Acoustical Study

This study explored the voice quality of Taiwan Min checked tones 5 and 3 produced by speakers of varying ages from northern, central and southern Taiwan with Zhanzhou, Quanzhou and mixed accents. Comparison between spectral tilt (difference between H1*H2* amplitudes) and closed quotients of the glottal wave form showed that checked tones with creaky / tense voice quality were distinguished from unchecked tones produced by middle aged speakers from central and southern Taiwan but not by young speakers.
Constitutive model and parameter identification for lead-free SAC305 solder

With the development of electronic industry, electronic packaging structures and systems are developing towards high miniaturization, integration, low power consumption and high reliability. The corresponding electronic packaging structure is more complex, and the serving conditions are increasingly challenging. Therefore, the study on the material properties and the corresponding constitutive model are of great values to describe the mechanical properties of solder joints for the numerical analysis of solder joint and the mechanical reliability of electronic packaging structures. In order to accurately reflect the deterioration of the mechanical properties of the solder joints under the service conditions subjected to thermal cycling, the numerical simulation of SAC305 solder was carried out at the both levels of material and solder joints. The unified creep and plasticity constitutive model was used to simulate the uniaxial tensile test data of SAC305 solder under different displacement loading rates. According to the published data of SAC305 solder uniaxial tensile test in the literature, the parameter identification method is proposed as follows: firstly, the fixing multiple parameters are used, and then the fitting effect of individual parameters on the experimental curve is studied, and finally all constitutive model parameters are identified. Moreover, the rationality of the constitutive model is verified by the electronic packaging structure. The results show that the optimized parameters can reasonably describe the mechanical behavior of solder joints under typical service conditions.
Object-oriented technology and domain analysis

Domain analysis makes a necessary contribution in supporting systematic reuse: a focus on understanding and modeling common capabilities within related software applications and the nature of and reasons for variability. Traditionally, domain analysis has been based on structured analysis approaches such as data flow and entity relation modeling or on library taxonomy techniques such as faceted classification. More recently, domain analysis has begun to use object oriented analysis techniques as well as semantic modeling and other knowledge engineering methods. Object oriented technology provides some key abstractions that support reuse. New object oriented approaches in scenarios, use cases, frameworks, and design patterns have blurred many of the distinctions between domain and object oriented analyses. Neither domain analysis nor object oriented analysis has yielded the desired reuse track record. Can we move toward approaches that use the best practices of domain and object oriented analysis to produce what might be called "software reuse that's worth it? ".