Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of mesoscale eddies and detection of submesoscale eddies derived from satellite imagery and HF radar off the coast of southwestern Puerto Rico

Coherent sub-mesoscale features such as spiral eddies are known to be ubiquitous in the world's oceans. Yet, due to their complex geometry, they are often difficult to characterize. Sub-mesoscale ocean dynamics with characteristic dimensions on the order of kilometers have been found to play a major role in upper ocean stirring and mixing. Manifestations of these structures all around the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CariCOOS) region have been found to influence coastal and oceanic waters impacting upper ocean hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry. CariCOOS modeling efforts in the region have yet to produce reliable forecasts of near coastal ocean dynamics. Owing to the growing demand for coastal ocean models yielding accurate forecast, CariCOOS has proposed the operational deployment of a 1/100 degree Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) nested in the 1/36 degree resolution Navy Coastal Ocean Model (AMSEAS) which itself is nested in the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), a global 1/12 degree data-assimilative hybrid isopycnal-sigma-pressure coordinates forecast system. Although the progression has been consistent, results urge the identification of possible skill performance constraints and phenomenological limitations. An inward approach has been adopted to assess the output of parent models versus observations from satellites, drifters, gliders, sea level measurements, buoys, and HF radars. Part of the adopted approach focuses on the characterization and daily-based detection of sub-mesoscale ocean dynamic features. CariCOOS observational assets and satellite imagery brings forth the ability to characterize quasi-permanent (or periodical) phenomena close to the coast. Thanks to the recent expansion of the CariCOOS High-Frequency (HF) radar network consisting of two long range (5 MHz) antennas on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage will be available for this two-part study. For the first part, historical satellite altimetry, as well as other discrete observations, will be used to characterize the quasi-geostrophic mesoscale eddy signatures near the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. On the second part, satellite imagery and HF radar capabilities to capture sub-mesoscale eddy phenomena will be assessed with the objective of implementing coherent structure detection algorithm based on a vector geometry method. A comparison between detected sub-mesoscale eddies with HF radars and available operational models (AMSEAS & HYCOM) will be qualitatively assessed.
Neurological adverse effects of early postnatal dexamethasone in very preterm infants

Editor—Administration of dexamethasone very early after birth has been explored as a prophylactic treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). The results have been conflictual. Saunders et al 1 and the recent meta-analysis by Tushar Bhuta and Arne Ohlsson2 concluded a reduction in the odds of BPD. However, Tapia et al 3 recently failed to show a reduction in its incidence. None of these studies …
Retinex at 50: color theory and spatial algorithms, a review

Abstract. Retinex Imaging shares two distinct elements: first, a model of human color vision; second, a spatial-imaging algorithm for making better reproductions. Edwin Land’s 1964 Retinex Color Theory began as a model of human color vision of real complex scenes. He designed many experiments, such as Color Mondrians, to understand why retinal cone quanta catch fails to predict color constancy. Land’s Retinex model used three spatial channels (L, M, S) that calculated three independent sets of monochromatic lightnesses. Land and McCann’s lightness model used spatial comparisons followed by spatial integration across the scene. The parameters of their model were derived from extensive observer data. This work was the beginning of the second Retinex element, namely, using models of spatial vision to guide image reproduction algorithms. Today, there are many different Retinex algorithms. This special section, “Retinex at 50,” describes a wide variety of them, along with their different goals, and ground truths used to measure their success. This paper reviews (and provides links to) the original Retinex experiments and image-processing implementations. Observer matches (measuring appearances) have extended our understanding of how human spatial vision works. This paper describes a collection very challenging datasets, accumulated by Land and McCann, for testing algorithms that predict appearance.
Prevention in the first place: schools a setting for action on physical inactivity

Promoting physical activity has become a priority because of its role in preventing childhood obesity and chronic disease. Ecological approaches that recognise the interaction between individuals and the settings in which they spend their time are currently at the forefront of public health action. Schools have been identified as a key setting for health promotion. An overview of the literature addressed the promotion of physical activity in schools and showed that school-based strategies (elementary or high school) that utilised classroom-based education only did not increase physical activity levels; one notable exception was screen time interventions. Although evidence is sparse, active school models and environmental strategies (interventions that change policy and practice) appear to promote physical activity in elementary schools effectively. There is also strong evidence to support multicomponent models in high schools, particularly models that incorporate a family and community component. An emerging trend is to involve youth in the development and implementation of interventions. In the context of childhood obesity and sedentary lifestyles, modest increases in physical activity levels in school-based trials are important. School initiatives must be supported and reinforced in other community settings. Health professionals play a key role as champions in the community, based on their influence and credibility. Health professionals can lend support to school-based efforts by asking about and emphasising the importance of physical activity with patients, encouraging family-based activities, supporting local schools to adopt an “active school” approach and advocating for support to sustain evidence-based and promising physical activity models within schools.
Rotation Invariant Histogram of Oriented Gradients

In this paper, we propose a new image descriptor, that is, a rotation invariant histogram of oriented gradients (RIHOG). RIHOG overcomes a disadvantage of the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), which is very sensitive to image rotation. The HOG only uses magnitude values of a pixel without considering neighboring pixels. The RIHOG uses the accumulated relative magnitude values of corresponding relative orientation calculated with neighboring pixels, which has an effect on reducing the sensitivity to image rotation. The performance of RIHOG is verified via the index of classification and classification of Brodatz texture data.
Reliability and Validity of the Youth Version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART–Y) in the Assessment of Risk-Taking Behavior Among Inner-City Adolescents

This study examined the reliability and validity of the youth version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART–Y) for assessing adolescent risk behaviors among a sample of 98 inner-city African American adolescents (M age = 14.8, SD = 1.5). In addition to a relation with sensation seeking, BART–Y responding evidenced a significant relation with a composite of risk behaviors across substance use, sexual behavior, delinquency, and health domains. BART–Y responding also explained unique variance in a composite of these risk behaviors above and beyond demographic variables and risk-related personality constructs, including sensation seeking and impulsivity.
US graduate medical education, 2004-2005: trends in primary care specialties.

CONTEXT Over the last decade, the primary care specialties have experienced an ebb and flow in popularity. A description of the future primary care workforce may inform planning for the health care needs of our population. OBJECTIVES To describe characteristics of physicians training in primary care specialties over the past 9 years and to monitor trends in the characteristics of the entire residency population. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Descriptive survey study of the National GME Census, conducted by the American Medical Association and Association of American Medical Colleges, which jointly surveyed 8246 allopathic graduate medical education (GME) programs during the academic year 2004-2005 about active, transferred, and graduated residents, as well as about program characteristics. Program directors confirmed the status of 97.3% of active residents. The accompanying program survey was completed by 7163 (87%) of the program directors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES General trends in the numbers and characteristics of all residents, fellows, and training programs, with specific trends for residents and fellows training in the primary care specialties and subspecialties over the past 9 years. RESULTS The census counted 101 291 physicians-in-training during the 2004-2005 academic year, the largest number ever recorded by this survey. The number of osteopathic medical school graduates (DOs) in allopathic GME decreased from 5838 in 2003-2004 to 5675, following many years of annual increases. The number of residents in primary care specialties reached a peak in the mid 1990s. The number of family medicine residents who are graduates of US allopathic medical schools (USMDs) has fallen from 8232 (77.6%) in 1998-1999 to 4848 (51.7%) in 2004-2005. The number of primary care residents who are graduates of foreign medical schools and US citizens (USIMGs) nearly doubled between 1995-1996 (n = 1768) and 2004-2005 (n = 3304). The number of USIMGs training in internal medicine or pediatrics subspecialties increased by 45.7% between 1995-1996 (n = 622) and 2004-2005 (n = 906). The number of pediatric subspecialty fellows grew 55.7%, mostly because of the near doubling of USMDs, from 813 to 1617. More than half of primary care residents are women (52.5%). All primary care specialties and subspecialties experienced gains in the proportion of female residents, with the greatest in obstetrics/gynecology, which increased by 28.7% (57.9% in 1995-1996 vs 74.5% in 2004-2005). CONCLUSIONS An increasing proportion of physicians are pursuing subspecialty training, while the number in primary care specialties has leveled off. Trends in GME suggest that the primary care medical workforce of the future will include more women, more IMGs, and more DOs.
Households Saving Behaviour in Pakistan: A Case of Multan District

The present study aims at investigating the determinants of households’ saving in Multan district of Pakistan. Data of 293 respondents are drawn through field survey in 2009-2010 by adopting stratified random sampling technique. Questions are asked directly from head of household about their education level, family status, age, region of residence, assets, income etc. Sample contains information about rural and urban households. We have used extended model of Life Cycle hypothesis postulated by Ando and Modigliani (1963). Ordinary Least Square method is used for estimation. The analysis is made at two stages. At preliminary stage, descriptive statistics and correlation matrix are described. Multivariate analysis presents determinants of households’ saving in Multan district. It is concluded that Spouse participation, total dependency rate, total income of household and size of landholdings significantly raise household savings. Education of household head, children's educational expenditures, family size, liabilities to be paid, marital status, and value of house significantly reduce saving level of households. Our study also supports existence of Life cycle hypothesis.
Research on relations between two PWM technologies and system performance optimization

Pulse width modulation (PWM) technology is one of the key issues of power electronic circuit control. Sine pulse width modulation (SPWM) and space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) are the most popular PWM strategies. In this paper, the relationship between SPWM and SVPWM is analyzed in two aspects, one is the modulation-wave equivalence, and the other is the acting time equivalence, system performance optimization is also analyzed under the two kinds of equivalence. Simulation and experiment results are given to validate the theoretical analysis.
Fault diagnosis of SEPIC converters based on PSO-DBN and wavelet packet energy spectrum

Effective fault diagnosis for mission-critical and safety-critical systems has been an essential and mandatory technique to reduce failure rate and to prevent unscheduled shutdown. A novel optimization deep belief network (DBN) in this study has been proposed for a closed-loop single-ended primary-inductance converter (SEPIC) fault diagnosis. Firstly, the wavelet packet decomposition technique is used to extract the energy values from voltage signals of four circuit nodes, as the fault feature vectors. Then, a four-layer DBN architecture including input and output layers is developed. Meanwhile, neuron numbers of the two hidden layers are selected by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and training data. Finally, eleven fault modes such as power MOSFET, inductance, diode and capacitor open circuit faults (OCFs) and short circuit faults (SCFs) are isolated by PSO-DBN. Compared with other intelligent diagnostic method such as back propagation neural network (BPNN) and support vector machine (SVM), experiment results show that the proposed method has a higher classification accuracy rate which means its effectiveness and superiority.
Afferents to the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body and their collateral projections

Cells and axons that supply direct afferent input to the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body are described. Afferents were intracellularly labeled in brainstem tissue slices of two rodent and two bat species. The main afferents are calyciferous axons from globular bushy cells of the ventral cochlear nucleus. Calyciferous axons were highly consistent across species, projecting directly from the cochlear nucleus, across the midline in the trapezoid body, to the contralateral medial nucleus of the trapezoid body. Within the target nucleus, a typical axon turned sharply away from horizontal to form a large ending, the calyx of Held, around the soma of a single principal cell. Three groups of calyciferous axons were classified based on the path taken from bend to calyx.
Characterisation and potential diagnostic value of circulating matrix Gla protein (MGP) species

Summary Matrix γ-carboxyglutamate (Gla) protein (MGP) is an important local inhibitor of vascular calcification, which can undergo two post-translational modifications: vitamin K-dependent γ-glutamate carboxylation and serine phosphorylation. While carboxylation is thought to have effects upon binding of calcium-ions, phosphorylation is supposed to affect the cellular release of MGP. Since both modifications can be exerted incompletely, various MGP species can be detected in the circulation. MGP levels were measured with two commercially available competitive and two novel sandwich assays in healthy controls, in patients with rheumatic disease, aortic valve disease, and end-stage renal disease, as well as in volunteers after vitamin K supplementation (VKS) and treatment with vitamin K antagonists (VKA). Major differences were found between the MGP assays, including significantly different behaviour with regard to vascular disease and the response to VKA and VKS. The dual-antibody assay measuring non-phosphorylated, non-carboxylated MGP (dp-ucMGP) was particularly sensitive for these changes and would be suited to assess the vascular vitamin K status. We conclude that the different assays for particular circulating MGP species allows the assessment of various aspects of the MGP system.
Trapezoidal antenna with triple band-notched for UWB applications

We have proposed a novel compact microstrip-fed triple band-notched UWB monopole Aantenna. The designed antenna has a microstrip fed trapezoidal radiating patch and three identical square split ring resonators. Notch bands around the 3.3–3.8 GHz WiMAX and 5.15–5.85 GHz WLAN frequencies are obtained by etching three identical complementary square split ring resonators (CSRRs) in the radiation patch of different dimensions of the antenna. Notch bands around the 7.9–8.4 GHz X-band frequencies is obtained by placing two rectangular split-ring resonators(SRRs) near the feedline-patch junction of the antenna. The designed antenna has the figure-of-eight radiation pattern, wide bandwidth, and negligible dispersion over the operating frequency band. Details of the proposed antenna design and the simulated and measured results are presented and discussed.
Effects of inhaled plasminogen activator on the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis in traumatized pigs

A profibrinolytic state is normal in the alveoli, but this may change as a result of trauma, possibly leading to fibrin deposition, a characteristic of acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome. Therefore, the present study investigated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled manner the effect of severe trauma on the alveolar fibrinolytic/coagulation balance, and the effect here-upon of inhalation of single-chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scu-PA) in pigs. The study shows an increased concentration of scu-PA in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of the treated animals in association with an increased plasmin-dependent fibrinolytic activity without increased systemic fibrinolytic activity, the transient increase in the concentration of scu-PA in the plasma being minimal. In conclusion, the study shows that activatable scu-PA can be nebulized to the lower respiratory tract and can increase the alveolar fibrinolysis without any significant systemic effects.
CMOS combinational logic design for GaAs heterostructure MOSFET technology

In this paper, we evaluate the impact of GaAs MOSFET technology on the design of CMOS combinational logic. A BSIM model is developed for both GaAs pMOS and nMOS transistors based on the underlying device physics, drift-diffusion simulations, and measured data. An elementary family of logic gates are implemented using these models and a set of optimal transistor sizing ratios are established. This is achieved by adopting a delay model that minimises the average rise and fall times of the logic gates.
Reversal of cardiac dysfunction and subcellular alterations by metoprolol in heart failure due to myocardial infarction

In order to examine the reversibility of heart failure due to myocardial infarction (MI) by β‐adrenoceptor blockade, 12 weeks infarcted rats were treated with or without metoprolol (50 mg/kg/day) for 8 weeks. The depressed left ventricular (LV) systolic pressure, positive and negative rates of changes in pressure development, ejection fraction, fractional shortening and cardiac output, as well as increased LV end‐diastolic pressure in 20 weeks MI animals were partially reversed by metoprolol. MI‐induced decreases in septum (systolic) thickness as well as increase in LV posterior wall thickness and LV internal diameter were partially or fully reversible by metoprolol. Treatment of MI animals with metoprolol partially reversed the elevated levels of plasma norepinephrine and dopamine without affecting the elevated levels of epinephrine. Although sarcoplasmic reticular (SR) Ca2+‐uptake, as well as protein content for SR Ca2+‐pump and phospholamban, were reduced in the infarcted hearts; these changes were partially reversible with metoprolol. Depressed myofibrillar Ca2+‐stimulated ATPase activity, as well as mRNA levels for SR Ca2+‐pump, phospholamban and α‐myosin heavy chain, were unaffected whereas increased mRNA level for β‐myosin heavy chain was partially reversed by metoprolol. The results suggest that partial improvement of cardiac performance by β‐adrenoceptor blockade at advanced stages of heart failure may be due to partial reversal of changes in SR Ca2+‐pump function whereas partial to complete reverse cardiac remodeling may be due to partial reduction in the elevated levels of plasma catecholamines. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 2063–2070, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Neurite formation by neuroblastoma‐glioma hybrid cells (NG108–15) in defined medium: Stochastic initiation with persistence of differentiated functions

Neurite formation and proliferation by NG108‐15 cells were studied in shortterm serum‐free N2 medium. Neuritogenesis by individual cells was observed at widely differing times, suggesting a stochastic component to initiation of differentiation. Cells with and without neurites could also enter one or more rounds of proliferation at varying times. The initial choice between these divergent behaviors influenced subsequent growth. Cells initially extending neurites had a high probability of continuing neuritic elongation. Cells initially dividing had a high probability of yielding further progeny. Addition of dibutyryl cyclic AMP to cells cultured in N2 medium rapidly increased the probability of differentiating and decreased the probability of proliferating. To test whether or not cells with highly differentiated morphologies had irreversibly lost the capacity for proliferation, induced cultures were washed and challenged by the addition of serum‐containing medium. The length of time required for individual cells to divide increased with increasing time of preincubation in the induction medium. However, few cells appeared to be permanently removed from the proliferative pool. These observations suggest that differentiating cells exhibit persistence, a tendency to continue on the differentiation pathway. Persistence is extinguished following one round of proliferation in serum‐contianing medium.
Recent Advances in Quartz Crystal Microbalance-Based Sensors

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has gained exceptional importance in the fields of (bio)sensors, material science, environmental monitoring, and electrochemistry based on the phenomenal development in QCM-based sensing during the last two decades. This review provides an overview of recent advances made in QCM-based sensors, which have been widely employed in a plethora of applications for the detection of chemicals, biomolecules and microorganisms.
Polymorphisms of glutathione‐S‐transferase M1 and manganese superoxide dismutase are associated with the risk of malignant pleural mesothelioma

Individual response to oxidative stress, due to exposure to asbestos fibres plays a significant role in the malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) etiology. The differential impact on MPM risk of polymorphic alleles of glutathione‐S‐transferases (GSTs) and manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD/SOD2) genes involved in the defence against oxidative damage has been investigated. Ninety cases of MPM and 395 controls were genotyped using the arrayed‐primer extension technique. Logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the predictive role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) potentially involved in MPM carcinogenesis after adjustment for potential confounders. An increased risk of MPM was found in subjects bearing a GSTM1 null allele (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.04–2.74; p = 0.034), and in those with the Ala/Ala genotypes at codon 16 within MnSOD (OR = 3.07, 95% CI = 1.55–6.05; p = 0.001). A stronger effect of MnSOD was observed among patients without a clear exposure to asbestos fibres. No effect was found for GSTA2, GSTA4, GSTM3, GSTP1 and GSTT1 genes. These findings, if replicated, contribute substantial evidence to the hypothesis that oxidative stress and cellular antireactive oxygen species systems are involved in the pathogenesis and in the natural history of MPM. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.