Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurements of Cloud and Aerosol Parameters in the Framework of Envisat Validation by Means of the High-Altitude Aircraft M55-Geophysica: An Overview

Within the framework of the Envisat Stratospheric Aircraft and Ballon Campaign required to verify the consistency of geophysical parameters measured by Envisat three campaigns have been planned utilising the high altitude research aircraft M55-Geophysica. Two of them (midlatitudes) have already been succesfully conducted, while a third one (arctic) will take place in Kiruna, Sweden during January/March 2003. The scientific payload on board the M55-Geophysica permits measurements of a wide range of atmospheric chemical constituents as well as chracterisation of cloud and aerosol properties. The present paper gives an overview of the flights dedicated to the aerosol and cloud properties during the two midlatitude campaigns (July/October 2002, Forli, Italy), and serves as an introduction to an accompanied paper, that describes in more detail the flights plans and the aquired data of these
Residential self-selection and travel: The relationship between travel-related attitudes, built environment characteristics and travel behaviour

Most Western national governments aim to influence individual travel patterns – at least to some degree – through spatial planning in residential areas. Nevertheless, the extent to which the characteristics of the built environment influence travel behaviour remains the subject of some debate among travel behaviour researchers. This thesis addresses the role of residential-self-selection, an important issue within this debate. Households may not only adjust their travel behaviour to the built environment where they live, but they may also choose a residential location that corresponds to their travel-related attitudes. The empirical analysis in this thesis is based on data collected through an internet survey and a GPS-based survey, both of which were conducted among homeowners in three municipalities in the central Netherlands. The study showed that residential self-selection has some limited effect on the relationship between distances to activity locations and travel mode use and daily kilometres travelled. The results also indicate that the inclusion of attitudes can help to detecting residential self-selection, provided that studies comply with several preconditions, such as the inclusion of the ‘reversed’ influence of behaviour on attitudes.
Remote detection of metal anomalies on Pilot Mountain, Randolph County, North Carolina

Pilot Mountain, a hydrothermally altered monadnock within the Carolina slate belt, contains areas of anomalously high amounts of Cu, Mo, and Sn in the soils. Leaves of canopy trees in the mineralized zone also contain more copper than trees in a nearby control area. Spectral data were processed using a wave-form analysis technique to minimize background noise caused by canopy variations and slope effects. Areas of spectral changes in the chlorophyll absorption region seem to correlate well with areas containing anomalous metals. --Modified journal abstract.
Fate of groundwater inflow in Lake Thingvallavatn during early spring ice-breakup

Sub-artic Lake Thingvallavatn is one of Iceland´s largest, deepest and best known lakes. Situated at the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, it is part of a world heritage site and a major tourist destination. From a hydrological viewpoint, the lake is unique in that it is predominantly fed by groundwater springs originating from nearby glacier Langjokull. The goal of this study was to establish the near field inflow dynamics of the largest subsurface spring Silfra, contributing approximately 30% of the total inflows to the lake, during early spring ice-breakup. A ten day field study was conducted in February 2009. The groundwater inflows were found to have higher temperature, conductivity, and pH than the receiving lake water. Using temperature as a tracer, the groundwater fate, and mixing regimes were assessed both in open water and under ice, as ice was breaking up and shifting in and out of the study area during the study period. Initial results from moored thermistor chains, CTD profiles, ADV measurements, weather stations and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) borne CTD will shed a stronger light on the interaction of river inflows, ice cover and meterological forcings during winter ice cover and early spring break-up. The use of an AUV platform to collect horizontal CTD profiles characterizes horizontal variability of water properties in open and ice-covered water, something that cannot be obtained using conventional techniques.
Disaster management cooperation in central america: the case of rainfall‐induced natural disasters

Abstract Rainfall‐induced natural disasters rank first among all natural disasters in entral merica. Due to the geographical conditions of the entral merican region, it is common that two or more countries are struck by the same rainfall event, for example urricane itch in 1998 affected the entire entral merican region, killing more than 18-000 people. As a consequence, entral merican countries have started to promote regional policies and programs that aim for better preparation and response to these events, including disaster management cooperation. However, cooperation poses several challenges that may hinder its goals. In order to analyse these challenges, we present analysis in this paper of the current policy and legal institutions as well as the main challenges that may hinder international disaster management cooperation in Central America.
A FIVE-YEAR RECORD OF SEDIMENTATION IN THE LOS ALAMOS RESERVOIR, NEW MEXICO, FOLLOWING THE CERRO GRANDE FIRE

Alexis Lavine, Earth & Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545; Gregory A. Kuyumjian, U.S.D.A. , Forest Service, Los Alamos, NM, 87544; Steven L. Reneau, Earth & Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Danny Katzman, Earth & Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Daniel V. Malmon, Western Earth Surface Processes Group, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Reperfusion Therapies in Acute Ischemic Stroke Beyond the Conventional Time Window: A Narrative Review

Stroke is the second most common cause of death worldwide, with 50% of survivors experiencing long-term disability. For more than two decades, treatment with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and mechanical endovascular thrombectomy (MET), the only approved stroke reperfusion therapies, was restricted to patients within the 4.5-6 hour time window, respectively. Therefore, patients who presented with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) beyond the conventional time window were excluded from reperfusion treatment. This narrative review aims to review the scientific literature on the possibilities of reperfusion therapies for patients who present with an unknown time of stroke onset, and those with stroke onset beyond the conventional 4.5-6 hour time window. Beyond the conventional time window, the eligibility of patients for IVT or MET, the two main therapeutic procedures, is decided based on the concept of penumbral imaging. Penumbral imaging identifies patients with hypoperfused but viable brain tissue, who could benefit from reperfusion. On the other hand, clock-based DWI-fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect stroke that has occurred within 4.5 hours in patients with an unknown time of onset, including patients who awaken with stroke. The introduction of penumbral imaging and MRI-based tissue clocking as imaging biomarkers for stroke has revolutionized stroke therapy, potentially allowing for personalized treatment of eligible stroke patients.
Santa Barbara

I. General Information 1. Type of Event:____________________ Purpose: ______________________ Theme: _________________ 2. Address of Event: _________________________________________________________________________ 3. Event Date: ____________________________ Time & Duration: __________________________________ 4. Planned Attendance: # of Members: __________ # of Alumni: __________ # of Guests: __________
A New Force in High-Latitude Climate

A pair of meteorologists is vying to show that the newly named Arctic Oscillation (AO), which alternately raises pressures over the pole and in a ring passing over southern Alaska and central Europe, is the prime mover of high-latitude climate shifts and may even be an agent of greenhouse-induced warming. They think the AO is a natural atmospheric response that can change minor perturbations into major climate shifts. Researchers are still analyzing many possible triggers for the AO, but whatever its cause, understanding it is going to help make sense out of high-latitude climate variability.
Resourcing Early Learners: New Networks, New Actors

The landscape of early childhood education and care is changing. Governments world-wide are assuming increasing authority in relation to child-rearing in the years before school entry, beyond the traditional role in assisting parents to do the best they can by their children. As part of a social agenda aimed at forming citizens well prepared to play an active part in a globalised knowledge economy, the idea of ‘early learning’ expresses the necessity of engaging caregivers right from the start of children’s lives. Nichols, Rowsell, Rainbird, and Nixon investigate this trend over three years, in two countries, and three contrasting regions, by setting themselves the task of tracing every service and agent offering resources under the banner of early learning. Far from a dry catalogue, the study involves in-depth ethnographic research in fascinating spaces such as a church-run centre for African refugee women and children, a state-of-the-art community library and an Australian country town. Included is an unprecedented inventory of an entire suburban mall. Richly visually documented, the study employs emerging methods such as Google-mapping to trace the travels of actual parents as they search for particular resources. Each chapter features a context investigated in this large, international study: the library, the mall, the clinic, and the church. The author team unravels new spaces and new networks at work in early childhood literacy and development.
Evaluation of hydraulic fracturing by transient pressure analysis methods

A brief description is given of flow models currently used for transient pressure analysis in fractured wells. Four such models are considered: (1) infinite conductivity vertical fracture; (2) uniform flux vertical fracture; (3) uniform plan horizontal fracture; and (4) finite conductivity vertical fracture. Modified versions of these models are presented for the cases of damaged fractures and heterogeneous fractures. Methods of interpretation for pressure transient data are discussed considering different types of graphs. Type curve analysis is shown to be an excellent diagnostic tool for pressure data relating to fractured wells. 45 refs.
Downregulation of CRTAC1 in Urothelial Carcinoma Promotes Tumor Aggressiveness and Confers Poor Prognosis.

BACKGROUND Cartilage acidic protein 1 (CRTAC1) is a glycosylated calcium-binding extracellular matrix protein. The oncological functions of CRTAC1 in urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the urinary bladder (UB) and upper urinary tract (UT) have not yet been elucidated. Based on the published UBUC transcriptome data, we re-evaluated the differential expression profile of calcium ion binding-related genes (GO:0005509), and we found that CRTAC1 was the most significantly downregulated gene in UBUC progression. Therefore, we analyzed the prognostic value and biological significance of CRTAC1 expression in UC. METHODS We used immunohistochemistry to determine the CRTAC1 expression levels in 340 patients with UTUC and 295 patients with UBUC. The CRTAC1 expression was compared with the clinicopathological characteristics, and the prognostic impact of CRTAC1 on metastasis-free survival (MFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) was evaluated. To study the biological functions of CRTAC1, the proliferation, migration, invasion, and tube formation abilities of UC-derived cells were evaluated. RESULTS A low CRTAC1 expression significantly correlated with high tumor stage, high histological grade, perineural invasion, vascular invasion, nodal metastasis, and high mitotic rate (all p < 0.01). Moreover, the CRTAC1 immunoexpression status was an independent prognostic factor for MFS and DSS in UBUC and UTUC patients (all p < 0.001) in the multivariate analysis. The exogenous expression of CRTAC1 suppressed the cell proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis, and downregulated the matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2) level in BFTC909 and T24 cells. CONCLUSIONS CRTAC1 may participate in progression of UC and serve as a prognostic marker for metastasis. Low CRTAC1 expression was significantly associated with aggressive UC characteristics and worse clinical outcomes. The inclusion of CRTAC1 immunoexpression in the standard pathological variables may optimize the risk stratification of patients.
Bipolar cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash observations

Bipolar lightning is usually defined as a lightning flash where the current waveform exhibits a polarity reversal. There are very few reported cases of cloud‐to‐ground (CG) bipolar flashes using only one channel in the literature. Reports on this type of bipolar flashes are not common due to the fact that in order to confirm that currents of both polarities follow the same channel to the ground, one necessarily needs video records. This study presents five clear observations of single‐channel bipolar CG flashes. High‐speed video and electric field measurement observations are used and analyzed. Based on the video images obtained and based on previous observations of positive CG flashes with high‐speed cameras, we suggest that positive leader branches which do not participate in the initial return stroke of a positive cloud‐to‐ground flash later generate recoil leaders whose negative ends, upon reaching the branch point, traverse the return stroke channel path to the ground resulting in a subsequent return stroke of opposite polarity.
Discovering the Active Ingredients of Medicine and Food Homologous Substances for Inhibiting the Cyclooxygenase-2 Metabolic Pathway by Machine Learning Algorithms

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase (mPGES-1) are two key targets in anti-inflammatory therapy. Medicine and food homology (MFH) substances have both edible and medicinal properties, providing a valuable resource for the development of novel, safe, and efficient COX-2 and mPGES-1 inhibitors. In this study, we collected active ingredients from 503 MFH substances and constructed the first comprehensive MFH database containing 27,319 molecules. Subsequently, we performed Murcko scaffold analysis and K-means clustering to deeply analyze the composition of the constructed database and evaluate its structural diversity. Furthermore, we employed four supervised machine learning algorithms, including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), deep neural networks (DNNs), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), as well as ensemble learning, to establish 640 classification models and 160 regression models for COX-2 and mPGES-1 inhibitors. Among them, ModelA_ensemble_RF_1 emerged as the optimal classification model for COX-2 inhibitors, achieving predicted Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) values of 0.802 and 0.603 on the test set and external validation set, respectively. ModelC_RDKIT_SVM_2 was identified as the best regression model based on COX-2 inhibitors, with root mean squared error (RMSE) values of 0.419 and 0.513 on the test set and external validation set, respectively. ModelD_ECFP_SVM_4 stood out as the top classification model for mPGES-1 inhibitors, attaining MCC values of 0.832 and 0.584 on the test set and external validation set, respectively. The optimal regression model for mPGES-1 inhibitors, ModelF_3D_SVM_1, exhibited predictive RMSE values of 0.253 and 0.35 on the test set and external validation set, respectively. Finally, we proposed a ligand-based cascade virtual screening strategy, which integrated the well-performing supervised machine learning models with unsupervised learning: the self-organized map (SOM) and molecular scaffold analysis. Using this virtual screening workflow, we discovered 10 potential COX-2 inhibitors and 15 potential mPGES-1 inhibitors from the MFH database. We further verified candidates by molecular docking, investigated the interaction of the candidate molecules upon binding to COX-2 or mPGES-1. The constructed comprehensive MFH database has laid a solid foundation for the further research and utilization of the MFH substances. The series of well-performing machine learning models can be employed to predict the COX-2 and mPGES-1 inhibitory capabilities of unknown compounds, thereby aiding in the discovery of anti-inflammatory medications. The COX-2 and mPGES-1 potential inhibitor molecules identified through the cascade virtual screening approach provide insights and references for the design of highly effective and safe novel anti-inflammatory drugs.
Enzyme-Assisted Extraction of Ulvan from the Green Macroalgae Ulva fenestrata

Ulvan is a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from green macroalgae with unique structural and compositional properties. Due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and film-forming properties, as well as high stability, ulvan has shown promising potential as an ingredient of biopolymer films such as sustainable and readily biodegradable biomaterials that could replace petroleum-based plastics in diverse applications such as packaging. This work investigates the potential of Ulva fenestrata as a source of ulvan. Enzyme-assisted extraction with commercial cellulases (Viscozyme L and Cellulysin) and proteases (Neutrase 0.8L and Flavourzyme) was used for cell wall disruption, and the effect of the extraction time (3, 6, 17, and 20 h) on the ulvan yield and its main characteristics (molecular weight, functional groups, purity, and antioxidant capacity) were investigated. Furthermore, a combined process based on enzymatic and ultrasound extraction was performed. Results showed that higher extraction times led to higher ulvan yields, reaching a maximum of 14.1% dw with Cellulysin after 20 h. The combination of enzymatic and ultrasound-assisted extraction resulted in the highest ulvan extraction (17.9% dw). The relatively high protein content in U. fenestrata (19.8% dw) makes the residual biomass, after ulvan extraction, a potential protein source in food and feed applications.
Enhancing Overland Flow Infiltration through Sustainable Well-Managed Thinning: Contour-Aligned Felled Log Placement in a Chamaecyparis obtusa Plantation

Contour felling is a restoration method used to decrease overland flow (OF) and soil erosion in the world. However, the impact of thinning and the placement of felled logs on OF remains inconclusive. Low ground cover and soil permeability promote OF in Chamaecyparis obtusa (Siebold et Zucc.) Endl plantations, making thinning a method for reducing runoff. We examined the relationship between OF and ground cover in a C. obtusa plantation in Japan. Event-based runoff was monitored in three plots from 2016 to 2021, with 40% thinning conducted in 2019. In plot T1, logs were randomly scattered, and, in T2, logs followed contour lines, while control plots stayed the same. After thinning, both treatment plots showed lower OF than the control plot. The ANCOVA test shows a significant slope reduction in treatment plots compared to the control plot from pre-thinning to post-thinning (T1: 0.67 to 0.26, T2: 0.66 to 0.12, p < 0.001, Tukey HSD test). However, in plot T2, OF remained stable for two years post-thinning, affirming the enduring effectiveness of contour-aligned log placement. This study backs the notion that aligning fallen logs with contour lines boosts long-term OF infiltration, supporting sustainable forest and soil management.
OsBTBZ1 Confers Salt Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

Rice (Oryza sativa L.), one of the most important commodities and a primary food source worldwide, can be affected by adverse environmental factors. The chromosome segment substitution line 16 (CSSL16) of rice is considered salt-tolerant. A comparison of the transcriptomic data of the CSSL16 line under normal and salt stress conditions revealed 511 differentially expressed sequence (DEseq) genes at the seedling stage, 520 DEseq genes in the secondary leaves, and 584 DEseq genes in the flag leaves at the booting stage. Four BTB genes, OsBTBZ1, OsBTBZ2, OsBTBN3, and OsBTBN7, were differentially expressed under salt stress. Interestingly, only OsBTBZ1 was differentially expressed at the seedling stage, whereas the other genes were differentially expressed at the booting stage. Based on the STRING database, OsBTBZ1 was more closely associated with other abiotic stress-related proteins than other BTB genes. The highest expression of OsBTBZ1 was observed in the sheaths of young leaves. The OsBTBZ1-GFP fusion protein was localized to the nucleus, supporting the hypothesis of a transcriptionally regulatory role for this protein. The bt3 Arabidopsis mutant line exhibited susceptibility to NaCl and abscisic acid (ABA) but not to mannitol. NaCl and ABA decreased the germination rate and growth of the mutant lines. Moreover, the ectopic expression of OsBTBZ1 rescued the phenotypes of the bt3 mutant line and enhanced the growth of wild-type Arabidopsis under stress conditions. These results suggest that OsBTBZ1 is a salt-tolerant gene functioning in ABA-dependent pathways.
Retrovirus-Derived RTL/SIRH: Their Diverse Roles in the Current Eutherian Developmental System and Contribution to Eutherian Evolution

Eutherians have 11 retrotransposon Gag-like (RTL)/sushi-ichi retrotransposon homolog (SIRH) genes presumably derived from a certain retrovirus. Accumulating evidence indicates that the RTL/SIRH genes play a variety of roles in the current mammalian developmental system, such as in the placenta, brain, and innate immune system, in a eutherian-specific manner. It has been shown that the functional role of Paternally Expressed 10 (PEG10) in placental formation is unique to the therian mammals, as are the eutherian-specific roles of PEG10 and PEG11/RTL1 in maintaining the fetal capillary network and the endocrine regulation of RTL7/SIRH7 (aka Leucine Zipper Down-Regulated in Cancer 1 (LDOCK1)) in the placenta. In the brain, PEG11/RTL1 is expressed in the corticospinal tract and hippocampal commissure, mammalian-specific structures, and in the corpus callosum, a eutherian-specific structure. Unexpectedly, at least three RTL/SIRH genes, RTL5/SIRH8, RTL6/SIRH3, and RTL9/SIRH10, play important roles in combating a variety of pathogens, namely viruses, bacteria, and fungi, respectively, suggesting that the innate immunity system of the brain in eutherians has been enhanced by the emergence of these new components. In this review, we will summarize the function of 10 out of the 11 RTL/SIRH genes and discuss their roles in eutherian development and evolution.