Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atlantic hurricane surge response to geoengineering

Significance We estimate that stratospheric sulfate aerosol geoengineering may somewhat ameliorate Atlantic hurricane intensity and frequency, but there will be more “Katrina”-level events than during the past 30 y. Geoengineering would likely be reasonably effective at controlling coastal flood risk relative to the coastal flood risk expected under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 greenhouse gas warming, in part, due to its impact on global sea level rise, although flood risk would still be significantly larger than at present. Devastating floods due to Atlantic hurricanes are relatively rare events. However, the frequency of the most intense storms is likely to increase with rises in sea surface temperatures. Geoengineering by stratospheric sulfate aerosol injection cools the tropics relative to the polar regions, including the hurricane Main Development Region in the Atlantic, suggesting that geoengineering may mitigate hurricanes. We examine this hypothesis using eight earth system model simulations of climate under the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) G3 and G4 schemes that use stratospheric aerosols to reduce the radiative forcing under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 scenario. Global mean temperature increases are greatly ameliorated by geoengineering, and tropical temperature increases are at most half of those temperature increases in the RCP4.5. However, sulfate injection would have to double (to nearly 10 teragrams of SO2 per year) between 2020 and 2070 to balance the RCP4.5, approximately the equivalent of a 1991 Pinatubo eruption every 2 y, with consequent implications for stratospheric ozone. We project changes in storm frequencies using a temperature-dependent generalized extreme value statistical model calibrated by historical storm surges and observed temperatures since 1923. The number of storm surge events as big as the one caused by the 2005 Katrina hurricane are reduced by about 50% compared with no geoengineering, but this reduction is only marginally statistically significant. Nevertheless, when sea level rise differences in 2070 between the RCP4.5 and geoengineering are factored into coastal flood risk, we find that expected flood levels are reduced by about 40 cm for 5-y events and about halved for 50-y surges.
Parallels in Amphibian and Bat Declines from Pathogenic Fungi

Pathogenic fungi have substantial effects on global biodiversity, and 2 emerging pathogenic species—the chytridiomycete Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and the ascomycete Geomyces destructans, which causes white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats—are implicated in the widespread decline of their vertebrate hosts. We synthesized current knowledge for chytridiomycosis and white-nose syndrome regarding disease emergence, environmental reservoirs, life history characteristics of the host, and host–pathogen interactions. We found striking similarities between these aspects of chytridiomycosis and white-nose syndrome, and the research that we review and propose should help guide management of future emerging fungal diseases.
Mitochondria and Huntington's Disease Pathogenesis

A mechanistic link between cellular energetic defects and the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease (HD) has long been hypothesized based on the cardinal observations of progressive weight loss in patients and metabolic defects in brain and muscle. Identification of respiratory chain deficits in HD postmortem brain led to the use of mitochondrial complex II inhibitors to generate acute toxicity models that replicate aspects of HD striatal pathology in vivo. Subsequently, the generation of progressive genetic animal models has enabled characterization of numerous cellular and systematic changes over disease etiology, including mitochondrial modifications that impact cerebral metabolism, calcium handling, oxidative damage, and apoptotic cascades. This review focuses on how HD animal models have influenced our understanding of mechanisms underlying HD pathogenesis, concentrating on insight gained into the roles of mitochondria in disease etiology. One outstanding question concerns the hierarchy of mitochondrial alterations in the cascade of events following mutant huntingtin (mhtt)‐induced toxicity. One hypothesis is that a direct interaction of mhtt with mitochondria may trigger the neuronal damage and degeneration that occurs in HD. While there is evidence that mhtt associates with mitochondria, deleterious consequences of this interaction have not yet been established. Contrary evidence suggests that a primary nuclear action of mhtt may detrimentally influence mitochondrial function via effects on gene transcription. Irrespective of whether the principal toxic action of mhtt directly or secondarily impacts mitochondria, the repercussions of sufficient mitochondrial dysfunction are catastrophic to cells and may arguably underlie many of the other disruptions in cellular processes that evolve during HD pathogenesis.
Single timepoint models of dynamic systems

Many interesting studies aimed at elucidating the connectivity structure of biomolecular pathways make use of abundance measurements, and employ statistical and information theoretic approaches to assess connectivities. These studies often do not address the effects of the dynamics of the underlying biological system, yet dynamics give rise to impactful issues such as timepoint selection and its effect on structure recovery. In this work, we study conditions for reliable retrieval of the connectivity structure of a dynamic system, and the impact of dynamics on structure-learning efforts. We encounter an unexpected problem not previously described in elucidating connectivity structure from dynamic systems, show how this confounds structure learning of the system and discuss possible approaches to overcome the confounding effect. Finally, we test our hypotheses on an accurate dynamic model of the IGF signalling pathway. We use two structure-learning methods at four time points to contrast the performance and robustness of those methods in terms of recovering correct connectivity.
Arginase in Parasitic Infections: Macrophage Activation, Immunosuppression, and Intracellular Signals

A type 1 cytokine-dependent proinflammatory response inducing classically activated macrophages (CaMϕs) is crucial for parasite control during protozoan infections but can also contribute to the development of immunopathological disease symptoms. Type 2 cytokines such as IL-4 and IL-13 antagonize CaMϕs inducing alternatively activated macrophages (AaMϕs) that upregulate arginase-1 expression. During several infections, induction of arginase-1-macrophages was showed to have a detrimental role by limiting CaMϕ-dependent parasite clearance and promoting parasite proliferation. Additionally, the role of arginase-1 in T cell suppression has been explored recently. Arginase-1 can also be induced by IL-10 and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) or even directly by parasites or parasite components. Therefore, generation of alternative activation states of macrophages could limit collateral tissue damage because of excessive type 1 inflammation. However, they affect disease outcome by promoting parasite survival and proliferation. Thus, modulation of macrophage activation may be instrumental in allowing parasite persistence and long-term host survival.
SUMOylation of nonstructural 5A protein regulates hepatitis C virus replication

Viruses exploit cellular SUMOylation machinery to favour their own propagation. We show that NS5A is a target protein of small ubiquitin‐like modifier (SUMO) and is SUMOylated at lysine residue 348. We demonstrated that SUMOylation increased protein stability of NS5A by inhibiting ubiquitylation, and SUMOylation was also required for protein interaction with NS5B. These data imply that SUMO modification may contribute to HCV replication. Indeed, silencing of UBC9 impaired HCV replication in Jc1‐infected cells, and HCV replication level was also significantly reduced in SUMO‐defective subgenomic replicon cells. Taken together, these data indicate that HCV replication is regulated by SUMO modification of NS5A protein. We provide evidence for the first time that HCV exploits host cellular SUMO modification system to favour its own replication.
STUDENT, TEXT AND CURRICULUM MODELING FOR READER-SPECIFIC DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL

In today's language-learning classrooms, all of the students in a class almost always have the same text to read. Although students have different reading levels, it is impractical for a single teacher to find unique texts matched to each student's abilities. The REAP system was developed to make the process of providing students with individualized texts practical. The texts come in the form of authentic documents retrieved from the Web, and the system tracks and assesses students’ knowledge as they use the system. The system is able to find documents that meet various and individualized criteria. In this paper, we describe our work on modeling lexical familiarity. In particular, we detail the approaches taken for modeling the student's vocabulary knowledge, the contents of documents in the corpus, and the components of the curriculum. We also address related and future work.
A study on non-random mating and varying population size in genetic algorithms using a royal road function

We present a study on the effects of non-random mating and varying population size in genetic algorithm (GA) performance. We tested two algorithms: the non-incest genetic algorithm with varying population size (niGAVaPS) and the negative assortative mating genetic algorithm with varying population size (nAMGAVaPS), on a royal road function. These algorithms mimic natural species behavior by selecting parents according to parenthood (niGAVaPS) or phenotype similarity (nAMGAVaPS). We show that both algorithms outperform simple GA in the example shown. The results suggest that this may be due to the fact that genetic diversity is kept at a higher level by niGAVaPS and nAMGAVaPS, preventing the premature convergence of the algorithms to local optima.
Evidence for the Predominance of Mid-Tropospheric Aerosols as Subtropical Anvil Cloud Nuclei

NASA's recent Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers–Florida Area Cirrus Experiment focused on anvil cirrus clouds, an important but poorly understood element of our climate system. The data obtained included the first comprehensive measurements of aerosols and cloud particles throughout the atmospheric column during the evolution of multiple deep convective storm systems. Coupling these new measurements with detailed cloud simulations that resolve the size distributions of aerosols and cloud particles, we found several lines of evidence indicating that most anvil crystals form on mid-tropospheric rather than boundary-layer aerosols. This result defies conventional wisdom and suggests that distant pollution sources may have a greater effect on anvil clouds than do local sources.
Local binary feature based on census transform for mobile robot

This paper presents a very simple descriptor for local image feature that is detected by DOB (Difference of Boxes) proposed in CenSurE. Image feature is often used to navigate a mobile robot, and some methods that are robust for scale and illumination changes are developed such as SIFT and CenSurE. However these descriptors still has heavy computation, and to use them is a big burden for some computers of low specification. Therefore we proposed a simple feature descriptor that is strong for several changes such as illumination change based on census transform. As experimental results, the proposal method has strength for some image changes, furthermore it has a high robustness for illumination change.
The Transition from Radial Glial to Intermediate Progenitor Cell Is Inhibited by FGF Signaling during Corticogenesis

During corticogenesis, the balance between the self-renewal of radial glial stem cells and the production of their descendent progenitor cells is essential in generating the correct size and cell composition of the neocortex. How the stem-to-progenitor cell transition is regulated is poorly understood. FGFs are commonly implicated in promoting proliferation of neural precursor cells, but it is unclear how they exert their effects on stem cells, progenitor cells, or both in vivo. Here, three FGF receptor genes are simultaneously deleted during cortical neurogenesis. In these mutants, radial glia are depleted due to an increased transition from an uncommitted state to a more differentiated one, initially causing an increase in progenitors, but ultimately resulting in a smaller cortex. The proliferation rate of progenitors themselves, however, is unchanged. These results indicate that FGFs normally repress the radial glia to progenitor cell transition during corticogenesis.
Social Tagging als Methode zur Optimierung Kunsthistorischer Bilddatenbanken – Eine empirische Analyse des Artigo-Projekts

Das Artigo-Projekt der LMU Munchen nutzt einen Social-Tagging-Ansatz in Form eines Online-Spieles, um den Schlagwortkatalog der Bilddatenbank Artemis zu optimieren. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurde eine Teil-Evaluierung des Projekts durchgefuhrt. Diese sollte im Kern die Frage klaren, ob der gewahlte Ansatz prinzipiell in der Lage ist, qualitativ hochwertige Daten zu produzieren.
Efectos psicosociales de los videojuegos

The possible positive or negative psycho-social effects of the video games have been subjected to polemics since they appeared back in the 1970s. Most of the arguments in one or the other direction have been supported more in personal opinions and prejudices than in research data. This article reviews the state of the art with regards to these arguments, both negative (addiction, aggression, social isolation, school performance, displacement of other activities, criminal or anti- social behaviour, pathological gambling, use of substances, medical conditions) and positive (training and improvement of skills, therapeutic uses, use as didactic tools).
Briefly Noted Review: Breastfeeding Product Guide Supplement

Although it may be tempting to use this update as a stand-alone, it works best in conjunction with the original Breastfeeding Product Guide, which details the evaluating criteria based on practical experience and the research literature. This supplement is a series of tables updating the specifications on both previously listed and newly developed products. The chapters on breast pumps have undergone a major shuffling in classification in response to increased consumer use of battery-operated pumps and manufacturers’ design changes. The inclusion of data over a wide measurement range of some devices (e.g., diameter of the inner nipple tunnel for each brand of electric breast pump) makes this supplement a priceless tool for women with special needs. This thorough supplement contains list prices, always of high interest to clients, and updated information for all manufacturers and distributors. It is too easy to use and too reasonably priced for a practicing lactation consultant to do without.
Dependence of the electromechanical coupling on the degree of orientation of c-textured thin AlN films

Highly c-oriented thin aluminum nitride (AlN) films have been grown at room temperature with reactive sputter deposition. Membrane film bulk (FBAR) thickness excited resonators have been subsequently fabricated by bulk micro machining of silicon (Si). The resonators were then electrically characterized with a network analyzer in a one-port configuration. Subsequently, the coupling coefficients and the Q factors of both the longitudinal and the shear mode were extracted from fitting the measured admittance with that of the equivalent circuit model at the resonance frequencies. The goal of this work is to study the variation of the electromechanical coupling and the quality factor of the resonators, for both the longitudinal and the shear modes as a function of the degree of film texture. It is observed that the films exhibit a mean tilt of the c-axis relative the surface normal. This tilt is found to depend on both the film texture and the distance from the wafer radius. It is also demonstrated that the textured films exhibit a behavior of the electromechanical coupling effectively identical to that of a single crystalline material of equivalent tilt. Thus, it is shown that the electromechanical coupling for the longitudinal mode decreases from 8% to 4%, and that for the shear mode increases from 0% up to 3% by varying the full width half maximum (FWHM) of the [002] rocking curve in the interval from 2/spl deg/ to 10/spl deg/.
EUV-driven ionospheres and electron transport on extrasolar giant planets orbiting active stars

The composition and structure of the upper atmospheres of Extrasolar Giant Planets (EGPs) are affected by the high-energy spectrum of their host stars from soft X-rays to EUV. This emission depends on the activity level of the star, which is primarily determined by its age. We focus upon EGPs orbiting K- and M-dwarf stars of different ages. XUV spectra for these stars are constructed using a coronal model. These spectra are used to drive both a thermospheric model and an ionospheric model, providing densities of neutral and ion species. Ionisation is included through photo-ionisation and electron-impact processes. We find that EGP ionospheres at all orbital distances considered and around all stars selected are dominated by the long-lived H$^+$ ion. In addition, planets with upper atmospheres where H$_2$ is not substantially dissociated have a layer in which H$_3^+$ is the major ion at the base of the ionosphere. For fast-rotating planets, densities of short-lived H$_3^+$ undergo significant diurnal variations, with the maximum value being driven by the stellar X-ray flux. In contrast, densities of longer-lived H$^+$ show very little day/night variability and the magnitude is driven by the level of stellar EUV flux. The H$_3^+$ peak in EGPs with upper atmospheres where H$_2$ is dissociated under strong stellar illumination is pushed to altitudes below the homopause, where this ion is likely to be destroyed through reactions with heavy species. The inclusion of secondary ionisation processes produces significantly enhanced ion and electron densities at altitudes below the main EUV ionisation peak, as compared to models that do not include electron-impact ionisation. We estimate infrared emissions from H$_3^+$, and while, in an H/H$_2$/He atmosphere, these are larger from planets orbiting close to more active stars, they still appear too low to be detected with current observatories.
Does the Size of the Effect of Adverse Events at High Ages on Daily‐Life Physical Functioning Depend on the Economic Conditions Around Birth?

This paper considers determinants of physical functional limitations in daily-life activities at high ages. Specifically, we quantify the extent to which the impact of adverse life events on this outcome is larger in case of exposure to adverse economic conditions early in life. Adverse life events include bereavement, severe illness in the family, and the onset of chronic diseases. We use a longitudinal data set of individuals born in the first decades of the 20th century. The business cycle around birth is used as an indicator of economic conditions early in life. We find that the extent to which functional limitations suffer from the onset of chronic diseases is larger if the individual was born in a recession. The long-run effect of economic conditions early in life on functional limitations at high ages runs primarily via this life event. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A case study of reproduction conduction aphasia I: Word production

Abstract We present data regarding word production and short-term auditory verbal memory in a patient, RL, who falls into the class of “reproduction conduction aphasia”. RL shows similar disturbances of single word production in naming, repetition, and reading aloud. He shows qualitatively similar and quantitatively worse performance in repetition of nonwords. His STM is good on tasks (pointing and recognition) which do not require verbal output. We conclude that his disturbance lies at a stage of word production, rather than in the process of perception or in the transfer of perceived representations to motor planning processes. We discuss existing models of the deficit in conduction aphasia and models of word recognition and production in the light of RL's performance, and we argue that none can account for the pattern of his results. We suggest that a model which incorporates two stages of phonological representations, in accordance with contemporary linguistic theory, is supported by the pattern of RL.
“Open” repair of ruptured thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (experience of 51 cases)

Introduction Surgical treatment of toracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAA) represents a difficult problem for the vascular surgeon and may become a formidable challenge in an emergency procedure. In patient with hemodynamic instability, protective measures as cerebral spinal fluid drainage and bio-pump against spinal cord, visceral and renal ischemia, may be ineffective or impracticable. Material and methods We report our experience of 51 emergency-operated patients with TAAA out of 660 treated between 1994 and 2014; 48 patients (94%) were hemodynamically unstable, 3 (6%) were hemodynamically stable. The TAAA patients were evaluated, according to Crawford classification, as: 18 type I, 13 type II, 15 type III, 5 type IV. Results Overall mortality was 23 cases out of 51 (43.1%); 8 deaths occurred during the surgical procedure and 14 in the postoperative period. Early deaths, subdivided by Crawford TAAA classification, were: type I 9/18 (50%), type II 9/13 (69.2%), type III 7/15 (46.6%), type IV 3/5 (60%). Paraplegia-paraparesis developed in 6 cases out of 43 (16.2%), excluding 8 deaths during the operative procedure. Acute renal failure was observed in 8 out of 43 patients (18.6%). Dialysis was found to be a risk factor for hospital mortality (p = 0.03). Pulmonary insufficiency was diagnosed in 15 patients out of 43 (34.8%), and 5 patients (15.5%) needed tracheostomy, out of whom 3 died (p = 0.04%). Postoperative bleeding was present in 8 cases out of 43 (18.6%). Inferior laryngeal nerve palsy was present in 6 cases out of 43 (13.5%). The follow-up period comprised 1-3-5-10 years postoperative follow-up. The actuarial survival rate of patients discharged from hospital was respectively 75%, 63%, 48%, 35%. Conclusions In the literature there are very few studies published on emergency treatment for TAAA. Having usually low numbers of patients in the groups wider experiences are still needed to give more light on the pathophysiology and surgical treatment of this type of TAAA, which are still being treated according to the individual surgeon's experience.
Corpus based Semi-Automatic Extraction of Persian Compound Verbs and their Relations

Nowadays, Wordnet is used in natural language processing as one of the major linguistic resources. Having such a resource for Persian language helps researchers in computational linguistics and natural language processing fields to develop more accurate systems with higher performances. In this research, we propose a model for semi-automatic construction of Persian wordnet of verbs. Compound verbs are a very productive structure in Persian and number of compound verbs is much greater than simple verbs in this language This research is aimed at finding the structure of Persian compound verbs and the relations between verb components. The main idea behind developing this system is using the wordnet of other POS categories (here means noun and adjective) to extract Persian compound verbs, their synsets and their relations. This paper focuses on three main tasks: 1.extracting compound verbs 2.extracting verbal synsets and 3.extracting the relations among verbal synsets such as hypernymy, antonymy and cause.