Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vitro approaches for the evaluation of human vaccines

The vast majority of commercially available inactivated influenza vaccines are produced from egg-grown or cell-grown live influenza virus. The first step in the production process is virus inactivation with β -propiolactone (BPL) or formaldehyde (FA). Recommendations for production of inactivated vaccines merely define the maximal concentration for both reagents, leaving the optimization of the process to the manufacturers. We assessed the effect of inactivation with BPL and FA on 5 different influenza virus strains. The properties of the viral formulation, such as successful inactivation, preservation of hemagglutinin (HA) binding ability, fusion capacity and the potential to stimulate a Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) reporter cell line were then assessed and compared to the properties of the untreated virus. Inactivation with BPL resulted in undetectable infectivity levels, while FA-treated virus retained very low infectious titers. Hemagglutination and fusion ability were highly affected by those treatments that conferred higher inactivation, with BPL-treated virus binding and fusing at a lower degree compared to FA-inactivated samples. On the other hand, BPL-inactivated virus induced higher levels of activation of TLR7 than FA-inactivated virus. The alterations caused by BPL or FA treatments were virus strain dependent. This data shows that the inactivation procedures should be tailored on the virus strain, and that many other elements beside the concentration of the inactivating agent, such as incubation time and temperature, buffer and virus concentration, have to be defined to achieve a functional product.
Fault slip and rupture velocity inversion by isochrone backprojection

SUMMARY A new technique is proposed here for the retrieval of slip images from the backprojection of high-frequency displacement records. When direct S waves are seen to be dominant in the near-source data, Green functions can be approximated by the far-field terms, as described by ray theory. Assuming that the slip rapidly reaches the final value (i.e. short slip duration), the measured displacement can be ascribed to the slip contributions lying on the corresponding isochrone on the fault plane. Here we use the far-field representation theorem to backproject on the fault plane the displacement amplitudes measured along the seismogram. Through the weighted stack of amplitude maps obtained from different stations we recover high slip zones on the fault. The resolution analysis of the backprojected images is realized with spike tests (that we refer to as ‘image Green functions’), which revealed to be an useful tool for detecting and locating artificial distortions of high slip patches, due to a poor data coverage. However, when the slip is uniformly spread along the isochrones, energy is scattered everywhere on the fault, leading to defocusing effects on the final images. A partial deconvolution technique is proposed by reiterating the backprojection. An important implication of this study is that slip maps can be obtained as functions of the rupture time on the fault, that is, the method can be used to retrieve variable rupture velocity kinematic models. Since the latter parameter is not known a priori, we suggest that a data set of coupled rupture velocity and slip maps is built up and the optimal model is chosen according to a waveform fitness criterion. This procedure allows the slip inversion to be separated from the rupture velocity inversion, significantly reducing the number of parameters to be estimated. Additionally, the parametrization of the rupture velocity is done on a less dense grid than the slip. By way of example, the technique is applied to estimation of the kinematic rupture model of the 2000 Tottori earthquake (M = 6.8), based on the inversion of near-source strong-motion data.
Geochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic insight into the low-Ti basalts from southern Paraná Igneous Province, Brazil: the role of crustal contamination

ABSTRACTThe south hinge of the Torres Syncline in southernmost Brazil hosts a volcanic succession of pahoehoe and rubbly Gramado-type lavas belonging to the ~132 Ma Parana–Etendeka Igneous Province. We evaluate the geochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic variations using local-scale stratigraphy in order to discuss the petrogenesis of lava flows in a single magma type and to estimate the role of crustal contamination and the potential contaminants involved. The geochemical and isotopic variations along the lava pile are not systematic, implying that the magma chamber could have undergone successive replenishments of basaltic magma. The process of crustal assimilation explains the high and widespread initial Sr isotopic ratios at 0.707798–0.715751 and the very low eNd at −8.36 to −5.41, with associated Pb isotopic variations (18.42 < 206Pb/204Pb < 18.86; 15.65 < 207Pb/204Pb < 15.71; 38.62 < 208Pb/204Pb < 39.37). The magmatic evolution of the SCSH and LJ lava flows begins with the storage of mafic liquids during .
Pandava laminata, eine weitere nach Deutschland importierte Spinnenart (Araneae: Titanoecidae)

Pandava laminata, a further spider species introduced into Germany (Araneae: Titanoecidae). Pandava laminata (Thorell, 1878) was recorded for the first time from Germany at the Cologne Zoo. The species was most likely introduced with plants or cargo from Southeast Asia. Characters important for identification at species, genus and family level are listed and partly illustrated.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Deep Learning for Free-Hand Sketch: A Survey

—Free-hand sketches are highly illustrative, and have been widely used by humans to depict objects or stories from ancient times to the present. The recent prevalence of touchscreen devices has made sketch creation a much easier task than ever and consequently made sketch-oriented applications increasingly popular. The progress of deep learning has immensely beneﬁted free-hand sketch research and applications. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the deep learning techniques oriented at free-hand sketch data, and the applications that they enable. The main contents of this survey include: (i) A discussion of the intrinsic traits and unique challenges of free-hand sketch, to highlight the essential differences between sketch data and other data modalities, e . g . , natural photos. (ii) A review of the developments of free-hand sketch research in the deep learning era, by surveying existing datasets, research topics, and the state-of-the-art methods through a detailed taxonomy and experimental evaluation. (iii) Promotion of future work via a discussion of bottlenecks, open problems, and potential research directions for the community.
Extraction of Brain Cortical Activities Related to Auditory Impressions Induced by HVAC Sound Using Nonnegative Tensor Factorization

Figure 1. An example of weight vector and frequency components extracted by NTF (Subject 5, coolness). Number of components was 50. The prediction accuracy of this model was 66.7%. For instance, the weight vector shows that the 16 and 49 components (7-10 Hz and 38-48 Hz activities, respectively) significantly affect the prediction of subjective coolness. Abstract— The linear model that predicts subjective coolness/preference induced by HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) sound from brain cortical activities was constructed. Time-frequency components of brain cortical activities were extracted from magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data using the time-frequency analysis and nonnegative tensor factorization (NTF). Brain cortical activities related to subjective coolness/preference induced by HVAC sound were extracted from rank-1 components of NTF and from the weight vector of the predictive model.
D-QSAR Studies of 3 , 5-disubstituted Quinolines Inhibitors of c-Jun N-terminal Kinase-3

c-Jun N-terminal kinase-3 (JNK-3) has been shown to mediate neuronal apoptosis and make the promising therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other CNS disorders. In order to better understand the structural and chemical features of JNK-3, comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) was performed on a series of 3,5-disubstituted quinolines derivatives. The best predictions were obtained CoMFA model (q=0.707, r=0.972) and the statistical parameters from the generated 3D-QSAR models were indicated that the data are well fitted and have high predictive ability. The resulting contour map from 3D-QSAR models might be helpful to design novel and more potent JNK3 derivatives.
Climate Change and the Middle Atmosphere. Part III: The Doubled CO2 Climate Revisited

Abstract The response of the troposphere–stratosphere system to doubled atmospheric CO2 is investigated in a series of experiments in which sea surface temperatures are allowed to adjust to radiation imbalances. The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Global Climate Middle Atmosphere Model (GCMAM) warms by 5.1°C at the surface while the stratosphere cools by up to 10°C. When ozone is allowed to respond photochemically, the stratospheric cooling is reduced by 20%, with little effect in the troposphere. Planetary wave energy increases in the stratosphere, producing dynamical warming at high latitudes, in agreement with previous GCMAM doubled CO2 simulations; the effect is due to increased tropospheric generation and altered refraction, both strongly influenced by the magnitude of warming in the model’s tropical upper troposphere. This warming also results in stronger zonal winds in the lower stratosphere, which appears to reduce stratospheric planetary wave 2 energy and stratospheric warming events.
Measurement of W + W - production in association with one jet in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of W boson pairs in association with one jet in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV is studied using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb − 1 collected by the ATLAS detector during 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The cross section is measured in a ﬁducial phase-space region deﬁned by the presence of exactly one electron and one muon, missing transverse momentum and exactly one jet with a transverse momentum above 25 GeV and a pseudorapidity of | η | < 4 . 5. The leptons are required to have opposite electric charge and to pass transverse momentum and pseudorapidity requirements. The ﬁducial cross section is found to be σ ﬁd,1-jet In combination with a previous measurement restricted to leptonic ﬁnal states with no associated jets, the ﬁducial cross section of W W production with zero or one jet is measured to be σ ﬁd , ≤ 1-jet WW 511 ± 9 ( stat ) ± 26 ( syst ) ± 10 ( lumi ) fb. The ratio of ﬁducial cross sections in ﬁnal states with one and zero jets is determined to be 0 . 36 ± 0 . 05. Finally, a total cross section extrapolated from the ﬁducial measurement of W W production with zero or one associated jet is reported. The measurements are compared to theoretical predictions and found in good agreement.
A conceptual glacio-hydrological model for high mountainous catchments

Abstract. In high mountainous catchments, the spatial precipitation and therefore the overall water balance is generally difficult to estimate. The present paper describes the structure and calibration of a semi-lumped conceptual glacio-hydrological model for the joint simulation of daily discharge and annual glacier mass balance that represents a better integrator of the water balance. The model has been developed for climate change impact studies and has therefore a parsimonious structure; it requires three input times series - precipitation, temperature and potential evapotranspiration - and has 7 parameters to calibrate. A multi-signal approach considering daily discharge and - if available - annual glacier mass balance has been developed for the calibration of these parameters. The model has been calibrated for three different catchments in the Swiss Alps having glaciation rates between 37% and 52%. It simulates well the observed daily discharge, the hydrological regime and some basic glaciological features, such as the annual mass balance.
Regionalisation for lake level simulation – the case of Lake Tana in the Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia

Abstract. In this study lake levels of Lake Tana are simulated at daily time step by solving the water balance for all inflow and outflow processes. Since nearly 62% of the Lake Tana basin area is ungauged a regionalisation procedure is applied to estimate lake inflows from ungauged catchments. The procedure combines automated multi-objective calibration of a simple conceptual model and multiple regression analyses to establish relations between model parameters and catchment characteristics. A relatively small number of studies are presented on Lake Tana's water balance. In most studies the water balance is solved at monthly time step and the water balance is simply closed by runoff contributions from ungauged catchments. Studies partly relied on simple ad-hoc procedures of area comparison to estimate runoff from ungauged catchments. In this study a regional model is developed that relies on principles of similarity of catchments characteristics. For runoff modelling the HBV-96 model is selected while multi-objective model calibration is by a Monte Carlo procedure. We aim to assess the closure term of Lake Tana's water balance, to assess model parameter uncertainty and to evaluate effectiveness of a multi-objective model calibration approach to make hydrological modeling results more plausible. For the gauged catchments, model performance is assessed by the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and Relative Volumetric Error and resulted in satisfactory to good performance for six, large catchments. The regional model is validated and indicated satisfactory to good performance in most cases. Results show that runoff from ungauged catchments is as large as 527 mm per year for the simulation period and amounts to approximately 30% of Lake Tana stream inflow. Results of daily lake level simulation over the simulation period 1994–2003 show a water balance closure term of 85 mm per year that accounts to 2.7% of the total lake inflow. Lake level simulations are assessed by Nash Sutcliffe (0.91) and Relative Volume Error (2.71%) performance measures.
Creatine Supplement Effect Similar in Rotenone Induced and Transgenic PD Flies in Drosophila Melanogaster

Creatine (Cr) is known nutritional supplement having the properties bioenergetics, anti exitoxic and anti-oxidant. Present study has been under taken to investigate protective effects of creatine supplement against rotenone induced and transgenic PD flies using oxidative stress, mortality and neurotoxicity in D. melanogaster. It was noticed that significant reduction in the levels of oxidative markers in whole body homogenates and better performance in a negative geotaxis assay of flies exposed to creatine supplement of rotenone (Rot) induces and transgenic PD (Parkinson’s disease) flies. Further dopamine level also increased in creatine supplement of rotenone induced and transgenic PD flies. These studies suggests that protective role of creatine supplement is similar in both rotenone (Rot) induced as well as in transgenic PD models of D. melanogaster.
Bare Bedrock Erosion Rates in the Central Appalachians, Virginia

Long term average erosion rates were determined by measuring in situ concentrations of the cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be in the Blue Ridge of central Virginia. The time scale of the erosion rate measurements is on the order of 104-105 years. Several landscape variables were also investigated to determine which processes control erosion. Curvature and slope measurements taken at sample locations using ArcGIS showed slight correlations with erosion rate. Higher erosion rates had low slope values of <5% and curvature values that converged near 1.2. Location of the sample site was taken into consideration because many sites only had bare bedrock outcrops just off of their summits. Whether the sample was collected from a ridgeline or from a side slope had no effect on erosion rates. A slight negative correlation was observed between erosion rate and elevation from sea level throughout Shenandoah National Park, such that higher erosion rates were found at lower elevations. For sampling sites taken down the side of an individual peak no correlation was found between elevation and erosion rate. The dominant erosional processes present at the summits do not seem to have a significant effect on the erosion rates. Areas dominated by episodic events had lower erosion rates than sites dominated by grain-by-grain erosion. In contrast to previous studies, erosion rates found here were most heavily influenced by rock type. The metasandstone sampled had the lowest average erosion rate while the shale had the highest erosion rate average. The mean summit erosion rate for 20 bare bedrock samples is 9.72 m/My, but individual measurements varied from 2.46 to 41.00 m//My. Nearby long term fluvial incision rates are at least an order of magnitude larger than the summits erosion rates, indicating that the landscape is in disequilibrium, more specifically that the relief in the central Appalachians is increasing. The increase in relief is likely due to either high frequency climate changes during the late Cenozoic era or the local change in the Blue Ridge drainage network during the late Miocene epoch.
Hematological parameters in diabetic patients-an institutional study

- Type 2 Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance. WHO has predicted that the prevalence of DM worldwide will be 592 million by the year 2035. The hematological changes in Diabetes Mellitus are linked to inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Alteration in size, morphology and functions of RBCs, WBCs and platelets are assumed to be responsible for the metabolic effects of hyperglycemia. Previous studies have implicated a rise in WBC count as a prognostic factor for development of cardiovascular complications in DM. Elevated MPV, PDW, Platelet count and RDW in patients with poor glycemic control has been shown to be predictors of endothelial dysfunction. Aim-This study aims to find the variation in CBC indices and compare it to a non-diabetic population to evaluate its statistical significance. Method-A cross –sectional study was carried out among patients who were known cases of diabetes mellitus, attending a tertiary care hospital during the month of January 2023. Total of 276 subjects were included in this study, with 138 diabetic patients and 138 non-diabetic subjects. Result-The current study shows that there is significant decrease in RBC values while RDW-SD is elevated in diabetic patients. Total WBC count, ANC and NLR are drastically increased in th diabetic population. Conclusion-In concordance with previous studies, it shows the need for monitoring these values for predicting the outcome or occurrence of micro and macro vascular complications.
AAGD07: A new absolute gravity datum for Australian gravity and new standards for the Australian National Gravity Database

Summary The current Australian gravity datum, Isogal84, is defined by the Australian Fundamental Gravity Network (AFGN). The AFGN consists of about 950 stations at over 250 locations throughout Australia with the first stations in the network being established in the early 1950s. Prior to Isogal84, the datum was based on relative ties to overseas sites. The Isogal84 datum is based on 5 absolute gravity sites within Australia that were established in 1979 using a Soviet absolute gravimeter. Absolute gravity measurements conducted at 60 AFGN sites by Geoscience Australia using a portable absolute gravimeter have shown that the Isogal84 datum is 78 microgals (1 microgal = 1x10-8 m/s2) higher than the absolute measurements. A new gravity datum, the Australian Absolute Gravity Datum 2007 (AAGD07), has been defined based on these absolute gravity measurements and the AFGN and the Australian National Gravity Database (ANGD) have been adjusted to this new datum. Concurrent with implementing AAGD07, the formulae used for reducing gravity data in the ANGD have been reviewed and updated. These changes include using the 1980 International Gravity Formula, global horizontal and vertical datums, and a spherical cap Bouguer correction that accounts for the Earth’s curvature. These new formulae provide more accurate anomalies, particularly in longer wavelengths which will be beneficial to regional studies.
The pH-dependent dissolution of wind-transported Saharan dust

An open flow reactor was developed and used to study the pH dependency of atmospheric aerosol weathering. Under ultraclean conditions, this reactor enables experiments below the saturation of hydroxy salts and over the short time span (2 hours) that is typical for weathering by rain and cloud water. The weathering simulations show a two-step process of dissolution rates: First, the rate increases quickly during the hydration of the solid particle surface, then after a maximum, it progressively decreases. In general, there is an increase in the dissolution rate of dissolved elements as the pH is lowered. However, between pH 3.80 and 5.30, the dissolution rate for Fe and Cu depends on both H+ and OH− concentrations and exhibits a minimum as a function of pH. This minimum can be related to pHpzc of the mineral containing these elements. The affinity of minerals for H+ was also determined by correlating hydration constants and pH.
Emissions Measurements from Vegetation Fires: A Comparative Evaluation of Methods and Results

Fires in the open environment! produce a diversity of combustion products. Special techniques are needed to characterize the emissions ranging from microcombustion-evolved gas analysis to airborne monitoring of the full-scale phenomenon. This chapter discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each, the use of data in models for full-scale fires, and provides a discussion of the measurement needs for more fully understanding the release of emissions on a global/temporal scale.
Quantitative evaluation of atlas-based highdensity diffuse optical Quantitative evaluation of atlas-based highdensity diffuse optical tomography for imaging of the human visual cortex tomography for imaging of the human visual cortex

: Image recovery in diffuse optical tomography (DOT) of the human brain often relies on accurate models of light propagation within the head. In the absence of subject specific models for image reconstruction, the use of atlas based models are showing strong promise. Although there exists some understanding in the use of some limited rigid model registrations in DOT, there has been a lack of a detailed analysis between errors in geometrical accuracy, light propagation in tissue and subsequent errors in dynamic imaging of recovered focal activations in the brain. In this work 11 different rigid registration algorithms, across 24 simulated subjects, are evaluated for DOT studies in the visual cortex. Although there exists a strong correlation (R 2 = 0.97) between geometrical surface error and internal light propagation errors, the overall variation is minimal when analysing recovered focal activations in the visual cortex. While a subject specific mesh gives the best results with a 1.2 mm average location error, no single algorithm provides errors greater than 4.5 mm. This work demonstrates that the use of rigid algorithms for atlas based imaging is a promising route when subject specific models are not available.