Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase I trial of neoadjuvant chemoradiation with gemcitabine and surgical resection for cholangiocarcinoma patients (NACRAC study).

BACKGROUND/AIMS The feasibility of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy for cholangiocarcinoma, followed by conventional resection, has not been determined yet. Here, a phase I study of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy, named NACRAC, was performed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and the recommended dose (RD) of gemcitabine when combined with external beam radiation therapy for resectable cholangiocarcinoma. METHODOLOGY From August 2007 to June 2008, 12 patients provided informed consent. Preoperative radiation was administered in 1.8Gy daily fractions up to a total dose of 45Gy. Gemcitabine was administered at day 1 and 8 every three weeks. The initial dose of gemcitabine was started from 400mg/m2. RESULTS One patient was not able to start treatment because of bleeding caused by a duodenal ulcer and cholangitis. At 800mg/m2 of gemcitabine, one patient out of three failed to complete the treatment because of Grade 3 hematological toxicity. In another three cases of 800mg/m2, the second case could not complete the treatment because of cholangitis. Then, 600mg/m2 was determined to be the MTD, and the RD dose decided as 600mg/m2. CONCLUSIONS The RD of gemcitabine in NACRAC study was determined to be 600mg/m2. NACRAC study should proceed to a phase II trial to evaluate the effectiveness.
Volumetric variations of Glacier de Sarennes, French Alps, during the last two centuries

Glacier de Sarennes, located in the heart of the French Alps, has been observed closely since 1906 and regularly measured (snow accumulation, ablation and mass balance) since 1948. Several publications have stemmed from this research, such as the 1906 and 1958 glaciological maps and the 1981 and 1991 photogrammetric analyses. In 1992, a field radar campaign determined the ice thickness and allowed the drawing of the bedrock map with reasonable accuracy. The Little Ice Age stage was reconstructed with the bedrock tracks, in 1995. The above-mentioned documents were digitized, and the computer program Arc-Info permitted the calculation of the successive volume stages occupied by the glacier from 1850 to 1991. Cross-sections and slope profiles illustrate the evolution of the thickness of Glacier de Sarennes during the last 150 years. All of these results, consistent with the variation of the mass balance observed or estimated, show the main conclusion: compared with today, the glacier was about four times more voluminous 90 years ago (i.e. it has lost three-quarters of its ice volume) and five times bigger one and a half centuries ago.
Advantages of combined transmembrane topology and signal peptide prediction—the Phobius web server

When using conventional transmembrane topology and signal peptide predictors, such as TMHMM and SignalP, there is a substantial overlap between these two types of predictions. Applying these methods to five complete proteomes, we found that 30–65% of all predicted signal peptides and 25–35% of all predicted transmembrane topologies overlap. This impairs predictions of 5–10% of the proteome, hence this is an important issue in protein annotation. To address this problem, we previously designed a hidden Markov model, Phobius, that combines transmembrane topology and signal peptide predictions. The method makes an optimal choice between transmembrane segments and signal peptides, and also allows constrained and homology-enriched predictions. We here present a web interface (http://phobius.cgb.ki.se and http://phobius.binf.ku.dk) to access Phobius.
Middle Jurassic Stratigraphy, Sedimentation and Paleogeography in the Southwestern United States

Abstract The San Rafael Group (SRG) encompasses all Middle Jurassic strata on the Colorado Plateau. Depositional environments were strongly influenced by, or directly related to the southward advance, highstand and subsequent northward regression of the shallow Sundance seaway. SRG strata unconformably overlie the Navajo Sandstone (Lower Jurassic) in the western Colorado Plateau, whereas to the southeast, in New Mexico, a more profound unconformity separates the SRG from the Chinle Group (Upper Triassic). At the type area in Utah the SRG consists of (ascending) the Carmel Formation (shallow marine deposits), Entrada Sandstone (eolian), Curtis Formation (shallow marine, arid coastal plain, sabkha) and Summerville Formation. Southeastward in New Mexico the group consists of the Entrada Sandstone, the carbonate-evaporite sequence of the Todilto Formation, the Summerville Formation and the Bluff Sandstone (mostly eolian). The Todilto was deposited in a paralic salina fed indirectly by the Curtis Sea to the north, a relationship supported by sulfur-isotope data. Following the highstand Summerville strata prograded across the vanishing water bodies and finally eolianites accumulated. Cessation of eolian deposition was not synchronous across the basin as SRG deposition came to a close, thus the upper part of this unit is, in places, of fluvial origin. The base of the overlying, fluvially dominated Morrison Formation is picked on lithologic rather than lithogenetic factors in the San Juan Basin, plus the presence of an unconformity (sequence boundary). Lithology and biota of the Morrison suggest the onset of more humid climates, which is consistent with the northward drift of Laurasia following the initial breakup of Pangaea.
Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication record in King ' s Research Portal

This paper considers amplify-and-forward (AF) two-way relay networks, where an energy constrained relay node harvests energy from the received radio-frequency signal. Based on time switching (TS) receiver, we separate the energy harvesting (EH) phase and the information processing (IP) phase in time. In the EH phase, three practical wireless power transfer policies are proposed: 1) dual-source (DS) power transfer, where both sources transfer power to the relay; 2) single-fixed-source (SFS) power transfer, where a fixed source transfers power to the relay; and 3) single-best-source (SBS) power transfer, where a source with strongest channel transfers power to the relay. In the IP phase, a new comparative framework of the proposed wireless power transfer policies is presented in two bi-directional relaying protocols, known as multiple access broadcast (MABC) and time division broadcast (TDBC). To characterize the performance of the proposed policies, new analytical expressions are derived for the outage probability, the throughput, and the system energy efficiency. Numerical results corroborate our analysis and show: 1) the DS policy performs the best in terms of both outage probability and throughput among the proposed policies, 2) the TDBC protocol achieves lower outage probability than the MABC protocol, and 3) there exits an optimal value of energy harvesting time fraction to maximize the throughput. A pivotal conclusion is reached that the SBS policy offers an optimal tradeoff between performance and power consumption since SBS consumes the least power but offers a comparable performance to that of DS. Index Terms Multiple access broadcast, time division broadcast, two-way relay networks, wireless power transfer.
Seasonality and Predictability of the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode: ENSO Forcing and Internal Variability

AbstractThis study evaluates the relative contributions to the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode of interannual variability from the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forcing and ocean–atmosphere feedbacks internal to the Indian Ocean. The ENSO forcing and internal variability is extracted by conducting a 10-member coupled simulation for 1950–2012 where sea surface temperature (SST) is restored to the observed anomalies over the tropical Pacific but interactive with the atmosphere over the rest of the World Ocean. In these experiments, the ensemble mean is due to ENSO forcing and the intermember difference arises from internal variability of the climate system independent of ENSO. These elements contribute one-third and two-thirds of the total IOD variance, respectively. Both types of IOD variability develop into an east–west dipole pattern because of Bjerknes feedback and peak in September–November. The ENSO forced and internal IOD modes differ in several important ways. The forced IOD mode develops in Au.
How and Why do Investors Trade Votes, and What Does it Mean?

The standard analysis of corporate governance is that shareholders vote in the ratios that firms choose, such as one-share-one-vote. But if the cost of unbundling and trading votes is sufficiently low, then shareholders vote in the ratios that they themselves choose. We document an active market for votes within the equity-loan market, where we find that the average vote sells for zero. We hypothesize that asymmetric information motivates these vote reallocations, and we find support for this view in the cross section of votes: there is more trade for higher-spread firms and more for poor performers, especially when the vote is close. We also find that the vote reallocations correspond to support for shareholder proposals and opposition to management proposals. L'analyse classique de la gouvernance d'entreprise suppose que les actionnaires votent selon les modalites choisies par la firme, par exemple un vote par action. Mais si les couts associes a la separation et a l'echange des votes sont suffisamment faibles, alors les actionnaires votent selon les modalites qu'ils ont eux-memes choisies. Nous presentons le cas d'un marche actif de votes au sein du marche des mises de fonds sous forme d'emprunts (equity loans), ou nous constatons qu'en moyenne les votes se vendent pour rien. Nous supposons que l'asymetrie d'information provoque cette reallocation des votes, et nous etayons cette hypothese a travers l'etude transversale des votes : le nombre d'operations est plus important pour les compagnies dont l'ecart acheteur-vendeur est plus eleve ainsi que pour celles dont les resultats sont plus faibles, particulierement lorsque le vote est clos. Cette etude montre aussi que la reallocation des votes permet de soutenir les propositions des actionnaires et de s'opposer a celles des gestionnaires.
The Global Burden of Ozone on Respiratory Mortality: No Clear Evidence for Association

Anenberg et al. (2010) estimated the global burden of respiratory mortality attributable to long-term ozone exposure based on a single observational study by Jerrett et al. (2009). Because no other study has clearly demonstrated impacts of chronic ozone exposure on deaths from respiratory-related causes, we believe that reliance on the study by Jerrett et al. to establish causality and global impact is misplaced and that the conclusions of Anenberg et al. are likely unfounded.
The impact of a mega-event on city branding: The European Capital of Culture 2010 and the image of Istanbul

This study examines the ways in which the city image of Istanbul is re-created through the mega-events within the context of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2010. Istanbul “took the stage” as one of the three ECoC cities ( Essen for the Ruhr in Germany and Pecs in Hungary), where the urban spaces were projected as the theatre decor while residents and visitors became the spectators of the events. Organisers and agents of the ECoC 2010 seemed to rebrand Istanbul as a “world city” rather than a “European capital”. With a series of transnational connotations, this can be considered as part of an attempt to turn Istanbul to a global city. In this study we examine posters used during the ECoC 2010 to see whether this was evident in the promoted images of Istanbul. The research employs a hermeneutic approach in which representations, signs and language are the means of symbolic meaning, which is analysed through qualitative methods for the visual data (Visual Analysis Methods), namely Semiotics and Discourse Analysis. The analysed research material comes from a sample of posters released during the ECoC 2010 to promote 549 events throughout the year. Using stratified random sampling we have drawn 28 posters (5% of the total) reflecting the thematic groups of events in the ECoC 2010. Particular attention is also paid to the reflexivity of the researchers and researchers’ embeddedness to the object of research. The symbolic production and visual representation are therefore investigated firstly through the authoritative and historically constituted discourses in the making of Istanbul image and secondly through the orders of cultural consumption and mediatisation of culture through spectacular events. Hence enforcing a transnationalisation of the image of the city where the image appears to be almost stateless transcending the national boundaries. Findings and methodology used in this study can be useful in understanding similar cases and further research into the processes of city and place branding and image relationships.
Estimation of Future Earthquake Losses in California

For scenario earthquake loss, we quantified the damage and loss expected in ten counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) and in ten counties in Southern California, due to possible earthquakes on known faults in the two regions. To accomplish this task, we used scenario ground motions, or shake-maps of 50 potential earthquakes published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Of these 50 scenario shake-maps, 34 represent the expected ground motion hazard in the SFBA counties and 16 represent the expected ground motion hazard in the southern region. For annualized earthquake loss, we estimated the overall long-term damage and loss using the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) maps for the State of California, prepared and published by the California Geological Survey (CGS) and the USGS. These PSHA maps show the expected ground motions of specified annual chance of occurrence at any location within the State. The effect on ground motions on the soils at the site are taken into account for both the shake-maps and the PSHA maps, through the use of appropriate ground motion attenuation relations and soil correction factors. Liquefaction effect was taken into account for the annualized loss study, but not for the scenario loss study. Due to the non-existent or incomplete data on other earthquake hazards and effects, including ground rupture, landslide and fire, these potential hazards were not considered in either the study of scenario earthquake loss or the annualized earthquake loss.
Comparison of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms in Optimizing Combinations of Reinsurance Contracts [ Preliminary Version ]

In many branches of the insurance business the insurance company is not willing (or not able) to hold the entire risk on its own. There are several types of treaties which an insurance company can use to cede an amount of its claims to another insurance company. A substantial amount of research has been performed to find individually optimal structures for each of these types of reinsurance treaties. However only few results exist when the goal is to find optimal combinations of reinsurance treaties because of computational complexity or non-convexity of the objective functions. In our paper we introduce a novel approach to solve this task. For the first time this problem will be treated like a true multiobjective optimization problem. We apply two state-of-theart MOEAs, the NSGA-II and the 2-MOEA and compare their results in our problem setting. The presented approach is flexible with respect to real world modifications concerning risk measurement, cost calculation principles and different combinations of reinsurance treaties. Finally, we do not only solve open mathematical problems on complex reinsurance combinations but we consequently give new heuristic interpretations to supplement existing theoretic results.
A heuristic two‐phase solution approach for the multi‐objective dial‐a‐ride problem

In this article, we develop a heuristic two‐phase solution procedure for the dial‐a‐ride problem with two objectives. Besides the minimum cost objective a client centered objective has been defined. Phase one consists of an iterated variable neighborhood search‐based heuristic, generating approximate weighted sum solutions; phase two is a path relinking module, computing additional efficient solutions. Results for two sets of benchmark instances are reported. For the smaller instances, exact efficient sets are generated by means of the ϵ‐constraint method. Comparison shows that the proposed two‐phase method is able to generate high‐quality approximations of the true Pareto frontier. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2009
Oligosaccharides Released from Milk Glycoproteins Are Selective Growth Substrates for Infant-Associated Bifidobacteria

ABSTRACT Milk, in addition to nourishing the neonate, provides a range of complex glycans whose construction ensures a specific enrichment of key members of the gut microbiota in the nursing infant, a consortium known as the milk-oriented microbiome. Milk glycoproteins are thought to function similarly, as specific growth substrates for bifidobacteria common to the breast-fed infant gut. Recently, a cell wall-associated endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (EndoBI-1) found in various infant-borne bifidobacteria was shown to remove a range of intact N-linked glycans. We hypothesized that these released oligosaccharide structures can serve as a sole source for the selective growth of bifidobacteria. We demonstrated that EndoBI-1 released N-glycans from concentrated bovine colostrum at the pilot scale. EndoBI-1-released N-glycans supported the rapid growth of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis), a species that grows well on human milk oligosaccharides, but did not support growth of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (B. lactis), a species which does not. Conversely, B. infantis ATCC 15697 did not grow on the deglycosylated milk protein fraction, clearly demonstrating that the glycan portion of milk glycoproteins provided the key substrate for growth. Mass spectrometry-based profiling revealed that B. infantis consumed 73% of neutral and 92% of sialylated N-glycans, while B. lactis degraded only 11% of neutral and virtually no (<1%) sialylated N-glycans. These results provide mechanistic support that N-linked glycoproteins from milk serve as selective substrates for the enrichment of infant-associated bifidobacteria capable of carrying out the initial deglycosylation. Moreover, released N-glycans were better growth substrates than the intact milk glycoproteins, suggesting that EndoBI-1 cleavage is a key initial step in consumption of glycoproteins. Finally, the variety of N-glycans released from bovine milk glycoproteins suggests that they may serve as novel prebiotic substrates with selective properties similar to those of human milk oligosaccharides. IMPORTANCE It has been previously shown that glycoproteins serve as growth substrates for bifidobacteria. However, which part of a glycoprotein (glycans or polypeptides) is responsible for this function was not known. In this study, we used a novel enzyme to cleave conjugated N-glycans from milk glycoproteins and tested their consumption by various bifidobacteria. The results showed that the glycans selectively stimulated the growth of B. infantis, which is a key infant gut microbe. The selectivity of consumption of individual N-glycans was determined using advanced mass spectrometry (nano-liquid chromatography chip–quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry [nano-LC-Chip-Q-TOF MS]) to reveal that B. infantis can consume the range of glycan structures released from whey protein concentrate.
Defoliation severity is positively related to soil solution nitrogen availability and negatively related to soil nitrogen concentrations following a multi-year invasive insect irruption

Abstract Understanding connections between ecosystem nitrogen (N) cycling and invasive insect defoliation could facilitate the prediction of disturbance impacts across a range of spatial scales. In this study we investigated relationships between ecosystem N cycling and tree defoliation during a recent 2015–18 irruption of invasive gypsy moth caterpillars (Lymantria dispar), which can cause tree stress and sometimes mortality following multiple years of defoliation. Nitrogen is a critical nutrient that limits the growth of caterpillars and plants in temperate forests. In this study, we assessed the associations among N concentrations, soil solution N availability and defoliation intensity by L. dispar at the scale of individual trees and forest plots. We measured leaf and soil N concentrations and soil solution inorganic N availability among individual red oak trees (Quercus rubra) in Amherst, MA and across a network of forest plots in Central Massachusetts. We combined these field data with estimated defoliation severity derived from Landsat imagery to assess relationships between plot-scale defoliation and ecosystem N cycling. We found that trees in soil with lower N concentrations experienced more herbivory than trees in soil with higher N concentrations. Additionally, forest plots with lower N soil were correlated with more severe L. dispar defoliation, which matched the tree-level relationship. The amount of inorganic N in soil solution was strongly positively correlated with defoliation intensity and the number of sequential years of defoliation. These results suggested that higher ecosystem N pools might promote the resistance of oak trees to L. dispar defoliation and that defoliation severity across multiple years is associated with a linear increase in soil solution inorganic N.
PEMANFAATAN INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (InSAR) UNTUK PEMODELAN 3D (DSM, DEM, DAN DTM)

Pada saat ini, radar merupakan salah satu solusi dalam menyelesaikan permasalahan bebas efek awan. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) dapat menghasilkan akurasi dan presisi lebih tinggi, bahkan akurasi vertikal juga lebih baik dibandingkan data optik. Aplikasi yang penting adalah dalam pemodelan 3D yang meliputi Digital Surface Model (DSM), Digital Elevation Model (DEM), dan Digital Terrain Model (DTM). Pada penelitian ini diperoleh DEM dan DTM InSAR Kota Batam yang diturunkan dari DSM InSAR Kota Batam. Hasil pemodelan 3D ini dapat mendukung untuk aplikasi pemetaan dan berbagai aplikasi lainnyaE
Linkages between New England dolphin stranding frequency and north Atlantic oscillation variability

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a dominant climatic driver that influences hydrographic and ecological parameters at multiple spatial scales and several trophic levels. To date, linkages between NAO variability and dolphin strandings on a regional scale have not been investigated. Stranding records of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus) during 1990–2014 between Maine and New York were correlated against the winter NAO index at several time lags in order to explore the link between stranding variability and NAO. The stranding frequencies of the two species were positively correlated to one another. When analyzed against the winter NAO index, the stranding time-series for both species yielded statistically significant inverse correlations at time lags of one and/or two years. Dolphin strandings were lower during the two years after winters when the NAO was positive and were higher during the two years after a negative NAO. Linear regression modeling confirmed a significant relationship between strandings and winter NAO at both 1and 2-year lags for common dolphins, but not for white-sided dolphins. The hypothesized mechanism underlying the relationship is that NAOlinked hydrographic changes during winter in outer shelf and slope waters affect the abundance and/or availability of prey, leading to changes in the inshoreoffshore distribution patterns of the dolphins. Increased occurrence and foraging closer to shore increases the dolphin’s susceptibility to stranding caused by other localized or short-term factors. This study represents the first attempt at linking NAO variability to dolphin mortality within New England waters.