Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contributory science reveals insights into metal pollution trends across different households and environmental media

Heavy metals are prevalent in urban settings due to many legacy and modern pollution sources, and are essential to quantify because of the adverse health effects associated with them. Of particular importance is lead (Pb), because there is no safe level of exposure, and it especially harms children. Through our partnership with community scientists in the Marion County (Indiana, United States) area (n = 162 households), we measured Pb and other heavy metal concentrations in soil, paint, and dust. Community scientists completed sampling with screening kits and samples were analyzed in the laboratory via x-ray fluorescence by researchers to quantify heavy metal concentrations, with Pb hazards reported back to participants. Results point to renters being significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more likely to contain higher concentrations of Pb, zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) in their soil versus homeowners, irrespective of soil sampling location at the home. Housing age was significantly negatively correlated with Pb and Zn in soil and Pb in dust across all homes. Analysis of paired soil, dust, and paint samples revealed several important relationships such as significant positive correlations between indoor vacuum dust Pb, dust wipe Pb, and outdoor soil Pb. Our collective results point to rental status being an important determinant of metal pollution exposure in Indianapolis, with housing age being reflective of both past and present Zn and Pb pollution at the household scale in dust and soil. Thus, future environmental pollution work examining renters versus homeowners, as well as other household data such as home condition and resident race/ethnicity, is imperative for better understanding environmental disparities surrounding not just Pb, but other heavy metals in environmental media as well.
Discrete stochastic optimization using variants of the stochastic ruler method

We present two random search methods for solving discrete stochastic optimization problems. Both of these methods are variants of the stochastic ruler algorithm. They differ from our earlier modification of the stochastic ruler algorithm in that they use different approaches for estimating the optimal solution. Our new methods are guaranteed to converge almost surely to the set of global optimal solutions under mild conditions. We discuss under what conditions these new methods are expected to converge faster than the modified stochastic ruler algorithm. We also discuss how these methods can be used for solving discrete optimization problems when the values of the objective function are estimated using either transient or steady‐state simulation. Finally, we present numerical results that compare the performance of our new methods with that of the modified stochastic ruler algorithm when applied to solve buffer allocation problems. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.
Oxygen abundances in halo giants. III. Giants in the mildly metal-poor globular cluster M5

We derive abundances of oxygen, sodium, iron-peak, and several traditional «α-elements» for giants in the mildly metal-poor globular cluster M5. The data are obtained from Lick Observatory Hamilton Echelle spectra centered on the [O I] doublet. We derive =−1.17±0.01 from 13 giants with a range of 350 K in effective temperature. There is no evidence for star-to-star variations in [Fe/H] in this cluster. The range of oxygen abundances is similar to that found earlier in M3 and M92. The largest values of [O/Fe] are near +0.35 and the smallest are near −0.25
Low-Mass Star Formation and the Initial Mass Function in IC 348

We have performed deep infrared and optical spectroscopy of virtually the entire stellar population within the 5' × 5' core of IC 348, measuring K (2.2 μm) band and optical spectral types that are in good agreement. We have also identified several sources that may be substellar depending on the choice of temperature scales and evolutionary tracks, with three particularly late-type objects (M7.5-M8) that are likely bonafide brown dwarfs. In conjunction with the theoretical evolutionary tracks of D'Antona & Mazzitelli, the H-R diagram indicates a spread in ages from 0.5 to 10 Myr, with most of the core star formation occurring in the last 3 Myr. Using K-band imaging to provide a completeness correction to the spectroscopic sample, we arrive at an initial mass function (IMF) that matches that of Miller & Scalo from 0.25 to 3 M☉. The IMF appears to fall slowly from 0.25 M☉ to the hydrogen burning limit, slightly below the IMF of Miller & Scalo, which is flat in logarithmic units (as compared to slopes of ~1.35 and -2.6 for Salpeter and Scalo). Correction for unresolved binary systems could steepen the slope of the low-mass IMF by about 0.5, which implies a single-star IMF that is roughly flat below 0.25 M☉. The low-mass IMF in IC 348 is similar to that derived in studies of most other young clusters, implying that the IMF does not vary dramatically among clusters of differing environments; however, the derived IMF is dependent on the evolutionary tracks and the detailed shape of the IMF should be viewed with caution until these models are tested against observations, particularly at low masses (<0.3 M☉) and young ages (<10 Myr). Hα and Brγ emission strengths are consistent with predictions of magnetospheric accretion models of Muzerolle, Calvet, & Hartmann for accretion rates of 10-9-10-8 M☉ yr-1. Combining our data with the Hα measurements of Herbig, we find that ~25% of stars within the core of IC 348 and younger than 3 Myr exhibit signatures of disks in the form of strong Hα (>10 Å) or Brγ (>1 Å) emission or K-band continuum veiling (rK ≥ 0.5). Since no sources older than 3 Myr show evidence for massive disks, disk lifetimes in the core of IC 348 appear to be shorter than those observed in Taurus or in the outer regions of IC 348.
Occurrence of cfr-Positive Linezolid-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus and Non-aureus Staphylococcal Isolates from Pig Farms

The emergence and spread of cfr-mediated resistance to linezolid in staphylococci have become a serious global concern. The acquisition of cfr confers multidrug resistance to phenicols, lincosamides, oxazolidinones, pleuromutilins, and streptogramin A (PhLOPSA phenotype). However, occurrence of cfr-positive and linezolid-susceptible staphylococci has been identified. To investigate the mechanism underlying linezolid susceptibility in cfr-positive Staphylococcus aureus and non-aureus staphylococci (NAS) isolates from pig farms in Korea. Eleven cfr-positive and linezolid-susceptible staphylococci were analyzed for mutations in domain V of 23S rRNA, ribosomal proteins (L3, L4, and L22), cfr open reading frames (ORFs), and cfr promoter regions. The effect of the cfr mutation (Q148K) on the PhLOPSA phenotype was determined using plasmid constructs expressing either the mutated (cfrQ148K) or nonmutated cfr genes. All 11 (six S. aureus and five NAS) cfr-positive and linezolid-susceptible isolates had a point mutation at position 442 in cfr ORFs (C to A) that resulted in the Q148K mutation. No mutations were detected in 23S rRNA, L3, L4, or L22. The Q148K mutation in Cfr is responsible for phenotypes susceptible to PhLOPSA antimicrobial agents. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the causal role of a single nucleotide mutation (Q148K) in cfr of S. aureus and NAS isolates in PhLOPSA resistance. Continued nationwide surveillance is necessary to monitor the occurrence and dissemination of mutations in cfr that affect resistance phenotypes in staphylococci of human and animal origin.
First-principles study of the effect of La substitution on the electronic and optical properties of Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3 crystal

We studied the optical and electronic properties of Pb0.92La0. 08 (Zr0.67Ti0.33)O3 compound (PLZT). Calculations were performed in the framework of density functional theory (DFT), using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method with generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for correlation potential. Optical properties were obtained using Kramers–Kronig transformations in the imaginary dielectric tensor. The result shows that this compound is a direct band gap insulator with an energy gap of about 2.29 eV, which is comparable with the experimental result. It also has a little birefractive character, which has been confirmed by experiment. We also obtained the refraction index in 665 nm as about 2.58, which is in good agreement with its experimental value, i.e. 2.36.
Simplified Radiative Transfer for Combined Rayleigh and Isotropic Scattering

We consider the vector equation of radiative transfer describing the Stokes parameters of light, with a scattering law corresponding to a combination of Rayleigh and isotropic scattering. We show that this vector description can be reduced to a renormalized scalar equation of transfer for the intensity I in the asymptotic limit of either near-thermodynamic equilibrium or that corresponding to a source-free, weakly absorbing system. A simple quadrature result is also obtained for the state of polarization of the light. We apply this analysis to the classic diffuse reflection problem, and numerical results indicate an improvement in accuracy over the usual scalar equations of transfer predictions for this scattering law. As part of our solution methodology for the diffuse reflection problem, we introduce a new analytic technique based upon the source function in the equation of transfer.
Magnetization Loss Measurement of Twisted Stacked Tape Cable and Comparison With CORC

High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cables for large current capacity are being studied in several forms for power device applications. Currently, the cables are being developed for DC applications rather than AC applications. However, if a technology for reducing AC loss is developed, it will be possible to apply HTS cables to various AC devices. Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable (TSTC) is one of the large current HTS cables. It is made by stacking and twisting multiple HTS tapes for large current capacity. The HTS tapes in TSTC should be twisted for the uniformity of current distribution in each tape. Since the HTS tape has a wide thin film shape, it is very difficult to twist itself. In this paper, we measured the magnetization losses of TSTC samples without the striations under AC magnetic fields that had peak values below 0.1 T. Several molds for the TSTC samples were made by using a 3D printer. TSTC samples had several numbers of stacked tapes and two kinds of the tape width. The magnetization losses of the samples in the molds were measured under uniform AC magnetic fields. The experimental results were compared to those of the straight HTS stacked cables and conductor on round core (CORC) cables.
A discussion on ocean currents and their dynamics - The thermocline problem

The main, oceanic thermocline, the layer of strong vertical temperature and salinity gradients in the ocean, and the region below this, where the water asymptotically approaches the deep-sea state, is still far from explained. There have appeared a series of theoretical studies of this phenomenon in recent years, starting with a linearized model by P. S. Lineykin and later concentrating on the nonlinear problem retaining the important nonlinear density advection. A summary of the work up to 1969 has been given by Veronis (1969). It must be admitted that we are still uncertain even about the basic mechanism of the main thermocline. There appears to be several reasons for such an uncertainty. First, we have few direct measurements of horizontal velocities, and none of vertical velocity and vertical turbulent diffusion of heat and salt in the thermocline. The vertical velocities are so small, of order lO-5 cm/s that no known instrument can feel them.
Linearized chord diagrams and an upper bound for vassiliev invariants

Recently, Stoimenow [J. Knot Th. Ram. 7 (1998), 93–114] gave an upper bound on the dimension dn of the space of order n Vassiliev knot invariants, by considering chord diagrams of a certain type. We present a simpler argument which gives a better bound on the number of these chord diagrams, and hence on dn.
Modelling flood awareness in floodplain dynamics

ABSTRACT Societal awareness is a crucial factor driving floodplain dynamics. When modelling these dynamics, flood awareness decay is considered constant. However, empirical studies have shown that the intensity of an experienced event can influence awareness decay. Here we explore and model the influence of variable flood awareness decay on flood losses for two types of societies that cope with flooding by adopting structural (techno society) or nonstructural (green society) protection measures. We modified an established socio-hydrological model and performed three synthetic experiments with multiple scenarios of flood awareness decay, flood intensity, and frequency. We found that, when modelling techno societies, assuming a constant awareness decay leads to underestimating societal flood awareness after severe flood events. In contrast, overestimation of flood awareness occurs when using constant awareness decay for green societies. This might lead to overestimating the effects of human–flood dynamics, such as the levee effect and adaptation effects.
Nucleus tractus solitarii is required for the development and maintenance of phrenic and sympathetic long-term facilitation after acute intermittent hypoxia

Exposure to acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) induces prolonged increases (long term facilitation, LTF) in phrenic and sympathetic nerve activity (PhrNA, SNA) under basal conditions, and enhanced respiratory and sympathetic responses to hypoxia. The mechanisms and neurocircuitry involved are not fully defined. We tested the hypothesis that the nucleus tractus solitarii (nTS) is vital to augmentation of hypoxic responses and the initiation and maintenance of elevated phrenic (p) and splanchnic sympathetic (s) LTF following AIH. nTS neuronal activity was inhibited by nanoinjection of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol before AIH exposure or after development of AIH-induced LTF. AIH but not sustained hypoxia induced pLTF and sLTF with maintained respiratory modulation of SSNA. nTS muscimol before AIH increased baseline SSNA with minor effects on PhrNA. nTS inhibition also markedly blunted hypoxic PhrNA and SSNA responses, and prevented altered sympathorespiratory coupling during hypoxia. Inhibiting nTS neuronal activity before AIH exposure also prevented the development of pLTF during AIH and the elevated SSNA after muscimol did not increase further during or following AIH exposure. Furthermore, nTS neuronal inhibition after the development of AIH-induced LTF substantially reversed but did not eliminate the facilitation of PhrNA. Together these findings demonstrate that mechanisms within the nTS are critical for initiation of pLTF during AIH. Moreover, ongoing nTS neuronal activity is required for full expression of sustained elevations in PhrNA following exposure to AIH although other regions likely also are important. Together, the data indicate that AIH-induced alterations within the nTS contribute to both the development and maintenance of pLTF.
Morphological Segmentation Based Fuzzy Features for Retrieval of Brain MRI

Abstract Retrieval of domain-specific images is an important research area. Morphological skull stripping and segmentation is proposed for highlighting and extraction of the region-based features of human brain T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images. Further, fuzzy representation of these features and its use in retrieval of brain MR imaging (MRI) is demonstrated in this paper. Unified Fuzzy Matching technique is used to assess the image-to-image similarity of MRI. Segmentation results show a marked improvement in the quality of segmentation as compared to fuzzy c-means clustering method and it is confirmed with manual segmentation. Further, the use of features obtained with this technique in retrieval has also been found to give better retrieval results in terms of precision, average rank and mean standard deviation. Such brain MRI retrieval system is useful tool to assist doctors in diagnosis by quickly searching similar cases in this domain.
An alternative approach for calculation/measurement of fundamental powers based on wavelet packet transform

In order to calculate/measure the fundamental harmonic power values, the wavelet transform based methods have been proposed in the literature. However, the fundamental harmonic of voltage and cur-rent signals cannot be decomposed into real and imaginary components in any of these methods based on only wavelet packet transform. It is required to decompose voltage and current signals with harmonics to real and imaginary components in a power system for power quality and control. In this study real and imaginary components are obtained by using the wavelet packet transform. Furthermore, the fundamental active-reactive-apparent powers are determined with two different methods and accurateness of the proposed methods is demonstrated via simulations.
Rovibrational relaxation in collisions between molecules: I. Transitions induced by ground state para-

We present the results of quantal calculations of cross sections and rate coefficients for rovibrational transitions in ortho- and para-, induced by collisions with ground state para-. Rovibrational levels up to were included in the calculations, and rate coefficients are available for temperatures . Comparison is made with previous calculations and with measurements of the rate coefficient for vibrational relaxation . Agreement is found to be good at both high and low temperatures, but the measurements exceed the calculations at intermediate temperatures. Large discrepancies are found with previous calculations, which employed a semiclassical method.
Inhibitors against Two PDZ Domains of MDA-9 Suppressed Migration of Breast Cancer Cells

Melanoma differentiation-associated gene 9 (MDA-9) is a small adaptor protein with tandem PDZ domains that promotes tumor progression and metastasis in various human cancers. However, it is difficult to develop drug-like small molecules with high affinity due to the narrow groove of the PDZ domains of MDA-9. Herein, we identified four novel hits targeting the PDZ1 and PDZ2 domains of MDA-9, namely PI1A, PI1B, PI2A, and PI2B, using a protein-observed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) fragment screening method. We also solved the crystal structure of the MDA-9 PDZ1 domain in complex with PI1B and characterized the binding poses of PDZ1-PI1A and PDZ2-PI2A, guided by transferred paramagnetic relaxation enhancement. The protein–ligand interaction modes were then cross-validated by the mutagenesis of the MDA-9 PDZ domains. Competitive fluorescence polarization experiments demonstrated that PI1A and PI2A blocked the binding of natural substrates to the PDZ1 and PDZ2 domains, respectively. Furthermore, these inhibitors exhibited low cellular toxicity, but suppressed the migration of MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cells, which recapitulated the phenotype of MDA-9 knockdown. Our work has paved the way for the development of potent inhibitors using structure-guided fragment ligation in the future.
Numerical computation of the dynamic behavior of magnetic material considering magnetic diffusion and hysteresis

The numerical solution of the diffusion equation in an electrical steel sheet cross section is studied with a time-dependent surface applied field. The study implements a local hysteresis magnetic law. The solutions are compared to both the classical nonlinear anhysteretic resolution and the experiment. The effect of taking into account an hysteretic magnetic law in numerical simulation is studied with different excitation frequencies.
Comprehensive Analysis of Mitochondrial Dynamics Alterations in Heart Diseases

The most common alterations affecting mitochondria, and associated with cardiac pathological conditions, implicate a long list of defects. They include impairments of the mitochondrial electron transport chain activity, which is a crucial element for energy formation, and that determines the depletion of ATP generation and supply to metabolic switches, enhanced ROS generation, inflammation, as well as the dysregulation of the intracellular calcium homeostasis. All these signatures significantly concur in the impairment of cardiac electrical characteristics, loss of myocyte contractility and cardiomyocyte damage found in cardiac diseases. Mitochondrial dynamics, one of the quality control mechanisms at the basis of mitochondrial fitness, also result in being dysregulated, but the use of this knowledge for translational and therapeutic purposes is still in its infancy. In this review we tried to understand why this is, by summarizing methods, current opinions and molecular details underlying mitochondrial dynamics in cardiac diseases.
Progress update on cryogenic system for ARIEL E-linac at TRIUMF

TRIUMF is involved in a major upgrade. The Advanced Rare IsotopeE Laboratory (ARIEL) has become a fully funded project in July 2010. A 10 mA 50 MeV SRF electron linac (e-linac) operating CW at 1.3 GHz is the key component of this initiative. This machine will serve as a second independent photo-fission driver for Rare Isotope Beams (RIB) production at TRIUMF's Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC) facility. The cryogens delivery system requirements are driven by the electron accelerator cryomodule design [1, 2]. Since commencement of the project in 2010 the cryogenic system of e-linac has moved from the conceptual design phase into engineering design and procurement stage. The present document summarizes the progress in cryogenic system development and construction. Current status of e-linac cryogenic system including details of LN{sub 2} storage and delivery systems, and helium subatmospheric (SA) system is presented. The first phase of e-linac consisting of two cryomodules, cryogens storage, delivery, and distribution systems, and a 600 W class liquid helium cryoplant is scheduled for installation and commissioning by year 2014.
Generalized electron Bernstein modes in a plasma with a kappa velocity distribution

Perpendicularly propagating electron Bernstein modes in a uniformly magnetized plasma having an isotropic kappa velocity distribution are investigated within the framework of a fully electromagnetic plasma model but one which ignores particle relativistic effects. The dispersion relations for the Bernstein mode waves are found to be significantly dependent on the spectral index, κ, of the electron kappa distribution. In particular, waves with frequencies exceeding the upper hybrid frequency are seen to occupy a diminishing range of frequencies above the nearest cyclotron harmonic as κ is reduced. The Bernstein mode wave whose frequency lies closest to the upper hybrid frequency is found to couple to the cold plasma, electromagnetic Z mode, as it does in a Maxwellian plasma. For waves whose frequencies lie below the upper hybrid frequency, diminishing κ gives rise to an increasingly weak dependence of frequency on wave number and a slower frequency fall off with this parameter, but the frequency occupies t.