Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the relationship between spatial pattern and spectral detectability of areas burned in southern Africa using satellite data

Fires in Africa affect atmospheric emissions and carbon sequestration, landscape patterns, and regional and global climatic conditions. Studies of these effects require accurate estimation of the extent of measurable fire events. The goal of this study was to assess the influence of burned area spatial patterns on the spectral detectability of burned areas. Six Landsat‐7 ETM+ images from the southern Africa were used for burned area mapping and spatial pattern analysis, while contemporaneous MODIS 500 m spatial resolution images were used to measure the spectral detectability of burned areas. Using a 15 by 15 km sample quadrats analysis, we showed that above a burned area proportion threshold of approximately 0.5 the spectral detectability of burned areas increase due to the decrease in the number of mixed pixels. This was spatially related to the coalescence of burned patches and the decrease in the total burned area perimeter. Simple burned area shapes were found at the Botswana site, where the absence of tree cover and the presence of bright surfaces (soil and dry grass) enhanced the spectral contrast of the burned surfaces, thus enabling better estimates of burned area extent. At the Zambia and Congo sites, landscape fragmentation due to human activity and the presence of a tree vegetation layer, respectively, contribute to the presence of small burned area patches, which may remain undetectable using moderate spatial resolution satellite imagery, leading to less accurate burned area extent estimates.
Biological Complexities in Radiation Carcinogenesis and Cancer Radiotherapy: Impact of New Biological Paradigms

Although radiation carcinogenesis has been shown both experimentally and epidemiologically, the use of ionizing radiation is also one of the major modalities in cancer treatment. Various known cellular and molecular events are involved in carcinogenesis. Apart from the known phenomena, there could be implications for carcinogenesis and cancer prevention due to other biological processes such as the bystander effect, the abscopal effect, intrinsic radiosensitivity and radioadaptation. Bystander effects have consequences for mutation initiated cancer paradigms of radiation carcinogenesis, which provide the mechanistic justification for low-dose risk estimates. The abscopal effect is potentially important for tumor control and is mediated through cytokines and/or the immune system (mainly cell-mediated immunity). It results from loss of growth and stimulatory and/or immunosuppressive factors from the tumor. Intrinsic radiosensitivity is a feature of some cancer prone chromosomal breakage syndromes such as ataxia telangectiasia. Radiosensitivity is manifested as higher chromosomal aberrations and DNA repair impairment is now known as a good biomarker for breast cancer screening and prediction of prognosis. However, it is not yet known whether this effect is good or bad for those receiving radiation or radiomimetic agents for treatment. Radiation hormesis is another major concern for carcinogenesis. This process which protects cells from higher doses of radiation or radio mimic chemicals, may lead to the escape of cells from mitotic death or apoptosis and put cells with a lower amount of damage into the process of cancer induction. Therefore, any of these biological phenomena could have impact on another process giving rise to genome instability of cells which are not in the field of radiation but still receiving a lower amount of radiation. For prevention of radiation induced carcinogenesis or risk assessment as well as for successful radiation therapy, all these phenomena should be taken into account.
ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN THE SUBARCTIC PACIFIC: IRON LIMITATION CANNOT BE THE WHOLE STORY

STRETCHING ACROSS the Pacific between 45°N and the coast of Alaska (Fig. 1) is an oceanic region referred to as subarctic. It is part of a broader oceanic region in which major phytoplankton nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, and silicate) apparently are never depleted from the surface layer. Persistently high nutrient concentrations are found along the entire eastern edge of the Pacific with westward extensions in the subarctic and along the equator and with eastward extensions through Drake Passage and then around the globe south of 35°S (Reid, 1962). Ecological relationships vary dramatically along this nutrient-replete belt, and assembly of a complete comparative ecology for all of its distinctive parts has only begun. Martin (1990; 1991, this issue) has opened a new chapter in this analysis by suggesting that limited availability of soluble iron may be a common factor preventing major nutrient depletion throughout the nutrient-replete belt. The initial observations leading to this suggestion (Martin and Fitzwater, 1988; Martin et al., 1989) were made in the subarctic Pacific, which immediately stimulated our interest as workers in the subarctic Pacific Ecosystem Research (SUPER) Program. Although the testing of Martin's hypothesis is still in an early phase (Banse, 1990; Martin et al., 1990), it is an attractive idea. It is one of several candidate explanations for the dominance of subarctic Pacific phytoplankton by cells of very small size. Given a flora composed of small cells, most other observations on subarctic Pacific ecology fit into a sensible, logical scheme. Perhaps similar schemes can be found for other sectors of the highnutrient belt. Iron limitation, if it proves impor-
Cinética de remoção de lactato em atletas de Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Lactate removal kinetics on brazilian jiu-jitsu athletes We aimed with the present study, to observe the capacity of lactate production, and its kinetics of removal from muscle to blood, and from blood to other tissues after completion specific efforts of the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ). We hypothesize to find high concentrations of blood lactate ([Lac]) after the fights, but until 10 minutes after observed significant decrease in [Lac]. Seven male athletes of BJJ (age = 30.4 ± 4.6 years, body mass = 85.4 ± 6.5 kg, height = 1.8 ± 0.1 m; years of practice = 5.1 ± 1.7) underwent a BJJ fight of 7 minutes length. The kinetics of lactate removal was assessed on 6 moments: immediately after the fight (0), and 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes after the end of them. The data normality of data was determined by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and analysis of difference between the means were compared using ANOVA, with significant reference value of P <0.05. We observed significant differences between collections relating to 15 and 20 to 0 (p <0.01). Our hypothesis to found a high [Lac] after exercise was confirmed. We observed [Lac] of 14.2 ± 5.9, illustrating a large contribution of the glycolytic pathway for this sport. However, the ability to remove the group showed significant decreases only 15 minutes after the end of the activity, despite some individual athletes tended to remove quickly. Observed that the [Lac] in the analyzed group were reduced significantly only at 15 compared to 0, and 20 compared to 0. Individually, it was in well-differentiated athletes for this kinetics, indicating that the ability to remove [Lac] may be subject to large intersubject individuality.
A Novel and Critical Role for Tyrosine 663 in Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Trafficking and Transendothelial Migration 1

PECAM-1/CD31 is required for leukocyte transendothelial migration (TEM) under most inflammatory conditions. A critical pool of PECAM-1 resides in the lateral border recycling compartment (LBRC). During TEM, membrane from the LBRC is redirected to surround the leukocyte, and this targeted recycling per se is required for TEM. The cytoplasmic domain of PECAM-1 contains two tyrosine residues that have been implicated in PECAM-1 signaling in other cells but never examined in the context of TEM. We found that expression of PECAM-1 imparts on cells the ability to support TEM and that tyrosine 663 (but not tyrosine 686) is required. Furthermore, tyrosine 663 is required for PECAM-1 to efficiently enter and exit the LBRC. Most important, mutation of tyrosine 663 abolishes the ability of the endothelial cells to support targeted recycling of the LBRC. These data define a novel role for tyrosine 663 and suggest that it is part of a recognition motif for trafficking to and/or from the LBRC.
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications Visualizing Interdomain Routing with Bgplay

In this paper we describe the architecture and the visual interface of BGPlay, an on-line service for the visualization of the behavior and of the instabilities of Internet routing at the autonomous system level. A graph showing only the connections among autonomous systems is not enough to convey all the information needed to fully understand routing and its changes. BGPlay uses specifically tailored techniques and algorithms to display the state of routing at specific points in time and to animate its changes. The system obtains routing data from well known on-line archives of routing information which are constantly kept up-to-date.
Intramolecular interactions regulate SAP97 binding to GKAP

Membrane‐associated guanylate kinase homologs (MAGUKs) are multidomain proteins found to be central organizers of cellular junctions. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanisms that regulate the interaction of the MAGUK SAP97 with its GUK domain binding partner GKAP (GUK‐associated protein). The GKAP–GUK interaction is regulated by a series of intramolecular interactions. Specifically, the association of the Src homology 3 (SH3) domain and sequences situated between the SH3 and GUK domains with the GUK domain was found to interfere with GKAP binding. In contrast, N‐terminal sequences that precede the first PDZ domain in SAP97, facilitated GKAP binding via its association with the SH3 domain. Utilizing crystal structure data available for PDZ, SH3 and GUK domains, molecular models of SAP97 were generated. These models revealed that SAP97 can exist in a compact U‐shaped conformation in which the N‐terminal domain folds back and interacts with the SH3 and GUK domains. These models support the biochemical data and provide new insights into how intramolecular interactions may regulate the association of SAP97 with its binding partners.
Vision-based map building and trajectory planning to enable autonomous flight through urban environments

of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy VISION-BASED MAP BUILDING AND TRAJECTORY PLANNING TO ENABLE AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT THROUGH URBAN ENVIRONMENTS By Adam S. Watkins August 2007 Chair: Richard C. Lind, Jr. Major: Mechanical Engineering The desire to use Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) in a variety of complex missions has motivated the need to increase the autonomous capabilities of these vehicles. This research presents autonomous vision-based mapping and trajectory planning strategies for a UAV navigating in an unknown urban environment. It is assumed that the vehicle’s inertial position is unknown because GPS in unavailable due to environmental occlusions or jamming by hostile military assets. Therefore, the environment map is constructed from noisy sensor measurements taken at uncertain vehicle locations. Under these restrictions, map construction becomes a state estimation task known as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem. Solutions to the SLAM problem endeavor to estimate the state of a vehicle relative to concurrently estimated environmental landmark locations. The presented work focuses specifically on SLAM for aircraft, denoted as airborne SLAM, where the vehicle is capable of six degree of freedom motion characterized by highly nonlinear equations of motion. The airborne SLAM problem is solved with a variety of filters based on the Rao-Blackwellized particle filter. Additionally, the environment is represented as a set of geometric primitives that are fit to the three-dimensional points reconstructed from gathered onboard imagery.
When AES blinks: introducing optical side channel

The authors present a short note describing the newly emerging optical side channel. The basic idea of the channel is very simple – many parts of the integrated circuits consist of transistors that represent one of the two logical states 0 or 1. When the state changes, there is some light that is emitted in the form of a few photons. A device employing the method which is able to detect these photons (called picosecond imaging circuit analysis) is available in several laboratories, for example, in the French space agency CNES. From the point of view of the cryptanalyst, once the optical side channel information is available for a specific cipher on a device, it is possible to identify deep inner states that should not be revealed. In fact, it turns out that for an outdated and unprotected 0.8 µm PIC16F84A microcontroller it is possible to recover the AES secret key directly during the initial AddRoundKey operation as the side channel can distinguish the individual key bits being XORed to the plaintext.
The Role of ERK5 in T‐Cell Signalling

The mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) ERK5 plays an important role in mammary epithelial proliferation, endothelial cell survival and normal embryonic development. In nonhaematopoietic cells, mitogenic and stress signals activate the ERK5 cascade. Here, we investigated the role of the ERK5 pathway in T‐cell activation and show that primary and leukaemic T cells express ERK5, whose activating phosphorylation is induced by antibodies against CD3 but not by phorbol myristate acetate treatment. ERK5 localized in the cytosol and nucleus in quiescent and activated T cells. In the latter, ERK5 phosphorylation was mainly observed in the nucleus. Selective activation of the ERK5 cascade by transfecting constitutively active MEK5 and wildtype ERK5 induced a reporter gene driven by the IL‐2 promoter while barely affecting CD69 expression. These results suggest a new role for the ERK5 cascade in intracellular signalling in T cells.
Random Projections for $k$-means Clustering

This paper discusses the topic of dimensionality reduction for k-means clustering. We prove that any set of n points in d dimensions (rows in a matrix A ∈ ℝn x d) can be projected into t = Ω(k/e2) dimensions, for any e ∈ (0, 1/3), in O(nd[e-2k/ log(d)]) time, such that with constant probability the optimal k-partition of the point set is preserved within a factor of 2 + e. The projection is done by post-multiplying A with a d x t random matrix R having entries + 1/√t or -1/√t with equal probability. A numerical implementation of our technique and experiments on a large face images dataset verify the speed and the accuracy of our theoretical results.
DECADAL VARIATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE CIRCULATION

A data set of monthly mean surface and sea-level pressure observations from a number of stations in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) for the period since 1901 has been used to investigate interannual and interdecadal variations of the SH circulation. A fairly uniform network of 62 stations was selected with data for the period 1955–1985, with a reduced network of 35 stations having data for the longer period 1901–1985. The sparse network has stations mainly on the SH tropical and mid-latitude land masses, with few islands or high-latitude stations. A rotated principal component analysis of the annual mean station pressure anomalies has been used to describe the dominant modes of interannual and interdecadal variations of the SH circulation that can be resolved with the available station network. We show that the sparse station network is able to capture the dominant modes of variability found in the period 1955–1985 using the denser network. The leading mode is associated with the El Nino–Southern Oscillation and is well resolved by the sparse network. This is the leading mode for interannual and interdecadal variations throughout the last century, but there are periods when it has reduced variance and a somewhat different structure, notably 1916–1935. Other modes of interannual variations show marked changes in importance on decadal or longer time-scales.
Virulence of Entomopathogenic Fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus for the Microbial Control of Spodoptera exigua

Abstract The beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is difficult to control using chemical insecticides because of the development of insecticide resistance. Several pest control agents are used to control the beet armyworm. Entomopathogenic fungi are one of the candidates for eco-friendly pest control instead of chemical control agents. In this study, among various entomopathogenic fungal strains isolated from soil two isolates were selected as high virulence pathogens against larva of beet armyworm. Control efficacy of fungal conidia was influenced by conidia concentration, temperature, and relative humidity (RH). The isolates Metarhizium anisopliae FT83 showed 100% cumulative mortality against second instar larvae of S. exigua 3 days after treatment at 1 × 107 conidia/mL and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus FG340 caused 100% mortality 6 days after treatment at 1 × 104 conidia/mL. Both M. anisopliae FT83 and P. fumosoroseus FG340 effectively controlled the moth at 20~30°C. M. anisopliae FT83 was significantly affected mortality by RH: mortality was 86.7% at 85% RH and 13.4% at 45% RH. P. fumosoroseus FG340 showed high mortality as 90% at 45% RH and 100% at 75% RH 6 days after conidia treatments. These results suggest that P. fumosoroseus FG340 and M. anisopliae FT83 have high potential to develop as a biocontrol agent against the beet armyworm.
A novel highly reproducible quantitative competitve RT PCR system.

Small changes in plasma fibrinogen concentration are often clinically important. To detect changes in fibrinogen mRNA level, we have designed a novel quantitative competitive reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR system, based on our recent understanding that an important factor causing imprecision with RT PCR is a change in the initial ratio of target to standard RNA templates during reverse transcription. The system comprises: (1) titration of a fixed amount of standard RNA with four different amounts of total RNA in each tube during cDNA synthesis; (2) amplification of each of the four cDNAs with four consecutive PCR cycles; and (3) quality control reactions in which synthesised quality control RNA (rather than total RNA) is added to the standard RNA under the same RT PCR conditions as the assay reaction. To obtain reproducible data, we suggest three criteria for analysis of RT PCR results. Employing these criteria, reproducibility of RT PCR was markedly improved with an inter-assay CV of 6.5% (n=5). Using this system, we are able to detect reduction in mRNA levels of all fibrinogen genes caused by dietary protein restriction in rats after weaning (alpha 39%, p= 0. 028; beta 55%, p = 0.017; gamma 35 %, p= 0.038), with a parallel reduction of plasma fibrinogen concentration (mean (+/-SD), 157(+/-19) versus 130(+/-14) mg/dl, p=0.006).
Comparative analysis of the microbial communities in raw milk produced in different regions of Korea

Objective The control of psychrotrophic bacteria causing milk spoilage and illness due to toxic compounds is an important issue in the dairy industry. In South Korea, Gangwon-do province is one of the coldest terrains in which eighty percent of the area is mountainous regions, and mainly plays an important role in the agriculture and dairy industries. The purposes of this study were to analyze the indigenous microbiota of raw milk in Gangwon-do and accurately investigate a putative microbial group causing deterioration in milk quality. Methods We collected raw milk from the bulk tank of 18 dairy farms in the Hoengseong and Pyeongchang regions of Gangwon-do. Milk components were analyzed and the number of viable bacteria was confirmed. The V3 and V4 regions of 16S rRNA gene were amplified and sequenced on an Illumina Miseq platform. Sequences were then assigned to operational taxonomic units, followed by the selection of representative sequences using the QIIME software package. Results The milk samples from Pyeongchang were higher in fat, protein, lactose, total solid, and solid non-fat, and bacterial cell counts were observed only for the Hoengseong samples. The phylum Proteobacteria was detected most frequently in both the Hoengseong and Pyeongchang samples, followed by the phyla Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Notably, Corynebacterium, Pediococcus, Macrococcus, and Acinetobacter were significantly different from two regions. Conclusion Although the predominant phylum in raw milk is same, the abundances of major genera in milk samples were different between Hoengseong and Pyeongchang. We assumed that these differences are caused by regional dissimilar farming environments such as soil, forage, and dairy farming equipment so that the quality of milk raw milk from Pyeongchang is higher than that of Hoengseong. These results could provide the crucial information for identifying the microbiota in raw milk of South Korea.
Removal of heavy metal ions from wastewaters using natural clays

Abstract A bentonite sample from the Petreşti deposit, Cluj County (Romania), was used to remove heavy-metal ions (Cd2+, Pb2+, Cr3+) from wastewaters. A representative sample of bentonite (P) was characterized using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, wet chemical analyses, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The bentonite deposit from Petrești is present at the contact between Upper Jurassic limestones and basaltic andesites with subordinate basalt bodies. These rocks are composed of clay minerals (mainly smectite), with opal, quartz, feldspar and mica/illite as minor phases. The bentonite sample was used in powdered form (d < 0.2 mm) without any chemical treatment. The influence of the working regime, static and dynamic, on the process efficiency was studied using monocomponent synthetic wastewaters containing Cd, Pb and Cr ions. The bentonite sample proved to be efficient for the removal of these heavy-metal ions; removal efficiencies up to 100% (lead removal) were achieved.
Optimal camera selection for target localization in camera sensor networks

In this paper, we address the problem of localization-oriented optimal cameras selection based upon a tradeoff between the accuracy of target localization and the energy consumption in camera sensor networks. We model the addressed problem into the combined optimization problem of selecting a sequence of sets to minimize the cost while achieving a specified utility. Using the vision-based localization model, we construct an entropy-based utility function. This utility function quantizes reduction in the entropy of the target location distribution according to the fusion of the selected camera observations with the prior target location distribution. Furthermore, we design an algorithm to find the optimal subset of cameras based on the criteria: minimizing the cost while attaining a specified accuracy of localization. We conduct experiments to validate and evaluate our proposed scheme.