Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mass balance of organic carbon fractions in atmospheric aerosols

[1] Total suspended particulate matter was collected in two Portuguese urban areas (Lisbon and Aveiro) and in a Finnish forested site. Samples were sequentially extracted with dichloromethane and water. The solvent extract was separated by flash chromatography into aliphatics, aromatics, carbonyls, alcohols, and an acidic fraction, and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. An organic/black carbon analyzer was used to evaluate the carbonaceous matter in filters, the water-soluble fraction, solvent extractable material, and the content of different organic classes. Results showed that the common simple extraction with dichloromethane is able to dissolve less than 50% of the particulate organic material. The successive extraction with water removes an important quantity of the leftover organic polar compounds. The sum of both extractions recovers between 70% and 90% of the organic carbon present. The amount of oxygenated compounds is frequently more than 70% of the extracted material, with a large predominance of organic acids and alcohols, especially for particles with diameters less than 0.49 μm. The organic compounds identified in the extractable atmospheric particulate matter are represented by primary compounds with both anthropogenic and biogenic origin, which mainly derive from vegetation waxes and from petrogenic sources. Secondary products resulting from the oxidation of volatile organic compounds were also detected. The water-soluble fraction contains essentially oxocarboxylic and dicarboxylic acids, and cellulosic constituents. In accordance with the anthropogenic characteristics of the sampling sites, nonpolar fractions constitute up to 24% of the extracted organic carbon in Lisbon and present high levels of petroleum markers, while in the forested station these compounds represent 8%. The oxygenated organic compounds account for 76–92% of the extracted carbon in samples from Aveiro and Finland. Owing to favorable photochemical conditions during the sampling campaign, secondary organic constituents present higher levels in Aveiro. The forested site is the one where the water-soluble components show greater variability and concentrations.
Staphylococcus aureus MnhF Mediates Cholate Efflux and Facilitates Survival under Human Colonic Conditions

ABSTRACT Resistance to the innate defenses of the intestine is crucial for the survival and carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, a common colonizer of the human gut. Bile salts produced by the liver and secreted into the intestines are one such group of molecules with potent antimicrobial activity. The mechanisms by which S. aureus is able to resist such defenses in order to colonize and survive in the human gut are unknown. Here we show that mnhF confers resistance to bile salts, which can be abrogated by efflux pump inhibitors. MnhF mediates the efflux of radiolabeled cholic acid both in S. aureus and when heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, rendering them resistant. Deletion of mnhF attenuated the survival of S. aureus in an anaerobic three-stage continuous-culture model of the human colon (gut model), which represents different anatomical areas of the large intestine.
NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT THROUGH ORGANICS IN SUMMER MUNGBEAN (Vigna radiata L. Wilczk)

A field investigation was carried out to study the “Nutrient management through organics in summer mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczk)” on sandy loam soil at Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The main plot comprised of three organic manures and subplots were of six liquid organic manures spray with eighteen treatment combinations. Application of enriched compost (1/3) + vermicompost (1/3) + gliricidia green leaf manure (1/3) equivalent to recommended dose of phosphorus (RDP) with 5 t FYM (M2) recorded significantly higher mungbean yield (1368 kg/ha) which was 8.5 per cent higher over application of enriched compost + vermicompost + gliricidia green leaf manure equivalent to RDP alone (1258 kg/ha) (M1) and on par with RDF + FYM (1301 kg/ha). Growth and yield components of mungbean followed the similar trend as that of yield. Among liquid organic manures treatments, foliar application of panchagvaya @ 5% at flowering and 15 days after flowering recorded significantly higher mungbean yield (1430 kg/ha) as compared to water spray treatment (1147 kg/ha) but it was on par with the vemiwash spray @ 10% (1383 kg/ha). Soil available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium increased significantly with the application of organic manures as compared to application of recommended dose of chemical fertilizers + FYM. Application of organic manures and liquid organic manures significantly increased the nodule number per plant as compared to RDF + FYM. Significantly higher net returns (Rs.45,437/ha) and B: C ratio (2.99) was recorded with the application of recommended chemical fertilizers + 5 t FYM per ha treatment as compared to application of enriched compost + vermicompost + gliricidia green leaf manure + FYM (Rs.40,536/ha and 2.30 respectively).
Science-driven system architecture: A new process for leadership class computing

Over the past several years, computational scientists have observed a frustrating trend of stagnating application performance despite dramatic increases in peak performance of high performance computers. In 2002, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and IBM pro- posed a new process to reverse this situation (1). This strategy is based on new types of development partner- ships with computer vendors based on the concept of science-driven computer system design. This strategy will engage applications scientists well before an architecture is available for commercialization. The process is already producing results, and has further potential for dramatically improving system efficiency. This paper documents the progress to date and the potential for future benefits. An example of this process is dis- cussed, using IBM Power architecture with a computer architecture design that can lead to a sustained per- formance of 50 to 100 Tflop/s on a broad spectrum of applications in 2006 for a reasonable cost. This partner- ship will establish a collaborative approach to modifying computer architecture to enable heretofore unreal- ized achievements in computer capability-limited fields such as nanoscience, combustion modeling, fusion, climate modeling, and astrophysics.
Long-term SLOs for reclaimed cloud computing resources

The elasticity promised by cloud computing does not come for free. Providers need to reserve resources to allow users to scale on demand, and cope with workload variations, which results in low utilization. The current response to this low utilization is to re-sell unused resources with no Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for availability. In this paper, we show how to make some of these reclaimable resources more valuable by providing strong, long-term availability SLOs for them. These SLOs are based on forecasts of how many resources will remain unused during multi-month periods, so users can do capacity planning for their long-running services. By using confidence levels for the predictions, we give service providers control over the risk of violating the availability SLOs, and allow them trade increased risk for more resources to make available. We evaluated our approach using 45 months of workload data from 6 production clusters at Google, and show that 6--17% of the resources can be re-offered with a long-term availability of 98.9% or better. A conservative analysis shows that doing so may increase the profitability of selling reclaimed resources by 22--60%.
Implementing immune-based algorithm for bandwidth spectrum allocation in wireless communication

Having an effective technique for bandwidth allocation is very important in wireless communications. Artificial Immune Systems, a relatively new meta-heuristic for solving optimization-related problems, is investigated in this study to design a cellular channel allocation framework. In this study, mobile hosts are allowed to continue interacting with the cells that they are currently in, even when the number of channel is insufficient. When the number of mobile hosts increases, it is almost impossible to foresee future channel demands in a wireless network. Often cellular networks are faced with insufficient channels in cells, whilst other cells have more channels available than they need. Our model works by allocating the unused channels from the cells with less demand to the overloaded cells. The model demonstrates that it manages to re-use the available free-conflict channels efficiently. Comparisons with other existing method (i.e. genetic algorithm) were conducted to evaluate the performance of our model.
Can Oxygen Set Thermal Limits in an Insect and Drive Gigantism?

Background Thermal limits may arise through a mismatch between oxygen supply and demand in a range of animal taxa. Whilst this oxygen limitation hypothesis is supported by data from a range of marine fish and invertebrates, its generality remains contentious. In particular, it is unclear whether oxygen limitation determines thermal extremes in tracheated arthropods, where oxygen limitation may be unlikely due to the efficiency and plasticity of tracheal systems in supplying oxygen directly to metabolically active tissues. Although terrestrial taxa with open tracheal systems may not be prone to oxygen limitation, species may be affected during other life-history stages, particularly if these rely on diffusion into closed tracheal systems. Furthermore, a central role for oxygen limitation in insects is envisaged within a parallel line of research focussing on insect gigantism in the late Palaeozoic. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we examine thermal maxima in the aquatic life stages of an insect at normoxia, hypoxia (14 kPa) and hyperoxia (36 kPa). We demonstrate that upper thermal limits do indeed respond to external oxygen supply in the aquatic life stages of the stonefly Dinocras cephalotes, suggesting that the critical thermal limits of such aquatic larvae are set by oxygen limitation. This could result from impeded oxygen delivery, or limited oxygen regulatory capacity, both of which have implications for our understanding of the limits to insect body size and how these are influenced by atmospheric oxygen levels. Conclusions/Significance These findings extend the generality of the hypothesis of oxygen limitation of thermal tolerance, suggest that oxygen constraints on body size may be stronger in aquatic environments, and that oxygen toxicity may have actively selected for gigantism in the aquatic stages of Carboniferous arthropods.
Trends in use of complementary and alternative medicine by US adults: 1997-2002.

CONTEXT Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by US adults increased substantially between 1990 and 1997, yet little is known about more recent trends. OBJECTIVE Compare CAM therapy use by US adults in 2002 and 1997. DESIGN Comparison of two national surveys of CAM use by US adults: (1) the Alternative Health/Complementary and Alternative Medicine supplement to the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS, N = 31,044) and (2) a 1997 national survey (N = 2055), each containing questions about 15 common CAM therapies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Prevalence, sociodemographic correlates, and insurance coverage of CAM use. RESULTS The most commonly used CAM modalities in 2002 were herbal therapy (18.6%, representing over 38 million US adults) followed by relaxation techniques (14.2%, representing 29 million US adults) and chiropractic (7.4%, representing 15 million US adults). Among CAM users, 41% used two or more CAM therapies during the prior year. Factors associated with highest rates of CAM use were ages 40-64, female gender, non-black/non-Hispanic race, and annual income of dollar 65,000 or higher. Overall CAM use for the 15 therapies common to both surveys was similar between 1997 and 2002 (36.5%, vs. 35.0%, respectively, each representing about 72 million US adults). The greatest relative increase in CAM use between 1997 and 2002 was seen for herbal medicine (12.1% vs.18.6%, respectively), and yoga (3.7% vs. 5.1%, respectively),while the largest relative decrease occurred for chiropractic (9.9% to 7.4%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of CAM use has remained stable from 1997 to 2002. Over one in three respondents used CAM in the past year, representing about 72 million US adults.
Heterogeneity of cellular circadian clocks in intact plants and its correction under light-dark cycles

Cellular circadian clocks in a plant work in coordination under light-dark cycles by correcting heterogeneous traits between them. Recent advances in single-cell analysis have revealed the stochasticity and nongenetic heterogeneity inherent to cellular processes. However, our knowledge of the actual cellular behaviors in a living multicellular organism is still limited. By using a single-cell bioluminescence imaging technique on duckweed, Lemna gibba, we demonstrate that, under constant conditions, cells in the intact plant work as individual circadian clocks that oscillate with their own frequencies and respond independently to external stimuli. Quantitative analysis uncovered the heterogeneity and instability of cellular clocks and partial synchronization between neighboring cells. Furthermore, we found that cellular clocks in the plant body under light-dark cycles showed a centrifugal phase pattern in which the effect of cell-to-cell heterogeneity in period lengths was almost masked. The inherent heterogeneity in the properties of cellular clocks observed under constant conditions is corrected under light-dark cycles to coordinate the daily rhythms of the plant body. These findings provide a novel perspective of spatiotemporal architectures in the plant circadian system.
Detection of abnormal nuclei in cervical smear images based on visual attention model

A novel idea for detecting abnormal nuclei in cervical smear images is presented. The suspect cells often appear with different externals from surrounding normal ones. Therefore, we are able to find them and focus on processing them instead of segmenting all nuclei in the images. This method combines the bottom-up attention mechanism and the top-down target-driven detection method. We extract both direction and brightness features of the image and construct a saliency map which is linearly combined with the high response area detected using annular template matching method. Then, we use an inhibition-of-return as well as winner-take-all mechanism to detect the regions of interest one by one. This process will be followed by segmentation and recognition of the found nuclei. The satisfactory results on extraction and computing speed show that this model can extract the abnormal nucleus regions without processing other part of the image.
Indirect revascularization for nonmoyamoya intracranial arterial stenoses: clinical and angiographic outcomes.

OBJECT Symptomatic intracranial arterial stenoses have a high rate of recurrent stroke despite medical and endovascular treatments. The authors present clinical and angiographic quantitative outcomes of indirect revascularization for patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis. METHODS Patients treated for symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis by indirect revascularization were included. The patient population comprised those in whom medical management had failed and for whom endovascular therapy was unsuitable or had failed. Patients underwent encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis (EDAS) with or without bur holes. Preoperative and postoperative angiograms were evaluated for change in caliber of extracranial blood vessels (superficial temporal artery [STA] and middle meningeal artery [MMA]) and for evidence of neovascularization. RESULTS Thirteen patients underwent EDAS. Ischemic symptoms ceased within the follow-up period in all patients, returning in a delayed fashion in only 2. No other patients had recurrent TIAs or strokes after the initial postoperative period. Donor blood vessels increased in size relative to preoperative sizes in all but 1 case (average increase of 52% for proximal STA [p=0.01], 74% for midpoint of STA [p=0.01], and 84% for the MMA [p=0.02]). In addition, 8 of 11 patients demonstrated direct spontaneous anastomoses from extracranial to middle cerebral artery branches, and all patients demonstrated angiographic evidence of vascular blush and/or new branches from the STA and/or MMA. CONCLUSIONS Indirect revascularization appears to be a safe and effective method to improve blood flow to ischemic brain due to intracranial arterial stenosis. Neovascularization and enlargement of the branches of the ECA were observed in all patients and correlated with improvement in ischemic symptoms. Indirect revascularization is an option for patients in whom medical therapy has failed and who are not suitable for endovascular treatment.
A Novel MCMC Based Receiver for Large-Scale Uplink Multiuser MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose low complexity algorithms based on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique for signal detection and channel estimation on the uplink in large scale multiuser multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems with tens to hundreds of antennas at the base station (BS) and similar number of uplink users. A BS receiver that employs a randomized sampling method (which makes a probabilistic choice between Gibbs sampling and random sampling in each iteration) for detection and a Gibbs sampling based method for channel estimation is proposed. The algorithm proposed for detection alleviates the stalling problem encountered at high SNRs in conventional MCMC algorithm and achieves near-optimal performance in large systems. A novel ingredient in the detection algorithm that is responsible for achieving near-optimal performance at low complexities is the joint use of a {\it randomized MCMC (R-MCMC) strategy} coupled with a {\it multiple restart strategy} with an efficient restart criterion. Near-optimal detection performance is demonstrated for large number of BS antennas and users (e.g., 64, 128, 256 BS antennas/users). The proposed MCMC based channel estimation algorithm refines an initial estimate of the channel obtained during pilot phase through iterations with R-MCMC detection during data phase. In time division duplex (TDD) systems where channel reciprocity holds, these channel estimates can be used for multiuser MIMO precoding on the downlink. Further, we employ this receiver architecture in the frequency domain for receiving cyclic prefixed single carrier (CPSC) signals on frequency selective fading between users and the BS. The proposed receiver achieves performance that is near optimal and close to that achieved with perfect channel knowledge.
Quantification of Summer Thermal Bioclimate of Different Urban Forms in Erzurum City Centre

Climate has always become an important research object due to its effects on people and environment. In this study, five different areas in Erzurum city centre were determined for the assessment of thermal comfort areas. For the measurement of bioclimatic comfort values in these areas, meteorological parameters (such as ambient temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), wind speed (m/s) and cloudiness (oktas) for the daily time zones such as 00:00, 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00 and 21:00 were taken in 2012 between 20th of June and 10th of September. PET index and RayMan 2.1 model are used for the assessment of bioclimatic comfort conditions. When the reference station is identified as rural and the other five stations are defined as urban, it is observed that there are PET differences between urban and rural stations in the range of 1.1oC to 4.3oC. While the comfortable range for summer time are felt as %10.3 in Erzurum Meteorology Airport Station which is rural area covered with steppe vegetation, this ratio is identified as %20,4 at Ataturk University Campus covered with vegetation. Therefore, urban green areas should be protected and increased as much as possible.
iProve: A scalable technique for consumer-verifiable software guarantees

Formally proving complex program properties is still considered impractical for systems with over a million lines of code. We present iProve, an approach that enables guaranteeing useful properties in large Java systems. Desired properties are proven in iProve as a combination of two proofs: one of a complex property applied to a small piece of code—a nucleus—using existing theorem provers, and a proof of a simple property applied to the rest of the code—the program body—using iProve. We show how iProve can be used to guarantee properties such as communication security, deadlock immunity, data privacy, and resource usage bounds in Java programs with millions of lines of code. iProve scales well, requires no access to source code, and allows nuclei to be reused with an unlimited number of systems and to be written in verification-friendly languages.
Neural Processing of Spatial Information: What We Know about Place Cells and What They Can Tell Us about Presence

Brain processing of spatial information is a very prolific area of research in neuroscience. Since the discovery of place cells (PCs)(O'Keefe & Dostrovsky, The hippocampus as a spatial map, Brain Research 34, 1971) researchers have tried to explain how these neurons integrate and process spatial and non-spatial information. Place cells are pyramidal neurons located in the hippocampus and parahippocampal region which fire with higher frequency when the animal is in a discrete area of space. Recently, PCs have been found in the human brain. The processing of spatial information and the creation of cognitive maps of the space is the result of the integration of multisensory external and internal information with the brain's own activity. In this article we review some of the most relevant properties of PCs and how this knowledge can be extended to the understanding of human processing of spatial information and to the generation of spatial presence.
The role of the p53 and Rb-1 genes in cancer, development and apoptosis

SUMMARY Gene targeting using embryonal stem cells has been used to generate strains of mice with inactivating mutations at the Rb-1 and p53 tumour suppressor loci. Mice heterozygous for a null allele of Rb-1 do not show retinoblastomas but instead develop pituitary tumours. Homozygotes die at between 10 and 14 days’ gestation and show increased levels of both cell division and cell death by apoptosis in the haematopoietic and nervous systems. This is consistent with the view that the Rb-1 gene product plays a general role in the maturation of precursor cells. In contrast, mice heterozygous for a null allele of p53 are predisposed to a spectrum of tumours, while the corresponding homozygotes are viable but show a very high tumour incidence. Thymocytes from p53 homozygotes, unlike wild-type thymocytes, do not show increased levels of apoptosis following treatment with DNA-damaging agents, while response to its induction by other agents is unaltered. Similarly, epithelial cells from the crypts of both small and large intestine of p53-deficient mice are resistant to the induction of apoptosis by γ-irradiation. In contrast, two other early responses of wild-type crypts to γ-irradiation, namely the G2 block and the reduction in bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, are both largely intact in p53-deficient mice. These observations are consistent with the view that p53 is responsible for monitoring DNA damage so that damaged cells can be either repaired or eliminated prior to division.