Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hydrochemical Coupling of a Glacial Borehole-Aquifer System

Measurements of the electrical conductivity of subglacial water provide a useful complement to measurements of pressure and turbidity. In the summer season, fluctuations of conductivity can be attributed to changes in water transport, water provenance and subglacial residence time. These explanations are unlikely to apply during the winter season because surface melt sources are not active and the subglacial water system is predominantly unconnected. Thus, fluctuations in water conductivity during the winter months seem paradoxical. To introduce a quantitative basis for comprehending such phenomena, we develop an interpretative model of the hydrochemical interaction between a water-filled borehole and a subglacial aquifer. The electrical conductivity of water near the borehole-aquifer contact is affected not only by diffusion but also by advective transport of solute between the two reservoirs in response to pressure forcing of the system. Using records office strain, water pressure and electrical conductivity from unconnected boreholes inTrapridge Glacier, we demonstrate that changes in borehole geometry caused by ice-strain events provide a plausible mechanism for at least some of the observed fluctuations of electrical conductivity. Conductivity records provide information regarding advective coupling of the borehole-aquifer system that is not available from pressure records alone.
Plant- and Firm-Level Evidence on "New" Trade Theories

By relaxing the assumption of perfect competition, the 'new' trade theory has generated a rich body of predictions concerning the effects of commercial policy on price-cost mark-ups, firm sizes, exports, productivity and profitability among domestic producers. This paper critically assesses the plant- and firm-level evidence on these linkages. Several robust findings are identified. First, mark-ups generally fall with import competition, but it is not clear whether this phenomenon reflect the elimination of market power or the creation of negative economic profits. Second, import-competing firms cut back their production levels when foreign competition intensifies, at least in the short run. This suggests that sunk entry or exit costs are important in most sectors. Third, trade rationalizes production in the sense that markets for the most efficient plants are expanded, but large import-competing firms tend to simultaneously contract. Fourth exposure to foreign competition often improves intra-plant efficiency. Fifth, firms that engage in international activities tend to be larger, more productive, and supply higher quality products. However the literature is mixed on whether international activities cause these characteristics or vice versa. Finally, the short-run and long-run effects of commercial policy on exports and market structure can be quite different. Both types of response depend upon initial conditions, sunk entry costs, and the extent of firm heterogeneity.
A Circuit-Theoretic Approach to the Design of Quadruple-Mode Broadband Microstrip Patch Antennas

A novel method for the design of broadband patch antennas is described. The approach taken is to broadside couple two dual-mode patch antennas, resulting in a quad resonance antenna. The equivalent circuit of the antenna is similar to that of microwave filters, thus filter design techniques maybe employed to synthesize the antenna to obtain maximum return-loss bandwidth. This is the first time an increase in the bandwidth is achieved on a relatively thin substrate antenna as a result of coupling four resonant modes using two stacked circular microstrip patches. Electromagnetic simulation and measured results demonstrate bandwidth improvement of over four times that of a single-mode design.
Melioidosis: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management

SUMMARY Melioidosis, caused by the gram-negative saprophyte Burkholderia pseudomallei, is a disease of public health importance in southeast Asia and northern Australia that is associated with high case-fatality rates in animals and humans. It has the potential for epidemic spread to areas where it is not endemic, and sporadic case reports elsewhere in the world suggest that as-yet-unrecognized foci of infection may exist. Environmental determinants of this infection, apart from a close association with rainfall, are yet to be elucidated. The sequencing of the genome of a strain of B. pseudomallei has recently been completed and will help in the further identification of virulence factors. The presence of specific risk factors for infection, such as diabetes, suggests that functional neutrophil defects are important in the pathogenesis of melioidosis; other studies have defined virulence factors (including a type III secretion system) that allow evasion of killing mechanisms by phagocytes. There is a possible role for cell-mediated immunity, but repeated environmental exposure does not elicit protective humoral or cellular immunity. A vaccine is under development, but economic constraints may make vaccination an unrealistic option for many regions of endemicity. Disease manifestations are protean, and no inexpensive, practical, and accurate rapid diagnostic tests are commercially available; diagnosis relies on culture of the organism. Despite the introduction of ceftazidime- and carbapenem-based intravenous treatments, melioidosis is still associated with a significant mortality attributable to severe sepsis and its complications. A long course of oral eradication therapy is required to prevent relapse. Studies exploring the role of preventative measures, earlier clinical identification, and better management of severe sepsis are required to reduce the burden of this disease.
Calcium Channel Density and Hippocampal Cell Death with Age in Long-Term Culture

The expression of voltage-gated calcium (Ca2+) channel activity in brain cells is known to be important for several aspects of neuronal development. In addition, excessive Ca2+ influx has been linked clearly to neurotoxicity both in vivo and in vitro; however, the temporal relationship between the development of Ca2+ channel activity and neuronal survival is not understood. Over a period spanning 28 d in vitro, progressive increases in high voltage-activated whole-cell Ca2+ current and L-type Ca2+channel activity were observed in cultured hippocampal neurons. On the basis of single-channel analyses, these increases seem to arise in part from a greater density of functionally available L-type Ca2+ channels. An increase in mRNA for the α1 subunit of L-type Ca2+ channels occurred over a similar time course, which suggests that a change in gene expression may underlie the increased channel density. Parallel studies showed that hippocampal neuronal survival over 28 d was inversely related to increasing Ca2+ current density. Chronic treatment of hippocampal neurons with the L-type Ca2+ channel antagonist nimodipine significantly enhanced survival. Together, these results suggest that age-dependent increases in the density of Ca2+ channels might contribute significantly to declining viability of hippocampal neurons. The results also are analogous to patterns seen in neurons of aged animals and therefore raise the possibility that long-term primary neuronal culture could serve as a model for some aspects of aging changes in hippocampal Ca2+ channel function.
Protection against Tuberculosis in Eurasian Wild Boar Vaccinated with Heat-Inactivated Mycobacterium bovis

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis and closely related members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex continues to affect humans and animals worldwide and its control requires vaccination of wildlife reservoir species such as Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa). Vaccination efforts for TB control in wildlife have been based primarily on oral live BCG formulations. However, this is the first report of the use of oral inactivated vaccines for controlling TB in wildlife. In this study, four groups of 5 wild boar each were vaccinated with inactivated M. bovis by the oral and intramuscular routes, vaccinated with oral BCG or left unvaccinated as controls. All groups were later challenged with a field strain of M. bovis. The results of the IFN-gamma response, serum antibody levels, M. bovis culture, TB lesion scores, and the expression of C3 and MUT genes were compared between these four groups. The results suggested that vaccination with heat-inactivated M. bovis or BCG protect wild boar from TB. These results also encouraged testing combinations of BCG and inactivated M. bovis to vaccinate wild boar against TB. Vaccine formulations using heat-inactivated M. bovis for TB control in wildlife would have the advantage of being environmentally safe and more stable under field conditions when compared to live BCG vaccines. The antibody response and MUT expression levels can help differentiating between vaccinated and infected wild boar and as correlates of protective response in vaccinated animals. These results suggest that vaccine studies in free-living wild boar are now possible to reveal the full potential of protecting against TB using oral M. bovis inactivated and BCG vaccines.
Reduction of Out-of-Band Radiation in OFDM Based DRM Simulcast Systems

The simulcast transmission of the DRM and AM is an important approach during the interim from the analogue AM to digital AM broadcasting below 30 MHz. The reduction of out-of-band (OOB) radiation of OFDM signals in simulcast systems is one of the essential issues. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the cancellation carriers (CCs) which suppress the sidelobes of the OFDM signal by inserting well-defined subcarriers at the borders of the OFDM spectrum. In order to satisfy the demand of the simulcast system, we proposed limited-CCs method in which we occupy the subcarriers originally used for data transmission instead of inserting new subcarriers. Simulation results show that by the proposed technique the OOB power can be decreased by about 15 dB at the cost of a slight loss of data rate
Respiratory diseases and the impact of cough in Taiwan

Abstract Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and rhinosinusitis are becoming increasingly prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific Burden of Respiratory Diseases (APBORD) study was a cross-sectional, observational study which examined the disease and economic burden of AR, asthma, COPD, and rhinosinusitis across Asia-Pacific using 1 standard protocol. Here we report symptoms, healthcare resource use (HCRU), work impairment, and associated cost in Taiwan. Consecutive participants aged ≥ 18 years presenting to a physician with symptoms meeting the diagnostic criteria for a primary diagnosis of asthma, AR, COPD, or rhinosinusitis were enrolled. Participants and their treating physician completed surveys detailing respiratory symptoms, HCRU, work productivity, and activity impairment. Costs including direct medical costs and indirect costs associated with lost work productivity were calculated. The study enrolled 1001 patients. AR was the most frequent primary diagnosis (31.2%). A quarter of patients presented with a combination of respiratory diseases, with AR and asthma being the most frequent combination (14.1%). Cough or coughing up phlegm was the primary reason for the medical visit for patients with asthma and COPD, whereas nasal symptoms (watery runny nose, blocked nose, and congestion) were the primary reasons for AR and rhinosinusitis. Specialists were the most frequently used healthcare resource by patients with AR (26.1%), asthma (26.4%), COPD (26.6%), and rhinosinusitis (47.3%). The mean annual cost per patient with a respiratory disease was US$4511 (SD 5395). The cost was almost double for employed patients (US$8047, SD 6175), with the majority attributable to lost productivity. Respiratory diseases have a significant impact on disease burden in Taiwan. Treatment strategies that prevent lost work productivity could greatly reduce the economic burden of these diseases.
Recent Advances in Carbon Nanotube-Based Enzymatic Fuel Cells

This review summarizes recent trends in the field of enzymatic fuel cells. Thanks to the high specificity of enzymes, biofuel cells can generate electrical energy by oxidation of a targeted fuel (sugars, alcohols, or hydrogen) at the anode and reduction of oxidants (O2, H2O2) at the cathode in complex media. The combination of carbon nanotubes (CNT), enzymes and redox mediators was widely exploited to develop biofuel cells since the electrons involved in the bio-electrocatalytic processes can be efficiently transferred from or to an external circuit. Original approaches to construct electron transfer based CNT-bioelectrodes and impressive biofuel cell performances are reported as well as biomedical applications.
Simple stability conditions for linear positive discrete-time systems with delays

Abstract. Simple new necessary and sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability of the positive linear discrete-time systems with delays in states are established. It is shown that asymptotic stability of the system is equivalent to asymptotic stability of the corresponding positive discrete-time system without delays of the same size. The considerations are illustrated by numerical examples.
Time Reuse algorithms: A novel approach to solving the issue of scalability in dense power line networks

The power line (PL) channel is a shared medium and channel capacity is shared among a set of users. As the number of network nodes (users) increases, each user experiences a reduction in the available throughput. Although the issue of throughput maximization in point-to-point PL links has been vastly addressed in the PL literature, very little has been done to this date on the problem of network throughout reduction as the number of PL network nodes increases. This paper address for the first time this issue and proposes algorithms that allow Time Reuse (TR), i.e. the capability of nodes to detect when it is possible to transmit simultaneously to other neighboring devices without causing harmful interference to each other. A TR algorithm is here presented and simulations results confirm its effectiveness in ensuring scalability as the number of network nodes in the network increase.
Paleontological Contributions THE PARACLADISTIC APPROACH TO PHYLOGENETIC TAXONOMY

The inclusion of some paraphyletic groups in a temporally and taxonomically comprehensive phylogenetic classification is inevitable because cladistic methodology is incapable of excluding the possibility that a structurally (i.e., based on the branching pattern of a given cladogram) monophyletic group contains the ancestor of another group, i.e., that it is historically paraphyletic. Paracladistics is proposed as a pragmatic synthesis of phylogenetic and evolutionary taxonomy in which true monophyly is distinguished from structural monophyly with historical paraphyly, some structurally paraphyletic groups are retained in the interest of nomenclatorial continuity and stability, and both unranked and suprageneric ranked taxon names are defined phylogenetically. Ancestral groups are structurally paraphyletic or structurally monophyletic but historically paraphyletic sets of species that are believed to contain the ancestor for the most recent common ancestor of a descendent group. Historical paraphyly is determined by considering evidence of nesting in cladistic analyses, timing of first appearances in the fossil record, polarity in character evolution, and taxa that are morphologically intermediate between groups of species. The decision to name an ancestral group is based on the same criteria as the decision to name a clade. Ancestral groups are defined in the same manner as clades, except that their descendent group(s) are designated as external specifiers. Recognizing that two supposedly monophyletic, cladistically defined sister taxa can represent ancestral and descendent groups has implications for inferring their times of origination. To illustrate the advantages of the paracladistic approach to phylogenetic taxonomy, alternative paracladistic and phylogenetic classifications of the crown group families of Nuculanoidea (Mollusca, Bivalvia) are presented.
Agent-based Modeling and Simulation Framework for Enhanced Project Schedules

Project schedules are essential elements in project planning. The common problem with them is that the initial project schedules are typically too rigid to reflect the surrounding uncertainties. For this reason we have developed an enhanced project schedule model whose design is simulation-based and incorporates a high degree of uncertainty that typically surrounds project developments. Enhanced project schedules (EPS) are dynamic and allow for pre-calculated beneficial interventions when uncertainties arise. This implies that they feature decision support too. The high degree of uncertainty is incorporated by providing, in addition to the initial project schedule, a set of remedial actions recommendations. Identifying the appropriate set of remedial actions that supports meeting project goals is challenging and carried out through simulation. To enhance the simulation processes that facilitate the design of the EPS and better reflect the uncertainty introduced by the human factor, we propose to use agent-based simulation, for which in this paper we provide the basic framework. The idea is to model tasks, teams and manager as agents with properties and interactions that would more realistically model their dynamic nature. We believe that this will add another dimension to how project schedules are viewed and analyzed. In addition, it will enable more realistic modeling of project schedules and allow for higher degree of dynamics in the generated enhanced project schedules. In this paper we formally define the framework for agent-based modeling and simulation of enhanced project schedules.
A pr 2 00 5 Is tame open ?

Is tame open? No answer so far. One may pose the Tame-Open Conjecture: Tame is open. But how to support it? No effective way to date. In this note, the rank of a wild algebra is introduced. The Wild-Rank Conjecture, which implies the Tame-Open Conjecture, is formulated. The Wild-Rank Conjecture is improved to the BasicWild-Rank Conjecture. A covering criterion on the rank of a basic wild algebra is given, which can be effectively applied to verify the BasicWild-Rank Conjecture for concrete algebras. It makes all conjectures much reliable. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 16G60, 16G10, 16G20 Throughout k denotes a fixed algebraically closed field. By an algebra we mean a finite-dimensional associative k-algebra with identity. By a module we mean a left module of finite k-dimension except in the context of covering theory. We denote by modA the category of finite-dimensional left A-modules. For terminology in the representation theory of algebras we refer to [2] and [31]. 1. Tame-Open Conjecture ∗Project 10201004 supported by NSFC.
Mechanisms of NMDA receptor inhibition by memantine and ketamine

NMDA receptors (NMDARs), a subfamily of ionotropic glutamate receptors, have unique biophysical properties including high permeability to Ca2+. Activation of NMDARs increases the concentration of intracellular Ca2+ that can activate a vast array of signaling pathways. NMDARs are necessary for many processes including synaptic plasticity, dendritic integration, and cell survival. Aberrant NMDAR activation is implicated in many central nervous system disorders including neurodegenerative disorders, neuronal loss following ischemia, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Hope that NMDARs may serve as useful therapeutic targets is bolstered by the clinical success of two NMDAR antagonists, memantine and ketamine. Memantine and ketamine act as open channel blockers of the NMDAR-associated ion channel, and exhibit similar IC50 values and kinetics. Memantine is approved for treatment of Alzheimer's disease and shows promise in treatments of Huntington's disease, and ischemia. Ketamine was initially approved for use as a general anesthetic, but has recently shown efficacy in treatment of depression and of pain. Notably, memantine is not effective in treatment of depression or pain. In addition, memantine is well tolerated, whereas ketamine induces psychotomimetic side effects. The basis for the divergent clinical profiles of memantine and ketamine is not clear. One recently-proposed hypothesis is that memantine and ketamine inhibit overlapping but distinct subpopulations of NMDARs. However, mechanisms underlying inhibition of distinct NMDAR subpopulations by memantine or by ketamine are not fully understood. We therefore examined and compared mechanisms of inhibition by memantine and by ketamine. We also describe a novel fast perfusion system optimized for brief synaptic-like glutamate applications to lifted cells. We found that: (1) inhibition by memantine and ketamine exhibit differential dependence on duration of receptor activation and on NMDAR subtype; (2) the dependence of memantine inhibition on duration of NMDAR activation results from stabilization of a Ca2+-dependent desensitized state; (3) the endogenous NMDAR open channel blocker Mg2+ slows the binding kinetics of both memantine and ketamine, and, unexpectedly, speeds recovery from memantine inhibition; (4) although inhibition by memantine was thought to be mediated by only the charged form of memantine, the uncharged form of memantine also binds to and inhibits NMDARs, and exhibits surprisingly slow unbinding kinetics.
How Weak Categorizers Based Upon Different Principles Strengthen Performance

Combining the results of classifiers has shown much promise in machine learning generally. However, published work on combining text categorizers suggests that, for this particular application, improvements in performance are hard to attain. Explorative research using a simple voting system is presented and discussed in the light of a probabilistic model that was originally developed for safety critical software. It was found that typical categorization approaches produce predictions which are too similar for combining them to be effective since they tend to fail on the same records. Further experiments using two less orthodox categorizers are also presented which suggest that combining text categorizers can be successful, provided the essential element of ‘difference’ is considered.
Improving mispronunciation detection and diagnosis of learners' speech with context-sensitive phonological rules based on language transfer

This study demonstrates how knowledge of language transfer can enable a computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT) system to effectively detect and diagnose salient mispronunciations in second language learners’ speech. Our approach uses a HMM-based speech recognizer with an extended pronunciation lexicon that includes both a model pronunciation for each word and common pronunciation variants of our target learners. The pronunciation variants in the extended pronunciation lexicon are generated based on language transfer theory (i.e knowledge from the first language is transferred to the second language). We find that a lexicon that characterizes language transfer using context-sensitive phonological rules can detect and diagnose errors better than a lexicon generated from contextinsensitive rules. Furthermore, predicting errors from language transfer alone can approach the performance of a system where the lexicon is fully-informed of all possible pronunciation errors.