Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remote sensing data assimilation for regional crop growth modelling in the region of Bonn (Germany)

The study investigates the possibilities to improve the performance of CERES-Wheat crop growth model by assimilating information derived by optical and SAR Earth observation data. Biophysical parameter retrieval was done with the water cloud model for SAR data and the CLAIR model was applied to multispectral imagery. The CERES -Wheat model was calibrated using ground truth information. The re-initialization method with an adjustable planting date was selected as assimilation strategy. Modelling results generally improved by using all different kind of remote sensing data. However, best results were achieved by using information of the optical sensors only and not by a synergetic time series of all available data.
Effects of Hemodiafiltration on Uremic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is highly prevalent among end-stage renal disease patients and is linked to, and thought to contribute to, the high morbidity and mortality in this patient population. Hemodiafiltration (HDF) may potentially reduce inflammatory stimuli induced by the bioincompatibility of conventional hemodialysis (HD) systems. In addition, HDF may more efficiently remove inflammatory mediators. This brief review shows that the circulating levels of various markers of systemic inflammation in general are somewhat reduced in patients treated by HDF as compared to HD. On the other hand, according to the current literature, this favorable small impact on inflammation biomarkers does not seem to translate into better clinical outcomes. It is possible that this is due to inadequate design, inadequate number of investigated patients and too short duration of previous studies. The results of larger, better-designed ongoing prospective studies may hopefully clarify this.
Mobilization Patterns of Patients After an Acute Myocardial Infarction

This study was aimed to identify the mobilization patterns of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients during their first three days in the coronary care unit (CCU) by performing a prospective observational pilot study design. The study included 31 diagnosed AMI patients admitted to three CCUs. Mobilization patterns classified as bed rest, semi-fowler, transfer to chair, and standing/walking were documented by CCU nurses for 72 consecutive hours after patient admission to the CCU. Of 2,232 possible mobilization periods (72 hr × 31 patients), 1,385 recorded observations of mobilization (62%) were obtained. Bed rest and semi-fowler positions were the most common mobilization patterns; together they accounted for 70% of the documented positions over the first 72 hr in the CCU. Patients who experience an uncomplicated AMI spend the majority of their first 72 hr in CCU in bed.
Strictly nonblocking directional-coupler-based switching networks under crosstalk constraint

Directional-coupler (DC)-based switching systems can switch signals at the rate of several terabits per second. Such switches can also transmit signals with multiple wavelengths simultaneously. Despite these advantages, DCs suffer from an intrinsic crosstalk problem that must be overcome in building a robust switching system. In this paper, the principles of constructing strictly nonblocking DC-based photonic switching systems under various crosstalk constraints are explored. We demonstrate how crosstalk adds a new dimension to the theory of switching systems. We find the sufficient nonblocking condition for photonic networks under crosstalk constraints and demonstrate that some well-known nonblocking networks can tolerate a stricter crosstalk constraint while retaining their hardware complexity. The theory developed in the paper can guide us in making the design tradeoff between the level of crosstalk and the amount of hardware.
Influence of Age-related Macular Degeneration on Macular Thickness Measurement Made With Fourier-domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose:To evaluate the influence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on macular thickness measurement made with Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (RTVue-OCT) to detect glaucoma. Methods:One nonglaucomatous eye of 79 white persons was imaged. This comprised 25 healthy eyes, 19 eyes with early/intermediate AMD (geographic atrophy excluded), 16 eyes with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and 19 CNV eyes after intravitreal antiangiogenic treatment [CNV-antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)]. Results:Compared with the age-matched controls, no difference in any nerve fiber layer and optic disc parameter was seen for any AMD group. No macular retinal segmentation error was detected in the control group. Localized inner retinal image segmentation errors topographically related to AMD were detected in 8 eyes with drusen (42.1%), all 16 CNV eyes (100%) and 17 eyes in the CNV–anti-VEGF group (89.5%; &khgr;2 test, P<0.001 for all comparisons). The average macular thickness parameters did not differ between the control and the AMD groups (analysis of variance, P>0.05). In contrast, all pattern-based ganglion cell complex (GCC) parameters were significantly higher (more abnormal) in the CNV and CNV–anti-VEGF group than in the control eyes (Mann-Whitney test, Bonferroni correction, P<0.001). For GCC focal loss volume, the only pattern-based parameter classified by the software, the frequency of “borderline” and “outside normal limits” classifications was significantly greater in each AMD group than in the control group (&khgr;2 test, Bonferroni correction, P⩽0.03). Conclusions:In nonglaucomatous eyes, AMD significantly influences the pattern-based inner macular thickness parameters of the RTVue optical coherence tomograph and the software-provided classification of GCC focal loss volume, for detection of glaucoma.
Collaboration in Context-Aware Mobile Phone Applications

Context-aware applications are expected to become a remarkable application area within future mobile computing. As mobile phones form a natural tool for interaction between people, the influence of the current context on collaboration is desirable to take into account to enhance the efficiency and quality of the interaction. This paper presents role of context information in improving the collaboration of mobile communication by supplying relevant information to the cooperating parties, one being a mobile terminal user and the other either another person, group of people, or a mobile service provider.
Selective Arterial Dilatation by Glyceryl Trinitrate Is Not Associated with Nitric Oxide Formation in vitro

Aims: Glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) is the most commonly used anti-anginal agent, yet its mechanism of action has still to be fully established. Release of nitric oxide (NO) and the selectivity of GTN in the venous system are believed to be crucial to this drug’s anti-anginal action. Methods: Rat superior mesenteric arteries and renal veins were mounted in a wire myograph with an intraluminal NO microsensor. Results: In the superior mesenteric arteries, GTN (1 nM to 10 µM) produced a dose-dependent vasodilatation without NO release, except at concentrations supramaximal for relaxation. GTN was found to be markedly less potent in a wide range of veins tested, and lowering the oxygen concentrations in the myograph to that of the venous system did not improve the venodilator activity of GTN. Conclusion: This is the first time that NO release from GTN has been monitored electrochemically in real time, simultaneously with vasodilatation. Unlike the endothelium-dependent vasodilator carbachol, NO could only be measured at concentrations of GTN that are supramaximal for relaxation. GTN was found to be arterioselective in vitro, even when oxygen levels were lowered to mimic those of the venous system in vivo.
Intuitive decision-making

T his does not mean we should abandon models or the use of decision support systems (DSS) to support decisions. Rather, DSS should blend analytical tools with intuitive heuristics to improve managers’ insights about factors too complex to build into models. In particular, DSS must facilitate the modification of results of analytical tools when they contradict intuition [2]. This is consistent with the basic goals of model use as noted by Jones [5], “developing insight into model behavior is ultimately a process of discovery, of finding trends, surprising behaviors, and comparing the behavior of the model to what is expected or observed in the real system. ” Alternatively, analytical tools can test and verify intuition before applying it to the decision-making process.
Solid-state NMR Reveals the Carbon-based Molecular Architecture of Cryptococcus neoformans Fungal Eumelanins in the Cell Wall*

Background: Melanin is a poorly understood fungal virulence factor. Results: 2D 13C-13C correlation solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance reveals the carbon-based molecular architecture of intact melanin pigment assemblies in Cryptococcus neoformans. Conclusion: Polysaccharide cell-wall components form a scaffold for layered deposition of aromatic-based pigment assemblies. Significance: Deciphering macromolecular interactions that drive melanin pigment assembly in fungal cell walls facilitates the development of drug delivery materials. Melanin pigments protect against both ionizing radiation and free radicals and have potential soil remediation capabilities. Eumelanins produced by pathogenic Cryptococcus neoformans fungi are virulence factors that render the fungal cells resistant to host defenses and certain antifungal drugs. Because of their insoluble and amorphous characteristics, neither the pigment bonding framework nor the cellular interactions underlying melanization of C. neoformans have yielded to comprehensive molecular-scale investigation. This study used the C. neoformans requirement of exogenous obligatory catecholamine precursors for melanization to produce isotopically enriched pigment “ghosts” and applied 2D 13C-13C correlation solid-state NMR to reveal the carbon-based architecture of intact natural eumelanin assemblies in fungal cells. We demonstrated that the aliphatic moieties of solid C. neoformans melanin ghosts include cell-wall components derived from polysaccharides and/or chitin that are associated proximally with lipid membrane constituents. Prior to development of the mature aromatic fungal pigment, these aliphatic moieties form a chemically resistant framework that could serve as the scaffold for melanin synthesis. The indole-based core aromatic moieties show interconnections that are consistent with proposed melanin structures consisting of stacked planar assemblies, which are associated spatially with the aliphatic scaffold. The pyrrole aromatic carbons of the pigments bind covalently to the aliphatic framework via glycoside or glyceride functional groups. These findings establish that the structure of the pigment assembly changes with time and provide the first biophysical information on the mechanism by which melanin is assembled in the fungal cell wall, offering vital insights that can advance the design of bioinspired conductive nanomaterials and novel therapeutics.
Temporal Reasoning in Natural Language Understanding: The Temporal Structure of the Narrative

This paper proposes a new framework for discourse analysis, in the spirit of Grosz and Sidner (1986), Webber (1987a,b) but differentiated with respect to the type or genre of discourse. It is argued that different genres call for different representations and processing strategies; particularly important is the distinction between subjective, performative discourse and objective discourse, of which narrative is a primary example. This paper concentrates on narratives and introduces the notions of temporal focus (proposed also in Webber (1987b)) and narrative move. The processing tasks involved in reconstructing the temporal structure of a narrative (Webber's e/s structure) are formulated in terms of these two notions. The remainder of the paper analyzes the durational and aspectual knowledge needed for those tasks. Distinctions are established between grammatical aspect, aspectual class and the aspectual perspective of a sentence in discourse; it is shown that in English, grammatical aspect under-determines the aspectual perspective.
Neural and statistical classifiers-taxonomy and two case studies

Pattern classification using neural networks and statistical methods is discussed. We give a tutorial overview in which popular classifiers are grouped into distinct categories according to their underlying mathematical principles; also, we assess what makes a classifier neural. The overview is complemented by two case studies using handwritten digit and phoneme data that test the performance of a number of most typical neural-network and statistical classifiers. Four methods of our own are included: reduced kernel discriminant analysis, the learning k-nearest neighbors classifier, the averaged learning subspace method, and a version of kernel discriminant analysis.
KIR2DS5 allotypes that recognize the C2 epitope of HLA‐C are common among Africans and absent from Europeans

KIR2DS5 is an activating human NK cell receptor of lineage III KIR. These include both inhibitory KIR2DL1, 2 and 3 and activating KIR2DS1 that recognize either the C1 or C2 epitope of HLA‐C. In Europeans KIR2DS5 is essentially monomorphic, with KIR2DS5*002 being predominant. Pioneering investigations showed that KIR2DS5*002 has activating potential, but cannot recognize HLA‐A, ‐B, or ‐C. Subsequent studies have shown that KIR2DS5 is highly polymorphic in Africans, and that KIR2DS5*006 protects pregnant Ugandan women from preeclampsia. Because inhibitory C2‐specific KIR2DL1 correlates with preeclampsia, whereas activating C2‐specific KIR2DS1 protects, this association pointed to KIR2DS5*006 being an activating C2‐specific receptor. To test this hypothesis we made KIR‐Fc fusion proteins from all ten KIR2DS5 allotypes and tested their binding to a representative set of HLA‐A, ‐B and ‐C allotypes.
The Software Dock: A Distributed, Agent-Based Software Deployment System ; CU-CS-832-97

Abstract : Few tools exist to address the post-development activities of configuring, releasing, installing, updating, reconfiguring and even de-installing a software system. Certainly there is no unified approach for all of these activities, and none that can take full advantage of a wide-area network. The Software Dock represents an architecture for supporting post-development activities in such a setting. It is designed as a system of loosely-coupled, cooperating, distributed components that are bound together by a wide-area messaging and event system. The components include field docks for maintaining site-specific configuration information by consumers, release docks for maintaining site-specific configuration and release of software systems by producers, and a variety of agents for automating the activities. Its mechanisms of consistent access to a site's configuration information and resources, standardized methods for making software releases available and visible, and a global event system give software producers and consumers new leverage in managing complex software systems. In this paper we describe the Software Dock architecture and discuss the use of a prototype implementation of that architecture in deploying a complex system.
Influence of skin blood flow and source‐detector distance on near‐infrared spectroscopy‐determined cerebral oxygenation in humans

Most near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) apparatus fails to isolate cerebral oxygenation from an extracranial contribution although they use different source‐detector distances. Nevertheless, the effect of different source‐detector distances and change in extracranial blood flow on the NIRS signal has not been identified in humans. This study evaluated the extracranial contribution, as indicated by forehead skin blood flow (SkBF) to changes in the NIRS‐determined cerebral oxyhaemoglobin concentration (O2Hb) by use of a custom‐made multidistance probe. Seven males (age 21 ± 1 year) were in a semi‐recumbent position, while extracranial blood flow was restricted by application of four different pressures (+20 to +80 mmHg) to the left temporal artery. The O2Hb was measured at the forehead via a multidistance probe (source‐detector distance; 15, 22·5 and 30 mm), and SkBF was determined by laser Doppler. Heart rate and blood pressure were unaffected by application of pressure to the temporal artery, while SkBF gradually decreased (P<0·001), indicating that extracranial blood flow was manipulated without haemodynamic changes. Also, O2Hb gradually decreased with increasing applied pressure (P<0·05), and the decrease was related to that in SkBF (r = 0·737, P<0·01) independent of the NIRS source to detector distance. These findings suggest that the NIRS‐determined cerebral oxyhaemoglobin is affected by change in extracranial blood flow independent of the source‐detector distance from 15 to 30 mm. Therefore, new algorithms need to be developed for unbiased NIRS detection of cerebral oxygenation.
Population Structure and Phylogenetic Characterization of Marine Benthic Archaea in Deep-Sea Sediments

ABSTRACT During the past few years Archaea have been recognized as a widespread and significant component of marine picoplankton assemblages and, more recently, the presence of novel archaeal phylogenetic lineages has been reported in coastal marine benthic environments. We investigated the relative abundance, vertical distribution, phylogenetic composition, and spatial variability ofArchaea in deep-sea sediments collected from several stations in the Atlantic Ocean. Quantitative oligonucleotide hybridization experiments indicated that the relative abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA in deep-sea sediments (1500 m deep) ranged from about 2.5 to 8% of the total prokaryotic rRNA. Clone libraries of PCR-amplified archaeal rRNA genes (rDNA) were constructed from 10 depth intervals obtained from sediment cores collected at depths of 1,500, 2,600, and 4,500 m. Phylogenetic analysis of rDNA sequences revealed the presence of a complex archaeal population structure, whose members could be grouped into discrete phylogenetic lineages within the two kingdoms, Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota. Comparative denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile analysis of archaeal 16S rDNA V3 fragments revealed a significant depth-related variability in the composition of the archaeal population.
Effect of Caffeine on UVB‐induced Carcinogenesis, Apoptosis, and the Elimination of UVB‐induced Patches of p53 Mutant Epidermal Cells in SKH‐1 Mice †

Oral administration of green tea or caffeine to SKH‐1 mice during UVB irradiation for several months inhibited the formation of skin cancer. Similar effects were observed when green tea or caffeine was given to tumor‐free UVB‐initiated mice with a high risk of developing skin tumors in the absence of further UVB irradiation (high risk mice). Mechanistic studies indicated that topical application of caffeine stimulated UVB‐induced apoptosis as well as apoptosis in UVB‐induced focal hyperplasia and tumors in tumor‐bearing mice. Oral or topical administration of caffeine enhanced the removal of patches of epidermal cells with a mutant form of p53 protein that appeared early during the course of UVB‐induced carcinogenesis, and oral administration of caffeine altered the profile of p53 mutations in the patches. In additional studies, topical application of caffeine was shown to have a sunscreen effect, and topical application of caffeine sodium benzoate was more active than caffeine as a sunscreen and for stimulating UVB‐induced apoptosis. Caffeine sodium benzoate was also highly active in inhibiting carcinogenesis in UVB‐pretreated high risk mice. Our studies indicate that caffeine and caffeine sodium benzoate may be useful as novel inhibitors of sunlight‐induced skin cancer.
Infrared Multiple Photon Dissociation Spectra of Gaseous Ions

Abstract : Infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectra in the 9.2 - 10.8 micrometers wavelength range have been obtained for the protonated molecular ions of 3-bromopropene and gallium hexafluoroacetylacetonate, using one and two lasers. Use of a low power tunable C02 laser and a modified White- type multipass FTICR cell has helped to overcome some limitations of this technique, including a limited tuning range and/or low output power in one-laser experiments. Comparisons between the ion spectra and those of the corresponding neutral species are made. Infrared spectra, Ionic spectra, Gaseous ions, Infrared multiple photon dissociation, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.
Elitist Compact Genetic Algorithms for Induction Motor Self-tuning Control

Compact GAs (cGAs) are search methods that, instead of evolving a population of solutions, process a probability vector describing the distribution of a hypothetical population with update rules inspired to the typical selection and recombination operations of a GA. The cGAs well lend themselves to real-time implementations in constrained, low capacity microcontrollers, as they have reduced memory requirement and better distributed computational loads with respect to the standard, population-based GA. This paper investigates the applicability of two cGAs selected from literature to optimize online a PI controller for an induction motor drive. The experimental results are particularly promising, and suggest interesting directions for further research.
Formation of nanosized elements by ion beam lithography for multiple fin field effect transistor prototyping

Technique based on FIB and PCE for the formation of nanoscale silicon fins on silicon-on-sapphire structures was demonstrated. The stability of the obtained mask to PCE was investigated depending on the dose of ionic exposure. It was found that the Si fin 150 nm in height and a width of less than 40 nm was obtained by implantation of Ga+ ions with a dose of 3 × 1017 to 4 × 1017 см-2. Current-voltage characteristic of contacts to nanosized fins was researched. The gate dielectric Al2O3 2-3 nm thick was deposited by the ALD method. In the created prototypes of the transistor, the length of each channel was 1.2 μm, and the gate - 100 nm. The obtained I-V characteristics prove the good controllability of the channel in the nanosized fin and demonstrate the operability of the devices.
Spatial correlation between brain aerobic glycolysis and amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition

Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque deposition can precede the clinical manifestations of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) by many years and can be associated with changes in brain metabolism. Both the Aβ plaque deposition and the changes in metabolism appear to be concentrated in the brain's default-mode network. In contrast to prior studies of brain metabolism which viewed brain metabolism from a unitary perspective that equated glucose utilization with oxygen consumption, we here report on regional glucose use apart from that entering oxidative phosphorylation (so-called “aerobic glycolysis”). Using PET, we found that the spatial distribution of aerobic glycolysis in normal young adults correlates spatially with Aβ deposition in individuals with DAT and cognitively normal participants with elevated Aβ, suggesting a possible link between regional aerobic glycolysis in young adulthood and later development of Alzheimer pathology.