Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Summertime Moisture Transport to the Southern South American Altiplano: Constraints from In Situ Measurements of Water Vapor Isotopic Composition

AbstractAustral summer transport of water vapor to the southern South American Altiplano is investigated using in situ measurements of water vapor isotopic composition collected from 1 November 2012 to 10 February 2013 on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes. Onset of the wet season in December was associated with an increase in mixing ratios from an average of 1500 ppmv during the winter dry season to 5400 ppmv in early December. Water vapor isotopes δD and δ18O increased from dry season averages of −235‰ and −31‰, respectively, to wet season averages of −142‰ and −17‰, reaching as high as −70‰ and −17‰, respectively. The highest water vapor δ values were close to those measured in coastal settings, suggesting little condensation during transport to the site. About 5% of the wet season data have δ values that are lower than expected for Rayleigh distillation and are associated with high relative humidity (>75%), easterly winds, and periods of low outgoing longwave radiation over the Altiplano, con.
Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for the treatment of spinal cord injury

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell (HUCB-MSC) transplantation on the functional restoration of spinal cord injury (SCI). A total of 46 adult Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: Injury (n=15), control (n=15) and transplantation (n=16). A SCI model was established using the modified Allen’s method (vulnerating energy, 25 g/cm). The rats in the control and transplantation groups were injected at the site of the injury with physiological saline and HUCB-MSC suspension, respectively. At week one, two and four following treatment, the behavior of the rats was evaluated using the Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan locomotor rating scale. In addition, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on samples from the rats that had been sacrificed four weeks subsequent to the treatment. Recovery of the spinal cord nerve function was identified to be significantly different at week two and four following treatment (P<0.05), and IHC identified that at week four following treatment novel nerve cells were being produced. Thus, transplantation of HUCB-MSCs promoted the recovery of the damaged function of spinal cord nerves in rats with SCI.
Bethanechol Improves Smooth Muscle Function in Patients With Severe Ineffective Esophageal Motility

Background There is no therapeutic intervention that reliably restores smooth muscle contractility for patients with ineffective esophageal motility (IEM). Bethanechol, a direct-acting muscarinic receptor agonist, has been shown in healthy volunteers to produce a significant increase in peristaltic amplitude in the distal esophagus. Aim To identify whether bethanechol improves smooth muscle contractility and bolus transit in patients with IEM. Methods Seven patients diagnosed with severe IEM documented by combined multichannel intraluminal impedance and esophageal manometry were asked to participate. IEM was defined by using the new proposed criteria of greater than or equal to 50% saline swallows with contraction amplitude <30 mm Hg either 5 and/or 10 cm above the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). In the supine position, the patients were given 10 swallows of 5 mL of normal saline then 10 swallows of viscous solution, each 20 to 30 seconds apart. Patients were then given 50 mg oral bethanechol. After 20 and 40 minutes, 5 swallows of saline and viscous solution were repeated. Studies were then analyzed by an investigator blinded to the relationship of bethanechol administration to the swallows. The analysis included measurement of distal esophageal amplitude (DEA) or the mean amplitude at 5 and 10 cm above the LES. Results The use of bethanechol significantly increased (P<0.05) the esophageal contraction pressures at 5 and 10 cm above the LES. The DEA increased (P<0.05) for liquid and viscous, 20 minutes after its administration. Forty minutes after bethanechol administration, DEA and also individual pressures at 5 and 10 cm above the LES were still increased (P<0.05) for liquid, but only the DEA increased (P<0.05) with viscous solution. There was also a significant increase in complete bolus transit for saline swallows, both 20 and 40 minutes (P=0.03 and 0.01, respectively) after bethanechol. Conclusions Oral bethanechol significantly improves contraction pressures and bolus transit in the smooth muscle portion of the esophagus in patients with severe IEM.
Changes in response modulation of cat perigeniculate neurons related to EEG state and application of neuromodulators

Spike activity of single perigeniculate (PGN) neurons was recorded in the anaesthetized (N2O/halothane) and paralysed cat during presentation of moving gratings of optimal spatial frequency. Typically, the ongoing (tonic, spontaneous) activity of PGN cells increased during a rise in EEG delta power accompanied by a reduction and often a total loss of spike rate modulation by the moving grating. The opposite behaviour was found when the EEG delta power vanished. Micro-iontophoretically applied acetylcholine (ACh) had an effect similar to a decrease in EEG delta power, decreasing ongoing activity but increasing the response modulation depth. The opposite effect could be achieved with the excitatory action of serotonin (5-HT), mimicking a strengthened EEG delta power. These data support previous data indicating that PGN neurons contribute to spatio-temporal tuning of subcortical visual activity in a state-dependent way.
Moving Beyond Indignation: Stakeholder Tactics, Legal Tools and Community Benefits in Large-Scale Redevelopment Projects

English Abstract: Government and accompanying business interests often favour large-scale urban projects to promote urban growth, attract revenues, and place the city on the world stage. Such projects are primarily oriented towards consumption and spectacle, serving regional, if not global, clientele. Negative impacts – from traffic to displacement – are felt most heavily in the immediately adjacent areas, and developments often contribute to increases in socio-spatial polarization. This paper examines two redevelopment projects, one in South San Francisco, one in Montreal, to assess the tactics and legal tools employed by municipal authorities and local organisations to harness development for social and environmental ends. Associated legal tools include public consultation requirements, citizen ballot propositions, Community Benefits Agreements and Development Agreements. The paper concludes with recommended principles to underpin future development and cautionary notes about the limitations of these tools.Spanish Abstract: Los gobiernos e intereses empresariales que los acompanan, favorecen a menudo proyectos urbanisticos de gran escala, para promover el crecimiento urbano, atraer ingresos, y poner la ciudad en el mapa. Estos proyectos estan orientados principalmente hacia el consumo y el espectaculo, al servicio de una clientela regional, si no global. Los impactos negativos –desde el trafico a los desplazamientos– se dejan sentir con mas fuerza en las areas inmediatamente adyacentes, y su desarrollo a menudo contribuye al aumento de la polarizacion socio-espacial. Este articulo examina dos proyectos de reurbanizacion, uno en el sur de San Francisco, y el otro en Montreal, para evaluar las tacticas y herramientas legales empleadas por las autoridades municipales y organizaciones locales para potenciar el desarrollo de los fines sociales y ambientales. Entre las herramientas juridicas asociadas se incluyen los requisitos de consulta publica, propuestas electorales ciudadanas, acuerdos sobre beneficios a la comunidad y acuerdos sobre el desarrollo. El articulo concluye con recomendaciones para sustentar el desarrollo futuro y una nota de advertencia sobre las limitaciones de estas herramientas.
Towards an Ontology of Factors Influencing Reverse Engineering

In the context of the workshop's discussion on a general framework for empirical studies on reverse engineering, this paper stresses the need for an ontology of factors influencing the application of reverse engineering techniques. Through an integration of existing work, this paper proposes a tentative ontology. This work provides the first step towards an ontology facilitating communication of experimental designs and the resulting identification of relationships between experimental variables
Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Aspects of Bispecific Antibodies

Development of bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) as therapeutic agents has recently attracted significant attention, and investments in this modality have been steadily increasing. This review discusses challenges, and suggestions to overcome them, associated with the development of BsAbs, specifically those pertaining to clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, and bioanalysis. These challenges and possible solutions are discussed by presenting several case studies of BsAbs that have gained regulatory approval or that are currently in clinical development. BsAbs, also termed “dual-targeting” or “dual-specificity” antibodies, have the ability to bind two different targets on the same or different cell(s); the targets may be cell-surface receptors or soluble ligands, as shown in Figure 1. These dual-nature antibodies have key advantages that can potentially enhance therapeutic efficacy compared with monotherapy or traditional combination therapies by: i) simultaneously blocking two different targets or mediators that have a primary role in the disease pathogenesis; ii) inducing cell signaling pathways (e.g., proliferation or inflammation); iii) retargeting to mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC); iv) avoiding the development of resistance and increasing antiproliferative effects, specifically in oncology; and v) temporarily engaging a patient’s own cytotoxic T cells to target cancer cells, thus activating cytotoxic T cells to cause tumor lysis (e.g., bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTE)). Traditional combination therapies using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can also modulate multiple therapeutic targets. However, the development of mAbs presents challenges not encountered with BsAbs. For example, regulatory agencies have established stringent criteria for the codevelopment of new drugs that are intended for use as combination therapies. The sponsor has to demonstrate i) the rationale for use of the combination therapy rather than individual treatments; ii) a strong justification for why the individual drugs cannot be studied and developed independently; iii) that the nonclinical and clinical studies provide adequate evidence showing that the combination therapy provides significant therapeutic gain; and iv) a reasonable toxicity profile and more durable response than the monotherapy and existing standard of care.1 These guidelines can potentially make the drug development process
Effect of coumarins started before coronary angioplasty on acute complications and long-term follow-up: a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND Coronary angioplasty frequently creates a thrombogenic surface, with subsequent mural thrombosis that may lead to acute complications and possibly stimulates the development of restenosis. Whether coumarins can prevent these complications is unclear. The objective of this open, randomized trial was to assess the clinical effect of coumarins started before coronary angioplasty and continued for 6 months. METHODS AND RESULTS Before coronary angioplasty, 530 patients were randomly assigned to aspirin plus coumarins and 528 patients to aspirin alone. At the start of the angioplasty, the mean international normalized ratio was 2.7+/-1.1; during follow-up, it was 3.0+/-1.1. At 30 days, the composite end point of death, myocardial infarction, target-lesion revascularization, and stroke was observed in 18 patients (3.4%) treated with aspirin plus coumarin compared with 34 patients (6.4%) treated with aspirin alone (relative risk, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.92). At 1 year, these figures were 14.3% and 20.3%, respectively (relative risk, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.93). The incidence of major bleeding and false aneurysm during hospitalization was 3.2% and 1.0%, respectively (relative risk, 3.39; 95% CI, 1.26 to 9.11). The benefit of coumarins was observed in both stented and nonstented patients. CONCLUSIONS Coumarins in addition to aspirin started before PTCA and continued for 6 months was more effective than aspirin alone in the prevention of acute and late complications after coronary angioplasty. This benefit was accompanied by a small but significant increase in bleeding complications.
Modeling and simulation of a spherical mobile robot

Spherical mobile robot (SMR) has been studied analytically and experimentally in this paper, a novel design with an internal propulsion mechanism and mathematical models of the robot's dynamics and kinematics are introduced. A 3D model of robot is built by SOLIDWORKS and then exported to ADAMS2007 for simulation. The results of simulation by combining MATLAB/SIMULINK with ADAMS are presented. It is shown experimentally that the behavior of actual model consist well with the prediction of simulation.
P-wave attenuation and dispersion in a porous medium permeated by aligned fractures—a new poroelastic approach

An alternative method is advocated to obtain the analytical expressions of pore pressure, relative flux distribution and frame displacement in a periodic layered porous medium (White model) based on quasi-static poroelastic theory, from which the expression of the effective medium model for a P-wave propagating vertical to the layer can be obtained. Then a dispersion equation for a P-wave propagating in the porous medium permeated by aligned fractures is also presented by considering fractures as thin and highly compliant layers, with which the influence of mesoscopic fluid flow on phase velocity dispersion and attenuation is discussed under the condition of varying fracture weakness and the length scale ratio of the background layer to the fracture layer. For both cases, fluid flow induced by the Biot slow wave can result in apparent attenuation and dispersion in the usual seismic frequency band (5–500 Hz). The magnitude of velocity dispersion and attenuation of the P-wave will increase with increasing fracture weakness or with decreasing length scale ratio, and also relaxation peak and maximum attenuation move towards low frequencies. In particular, the evolution of pore pressure and relative fluxes as a function of frequency in the medium for those two cases is present, which gives us a more physical understanding of the behaviours of P-wave velocity dispersion and attenuation due to wave-induced mesoscopic flow.
Silicon for Spintronic Applications : Strain-Enhanced Valley Splitting

The rapid increase in computational power and speed of integrated circuits is supported by the incessant downscaling of semiconductor devices. Thanks to constantly introduced innovative changes in the technological processes, the miniaturization of MOSFETs epitomized by Moore's Law successfully continues. The recently introduced 32 nm technology involves improved high-κ gate stack dielectrics integrated with metal gates. These advances, first introduced for the 45 nm MOSFET process technology by Intel, represent some of the major changes in the technological processing since the invention of MOSFETs. Although alternative channel materials with mobility higher than in silicon have already been investigated, it is believed that silicon will remain the main channel material for MOSFETs beyond the 32 nm technology node. With scaling apparently approaching its fundamental limits, the semiconductor industry is facing critical challenges. New engineering solutions and innovative techniques are required to improve CMOS device performance. Strain-induced mobility enhancement, first introduced for the 90 nm technology node, is now routinely used to increase the device performance. With the 4th generation of stressors employed in the 32nm node, strain technology will certainly maintain its key position among engineering solutions for future technology generations. In addition, new device architectures based on multi-gate structures with better electrostatic channel control and reduced short-channel effects are attracting increased attention. A multi-gate MOSFET architecture is expected to be introduced for the 22 nm technology node. Combined with a high-κ dielectric/ metal gate technology and strain engineering, a multi-gate MOSFET appears to be the ultimate device for high-speed operation with excellent channel control, reduced leakage currents, and low power budget. Confining carriers within a thin film reduces the channel dimension in the transverse direction, which further improves gate channel control. At the same time the search for post-CMOS device concepts has accelerated. In principle, quantum computation promises to open new horizons to approach large-scale computations. Quantum-mechanical properties used in the data structure architecture are speculated to lead to substantial advantages over classical approaches. Although the concept is very attractive, thus far quantum calculations
Homeostasis of the Intraparenchymal-Blood Glutamate Concentration Gradient: Maintenance, Imbalance, and Regulation

It is widely accepted that glutamate is the most important excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS). However, there is also a large amount of glutamate in the blood. Generally, the concentration gradient of glutamate between intraparenchymal and blood environments is stable. However, this gradient is dramatically disrupted under a variety of pathological conditions, resulting in an amplifying cascade that causes a series of pathological reactions in the CNS and peripheral organs. This eventually seriously worsens a patient’s prognosis. These two “isolated” systems are rarely considered as a whole even though they mutually influence each other. In this review, we summarize what is currently known regarding the maintenance, imbalance and regulatory mechanisms that control the intraparenchymal-blood glutamate concentration gradient, discuss the interrelationships between these systems and further explore their significance in clinical practice.
A possible response of the atmospheric Hadley circulation to equatorial anomalies of ocean temperature

Weakness and temporary elimination of the equatorial easterly winds over the eastern and central Pacific in late 1957 and early 1958 brought about a brief cessation of equatorial upwelling which in turn caused the occurrence of above-normal surface water temperatures in the tropical Pacific from the American coast westward to the dateline. This sudden introduction of a large anomalous heat source for the atmosphere intensified its thermodynamic circulation, especially in the wintertime (northern) hemisphere. Record intensity of the westerlies resulted in the eastern North Pacific. The anomalous depth of the Low in the Gulf of Alaska had the downwind effect of weakening the Iceland Low and setting the stage for a cold winter in northern Europe. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1966. tb00303.x
Possible Bacteria in Nakhla

Mars Agueous Alteration Nakhla contains alteration products in an extensive network of which fill cracks, veins, and void spaces, composed of smectite, although in some cases they are amorphous and gel-like. Strong evidence presented show that these alteration products developed on Mars: some veins are offset by impact faulting of olivine followed by annealing of the olivine, and veins near the fusion crust show partial vesicle development suggesting heating and volatile liberation. The smectite-containing cracks and veins are interpreted as low temperature aqueous alteration on Mars. We have been studying these veins with optical microscopy and high resolution SEM.
Spatial slip distribution of the September 20, 1999, Chi‐Chi, Taiwan, Earthquake (MW7.6) —Inverted from teleseismic data

The teleseismic waveforms of the MW7.6 September 20, 1999 Chi‐Chi earthquake were examined to obtain the quick information on the fault rupture process. The deconvolution results show the fault ruptured from south to the north, and revealed the west movement of the hanging wall to the footwall on the eastern dipping plane. The spatial slip distribution shows that the earthquake was mainly composed by a large asperity with a dimension of about 45km × 15km. The maximum slip was about 8 m located at about 45 km to the north of the epicenter. The slip distributions obtained in this study have a good agreement with the observed surface breaks. The comparable static and the dynamic stress drops of about 11 Mpa in the large slip region indicate that the melting/fluid pressurization might have taken place in this earthquake. It reduces the dynamic friction and results in the large slip observed.
Neutrophil transmigration triggers repair of the lung epithelium via β-catenin signaling

Injury to the epithelium is integral to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory lung diseases, and epithelial repair is a critical determinant of clinical outcome. However, the signaling pathways regulating such repair are incompletely understood. We used in vitro and in vivo models to define these pathways. Human neutrophils were induced to transmigrate across monolayers of human lung epithelial cells in the physiological basolateral-to-apical direction. This allowed study of the neutrophil contribution not only to the initial epithelial injury, but also to its repair, as manifested by restoration of transepithelial resistance and reepithelialization of the denuded epithelium. Microarray analysis of epithelial gene expression revealed that neutrophil transmigration activated β-catenin signaling, and this was verified by real-time PCR, nuclear translocation of β-catenin, and TOPFlash reporter activity. Leukocyte elastase, likely via cleavage of E-cadherin, was required for activation of β-catenin signaling in response to neutrophil transmigration. Knockdown of β-catenin using shRNA delayed epithelial repair. In mice treated with intratracheal LPS or keratinocyte chemokine, neutrophil emigration resulted in activation of β-catenin signaling in alveolar type II epithelial cells, as demonstrated by cyclin D1 expression and/or reporter activity in TOPGAL mice. Attenuation of β-catenin signaling by IQ-1 inhibited alveolar type II epithelial cell proliferation in response to neutrophil migration induced by intratracheal keratinocyte chemokine. We conclude that β-catenin signaling is activated in lung epithelial cells during neutrophil transmigration, likely via elastase-mediated cleavage of E-cadherin, and regulates epithelial repair. This pathway represents a potential therapeutic target to accelerate physiological recovery in inflammatory lung diseases.
Predicting UV-B effects at the community level — the mesocosm approach

Many aquatic processes can be impacted by solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR, 280-400 nm) with examples ranging from photolysis of refractory dissolved organic material at the lowest trophic level, through to ONA damage of zooplankton and fish eggs at the higher trophic levels. The complexity of potential interactions and feedback makes it difficult to assess ecosystem responses to increased ultravioletB radiation (UVBR, 280-320 nm), particularly as most of our present information o n UVBR effects is from laboratory experiments with single species. Additionally, the response of pelagic communities to increased UVBR will be modified by other naturally occurring stressors such as supersaturating oxygen concentrations or high pH values. One solution to these problems is to manipulate the solar radiation incident on large enclosures, containing all relevant trophic levels, over several generation times.