Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mannose-binding lectin gene polymorphism contributes to recurrence of infective exacerbation in patients with COPD.

BACKGROUND Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) deficiency is associated with susceptibility to respiratory infections. We investigated the impact of MBL2 gene polymorphisms and MBL deficiency on the recurrence of infective exacerbation in patients with COPD. METHODS A prospective study was conducted among 215 patients with COPD and 137 healthy subjects. MBL deficiency was determined by the MBL2 gene polymorphisms and serum levels of MBL. RESULTS The average frequency of infective exacerbations over 3 years in the 215 patients with COPD was 2.5 ± 1.3 episodes. The COPD group with three or more episodes of infective exacerbation (recurrent exacerbators) included 96 patients, and the remaining 119 patients had two or fewer episodes (less-frequent exacerbators). Among the 96 recurrent exacerbators, 12 (12.50%) had the MBL deficiency genotype compared with 5 (4.20%) among the less-frequent exacerbators (OR, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.01-11.07; P = .0253). In recurrent exacerbators, the frequency of infective exacerbation was significantly higher in patients with MBL-deficient genotypes than in those with non-MBL-deficient genotypes (4.75 ± 1.22 vs 3.52 ± 0.78, respectively; P < .0001). In addition, mortality was significantly increased in recurrent exacerbators with MBL-deficient genotypes compared with those with non-MBL-deficient genotypes (66.7% vs 31.0%, respectively; P = .0153). CONCLUSIONS MBL deficiency due to MBL2 polymorphisms increases the risk of recurrent infective exacerbation and worsens its outcome in patients with COPD.
Experimental Verification of CMP Process Analysis

The present study performs an experimental verification of an analytical model of the Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process, focusing on friction force and the distribution of the material removal rate. A coupled Fluid-Structure analytical model, which can predict the friction force and the distribution of the material removal rate, is developed. Oxide CMP experiments are conducted using a fabricated CMP system, and measured friction force and distribution of the material removal rate are compared with the analytical results. As a result, it is confirmed that the wafer's rotational speed affects the friction force and the distribution of the material removal rate. Additionally, the results determined by the developed analytical model agree with the measurements. The magnitude of the friction force under a condition in which the wafer does not rotate becomes smaller than when the wafer rotates at the same speed as the polishing pad. The direction of the friction force inclines against the rotational center of the polishing pad. The material removal rate when the wafer does not rotate is high around the edge of the wafer as compared with that at other areas. In particular, it becomes high around the leading edge and the area where the rotational radius of the polishing pad is large. These specific characteristics of the friction force and the distribution of the material removal rate are explained using the analytical results.
Onset of Circulation Anomalies during Stratospheric Vortex Weakening Events: The Role of Planetary-Scale Waves

To highlight the details of stratosphere‐troposphere dynamical coupling during the onset of strong polar vortex variability, this study identifies stratospheric vortex weakening (SVW) events by rapid deceleration of the polar vortex and performs composite budget analyses in the transformed Eulerian-mean (TEM) framework on daily time scales. Consistent with previous work, a rapid deceleration of the polar vortex, followed by a rather slow recovery, is largely explained by conservative dynamics with nonnegligible contribution by nonconservative sinks of wave activity. During the onset of such events, stratospheric zonal wind anomalies show a near-instantaneous vertical coupling to the troposphere, which results from an anomalous upward and poleward propagation of planetary-scale waves. In the troposphere, zonal wind anomalies are also influenced by synoptic-scale waves, confirming previous studies. The SVW events driven by wavenumber-1 disturbances show comparable circulation anomalies to those driven by wavenumber-2 disturbances both in the stratosphere and troposphere. The former, however, exhibits more persistent anomalies after the onset than the latter. During both events, tropospheric wavenumber-1 and 2 disturbances project strongly onto the climatological waves, indicating that vertical propagation of planetary-scale waves into the stratosphere is largely caused by constructive linear interference. It is also found that the SVW-related vertical coupling is somewhat sensitive to the stratospheric mean state. Although overall evolution of zonal-mean circulation anomalies are reasonably similar under an initially weak or strong polar vortex, the time-lagged downward coupling is evident only when the polar vortex is decelerated under a weak vortex state. These results are compared with other definitions of weak polar vortex events, such as stratospheric sudden warming events.
Theoretical Analysis of Differential Microphone Array Beamforming and an Improved Solution

Differential microphone arrays (DMAs), which are responsive to the differential sound pressure field, have attracted much attention due to their properties of frequency-invariant beampatterns, small apertures, and potential of maximum directivity. Traditionally, DMAs are designed and implemented in a multistage (cascade) way, where a proper time delay is used in each stage to form a beampattern of interest. Recently, it was reported that DMAs can be designed by solving a linear system of equations formed from the information about the nulls of the desired beampattern. This paper deals with the problem of beamforming with linear DMAs. Its major contributions are as follows. 1) By using the spatial Z transform, we present some theoretical analysis of both the traditional cascade and new null-constrained DMA beamforming. It is shown that the cascade and null-constrained DMAs of the same order with the same number of sensors are theoretically identical. 2) We develop a two-stage approach to the study of the robust DMA beamformer, which is based on the principle of maximizing the white noise gain (WNG). The first-stage of this approach is in the structure of the traditional non-robust DMA while the second-stage filter is optimized for improving the WNG. 3) Using the two-stage approach, we show that the robust DMA beamformer may introduce extra nulls in the beampattern at high frequencies; particularly, it introduces M - N - 1 extra nulls if the interelement spacing is equal to half of the wavelength, where M and N are the number of sensors and the DMA order, respectively. 4) We develop a method that can solve the extra-null problem while maximizing the WNG in robust DMA beamforming, i.e., a robust solution with a frequency-invariant beampattern.
River energy budgets with special reference to river bed processes

This paper uses detailed hydrometeorological data to evaluate the influence of channel bed processes on the river energy budget at an experimental site on the regulated River Blithe, Staffordshire, UK. Results from a pilot study are presented for eight days during July, September, October and November 1994. Total energy gains were dominated by net short-wave radiation (97·60%) with significant contributions from sensible heat exchange and friction (1·17 and 1·06%, respectively) and minor additions from condensation and bed conduction (0·16 and 0·01%, respectively). Net long-wave radiation, evaporation, conduction into the river bed, sensible heat transfer and the energy advected during evaporation accounted for 53·98, 23·56, 16·27, 5·25 and 0·94% of the total heat losses. On average, over 82% of the total energy transfers occurred at the air–water interface. Approximately 15% of the total energy exchanges occurred at the channel bed, but maximum daily heat exchanges accounted for up to 24% of the daily total energy transfer. The amount of short-wave radiation attenuated in the water column, and values measured at the channel bed varied considerably from those calculated using a standard coefficient. Values of bed conduction varied in response to different vertical thermal profiles in the channel bed, reflecting the variable influence of sedimentology and groundwater flux. Fluctuations in levels of periphyton and macrophyte cover were also shown to have a significant effect on energy fluxes at the channel bed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analysis of phenological change patterns using 1982–2000 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data

Using the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Pathfinder Land dataset (PAL data) from 1982–2000, vegetation phenology (onset, peak and offset) was defined and analysed with climate data. In areas of precipitation-dependent phenology such as Central Africa, it was found that Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is affected approximately 20–40 days after the occurrence of precipitation, depending on land cover types. In areas of temperature-dependent phenology such as Siberia, the relationship of phenology and latitude/elevation was investigated. Using temporal NDVI data of 1982–2000, changes in seasonal NDVI pattern were classified into 11 classes and mapped in the Northern Hemisphere. From this analysis, increasing trends of the annual sum of NDVI were found in Siberia, NE Europe and the northern part of North America where good correspondence with the increasing trend of air temperature was recognized. In contrast, some areas such as the east of the Aral Sea showed a decreasing trend of the annual sum of NDVI. It was found that, in the Northern Hemisphere, the area with increasing trend of the annual sum of NDVI is approximately 12 times larger than the area with the decreasing trend. Also, it was found that areas of increasing/decreasing trend of the annual sum of NDVI correspond roughly to areas with increasing/decreasing trend of air temperature from 1982 to 1995.
A Survey of the Use and Documentation of Architecture Design Rationale

Many claims have been made about the problems caused by not documenting design rationale. The general perception is that designers and architects usually do not fully understand the critical role of systematic use and capture of design rationale. However, there is to date little empirical evidence available on what design rationale mean to practitioners, how valuable they consider them, and how they use and document design rationale during the design process. This paper reports an empirical study that surveyed practitioners to probe their perception of the value of design rationale and how they use and document background knowledge related to their design decisions. Based on eighty-one valid responses, this study has discovered that practitioners recognize the importance of documenting design rationale and frequently use them to reason about their design choices. However, they have indicated barriers to the use and documentation of design rationale. Based on the findings, we conclude that much research is needed to develop methodology and tool support for design rationale capture and usage. Furthermore, we put forward some research questions that would benefit from further investigation into design rationale in order to support practice in industry.
Building a Tourism Information Provider With the MOMIS System

The tourism industry is a good candidate for taking up Semantic Web technology. In fact, there are many portals and web sites belonging to the tourism domain which promote tourist products (places to visit, food to eat, museums, .) and tourist services (hotels, events, .), published by several operators (tourist promoter associations, public agencies,.). This paper presents how the MOMIS system may be used for building a Tourism Information provider by exploiting the tourism information that is available in internet websites. MOMIS, (Mediator envirOnment for Multiple Information Sources), is a mediator framework that performs information extraction and integration from heterogeneous distributed data sources and includes query management facilities to transparently support queries posed to the integrated data sources.
GroddDroid: a gorilla for triggering malicious behaviors

Android malware authors use sophisticated techniques to hide the malicious intent of their applications. They use cryptography or obfuscation techniques to avoid detection during static analysis. They can also avoid detection during a dynamic analysis. Frequently, the malicious execution is postponed as long as the malware is not convinced that it is running in a real smartphone of a real user. However, we believe that dynamic analysis methods give good results when they really monitor the malware execution. In this article1, we propose a method to enhance the execution of the malicious code of unknown malware. We especially target malware that have triggering protections, for example branching conditions that wait for an event or expect a specific value for a variable before triggering malicious execution. In these cases, solely executing the malware is far from being sufficient. We propose to force the triggering of the malicious code by combining two contributions. First, we define an algorithm that automatically identifies potentially malicious code. Second, we propose an enhanced monkey called GroddDroid, that stimulates the GUI of an application and forces the execution of some branching conditions if needed. The forcing is used by GroddDroid to push the execution flow towards the previously identified malicious parts of the malware and execute it. The source code for our experiments with GroddDroid is released as free software2. We have verified on a malware dataset that we investigated manually that the malicious code is accurately executed by GroddDroid. Additionally, on a large dataset of 100 malware we precisely identify the nature of the suspicious code and we succeed to execute it at 28%.
Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency as Cause of Facial Flushing Reaction to Alcohol in Japanese

A dehydrogenase is an enzyme responsible for the breakdown of acetaldehyde, a toxic intermediate1 produced directly from the metabolism of alcohol. Aldehyde dehydrogenase is extraordinarily efficient in keeping acetaldehyde levels very low, even immediately after alcohol consumption when acetaldehyde is being generated rapidly in the liver. Multiple aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes exist and their structures are determined by different genes; however, this commentary examines only the enzyme (designated as ALDH2) that is imported into the mitochondrion, the cell’s energy­ producing structure. The seminal ar­ ticle by Harada and colleagues, which actually is a detailed letter to the editor of the journal Lancet, first related the discovery of the effect of a genetic variant of this enzyme, which occurs very abundantly in Oriental populations (East Asians). ALDH2 is key in the metabolism of acetaldehyde produced after alco­ hol consumption. In 1948 Hald and Jacobsen introduced disulfiram (Antabuse®), an inhibitor of alde­ hyde dehydrogenase, for the clinical treatment of alcoholics. Disulfiram­ treated subjects who consume alco­ hol accumulate relatively high levels of acetaldehyde. These high acet­ aldehyde levels lead to an aversive response known as the flushing reac­ tion. In addition to a facial flush, the flushing reaction also may include an elevated heart rate (i.e., tachycar­ dia), headache, heart palpitations, shortness of breath (i.e., dyspnea), hyperventilation, low blood pressure (i.e., hypotension), vertigo, nausea, and vomiting. Certain other drugs that also inhibit aldehyde dehydroge­ nase, such as metronidazole, were found to cause flushing in associa­ tion with alcohol intake. This flush­ ing reaction also occurs naturally in some people. However, the blockade of aldehyde dehydrogenase actually was used to treat alcoholism long be­ fore the mechanism that causes natu­ rally occurring alcohol­induced flushing was discovered. Harada and colleagues directly related naturally occurring aldehyde dehydrogenase blockade to elevated acetaldehyde lev­ els and flushing. Wolff (1972) and others (Zeiner et al. 1979) had observed that unmedicated Japanese and people from neigh­ boring regions of Asia often showed the same flushing response after intake of relatively small quantities of alcohol. In 1981 Harada and colleagues Agarwal and Goedde showed that some people were naturally deficient in the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme (Agarwal et al. 1981). By using a technique (i.e., protein electrophoresis) that separates the enzyme in an electric field, followed by a stain for the enzyme, they found that acetaldehyde dehydrogenase was structurally different in people in whom the aldehyde dehydrogenase activity was deficient. One year later these researchers published their seminal letter to the editor of
Fractal geometry characterization of geothermal reservoir fracture networks

As a new procedure for modeling geothermal energy extraction systems, a two-dimensional modeling technique for subsurface fracture networks on the basis of `fractal geometry` is presented. Models of fracture networks are generated by distributing fractures randomly in space and by using the fractal relation between fracture length r and the number of fractures N expressed with a fractal dimension D as N = Cr(exp -D), where C is a constant that signifies the fracture density within the rock mass. This procedure makes it possible to characterize geothermal reservoirs by parameters measured from field data, such as from core sampling. In this characterization the fracture density parameter C of a geothermal reservoir is used as a parameter to model the subsurface fracture network. Using this fracture network model, the connectivities of the water flow paths between wells are calculated by means of a Monte Carlo simulation, and the result is then compared with that derived from a percolation model. We show that many fewer fractures are required to connect two wells for the fracture network model than for the percolation model. The transmissivities between wells for the fracture network model are also obtained as a function of the fracture density parametermore » C. The results show that the transmissivities in geothermal reservoirs are significantly dependent upon the fracture density of rock mass, and they can be predicted from the fracture density parameter C of the reservoirs. « less
Characterization and Intracellular Localization of the Epstein-Barr Virus Protein BFLF2: Interactions with BFRF1 and with the Nuclear Lamina

ABSTRACT We have reported in the accompanying paper that the BFRF1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is important for efficient primary viral envelopment and egress (A. Farina, R. Feederle, S. Raffa, R. Gonnella, R. Santarelli, L. Frati, A. Angeloni, M. R. Torrisi, A. Faggioni, and H.-J. Delecluse, J. Virol. 79:3703-3712). Here we describe the characterization of the product of the EBV BFLF2 gene, which belongs to a family of conserved herpesviral genes which include the UL31 genes of herpes simplex virus and of pseudorabies virus and whose products are known to interact with UL34, the positional homolog of BFRF1. BFLF2 is an early transcript and is expressed in a variety of cell lines upon EBV lytic cycle activation. Western blotting of purified virion preparations showed that BFLF2 is a component of intracellular virions but is absent from mature extracellular virions. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicated that BFLF2 interacts with BFRF1, which was confirmed by immunofluorescence confocal microscopy showing that the two proteins colocalize on the nuclear membrane not only upon cotransfection in epithelial cells but also during viral replication. In cells carrying an EBV mutant with the BFRF1 gene deleted (293-BFRF1-KO cells) BFLF2 expression was low, and it was restored to wild-type levels upon treatment of the cells with the proteasome inhibitor MG132. Furthermore, recomplementing the 293-BFRF1-KO cells by BFRF1 transfection restored BFLF2 expression to the wild-type level. In addition, when expressed alone BFLF2 was localized diffusely inside the nucleus, whereas in the presence of BFRF1 the two proteins colocalized at the nuclear rim. Finally, 293 epithelial cells transfected with either protein or cotransfected were analyzed by electron microscopy to investigate potential alterations in the morphology of the nuclear membrane. The ultrastructural analysis revealed that (i) BFRF1 caused duplications of the nuclear membrane, similar to those reported to occur during the course of herpesviral replication, and (ii) while BFLF2 alone did not cause any apparent alteration, coexpression of the two proteins dramatically induced profound convolutions of the duplicated nuclear membrane. Both biochemical and morphological analysis showed association of the BFRF1-BFLF2 complex with a component of the nuclear lamina, lamin B. Taken together, these results and those of the accompanying paper (Farina et al., J. Virol. 79:3703-3712) indicate an important role of BFRF1 and BFLF2 in the early steps of EBV maturation at the nuclear membrane.
A GIS assessment of the total loads and water quality in the Corpus Christi Bay system

A method is presented for determining raster maps of mean annual water flow and pollutant loading from the land surface, and for determining the resulting concentrations in receiving water bodies. The method is illustrated by application to the Corpus Christi Bay system in South Texas. A mesh of 100m digital elevation model cells is laid over the drainage area and cell to cell connectivity established to link each land surface cell with a corresponding water body segment. Nonpoint source constituent loads are determined for each cell as the product of runoff and expected mean concentration, and accumulated down to the bay system. Point source and atmospheric loads are added, water quality computed in each bay system, and compared to observed data. A strong South to North runoff gradient is observed in the study area. The majority of the constituent loading comes from nonpoint sources, except for oil and grease, which arise mainly from point sources. Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the bay system are reproduced reasonably well provided a decay rate of 0.01-0.02 day -1 is used. Oil and grease are reproduced well as conservative constituents. The computed metals concentrations are low and suggest a significant source in sediment or elsewhere that is presently
Design of Gradient and Node Remaining Energy Constrained Directed Diffusion Routing for WSN

In the conventional directed diffusion routing protocol (DD), the intermediate nodes retransmit the received interest message to all of the neighbor nodes by flooding, which can bring about great energy consumption to the network. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks called gradient and node remaining energy constrained directed diffusion routing (GRE-DD). By setting the maximum gradient diffusion depth, GRE-DD can help to reduce the times of retransmitting interest message at the interest propagation stage, leading to the reduction of transmitted data. By setting the minimum node remaining energy, GRE-DD help to increase the each node's probability of being selected to perform retransmission task, prolonging the node average working time and improving the network load balance. Simulation results indicate that GRE-DD greatly cuts down the average end-to-end delay, reduces energy consumption and extends the network lifetime.
BPS branes in discrete torsion orbifolds

We investigate D-branes in a 3 × 3 orbifold with discrete torsion. For this class of orbifolds the only known objects which couple to twisted RR potentials have been non-BPS branes. By using more general gluing conditions we construct here a D-brane which is BPS and couples to RR potentials in the twisted and in the untwisted sectors.