Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cycles diurnes de rayonnement solaire et forêts en Afrique Centrale

Les conditions d'eclairement prevalant en Afrique Centrale et leur impact potentiel sur les traits et le fonctionnement des forets ont ete peu etudies. S'appuyant sur des estimations satellitaires horaires de rayonnement solaire incident, et tenant compte des interactions d'echelles entre cycle diurne et cycle saisonnier, nous montrons que le Gabon se demarque des autres parties d'Afrique Centrale par une saison seche principale tres deficitaire en lumiere. En parallele, une carte des forets developpee par le CIRAD montre que la plupart des forets sempervirentes d'Afrique Centrale se localisent au Gabon. Nous postulons que le climat du Gabon peut abriter ces forets en raison de la forte nebulosite qui s'y developpe, reduisant la demande en eau mais aussi le ratio rayonnement direct / rayonnement diffus, favorable a la photosynthese. Ces resultats et la methodologie developpee ouvrent la voie a de futures analyses sur les changements passes et futurs des climats sombres de la facade Atlantique de l'Afrique Centrale, et la vulnerabilite des forets sempervirentes a ces changements.
Attenuation of Self-Generated Tactile Sensations Is Predictive, not Postdictive

When one finger touches the other, the resulting tactile sensation is perceived as weaker than the same stimulus externally imposed. This attenuation of sensation could result from a predictive process that subtracts the expected sensory consequences of the action, or from a postdictive process that alters the perception of sensations that are judged after the event to be self-generated. In this study we observe attenuation even when the fingers unexpectedly fail to make contact, supporting a predictive process. This predictive attenuation of self-generated sensation may have evolved to enhance the perception of sensations with an external cause.
XenomiRs and miRNA homeostasis in health and disease

Contributions of dietary miRNAs to circulating small RNA profiles would have profound implications for interpretation of miRNA biomarker studies: presumptive disease-specific markers might instead indicate responses to disease-associated quantitative or qualitative dietary alteration. This examination weighs the evidence for a 2-fold hypothesis: first, that ingested biological matter contributes directly to the miRNA complement of body compartments; and second, that these diet-derived exogenous miRNAs (or “xenomiRs”) affect total miRNA profiles as part of a circulating miRNA homeostasis that is altered in many diseases. Homeostasis of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), a known miRNA carrier—provides a model as a proposed component of broader miRNA homeostasis. Further research into the dietary xenomiR hypothesis is needed to ensure rigor in the search for truly disease-specific miRNA biomarkers.
Boosting Semantic Web Data Access Using Swoogle

One of the unique advantages brought by the Semantic Web is that semantic web languages, such as RDF and OWL, offer a small but expressive set of common ontological constructs for agents to share knowledge on the Web. Instead of hard coding knowledge inside intelligent agents, the semantic web enables agents to publish and consume knowledge explicitly stored in web documents. The utility of the Semantic Web can be evaluated from three equally important aspects: availability – is there enough useful data, accessibility – can users ﬁnd the data they need, and quality – can users evaluate data quality to select good information.
Recurrent pericarditis: a case report and literature review

Background. Recurrence affects about 30% (20% to 50%) of patients within 18 months after the initial episode of acute pericarditis resulting in subsequent rehospitalizations. Bearing in mind high treatment costs of patients admitted to hospital with acute and recurrent pericarditis, there is a need to optimize the treatment of both of these conditions. Materials and methods. We present a case of recurrent pericarditis. The first episode of pericarditis was diagnosed in 2006. Three months later the patient was hospitalized due to clinical symptoms suggesting recurrence of a past condition. Ten years after the initial episode of acute pericarditis the patient was hospitalized for the treatment of recurrent pericarditis. The search for etiology of the disease was unsuccessful, the patient received treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; empiric antimicrobial therapy was also administered. Results and conclusions. Acute pericarditis is the most common disease of the pericardium encountered in clinical practice. Colchicine has been demonstrated as a first-line drug to be added to conventional anti-inflammatory therapies in patients with a first episode of pericarditis or its recurrences in order to improve the response to therapy and reduce recurrences. Despite a large amount of new data, there are still several issues that require additional research and clarification, including the search for new individualized therapies, the best duration of treatment for patients with pericardial diseases, and optimization of patient follow-up in order to collect data on long-term outcomes that would allow shortening the duration of in-patient treatment and reduction of recurrences.
Germline mosaicism in X‐linked myotubular myopathy

X‐linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM; OMIM310400) is a congenital muscle disorder characterized by severe hypotonia and respiratory insufficiency. The disorder was mapped to Xq28 by linkage studies and the MTM1 gene was isolated by positional cloning. The gene product is a 603 amino acid protein named myotubularin. A small domain in its sequence shows high homology to a consensus active site of tyrosine phosphatases, a diverse class of proteins involved in signal transduction, control of cell growth, and differentiation. In this report, two brothers affected with XLMTM are shown to have a point mutation (G1187A) in exon 11 of the MTM1 gene. Surprisingly, their mother does not have this mutation in her lymphocytes. Therefore, she likely has a germline mosaicism. As this is the third report of germline mosaicism in XLMTM, the finding has important implications for genetic counseling.
Vertebroplasty: a systematic approach.

BACKGROUND Though vertebroplasty is a well-known and extremely effective procedure in experienced hands, it is a much more difficult procedure to learn than standard spinal pain injection procedures. We therefore present a simplified, methodical approach to vertebroplasty that can be adopted by trained interventionalists. Many practitioners who attend hands-on cadaver workshops lack confidence to apply this technique in live patients. OBJECTIVES To present a methodical, reproducible, and proven technique. To provide strategies on pre-procedure and post-procedure care in order to optimize outcomes in vertebroplasty patients. STUDY DESIGN A step-by-step tutorial is presented outlining the steps in the vertebroplasty procedure. A discussion of anatomic considerations, pre-procedure patient selection issues, and post-procedure management is also presented. METHODS Sections are presented on anatomy, patient selection, a 10-step technique on performance of vertebroplasty, a discussion of how this technique is advantageous, and post-procedure management. RESULTS This technique has been proven in clinical practice for over 1,500 vertebroplasties and has been well-received the past 4 years by hundreds of trainees taught at numerous hands-on courses (Stryker Interventional Pain, Arthrocare, and Society of Interventional Radiology). CONCLUSION A basic tutorial is presented for the beginner who is interested in vertebroplasty. This safe and reproducible technique has been proven in clinical practice. The anatomic considerations, patient selection issues, technique, and post-procedure management has been taught and well received by hundreds of physicians at numerous hands on courses within the United States and Canada.
Massive hemothorax: A rare complication after supraclavicular brachial plexus block

Plexus block is the preferred anesthesia plan for upper limb surgeries. Among the known complications, hematoma formation following the vascular trauma is often occur but this complication is frequently underreported. We present a case where a massive hemothorax developed post operatively in a patient who underwent resection of giant cell tumor of the right hand radius bone followed by arthroplasty under brachial plexus block using supraclavicular approach. This case report attempts to highlight the essence of remaining vigilant postoperatively for first initial days after brachial plexus block, especially after failed or multiple attempts. Ultrasound guided technique in combination with nerve stimulator has proven to be more reliable and safer than traditional techniques.
Mobile learning in review: Opportunities and challenges for learners, teachers, and institutions

Opportunities and challenges are emerging for learners, teachers and institutions from the increasing availability of low-cost mobile and wireless devices and associated infrastructure. In order to ascertain the current state of knowledge and research, an extensive review and synthesis of the literature in mobile learning has been undertaken to identify and harness potential factors and gaps in implementation. This paper presents the findings of this review. It seeks to facilitate the inquiry into 'What is possible in m-learning? ' and 'Why is it necessary to pursue these possibilities? ' A central theme is identified as the need to develop overarching principles and realistic visions for m-learning approaches, moving beyond specific implementations and branded technologies to examine global trends. This paper advocates the development of a best-practice framework to guide future action and thinking.
A Hybrid Approach for Mining Frequent Itemsets

Frequent item set mining is a fundamental element with respect to many data mining problems. Recently, the PrePost algorithm has been proposed, a new algorithm for mining frequent item sets based on the idea of N-lists. PrePost in most cases outperforms other current state-of-the-art algorithms. In this paper, we present an improved version of PrePost that uses a hash table to enhance the process of creating the N-lists associated with 1-itemsets and an improved N-list intersection algorithm. Furthermore, two new theorems are proposed for determining the "subsume index" of frequent 1-itemsets based on the N-list concept. The experimental results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm improves on that of PrePost.
CAMEO: a middleware for mobile advertisement delivery

Advertisements are the de-facto currency of the Internet with many popular applications (e.g. Angry Birds) and online services (e.g., YouTube) relying on advertisement generated revenue. However, the current economic models and mechanisms for mobile advertising are fundamentally not sustainable and far from ideal. In particular, as we show, applications which use mobile advertising are capable of using significant amounts of a mobile users' critical resources without being controlled or held accountable. This paper seeks to redress this situation by enabling advertisement supported applications to become significantly more ``user-friendly''. To this end, we present the design and implementation of CAMEO, a new framework for mobile advertising that 1) employs intelligent and proactive retrieval of advertisements, using context prediction, to significantly reduce the bandwidth and energy overheads of advertising, and 2) provides a negotiation protocol and framework that empowers applications to subsidize their data traffic costs by ``bartering'' their advertisement rights for access bandwidth from mobile ISPs. Our evaluation, that uses real mobile advertising data collected from around the globe, demonstrates that CAMEO effectively reduces the resource consumption caused by mobile advertising.
The Effect of Adopting New Storage Methods for Extending Product Validity Periods on Manufacturers Expected Inventory Costs

The validness of the expiration dates (validity period) that manufacturers provide on food product labels is a crucial food safety problem. Governments must study how to use their authority by implementing fair awards and punishments to prompt manufacturers into adopting rigorous considerations, such as the effect of adopting new storage methods for extending product validity periods on expected costs. Assuming that a manufacturer sells fresh food or drugs, this manufacturer must respond to current stochastic demands at each unit of time to determine the purchase amount of products for sale. If this decision maker is capable and an opportunity arises, new packaging methods (e.g., aluminum foil packaging, vacuum packaging, high-temperature sterilization after glass packaging, or packaging with various degrees of dryness) or storage methods (i.e., adding desiccants or various antioxidants) can be chosen to extend the validity periods of products. To minimize expected costs, this decision maker must be aware of the processing costs of new storage methods, inventory standards, inventory cycle lengths, and changes in relationships between factors such as stochastic demand functions in a cycle. Based on these changes in relationships, this study established a mathematical model as a basis for discussing the aforementioned topics.
Distribution of pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in house dust as a function of particle size.

House dust is a repository for environmental pollutants that may accumulate indoors from both internal and external sources over long periods of time. Dust and tracked-in soil accumulate most efficiently in carpets, and the pollutants associated with dust and soil may present an exposure risk to infants and toddlers, who spend significant portions of their time in contact with or in close proximity to the floor and who engage in frequent mouthing activities. The availability of carpet dust for exposure by transfer to the skin or by suspension into the air depends on particle size. In this study, a large sample of residential house dust was obtained from a commercial cleaning service whose clients were homeowners residing in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (Research Triangle) area of North Carolina. The composite dust was separated into seven size fractions ranging from < 4 to 500 microm in diameter, and each fraction was analyzed for 28 pesticides and 10 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Over 20% of the fractionated dust sample consisted of particles < 25 microm in diameter. Fourteen pesticides and all 10 of the target PAHs were detected in one or more of the seven size-fractionated samples. Sample concentrations reported range from 0.02 to 22 microg/g; the synthetic pyrethroids cis- and trans-permethrin were the most abundant pesticide residue. The concentrations of nearly all of the target analytes increased gradually with decreasing particle size for the larger particles, then increased dramatically for the two smallest particle sizes (4-25 microm and < 4 microm). ImagesFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3Figure 4
John von Neumann Institute for Computing NewsGrid : Infrastructure and Services

c © 2006 by John von Neumann Institute for Computing Permission to make digital or hard copies of portions of this work for personal or classroom use is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise requires prior specific permission by the publisher mentioned above.
Proteome analysis of Streptococcus suis serotype 2

Outbreaks in humans, caused by Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2), were reported in 1998 and 2005 in China. However, the mechanism of SS2‐associated infection remains unclear. For the first time, a 2‐D gel approach combined with MS was used to establish a comprehensive 2‐D reference map for aiding our understanding of the pathogenicity of SS2. The identification of 694 out of 834 processed spots revealed 373 proteins. Most of the identified proteins were located in the cytoplasm and were involved in energy metabolism, protein synthesis, and cellular processes. Proteins that were abundant in the 2‐DE gels could be linked mainly to housekeeping functions in carbohydrate metabolism, protein quality control and translation. 2‐DE of secretory proteins was performed using IPG strips of pH 4–7. Among the 102 protein spots processed, 87 spots representing 77 proteins were successfully identified. Some virulence‐associated proteins of SS2 were found, including arginine deiminase, ornithine carbamoyl‐transferase, carbamate kinase, muramidase‐released protein precursor, extracellur factor, and suilysin. Enolase and endopeptidase have been proposed as putative virulence‐associated factors in this study. The 2‐D reference map might provide a powerful tool for analyzing the virulence factor and the regulatory network involved in the pathogenicity of this microorganism.
Shock-like Structures in the Tropical Cyclone Boundary Layer

Figure 1 shows the tangential, radial, and vertical components of the velocity sampled by the NOAA WP-3D Orion near an altitude of 450 m for Hurricanes Allen on 6 August 1980 and Hugo 15 September 1989. While the storms have a similar maximum tangential wind, several striking differences stand out: radius of maximum wind, abruptness and magnitude of the change in the radial and tangential velocities in the core, and the broadness of the wind field. Because of each storm’s intensity and unique characteristics, the observations have been the center of several studies and have furthered our understanding of inner core processes (Jorgensen 1984; Marks et al. 2008). In examining these storms, the authors focused on small-scale features and asymmetric processes such as barotropic instability (Schubert et al. 1999). In addition to prior explanations, it is reasonable to ask if there is an axisymmetric, boundary layer argument also at work.
The influence of the Columbia River plume on predator-prey interactions

The influence of the Columbia River plume on predator-prey interactions Elizabeth M. Phillips Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor John K. Horne School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Oceanographic processes that aggregate prey and facilitate the transfer of energy to higher trophic levels often influence marine predator-prey interactions. Buoyant discharge from the Columbia River forms a large freshwater plume bounded by convergent fronts in the northern California Current. These oceanographic features aggregate zooplankton and attract coastal pelagic fish species (CPS) including northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax). Juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) use the Columbia River plume as they migrate to sea and experience elevated mortality during early marine residence. Seabirds including sooty shearwaters (Ardenna grisea) and common murres (Uria aalge) use the plume to forage, consuming CPS and juvenile salmon, and the Columbia River plume may influence predator-prey interactions and juvenile salmon survival. This dissertation examined the influence of the Columbia River plume on distributions of seabirds and fish prey, and characterized conditions that influence juvenile salmon predation risk. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to the Columbia River plume ecosystem. Chapter 2 demonstrates the disproportionate occurrence of murres, shearwaters, CPS, and juvenile salmon in plume waters, the positive relationship between turbid plume waters and seabird densities, and the aggregation of seabirds in the plume when surface area is low. Chapter 3 used satellite telemetry and a high resolution hydrodynamic model of plume circulation to demonstrate the ability of murres and shearwaters to track the north-south movements of the plume, and the movement of seabirds towards biophysically active plume boundaries when surface areas exceed a threshold of ~1,500–4,000 km. Chapter 4 compared murre distributions observed from ship, plane, and satellite telemetry data perspectives, and identified similarities and differences in seabird spatiotemporal distributions that can inform species distribution models. Chapter 5 documented a relationship between low plume surface areas and increased juvenile coho and Chinook salmon predation risk from seabirds, and the mediating role of CPS in predator-prey interactions near the plume. Taken together, the results of this dissertation demonstrate that variation in Columbia River plume surface area and river discharge influences predator-prey interactions and juvenile salmonid predation risk. Chapter 6 offers a synthesis of the results and recommendations for future research aimed at informing Pacific salmon ocean ecology, management, and conservation.
A Rule Based Approach for Automatic Annotation of a Hindi TreeBank

The paper describes an approach to automatically annotate a Hindi Treebank using Paninian dependency framework. The annotator is a rule based system and the rules use certain syntactic cues available in a sentence. This automated annotation scheme aims at facilitating manual annotation by reducing time and effort of manual annotators. Also, the aim of automatic annotation, among other things, is to increase the efficiency of a broad coverage constraint based Hindi parser. We also evaluate this tool and show its accuracy and coverage.
A New Milky Way Companion: Unusual Globular Cluster or Extreme Dwarf Satellite?

We report the discovery of SDSS J1049+5103, an overdensity of resolved blue stars at (α2000, δ2000) = (162.°343, 51.°051). This object appears to be an old, metal-poor stellar system at a distance of 45 ± 10 kpc, with a half-light radius of 23 ± 10 pc and an absolute magnitude of MV = -3.0. One star that is likely associated with this Milky Way companion has an SDSS spectrum confirming it as a blue horizontal-branch star at 48 kpc. The color-magnitude diagram of SDSS J1049+5103 contains few, if any, horizontal or red giant branch stars, similar to the anomalously faint globular cluster AM 4. The size and luminosity of SDSS J1049+5103 places it at the intersection of the size-luminosity relationships followed by known globular clusters and by Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. If SDSS J1049+5103 is a globular cluster, then its properties are consistent with the established trend that the largest radius Galactic globular clusters are all in the outer halo. However, the five known globular clusters with similarly faint absolute magnitudes all have half-mass radii that are smaller than SDSS J1049+5103 by a factor of ≳5. If it is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, then it is the faintest yet known by 2 orders of magnitude and is the first example of the ultrafaint dwarfs predicted by some theories. The uncertain nature of this new system underscores the sometimes ambiguous distinction between globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies. A simple friends-of-friends search for similar, blue, small scale length star clusters detected all known globular clusters and dwarfs closer than 50 kpc in the SDSS area but yielded no other candidates as robust as SDSS J1049+5103.