Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Editorial: Special collection – “Impact of polar observations on predictive skill”

The polar regions, which host some of the world’s most rapidly changing environments, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. The long-term decline of Arctic sea ice and the recent record low of Antarctic sea ice extent, the melting of continental snow, the retreat of glaciers, and the rapidly warming low-level troposphere all point to the fact that these regions literally stand as outposts of global climate change. These rapid changes in polar regions have potential global implications. The decrease in high-latitude surface albedo caused by the vanishing Arctic sea ice has a distinct signature on the Earth’s radiative balance (Pistone et al., 2014). The acceleration in global sea-level rise over the recent decades has been attributed with high confidence to increasing rates of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (IPCC, 2019). Finally, Arctic Amplification, one of the dominant traits of high-latitude climate change for decades, is thought to compete with tropical forcings in shaping the future of midlatitude climate, resulting in an uncertain “tug-of-war”1 for the decades to come. The impact of polar regions on weather and climate variability is therefore a topic of great concern and interest. In this context, the study of the impact of polar observations on predictive skill has taken on a new urgency in recent years. Polar regions stand out compared to other regions when it comes to observational coverage. These regions are indeed poorly sampled in terms of in situ and conventional observations, as the cost (human and economic) of retrieving data is prohibitive compared to lower-latitude regions. At the same time, polar regions are well-sampled in terms of satellite data due to the shorter return time of low-orbit satellites compared to other regions. It has been unclear to what extent each type of data can be beneficial for environmental predictions from hours to years. In recognition of the importance of this issue, the Year of Polar Prediction (2013–2022) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU H2020 project APPLICATE have launched a co-ordinated international effort to assess the state-of-the-art in this field. We are pleased to see some of the key results of this effort being presented in this special collection.
Ray synthesis of Lamb wave contributions to the total scattering cross section for an elastic spherical shell

The optical theorem relates the extinction cross section σe(ka) to the forward‐scattering amplitude f (θ=0,ka). Here, θ denotes the scattering angle, k is the wavenumber of the incident sound, and a is the radius of the scatterer. If the absorption by the scatterer is negligible so that the scatterer is elastic, σe is equal to the total scattering cross section σt. By applying this theorem to the partial wave series for f (0,ka), an expression can be obtained for σt for an elastic spherical shell in water. However, the series representation of σt does not facilitate a direct understanding of the rich structure caused by the shell’s elastic response. In particular, the elastic response is attributable to leaky Lamb waves. A generalization of the geometrical theory of diffraction [P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 25–37 (1988)] is employed to synthesize f (0,ka). This simple ray acoustic synthesis contains a component for ordinary diffraction by the shell and distinct contributions for the individual L.
Combining Information on Measurement Error in the Errors-in-Variables Model

Abstract For the regression model in which an explanatory variable contains measurement error, the instrumental variable and the correction for attenuation estimators of slope are considered. Although each requires extra information that is rarely available in ideal form, examinations of asymptotic variances and simulation results suggest that the correction for attenuation performs as well as a fairly strong instrumental variable when the measurement errors are not too large, and this is often true even when the extra information acquired is rough. For larger measurement errors the correction method is of less value. Whenever both kinds of information are available, an estimator with smaller variance is possible by taking a weighted average of the two.
Properties of a nanodielectric cryogenic resin

Physical properties of a nanodielectric composed of in situ synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (≤5 nm in diameter) and a cryogenic resin are reported. The dielectric losses were reduced by a factor of 2 in the nanocomposite, indicating that the presence of small TiO2 nanoparticles restricted the mobility of the polymer chains. Dielectric breakdown data of the nanodielectric was distributed over a narrower range than that of the unfilled resin. The nanodielectric had 1.56 times higher 1% breakdown probability than the resin, yielding 0.64 times thinner insulation thickness for the same voltage level, which is beneficial in high voltage engineering.
High-resolution circular ring positron tomograph with dichotomic sampling: Dichotom-I

The circular ring transaxial positron camera developed earlier (see S.E. Derenzo et al., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. NS-24, p.554-8, 1977) was refitted with a new dichotomic sampling scheme and aperture collimators on the detector array to improve the sampling and the overall system resolution. The z-axis slice thickness collimators were also limited to 1 cm, which corresponds to a slice thickness of 0.5 cm FWHM. Two different types of aperture collimators were adopted for high resolution (HR) and very high resolution (VHR) imaging, respectively. In HR mode a resolution of 6.5 mm FWHM was obtained without appreciable degradation of overall sensitivity, which represents a threefold improvement in resolution over the original system. In phantom studies with HR mode a sensitivity of 4500 counts s-1 mu Ci-1 cm-3 was obtained for a 20 cm diameter uniform phantom filled with water. A VHR mode experiment was also conducted to observe the ultimate resolution capability of the Dichotom-I system, and a resolution of 4.2 mm FWHM was obtained at the expense of sensitivity which was reduced by a factor of four from the HR mode experiment. The experience gained with Dichotom-I suggests a relatively simple and inexpensive modification of the existing NaI(Tl) ring positron cameras, most of which suffer from low resolution due to poor sampling and poor intrinsic detector resolution.
Load bearing and stiffness tailored NiTi implants produced by additive manufacturing: a simulation study

Common metals for stable long-term implants (e.g. stainless steel, Titanium and Titanium alloys) are much stiffer than spongy cancellous and even stiffer than cortical bone. When bone and implant are loaded this stiffness mismatch results in stress shielding and as a consequence, degradation of surrounding bony structure can lead to disassociation of the implant. Due to its lower stiffness and high reversible deformability, which is associated with the superelastic behavior, NiTi is an attractive biomaterial for load bearing implants. However, the stiffness of austenitic Nitinol is closer to that of bone but still too high. Additive manufacturing provides, in addition to the fabrication of patient specific implants, the ability to solve the stiffness mismatch by adding engineered porosity to the implant. This in turn allows for the design of different stiffness profiles in one implant tailored to the physiological load conditions. This work covers a fundamental approach to bring this vision to reality. At first modeling of the mechanical behavior of different scaffold designs are presented as a proof of concept of stiffness tailoring. Based on these results different Nitinol scaffolds can be produced by additive manufacturing.
Oil price and stock returns in Europe

In this paper we examine the relationship between oil price changes and of European oil and gas companies. We use all the widely known equilibrium models and extend them with the oil price factor as well. We classify the companies according to their location into Western European (WE), Central and Eastern European (CEE) and South Eastern European region (SE). Our results show that oil is a significant factor for most of the Western European, but less than the half of the CEE and SE companies. These results suggest that Western European oil and gas companies have high exposure to oil price changes, while the returns of their CEE and SE counterparts are less influenced by the oil price. When we incorporate oil price changes the explaining power of the models increases substantially for Western European companies but we can detect only a slight change for CEE and South Eastern European oil and gas companies. We also detect regional differences in the sign of the HML factor, which is usually negative for Western European and positive for CEE and South Eastern European companies.
iEnhancer-ELM: improve enhancer identification by extracting position-related multiscale contextual information based on enhancer language models

Abstract Motivation Enhancers are important cis-regulatory elements that regulate a wide range of biological functions and enhance the transcription of target genes. Although many feature extraction methods have been proposed to improve the performance of enhancer identification, they cannot learn position-related multiscale contextual information from raw DNA sequences. Results In this article, we propose a novel enhancer identification method (iEnhancer-ELM) based on BERT-like enhancer language models. iEnhancer-ELM tokenizes DNA sequences with multi-scale k-mers and extracts contextual information of different scale k-mers related with their positions via an multi-head attention mechanism. We first evaluate the performance of different scale k-mers, then ensemble them to improve the performance of enhancer identification. The experimental results on two popular benchmark datasets show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods. We further illustrate the interpretability of iEnhancer-ELM. For a case study, we discover 30 enhancer motifs via a 3-mer-based model, where 12 of motifs are verified by STREME and JASPAR, demonstrating our model has a potential ability to unveil the biological mechanism of enhancer. Availability and implementation The models and associated code are available at https://github.com/chen-bioinfo/iEnhancer-ELM Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.
Alternative radiative and dark mode-induced multi-broadband transmission in asymmetrical metallic grating

The phenomenon of extraordinary and multi-broadband optical transmission through sub-wavelength metallic grating with symmetry breaking has been theoretically investigated. Under normal incident light, the radiative and dark modes appear in adjacent slits of the grating with asymmetric heights. Through the destructive interference of alternative radiative and dark modes, multiple broadband transmission and enhanced light propagation is realized. The counter-propagating light circulation results in sharp dips in the transmission spectrum. These characteristics of the asymmetric grating could provide highly controllable ways to design novel devices.
COVID-19 Related Predisposition to Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Background and aims Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can exacerbate hyperglycemia and can cause life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). The objective of this study is to compare the characteristics of diabetic COVID-19 patients with and without DKA and to determine the predictors of mortality in the setting of COVID-19 and DKA. Methods This is a retrospective single-center cohort study including patients admitted to our hospital with COVID-19 and DM from March 2020 to June 2020. Patients with DKA were filtered as per the diagnostic criteria set by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Patients with hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state (HHS) were excluded. A retrospective analysis was performed, which included those who developed DKA and those with neither DKA nor HHS. The primary outcome measurement was mortality rate and predictors of mortality for DKA. Results Out of 301 patients with COVID-19 and DM, 30 (10%) had DKA and five (1.7%) had HHS. Mortality was significantly higher in the DKA group compared to the non-DKA/HHS group (36.6% vs 19.5%; OR: 2.38; p=0.03). After adjusting for parameters used for multivariate logistic model for mortality, DKA was no longer associated with mortality (OR: 2.08, p=0.35). The independent predictors for mortality were age, platelet count, serum creatinine, C-reactive protein, hypoxic respiratory failure, need for intubation, and need for vasopressors. Conclusion Our study demonstrates higher mortality rate in diabetic COVID-19 patients with DKA. Though direct and independent statistical association of mortality with DKA could not be proven in our multivariate logistic model, physicians must be vigilant in risk-stratifying and managing these patients in a timely manner.
Continuous Light Absorption Photometer (CLAP) Final Campaign Report

The Continuous Light Absorption Photometer (CLAP) measures the aerosol absorption of radiation at three visible wavelengths; 461, 522, and 653 nanometers (nm). Data from this measurement is used in radiative forcing calculations, atmospheric heating rates, and as a prediction of the amount of equivalent black carbon in atmospheric aerosol and in models of aerosol semi-direct forcing. Aerosol absorption measurements are essential to modeling the energy balance of the atmosphere.
Advertising to inspire–inspiring to persuade: how factors related to the source, message, and audience affect the persuasive effectiveness of influencer advertising

Abstract The persuasive potential of influencer advertising (IAd) has become a relevant field in academia. Followers see influencers as a source of inspiration, and inspiration can play a crucial role in purchase decisions. In the present study, we examined how factors related to the message, source, and audience interactions in influencer communication relate to the persuasive effectiveness of IAd, with a particular focus on the role of inspiration. Results from a quantitative survey (n = 311) indicate that followers’ inspiration and para-social interaction with the influencer are highly relevant to reported purchase behaviors. Moreover, the inspiration followers experience from IAd varies with the frequency of advertising posts in influencers’ feeds and followers’ persuasion knowledge.
Factors affecting the quality of life of acne-suffering adolescents in Honduras, Central America, and its repercussions.

Introduction: Adolescence is a stage of physical, psychological, and social changes, which determine the personality of the individual, which can be influenced by physical appearance because of alterations in the skin texture of adolescents. Patients with dermatosis have a higher risk of developing depression, anxiety and suicidal ideas. Acne is an important factor for quality of life and affects adolescents both physically and psychosocially. Objective : To determine the factors associated with the repercussions of acne in adolescents in Honduras. Methodology: Analytical cross-sectional study. The Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) scale was used through a questionnaire in Google Forms. Descriptive and analytical statistics were obtained. Results: Of the 3,272 young participants, with respect to quality of life, 25.8% (845) had medium or high repercussions, 5.3% were very depressed by the appearance of their skin in the month prior to filling out the questionnaire. When multivariate analysis was performed, it was found that those who had medium or high repercussions due to acne were women (RPa: 1.33; 95%CI: 1.20-1.48; p-value<0.001), those of indigenous ethnicity (RPa: 1.36; 95%CI: 1.05-1.75; p-value=0.019), those who had scars on the face (RPa: 13.08; 95%CI: 10.02-17.05; p-value<0.001) or those who had the father (RPa: 1.13; 95%CI: 1.01-1.25; p-value=0.031) or siblings with acne (RPa: 1.16; 95%CI: 1.04-1.28; p-value=0.005). Conclusion: It was found that gender, belonging to an indigenous ethnicity, having scars on the face or that having a close relative who had suffered from acne were associated with medium or high repercussions on the quality of life; it is important to take care of acne in this stage of life to avoid repercussions in adulthood.
Mental health and work-related factors in healthcare workers in a pandemic – meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare workers worldwide faced major challenges in the form of psychological stress. The aim of this systematic literature review and meta-analysis is to identify mental health consequences and associated work-related factors in healthcare workers during a pandemic and to quantify the influence of associated work-related factors on mental health consequences. A systematic literature search according to PRISMA was conducted on 5 August 2021 using the databases PubMed Central and APA PsychInfo. The included studies investigated the mental health consequences and associated work-related factors in healthcare workers in a pandemic. In addition, we performed a risk of bias analysis to assess the study quality of the included studies using the JBI checklists. Random-effect models and pooled effect estimators were used for the meta-analysis. The Chi2 and I2 statistics were used to identify the statistical heterogeneity. Additional sensitivity analysis was performed. From a total of 3,910 publications, 43 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies provided 15 stress consequences and 20 stress factors. The most frequently reported stress factors were ‘contact with COVID-19 patients’, ‘no education or training in handling infectious diseases’ and ‘insufficient protective equipment’. Anxiety, stress, and depression were the most common outcomes identified. Analyses showed an increase in anxiety scores among HCWs who cared for COVID-19 patients, as well as a rise in depressive symptoms due to inadequate or no personal protective equipment. In this review, various pandemic-associated stress factors and stress consequences of healthcare workers were observed. With the results, criteria for effective measures and interventions can be developed to minimize the risk of stress consequences.
A two-level procedure for the global optimization of the damping behavior of composite laminated plates with elastomer patches

This work concerns a two-level procedure for the global optimum design of hybrid elastomer/composite modular structures. The goal of the procedure is the maximization of the first Nf modal loss factors of the structure, satisfying mechanical constraints on the weight and on the bending stiffness, feasibility constraints on the admissible moduli for the constitutive laminates, along with geometric constraints on the positions of the viscoelastic patches. At the first level of the procedure, the optimization of the damping behavior of the structure is carried out: the optimization variables at this stage are the number of elastomer patches (modules), as well as their geometrical parameters (position, thickness and diameter), along with the material and geometric parameters of the composite laminated structure (elastic moduli, thickness of the laminate). The composite structure supporting the elastomer patches is thus optimized using a free-material approach, via the polar representation of 2D elasticity, and the second level of the optimization consists in finding the laminate stacking sequence satisfying the optimal elastic moduli and thickness issued from the first step. The method is able to automatically determine the optimal number of modules and it does not need the introduction of any simplifying assumption. The proposed approach relies on one hand, on the application of the well-known Iterative Modal Strain Energy (IMSE) method for the evaluation of the dynamic response of the structure, and on the other hand on the use of the polar formalism for the representation of the elastic anisotropic behavior of composite laminates as well as of a genetic algorithm as optimization tool to perform the solution search. We will illustrate the application of our approach to the optimization of the damping behavior of a rectangular composite plate with a discontinuous aperiodic distribution of viscoelastic material. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Receiving vectors of muon telescope of cosmic ray station Novosibirsk

The method of receiving vectors allows us to determine cosmic ray anisotropy at every moment of time. Also, the method makes it possible to study fast anisotropy fluctuations related to the interplanetary medium dynamics. Receiving vectors have been calculated earlier for neutron monitors and muon telescopes. However, most muon telescopes of the network of cosmic ray stations for which calculations were made does not operate now. In recent years, new, improved detectors have been developed. Unfortunately, the use of them is limited because of the absence of receiving coefficients. These detectors include a matrix telescope in Novosibirsk. Therefore, receiving vector components for muon telescopes of observation cosmic ray station Novosibirsk have been defined. Besides, design features of the facility, its orientation, and directional diagram depending on zenith and azimuth angles were taken into account. Also, for the system of telescopes, we allowed for coupling coefficients found experimentally by the test detector.
Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis utilizes human milk urea to recycle nitrogen within the infant gut microbiome

ABSTRACT Human milk guides the structure and function of microbial commensal communities that colonize the nursing infant gut. Indigestible molecules dissolved in human milk establish a microbiome often dominated by bifidobacteria capable of utilizing these substrates. Interestingly, urea accounts for ~15% of total human milk nitrogen, representing a potential reservoir for microbiota that may be salvaged for critical metabolic operations during lactation and neonatal development. Accordingly, B. infantis strains are competent for urea nitrogen utilization, constituting a previously hypothetical phenotype in commensal bacteria hosted by humans. Urease gene expression, downstream nitrogen metabolic pathways, and enzymatic activity are induced during urea utilization to yield elevated ammonia concentrations. Moreover, biosynthetic networks relevant to infant nutrition and development are transcriptionally responsive to urea utilization including branched chain and other essential amino acids. Importantly, isotopically labeled urea nitrogen is broadly distributed throughout the expressed B. infantis proteome. This incisively demonstrates that the previously inaccessible urea nitrogen is incorporated into microbial products available for infant host utilization. In aggregate, B. infantis possesses the requisite phenotypic foundation to participate in human milk urea nitrogen recycling within its infant host and thus may be a key contributor to nitrogen homeostasis early in life.