Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Syrtis Major volcano, Mars: A multidisciplinary approach to interpreting its magmatic evolution and structural development

Very weak crustal magnetic fields over the Syrtis Major volcanic complex imply almost total thermal demagnetization via magmatic intrusions over a large area less than ~4 Ga. We fit a model of these intrusions and the resulting thermal demagnetization to maps of crustal magnetic field strength at 185 km altitude. The best fits are most consistent with a “dog bone”‐shaped region of intrusive material, elongated approximately north‐south, with an area of ~350,000 km2 and an inferred volume of ~4–19 × 106 km3. Such a large volume is best explained by a long‐lived mantle plume beneath the Syrtis edifice. A free‐air gravity anomaly high over the Syrtis Major caldera is consistent with dense mafic residue remaining at depth following crystal fractionation that produced the silicic magmas seen at the surface. The elongation of this region is consistent with ascent and north‐south emplacement of magma enabled by structures parallel to and associated with the preexisting Isidis impact basin.
Mechanisms limiting the southward extent of the South American Summer Monsoon

An intermediate atmospheric model coupled with a simple land‐surface model and a mixed‐layer ocean model is used to examine effects that determine the southward extension of summer precipitation over South America. The extent of the continental convergence zone is mainly determined by two mechanisms, which we term ventilation and the “interactive Rodwell‐Hoskins mechanism”. Ventilation refers to the import into South America of low moist static energy air from the cooler ocean, primarily the Pacific. In the interactive Rodwell‐Hoskins mechanism, Rossby‐wave‐induced subsidence to the west of the diabatic heating interacts with the convection zone. Because of the shape of South America, the interactive Rodwell‐Hoskins mechanism is of comparable importance to ventilation. Soil moisture feedback also helps limit poleward movement of the continental convergence zone, but its effect is relatively weak compared to the above two effects. The characteristic northwest‐southeast tilt of the continental convergence zone appears to be due to a combination of ventilation and the interactive Rodwell‐Hoskins mechanism.
HIGH-RESOLUTION FINITE-VOLUME METHOD FOR SHALLOW WATER FLOWS

A high-resolution time-marching method is presented for solving the two-dimensional shallow water equations. The method uses a cell-centered formulation with collocated data rather than a space-staggered approach. Spurious oscillations are avoided by employing Monotonic Upstream Schemes for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) reconstruction with an approximate Riemann solver in a two-step Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme. A finite-volume implementation on a boundary conforming mesh is chosen to more accurately map the complex geometries that will occur in practice. These features enable the model to deal with dam break phenomena involving flow discontinuities, subcritical and supercritical flows, and other cases. The method is applied to several bore wave propagation and dam break problems.
Characterization of LysBC17, a Lytic Endopeptidase from Bacillus cereus

Bacillus cereus, a Gram-positive bacterium, is an agent of food poisoning. B. cereus is closely related to Bacillus anthracis, a deadly pathogen for humans, and Bacillus thuringenesis, an insect pathogen. Due to the growing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, alternative antimicrobials are needed. One such alternative is peptidoglycan hydrolase enzymes, which can lyse Gram-positive bacteria when exposed externally. A bioinformatic search for bacteriolytic enzymes led to the discovery of a gene encoding an endolysin-like endopeptidase, LysBC17, which was then cloned from the genome of B. cereus strain Bc17. This gene is also present in the B. cereus ATCC 14579 genome. The gene for LysBC17 encodes a protein of 281 amino acids. Recombinant LysBC17 was expressed and purified from E. coli. Optimal lytic activity against B. cereus occurred between pH 7.0 and 8.0, and in the absence of NaCl. The LysBC17 enzyme had lytic activity against strains of B. cereus, B. anthracis, and other Bacillus species.
Differences between Southalpine and Austroalpine quartzphyllite complexes Eastern Alps: results from zircon chemical compositions and Pb/Pb dating

We applied the zircon evaporation method and zircon typological and compositional studies to detrital-zircon populations of quartzphyllite complexes of the Eastern Alps, including the Southalpine (Vetriolo and Recoaro) and the Austroalpine (Goldeck, Gailtal, and Thurntaler) complexes. Combined zircon morphology and geochemical and geochronological analyses (single-zircon evaporation technique) provided significant constraints for the age of the studied protoliths. The morphological study points out that zircons from Austroalpine and Southalpine quartzphyllites show substantial differences in terms of shape, colour, size, type of inclusions, cracks, and turbidity. Electron microprobe analyses (Si, Zr, Hf, P: HREE) indicate homogeneous compositions, suggesting common source areas characterized by granitoid rocks, whereas typology indicates the existence of two distinct groups. Zircon ages from the quartzphyllites are rather different, those from Austroalpine samples being younger than Southalpine ones. Pb–Pb zircon ages define two principal evolutionary sequences. The Austroalpine complexes are characterized by an older evolution typical of subduction-related magmatism. This started by 598 Ma N-MORB-type, mainly involving depleted mantle sources, and finished with 379–341 Ma acid suites typical of a crustal source. Southalpine complexes zircon ages show an evolution characterized by tholeiitic and 473 Ma alkaline within-plate basalt-type suites in both pre- and post-Early Ordovician units. It involved intraplate mantle metasomatism and an enrichment trend along multicomponent sources. These magmatic evolution lines can be related to a plate-tectonic scenario that involved terrane accretion in a progressively mature Neoproterozoic to Ordovician active margin and a subsequent Palaeo-Tethys passive margin along the north Gondwanan periphery.
Topsentinol L Trisulfate, a Marine Natural Product That Targets Basal-like and Claudin-Low Breast Cancers

Patients diagnosed with basal-like breast cancer suffer from poor prognosis and limited treatment options. There is an urgent need to identify new targets that can benefit patients with basal-like and claudin-low (BL-CL) breast cancers. We screened fractions from our Marine Invertebrate Compound Library (MICL) to identify compounds that specifically target BL-CL breast cancers. We identified a previously unreported trisulfated sterol, i.e., topsentinol L trisulfate (TLT), which exhibited increased efficacy against BL-CL breast cancers relative to luminal/HER2+ breast cancer. Biochemical investigation of the effects of TLT on BL-CL cell lines revealed its ability to inhibit activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) and to promote activation of p38. The importance of targeting AMPK and CHK1 in BL-CL cell lines was validated by treating a panel of breast cancer cell lines with known small molecule inhibitors of AMPK (dorsomorphin) and CHK1 (Ly2603618) and recording the increased effectiveness against BL-CL breast cancers as compared with luminal/HER2+ breast cancer. Finally, we generated a drug response gene-expression signature and projected it against a human tumor panel of 12 different cancer types to identify other cancer types sensitive to the compound. The TLT sensitivity gene-expression signature identified breast and bladder cancer as the most sensitive to TLT, while glioblastoma multiforme was the least sensitive.
Surface water balance of the continental United States, 1963–1995: Regional evaluation of a terrestrial biosphere model and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis

The land surface water balance of the continental United States is analyzed from 1963 to 1995 using a terrestrial biosphere model (IBIS), reanalysis data from NCEP/NCAR, a hydrologic routing model (HYDRA), and numerous observational data sets. Emphasis is placed on evaluating the performance of IBIS and the reanalysis, particularly over the central United States. IBIS is forced with daily climatic inputs from NCEP; an additional simulation is performed using observed precipitation. The NCEP reanalysis is found to have excessive precipitation and evapotranspiration over the central United States (particularly in the summertime), an exaggerated seasonal cycle of runoff, and low snow depths. The net surface water balance exhibits a dry bias that is corrected by nudging soil moisture toward climatology. Unfortunately, this correction term is large and appears to have a detrimental impact on other water balance components (particularly runoff). Fields that are reasonably well simulated in the reanalysis include fall and winter precipitation over the central United States, soil moisture in Illinois, and interannual variations in runoff. Results from the IBIS simulations show generally better agreement with observations than the NCEP reanalysis but continue to have nontrivial errors in certain fields. Over the central United States, these discrepancies include high winter/spring evapotranspiration (1 mm d−1 too high), low snow depth, and weak spring runoff (30–50% too low). The errors are at least partially caused by underestimated cloud cover and early spring green-up. A spatial analysis of the U.S. water balance reveals that some of the strongest seasonal and interannual variations in precipitation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture occur over the central United States.
Resource Management for Airborne Surveillance Radars

This paper will discuss the radar resource management research currently being undertaken at Thales Aerospace. A detailed simulation of a radar resource manager and the associated environment and target models has been produced in order to investigate resource management and its integration with tracking, as well as its application to an airborne surveillance radar and related scenarios. Several potential benefits may be predicted through the use of such a system as compared to a conventional track-while-scan (TWS) radar, including increased detection range, reduced track initiation time, and the ability to more intelligently consider secondary sources of information such as digital terrain elevation data and a clutter map when making decisions. Several example problems are discussed in this paper, with simulation results presented, including the use of adaptive track update times for the case where two or more tracks mix, the use of a target likelihood function to schedule additional looks for targets in a clutter environment and so reduce track initialisation time, and operator interface considerations. (7 pages)
Colon Ascendens Stent Peritonitis (CASP) - a Standardized Model for Polymicrobial Abdominal Sepsis

Sepsis remains a persistent problem on intensive care units all over the world. Understanding the complex mechanisms of sepsis is the precondition for establishing new therapeutic approaches in this field. Therefore, animal models are required that are able to closely mimic the human disease and also sufficiently deal with scientific questions. The Colon Ascendens Stent Peritonitis (CASP) is a highly standardized model for polymicrobial abdominal sepsis in rodents. In this model, a small stent is surgically inserted into the ascending colon of mice or rats leading to a continuous leakage of intestinal bacteria into the peritoneal cavity. The procedure results in peritonitis, systemic bacteraemia, organ infection by gut bacteria, and systemic but also local release of several pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. The lethality of CASP can be controlled by the diameter of the inserted stent. A variant of this model, the so-called CASP with intervention (CASPI), raises opportunity to remove the septic focus by a second operation according to common procedures in clinical practice. CASP is an easily learnable and highly reproducible model that closely mimics the clinical course of abdominal sepsis. It leads way to study on questions in several scientific fields e.g. immunology, infectiology, or surgery.
Remodeling of pSK1 Family Plasmids and Enhanced Chlorhexidine Tolerance in a Dominant Hospital Lineage of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a significant human pathogen whose evolution and adaptation have been shaped in part by mobile genetic elements (MGEs), facilitating the global spread of extensive antimicrobial resistance. However, our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics surrounding MGEs, in particular, how changes in the structure of multidrug resistance (MDR) plasmids may influence important staphylococcal phenotypes, is incomplete. ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is a significant human pathogen whose evolution and adaptation have been shaped in part by mobile genetic elements (MGEs), facilitating the global spread of extensive antimicrobial resistance. However, our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics surrounding MGEs, in particular, how changes in the structure of multidrug resistance (MDR) plasmids may influence important staphylococcal phenotypes, is incomplete. Here, we undertook a population and functional genomics study of 212 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) sequence type 239 (ST239) isolates collected over 32 years to explore the evolution of the pSK1 family of MDR plasmids, illustrating how these plasmids have coevolved with and contributed to the successful adaptation of this persistent MRSA lineage. Using complete genomes and temporal phylogenomics, we reconstructed the evolution of the pSK1 family lineage from its emergence in the late 1970s and found that multiple structural variants have arisen. Plasmid maintenance and stability were linked to IS256- and IS257-mediated chromosomal integration and disruption of the plasmid replication machinery. Overlaying genomic comparisons with phenotypic susceptibility data for gentamicin, trimethoprim, and chlorhexidine, it appeared that pSK1 has contributed to enhanced resistance in ST239 MRSA isolates through two mechanisms: (i) acquisition of plasmid-borne resistance mechanisms increasing the rates of gentamicin resistance and reduced chlorhexidine susceptibility and (ii) changes in the plasmid configuration linked with further enhancement of chlorhexidine tolerance. While the exact mechanism of enhanced tolerance remains elusive, this research has uncovered a potential evolutionary response of ST239 MRSA to biocides, one of which may contribute to the ongoing persistence and adaptation of this lineage within health care institutions.
The Essential Implications of Gender in Human Behavioral Endocrinology Studies

Carney et al. (2010) recently published a study in which they examined the effect of assuming “high- and low-power” body postures on changes in testosterone levels in men and women. To do so, they randomly assigned participants to two groups (high-power and low-power), and then placed them in two successive 1-min poses appropriate for their group. They reported that “high-power” poses produced testosterone increases in participants and “low-power” poses produced testosterone decrements, while collapsing over gender in their analyses. This study tested an important hypothesis regarding the effects of dominance posturing on endocrine changes that may be critical precursors to dominance competition, in which dominance posturing could lead to pre-competition changes in testosterone that influence the impending dominance competition (Mazur, 1985; Salvador et al., 2003; Gleason et al., 2009; Edwards and Kurlander, 2010). While Carney et al. (2010) asked an important research question, there are a number of methodological and analytical factors regarding gender and testosterone that must be considered in greater detail before their data can be fully understood and used to motivate future research.
Stimulus discriminability may bias value-based probabilistic learning

Reinforcement learning tasks are often used to assess participants’ tendency to learn more from the positive or more from the negative consequences of one’s action. However, this assessment often requires comparison in learning performance across different task conditions, which may differ in the relative salience or discriminability of the stimuli associated with more and less rewarding outcomes, respectively. To address this issue, in a first set of studies, participants were subjected to two versions of a common probabilistic learning task. The two versions differed with respect to the stimulus (Hiragana) characters associated with reward probability. The assignment of character to reward probability was fixed within version but reversed between versions. We found that performance was highly influenced by task version, which could be explained by the relative perceptual discriminability of characters assigned to high or low reward probabilities, as assessed by a separate discrimination experiment. Participants were more reliable in selecting rewarding characters that were more discriminable, leading to differences in learning curves and their sensitivity to reward probability. This difference in experienced reinforcement history was accompanied by performance biases in a test phase assessing ability to learn from positive vs. negative outcomes. In a subsequent large-scale web-based experiment, this impact of task version on learning and test measures was replicated and extended. Collectively, these findings imply a key role for perceptual factors in guiding reward learning and underscore the need to control stimulus discriminability when making inferences about individual differences in reinforcement learning.
Multiple fluvial processes detected by riverside seismic and infrasound monitoring of a controlled flood in the Grand Canyon

As rivers transport water and sediment across Earth's surface, they radiate elastic and acoustic waves. We use seismic and infrasound observations during a controlled flood experiment (CFE) in the Grand Canyon to show that three types of fluvial processes can be monitored from outside the channel. First, bed‐load transport under conditions of evolving bed mobility is identified as the dominant seismic source between 15 and 45 Hz. Two lower‐frequency seismic bands also excited by the CFE exhibited greater power increases and are consistent with source processes related to fluid rather than sediment transport. The second fluvial seismic source is inferred to be fluid tractions on the rough riverbed, which drive the maximum seismic power increase at 0.73 Hz, but do not excite infrasound. Waves at the fluid‐air interface are suggested as a third source, which generates a common 6–7 Hz peak in seismic and infrasound responses to the CFE.
Characterising the impact of pneumonia on outcome in non-small cell lung cancer: identifying preventative strategies

Background Infections remain a part of the natural course of cancer, and lung cancer patients often present with some form of respiratory infection that can lead to their ultimate demise. Methods Data was gathered concerning all unplanned hospital admissions (UHAs) to our centre from three separate patient cohorts; non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (cohort 1), “other cancer” patients (breast, prostate, colon) (cohort 2) and all non-cancer patients (cohort 3). Results Across the three cohorts, there were 455, 1,190 and 54,158 individual patient UHAs to our centre respectively. Within the NSCLC cohort, 164 UHAs were as a direct result of pneumonia (36.0%), compared to 1.3% and 2.2% in the other two cohorts (P<0.0001). In-hospital mortality and length of hospital stay were significantly higher in the pneumonia sub-group of NSCLC patients only compared with the other two patient cohorts (P<0.0001 and P=0.011 respectively). Within the NSCLC cohort, Patient age, pneumococcal vaccination status, pneumonia admission, smoking status and specific tumour stages were identified as significant independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality. Odds ratios of 0.160 for positive vaccination status and 9.522 for pneumonia admission indicate that for NSCLC patients admitted to hospital with a pneumonia without previous pneumococcal vaccination in the last 5 years, the odds of death were almost 60-fold higher. Conclusions Vigilance for infection, early diagnosis with adequate assessment and efforts to identify a culprit organism should be a priority when faced with these patients. Infection prevention strategies should be further explored to address this high mortality risk in NSCLC.
MISR aerosol optical depth retrievals over southern Africa during the SAFARI‐2000 Dry Season Campaign

This paper presents, for the first time, retrievals of aerosol optical depths from Multi‐angle Imaging Spectro‐Radiometer (MISR) observations over land. Application of the MISR operational algorithm to data taken over southern Africa during the SAFARI‐2000 dry season campaign yields results that compare favorably with coincident surface‐based measurements taken by the AERONET radiometer network.
A blue/green water‐based accounting framework for assessment of water security

A comprehensive assessment of water security can incorporate several water‐related concepts, while accounting for Blue and Green Water (BW and GW) types defined in accordance with the hydrological processes involved. Here we demonstrate how a quantitative analysis of provision probability and use of BW and GW can be conducted, so as to provide indicators of water scarcity and vulnerability at the basin level. To illustrate the approach, we use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the hydrology of an agricultural basin (291 km2) within the Cantareira Water Supply System in Brazil. To provide a more comprehensive basis for decision making, we analyze the BW and GW‐Footprint components against probabilistic levels (50th and 30th percentile) of freshwater availability for human activities, during a 23 year period. Several contrasting situations of BW provision are distinguished, using different hydrological‐based methodologies for specifying monthly Environmental Flow Requirements (EFRs), and the risk of natural EFR violation is evaluated by use of a freshwater provision index. Our results reveal clear spatial and temporal patterns of water scarcity and vulnerability levels within the basin. Taking into account conservation targets for the basin, it appears that the more restrictive EFR methods are more appropriate than the method currently employed at the study basin. The blue/green water‐based accounting framework developed here provides a useful integration of hydrologic, ecosystem and human needs information on a monthly basis, thereby improving our understanding of how and where water‐related threats to human and aquatic ecosystem security can arise.
Application of nanogel systems in the administration of local anesthetics

Nanogels are robust nanoparticles that could be used to deliver active drug compounds in controlled drug delivery applications. This review discusses the design, synthesis, loading, and release of local anesthetics using polymeric nanoparticles produced via various types of polymerization techniques. The strategy of using layer-by-layer approach to control the burst release of procaine hydrochloride (PrHy; a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group) is described and discussed.