Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Foreground Contamination on the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measured by MAP

We study the effects of diffuse Galactic, far-infrared extragalactic source, and radio point source emission on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data anticipated from the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) experiment. We focus on the correlation function and genus statistics measured from mock MAP foreground-contaminated CMB anisotropy maps generated in a spatially flat cosmological constant-dominated cosmological model. Analyses of the simulated MAP data at 90 GHz (0.°3 FWHM resolution smoothed) show that foreground effects on the correlation function are small compared with cosmic variance. However, the Galactic emission, even just from the region with |b| > 20°, significantly affects the topology of CMB anisotropy, causing a negative genus shift non-Gaussianity signal. Given the expected level of cosmic variance, this effect can be effectively reduced by subtracting existing Galactic foreground emission models from the observed data. IRAS and DIRBE far-infrared extragalactic sources have little effect on the CMB anisotropy. Radio point sources raise the amplitude of the correlation function considerably on scales below 0. °5 and also result in an asymmetry of the genus curve (at 2 σ) on 0. °5 scales. While the removal of bright sources above the 5 σ detection limit effectively reduces the excess correlation, the genus asymmetry remains significant. Accurate radio point source data are essential for an unambiguous detection of CMB anisotropy non-Gaussianity on these scales. When all the foreground sources are subtracted from the observed CMB anisotropy map, non-Gaussianity of cosmological origin can be detected at the 2 σ level if the measured genus shift parameter |Δν| ≳ 0.02 (0.04) or if the measured genus asymmetry parameter |Δg| ≳ 0.03 (0.08) on a 0. °3 (1.°0) FWHM scale.
Climatic trend and the retreat and disintegration of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula: an overview

Observation of the retreat and disintegration of ice shelves around the Antarctic Peninsula during the last three decades and associated changes in air temperature, measured at various meteorological stations on the Antarctic Peninsula, are reviewed. The climatically induced retreat of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf on the east coast and of the Wordie, George VI, and Wilkins ice shelves on the west coast amounted to about 10 000 km2 since the mid-1960s. A summary is presented on the recession history of the Larsen Ice Shelf and on the collapse of those sections north of Robertson Island in early 1995. The area changes were derived from images of various satellites, dating back to a late 1963 image from the recently declassified US Argon space missions. This photograph reveals a previously unknown, minor advance of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf before 1975. During the period of retreat a consistent and pronounced warming trend was observed at the stations on both east and west coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula, but a major cause of the fast retreat and final collapse of the northernmost sections of the Larsen Ice Shelf were several unusually warm summers. Temperature records from the nearby station Marambio show that a positive mean summer temperature was reached for the first time in 1992-93. Recent observations indicate that the process of ice shelf disintegration is proceeding further south on both sides of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Temporal structure analysis of broadcast tennis video using hidden Markov models

This work aims at recovering the temporal structure of a broadcast tennis video from an analysis of the raw footage. Our method relies on a statistical model of the interleaving of shots, in order to group shots into predefined classes representing structural elements of a tennis video. This stochastic modeling is performed in the global framework of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). The fundamental units are shots and transitions. In a first step, colors and motion attributes of segmented shots are used to map shots into 2 classes: game (view of the full tennis court) and not game (medium, close up views, and commercials). In a second step, a trained HMM is used to analyze the temporal interleaving of shots. This analysis results in the identification of more complex structures, such as first missed services, short rallies that could be aces or services, long rallies, breaks that are significant of the end of a game and replays that highlight interesting points. These higher-level unit structures can be used either to create summaries, or to allow non-linear browsing of the video.
The DoF of the asymmetric MIMO interference channel with square direct link channel matrices

This paper studies the sum Degrees of Freedom (DoF) of K-user asymmetric MIMO Interference Channel (IC) with square direct link channel matrices, that is, the u-th transmitter and its intended receiver have Mu ϵ N antennas each, where Mu need not be the same for all u ϵ [1 : K]. Starting from a 3-user example, it is shown that existing cooperation-based outer bounds are insufficient to characterize the DoF. Moreover, it is shown that two distinct operating regimes exist. With a dominant user, i.e., a user that has more antennas than the other two users combined, it is DoF optimal to let that user transmit alone on the IC. Otherwise, it is DoF optimal to decompose and operate the 3-user MIMO IC as an (M1 + M2 + M3)-user SISO IC. This indicates that MIMO operations are useless from a DoF perspective in systems without a dominant user. The main contribution of the paper is the derivation of a novel outer bound for the general K-user case that is tight in the regime where a dominant user is not present; this is done by generalizing the insights from the 3-user example to an arbitrary number of users.
Effect of severity of disability on survival in north east England cerebral palsy cohort

AIMS To investigate the effect of motor and cognitive disabilities on the survival of people on the North of England Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Survey, and compare this with other published results. METHODS The cerebral palsy cohort consists of 1960–1990 births in Northumberland, Newcastle, and North Tyneside health districts. Survival and cause of death were analysed in relation to data on birth, disabilities, and a unique measure of the impact of disability. RESULTS Disability strongly influences survival. More than a third of those with a severe disability die before age 30. Fewer than a third of deaths are attributed to cerebral palsy on death certificates. Of those with severe cognitive disability, 63% live to age 35 (58% with severe ambulatory disability and 53% with severe manual disability), whereas at least 98% without severe disabilities live to age 35. The Lifestyle Assessment Score (LAS) allows a finer categorisation of impact of disability, and is strongly associated with survival: a ten point increase in LAS is associated with a doubling of the hazard rate. People who had LAS of at least 70, and had survived to age 5 have a 39% chance of dying before age 35. CONCLUSIONS The majority of people with cerebral palsy attain adulthood. There appears to be more variation in survival rates associated with severe disability between regions of England, than between north east England, British Columbia, and California. Instantaneous risks of dying vary widely between England and California. This variation is not obviously attributable to differing rates of severe disability.
Submicron desert dusts: A sandblasting process

Mass size distributions of the major elements of the mineral aerosol of northern Sahara were obtained from measurements carried out with an inertial cascade impactor. A fitting procedure by data inversion was applied to these data. This technique considers the major mechanisms of nonideal behavior such as particle bounce-off, wall losses and cross sensitivity which affect the accuracy of impactor measurements of aerosol size distribution. Accurate size distributions of Saharan aerosol (range 0.1-20 {mu}m) were so obtained for different conditions of soil mobilization. These measurements, coupled with wind speed information, show the shape of the size distribution for desert aerosols in the considered range to be characterized by a similar pattern with a common mode of particles having diameter between 1 and 20 {mu}m whatever the weather conditions. A second mass peak of submicron particles appears when the wind speed increases above the threshold value for erosion. Scanning electron microscope photographs indicate that the whole granulometric spectrum of the sampled aerosol between 0.1 and 20 {mu}m mainly consists of clay easily disaggregated by sandblasting. The common origin of submicron particles with those between 1 and 20 {mu}m is established by showing the similar composition of dusts in the both modes.more » The results suggest that the presence of submicron mineral particles during dusty and sandstorm conditions is consistent with a sandblasting process. « less
Improving graphical password resistant to shoulder-surfing using 4-way recognition-based sequence reproduction (RBSR4)

Passwords are widely used when accessing computers, networks, accounts and websites. A big draw back of password is called password problem which is not being resist against several password attacks such as guessing, dictionary attack, key-loggers, shoulder-surfing and social engineering. Other than being secure against these attacks passwords should be easy to remember. Usability and security are two important issues to be concerned about while working with passwords. Graphical passwords seem to be the solution as it is described more in the paper. A graphical password is an authentication system that works by having the user select from images, in a specific order, presented in a graphical user interface (GUI). Despite the high standards of Graphical Passwords, they are still vulnerable to some kinds of attacks. Our goal is to propose a new Graphical Password scheme that takes advantage of graphical input displays capabilities to achieve better security than text-based passwords. The proposed research is an approach to enhance the existing Graphical Password techniques and resist against attacks like Shoulder Surfing. This system can be improved to provide a wider password space if more server variables are involved (such as date). Study on robustness of the system against Sniffing can be suggested for further study.
Glycine receptors and brain development

Glycine receptors (GlyRs) are ligand-gated chloride ion channels that mediate fast inhibitory neurotransmission in the spinal cord and the brainstem. There, they are mainly involved in motor control and pain perception in the adult. However, these receptors are also expressed in upper regions of the central nervous system, where they participate in different processes including synaptic neurotransmission. Moreover, GlyRs are present since early stages of brain development and might influence this process. Here, we discuss the current state of the art regarding GlyRs during embryonic and postnatal brain development in light of recent findings about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control brain development.
Canadian Inuit subsistence and ecological instability— if the climate changes, must the Inuit?

Considerable attention has been devoted to the possible effects of global climate change on the environment of the circumpolar world. With regard to the Inuit, the aboriginal culture of Arctic Canada, research interest has focused principally on the vulnerability of the hunting and harvesting component of the traditional food system, otherwise frequently referred to as the subsistence system, if wild terrestrial and marine resources become less available. Although also concerned with the traditional Inuit food economy, this paper concentrates on the customary institutional mechanisms by which the Inuit distribute and share the products obtained from hunting. After analysing this social economy, a review of the data on recent climate-related range changes of a number of Arctic animal populations is carried out, in terms of how projected environmental changes may affect this other aspect of Inuit subsistence. After tentatively concluding that some species substitution and/or replacement will occur, the final aspect of the paper considers the potential for the possible exclusion of these “replacements” as a result of the political aspect of climate change.
Joint modeling of survival and longitudinal non‐survival data: current methods and issues. Report of the DIA Bayesian joint modeling working group

Explicitly modeling underlying relationships between a survival endpoint and processes that generate longitudinal measured or reported outcomes potentially could improve the efficiency of clinical trials and provide greater insight into the various dimensions of the clinical effect of interventions included in the trials. Various strategies have been proposed for using longitudinal findings to elucidate intervention effects on clinical outcomes such as survival. The application of specifically Bayesian approaches for constructing models that address longitudinal and survival outcomes explicitly has been recently addressed in the literature. We review currently available methods for carrying out joint analyses, including issues of implementation and interpretation, identify software tools that can be used to carry out the necessary calculations, and review applications of the methodology. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The pallid mouse. A model of genetic alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.

BACKGROUND The current hypothesis of pulmonary emphysema is based on an alteration of the protease-antiprotease balance within the lower respiratory tract. This hypothesis derives largely from studies in emphysema patients with genetic deficiency in serum alpha 1-antitrypsin. In animals, naturally occurring deficiency in serum elastase inhibitory capacity associated with early development of emphysema has been reported in the tight-skin mouse. We describe here a mouse model of genetic deficiency of alpha 1-antitrypsin in which emphysema occurs late in life. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN A genetic deficiency in serum alpha 1-antitrypsin was investigated in pallid mice, a strain with spontaneous occurring emphysema. Additionally, the possible pathogenetic role of an elastase-anti-elastase imbalance in pallid mice was investigated using molecular biologic, biochemical, histologic, ultrastructural, and immunoelectron microscopic methods. RESULTS Pallid mice have markedly low levels of serum alpha 1-antitrypsin associated with a severe deficiency in serum elastase inhibitory capacity. However, they have normal alpha 1-antitrypsin mRNA levels in the liver. At ultrastructural examination, disruption of alveolar septa is first seen at 8 months of age. At histologic examination, some patchy areas of air-space enlargement with destruction of alveolar septa are seen from 12 months of age onward. These histologic changes are paralleled by a decrease in lung elastin content. The development of the pulmonary lesions is preceded by an alveolar elastolytic burden detected by an immunogold technique. CONCLUSIONS All these data suggest that the lung changes in pallid mice are the result of an elastolytic process due to a severe inborn deficiency of serum alpha 1-antitrypsin. This animal model reproduces important features of the human condition and may provide new insights into the pathogenesis of emphysema.
Strategies for Reducing or Preventing the Generation of Oxidative Stress

The reduction of oxidative stress could be achieved in three levels: by lowering exposure to environmental pollutants with oxidizing properties, by increasing levels of endogenous and exogenous antioxidants, or by lowering the generation of oxidative stress by stabilizing mitochondrial energy production and efficiency. Endogenous oxidative stress could be influenced in two ways: by prevention of ROS formation or by quenching of ROS with antioxidants. However, the results of epidemiological studies where people were treated with synthetic antioxidants are inconclusive and contradictory. Recent evidence suggests that antioxidant supplements (although highly recommended by the pharmaceutical industry and taken by many individuals) do not offer sufficient protection against oxidative stress, oxidative damage or increase the lifespan. The key to the future success of decreasing oxidative-stress-induced damage should thus be the suppression of oxidative damage without disrupting the wellintegrated antioxidant defense network. Approach to neutralize free radicals with antioxidants should be changed into prevention of free radical formation. Thus, this paper addresses oxidative stress and strategies to reduce it with the focus on nutritional and psychosocial interventions of oxidative stress prevention, that is, methods to stabilize mitochondria structure and energy efficiency, or approaches which would increase endogenous antioxidative protection and repair systems.
Evaluation of nutritional and economic feed values of spent coffee grounds and Artemisia princeps residues as a ruminant feed using in vitro ruminal fermentation

Much research on animal feed has focused on finding alternative feed ingredients that can replace conventional ones (e.g., grains and beans) to reduce feed costs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic, as well as nutritional value of spent coffee grounds (SCG) and Japanese mugwort (Artemisia princeps) residues (APR) as alternative feed ingredients for ruminants. We also investigated whether pre-fermentation using Lactobacillus spp. was a feasible way to increase the feed value of these by-products. Chemical analyses and an in vitro study were conducted for SCG, APR, and their pre-fermented forms. All the experimental diets for in vitro ruminal fermentation were formulated to contain a similar composition of crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and total digestible nutrients at 1x maintenance feed intake based on the dairy National Research Council (NRC). The control diet was composed of ryegrass, corn, soybean meal, whereas the treatments consisted of SCG, SCG fermented with Lactobacillus spp. (FSCG), APR, and its fermented form (FAPR). The treatment diets replaced 100 g/kg dry matter (DM) of the feed ingredients in the control. Costs were lower for the all treatments, except FAPR, than that of the control. After 24-h incubation, the NDF digestibility of the diets containing SCG and its fermented form were significantly lower than those of the other diets (P < 0.01); pre-fermentation tended to increase NDF digestibility (P = 0.07), especially for APR. Supplementation of SCG significantly decreased total gas production (ml/g DM) after 24-h fermentation in comparison with the control (P < 0.05); however, there were no significant differences between the control and the SCG or the APR diets in total gas production, as expressed per Korean Won (KRW). Diets supplemented with SCG or FSCG tended to have a higher total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration, expressed as per KRW, compared with the control (P = 0.06). Conversely, the fermentation process of SCG and APR significantly decreased total gas production and VFA production as expressed per KRW (P < 0.05). Because of their nutrient composition and relatively lower cost, we concluded that SCG and APR could be used as alternative feed sources, replacing conventional feed ingredients. However, pre-fermentation of agricultural by-products, such as SCG and APR, may be inappropriate for improving their nutritive considering the increase in production costs.
A study of lightning flashes attending periods of banded snowfall

Lightning flashes (N = 1088) associated with 24 thundersnow events in the central United States were analyzed to document flash polarity, signal strength, and multiplicity. Negative lightning flashes (N = 872; 80%) dominated positive flashes (N = 216; 20%) with wintry precipitation in this study, which stands in contrast to the majority of the research done on winter thunderstorms (primarily in Japan). Otherwise, limited work has been done, although thundersnow has been documented in the mid‐latitudes of North America, Europe and Asia. Statistics on peak amplitude were determined for negative (positive) flashes, yielding mean and standard deviation values of −24 kA ± 22 kA (+38 kA ± 34 kA). A subset of winter lightning events (N = 16) were then sought that occurred with banded (single or multiple) snowfall, as banding often denotes greater organization in the atmosphere (e.g., a jet streak aloft to aid in ascent, or a low level jet streak to aid with moisture and thermal transport) and thus the potential for deeper snow totals. Radar reflectivity values were recorded at the location of each lightning flash, as well as the maximum radar reflectivity within the associated snow band. The location of the lightning activity within the snow band was also noted as being either leading edge (LE), trailing edge (TE), core (C), or not correlated (NC), with respect to the motion of the parent band. The majority of lightning flashes were found downstream of areas of highest radar reflectivity with respect to the motion of the snow bands, and not with the highest reflectivity values. If one uses the highest reflectivity values in a snowband as a proxy for the greatest surface snowfall intensity, then the ground terminus of a cloud‐to‐ground lightning (CG) flash is often not co‐located with the heaviest snowfall rates. However, the work completed here does place the location of the typical CG flash ∼15 km downstream of the snowband location, so one could use the occurrence of lightning as a nowcasting tool for impending snow intensification at the site of the CG flash.
Codes correcting phased burst erasures

We introduce a family of binary array codes of size t/spl times/n, correcting multiple phased burst erasures of size t. The codes achieve maximal correcting capability, i.e., being considered as codes over GF(2/sup t/) they are MDS. The length of the codes is n=/spl Sigma//sub l=1//sup L/(/sub l//sup t/) where L is a constant or is slowly growing in t. The complexity of encoding and decoding is proportional to rnmL where r is the number of correctable erasures, and m is the smallest number such that 2/sup t/=1 modulo m. This compares favorably with the complexity of decoding codes obtained from the shortened general Reed-Solomon codes having the same parameters.