Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Clouds Observed by MODIS Onboard the Terra and Aqua Satellites

Cloud properties have been retrieved from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over 12 years of continuous observations from Terra and over nine years from Aqua. Results include the spatial and temporal distribution of cloud fraction, the cloud top pressure and cloud top temperature, and the cloud optical thickness and effective radius of both liquid water and ice clouds. Globally, the cloud fraction derived by the MODIS cloud mask is ~ 67%, with somewhat more clouds over land during the afternoon and less clouds over ocean in the afternoon, with very little difference in global cloud cover between Terra and Aqua. Overall, the cloud fraction over land is ~ 55%, with a distinctive seasonal cycle, whereas the ocean cloudiness is much higher, around 72%, with much reduced seasonal variation. Aqua and Terra have comparable zonal cloud top pressures, with Aqua having somewhat higher clouds (cloud top pressures lower by 100 hPa) over land due to afternoon deep convection. The coldest cloud tops (colder than 230 K) generally occur over Antarctica and the high clouds in the tropics. The cloud effective particle radius of liquid water clouds is significantly larger over ocean (mode 12-13 μm) than land (mode 10-11 μm), consistent with the variation in hygroscopic aerosol concentrations that provide cloud condensation nuclei necessary for cloud formation. We also find the effective radius to be 2-3 μm larger in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere, likely reflecting differences in sources of cloud condensation nuclei.
An RNA interference screen identifies druggable regulators of MeCP2 stability

Inhibition of proteins that stabilize MeCP2 is a potential strategy to treat MECP2 duplication syndrome. An HIP strategy for treating MeCP2 disorders The role of altered gene dosage is increasingly being recognized in neuropsychiatric disorders and intellectual disability (ID). Even a twofold change in the dose of methyl-CpG–binding protein 2 (MeCP2)—either increased or decreased—results in distinct disorders with overlapping features including ID, autistic behavior, and severe motor dysfunction. In a new work, Lombardi et al. identified four regulators of MeCP2 stability and validated regulation of MeCP2 by PP2A and HIPK2 in vivo. They then demonstrated that pharmacological inhibition of PP2A was sufficient to partially rescue MeCP2 overexpression and certain motor abnormalities in a mouse model of MECP2 duplication syndrome. Alterations in gene dosage due to copy number variation are associated with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability (ID), and other psychiatric disorders. The nervous system is so acutely sensitive to the dose of methyl-CpG–binding protein 2 (MeCP2) that even a twofold change in MeCP2 protein—either increased or decreased—results in distinct disorders with overlapping features including ID, autistic behavior, and severe motor dysfunction. Rett syndrome is caused by loss-of-function mutations in MECP2, whereas duplications spanning the MECP2 locus result in MECP2 duplication syndrome (MDS), which accounts for ~1% of X-linked ID. Despite evidence from mouse models that restoring MeCP2 can reverse the course of disease, there are currently no U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved therapies available to clinically modulate MeCP2 abundance. We used a forward genetic screen against all known human kinases and phosphatases to identify druggable regulators of MeCP2 stability. Two putative modulators of MeCP2, HIPK2 (homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2) and PP2A (protein phosphatase 2A), were validated as stabilizers of MeCP2 in vivo. Further, pharmacological inhibition of PP2A in vivo reduced MeCP2 in the nervous system and rescued both overexpression and motor abnormalities in a mouse model of MDS. Our findings reveal potential therapeutic targets for treating disorders of altered MECP2 dosage.
KaRIn on SWOT: Characteristics of Near-Nadir Ka-Band Interferometric SAR Imagery

The principal instrument of the NASA/CNES wide-swath altimetry mission Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), a bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system operating on near-nadir swaths on both sides of the satellite track. There are limited reports on backscattering from natural surfaces at this short wavelength and particular observation geometry. Near-field backscattering measurements on water, as well as the first interferometric airborne SAR acquisitions at Ka-band covering the 0.6 °-3.9 ° incidence range of KaRIn, were therefore conducted. The experimental results confirm expected characteristics of near-nadir Ka-band interferometric SAR imagery, such as strong water/land radiometric contrast (typically in the order of 10 dB) and very high interferometric coherence on water.
Efficient Distributed Joint Detection of Widespread Events in Large Networked Systems

The Internet has become a fundamental platform for virtually all social, economical and security activities in modern societies. Monitoring widespread events on the Internet has many important applications in social trend studies and distributed intrusion/attack detection. This paper studies the problem of distributed joint detection of widespread events observed by the collaborating network devices (called watchers). In order to work with a large number of watchers, the recent work requires a central coordinator to help detect the common events. The central coordinator however has the problems of single- point of failure, fairness and trust issue in coordinator placement, and communication bottleneck at the coordinator. This paper proposes a fully- distributed solution for joint detection of common events based on a peer-to-peer model without using a central coordinator. Our design adopts an iterative set-join process that follows the structure of a hypercube, which reduces the communication complexity from O(n m) to O(m log n), where m is the size of the largest event set at any device and n is the number of collaborating devices.
The Validity of FIM as a Predictor of Functional Independence of Stroke Patients: a Comparison between the Early and Late Elderly

[Purpose] This study examined the validity of admission FIM scores as predictors of functional independence, of “early” and “late” elderly patients with stroke in a post-acute rehabilitation unit. [Subjects] After excluding stroke patients with recurrence and complications, the remaining 286 (150 males and 136 females) patients aged 65 to 84 with stays of more than one month . [Methods] According to the level of ADL independence, based on motor and cognitive admission FIM scores, the patients were divided into 3 groups: completely dependent/maximal assistance; moderate/minimal assistance; and supervision/completely independent. Subsequently, time-dependent changes in FIM scores were analyzed to compare the “early” and “late” elderly, score-based groups, and measurements. [Results] Total motor and cognitive FIM scores on and after admission did not overlap among the three ADL independence groups, and showed linear time-dependent changes. Such changes were not observed in individual FIM item, while differences were shown in the period and degree of ADL improvement between the age-based groups. [Conclusion] Motor and cognitive FIM scores were shown to be valid as predictors of functional independence, regardless of age. Scores of individual items were shown to be generally inappropriate as predictors. As the period and degree of ADL improvement varied between the age-based groups, it may be important to continuously provide approaches not only for motor, but also cognitive functions over a long period of time, while considering the age and type of ADL, as well as the individual needs of each patient.
RNA binding proteins and the pathological cascade in ALS/FTD neurodegeneration

Mutant proteins associated with the neurodegenerative diseases ALS and FTD contribute to dysfunction of the intracellular RNA and protein quality control machineries, providing potential targets for developing new therapeutics. Advanced genetic approaches have accelerated the identification of causative genes linked to the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Most of the disease-related proteins encoded by these genes form aggregates in the cellular machineries that regulate RNA and protein quality control in cells. Cross-talk among the signaling pathways governing these machineries leads to pathological cascades mediated by the accumulation of mutant RNA binding proteins. We outline the molecular basis of ALS and FTD pathogenesis and discuss the prospects for therapeutic strategies to treat these diseases.
Tumor-homing cytotoxic human induced neural stem cells for cancer therapy

Human skin cells directly converted to induced neural stem cells seek out cancer foci and deliver therapeutic agents that inhibit glioblastoma progression. Stem cells on a mission Healthy neural stem cells can infiltrate and help treat brain tumors because they naturally migrate toward gliomas in response to chemotactic signals released by the tumor cells. Obtaining neural stem cells from a patient can be difficult, however, and donor stem cells pose a risk of immune rejection and other safety concerns. Bagó et al. have discovered a way to avoid these risks by taking normal human skin fibroblasts and transdifferentiating them into neural stem cells. The entire process took only 4 days to complete, yielding autologous patient-derived neural stem cells. The authors engineered these stem cells to deliver two different types of therapies and demonstrated their ability to infiltrate and effectively treat brain tumors in multiple mouse models. Engineered neural stem cells (NSCs) are a promising approach to treating glioblastoma (GBM). The ideal NSC drug carrier for clinical use should be easily isolated and autologous to avoid immune rejection. We transdifferentiated (TD) human fibroblasts into tumor-homing early-stage induced NSCs (h-iNSCTE), engineered them to express optical reporters and different therapeutic gene products, and assessed the tumor-homing migration and therapeutic efficacy of cytotoxic h-iNSCTE in patient-derived GBM models of surgical and nonsurgical disease. Molecular and functional analysis revealed that our single-factor SOX2 TD strategy converted human skin fibroblasts into h-iNSCTE that were nestin+ and expressed pathways associated with tumor-homing migration in 4 days. Time-lapse motion analysis showed that h-iNSCTE rapidly migrated to human GBM cells and penetrated human GBM spheroids, a process inhibited by blockade of CXCR4. Serial imaging showed that h-iNSCTE delivery of the proapoptotic agent tumor necrosis factor–α–related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) reduced the size of solid human GBM xenografts 250-fold in 3 weeks and prolonged median survival from 22 to 49 days. Additionally, h-iNSCTE thymidine kinase/ganciclovir enzyme/prodrug therapy (h-iNSCTE–TK) reduced the size of patient-derived GBM xenografts 20-fold and extended survival from 32 to 62 days. Mimicking clinical NSC therapy, h-iNSCTE–TK therapy delivered into the postoperative surgical resection cavity delayed the regrowth of residual GBMs threefold and prolonged survival from 46 to 60 days. These results suggest that TD of human skin into h-iNSCTE is a platform for creating tumor-homing cytotoxic cell therapies for cancer, where the potential to avoid carrier rejection could maximize treatment durability in human trials.
Enhanced subcarrier index modulation (SIM) OFDM

A novel modulation technique coined SIM-OFDM was recently proposed. SIM-OFDM uses different frequency carrier states to convey information and leads to increased performance in comparison to conventional OFDM. Additionally, its innovative structure can lead to a decrease of the peak system power, which is highly beneficial in the context of optical wireless communication. One of the issues of the original SIM-OFDM scheme is a potential bit error propagation which could lead to significant burst errors. The current paper proposes a modified technique which avoids bit error propagation whilst retaining the benefits of the concept.
Síndromes hipertensivas da gestação e repercussões perinatais

OBJECTIVES: to assess perinatal effects of pregnancy hypertensive syndromes. METHODS: hospital-based observational and retrospective study of a tertiary Brazilian center, from January, 1996 to October, 2003. Twelve thousand and two hundred and seventy two (12.272) pregnancies met the inclusion criteria. Two types of hypertension were considered: gestational hypertension (GH) and chronic hypertension (CH). Results of the study demonstrated that newborns of mothers with gestational hypertension and chronic hypertension were small for gestational age (SGA), had low Apgar score in the 1o and 5o minutes, neonatal infection, meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), prematurity and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). RESULTS: 1259 (10.26%) had hypertension, 344 (2.80%) were classified as GH, 915 (7.45%) as CH and 11.013 (89.74%) had no hypertension. GH was risk factor for SGA, low Apgar score in the first and fifth minutes, neonatal infection and prematurity, but not for MAS and RDS. CH was a risk factor for SGA, low Apgar score in the first minute, MAS, prematurity and RDS, but not for low Apgar score in the fifth minute and neonatal infection. When comparing the relative risk between CH and GH an increased risk for prematurity in CH was determined. CONCLUSIONS: our data suggest that CH and GH increased the risks for the outcomes studied. An increased risk for prematurity in CH was noted.
Practice Guidelines for Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy

These guidelines were formulated to assist physicians and other health care professionals with various aspects of the administration of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT). Although there are many reassuring retrospective studies on the efficacy and safety of OPAT, few prospective studies have been conducted to compare the risks and outcomes for patients who receive treatment as outpatients rather than as inpatients. Because truly evidence-based studies are lacking, the present guidelines are formulated from the collective experience of the committee members and advisors from related organizations.
Targeting Aurora kinase A and JAK2 prevents GVHD while maintaining Treg and antitumor CTL function

Inhibiting Aurora kinase A and JAK2 signal transduction pathways permits the differentiation of potent regulatory T cells while neutralizing alloreactive T cells and preventing graft-versus-host disease without impairing antitumor responses. Guiding T cells to stem GVHD Donor T cell–mediated graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a serious complication of stem cell transplantation, but complete inhibition of T cell activation might leave the patient susceptible to leukemia relapse. Betts et al. targeted two kinases involved in T cell costimulation and cytokine-responsiveness to blunt T cell responses. Dual targeting drove human CD4 T cells to become potently suppressive T regulatory cells instead of TH17 effector cells and also prevented GVHD in a humanized mouse model. CD8 T cells were capable of activation after a tumor challenge, indicating that patients receiving this treatment might be able to mount antileukemia responses. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a leading cause of nonrelapse mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. T cell costimulation by CD28 contributes to GVHD, but prevention is incomplete when targeting CD28, downstream mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), or Aurora A. Likewise, interleukin-6 (IL-6)–mediated Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) signaling promotes alloreactivity, yet JAK2 inhibition does not eliminate GVHD. We provide evidence that blocking Aurora A and JAK2 in human T cells is synergistic in vitro, prevents xenogeneic GVHD, and maintains antitumor responses by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Aurora A/JAK2 inhibition is immunosuppressive but permits the differentiation of inducible regulatory T cells (iTregs) that are hyperfunctional and CD39 bright and efficiently scavenge adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Increased iTreg potency is primarily a function of Aurora A blockade, whereas JAK2 inhibition suppresses T helper 17 (TH17) differentiation. Inhibiting either Aurora A or JAK2 significantly suppresses TH1 T cells. However, CTL generated in vivo retains tumor-specific killing despite Aurora A/JAK2 blockade. Thus, inhibiting CD28 and IL-6 signal transduction pathways in donor T cells can increase the Treg/Tconv ratio, prevent GVHD, and preserve antitumor CTL.
A dynamic network gateway selection scheme based on autonomous clustering for heterogeneous mobile ad hoc network environment

Many types of mobile ad hoc networks such as vehicular ad hoc networks that consist of vehicles and pedestrian mobile ad hoc networks that consist of people have been proposed for various application. In heterogeneous mobile ad hoc network environment that consists of many types of mobile ad hoc networks, each network uses a routing protocol suitable for the characteristics such as topology change frequency and data traffic. In such a network environment, nodes between different networks cannot communicate with each other because each network uses a different routing protocol. Therefore, the network gateway nodes between different networks are required. However, in mobile ad hoc network environment, it is difficult to fix the network gateway nodes in the network because nodes are always moving. In this paper, we propose a new scheme based on the autonomous clustering to dynamically select the network gateway nodes according to the network topology change in heterogeneous mobile ad hoc network environment and confirm the performance of the proposed scheme through simulation experiments.
The multicentre trial philosophy in stress echocardiography: Lessons learned fom the EPIC study

The scientific assessment of diagnostic tests should not be based upon a small series of results published by the best academic institutions, but ought to require large scale, multicentre validation founded on grass roots institutions with real doctors, real patients and real problems. To this purpose, an international network of stress echo laboratories has been organized, and within a few years has collected data from thousands of studies using pharmacological stress echocardiography, performed with either dipyridamole (EPIC : Echo Persantine International Cooperative Study) or dobutamine (EDIC : Echo Dobutamine International Cooperative Study) stresses. In a widely deregulated field, all network laboratories have agreed : to pass a quality control examination on stress echo reading before entering the study ; to adopt an identical drug infusion protocol ; to code similarly the LV segments ; and to adopt a common scoring system for wall motion analysis. A minimum amount of historical, clinical, and-when available-stress electrocardiographic, angiographic and follow-up data have been collected on each patient, and disseminated in the various centres, facilitating the creation of an international stress echo language that will help, not only the production of high quality scientific data, but also the build up of a common stress echo lab, with a standardized way of making the studies, unifying the methods and terminology, and archiving data. To date, we have 50 echo laboratories from 15 nations across four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa) actively involved in this project. These data will ultimately fill the gap between the academic theory of journals and the pragmatic experience of daily life in a busy echocardiographic laboratory.
Using a CMOS camera sensor for visible light communication

In this paper, a novel scheme for data reception in a mobile phone using visible light communications (VLC) is proposed. The camera of the smartphone is used as a receiver in order to capture the continuous changes in state (on-off) of the light, which are invisible to the human eye. The information is captured in the camera in the form of light and dark bands which are then decoded by the smartphone and the received message is displayed. By exploiting the rolling shutter effect of CMOS sensors, a data rate much higher than the camera frame rate is achieved.
Unbalance Glycometabolic in Elderly Woman None Diabetic COPD Patients

Background : It has been estimated that by 2020, the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) will be the third place among the most important causes of death in all over the world. Studies focusing on risk factors that influence the admission or readmission to the hospital are limited. The administration of medications can contribute to unplanned readmission. Moreover, in the course of COPD, treatment with cortisone determines a high risk of worsening of glucose control. The guidelines on the management of COPD do not address this issue in detail, although the number of COPD patients with diabetes mellitus is considerable and significant. Clinical studies designed specifically on this population are needed in order to identify effective and safe therapeutic pathways. Methods : We conducted an observational, descriptive study in a health area of the Molise Region that included 300 elderly subjects aged ? 65 and followed from June 2012 to June 2013. Results and Conclusions: Our preliminary study revealed that the prevalence of unbalance glycometabolic (as indicated by HbA1c > 7%) in COPD patients was > 50%. In particular, this difference was more frequent in COPD woman patients and it warrants further investigation. J Endocrinol Metab. 2013;3(4-5):91-97 doi: https://doi.org/10.4021/jem194e
Rapid pathogen-specific phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing using digital LAMP quantification in clinical samples

Digital ultrafast loop-mediated isothermal amplification determines phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility of Escherichia coli in clinical urine samples in less than 30 min. Rapidly recognizing resistance Reducing the time required to determine whether a bacterial sample is resistant to an antibiotic could hasten proper treatment of infections. Toward this goal, Schoepp et al. developed an antibiotic susceptibility test that could be performed within 30 min using clinical urine samples. The test uses digital loop-mediated isothermal amplification to measure the amount of nucleic acid markers of antibiotic susceptibility produced by bacteria present within a clinical sample after a brief incubation with an antibiotic. Performing the test on a microfluidic platform enabled single-molecule amplification and quantification in real time, determining Escherichia coli susceptibility comparably to gold standard methods, but in less time. Rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is urgently needed for informing treatment decisions and preventing the spread of antimicrobial resistance resulting from the misuse and overuse of antibiotics. To date, no phenotypic AST exists that can be performed within a single patient visit (30 min) directly from clinical samples. We show that AST results can be obtained by using digital nucleic acid quantification to measure the phenotypic response of Escherichia coli present within clinical urine samples exposed to an antibiotic for 15 min. We performed this rapid AST using our ultrafast (~7 min) digital real-time loop-mediated isothermal amplification (dLAMP) assay [area under the curve (AUC), 0.96] and compared the results to a commercial (~2 hours) digital polymerase chain reaction assay (AUC, 0.98). The rapid dLAMP assay can be used with SlipChip microfluidic devices to determine the phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility of E. coli directly from clinical urine samples in less than 30 min. With further development for additional pathogens, antibiotics, and sample types, rapid digital AST (dAST) could enable rapid clinical decision-making, improve management of infectious diseases, and facilitate antimicrobial stewardship.