Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applications of Baseband Azimuth Scaling on High Squint Beam Steering SAR Imaging with Contant Acceleration

To meet the demand for large area environment monitoring during short synthetic aperture time, this paper proposes an imaging algorithm for high squint beam steering (HS-BS) SAR platforms with constant acceleration. To achieve a good performance and high efficiency, the baseband azimuth scaling (BAS) method cannot be directly applied for the azimuth focusing. The signal is calculated based on high squint concentric circle (HS-CC) range model. The conventional derotation operation is modified by nonlinear phase and range-dependent derotation. Then the space-variant (SV) Doppler chirp rate is corrected by BAS method without sub-aperture processing.
Operating Engineers and the OSHA Silica Standard: A Survey of Union Trainers

Enclosed cabs with filtration systems, an engineering control preferred in the hierarchy of controls, may reduce heavy equipment operators’ silica exposure during demolition, grading, and excavation. We surveyed operating engineer trainers about silica training, familiarity with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) silica standard, and cab filtration systems. A voluntary and anonymous online survey was e-mailed to 437 trainers in January 2018. The response rate was 22.9 percent (n = 100). Most trainers (84 percent) covered health risks and silica exposure prevention in their courses. Of these, 59 percent discussed cab filtration as an engineering control. Trainers identified possible barriers to the use of cab filtration systems and a need for education to increase use, and raised concerns about other exposures associated with heavy equipment use. Education about selection, use, and maintenance of cab filtration systems to control silica exposure is needed. Engineering improvements to heavy equipment should address cab filtration, noise, heat, and vibration.
Fibronectine et acide hyaluronique dans le liquide séminal: relations avec la numération spermatique et le pourcentage des formes typiques.

Dans le cadre d'un bilan biologique d'infertilite, deux molecules entrant dans la composition de la matrice extra-cellulaire, l'acide hyaluronique (AH) et la fibronectine (Fbn), ont ete dosees dans le plasma seminal de 29 patients. Aucune correlation entre la Fbn seminale et la numeration spermatique par millilitre et par ejaculat, le pourcentage des formes typiques ainsi que l'index d'anomalies multiples (IAM) n'a ete retrouvee. Par contre, des correlations statistiquement significatives ont ete mises en evidence entre ces quatre parametres et les concentrations en AH seminal. Il semble que l'augmentation des concentrations en AH soit en relation avec une alteration de la numeration spermatique ainsi que du pourcentage des formes typiques et de l'IAM. Si les spermatozoides ne paraissent pas etre directement impliques dans le metabolisme de la Fbn seminale, ces cellules semblent en revanche prendre part a la synthese et/ou au catabolisme de l'AH seminal.
Sequential Response of Sage Antioxidant Metabolism to Chilling Treatment

Chilling influences the growth and metabolism of plants. The physiological response and acclimatization of genotypes in relation to stress stimulus can be different. Two sage cultivars: ‘Icterina’ and ‘Purpurascens’ were subjected to 4 °C and 18 °C (control), and sampled between the 5th and 14th day of the treatment. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity was up-regulated in chilled ‘Purpurascens’ on the 14th day, while guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) activity increased on the 10th and 12th day in relation to the control. GPX activity of the control ‘Icterina’ was frequently higher than chilled plants, and chilling did not affect APX activity of that cultivar. Catalase activity remained stable in both sage cultivars. Chilled ‘Purpurascens’ showed a significant increase in total phenolics contents on the 5th, 7th, and 12th day and in total antioxidant capacity on the 5th and 10th day as compared to the control for respective sampling days. Higher malondialdehyde content was found in chilled plants on the 12th, or 14th day, differences reached 26–28% of the controls. Chilling caused significant decrease in dry matter content. The stress response was more stable and effective in ‘Icterina’, while more dynamic changes were found for ‘Purpurascens’. Based on our results, we propose to use ‘Purpurascens’ for targeted stress-induced studies and ‘Icterina’ for field applications.
Finite-time Mean-square Consensus for Multi-agent Systems with Transmission Noises

In this paper, we are concerned with the finite-time mean-square consensus of multi-agent systems with transmission noises. By applying a linear feedback control protocol with time-varying gains, the expectations of all agents achieve finite-time consensus at any given time. However, it is shown that the multi-agent system with transmission noises is unable to achieve finite-time mean-square consensus under linear feedback protocols at any given time.
Comparison of the effect of propofol and desflurane on S-100β and GFAP levels during controlled hypotension for functional endoscopic sinus surgery

Abstract Background: Although surgical field visualization is important in functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS), the complications associated with controlled hypotension for surgery should be considered. Intraoperative hypotension is associated with postoperative stroke, leading to subsequent hypoxia with potential neurologic injury. We investigated the effect of propofol and desflurane anesthesia on S-100β and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels which are early biomarkers for cerebral ischemic change during controlled hypotension for FESS. Methods: For controlled hypotension during FESS, anesthesia was maintained with propofol/remifentanil in propofol group (n = 30) and with desflurane/remifentanil in desflurane group (n = 30). For S-100β and GFAP assay, blood samples were taken at base, 20 and 60 minutes after achieving the target range of mean arterial pressure, and at 60 minutes after surgery. Results: The base levels of S-100β were 98.04 ± 78.57 and 112.61 ± 66.38 pg/mL in the propofol and desflurane groups, respectively. The base levels of GFAP were 0.997 ± 0.486 and 0.898 ± 0.472 ng/mL in the propofol and desflurane groups, respectively. The S-100β and GFAP levels were significantly increased in the study period compared to the base levels in both groups (P ≤ .001). There was no significant difference at each time point between the 2 groups. Conclusion: On comparing the effects of propofol and desflurane anesthesia for controlled hypotension on the levels of S-100β and GFAP, we noted that there was no significant difference in S-100β and GFAP levels between the 2 study groups. Clinical trial registration: Available at: http://cris.nih. go.kr, KCT0002698.
Impacts of North Atlantic Long-Term Sea Level Variability on U.S. East Coast

In this work, the cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is used to compute the low frequency parts (T > ~ 5 years) in tide gauge, satellite altimetry and reconstructed sea level data. High spatio-temporal correlations are observed between tide gauge measurements North of Cape Hatteras (NCH) and other datasets in the subpolar and tropical regions in the North Atlantic Ocean. The altimeter and tide gauge data show significant different spatial pattern of correlation over north with that South of CH. In the last two decades, the weakening of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) might be related to the phase reversal of the correlations in the NCH as well as the strengthening of positive correlations in the tropical regions. Moreover, higher correlations observed near the tide gauges on the coasts of the NCH are presented by comparing the correlations in the time span of 2003-2012 with that in 1993-2002. Both the North Atlantic Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and ocean heat content variations, which could affect AMOC and Gulf Stream variations, are linked to the variations of the correlations.
Lifestyle E-Coaching for Physical Activity Level Improvement: Short-Term and Long-Term Effectivity in Low Socioeconomic Status Groups

E-coaching applications can improve people’s lifestyles; however, their impact on people from a lower socioeconomic status (low SES) is unknown. This study investigated the effectiveness of a lifestyle e-coaching application in encouraging people facing low SES disadvantages to engage in a more active lifestyle over a course of 19 weeks. In this bicountry study, 95 people with low activity level (GR: 50, NL: 45) used a mobile application linked to a wearable activity tracker. At the start and after 6 and 19 weeks, self-reported physical activity levels, attitudes, and intention towards increasing activity levels, perceived behavioral control, and wellbeing were measured. Results indicated that participants using the lifestyle e-coaching application reported significantly more often an increase in activity levels than a parallel control group. Additionally, the people using the application also more often reported increased levels of wellbeing and perceived behavioral control. Therefore, lifestyle e-coaching applications could be a cost-effective solution for promoting healthier lifestyles in low-SES populations.
Strain-Related Degradation of GaN-Based Blue Laser Diodes

Degradation of GaN-based laser diodes (LDs) is studied using Electroluminescence (EL) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The slope efficiency decrease is observed in addition to threshold current increase. Further studies on the optical loss and microstructures of the LDs indicate that the reduction of the slope efficiency is attributed to the increase of optical loss (from 14.2 cm−1 to 24.2 cm−1) and decrease of injection current efficiency induced by the defect generation around the waveguide and cladding layers. Injection current induced blue-shift of the spontaneous EL peak reduced after >3000 hrs operation, which is ascribed to the compensation of Quantum-Confined Stark Effect (QCSE) caused by partial strain relaxation near the active region.
Mangrove Species Mapping Using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data in North Vietnam

This study employed Sentinel-1A C-band and Sentinel-2A multispectral data combined with the decision tree ensemble algorithms to map the spatial distribution of five mangrove communities in a coastal area in North Vietnam. The results show that the rotation forests (RoFs) model achieved better overall accuracy and kappa coefficient in mapping mangrove species than those of the canonical correlation forests (CCFs) and the random forests (RFs) models. This research demonstrates the potential of using optical and SAR data together with machine learning techniques to map mangrove species in tropical areas.
A Structure-Based Framework for the Combination of GEDI and Tandem-X Measurements Over Forest Scenarios

NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) waveform lidar is expected to provide unprecedented measurements of forest structure and biomass in tropical and temperate environments. In order to bridge the limitations induced by the ground sampling of the GEDI waveforms, and to obtain enhanced forest structure estimates, the potential of combining TanDEM-X (high resolution) singlepass interferometric coherences and lidar waveforms is currently investigated. In this work, a combination framework based on the ability of lidar and TanDEM-X measurements to express physical forest structure by means of appropriate indices is discussed. In particular, commonalities and complementarities between the different measurements are addressed by means of experimental results obtained in temperate and tropical forest sites in which comparisons among structure indices from lidar, T anDEM-X and field inventories can be established.
Repaglinide-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers with different particle sizes for improving oral absorption: preparation, characterization, pharmacokinetics, and in situ intestinal perfusion

Abstract Repaglinide-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (REP-NLCs) with different particle sizes were successfully designed and prepared to investigate the permeation and absorption ability by in situ single-pass intestinal perfusion (SPIP) study and pharmacokinetics. Both of the formulations prepared by solvent diffusion method exhibited a spherical shape under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and similar zeta potential value of –11 mV. The particles size, encapsulation efficiency (EE), drug loading (DL) of REP-NLCs-Small and REP-NLCs-Large size preparations were about 79 nm and 325 nm, 96.83% and 98.60%, 4.41% and 3.05%, respectively. Besides, both REP-NLCs showed good colloidal stability and had no burst release phenomenon compared with REP-Sol. SPIP demonstrated the improved membrane permeability for NLCs compared with REP-Sol, especially NLCs-Small size preparation. The bioavailability increased sequentially in REP-Sol, REP-NLCs-Large, and REP-NLCs-Small, and the difference between each other was statistical significant. Our investigations demonstrate that NLCs with small particles size of 50–100 nm, such as 79 nm, are able to enhance absorption performance of a poorly soluble repaglinide compared with large particles size, such as 325 nm, by significantly improving the absorption in jejunum, and colon of rats and thus well improving oral bioavailability.
Weight Optimization for Multi-Task Sparse Representation in Sar Image Target Recognition

Gabor wavelets filters with different orientations and scales were applied on SAR image as a feature extraction technique. However, due to the different characteristics of the constructed Gabor filters, different Gabor features could have different impact on material representation, influencing the recognition rate eventually. In this paper, a novel Gabor weight optimization based multi-task sparse representation is proposed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image target recognition. First, each Gabor feature is sparsely represented over the corresponding set of Gabor features of all training samples under multi-task sparse representation framework. Then, the weights of multi-task representation are optimized by a least-squares optimization with l2-norm regularization according to the loss function defined by the classification results of the classifiers. The final classification results are acquired by a weighted fusion strategy. Experiment results prove the effectiveness of the multi-task sparse representation method based on weight optimization.
A Pharmacoeconomic Analysis of Liver Transplant Charges

ment for patients with end-stage liver disease. This treatment is often expensive not only from the standpoint of the actual transplant admission, but in terms of the cost of continued monitoring and immunosuppressive costs after that admission. Despite the current increase in the number of liver transplants, more patients are added to the waiting list than patients receiving transplants. Within the context of liver transplantation, cost is a major factor that patients and transplant centers must consider. According to United Network for Organ Sharing estimates, patients can expect to be charged more than $155 000 for the transplant hospital stay and more than $55 000 for organ acquisition. With the introduction of the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) system for organ allocation, patients with the greatest severity of illness receive transplants first. Axelrod and colleagues noted the economic impact of the MELD system on their institution. With increasing MELD score there were increasing costs because of sicker patients. Patients with MELD scores greater than 15 had significantly higher lengths of stay (LOS), total costs, pharmacy costs, radiological costs, and laboratory costs. Our center performed its first liver transplantation in July 1995. Since then, more than 300 patients have undergone liver transplantation at our institution. During the first 3 years of our liver transplant program, we noted increasing charges and costs, which prompted us to employ cost-containment strategies directed at major cost centers resulting in an overall cost reduction. Noting a recent increase in liver transplantation charges, we have reevaluated the major cost centers for our center.
Adapting Stamps for Jointly Processing Distributed Scatterers and Persistent Scatterers

The last ten years have seen continuing progress in the field of deformation analysis based on Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data. In particular, refined methods for processing distributed scatterers and integrated approaches that jointly use distributed scatterers (DS) and persistent scatterers (PS) have been developed. A general idea is that in a pre-processing step DS can be transformed to quasi PS and that the quasi PS together with PS can be analyzed with an arbitrary PS algorithm. The present paper reports on first results achieved with a modified version of the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) that is adapted following this idea. Furthermore, an experiment is described that has been conceived to better understand how to do the initial selection of DS and PS. An interesting observation is that the difference of amplitude dispersion of a pixel and of amplitude dispersion of the DS-pre-processed pixel proves to be a useful characteristic for the investigated test case.
Imaging the dynamic recruitment of monocytes to the blood–brain barrier and specific brain regions during Toxoplasma gondii infection

Significance Monocytes circulate in the blood and are involved in host defense, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune disease. How and where these cells enter the brain during disease remains poorly understood. We analyzed monocyte recruitment to the brain during infection with Toxoplasma gondii, a global foodborne parasite that establishes chronic infection in the CNS. By using 2-photon imaging through cranial windows, we dynamically tracked fluorescent monocytes at the blood–brain barrier from the acute to chronic stage of infection in mice. Whole-brain imaging revealed distinct localization patterns of monocytes in specific brain regions and near sites of parasite infection, providing a global 3D analysis of monocytes in the brain and indicating portals of entry for immune cells to the CNS during infection. Brain infection by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in mice is thought to generate vulnerability to predation by mechanisms that remain elusive. Monocytes play a key role in host defense and inflammation and are critical for controlling T. gondii. However, the dynamic and regional relationship between brain-infiltrating monocytes and parasites is unknown. We report the mobilization of inflammatory (CCR2+Ly6Chi) and patrolling (CX3CR1+Ly6Clo) monocytes into the blood and brain during T. gondii infection of C57BL/6J and CCR2RFP/+CX3CR1GFP/+ mice. Longitudinal analysis of mice using 2-photon intravital imaging of the brain through cranial windows revealed that CCR2-RFP monocytes were recruited to the blood–brain barrier (BBB) within 2 wk of T. gondii infection, exhibited distinct rolling and crawling behavior, and accumulated within the vessel lumen before entering the parenchyma. Optical clearing of intact T. gondii-infected brains using iDISCO+ and light-sheet microscopy enabled global 3D detection of monocytes. Clusters of T. gondii and individual monocytes across the brain were identified using an automated cell segmentation pipeline, and monocytes were found to be significantly correlated with sites of T. gondii clusters. Computational alignment of brains to the Allen annotated reference atlas [E. S. Lein et al., Nature 445:168–176 (2007)] indicated a consistent pattern of monocyte infiltration during T. gondii infection to the olfactory tubercle, in contrast to LPS treatment of mice, which resulted in a diffuse distribution of monocytes across multiple brain regions. These data provide insights into the dynamics of monocyte recruitment to the BBB and the highly regionalized localization of monocytes in the brain during T. gondii CNS infection.
Reverse remodelling in a rat model of ardrenergic-induced cardiac dilatation and pump dysfunction

ii DECLARATION . iv CONFRENCE PROCEEDINGS AND PRESENTATIONS. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vi LIST OF FIGURES. xi LIST OF TABLES . xiii LIST ABBREVIATIONS . xiv PREFACE. xvii CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION. 1 1.
Transmission Enhancement by Antireflective Metasurface for Ground Penetrating Radar Applications

In this paper we present our simulation and experiment results of an antireflective metasurface for Ground Penetrating Radar applications. The metasurface consisting of Closed Ring Resonators (CRRs) shows a near perfect antireflection, and the transmission enhancement is only limited by material's intrinsic losses. In addition, our design can achieve enhanced transmission over a large range of permittivities of the Material Under Test (MUT). By geometrical optimizations with the given material and physical properties, our CRR based design has been numerically demonstrated to be able to enhance the transmittance by 35% compared to the case where no such metasurface is in place.
Resiliency under Strategic Foresight: The effects of Cybersecurity Management and Enterprise Risk Management Alignment

Rethinking organisations' risk resiliency against cyber risks has been found both successful and lacking because it is more challenging when organisations mirror past siloed approaches. In pursuit of effectiveness and resiliency, this paper examines the antecedents of Cybersecurity Management (CsM) to explore how siloed risk controls influence business effectiveness. At the same time, it explores the additional strengths in enhancing CsM through alignment with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to ensure that handling risk is proactively, strategically, and comprehensively managed. To explore the problem, this research commenced by considering both secondary and primary qualitative data to determine the current state of strategic foresight of organisations. The authors found evidence of a granular legacy, stranded in different security domains and siloed strategic approaches.
Membranous Levels of C-Erbb-2 Oncoprotein in Gastric Cancer: Their Relationship with Clinicopathological Parameters and Their Prognostic Significance

Background The protein encoded by the c-erbB-2 gene is a membrane receptor expressed in a variety of solid human cancers and directly related to poor prognosis. The objective of this work was to evaluate the clinical value of the quantification of membranous oncoprotein levels in gastric cancer. Materials and methods Membranous c-erbB-2 levels were examined by means of a sandwich immunoenzymatic assay in 82 patients with gastric cancer. The median follow-up period for these patients was 16 months. In addition, c-erbB-2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 57 gastric carcinomas. Results Membranous c-erbB-2 levels ranged widely in the studied tumors (44–112,000 NHU/mg protein). Median c-erbB-2 content was significantly higher in intestinal-type tumors than in diffuse-type tumors (p=0.01). In addition, high levels of c-erbB-2 were significantly associated with shorter relapse-free survival and overall survival in patients with resectable gastric carcinomas (p=0.01 and p=0.04, respectively). However, the correlation between immunohistochemistry and ELISA determinations did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion Our results suggest a potential prognostic value of membranous c-erbB-2 quantification by immunoenzymatic assay in gastric cancer. However, its possible role in the selection of patients with a view to the possible introduction of Herceptin as a novel drug against gastric cancer is at present uncertain.