Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of Weak Intensity Cyclones over Bay of Bengal Using WRF Model

Numerical simulations of four weak cyclonic storms [two cases of pre-monsoon cyclones: Laila (2010), Aila (2009) and two cases of post-monsoon cyclones: Jal (2010), SCS (2003)] are carried out using WRF-ARW mesoscale model. Betts-Miller-Janjic (BMJ) as cumulus parameterization (CP) scheme, Yonsei University(YSU) planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme and WRF single moment 6 class (WSM6) microphysics (MP) scheme is kept same for all the cyclone cases. Three two-way interactive nested domains [60 km,20 kmand6.6 km] are used with initial and boundary conditions from NCEP Final Analysis data. The model integration is performed to evaluate the track, landfall time and position as well as intensity in terms of Central Sea Level Pressure (CSLP) and Maximum Surface Wind speed (MSW) of the storm. The track and landfall (time and position) of almost all cyclones are well predicted by the model (except for SCS cyclone case) which may be because of the accurate presentation of the steering flow by CP scheme. Irrespective of season, the intensity is overestimated in all the cases of cyclone, mainly because of the lower tropospheric and mid-tropospheric parameters are overestimated. YSU PBL scheme used here is responsible for the deep convection in and above PBL. Concentration of frozen hydrometeors at the mid-tropospheric levels and thus the latent heat released during auto conversion of hydrometeors is also responsible for overestimation of intensity.
Development of particle migration in pressure-driven flow of a Brownian suspension

An experimental investigation into the influence of Brownian motion on shear-induced particle migration of monodisperse suspensions of micrometre-sized colloidal particles is presented. The suspension is pumped through a 50 μm × 500 μm rectangular cross-section glass channel. The experiments are characterized chiefly by the sample volume fraction (φ = 0.1 − 0.4), and the flow rate expressed as the Péclet number (Pe = 10 − 400). For each experiment we measure the entrance length, which is the distance from the inlet of the channel required for the concentration profile to develop to its non-uniform steady state. The entrance length increases strongly with increasing Pe for Pe ≪ 100, in marked contrast to non-Brownian flows for which the entrance length is flow-rate independent. For larger Pe, the entrance length reaches a constant value which depends on the other experimental parameters. Additionally, the entrance length decreases with increasing φ; this effect is strongest for low φ. Modelling of the migration based on spatial variation of the normal stresses due to the particles captures the primary features observed in the axial evolution over a range of Pe and φ.
Resveratrol Preconditioning Mitigates Ischemia-Induced Septal Cholinergic Cell Loss and Memory Impairments

Background: Cholinergic cells originating from the nuclei of the basal forebrain (BF) are critical for supporting various memory processes, yet BF cholinergic cell viability has not been explored in the context of focal cerebral ischemia. In the present study, we examined cell survival within several BF nuclei in rodents following transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. We tested the hypothesis that a previously established neuroprotective therapy—resveratrol preconditioning—would rescue BF cell loss, deficits in cholinergic-related memory performance, and hippocampal synaptic dysfunction after focal cerebral ischemia. Methods: Adult (2–3-month old) male Sprague-Dawley rats or wild-type C57Bl/6J mice were injected intraperitoneally with a single dose of resveratrol or vehicle and subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion using the intraluminal suture method 2 days later. Histopathological, behavioral, and electrophysiological outcomes were measured 1-week post-reperfusion. Animals with reduction in cerebral blood flow <30% of baseline were excluded. Results: Cholinergic cell loss was observed in the medial septal nucleus and diagonal band of Broca following transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. This effect was prevented by resveratrol preconditioning, which also ameliorated transient middle cerebral artery occlusion–induced deficits in cognitive performance and hippocampal long-term potentiation. Conclusions: We demonstrate for the first time that focal cerebral ischemia induces cholinergic cell death within memory-relevant nuclei of the BF. The preservation of cholinergic cell viability may provide a mechanism by which resveratrol preconditioning improves memory performance and preserves functionality of memory-processing brain structures after focal cerebral ischemia.
A Prescription for Wellness in Early PD: Just What the Doctor Ordered

Background Being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease is a life-changing event and a critical time to help patients cope and move forward in a proactive way. Historically, the main focus of Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatment has been on the motor features with limited attention given to non-motor and mental health sequelae, which have the most impact on quality of life. Although depression and anxiety have been described at the time of PD diagnosis, demoralization, intolerance of uncertainty, decreased self-efficacy, stigma and loneliness can also present and have negative effects on the trajectory of the disease. Hence, understanding the psychological impact of the diagnosis and how to provide better counselling at this critical time point may be the key to a better long-term trajectory and quality of life. Focus There has been a paradigm shift in the treatment of chronic illness moving beyond the medical model, which focuses on fighting illness with the physician being in charge of the treatment process and the patient being the passive recipient, toward a more holistic (i.e., physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health) biopsychosocial approach that emphasizes behavioral factors with the patient being an active collaborator in their treatment. Hence, we propose that fostering resilience, social support, and psychological flexibility offer promise toward attenuating negative reactions and improving overall well-being. Conclusion Through a proactive wellness approach incorporating lifestyle choices, people with PD (PwP) can not only achieve improved states of health, well-being, and quality of life, but actually thrive.
Theory of semiconductor superlattice electronic structure

The authors review the theory of semiconductor superlattice electronic structure. First a survey of theoretical methods is presented. These methods can be divided into two general classes: the supercell approach in which the superlattice is viewed as a material with a large unit cell, and the boundary-condition approach in which bulk wave functions in the constituent semiconductors are matched at the superlattice interfaces. Supercell approaches are essentially the same as conventional band-structure methods. They can only be applied to thin-layer superlattices because of numerical cost. The authors discuss problems of interface matching that occur in various boundary-condition methods and relate these methods to each other. A particular boundary-condition method is used to discuss the electronic structure of various III-V semiconductor superlattices. Emphasis is placed on discussing the qualitatively different behavior that can arise because of different energy-band lineups, strain conditions, and growth orientations. The authors compare the results of three commonly used boundary-condition methods and find generally good agreement.
Investigation of Restoration Algorithm for Degraded Images Caused by Aero-optics Effects Using Multi-resolution Blind Deconvolution

For the restoration of the degraded images caused by aero-optics effects of atmospheric turbulence, this paper presents an effective algorithm of multi-resolution blind deconvolution based on two frames of degraded images, in which the PSFs can be estimated by use of the two degraded images under the condition of the degraded models being unknown. In order to overcome the interference of noise, the constraints of non-negativity and smoothness of the PSFs are converted into the penalty terms expressed in mathematics and an objective function based on anisotropic regularization is built by adding the penalty terms into it. Thus, the PSFs' values can be estimated in an iteration manner by use of the constraint optimal principle, and then the images can be restored by the filter method. Meanwhile, for the requirement of fast restoration, an algorithm based on multi-resolution blind deconvolution is proposed by employing the image multi-resolution technology in the process of optimization estimation of PSFs and restoration. A series of restoration experiments and some comparison analysis have been performed in a microcomputer. The experiments results illustrate that the proposed algorithm is efficient with obvious effects on the aspects of resisting noise and speeding up the restoration.
Direct mapping of the lateral force gradient on Si(111)-7×7

Lateral force gradient of down to 0.01 N/m on $\text{Si}(111)\text{\ensuremath{-}}7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}7$ was directly detected by dynamic lateral-force microscopy with an amplitude of 81 pm. Positive and negative torsional resonance frequency shifts of a silicon cantilever caused by the attractive interaction inward and outward tip ditherings were detected on adatom and nonadatom sites, respectively. The lateral force of down to subpiconewton was measurable with direct lateral-force spectroscopy. The converted lateral force predicts a possibility of the stick-slip motion in the noncontact region. The theoretical calculations were in good qualitative agreement with the experiments.
Photoluminescence lifetime measurements in InP wafers

An apparatus that measures the minority carrier lifetime in InP is described. The technique stimulates the sample with a short pulse of light from a diode laser and measures the photoluminescence (PL) decay to extract the minority carrier lifetime. The photoluminescence lifetime in InP as a function of doping on both n- and p-type material was examined. The results show a marked difference in the lifetime on n-type InP and p-type InP of similar doping levels. N-type InP shows a lifetime considerably longer than the expected radiative limited lifetime. <<ETX>>
Detecting amyloid‐β positivity using regions of interest from structural magnetic resonance imaging

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Amyloid‐β (Aβ) positivity is the main diagnostic marker for AD. Aβ positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid are widely used in the clinical diagnosis of AD. However, these methods only assess the concentrations of Aβ, and the accessibility of these methods is thus relatively limited compared with structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI).
10-year survival of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with connective tissue disease: insights from a multicentre PAH registry

Abstract Objectives To report the 10-year survival rate and prognostic factors of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with CTD (CTD-PAH) patients, to compare treatment and survival between patients enrolled before and after 2015, and to validate the discrimination of the recommended four-strata model in predicting 10-year survival at follow-up in Chinese CTD-PAH patients. Methods This study was derived from a Chinese national multicentre prospective registry study from 2009 to 2019. Medical records were collected at baseline and follow-up, including PAH-targeted therapy and binary therapy (both CTD and PAH-targeted therapy). Results A total of 266 CTD-PAH patients were enrolled and the 10-year survival rate was 59.9% (median follow-up time: 4.85 years). Underlying CTD (SSc), baseline 6-min walking distance and SaO2 were independent risk factors for 10-year survival. The proportion of patients receiving PAH-targeted combination therapy increased from 10.1% (2009–2014) to 26.5% (2015–2019) and that of binary therapy increased from 14.8% to 35%. The 1-year survival rate increased from 89.8% (2009–2014) to 93.9%, and the 3-year survival rate increased from 80.1% (2009–2014) to 86.5% (both P > 0.05). The four-strata strategy performed well in predicting 10-year survival at follow-up (C-index = 0.742). Conclusion The 10-year survival rate of CTD-PAH patients was reported for the first time. The 10-year prognosis was poor, but there was a tendency for more standardized treatment and better survival in patients enrolled after 2015. The recommended four-strata model at follow-up can effectively predict 10-year survival in CTD-PAH patients.
Semi‐supervised super‐resolution of diffusion‐weighted images based on multiple references

Spatial resolution of diffusion tensor images is usually compromised to accelerate the acquisitions, and the state‐of‐the‐art (SOTA) image super‐resolution (SR) reconstruction methods are commonly based on supervised learning models. Considering that matched low‐resolution (LR) and high‐resolution (HR) diffusion‐weighted (DW) image pairs are not readily available, we propose a semi‐supervised DW image SR reconstruction method based on multiple references (MRSR) extracted from other subjects. In MRSR, the prior information of multiple HR reference images is migrated into a residual‐like network to assist SR reconstruction of DW images, and a CycleGAN‐based semi‐supervised strategy is used to train the network with 30% matched and 70% unmatched LR–HR image pairs. We evaluate the performance of the MRSR by comparing against SOTA methods on an HCP dataset in terms of the quality of reconstructed DW images and diffusion metrics. MRSR achieves the best performance, with the mean PSNR/SSIM of DW images being improved by at least 14.3%/28.8% and 1%/1.4% respectively relative to SOTA unsupervised and supervised learning methods, and with the fiber orientations deviating from the ground truth by about 6.28° on average, the RMSEs of fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity and radial diffusivity being 3.0%, 4.6%, 5.7% and 4.5% respectively relative to the ground truth. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed network structure, multiple‐reference and CycleGAN‐based semi‐supervised learning strategies for SR reconstruction of diffusion tensor images through the ablation studies. The proposed method allows us to achieve SR reconstruction for diffusion tensor images with a limited number of matched image pairs.
How Biased is Your Multi-Layered Perceptron?

Gradient descent and instantaneous gradient descent learning rules are popular methods for training neural models. Backwards Error Propagation (BEP) applied to Multi-Layer Prectron (MLP) is one example of nonlinear gradient descent, and Widrow's Adaptive Linear Combiner (ALC) and the Albus CMAC are both generally trained using (instantaneous) gradient descent rules. However, these learning algorithms are often applied without regard for the condition of the resultant optimisation problem. Often the basic model can be transformed such that its modelling capabilities remain unchanged, but the condition of the optimisation problem is improved. In this paper, the basic theory behind gradient descent adaptive algorithms will be stated, and then it will be applied to a wide range of common neural networks. In the simplest case it will be shown how the condition of the ALC is dependent on the domain over which the training data is distributed, and the important concept of orthogonal functions will be introduced. This network is then compared with alternative models (eg. B-splines) which have identical modelling capabilities but a different internal representation. The theory is then applied to MLPs trained using gradient descent algorithms and it is shown that MLPs with sigmoids whose outputs lie in the range [0,1] are inherently ill-conditioned, although this can be overcome by simple translation and scaling procedures. All of these results can be generalised to instantaneous gradient descent procedures.
Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation in Subacute Aphasia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising adjunct to therapy for chronic aphasia. Methods: This single-center, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled efficacy trial tested the hypothesis that anodal tDCS augments language therapy in subacute aphasia. Secondarily, we compared the effect of tDCS on discourse measures and quality of life and compared the effects on naming to previous findings in chronic stroke. Right-handed English speakers with aphasia <3 months after left hemisphere ischemic stroke were included, unless they had prior neurological or psychiatric disease or injury or were taking certain medications (34 excluded; final sample, 58). Participants were randomized 1:1, controlling for age, aphasia type, and severity, to receive 20 minutes of tDCS (1 mA) or sham-tDCS in addition to fifteen 45-minute sessions of naming treatment (plus standard care). The primary outcome variable was change in naming accuracy of untrained pictures pretreatment to 1-week posttreatment. Results: Baseline characteristics were similar between the tDCS (N=30) and sham (N=28) groups: patients were 65 years old, 53% male, and 2 months from stroke onset on average. In intent-to-treat analysis, the adjusted mean change from baseline to 1-week posttreatment in picture naming was 22.3 (95% CI, 13.5–31.2) for tDCS and 18.5 (9.6–27.4) for sham and was not significantly different. Content and efficiency of picture description improved more with tDCS than sham. Groups did not differ in quality of life improvement. No patients were withdrawn due to adverse events. Conclusions: tDCS did not improve recovery of picture naming but did improve recovery of discourse. Discourse skills are critical to participation. Future research should examine tDCS in a larger sample with richer functional outcomes. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov; Unique identifier: NCT02674490.
Non-invasive and objective tear film breakup detection on interference color images using convolutional neural networks

Purpose Dry eye disease affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is one of the most common causes for visits to eye care practitioners. The fluorescein tear breakup time test is currently widely used to diagnose dry eye disease, but it is an invasive and subjective method, thus resulting in variability in diagnostic results. This study aimed to develop an objective method to detect tear breakup using the convolutional neural networks on the tear film images taken by the non-invasive device KOWA DR-1α. Methods The image classification models for detecting characteristics of tear film images were constructed using transfer learning of the pre-trained ResNet50 model. The models were trained using a total of 9,089 image patches extracted from video data of 350 eyes of 178 subjects taken by the KOWA DR-1α. The trained models were evaluated based on the classification results for each class and overall accuracy of the test data in the six-fold cross validation. The performance of the tear breakup detection method using the models was evaluated by calculating the area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic, sensitivity, and specificity using the detection results of 13,471 frame images with breakup presence/absence labels. Results The performance of the trained models was 92.3%, 83.4%, and 95.2% for accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, respectively in classifying the test data into the tear breakup or non-breakup group. Our method using the trained models achieved an AUC of 0.898, a sensitivity of 84.3%, and a specificity of 83.3% in detecting tear breakup for a frame image. Conclusions We were able to develop a method to detect tear breakup on images taken by the KOWA DR-1α. This method could be applied to the clinical use of non-invasive and objective tear breakup time test.
The indelible toll of enteric pathogens: Prevalence, clinical characterization, and seasonal trends in patients with acute community-acquired diarrhea in disenfranchised communities

Background There is little information on the epidemiology of enteric pathogens in Lebanon, a low- and middle-income country that suffers from a myriad of public health challenges. To address this knowledge gap, we aimed to assess the prevalence of enteric pathogens, identify risk factors and seasonal variations, and describe associations between pathogens among diarrheic patients in the Lebanese community. Methodology and principal findings A multicenter cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in the north of Lebanon. Stool samples were collected from 360 outpatients suffering from acute diarrhea. Based on fecal examination using the BioFire® FilmArray® Gastrointestinal Panel assay, the overall prevalence of enteric infections was 86.1%. Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) was the most frequently identified (41.7%), followed by enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) (40.8%) and rotavirus A (27.5%). Notably, two cases of Vibrio cholerae were identified, while Cryptosporidium spp. (6.9%) was the most common parasitic agent. Overall, 27.7% (86/310) of the cases were single infections, and the majority, 73.3% (224/310), were mixed infections. Multivariable logistic regression models showed that enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and rotavirus A infections were significantly more likely to occur in the fall and winter compared to the summer. Rotavirus A infections significantly decreased with age but increased in patients living in rural areas or suffering from vomiting. We identified strong associations in the co-occurrence of EAEC, EPEC, and ETEC infections and a higher percentage of rotavirus A and norovirus GI/GII infections among EAEC-positive cases. Conclusions Several of the enteric pathogens reported in this study are not routinely tested in Lebanese clinical laboratories. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that diarrheal diseases are on the rise due to widespread pollution and the deterioration of the economy. Therefore, this study is of paramount importance to identify circulating etiologic agents and prioritize dwindling resources to control them and limit outbreaks in the future.
The Presenter's Paradox Revisited: An Evaluation Mode Account

Three experimental studies demonstrate that evaluation mode influences the assessment of product bundles. Consumers' preferences for product bundles are more pronounced in a joint evaluation mode, where the bundle is directly contrasted to its single counterpart (i.e., the bundle without its add-on), than in a separate evaluation mode, where the bundle is evaluated in isolation. An attentional explanation is suggested: consumers pay more attention to the unique features of a product bundle (i.e., the add-on) and, therefore, prefer the bundle more strongly in joint rather than in separate evaluation. This account bears relevance for Weaver, Garcia, and Schwarz's presenter's paradox, according to which presenters (i.e., people deciding what to offer to others) prefer bundle options, whereas evaluators (i.e., people deciding what to get for themselves) prefer single options. In the original research, presenters and evaluators provided judgments in joint and separate evaluation, respectively. Disentangling role (presenter vs. evaluator) and evaluation mode, our results show that, independent of role, people prefer bundle over single options in joint evaluations and are largely indifferent in separate evaluations. Thus, a substantial part of the original findings is attributable to evaluation mode. The presenter's paradox is revised in light of the current account.