Harmonization of space-borne infra-red sensors measuring sea surface temperature

Sea surface temperature (SST) is observed by a constellation of sensors, and SST retrievals are commonly combined into gridded SST analyses and climate data records (CDRs). Differential biases between SSTs from different sensors cause errors in such products, including feature artefacts. We introduce a new method for reducing differential biases across the SST constellation, by reconciling the brightness temperature (BT) calibration and SST retrieval parameters between sensors. We use the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) as reference sensors, and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) of the MetOp-A mission to bridge the gap between these references. Observations across a range of AVHRR zenith angles are matched with dual-view three-channel skin SST retrievals from the AATSR and SLSTR. These skin SSTs act as the harmonization reference for AVHRR retrievals by optimal estimation (OE). Parameters for the harmonized AVHRR OE are iteratively determined, including BT bias corrections and observation error covariance matrices as functions of water-vapor path. The OE SSTs obtained from AVHRR are shown to be closely consistent with the reference sensor SSTs. Independent validation against drifting buoy SSTs shows that the AVHRR OE retrieval is stable across the reference-sensor gap. We discuss that this method is suitable to improve consistency across the whole constellation of SST sensors. The approach will help stabilize and reduce errors in future SST CDRs, as well as having application to other domains of remote sensing

Light weight cellular structures based on aluminium

An interesting form of lightweight material which has emerged in the past 2 decades is metallic foam. This paper deals with the basic concepts of making metallic foams and a detailed study of foams produced from Al-SiC. In addition, some aspects of cellular solids based on honeycomb structures are outlined including the concept of producing both two-phase foams and foams with composite walls

Residual Stress, Mechanical Behavior and Electrical Properties of Cu/Nb Thin-Film Multilayers

Effect of compositional wavelength (modulation) on residual stress, electrical resistivities and mechanical properties of Cu/Nb thin-film multilayers sputtered onto single-crystal Si substrates, was evaluated. Electrical resistivities were measured down to 4 K using a standard 4-point probe. Differential specimen curvature was used to determine residual stress, and a microprobe was used to obtain hardness and elastic modulus. Profilometry, ion-beam analysis and TEM were used. Hardness of the Cu-Nb multilayers increased with decreasing compositional wavelength so that the layered structures had hardness values in excess of either constituent and the hardness predicted by the rule of mixtures. A peak in net residual compressive stress of the multilayers was observed at a compositional wavelength of 100 nm. No resistivity plateau was observed within the composition wavelength range studied

Plastic behavior of Cu/Ni multilayers

In order to study the plasticity in Cu-Ni multilayers deposited on single crystals of nanoindentation measurements, and by the transmission of well characterized dislocations from the underlying substrate by tensile deformation of Cu single crystals. Various multilayers were deposited by physical vapor deposition with layer thicknesses varying between 1,000 and 20 Angstroms (for a total thickness between 0.8 and 1 {micro}m). Two types of experiments were designed. The first one aimed at injecting, in a controlled way, some dislocations from the substrate into the multilayers; the second type of experiment concerned the structure of the multilayer surface after having plastically pushed the material away from a nanoindenter. This communication reports the results from the nanoindentation measurements, as well as the observations of slip on the surface. The authors observed through the injection of dislocations by nanoindentation that the multilayers increase in strength with refinement of the layer structure but at thicknesses below 35 {angstrom} exhibits a softening behavior. Also observation of the upheaval around the nanoindent showed an evolution from slip lines to more spread plasticity with refinement of the layer structure

Attempts to model the generation of new grain boundaries during the deformation of polycrystals

We explore ways by which new orientations (``nuclei``) can arise during essentially homogeneous deformation in polycrystals. All of these can be categorized as generating new large-angle boundaries: one is due to excessive storage of dislocations of one sign parallel to existing grain boundaries; another is due to reactions of cell walls with grain edges; and in the last, new boundaries are created surrounding a domain of different slip system distribution

Measure-Based Inconsistency-Tolerant Maintenance of Database Integrity

[EN] To maintain integrity, constraint violations should be prevented or repaired. However, it may not be feasible to avoid inconsistency, or to repair all violations at once. Based on an abstract concept of violation measures, updates and repairs can be checked for keeping inconsistency bounded, such that integrity violations are guaranteed to never get out of control. This measure-based approach goes beyond conventional methods that are not meant to be applied in the presence of inconsistency. It also generalizes recently introduced concepts of inconsistency-tolerant integrity maintenance.Partially supported by FEDER and the Spanish grants TIN2009-14460-C03 and TIN2010-17139Decker, H. (2013). Measure-Based Inconsistency-Tolerant Maintenance of Database Integrity. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 7693:149-173. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36008-4_7S1491737693Abiteboul, S., Hull, R., Vianu, V.: Foundations of Databases. 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Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Decker, H.: Causes of the Violation of Integrity Constraints for Supporting the Quality of Databases. In: Murgante, B., Gervasi, O., Iglesias, A., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O. (eds.) ICCSA 2011, Part V. LNCS, vol. 6786, pp. 283–292. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Decker, H.: Inconsistency-tolerant Integrity Checking based on Inconsistency Metrics. In: König, A., Dengel, A., Hinkelmann, K., Kise, K., Howlett, R.J., Jain, L.C. (eds.) KES 2011, Part II. LNCS, vol. 6882, pp. 548–558. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Decker, H.: Partial Repairs that Tolerate Inconsistency. In: Eder, J., Bielikova, M., Tjoa, A.M. (eds.) ADBIS 2011. LNCS, vol. 6909, pp. 389–400. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Decker, H.: Consistent Explanations of Answers to Queries in Inconsistent Knowledge Bases. In: Roth-Berghofer, T., Tintarev, N., Leake, D. (eds.) Explanation-aware Computing, Proc. IJCAI 2011 Workshop ExaCt 2011, pp. 71–80 (2011), http://exact2011.workshop.hm/index.phpDecker, H., Martinenghi, D.: Classifying integrity checking methods with regard to inconsistency tolerance. In: Proc. PPDP 2008, pp. 195–204. ACM Press (2008)Decker, H., Martinenghi, D.: Modeling, Measuring and Monitoring the Quality of Information. In: Heuser, C.A., Pernul, G. (eds.) ER 2009. LNCS, vol. 5833, pp. 212–221. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Decker, H., Martinenghi, D.: Inconsistency-tolerant Integrity Checking. IEEE TKDE 23(2), 218–234 (2011)Decker, H., Muñoz-Escoí, F.D.: Revisiting and Improving a Result on Integrity Preservation by Concurrent Transactions. In: Meersman, R., Dillon, T., Herrero, P. (eds.) OTM 2010 Workshops. LNCS, vol. 6428, pp. 297–306. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)Dung, P., Kowalski, R., Toni, F.: Dialectic Proof Procedures for Assumption-based Admissible Argumentation. Artificial Intelligence 170(2), 114–159 (2006)Ebbinghaus, H.-D., Flum, J.: Finite Model Theory, 2nd edn. Springer (2006)Embury, S., Brandt, S., Robinson, J., Sutherland, I., Bisby, F., Gray, A., Jones, A., White, R.: Adapting integrity enforcement techniques for data reconciliation. Information Systems 26, 657–689 (2001)Enderton, H.: A Mathematical Introduction to Logic, 2nd edn. Academic Press (2001)Eiter, T., Fink, M., Greco, G., Lembo, D.: Repair localization for query answering from inconsistent databases. ACM TODS 33(2), article 10 (2008)Furfaro, F., Greco, S., Molinaro, C.: A three-valued semantics for querying and repairing inconsistent databases. Ann. Math. Artif. Intell. 51(2-4), 167–193 (2007)Grant, J., Hunter, A.: Measuring the Good and the Bad in Inconsistent Information. In: Proc. 22nd IJCAI, pp. 2632–2637 (2011)Greco, G., Greco, S., Zumpano, E.: A logical framework for querying and repairing inconsistent databases. 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AAAI Press (2008)Hunter, A., Konieczny, S.: On the measure of conflicts: Shapley Inconsistency Values. Artificial Intelligence 174, 1007–1026 (2010)Kakas, A., Mancarella, P.: Database updates through abduction. In: Proc. 16th VLDB, pp. 650–661. Morgan Kaufmann (1990)Kakas, A., Kowalski, R., Toni, F.: The role of Abduction in Logic Programming. In: Gabbay, D., Hogger, C., Robinson, J.A. (eds.) Handbook of Logic in Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming, vol. 5, pp. 235–324. Oxford University Press (1998)Lee, S.Y., Ling, T.W.: Further improvements on integrity constraint checking for stratifiable deductive databases. In: Proc. VLDB 1996, pp. 495–505. Morgan Kaufmann (1996)Lehrer, K.: Relevant Deduction and Minimally Inconsistent Sets. Journal of Philosophy 3(2,3), 153–165 (1973)Mu, K., Liu, W., Jin, Z., Bell, D.: A Syntax-based Approach to Measuring the Degree of Inconsistency for Belief Bases. J. Approx. 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An Axiomatic Approach. In: Mellouli, K. (ed.) ECSQARU 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4724, pp. 103–114. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)Meyer, J., Wieringa, R. (eds.): Deontic Logic in Computer Science. Wiley (1994)Nicolas, J.M.: Logic for improving integrity checking in relational data bases. Acta Informatica 18, 227–253 (1982)Plexousakis, D., Mylopoulos, J.: Accommodating Integrity Constraints During Database Design. In: Apers, P.M.G., Bouzeghoub, M., Gardarin, G. (eds.) EDBT 1996. LNCS, vol. 1057, pp. 495–513. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)Rahm, E., Do, H.: Data Cleaning: Problems and Current Approaches. Data Engineering Bulletin 23(4), 3–13 (2000)Sadri, F., Kowalski, R.: A theorem-proving approach to database integrity. In: Minker, J. (ed.) Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming, pp. 313–362. Morgan Kaufmann (1988)Thimm, M.: Measuring Inconsistency in Probabilistic Knowledge Bases. In: Proc. 25th UAI, pp. 530–537. 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MTF-1-Mediated Repression of the Zinc Transporter Zip10 Is Alleviated by Zinc Restriction

The regulation of cellular zinc uptake is a key process in the overall mechanism governing mammalian zinc homeostasis and how zinc participates in cellular functions. We analyzed the zinc transporters of the Zip family in both the brain and liver of zinc-deficient animals and found a large, significant increase in Zip10 expression. Additionally, Zip10 expression decreased in response to zinc repletion. Moreover, isolated mouse hepatocytes, AML12 hepatocytes, and Neuro 2A cells also respond differentially to zinc availability in vitro. Measurement of Zip10 hnRNA and actinomycin D inhibition studies indicate that Zip10 was transcriptionally regulated by zinc deficiency. Through luciferase promoter constructs and ChIP analysis, binding of MTF-1 to a metal response element located 17 bp downstream of the transcription start site was shown to be necessary for zinc-induced repression of Zip10. Furthermore, zinc-activated MTF-1 causes down-regulation of Zip10 transcription by physically blocking Pol II movement through the gene. Lastly, ZIP10 is localized to the plasma membrane of hepatocytes and neuro 2A cells. Collectively, these results reveal a novel repressive role for MTF-1 in the regulation of the Zip10 zinc transporter expression by pausing Pol II transcription. ZIP10 may have roles in control of zinc homeostasis in specific sites particularly those of the brain and liver. Within that context ZIP10 may act as an important survival mechanism during periods of zinc inadequacy

Holoendemic malaria exposure is associated with altered epstein-barr virus-specific CD8+ T-cell differentiation

Coinfection with Plasmodium falciparum malaria and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a major risk factor for endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL), still one of the most prevalent pediatric cancers in equatorial Africa. Although malaria infection has been associated with immunosuppression, the precise mechanisms that contribute to EBV-associated lymphomagenesis remain unclear. In this study, we used polychromatic flow cytometry to characterize CD8+ T-cell subsets specific for EBV-derived lytic (BMFL1 and BRLF1) and latent (LMP1, LMP2, and EBNA3C) antigens in individuals with divergent malaria exposure. No malaria-associated differences in EBV-specific CD8+ T-cell frequencies were observed. However, based on a multidimensional analysis of CD45RO, CD27, CCR7, CD127, CD57, and PD-1 expression, we found that individuals living in regions with intense and perennial (holoendemic) malaria transmission harbored more differentiated EBV-specific CD8+ T-cell populations that contained fewer central memory cells than individuals living in regions with little or no (hypoendemic) malaria. This profile shift was most marked for EBV-specific CD8+ T-cell populations that targeted latent antigens. Importantly, malaria exposure did not skew the phenotypic properties of either cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific CD8+ T cells or the global CD8+ memory T-cell pool. These observations define a malaria-associated aberration localized to the EBV-specific CD8+ T-cell compartment that illuminates the etiology of eBL