FLAGCAL:A flagging and calibration package for radio interferometric data

We describe a flagging and calibration pipeline intended for making quick look images from GMRT data. The package identifies and flags corrupted visibilities, computes calibration solutions and interpolates these onto the target source. These flagged calibrated visibilities can be directly imaged using any standard imaging package. The pipeline is written in "C" with the most compute intensive algorithms being parallelized using OpenMP.Comment: 15 Pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables, Accepted for publication in the Experimental Astronomy Journa

Nature of band-gap states in V-doped TiO2 revealed by resonant photoemission

Band-gap states in V-doped TiO2 have been studied by photoemission spectroscopy over a range of photon energies encompassing the Ti 3p and V 3p core thresholds. The states show resonant enhancement at photon energies significantly higher than found for Ti 3d states introduced into TiO2 by oxygen deficiency or alkalimetal adsorbates. This demonstrates that the gap states relate to electrons trapped on dopant V cations rather than host Ti cations

Predicting protein-ligand binding site using support vector machine with protein properties

Identification of protein-ligand binding site is an important task in structure-based drug design and docking algorithms. In the past two decades, different approaches have been developed to predict the binding site, such as the geometric, energetic, and sequence-based methods. When scores are calculated from these methods, the algorithm for doing classification becomes very important and can affect the prediction results greatly. In this paper, the support vector machine (SVM) is used to cluster the pockets that are most likely to bind ligands with the attributes of geometric characteristics, interaction potential, offset from protein, conservation score, and properties surrounding the pockets. Our approach is compared to LIGSITE, LIGSITEcsc, SURFNET, Fpocket, PocketFinder, Q-SiteFinder, ConCavity, and MetaPocket on the data set LigASite and 198 drug-target protein complexes. The results show that our approach improves the success rate from 60 to 80 percent at AUC measure and from 61 to 66 percent at top 1 prediction. Our method also provides more comprehensive results than the others

Hysteresis phenomenon in turbulent convection

Coherent large-scale circulations of turbulent thermal convection in air have been studied experimentally in a rectangular box heated from below and cooled from above using Particle Image Velocimetry. The hysteresis phenomenon in turbulent convection was found by varying the temperature difference between the bottom and the top walls of the chamber (the Rayleigh number was changed within the range of $10^7 - 10^8$). The hysteresis loop comprises the one-cell and two-cells flow patterns while the aspect ratio is kept constant ($A=2 - 2.23$). We found that the change of the sign of the degree of the anisotropy of turbulence was accompanied by the change of the flow pattern. The developed theory of coherent structures in turbulent convection (Elperin et al. 2002; 2005) is in agreement with the experimental observations. The observed coherent structures are superimposed on a small-scale turbulent convection. The redistribution of the turbulent heat flux plays a crucial role in the formation of coherent large-scale circulations in turbulent convection.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, REVTEX4, Experiments in Fluids, 2006, in pres

Chlorophyll fluorescence data reveals climate-related photosynthesis seasonality in Amazonian forests

This is the final version of the article. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record.Amazonia is theworld largest tropical forest, playing a key role in the global carbon cycle. Thus, understanding climate controls of photosynthetic activity in this region is critical. The establishment of the relationship between photosynthetic activity and climate has been controversial when based on conventional remote sensing-derived indices. Here, we use nine years of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2) sensor, as a direct proxy for photosynthesis, to assess the seasonal response of photosynthetic activity to solar radiation and precipitation in Amazonia. Our results suggest that 76% of photosynthesis seasonality in Amazonia is explained by seasonal variations of solar radiation. However, 13% of these forests are limited by precipitation. The combination of both radiation and precipitation drives photosynthesis in the remaining 11% of the area. Photosynthesis tends to rise only after radiation increases in 61% of the forests. Furthermore, photosynthesis peaks in the wet season in about 58% of the Amazon forest. We found that a threshold of ≈1943 mm per year can be defined as a limit for precipitation phenological dependence. With the potential increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme droughts, forests that have the photosynthetic process currently associated with radiation seasonality may shift towards a more water-limited system.We gratefully acknowledge the CAPES and FAPESP (Grants No. 13/14520-6 and No. 2013/50533-5) agencies for providing research fellowships and support this work. L.O.A and L.E.O.C.A thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), for the productivity fellowship, processes number 309247/2016-0 and 305054/2016-3, respectively. F.H.W. have been funded by the FAPESP (process number 13/14520-6, process number 15/50484-0 and process number 16/17652-9)

Predictors of lower extremity amputation among patients with diabetic foot ulcer in a tertiary health facility in north central Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: Diabetic foot ulcer is a complication of diabetes mellitus of great public health importance. It has the potential of leading to the dreaded sequelae of lower extremity amputation. This outcome is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, hence the need to explore its predictors among persons with diabetic foot ulcers.METHODOLOGY: The study involved the review of the medical records of seventy (70) in-patients who had received treatment for diabetic foot ulcer at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, North Central Nigeria. In addition to obtaining sociodemographic and medical history, information on the Wagner grade of the ulcer, the presence of peripheral sensory neuropathy (using the 10g monofilament) and the presence of osteomyelitis (using plain X-ray of the foot) were obtained and documented. The prevalence rate of lower extremity amputation was also determined.RESULTS: The study population comprised 52.9% males and 42.1% females. The mean age for male and female participants were 53.4±10.5 and 58.8±13.0 years respectively ( t = 2.35; p = 0.061). Majority of study subjects (37.1%) had Wagner grade 2 disease. Prevalence rate of amputation was 38.6%. Among the potential predictors of lower extremity amputation analyzed (Age, sex, foot care education, duration of diabetes, cigarette smoking, walking bare feet, impaired vision, peripheral neuropathy, hypertension, previous foot ulcer, osteomyelitis), none of them demonstrated a significant association with lower extremity amputation.CONCLUSION: The list of potential predictors of lower extremity amputation considered in this study is by no means exhaustive. More studies involving larger study populations and other potential predictors of lower extremity amputation not considered in this work (such as peripheral artery disease and glycated haemoglobin) are encouraged.KEY WORDS: Amputation, Neuropathy, Osteomyeliti

Smart Voltage-Source Inverters with a Novel Approach to Enhance Neutral-Current Compensation

© 1982-2012 IEEE. The presence of a neutral current is quite common in three-phase (3P) four-wire (4W) distribution systems due to an unequal distribution of linear and nonlinear single-phase (1P) loads and small distributed generators. However, a high neutral current can overload the neutral conductor and distribution transformer, which can cause electrical safety concerns and even fire. Among several existing neutral current compensators, the 3P four-leg (4L) voltage-source inverter (VSI) provides better control flexibility and more efficient performance than the passive compensators but requires a higher VSI capacity for the fourth-leg operation. To provide a solution to the aforementioned problem, this paper presents a novel control method to utilize the available capacity of a 3P-4L VSI after active and reactive power regulation to enhance the neutral-current compensation. A smart VSI (SVSI) is designed to operate with a solar photovoltaic unit, regulate the ac side voltage, and minimize the neutral current. Case studies are conducted with actual load data from a commercial building in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. The designed system with the proposed control method can provide a significant improvement in the neutral-current compensation, phase balancing, and unbalance factor compared to a fixed-capacity 3P-4L SVSI. Experimental results using a TMS320F28335 digital signal processor microcontroller and modified Semiteach 3P-4L inverter are presented to verify the robustness of the designed controller and the enhancement to the neutral-current compensation using the proposed dynamic capacity-control method

Cooperation across multiple game theoretical paradigms is increased by fear more than anger in selfish individuals.

Cooperative decisions are well predicted by stable individual differences in social values but it remains unclear how they may be modulated by emotions such as fear and anger. Moving beyond specific decision paradigms, we used a suite of economic games and investigated how experimental inductions of fear or anger affect latent factors of decision making in individuals with selfish or prosocial value orientations. We found that, relative to experimentally induced anger, induced fear elicited higher scores on a cooperation factor, and that this effect was entirely driven by selfish participants. In fact, induced fear brought selfish individuals to cooperate similarly to prosocial individuals, possibly as a (selfish) mean to seek protection in others. These results suggest that two basic threat-related emotions, fear and anger, differentially affect a generalized form of cooperation and that this effect is buffered by prosocial value orientation