Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bone lead as a biological marker in epidemiologic studies of chronic toxicity: conceptual paradigms.

The skeleton contains the majority of the body's lead burden in both children and adults. The half-life of lead in bone is in the range of years to decades, depending on bone type, metabolic state, and subject age, among other things. Measurement of skeletal lead has benefited greatly from the recent development of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments that can make rapid, safe, accurate, and relatively precise measurements of lead in bone. Two types of XRF technologies exist, LXRF and KXRF; this paper focuses on KXRF, which has been the most widely validated and used. KXRF is proving to be a powerful analytical methodology for evaluating bone lead levels as a measure of time-integrated (i.e., cumulative) lead dose in epidemiologic studies of the effects of chronic lead exposure. However, insufficient attention has been given to conceptualizing the paradigms by which bone lead levels reflect lead exposure and by which the skeleton serves as an endogenous source of lead. Consideration of these paradigms, which rely on bone lead kinetics, is necessary for the proper development of a priori hypotheses involving bone lead accumulation and release, the selection of bone sites for measurement by KXRF, and the design of epidemiologic studies involving bone lead dynamics. We discuss and present supporting evidence for a conceptual model that distinguishes two major paradigms of skeletal lead, including 1) bone lead as an indicator of cumulative lead exposure (bone lead as repository), and 2) bone lead as a source of body lead burden that is mobilizable into the circulation (bone lead as source). These two roles are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they are components of the processes controlling lead accumulation into and release from bone over time. Developing successful strategies for distinguishing these two processes in epidemiologic studies will require separate measurements of lead in cortical and trabecular bone and additional measurement of specific markers of bone mineral turnover and resorption. It may also involve developing accurate methods for evaluating lead in labile compartments of the circulation, such as plasma, as a potentially useful and responsive measure of bone lead release, of the partitioning of circulatory lead, and of the toxicological significance of lead released from bone to other target organs. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3
Observer-Based Adaptive Fuzzy Backstepping Control for a Class of Stochastic Nonlinear Strict-Feedback Systems

In this paper, two adaptive fuzzy output feedback control approaches are proposed for a class of uncertain stochastic nonlinear strict-feedback systems without the measurements of the states. The fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions, and a fuzzy state observer is designed for estimating the unmeasured states. On the basis of the fuzzy state observer, and by combining the adaptive backstepping technique with fuzzy adaptive control design, an adaptive fuzzy output feedback control approach is developed. To overcome the problem of “explosion of complexity” inherent in the proposed control method, the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique is incorporated into the first adaptive fuzzy control scheme, and a simplified adaptive fuzzy output feedback DSC approach is developed. It is proved that these two control approaches can guarantee that all the signals of the closed-loop system are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) in mean square, and the observer errors and the output of the system converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. A simulation example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.
Genetic Diversity, Population Structure, and Resistance to Phytophthora capsici of a Worldwide Collection of Eggplant Germplasm

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an important solanaceous crop with high phenotypic diversity and moderate genotypic diversity. Ninety-nine genotypes of eggplant germplasm (species (S. melongena, S. incanum, S. linnaeanum and S. gilo), landraces and heirloom cultivars) from 32 countries and five continents were evaluated for genetic diversity, population structure, fruit shape, and disease resistance to Phytophthora fruit rot. Fruits from each line were measured for fruit shape and evaluated for resistance to two Phytophthora capsici isolates seven days post inoculation. Only one accession (PI 413784) was completely resistant to both isolates evaluated. Partial resistance to Phytophthora fruit rot was found in accessions from all four eggplant species evaluated in this study. Genetic diversity and population structure were assessed using 22 polymorphic simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The polymorphism information content (PIC) for the population was moderate (0.49) in the population. Genetic analyses using the program STRUCTURE indicated the existence of four genetic clusters within the eggplant collection. Population structure was detected when eggplant lines were grouped by species, continent of origin, country of origin, fruit shape and disease resistance.
Radio-ulnar joint supinates around ball release during baseball fastball pitching

Abstract This study was conducted to determine whether a supination phase of the forearm exists around ball release (BRL), and, if present, to determine whether this supination is explained by a reaction force or by the body configuration required for this task. A 16-camera motion analysis system with a sampling frequency of 1,000 Hz recorded 20 healthy male semi-professional pitchers pitching from an indoor pitching mound. A short supination phase around BRL was confirmed for all participants in the current study. Correlation analyses revealed that the supination angle at BRL had significant relationships with several measurements of shoulder movement kinematics. Mechanical work analysis of the forearm’s longitudinal axis revealed several variations in joint power curve and various patterns of mechanical work among the participants, suggesting that a reaction force originating from accelerating a ball might not be the main cause of supination. The raw data also were down-sampled to a sampling frequency of 250 Hz, to match previous studies and to investigate the discrepancy among previous studies concerning the existence of the supination phase. The experience of participants and methodological differences, such as the definition of BRL and the time-normalisation technique, influenced whether the supination phase was observed.
Possible Transmission of Streptococcus iniae from Wild Fish to Cultured Marine Fish

ABSTRACT Streptococcus iniae was isolated from diseased wild fish collected near a mariculture facility where gilthead sea bream and European sea bass exhibited a similar infection. Species-specific PCR and ribotyping confirmed that wild and cultured fish were infected by a single S. iniae clone. Wild fish are therefore potential amplifiers of pathogenic S. iniae strains.
Galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing: a promising union to constrain cosmological parameters

Galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing probe the connection between galaxies and their dark matter haloes in complementary ways. Since the clustering of dark matter haloes depends on cosmology, the halo occupation statistics inferred from the observed clustering properties of galaxies are degenerate with the adopted cosmology. Consequently, different cosmologies imply different mass-to-light ratios for dark matter haloes. Galaxy-galaxy lensing, which yields direct constraints on the actual mass-to-light ratios, can therefore be used to break this degeneracy, and thus to constrain cosmological parameters. In this paper, we establish the link between galaxy luminosity and dark matter halo mass using the conditional luminosity function (CLF), Phi(L\M) dL, which gives the number of galaxies with luminosities in the range L +/- dL/2 that reside in a halo of mass M. We constrain the CLF parameters using the galaxy luminosity function and the luminosity dependence of the correlation lengths of galaxies. The resulting CLF models are used to predict the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal. For a cosmology that agrees with constraints from the cosmic microwave background, i.e. (Omega(m), sigma(8)) = (0.238, 0.734), the model accurately fits the galaxy-galaxy lensing data obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For a comparison cosmology with (Omega(m), sigma(8)) = (0.3, 0.9), however, we can accurately fit the luminosity function and clustering properties of the galaxy population, but the model predicts mass-to-light ratios that are too high, resulting in a strong overprediction of the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal. We conclude that the combination of galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing is a powerful probe of the galaxy-dark matter connection, with the potential to yield tight constraints on cosmological parameters. Since this method mainly probes the mass distribution on relatively small (non-linear) scales, it is complementary to constraints obtained from the galaxy power spectrum, which mainly probes the large-scale (linear) matter distribution.
SUBFUNCTIONALIZATION OF CYPRINID HYPOXIA‐INDUCIBLE FACTORS FOR ROLES IN DEVELOPMENT AND OXYGEN SENSING

Among vertebrates, teleost fishes have evolved the most impressive adaptations to variable oxygen tensions in water (Shoubridge and Hochachka 1980; Nilsson and Randall 2010). Under conditions of oxygen deprivation (hypoxia), major changes in gene expression are mediated by hypoxia‐inducible factors (HIF alpha). Here we show that hif alpha genes were duplicated in the teleost specific whole‐genome duplication. Although one of each paralogous gene pair was lost in most teleosts, both copies were retained in cyprinids. Computational analyses suggest that these duplicates have become subfunctionalized with complementary changes in coding and regulatory sequences within each paralogous gene pair. We tested our predictions with comparisons of hif alpha transcription in zebrafish, a cyprinid, and sturgeon, an outgroup that diverged from teleosts before the duplication event. Our experiments revealed distinct transcriptional profiles in the cyprinid duplicates: while one of each paralogous pair maintained the ancestral developmental response, the other was more sensitive to changes in oxygen tension. These results demonstrate the subfunctionalization of cyprinid hif alpha paralogs for specialized roles in development and the hypoxic stress response.
Early virologic failure in HIV-1 infected subjects on didanosine/tenofovir/efavirenz: 12-week results from a randomized trial

Objective:To compare the safety and efficacy of two once-daily antiretroviral regimens containing lamivudine (3TC) or tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), each administered with didanosine (ddI) and efavirenz (EFV) as initial therapy to HIV-1-infected subjects. Methods:Single centre, randomized (1: 1), open-label study in antiretroviral-naive, HIV-infected adults. Subjects commenced either 3TC/ddI/EFV (3TC group) or TDF/ddI/EFV (TDF group). Safety, Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMScap) and plasma EFV concentration monitoring was performed over the study period. Comparisons between groups were assessed using χ2 test and linear regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between EFV concentrations and virological response. Results:Seventy-seven subjects were enrolled prior to recruitment being suspended, 36 to the 3TC group and 41 to the TDF group. Intention-to-treat analysis in which last observation carried forward (LOCF) found the mean viral log10 load [95% confidence interval (CI)] at weeks 4 and 12 to be 2.67 (2.47–2.87) and 1.83 (1.74–1.92) for the 3TC group and 2.75 (2.45–3.05) and 2.28 (1.96–2.6) for the TDF group (P = 0.013). Emergence of resistance occurred in five of 41 (12.2%) subjects in the TDF group up to week 12 compared with none of 36 in the 3TC group, (P < 0.05); these five subjects shared similar baseline characteristics (CD4+ cell counts < 200 × 106 cells/l and HIV-1 RNA > 100 000 copies/ml). Despite MEMScap monitoring showing > 99% adherence in all subjects, among the five failures, three had low EFV concentrations. Conclusion:TDF/ddI/EFV as initial therapy appears to have diminished efficacy in subjects with CD4 < 200 × 106 cells/l and viral load > 100 000 copies/ml. Treatment failure with resistance was not attributable to baseline resistance, efavirenz exposure or poor adherence.
Long-Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries

The long-term evolution of massive black hole binaries at the centers of galaxies is studied in a variety of physical regimes, with the aim of resolving the "final parsec problem," i.e., how black hole binaries manage to shrink to separations at which emission of gravity waves becomes efficient. A binary ejects stars by the gravitational slingshot and carves out a loss cone in the host galaxy. Continued decay of the binary requires a refilling of the loss cone. We show that the standard treatment of loss cone refilling, derived for collisionally relaxed systems like globular clusters, can substantially underestimate the refilling rates in galactic nuclei. We derive expressions for nonequilibrium loss cone dynamics and calculate timescales for the decay of massive black hole binaries following galaxy mergers, obtaining significantly higher decay rates than heretofore. Even in the absence of two-body relaxation, decay of binaries can persist as a result of repeated ejection of stars returning to the nucleus on eccentric orbits. We show that this recycling of stars leads to a gradual, approximately logarithmic dependence of the binary binding energy on time. We derive an expression for the loss cone refilling induced by the Brownian motion of a black hole binary. We also show that numerical N-body experiments are not well suited to probe these mechanisms over long times as a result of spurious relaxation.
Carbon Dioxide Fumigation for Controlling Bed Bugs

ABSTRACT We investigated the potential of carbon dioxide (CO2) fumigation as a method for controlling bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L. The effect of bed bug developmental stage, temperature, and CO2 concentration on the minimum time to kill 100% of bed bugs was determined. The minimum CO2 concentration lethal to all bed bug stages was ≈30% with 24 h exposure time at 25°C. The minimum fumigation time required to kill 100% of eggs using 100% CO2 at 20, 25, and 30°C were 3, 7, and 8 h, respectively; the minimum fumigation time to kill 100% of adult males/nymphs were 8,13, and 14 h, respectively. The minimum time to kill 100% of adult males/nymphs using 50 and 70% CO2 at 25°C were 18 and 16 h, respectively. We found that eggs were not completely killed after 24 h fumigation when the CO2 concentration was lower than 80%. Thus, bed bug eggs were more susceptible to 100% CO2 fumigation than nymphs and adult males but more tolerant than nymphs and adult males with lower CO2 concentration (50–80%). There were no significant differences among nymphs, adult males, and adult females in their susceptibility to 100% CO2 fumigation. A 24 h fumigation in sealed 158 liter (42 gallon) heavy duty garbage bags filled 90% full with fabric materials and/or boxes and 1,350 g dry ice per bag was sufficient to kill all stages of bed bugs hidden in the materials at room temperature (23–24°C). Sealed heavy duty garbage bags maintained ≥94% CO2 for at least 24 h. Custom-made double zipper plastic bags (122 × 183 cm) were also used to evaluate the effectiveness of CO2 fumigation for controlling bed bugs. Each bag was filled with fabric and boxes to 50–90% full. Bed bugs were hidden in various locations of each bag. CO2 was introduced into the bags through a CO2 cylinder. CO2 fumigation lasting 24–48 h was sufficient to kill all stages of bed bugs at room temperature, depending on the quantity of materials placed in each bag and whether CO2 was introduced one or two times at the onset. CO2 is an effective alternative to conventional fumigants for eliminating bed bugs hiding in infested household items such as clothing, shoes, books, electronics, sofas, and so forth.
Perceptions of organisational justice, restorative organisational justice and their relatedness to perceptions of organisational attractiveness.

iii CHAPTER ONE: RATIONAL 12 1.1. Rational 12 1.2. Research Aims 13 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 15 2.1. Organisational Justice 15 2.2. Organisational Distributive Justice 20 2.3. Organisational Procedural Justice 22 2.4. Organisational Interactional Justice 24 2.5. Restorative Justice in the Organisational Framework 26 2.5. 1. Restorative Justice 26 2.5. 2. Restorative Organisational Justice 28 2.5. 3. General Restorative Justice 30 2.5. 4. Restorative Distributive Justice 31 2.5. 5. Restorative Procedural Justice 33 2.6. Organisational Attractiveness and its Possible Relationship to the Organisational Justice Framework 35 2.7. Organisational Justice, Restorative Organisational Justice, and Organisational Attractiveness 40
A Complete Fossil-Calibrated Phylogeny of Seed Plant Families as a Tool for Comparative Analyses: Testing the ‘Time for Speciation’ Hypothesis

Explaining the uneven distribution of species richness across the branches of the tree of life has been a major challenge for evolutionary biologists. Advances in phylogenetic reconstruction, allowing the generation of large, well-sampled, phylogenetic trees have provided an opportunity to contrast competing hypotheses. Here, we present a new time-calibrated phylogeny of seed plant families using Bayesian methods and 26 fossil calibrations. While there are various published phylogenetic trees for plants which have a greater density of species sampling, we are still a long way from generating a complete phylogeny for all ~300,000+ plants. Our phylogeny samples all seed plant families and is a useful tool for comparative analyses. We use this new phylogenetic hypothesis to contrast two alternative explanations for differences in species richness among higher taxa: time for speciation versus ecological limits. We calculated net diversification rate for each clade in the phylogeny and assessed the relationship between clade age and species richness. We then fit models of speciation and extinction to individual branches in the tree to identify major rate-shifts. Our data suggest that the majority of lineages are diversifying very slowly while a few lineages, distributed throughout the tree, are diversifying rapidly. Diversification is unrelated to clade age, no matter the age range of the clades being examined, contrary to both the assumption of an unbounded lineage increase through time, and the paradigm of fixed ecological limits. These findings are consistent with the idea that ecology plays a role in diversification, but rather than imposing a fixed limit, it may have variable effects on per lineage diversification rates through time.
Calcium-sensing receptor stimulates Cl-and SCFA-dependent but inhibits cAMP-dependent HCO 3 secretion in colon

Lieqi Tang, Minzhi Peng, Li Liu, Wenhan Chang, Henry J. Binder, and X Sam X. Cheng Division of Gastroenterology, Nutrition and Hepatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; Department of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; Endocrine Research, VA Medical Center, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Feed Distillation Using AdaBoost and Topic Maps

This paper retains the experiences by participating in TREC 2007 Blog Track ‘Feed Distillation’. To perform the run various classifiers are combined, which analyze title-, contentand splog-specific features to predict the relevance of a feed related to a topic, based on the idea of AdaBoost. The implemented classifiers utilize keywords retrieved from different thesauri such as Wordnet and Wortschatz, as well as from websites providing hierarchical organized ‘ontology’ such as the ‘Open Directory Project’ and Yahoo Directory. To structure the keywords, Topic Maps are utilized according to ISO/IEC 13250:2000.
Dyspepsia and IBS Symptoms in Patients with NERD, ERD and Barrett’s Esophagus

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia (FD) are highly prevalent in the general population as does gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Therefore, it is expected that these conditions may frequently overlap. Objective: We aimed at evaluating the presence ofFD and IBS symptoms in patients with erosive (ERD), non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) and Barrett’s esophagus (BE). Patients and Methods: 71 patients presenting at the reflux disease outpatient clinic were prospectively included in this study. 33 patients had NERD, 25 ERD and 13 BE according to the Montreal classification. All patients with ERD and NERD had typical reflux symptoms, as assessed by a validated GERD questionnaire (RDQ). The diagnosis of functional dyspepsia and IBS symptoms was assessed according to the Rome III criteria. Results: IBS symptoms (bloating, abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea) were slightly more prevalent in NERD (54.6, 63.6, 21.20, 24.2%, respectively) than in ERD (48.0, 44.0, 12.0, 20.0%, respectively) and in BE (53.9, 23.10, 15,4, 23.1%, respectively), but none of these differences reached statistical significance. NERD patients had more FD symptoms than patients with ERD or BE, but again this difference did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: Our data show that IBS and FD are common in the entire spectrum of GERD. The presence of these disorders might explain why many patients with GERD are deemed as treatment failures if they have no complete symptom relief with proton pump inhibitors.
Approximating dependent rare events

In this paper we give a historical account of the development of Poisson approximation using Stein's method and present some of the main results. We give two recent applications, one on maximal arithmetic progressions and the other on bootstrap percolation. We also discuss generalisations to compound Poisson approximation, Poisson process approximation and multivariate Poisson approximation, and state a few open problems.
Investigation of a lattice Boltzmann model with a variable speed of sound

A lattice Boltzmann model is considered in which the speed of sound can be varied independently of the other parameters. The range over which the speed of sound can be varied is investigated and good agreement is found between simulations and theory. The onset of nonlinear effects due to variations in the speed of sound is also investigated and good agreement is again found with theory. It is also shown that the fluid viscosity is not altered by changing the speed of sound.