Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Success and failure of the Friedel-Anderson resonance model for magnetic impurities: 3d impurities on the surface of Au.

The magnetic character of 3{ital d} atoms on the surface of Au is investigated using the method of quantum interference (weak localization). We find that single atoms of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co are magnetic on the surface of Au while single atoms of Sc and Ni are nonmagnetic. Single atoms of Ti are locally spin fluctuating. The magnetic dephasing due to the 3{ital d} impurities has two maxima, one for iron and a smaller one for chromium impurities and a minimum for manganese. This behavior can be qualitatively described within the Friedel-Anderson model although the experimental values are smaller by roughly a factor of 5 than our theoretical estimates within this model. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
Medical research in Africa. Geographic pathology, Kaposi's sarcoma, and cutaneous physiology of pachyderms.

The International Union Against Cancer (Unio Internationalis Contra Cancrum) has a Committee on Geographic Pathology. Early in 1961, the Committee Chairman, Dr. Harold Stewart of the National Institutes of Health, recommended that I attend a meeting of its Subcommittee on Geographic Pathology in Africa and a symposium on Kaposi's sarcoma in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa, to be held in May, 1961. Kaposi's sarcoma was selected as the topic for this symposium because of its fantastically high incidence among the natives in some countries of Equatorial and South Africa. In the Congo, for instance, it has been calculated that Kaposi's sarcoma constitutes close to 10% of all malignancies. A comprehensive review on the incidence and geographic distribution of the disease in African countries was written in 1958 by Quenum and Camain of the Pasteur Institute of the Medical School in Dakar, Senegal.1 Study of the geographic distribution of diseases is
Evaluating the use of DGT-DIFS to measure Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn plant availability in soils treated with biosolids and metal salts

The application of biosolids to land is increasing because it provides an alternative means of waste disposal and benefits the soil via improved . soil fertility and productivity. However, the metals present in biosolids are potential concerns for environmental and public health, arising from the possibility of metal accumulation in soils and their introduction into the food chain via plant uptake. The success of environmental risk assessments of metal contaminated soils depends on the accuracy with which they estimate metal bioavailability. Diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) combined with 2D-DIFS (DGT-induced fluxes in soils) is a relatively new technique for measuring labile metals in soils and is characteristically expressed as the effective solution metal concentrations (CE). This technique has shown to be a promising surrogate for predicting metal uptake in plants and is being extensively examined using three soil types collected from the Canterbury region. Lysimeters (containing soil monoliths) were treated with a one-off application of increasing levels of Cd (1, 5, 10 mg/kg), Cu (50, 200, 750 mg/kg), Ni (30, 150, 300 mg/kg) and Zn (70, 300, 1000 mg/kg) in the presence and absence of biosolids (400 kg N ha/yr). Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) seeds were sown in each lysimeter immediately after treatment application. Harvests were made at six monthly intervals Ryegrass was analysed for total plant metal content and the soil (0-10 cm) was sampled and assessed using the DGT and 2D-DIFS method. Metal concentrations in plants generally increased as treatment levels increased. Cadmium concentrations were higher in treatments without biosolids, and highest in the combination high metal treatments. Copper, Ni and Zn concentrations in plants were higher in soils treated with metal salts in the presence of biosolids. However, for Cu and Zn these differences were less than for Ni. The linear relationship between plant metal uptake and CE was strongest with Cu (r 2 =0.87), followed by Zn (r 2 =0.64) and Ni (r 2 =0.44). The weakest linear relationship was found for Cd (r 2 =0.17).
Intratracheal exposure to multi-walled carbon nanotubes induces a nonalcoholic steatohepatitis-like phenotype in C57BL/6J mice

Abstract The effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) exposure have garnered great interest in the field of public health, due to the high aspect ratio of MWCNTs. Because of worldwide increases in obesity prevalence, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common prevalent liver disease and is considered to be a component of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of disorders that also includes dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, arteriosclerosis, and hypertension. Exposure to MWCNTs is known to be a risk factor for lung and cardiovascular diseases, but its effect on NAFLD is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of intratracheal exposure of two different types of MWCNTs, namely, pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PMWCNTs) and acid-treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (TMWCNTs), on liver pathogenesis. Direct instillation of a test material into the lungs has been employed as a quantitatively reliable alternative method of inhalation exposure. The 10% weight loss dose was assessed in three months of subchronic study and is defined here as the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of PMWCNTs and TMWCNTs; by this metric, MTD for a 1-year exposure of MWCNTs was determined to be 0.1 mg/mouse. Mice exposed to PMWCNTs and TMWCNTs for one year developed a nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-like phenotype, characterized by inflammation, hepatic steatosis, and fibrosis. Furthermore, PMWCNTs induced a more severe NASH-like phenotype than TMWCNTs, which was related to consistent up-regulation of interleukin (IL)-6 and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1. Impaired cholesterol homeostasis, overexpression of NF-κBp65, and suppression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) in the liver were also observed.
A test of stress, cues, and re-exposure to large wins as potential reinstaters of suboptimal decision making in rats

The present experiment investigated potential reinstaters of suboptimal economic decision making in rats. Rats were first trained on a version of the rat Gambling Task under conditions designed to promote choice of a suboptimal option that occasionally resulted in large “wins” (four sucrose pellets). In a second phase, preference for this economically suboptimal option was reduced by substantially increasing the probability of punishment when this option was chosen. Then, three events were tested for their ability to reinstate choice of the suboptimal option. A brief period of re-exposure to a high frequency of large wins significantly increased choice of the suboptimal option. The pharmacological stressor yohimbine did not reinstate suboptimal choice, but did increase impulsive action as indexed by premature responding. Presentation of cues previously associated with large wins did not alter behavior. Results suggest reinstaters of suboptimal choice may differ from reinstaters of extinguished drug- and food-seeking behavior.
Statistical Analysis of Zebrafish Locomotor Response

Zebrafish larvae display rich locomotor behaviour upon external stimulation. The movement can be simultaneously tracked from many larvae arranged in multi-well plates. The resulting time-series locomotor data have been used to reveal new insights into neurobiology and pharmacology. However, the data are of large scale, and the corresponding locomotor behavior is affected by multiple factors. These issues pose a statistical challenge for comparing larval activities. To address this gap, this study has analyzed a visually-driven locomotor behaviour named the visual motor response (VMR) by the Hotelling’s T-squared test. This test is congruent with comparing locomotor profiles from a time period. Different wild-type (WT) strains were compared using the test, which shows that they responded differently to light change at different developmental stages. The performance of this test was evaluated by a power analysis, which shows that the test was sensitive for detecting differences between experimental groups with sample numbers that were commonly used in various studies. In addition, this study investigated the effects of various factors that might affect the VMR by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results indicate that the larval activity was generally affected by stage, light stimulus, their interaction, and location in the plate. Nonetheless, different factors affected larval activity differently over time, as indicated by a dynamical analysis of the activity at each second. Intriguingly, this analysis also shows that biological and technical repeats had negligible effect on larval activity. This finding is consistent with that from the Hotelling’s T-squared test, and suggests that experimental repeats can be combined to enhance statistical power. Together, these investigations have established a statistical framework for analyzing VMR data, a framework that should be generally applicable to other locomotor data with similar structure.
Frequency of Infective Endocarditis Among Infants and Children With Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia

Purpose. The prevalence of infective endocarditis (IE) among children with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine prospectively the prevalence of IE among pediatric patients with SAB in a large tertiary care center. Methods. Between July 1998 and June 2001, all children who developed SAB whose parent/guardian signed informed consent underwent echocardiography. Clinical and follow-up results were collected prospectively. Endocarditis was classified according to the modified Duke criteria. Results. Fifty-one children developed SAB during the study interval. Definite (6 patients [11.8%]) or possible (4 patients [7.8%]) IE was present in 10 of 51 (20%) children with SAB. Most children (73%) developed bacteremia as a consequence of an infected intravascular device. Children with underlying congenital heart disease had a significantly higher prevalence of definite or possible IE, compared with those with structurally normal hearts (53% vs 3%). All patients with definite IE had multiple positive blood cultures. Mortality was high among patients with and without IE (40% vs 12%). Conclusions. In this study, the prevalence of definite IE among children with SAB was ∼12% and was frequently associated with congenital heart disease and multiple positive blood cultures. The mortality for children with SAB and definite or possible S aureus IE is high.
Nitric oxide biosynthesis and malondialdehyde levels in advanced breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide (NO) is a free oxygen radical studied in many tissues. Its tumour killing structure is shown especially by macrophages. The end products of NO are nitrite and nitrate. Their plasma levels are used biochemically to determine nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity. The proliferative capacity of cancer cells accompanies the alteration in oxidant-anti-oxidant status. The risk of breast cancer is decreased in association with an increased level of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the erythrocyte membranes. The more the anti-oxidant capacity increases, the more the transformed cells grow. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a lipid peroxidation marker, and low plasma levels of MDA are associated with advanced stages of breast cancer. METHODS In the present study, the alteration of serum plasma levels of nitrate, nitrite and MDA were determined in patients with stage IIIB breast cancer and controls. RESULTS It was found that products of NO biosynthesis were higher and plasma MDA levels were lower in patients with breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS It can be stated that in advanced breast cancer, the NO radical production is increased while the lipid metabolism is altered, and these changes can be related to an alteration in oxidant-anti-oxidant status.
Explorer GABAergic neurons regulate lateral ventricular development via transcription factor Pax 5

Postmortem studies have revealed a downregulation of the transcription factor Pax5 in GABAergic neurons in bipolar disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder, raising the question whether Pax5 in GABAergic neurons has a role in normal brain development. In a genetic approach to study functions of Pax5 in GABAergic neurons, Pax5 was specifically deleted in GABAergic neurons from Pax5 floxed mice using a novel Gad1-Cre transgenic mouse line expressing Cre recombinase in Gad1-positive, i.e. GABAergic neurons. Surprisingly, these mice developed a marked enlargement of the lateral ventricles at approximately seven weeks of age, which was lethal within 1–2 weeks of its appearance. This hydrocephalus phenotype was observed in mice homozygous or heterozygous for the Pax5 conditional knockout, with a gene dosagedependent penetrance. By QTL (quantitative trait loci) mapping, a 3.5 Mb segment on mouse chromosome 4 flanked by markers D4Mit237 and D4Mit214 containing approximately 92 genes including Pax5 has previously been linked to differences in lateral ventricular size. Our findings are consistent with Pax5 being a relevant gene underlying this QTL phenotype and demonstrate that Pax5 in GABAergic neurons is essential for normal ventricular development.
Immigrant women’s food choices in pregnancy: perspectives from women of Chinese origin in Canada

ABSTRACT Objective: Following migration, pregnant immigrant women may encounter social, cultural, and economic challenges that negatively affect their food choices and subsequent health outcomes. Culturally appropriate health care is crucial during the perinatal period to ensure the health of immigrant mothers and their children. This project aims to explore and understand how the health beliefs and practices of Chinese immigrant women affect their food choices during the perinatal period. Design: This qualitative study used the methodology of focused ethnography. Women participated in one semi-structured interview, followed by a second photo-assisted, semi-structured interview which incorporated photographs taken by the women themselves. Results: The food choices and health behaviors of immigrant women were influenced by their general health beliefs, cultural knowledge concerning particular types of foods, traditional Chinese medical beliefs, social advice and information, and socio-economic factors. Conclusion: The provision of culturally appropriate health care is crucial during the perinatal period, as it is not only a vulnerable life stage for women and their children but also a sensitive period of interaction with the Canadian health-care system. Understanding these intersecting factors can help to ensure culturally appropriate care and optimized health outcomes for Chinese immigrant women during the perinatal period.
Relationship between the modified Rankin Scale and the Barthel Index in the process of functional recovery after stroke.

OBJECTIVE The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and the Barthel Index (BI) are the most common clinimetrical instruments for measuring disability after stroke. This study investigated the relationship between the BI and the mRS at multiple time points after stroke. The BI, which is a widely used instrument for longitudinal follow-up post-stroke, was used as reference to determine the effect of time on the sensitivity of the mRS in differentiating functional recovery. METHODS Ninety-two patients with first stroke and hemispheric brain lesion were evaluated using the BI and mRS at 10 days, 3 and 6 months. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to examine median differences in BI among the mRS levels at 10 days, 3 and 6 months with Dunn's correction for multigroup comparison. The Mann and Whitney test was used to compare median differences in BI scores between two aggregations of mRS grades (mRS=0-2, mRS=3-5) at the same time periods after stroke. RESULTS BI score distribution amongst mRS grades overlapped at 10 days, differentiating only between extreme grades (no disability vs severe disability). At 3 months, independent patients with slight disability could be distinguished from dependent patients with marked disability. At 6 months, grade 2 and 3 overlapped no more, differentiating independence (class 0-2) from dependence (class 3-5). The largest transition to an independent functional status occurred from grade 4, at 3 months. CONCLUSION Maximum sensitivity of mRS in differentiating functional recovery is reached at six months post-stroke.
Using Outlier Events to Monitor Test Turnaround Time

Abstract Objectives. —To determine the causes of excessive test turnaround time (TAT) and to identify methods of improvement by studying reasons for those tests reported in excess of 70 minutes from the time the test was ordered (ie, outliers). Design. —Self-directed data-gathering of stat outlier TAT events from intensive care units and emergency departments, with descriptive parameters associated with each event and additional descriptive parameters associated with the participant. Participants. —Laboratories enrolled in the 1996 College of American Pathologists Q-Probes program. Main Outcome Measures. —Components associated with outlier TAT events and outlier TAT rates. Results. —Four hundred ninety-six hospital laboratories returned data on 218 551 stat tests, of which 10.6% had TATs in excess of 70 minutes. Ten percent of stat emergency department tests and 14.7% of stat intensive care unit tests were outliers. Major areas in which delays occurred were test ordering, 29.9%; within-laboratory (analytic) ph.
Well-Balanced Central-Upwind Schemes for the Euler Equations with Gravitation

In this paper, we develop a second-order well-balanced central-upwind scheme for the Euler equations of gas dynamics with gravitation. The proposed scheme is capable of exactly preserving steady-state solutions expressed in terms of a nonlocal equilibrium variable. A crucial step in the construction of the second-order scheme is a well-balanced piecewise linear reconstruction of equilibrium variables, which is combined with a well-balanced evolution in time, achieved by reducing the amount of numerical viscosity (present at the central-upwind scheme) in the areas where the flow is at (near) steady-state regime. We show the performance of our newly developed central-upwind scheme and demonstrate importance of perfect balance between the fluxes and gravitational forces on a number of oneand two-dimensional examples.
Trusted P2P transactions with fuzzy reputation aggregation

Internet commerce and online commodity exchanges suffer from distrust among sellers and buyers, who are often strangers to each other. The authors present a new P2P reputation system based on fuzzy logic inferences, which can better handle uncertainty, fuzziness, and incomplete information in peer trust reports. This system aggregates peer reputations with affordable message overhead. By testing the system using eBay transaction data in the public domain, the authors seek to demonstrate the efficacy and robustness of two P2P reputation systems - fuzzytrust and eigentrust - at establishing trust among the peers in P2P applications.
Modelling Word Associations with Word Embeddings for a Guesser Agent in the Taboo City Challenge Competition

In the Taboo City Challenge, artificial agents should guess the names of cities from simple textual hints and are evaluated with games played by humans. Thus, playing the games successfully requires mimicking associations that humans have with geographical locations. In this paper, an architecture is proposed that calculates the associative similarity between a city and a hint from a semantic vector space. The semantic vector space is created using the Skip-gram hierarchical softmax model, from a tailored corpus about travel destinations. We investigate the effect of varying training parameters and introduce a targeted corpus annotation method that significantly improves performance. The results on a dataset of 149 games indicate that the proposed architecture can guess the target city with up to 22.45% accuracy — a substantial improvement over the 4.11% accuracy achieved by the baseline architecture.
A greedy pursuit algorithm for distributed compressed sensing

We develop a greedy pursuit algorithm for solving the distributed compressed sensing problem in a connected network. This algorithm is based on subspace pursuit and uses the mixed support-set signal model. Through experimental evaluation, we show that the distributed algorithm performs significantly better than the standalone (disconnected) solution and close to a centralized (fully connected to a central point) solution.
DNA barcoding South China Sea fishes

We have determined 222 DNA barcode sequences of 95 fish species in 86 genera of 69 families from 15 orders. Fish were captured by trawl from two important fisheries regions in South China Sea: Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands) and Beibu Gulf. The average genetic distances between intraspecies were about 60-fold less than those of interspecies within different taxonomic levels, as Kimura two-parameter genetic distances averaged 17.260% among congeners, 20.097% among genus, and only 0.317% for intraspecific individuals. There were a few examples of deep divergence within species, suggesting the need for further taxonomic work, and a few examples of closely allied species, perhaps reflecting introgressive hybridization. The results provide further evidence for the reliability and accessibility of DNA barcodes for marine fish identification, and also highlight their effectiveness for flagging cases needing taxonomical reexamination.
Dynamics of Social Behavior in Fruit Fly Larvae

We quantified the extent and dynamics of social interactions among fruit fly larvae over time. Both a wild-type laboratory population and a recently-caught strain of larvae spontaneously formed social foraging groups. Levels of aggregation initially increased during larval development and then declined with the wandering stage before pupation. We show that larvae aggregated more on hard than soft food, and more at sites where we had previously broken the surface of the food. Groups of larvae initiated burrowing sooner than solitary individuals, indicating that one potential benefit of larval aggregations is an improved ability to dig and burrow into the food substrate. We also show that two closely related species, D. melanogaster and D. simulans, differ in their tendency to aggregate, which may reflect different evolutionary histories. Our protocol for quantifying social behavior in larvae uncovered robust social aggregations in this simple model, which is highly amenable to neurogenetic analyses, and can serve for future research into the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.