Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primordial origins of Earth's carbon

It is commonly assumed that the building blocks of the terrestrial planets were derived from a cosmochemical reservoir that is best represented by chondrites, the so-called chondritic Earth model. This view is possibly a good approximation for refractory elements (although it has been recently questioned; e.g., Caro et al. 2008), but for volatile elements, other cosmochemical reservoirs might have contributed to Earth, such as the solar nebula gas and/or cometary matter (Owen et al. 1992; Dauphas 2003; Pepin 2006). Hence, in order to get insights into the origin of the carbon in Earth, it is necessary to compare: (i) the elemental abundances and isotopic compositions of not only carbon, but also other volatile elements in potential cosmochemical “ancestors,” and (ii) the ancestral compositions with those of terrestrial volatiles. This approach is the only one that has the potential for understanding the origin of the carbon in Earth but it has several intrinsic limitations. First, the terrestrial carbon budget is not well known, and, for the deep reservoir(s) such as the core and the lower mantle, is highly model-dependent (Dasgupta 2013; Wood et al. 2013). Second, the cosmochemical reservoir(s) that contributed volatile elements to proto-Earth may not exist anymore because planet formation might have completely exhausted them (most of the mass present in the inner solar system is now in Venus and Earth). Third, planetary formation processes (accretion, differentiation, early evolution of the atmospheres) might have drastically modified the original elemental and isotopic compositions of the volatile elements in Earth. Despite these limitations, robust constraints on the origin(s) of the carbon in Earth can be deduced from comparative planetology of volatile elements, which is the focus of this chapter. Carbon in the cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed was probably mainly in the …
Stabilized second‐order convex splitting schemes for Cahn–Hilliard models with application to diffuse‐interface tumor‐growth models

We present unconditionally energy‐stable second‐order time‐accurate schemes for diffuse‐interface (phase‐field) models; in particular, we consider the Cahn–Hilliard equation and a diffuse‐interface tumor‐growth system consisting of a reactive Cahn–Hilliard equation and a reaction–diffusion equation. The schemes are of the Crank–Nicolson type with a new convex–concave splitting of the free energy and an artificial‐diffusivity stabilization. The case of nonconstant mobility is treated using extrapolation. For the tumor‐growth system, a semi‐implicit treatment of the reactive terms and additional stabilization are discussed. For suitable free energies, all schemes are linear. We present numerical examples that verify the second‐order accuracy, unconditional energy‐stability, and superiority compared with their first‐order accurate variants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
50-GHz Interconnect Design in Standard Silicon Technology

Coplanar waveguides were fabricated in a process that emulates silicon CMOS technologies with 5 to 10 metal layers. The observed S21 loss of 0.3dB/mm at 50 GHz is among the lowest ever reported with standard Al interconnects on Si/SiO2. Optimum design parameters were counter-intuitive: in some frequency ranges, the lowest loss was achieved with relatively narrow lines over a low-resistivity substrate. This was exploited in the design of transmission lines that are fully compatible with a CMOS technology. The process emulation was calibrated with a commercial 4-layer Al/Cu CMOS technology.
Estimates of genetic parameters for hip and elbow dysplasia in Finnish Rottweilers.

Data from 2,764 Rottweiler dogs born from 1987 to 1996 were analyzed with a Restricted Maximum Likelihood procedure using a mixed linear animal model to obtain variance component estimates for hip and elbow dysplasia. The data included 2,764 hip dysplasia and 2,278 elbow dysplasia records. Hip joints were scored as normal (0), borderline (1), slight (2), moderate (3), and severe (4, 4.5, and 5) hip dysplasia. Elbow joints were graded normal or borderline (0), slight (1), moderate (2), and severe (3) elbow dysplasia. The mean for the hip scores was 1.07 and for the elbow scores . 60. Environmental effects influencing hip dysplasia were age, birth year, birth year x season interaction, and experience of the veterinarian responsible for x-raying the dog. For elbow dysplasia, statistically significant effects were age, birth year, sex of the dog, and panelist responsible for each screening. Estimates of heritability for hip and elbow dysplasia were . 58 +/- . 04 and . 31 +/- . 04, respectively, with a genetic correlation of . 37 +/- . 08 between the traits. Genetic improvement of almost one genetic standard deviation was observed in both traits during the 10 yr covered by the data.
Effect of consecutive matches on heart rate variability in elite volleyball players

espanolEl objetivo del estudio fue realizar observar y determinar los cambios en la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca (VFC) de un equipo de voleibol masculino durante su participacion en la liga profesional nacional de Mexico. Se registro a 12 atletas (Edad 22.60 ± 3.4) por cuatro meses durante el fin de semana (sabado y domingo). En cada jornada se realizaron tres mediciones, la primera por la manana en reposo (REST); la segunda por la tarde al finalizar los partidos del primer dia (R2) y la tercera al finalizar los partido del segundo dia (R4). Los datos se analizaron con el test ANOVA y el test de Bonferroni. Se encontro diferencia entre REST con respecto a la R2 y con la R4 en SDNN (98.66±62.50 ms vs. 50.35±26.33, p EnglishThe objective of this study was to observe and determine changes in HRV parameters in volleyball players during the Mexican national professional volleyball league. Heart rate was monitored in 12 athletes (age 22.60 ± 3.4) for four months during weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). Three measures were taken during each match-day: the first at rest (REST), the second in the afternoon after the matches of the first day (R2), and the third after the matches of the second day (R4). Data were analyzed with ANOVA and the Bonferroni method. We found a difference between REST and R2 and R4 in SDNN (98.66 ± 62.50 vs. 50.35 ± 26.33 ms, p portuguesO objetivo do estudo foi realizar, observar e determinar mudancas na variabilidade da frequencia cardiaca (VFC) da equipe de voleibol dos homens, enquanto participavam na nacional liga profissional Mexico. Foram registrados 12 atletas (entre 22,60 ± 3,4 anos de idade) por quatro meses durante o fim de semana (sabado e domingo). Cada dia se realizaram tres medicoes, a primeira de manha em repouso (REST); a segunda pela tarde no final das primeiros jogos do dia (R2) e a terceira na parte final das jogos do segundo dia (R4). Os dados foram analisados com o teste ANOVA e teste de Bonferroni. Uma diferenca foi encontrada entre o REST no que diz respeito a R2 e R4 em SDNN (98,66 ± 62,50 ms vs 50,35 ± 26,33 ms, p
Adenovirus-mediated delivery of Sema3A alleviates rheumatoid arthritis in a serum-transfer induced mouse model

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by infiltration of inflammatory cells into the synovium and destruction of cartilage and bone. Macrophages, fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), and osteoclasts are critical cells driving the pathogenesis of RA. Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) is recently identified as an essential player in the bone homeostasis, however its role in RA progression especially in the macrophage polarization are poorly understood. In the present study, we found that Sems3A levels were significantly decreased in RA serum and synovial fluid compared to OA controls. There was a negative correlation between Sema3A levels and RA severity. Using in vitro cell cultures, we showed for the first time that Sema3A promoted IL-4 induced M2 macrophage polarization, whereas prohibited LPS/IFN-γ induced M1 polarization. Sema3A inhibited VEGF-induced endothelial cells proliferation and migration, suppressed VEGF-mediated invasion and IL-6 production of FLS while stimulating their apoptosis. In addition, Sema3A retarded osteoclastogenesis. In vivo data demonstrated that Sema3A administration attenuated joint tissue damage and the severity of experimental arthritis. Our findings uncovered Sema3A as a promising diagnostic biomarker and novel prevention and treatment strategies in arthritis treatment.
A Virtual Infrastructure for Mitigating Typical Challenges in Sensor Networks

A VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MITIGATING TYPICAL CHALLENGES IN SENSOR NETWORKS Hady S. Abdel Salam Old Dominion University, 2011 Director: Dr. Stephan Olariu Sensor networks have their own distinguishing characteristics that set them apart from other types of networks. Typically, the sensors are deployed in large numbers and in random fashion and the resulting sensor network is expected to self-organize in support of the mission for which it was deployed. Because of the random deployment of sensors that are often scattered from an overflying aircraft, the resulting network is not easy to manage since the sensors do not know their location, do not know how to aggregate their sensory data and where and how to route the aggregated data. The limited energy budget available to sensors makes things much worse. To save their energy, sensors have to sleep and wake up asynchronously. However, while promoting energy awareness, these actions continually change the underlying network topology and make the basic network protocols more complex. Several techniques have been proposed in different areas of sensor networks. Most of these techniques attempt to solve one problem in isolation from the others, hence protocol designers have to face the same common challenges again and again. This, in turn, has a direct impact on the complexity of the proposed protocols and on energy consumption. Instead of using this approach we propose to construct a lightweight backbone that can help mitigate many of the typical challenges in sensor networks and allow the development of simpler network protocols. Our backbone construction protocol starts by tiling the area around each sink using identical regular hexagons. After that, the closest sensor to the center of each of these hexagons is determined – we refer to these sensors as backbone sensors. We define a ternary coordinate system to refer to hexagons. The resulting system provides a complete set of communication paths that can be used by any geographic routing technique to simplify data communication across the network. We show how the constructed backbone can help mitigate many of the typical challenges inherent to sensor networks. In addition to sensor localization, the network backbone provides an implicit clustering mechanism in which each hexagon represents a cluster and the backbone sensor around its center represents the cluster head. As cluster heads, backbone sensors can be used to coordinate task assignment, workforce selection, and data aggregation for different sensing tasks. They also can be used to locally synchronize and adjust the duty cycle of non-backbone sensors in their neighborhood. Finally, we propose“Backbone Switching”, a technique that creates alternative backbones and periodically switches between them in order to balance energy consumption among sensors by distributing the additional load of being part of the backbone over larger number of sensors. c ⃝Copyright, 2011, by Hady S. Abdel Salam, All Rights Reserved
Coherent Laplacian 3-D protrusion segmentation

In this paper, an analysis of locally linear embedding (LLE) in the context of clustering is developed. As LLE conserves the local affine coordinates of points, shape protrusions as high-curvature regions of the surface are preserved. Also, LLEpsilas covariance constraint acts as a force stretching those protrusions and making them wider separated and lower dimensional. A novel scheme for unsupervised body-part segmentation along time sequences is thus proposed in which 3-D shapes are clustered after embedding. Clusters are propagated in time, and merged or split in an unsupervised fashion to accommodate changes of the body topology. Comparisons on synthetic, and real data with ground truth, are run with direct segmentation in 3-D by EM clustering and ISOMAP-based clustering. Robustness and the effects of topology transitions are discussed.
A Comprehensive Review of the Treatment of Atopic Eczema

Atopic eczema (AE) is a chronic, inflammatory skin disorder which usually develops in early childhood. In spite of intensive investigations, the causes of AE remain unclear, but are likely to be multifactorial in nature. Environmental factors or genetic-environmental interactions seem to play a key role in disease progression. Among various measures of AE managment, cutaneous hydration, which improves barrier function and relieve itchiness, may be helpful to reduce the need for topical steroid use and therefore should be used as a basic treatment. Avoiding aggravating factors is also a basic treatment of AE. Standard medical treatment with a pharmacologic approach may be necessary if basic treatment fails to control symptoms satisfactorily. Recently, more attention is given to a proactive therapeutic by regular intermittent application of low potency steroids or topical calcineurin inhibitors to prevent new flares. Furthermore, various targeted biologics are being introduced for AE control and are proposed as promising therapies. This paper provides a summary of the recent literature on the manangement of AE and a treatment guideline.
A summary of some of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in bovine abortion.

THE TERMINOLOGY used in this discussion coincides with that recommended by the committee on bovine reproductive nomenclature (36). Reproductive dysgenesis is an all-encompassing term used to describe all categories of reproductive failure regardless of cause and regardless of when these losses occur in the gestational period. Losses occurring from conception until embryonic differentiation is complete (approximately 45 days) are termed embryonic mortality. Those losses occurring during the fetal period, that is from differentiation until parturition, are divided into abortions and premature deliveries. An abortion is the expulsion before full term of a conceptus incapable of independent life, while a premature delivery is the expulsion before full term of a fetus capable of independent life. In this presentation the magnitude and broad categories of reproductive dysgenesis will be discussed only briefly. More particularly, fetal losses associated with infections will be dealt with in more detail under the following headings:
The Impact of State Physical Education Requirements on Youth Physical Activity and Overweight

To combat childhood overweight in the US, which has risen dramatically in the past three decades, many medical and public health organizations have called for students to spend more time in physical education (PE) classes. This paper is the first to examine the impact of state PE requirements on student PE exercise time. It also exploits variation in state laws as quasi-natural experiments in order to estimate the causal impact of PE on overall student physical activity and weight. We study nationwide data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for 1999, 2001, and 2003 merged with data on state minimum PE requirements from the 2001 Shape of the Nation Report. We find that high school students with a binding PE requirement report an average of 31 additional minutes per week spent physically active in PE class. Our results also indicate that additional PE time raises the number of days per week that girls report having exercised vigorously or having engaged in strength-building activity. We find no evidence that PE lowers BMI or the probability that a student is overweight. We conclude that raising PE credit requirements may make girls more physically active overall but there is not yet the scientific base to declare raising PE requirements an anti-obesity initiative for either boys or girls.
Evaluation of High-Precision Sensors in Structural Monitoring

One of the most intricate branches of metrology involves the monitoring of displacements and deformations of natural and anthropogenic structures under environmental forces, such as tidal or tectonic phenomena, or ground water level changes. Technological progress has changed the measurement process, and steadily increasing accuracy requirements have led to the continued development of new measuring instruments. The adoption of an appropriate measurement strategy, with proper instruments suited for the characteristics of the observed structure and its environmental conditions, is of high priority in the planning of deformation monitoring processes. This paper describes the use of precise digital inclination sensors in continuous monitoring of structural deformations. The topic is treated from two viewpoints: (i) evaluation of the performance of inclination sensors by comparing them to static and continuous GPS observations in deformation monitoring and (ii) providing a strategy for analyzing the structural deformations. The movements of two case study objects, a tall building and a geodetic monument in Istanbul, were separately monitored using dual-axes micro-radian precision inclination sensors (inclinometers) and GPS. The time series of continuous deformation observations were analyzed using the Least Squares Spectral Analysis Technique (LSSA). Overall, the inclinometers showed good performance for continuous monitoring of structural displacements, even at the sub-millimeter level. Static GPS observations remained insufficient for resolving the deformations to the sub-centimeter level due to the errors that affect GPS signals. With the accuracy advantage of inclination sensors, their use with GPS provides more detailed investigation of deformation phenomena. Using inclinometers and GPS is helpful to be able to identify the components of structural responses to the natural forces as static, quasi-static, or resonant.
Impaired Glymphatic Perfusion After Strokes Revealed by Contrast-Enhanced MRI: A New Target for Fibrinolysis?

Background and Purpose— The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of different stroke subtypes on the glymphatic system using MRI. Methods— We first improved and characterized an in vivo protocol to measure the perfusion of the glymphatic system using MRI after minimally invasive injection of a gadolinium chelate within the cisterna magna. Then, the integrity of the glymphatic system was evaluated in 4 stroke models in mice including subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), intracerebral hemorrhage, carotid ligature, and embolic ischemic stroke. Results— We were able to reliably evaluate the glymphatic system function using MRI. Moreover, we provided evidence that the glymphatic system was severely impaired after SAH and in the acute phase of ischemic stroke, but was not altered after carotid ligature or in case of intracerebral hemorrhage. Notably, this alteration in glymphatic perfusion reduced brain clearance rate of low-molecular-weight compounds. Interestingly, glymphatic perfusion after SAH can be improved by intracerebroventricular injection of tissue-type plasminogen activator. Moreover, spontaneous arterial recanalization was associated with restoration of the glymphatic function after embolic ischemic stroke. Conclusions— SAH and acute ischemic stroke significantly impair the glymphatic system perfusion. In these contexts, injection of tissue-type plasminogen activator either intracerebroventricularly to clear perivascular spaces (for SAH) or intravenously to restore arterial patency (for ischemic stroke) may improve glymphatic function.
Effective viscosity properties of dilute suspensions of arbitrarily shaped particles

In this paper we derive high-order asymptotic expansions of the effective viscosity properties of a dilute periodic suspension composed of freely-suspended arbitrarily shaped particles dispersed in an incompressible Newtonian fluid. High-order terms are not only function of the viscous moment tensor but also of a distortion tensor that characterizes the periodic array. Mathematics subject classifications (MSC2000): 35B30.
Coding of Electric Pulse Trains Presented through Cochlear Implants in the Auditory Midbrain of Awake Rabbit: Comparison with Anesthetized Preparations

Cochlear implant (CI) listeners show limits at high frequencies in tasks involving temporal processing such as rate pitch and interaural time difference discrimination. Similar limits have been observed in neural responses to electric stimulation in animals with CI; however, the upper limit of temporal coding of electric pulse train stimuli in the inferior colliculus (IC) of anesthetized animals is lower than the perceptual limit. We hypothesize that the upper limit of temporal neural coding has been underestimated in previous studies due to the confound of anesthesia. To test this hypothesis, we developed a chronic, awake rabbit preparation for single-unit studies of IC neurons with electric stimulation through CI. Stimuli were periodic trains of biphasic pulses with rates varying from 20 to 1280 pulses per second. We found that IC neurons in awake rabbits showed higher spontaneous activity and greater sustained responses, both excitatory and suppressive, at high pulse rates. Maximum pulse rates that elicited synchronized responses were approximately two times higher in awake rabbits than in earlier studies with anesthetized animals. Here, we demonstrate directly that anesthesia is a major factor underlying these differences by monitoring the responses of single units in one rabbit before and after injection of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate. In general, the physiological rate limits of IC neurons in the awake rabbit are more consistent with the psychophysical limits in human CI subjects compared with limits from anesthetized animals.
Eyes-Closed and Activation QEEG Databases in Predicting Cognitive Effectiveness and the Inefficiency Hypothesis

Background. Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) databases have been developed for the eyes closed (EC) condition. The development of a cognitive activation database is a logical and necessary development for the field. Method. Brain activation was examined by QEEG during several tasks including EC rest, visual attention (VA), auditory attention (AA), listening to paragraphs presented auditorily and reading silently. The QEEG measures obtained in the EC and simple, non-cognitive attention task that were significantly related to subsequent cognitive performance were not the same variables which accounted for success during the cognitive task. Results. There were clear differences between relative power, microvolt, coherence and phase values across these different tasks. Conclusions. The conclusions reached are (1) the associations among QEEG variables are complex and vary by task; (2) the QEEG variables which predict cognitive performance under task demands are not the same as the variables which predict to subsequent performance from the EC or simple, non-cognitive attention tasks; (3) a cognitive activation database is clinically useful; and (4) an hypothesis of brain functioning is proposed to explain the findings. The coordinated allocation of resources (CAR) hypothesis states that cognitive effectiveness is a product of multiple specific activities in the brain, which vary according to the task; and (5) the average response pattern does not involve the variables that are critical to success at the task, thus indicating an inefficiency of the normal human brain.