Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution of dilatancy and permeability in rock salt during hydrostatic compaction and triaxial deformation

Combined gas permeability and P and S wave velocity measurements were carried out on rock salt samples from the Gorleben salt dome and the Morsleben salt mine under hydrostatic and triaxial loading condions, mostly at room temperature. Permeabilities in the as-received samples vary between 10(-16) and 2x10(-20) m(2). The initial permeability is primarily due to decompaction induced by drilling core retrieval and sample preparation. Hydrostatic loading gives rise to a marked decrease of permeability and a coeval significant increase of P and S wave velocities due to progressive closure of grain boundary cracks, tending to approach the in situ matrix permeability ( 18 MPa differential stress at 10 MPa confining pressure to similar to 30 MPa at confining pressures above similar to 70 MPa. Dilatancy is due to the opening of grain boundary and (100) cleavage cracks and depends on the applied confining pressure. The orientation of the open cracks is primarily controlled by the loading geometry system (compression, extension). As a consequence, permeability increases dramatically with progressive dilatancy, followed by a period of plus/minus constant permeability during strain hardening up to 10% axial strain or even more. This suggests that the evolution of permeability is not only a function of dilatancy but also of microcrack linkage. Importantly, the anisotropic crack array within the samples causes a strong directional dependence of permeability.
Chirp spread spectrum as a modulation technique for long range communication

Long range low power is a family of technologies promising to connect thousands of sensors to the future internet of things. Within this family of possible technology choices, two different branches have emerged: the standards based on spreaded wideband communication and the standards based on narrowband communication, both promising to reach long range connectivity at very low power. More specifically, this paper focuses on chirp spread spectrum (CSS). This paper presents a detailed model of CSS, showing that the symbols are not perfectly orthogonal. The results show the potential communication ranges are close to narrowband networks and the robustness against interfering signals is 22 dB better for spreading factor 10 than BPSK. Although wideband communication is robust to interference, in long range communication, this robustness is insufficient due to the long range and the larger footprint. The large propagation losses due to the long range and the larger footprint make CSS prone to collisions with other noise sources, possibly larger than the coding gain.
Characterization of Lignocellulosic Biomass as Raw Material for the Production of Porous Carbon-based Materials

Lignocellulosic biomass is a potential raw material that can be used in the synthesis (manufacture) of porous carbon stuffs. The properties of such porous carbon products are affected by the species of the raw material and the manufacturing process, among other things. This paper scrutinizes the related characteristics of lignocellulosic raw materials that indicate potential for the production of porous carbon. Three species were used: pine (Pinus merkusii) wood, mangium (Acacia mangium) wood, and candlenut (Aleurites moluccana) shells, representing softwoods, hardwoods, and non-wood stuffs, respectively. Analyses of their chemical compounds and proximate contents were carried out. Additionally, nano scale scrutiny of the lignocellulosic biomass was also conducted using the nano capable instruments, which consisted of SEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR, and DSC. Results revealed that pine wood had the most potential to produce porous carbon. Morphologically, pine wood afforded the best permeability, whereby at the structure of monoclinic cellulose crystals, there were cellulose-I(alpha) structures, which contained less cellulose-I(beta) structures. Furthermore, pine wood exhibited greater volatile matter content, as confirmed through the FTIR, which greatly assisted the forming of porosity inside its corresponding carbon.
The Effect of Traditional Remedies (Camel's Thorn, Flixweed and Sugar Water) on Idiopathic Neonatal Jaundice

Objective Jaundice is the most common reason of newborn's admission to neonatal ward. Many Iranian families give traditional remedies like sugar water, camel's thorn and flixweed extracts to breast-fed babies for reducing jaundice. This study investigated the effect of traditional remedies on idiopathic neonatal jaundice. Methods This prospective study has been performed on 336 babies with idiopathic jaundice in a four year period (2005-2009) at Ghaem hospital, Mashhad, Iran. The babies were divided into two groups. In case group (n=234) breast-fed babies received no remedy and in control group (n=102), traditional remedies were given additional to breast milk and the results recorded and compared. Findings In the present study significant differences were observed between the two groups in age of admission (6.8±3.2 vs 9.2±3.7 day, P<0.001), serum bilirubin values (17.8 vs 21.3 mg/dl, P<0.001) and percent of weight loss (P<0.01). There were no significant differences between the two groups in birth weight, sex, gestational age and duration of hospitalization, age at jaundice remission, hematocrit value and maternal factors (age, gestational order, pregnancy and labor problems)(P>0.05). Conclusion Traditional remedies (camel's thorn, flixweed and sugar water) cause more weight loss and delayed reexamination of newborns leading to increased hyperbilirubinemia. These remedies may raise pseudo confidence in parents, which postpones reexamination and follow up of the newborns.
Low‐frequency oscillations in precipitation, temperature, and runoff on a west facing mountain front: A hydrogeologic interpretation

This paper examines the space‐time patterns of annual, interannual, and decadal components of precipitation, temperature, and runoff (P‐T‐R) using long‐record time series across the steep topographic gradient of the Wasatch Front in northern Utah. This region forms the major drainage area to the Great Salt Lake. The approach is to use multichannel singular spectrum analysis as a means of detecting dominant oscillations and spatial patterns in the data and to discuss the relation to the unique mountain and basin hydrologic setting. Results of the analysis show that high‐elevation runoff is dominated by the annual and seasonal harmonics, while low‐elevation runoff exhibits strong interannual and decadal oscillations. For precipitation and temperature, only the annual/seasonal spectral peaks were found to be significantly different from the underlying noise floor, and these components increase with altitude similar to the mean orographic pattern. Spectral peaks in runoff show a more complex pattern with altitude, with increasing low‐frequency components at intermediate and lower elevation. This pattern is then discussed in terms of basin storage effects and groundwater‐stream interaction. A conceptual hydrogeologic model for the mountain and basin system proposes how losing streams and deep upwelling groundwater in the alluvial aquifer could explain the strong low‐frequency component in streams entering the Great Salt Lake. The phase‐plane trajectories of the dominant components for P‐T‐R are reconstructed as a function of altitude showing the relation of hydrogeologic conditions to the strongest oscillations in mountain runoff and discharge to the Great Salt Lake. The paper shows that weak interannual and decadal oscillations in the climate signal are strengthened where groundwater discharge dominates streamflow.
Ameliorative Effect of Silymarin Against Radiation-Induced Oxidative Stress in the Liver of Male Rats

Administration of dietary antioxidants has been suggested to protect against liver tissue damage induced by radiation exposure. Silymarin is a polyphenolic plant flavonoid derived from Silymarin marianum that has hepatoprotective and anticarcinogenic effects. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the radioprotective activity of Silymarin against radiation-induced liver damage. In this work, the total phenol content of silymarin was 0.527±0.016 mg GAE/ mg, total antioxidant capacity was 139±10.5 μmol/l and the DPPH radical scavenging activity was 1.52±0.12 mg/ml. The results showed that γrays (6 Gy) caused a significant increase in serum level of alanine and aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transferase and the level of hepatic malondialdehyde and xanthine oxidase activity. Also, a significant decrease in hepatic glutathione level and xanthine dehydrogenase, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities was observed, compared with control group. Oral administration of silymarin extract prior radiation exposure was found to offer protection against all the radiation-induced biochemical alterations. These findings showed that silymarin is a powerful antioxidant herbal drug which can protect biological systems against the oxidative stress and tissue damage induced by radiation exposure.
The long and the short of it: summarising event sequences with serial episodes

An ideal outcome of pattern mining is a small set of informative patterns, containing no redundancy or noise, that identifies the key structure of the data at hand. Standard frequent pattern miners do not achieve this goal, as due to the pattern explosion typically very large numbers of highly redundant patterns are returned. We pursue the ideal for sequential data, by employing a pattern set mining approach - an approach where, instead of ranking patterns individually, we consider results as a whole. Pattern set mining has been successfully applied to transactional data, but has been surprisingly understudied for sequential data. In this paper, we employ the MDL principle to identify the set of sequential patterns that summarises the data best. In particular, we formalise how to encode sequential data using sets of serial episodes, and use the encoded length as a quality score. As search strategy, we propose two approaches: the first algorithm selects a good pattern set from a large candidate set, while the second is a parameter-free any-time algorithm that mines pattern sets directly from the data. Experimentation on synthetic and real data demonstrates we efficiently discover small sets of informative patterns.
Attitudes Toward Psychiatry Among Final-Year Medical Students in Kumasi, Ghana

ObjectiveMost sub-Saharan African countries have fewer psychiatrists than one per one million people. One possible reason could be that medical students have a negative attitude toward the specialty. The authors evaluated the attitudes toward a career in psychiatry of final-year medical students in Kumasi, Ghana, and compare these with attitudes of medical students in Spain and the United States.MethodsMedical students were given a 28-item questionnaire on attitudes toward psychiatry, which was used in previous studies in Spain and the United States.ResultsGhanaian students (N = 94) had a fairly positive view of psychiatry, similar to those in Spain, although less positive than U.S. students. About 15% were considering psychiatry as a career option. There was evidence of significant stigmatization of patients with mental illness and psychiatrists and concern about the use of coercive detention of patients.ConclusionThe difficulty recruiting physicians into psychiatry in Ghana, and perhaps other African countries, is unlikely to be due to negative attitudes and may be due to a lack of opportunity to train in psychiatry.
A comparative study of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) in patients with flail chest

Introduction: The role of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation delivered through a face mask in patients with flail chest is uncertain. We conducted a prospective, randomised study of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) given via a face mask to spontaneously breathing patients compared with intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) with endotracheal intubation (ETI) in 52 patients with flail chest who required mechanical ventilation. Method: The 52 mechanically ventilated patients were randomly divided into two treatment groups: the ET group (n = 27) received mechanical ventilation with ETI, whereas patients in the CPAP group (n = 25) received CPAP via a face mask with patient controlled analgesia (PCA). Major complications, arterial blood gas levels, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay and ICU survival rate were recorded. Results: Nosocomial infection was diagnosed in 10 of 21 patients in the ET group, but only in 4 of 22 in the CPAP group (p = 0.001). Mean PO2 was significantly higher in the ET group in the first 2 days (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in length of ICU stay between groups. Twenty CPAP patients survived, but only 14 of 21 intubated patients who received IPPV (p<0.01). Conclusion: Non-invasive CPAP with PCA led to lower mortality and a lower nosocomial infection rate, but similar oxygenation and length of ICU stay. The study supports the application of CPAP at least as a first line of treatment for flail chest caused by blunt thoracic trauma.
Mean flow stability in a model of the eastern North Pacific Ocean

Mean flow and stratification data obtained from an eight-layer quasigeostrophic model of the California Current System are used to feed a linearized model, from which a stability problem is solved. Frequencies, phase speeds, group velocities, growth rates and vertical structures are obtained after solving a complex eigenvalue problem. Seven runs are implemented to study the role playe d by different vertical boundary conditions (flat and sloping bottom), mean flow direction and amplitude, latitude and frictional me chanisms on the Rossby wave characteristics. For values used of buoyancy frequency as found in the Northeastern Pacific, the verti cal resolution is crucial in determining the effects of bottom topography and bottom friction on stability of the basic flow. The v ertical structure of the mean flow has an important effect on the determination of the e-folding-time. The e-folding times of different areas in the California Current System region range from 144 to 374 days for the most unstable waves, as found by other authors using different data and models. The vertical structure of our wave solutions (amplitudes and phases) are noticeably affected by diss ipation. The first baroclinic mode stable waves show a good qualitative and quantitative agreement with those obtained from hydrographic data for the California Current by Kang et al. (1982). The inclusion of bottom topography leads to a moderate redistribution of frequencies in the wavenumber space and to higher group velocities.
An information theoretic analysis of sequential decision-making

We provide a novel analysis of Wald's sequential probability ratio test based on information theoretic measures for symmetric thresholds, symmetric noise, and equally likely hypotheses. This test is optimal in the sense that it yields the minimum mean decision time. To analyze the decision-making process we consider information densities, which represent the stochastic information content of the observations yielding a stochastic termination time of the test. Based on this, we show that the conditional probability to decide for hypothesis H1 (or the counter-hypothesis H0) given that the test terminates at time instant k is independent of time k. An analogous property has been found for a continuous-time first passage problem with two absorbing boundaries in the contexts of non-equilibrium statistical physics and communication theory. Moreover, we study the evolution of the mutual information between the binary variable to be tested and the output of the Wald test. Notably, we show that the decision time of the Wald test contains no information on which hypothesis is true beyond the decision outcome.
Comparison of Rapid Diagnostic Tests for the Detection of Plasmodium vivax Malaria in South Korea

South Korea is one of many countries with endemic Plasmodium vivax malaria. Here we report the evaluation of four rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for diagnosis of this disease. A total of 253 subjects were enrolled in the study. The sensitivities, specificities and agreement frequencies were estimated by comparing the four RDTs against the standard of nested-PCR and microscopic examination. The CareStartTM and SD Bioline had higher test sensitivities (99.4 and 98.8%, respectively) compared with the NanoSign and Asan Easy tests (93.0 and 94.7%, respectively). The CareStartTM and SD Bioline tests could detect P. vivax in samples with parasite densities <150/μl, which was a slightly better performance than the other two RDTs. The quantitative accuracy of the four RDTs was also estimated by comparing results with P. vivax counts from blood samples. Lower test price would result in increased use of these RDTs in the field. The results of this study contribute valuable information that will aid in the selection of a diagnostic method for the detection of malaria.
Comparing Automatically Detected Reflective Texts with Human Judgements

This paper reports on the descriptive results of an experiment comparing automatically detected reﬂective and not-reﬂective texts against human judgements. Based on the theory of reﬂective writing assessment and their operationalisation ﬁve elements of reﬂection were deﬁned. For each element of reﬂection a set of indicators was developed, which automatically annotate texts regarding reﬂection based on the parameterisation with authoritative texts. Using a large blog corpus 149 texts were retrieved, which were either annotated as reﬂective or notreﬂective. An online survey was then used to gather human judgements for these texts. These two data sets were used to compare the quality of the reﬂection detection algorithm with human judgments. The analysis indicates the expected diﬀerence between reﬂective and not reﬂective texts.
A method to quantify the trawl fisheries induced mortality of benthos and fish

Effects of bottom trawling on benthic life have been reviewed in several recent papers. However, this information is usually not presented in a manner that makes it applicable in a management context. In this report we describe what type of information is needed and how this can be used as part of an ecosystem approach in fisheries management.
Use of a Panel of Novel Genes for Differentiating Breast Cancer from Non-Breast Tissues

Existing serum markers for breast cancer such as CA 15-3, BR 27.29 and CEA lack sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of new putative breast-specific markers for differentiating breast cancer from non-breast tissues. Expression of mammaglobin A (MGA), B726P, small breast epithelial mucin (SBEM) and MUC1 was measured by RT-PCR. MGA mRNA was detected in 86/162 (60%) breast cancers but in only 1/32 (3%) non-breast tissues; B726P was detected in 44/108 (41%) breast cancers but in none of 20 non-breast tissues, while SBEM was present in 52/103 (51%) breast cancers but in only 1/26 non-breast cancer tissues. In contrast to these novel markers, the established breast cancer marker MUC1 was detected in 72/99 (73%) breast cancers and in 22/32 (59%) of non-breast tissues. Combining MGA with B726P separated breast cancer from non-breast tissue with a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 95% while combining MGA with SBEM differentiated breast cancer from non-breast tissues with a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 89%. Genes such as MGA, B726P and SBEM that are expressed relatively exclusively in breast tissue are potential new markers for breast cancer.
Provitamin A Accumulation in Cassava (Manihot esculenta) Roots Driven by a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in a Phytoene Synthase Gene[W]

Cassava is a very important staple crop, especially in the arid tropics where it is a chief source of carbohydrates, but the provitamin A content in the storage root is insufficient to sustain a healthy life. The work presented shows that a single amino acid exchange in a conserved region of the enzyme phytoene synthase leads to substantive accumulation of β-carotene (provitamin A) in the roots. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is an important staple crop, especially in the arid tropics. Because roots of commercial cassava cultivars contain a limited amount of provitamin A carotenoids, both conventional breeding and genetic modification are being applied to increase their production and accumulation to fight vitamin A deficiency disorders. We show here that an allelic polymorphism in one of the two expressed phytoene synthase (PSY) genes is capable of enhancing the flux of carbon through carotenogenesis, thus leading to the accumulation of colored provitamin A carotenoids in storage roots. A single nucleotide polymorphism present only in yellow-rooted cultivars cosegregates with colored roots in a breeding pedigree. The resulting amino acid exchange in a highly conserved region of PSY provides increased catalytic activity in vitro and is able to increase carotenoid production in recombinant yeast and Escherichia coli cells. Consequently, cassava plants overexpressing a PSY transgene produce yellow-fleshed, high-carotenoid roots. This newly characterized PSY allele provides means to improve cassava provitamin A content in cassava roots through both breeding and genetic modification.
In situ measurements of sediment settling characteristics in ﬂoodplains using a LISST‐ST

Due to a lack of data on settling velocities (ws) and grain size distributions (GSDs) in ﬂoodplain environments, sedimentation models often use calibrated rather than measured parameters. Since the characteristics of suspended matter differ from those of deposited sediment, it is impossible to derive the ws and GSD from the latter. Therefore, one needs to measure in situ suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs), settling velocities, effective grain sizes and sedimentation ﬂuxes. For this purpose we used the LISST‐ST, a laser particle sizer combined with a settling tube.