Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase Relations, Reaction Sequences and Petrochronology

At the core of petrochronology is the relationship between geochronology and the petrological evolution of major mineral assemblages. The focus of this chapter is on outlining some of the available strategies to link inferred reaction sequences and microstructures in metamorphic rocks to the ages obtained from geochronology of accessory minerals and datable major minerals. Reaction sequences and mineral assemblages in metamorphic rocks are primarily a function of pressure ( P ), temperature ( T ) and bulk composition ( X ). Several of the major rock-forming minerals are particularly sensitive to changes in P–T (e.g., garnet, staurolite, biotite, plagioclase), but their direct geochronology is challenging and in many cases not currently possible. One exception is garnet, which can be dated using Sm–Nd and Lu–Hf geochronology (e.g., Baxter et al. 2013). Accessory mineral chronometers such as zircon, monazite, xenotime, titanite and rutile are stable over a relatively wide range of P–T conditions and can incorporate enough U and/or Th to be dated using U–Th–Pb geochronology. Therefore, linking the growth of P–T sensitive major minerals to accessory and/or major mineral chronometers is essential for determining a metamorphic P–T–t history, which is itself critical for understanding metamorphic rocks and the geodynamic processes that produce them (e.g., England and Thompson 1984; McClelland and Lapen 2013; Brown 2014). Linking the ages obtained from accessory and major minerals with the growth and breakdown of the important P–T sensitive minerals requires an understanding of the metamorphic reaction sequences for a particular bulk rock composition along a well-constrained P–T evolution. Fortunately, the phase relations and reaction sequences for the most widely studied metamorphic protoliths (e.g., pelites, greywackes, basalts) can be determined using quantitative phase equilibria forward modelling (e.g., Powell and Holland 2008). Comprehensive activity–composition models of the major metamorphic minerals in large chemical systems (e.g., White et al. 2014a) allow …
Positively charged bioactive Ti metal prepared by simple chemical and heat treatments

A highly bioactive bone-bonding Ti metal was obtained when Ti metal was simply heat-treated after a common acid treatment. This bone-bonding property was ascribed to the formation of apatite on the Ti metal in a body environment. The formation of apatite on the Ti metal was induced neither by its surface roughness nor by the rutile phase precipitated on its surface, but by its positively charged surface. The surface of the Ti metal was positively charged because acid groups were adsorbed on titanium hydride formed on the Ti metal by the acid treatment, and remained even after the titanium hydride was transformed into titanium oxide by the subsequent heat treatment. These results provide a new principle based on a positively charged surface for obtaining bioactive materials.
The evolution of animal ‘cultures’ and social intelligence

Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions (‘cultures’) in a small number of species. It is increasingly evident that there is great variation in manifestations of social learning, tradition and culture among species, offering much scope for evolutionary analysis. Social learning has been identified in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, yet sustained traditions appear rarer, and the multiple traditions we call cultures are rarer still. Here, we examine relationships between this variation and both social intelligence—sophisticated information processing adapted to the social domain—and encephalization. First, we consider whether culture offers one particular confirmation of the social (‘Machiavellian’) intelligence hypothesis that certain kinds of social life (here, culture) select for intelligence: ‘you need to be smart to sustain culture’. Phylogenetic comparisons, particularly focusing on our own study animals, the great apes, support this, but we also highlight some paradoxes in a broader taxonomic survey. Second, we use intraspecific variation to address the converse hypothesis that ‘culture makes you smart’, concluding that recent evidence for both chimpanzees and orang-utans support this proposition.
Microangiopathy in Naifold Videocapillaroscopy and Its Relations to sE- Selectin, Endothelin-1, and hsCRP as Putative Endothelium Dysfunction Markers among Adolescents with Raynaud’s Phenomenon

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the qualitative abnormalities on nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC), and the concentrations of selected biomarkers (sE-selectin, endothelin-1, high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hsCRP)) and lipid metabolism parameters in children and adolescents with Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP). Raynaud’s phenomenon, to assess whether nailfold capillary changes may reflect the degree of systemic blood vessel abnormalities. The study group included 66 patients (34 undifferentiated—uRP and 32 secondary—sRP) aged 6–19 years and the control group. In both groups, NVC was performed and the selected biomarkers were measured (sE-selectin, endothelin-1, hsCRP) and lipid profile. Endothelin-1, sE-selectin and hsCRP concentrations in patients from both RP groups were significantly higher; concentration of HDL fraction was significantly lower compared with the control group. The analysis of multiple linear regression demonstrated that megacapillaries most strongly determine the sE-selectin value (p = 0.04) and hsCRP (p = 0.03). Both the total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) fraction concentrations were determined by the presence of avascular areas (p = 0.02). In conclusion, specific pathologic NVC changes were associated with higher endothelial damage biomarkers concentration and adverse changes in the lipid profile.
Descriptive Psychopathology of the Acute Effects of Intravenous Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Administration in Humans

Background: Cannabis use can increase the risk of psychosis, and the acute administration of its key psychoactive ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC), can induce transient psychotomimetic symptoms. Methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover design was used to investigate the symptomatic effects of acute intravenous administration of ∆9-THC (1.19 mg/2 mL) in 16 healthy participants (seven males) with modest previous cannabis exposure. Results: In the 20 min following acute ∆9-THC administration, symptomatic effects of at least mild severity were present in 94% of the cohort, with moderate to severe symptoms having a much lower prevalence (19%). Nearly one-third (31%) of the volunteers were still experiencing protracted mild symptomatic effects 2.5 h after exposure to ∆9-THC. Compared to the Δ9-THC challenge, most of the study participants did not experience any symptomatic effects following placebo administration (62%). Acute physical reactions were 2.5 times more frequent after Δ9-THC (31%) than placebo (12%). Male and female participants differed in terms of acute Δ9-THC effects, with some negative symptoms occurring more frequently in female (56% to 89%) than male participants (0% to 29%), and acute physical reactions occurring exclusively in the female gender (56%). Conclusions: These results have implications for future research, also in light of cannabis being the most widely used illicit drug.
What Is The Evidence

ICAP’s Health Briefings cover the effects of alcohol consumption on health. They offer an overview of the relationship between drinking patterns and health outcomes, compile the key literature, and provide the reader with an extensive bibliography that refers to original research on each topic. The Briefings attempt to present the balance of the available evidence. They have been peer reviewed by external experts and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICAP or its sponsoring companies. The Issue in Brief
Why to account for finite sites in population genetic studies and how to do this with Jaatha 2.0

With the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, large data sets of several thousand loci from multiple conspecific individuals are available. Such data sets should make it possible to obtain accurate estimates of population genetic parameters, even for complex models of population history. In the analyses of large data sets, it is difficult to consider finite-sites mutation models (FSMs). Here, we use extensive simulations to demonstrate that the inclusion of FSMs is necessary to avoid severe biases in the estimation of the population mutation rate θ, population divergence times, and migration rates. We present a new version of Jaatha, an efficient composite-likelihood method for estimating demographic parameters from population genetic data and evaluate the usefulness of Jaatha in two biological examples. For the first application, we infer the speciation process of two wild tomato species, Solanum chilense and Solanum peruvianum. In our second application example, we demonstrate that Jaatha is readily applicable to NGS data by analyzing genome-wide data from two southern European populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. Jaatha is now freely available as an R package from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).
Future of ICT as a Pedagogical Tool in ESL Teaching and Learning

The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has provided more variation in the process of teaching and learning. The function of ICT in systematic teaching and learning in English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom is to achieve the objectives of language teaching and learning. The aim of this study is twofold: (i) to investigate how secondary school English teachers perceive the future of ICT as a pedagogical tool and (ii) to discover what they think the impact of ICT will be on the future of the teachers. This study is a qualitative research in nature because a semi-structured interview was used to examine the teachers’ perceptions of the future of ICT as a pedagogical tool and the impact of ICT on the future of the teachers. Overall, a total of 25 secondary school English teachers were interviewed. The teachers were pragmatically and purposively selected from four different areas of Malaysia, 8 teachers from Tawau, 7 teachers from Alor Setar, 6 teachers from Tuanku Jaafar and 4 teachers from Kuala Lumpur, respectively. The interviewees were selected based on three criteria which are the willingness to participate and cooperate, capability of giving effective responses to the interview questions and lastly having teaching experience of at least 1 year. The findings of the study showed that ICT has the potential to give great impact on the future of teachers in terms of the role of the teacher, the methods of instruction and the methods of assessment. It was also concluded that, in the future, the role of the teacher will be changed from the sole knowledge provider to a facilitator or moderator; the methods of instruction will be changed from conventional discussions in the classroom to the use of online forums with the students; and the medium of assessment will be changed from printed ones to e-assessment.
Risk of ischemic stroke after androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer in the Chinese population living in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVE Previous reports on the risk of stroke after androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer were largely based on Caucasians. We investigated the risk of ischemic stroke after androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer in the Chinese population. METHODS All Chinese prostate cancer patients who were treated primarily with radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy, with (androgen deprivation therapy group) or without (non-androgen deprivation therapy group) further androgen deprivation therapy, at our hospital from year 2000-09 were reviewed. Potential risk factors of ischemic stroke including age, baseline prostate-specific antigen, Gleason score, clinical T stage, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, ischemic heart disease, history of stroke, use of androgen deprivation therapy and duration of androgen deprivation therapy were reviewed. The risk of ischemic stroke after androgen deprivation therapy was analyzed with Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analyses. RESULTS A total of 452 patients were included, consisting of 200 patients in the non-androgen deprivation therapy group and 252 patients in the androgen deprivation therapy group. The androgen deprivation therapy group appeared to have increased risk of ischemic stroke when compared with the non-androgen deprivation therapy group (P = 0.063) upon Kaplan-Meier analysis. Upon multivariate Cox regression analyses, older age (hazard ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.04-1.22, P = 0.003), hyperlipidemia (hazard ratio 4.61, 95% confidence interval 2.01-10.54, P < 0.001) and the use of androgen deprivation therapy (hazard ratio 3.32, 95% confidence interval 1.14-9.67, P = 0.028) were associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke. CONCLUSIONS There was increased risk of ischemic stroke after androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer in the Chinese population. The risk of ischemic stroke should be considered while deciding on androgen deprivation therapy, especially in older patients with known history of hyperlipidemia.
Conditional Cooperation and the Marginal per Capita Return in Public Good Games

We investigate experimentally whether the extent of conditional cooperation in public good games depends on the marginal per capita return (MPCR) to the public good and type of game. The MPCR is varied from 0.2 to 0.4 to 0.8. The ‘standard’ game, in which three players contribute before a follower, is compared with a leader-follower game, in which one player leads and three follow. Even though we observe less conditional cooperation for an MPCR of 0.2, the prevalence of conditional cooperation remains relatively stable to changes in the MPCR and game timing. In contrast, the level of MPCR has a strong effect on unconditional contributions. Our results highlight the critical role played by leaders in a public good game.
The principle of reflexive practice

‘Practice what you preach’ is a phrase occasionally used to refer to those not acting as they want others to act. There are countless opportunities in professional work and daily life to bring such criticism upon ourselves. While the subject is broad, this study focuses on the application of this idea in research practice, and more specifically in design research. One point of departure is the question: ‘how should we practice research if its results are products just like other products? ’ The Principle of Reflexive Practice (PRP) states that considering the outcome of design research or research itself as a product, many design principles, tools, methods or knowledge are applicable to design research. A corollary of the principle is that in order to succeed in contemporary research environments, design researchers would gain significant benefit such as improving the success rate of their research projects, if they exercise design methods and tools in designing their research. By exercising these methods, researchers would gain quick and rich feedback about the methods they develop; they would become aware of issues that require users’ perspective that could not be possible without their own practical use. The PRP makes participants in design research aware of the reflexive opportunity in studying design that could be mobilized to advancing their practice and making their research results more effective. Notwithstanding, adopting the PRP is not easy; therefore, it is presented as a challenge to design research. Four examples of using the PRP as a guiding principle in research are presented to demonstrate its importance and benefits.
Achilles and the Tortoise Climbing Up the Arithmetical Hierarchy

In this paper we show how to construct for every set R of integers in the arithmetical hierarchy a dynamical system \(\mathcal{H}\)with piecewise-constant derivatives (PCD) such that deciding membership in R can be reduced to solving the reachability problem between two rational points for \(\mathcal{H}\). The ability of such simple dynamical systems to “simulate” highly undecidable problems is closely related to Zeno's paradox dealing with the ability to pack infinitely many discrete steps in a bounded interval of time.
The Cortical Timeline for Deciding on Reach Motor Goals

Flexible sensorimotor planning is the basis for goal-directed behavior. We investigated the integration of visuospatial information with context-specific transformation rules during reach planning. We were especially interested in the relative timing of motor-goal decisions in monkey dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and parietal reach region (PRR). We used a rule-based mapping task with different cueing conditions to compare task-dependent motor-goal latencies. The task allowed us a separation of cue-related from motor-related activity, and a separation of activity related to motor planning from activity related to motor initiation or execution. The results show that selectivity for the visuospatial goal of a pending movement occurred earlier in PMd than PRR whenever the task required spatial remapping. Such remapping was needed if the spatial representation of a cue or of a default motor plan had to be transformed into a spatially incongruent representation of the motor goal. In contrast, we did not find frontoparietal latency differences if the spatial representation of the cue or the default plan was spatially congruent with the motor goal. The fact that frontoparietal latency differences occurred only in conditions with spatial remapping was independent of the subjects' partial a priori knowledge about the pending goal. Importantly, frontoparietal latency differences existed for motor-goal representations during movement planning, without immediate motor execution. We interpret our findings as being in support of the hypothesis that latency differences reflect a dynamic reorganization of network activity in PRR, and suggest that the reorganization is contingent on frontoparietal projections from PMd.
Early life origins of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Early life development may influence subsequent respiratory morbidity. The impact of factors determined in childhood on adult lung function, decline in lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was investigated. Methods: European Community Respiratory Health Survey participants aged 20–45 years randomly selected from general populations in 29 centres underwent spirometry in 1991–3 (n = 13 359) and 9 years later (n = 7738). Associations of early life factors with adult forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), FEV1 decline and COPD (FEV1/FVC ratio <70% and FEV1 <80% predicted) were analysed with generalised estimating equation models and random effects linear models. Results: Maternal asthma, paternal asthma, childhood asthma, maternal smoking and childhood respiratory infections were significantly associated with lower FEV1 and defined as “childhood disadvantage factors”; 40% had one or more childhood disadvantage factors which were associated with lower FEV1 (men: adjusted difference 95 ml (95% CI 67 to 124); women: adjusted difference 60 ml (95% CI 40 to 80)). FEV1 decreased with increasing number of childhood disadvantage factors (⩾3 factors, men: 274 ml (95% CI 154 to 395), women: 208 ml (95% CI 124 to 292)). Childhood disadvantage was associated with a larger FEV1 decline (1 factor: 2.0 ml (95% CI 0.4 to 3.6) per year; 2 factors: 3.8 ml (95% CI 1.0 to 6.6); ⩾3 factors: 2.2 ml (95% CI −4.8 to 9.2)). COPD increased with increasing childhood disadvantage (1 factor, men: OR 1.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.6), women: OR 1.6 (95% CI 1.01 to 2.6); ⩾3 factors, men: OR 6.3 (95% CI 2.4 to 17), women: OR 7.2 (95% CI 2.8 to 19)). These findings were consistent between centres and when subjects with asthma were excluded. Conclusions: People with early life disadvantage have permanently lower lung function, no catch-up with age but a slightly larger decline in lung function and a substantially increased COPD risk. The impact of childhood disadvantage was as large as that of heavy smoking. Increased focus on the early life environment may contribute to the prevention of COPD.
The Applicability of Biomonitoring Data for Perfluorooctanesulfonate to the Environmental Public Health Continuum

Perfluorooctanesulfonate and its salts (PFOS) are derived from perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride, the basic chemical building block for many sulfonyl-based fluorochemicals used as surfactants and for their repellent properties. PFOS is highly persistent in the environment and has a long serum elimination half-life in both animals and humans. PFOS has been detected globally in the environment and in blood serum in various populations throughout the world, with the majority of human sampling done in the United States and Japan. The mechanisms and pathways leading to the presence of PFOS in human blood are not well characterized but likely involve both direct exposures to PFOS or chemicals and materials that can degrade to PFOS, either in the environment or from industrial and commercial uses. In 2000 the 3M Company, a major manufacturer, announced a phaseout of PFOS-related materials. Animal studies indicate that PFOS is well absorbed orally and distributes mainly in blood serum and the liver. Several repeat-dose toxicology studies in animals consistently demonstrated that the liver is the primary target organ. In addition there is a steep dose response for mortality in sexually mature rats and primates as well as in neonatal rats and mice exposed in utero. Several biomonitoring research needs that have been identified on PFOS include additional data from general populations pertaining to other matrices besides blood; matched serum and urine samples from humans and research animals; and comparison of whole blood, serum, and plasma concentrations from the same individuals.
Dynamics of Macaque MT Cell Responses to Grating Triplets

Neurons in area MT are sensitive to the direction of motion of gratings and of plaids made by summing 2 gratings moving in different directions. MT component direction-selective (CDS) neurons respond to the individual gratings of a plaid. Pattern direction-selective (PDS) neurons on the other hand, combine component information and respond selectively to the resulting pattern motion. Adding a third grating creates a “triplaid,” which contains 3 grating and 3 plaid motions and is perceptually multistable. To examine how direction-selective mechanisms parse the motion signals in triplaids, we recorded MT responses of anesthetized and awake macaques to stimuli in which 3 identical moving gratings whose directions were separated by 120° were introduced in 3 successive epochs, going from grating to plaid to triplaid. CDS and PDS neurons—selected based on their responses to gratings and plaids—had strikingly different tuning properties in the triplaid epoch. CDS neurons were strongly tuned for the direction of motion of individual gratings, but PDS neurons nearly lost their selectivity for either the gratings or the plaids in the stimulus. We explain this reduced motion selectivity with a model that relates pattern selectivity of PDS neurons to a broad pooling of V1 afferents with a near-cosine weighting profile. Because PDS neurons signal both component and pattern motion in gratings and plaids, their reduced selectivity for motion in triplaids may be what makes these stimuli perceptually multistable.