Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geochemical mapping of the Mariana arc‐basin system: Implications for the nature and distribution of subduction components

A new ICP‐MS database for glasses from the Mariana Trough, together with published and new ICP‐MS data from the Mariana arc, provides the basis for geochemical mapping of the Mariana arc‐basin system. The geochemical maps presented here are based on the graphic representation of spatial variations in geochemical proxies for the principal mantle and subduction components. The focus is on three elements with high and similar partition coefficients but different behavior in subduction systems, namely, Ba, Th, and Nb. Two elements with different partition coefficients, Ta and Yb, are used as normalizing factors. Ratio maps (Ta/Yb, Nb/Ta, Th/Ta, Ba/Ta, Ba/Th) provide the simplest petrogenetic insights, subduction zone addition maps based on deviations from a MORB array provide more quantitative insights, and component maps represent an attempt to isolate the different subduction components. The maps shown here indicate the presence of a variably depleted asthenosphere and three added components: a Nb‐Th‐Ba component, a Th‐Ba deep‐subduction component, and a Ba‐only shallow‐subduction component. The asthenosphere entering the system is enriched relative to N‐MORB and appears to be focused at three sites within the Mariana Trough. The Nb‐Th‐Ba component is present mainly in the north of the arc (the Northern Seamount province and northern Central Island Province), the northern edge of the Mariana Trough, and two locations within the Southern Seamount Province. It has a distinctively high Nb/Ta ratio and a moderate enrichment in Th and Ba relative to Nb. Its composition and distribution indicate that it may not be part of the present subduction system but instead originates in mantle lithosphere previously enriched above the subduction zone by addition of small‐degree, subduction‐modified mantle melts. The Th‐Ba component is present throughout the arc and, in minor amounts, in parts of the back‐arc basin. The Ba‐only component is mainly present in the central part of the arc and at the edges of the back‐arc basin. Overall, the geochemical maps provide a new perspective on the geochemical processes that accompany the evolution of an arc basin system from prerifting lithospheric enrichment, through arc‐rifting to arc volcanism and back‐arc spreading.
Depression and social anxiety in relation to problematic smartphone use: The prominent role of rumination

Purpose Previous research has found support for depression and anxiety severity in association with both increased and problematic smartphone use. However, little research has explored transdiagnostic psychopathology constructs as mediators that may account for these relationships. Our primary aim was to test rumination as a possible transdiagnostic (cross-sectional) mediator in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach We recruited 296 college students to complete relevant web survey measures, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (for depression severity), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (for social anxiety severity), Ruminative Thought Styles Questionnaire, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (to measure levels of problematic smartphone use), and a measure of smartphone use frequency. Findings We found support for a structural model whereby the severity of depression and social anxiety accounted for variance in rumination, which in turn correlated with problematic smartphone use lev.
Effects of low temperature plasmas and plasma activated waters on Arabidopsis thaliana germination and growth

Two plasma devices at atmospheric pressure (air dielectric barrier discharge and helium plasma jet) have been used to study the early germination of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds during the first days. Then, plasma activated waters are used during the later stage of plant development and growth until 42 days. The effects on both testa and endospserm ruptures during the germination stage are significant in the case of air plasma due to its higher energy and efficiency of producing reactive oxygen species than the case of helium plasma. The latter has shown distinct effects only for testa rupture. Analysis of germination stimulations are based on specific stainings for reactive oxygen species production, peroxidase activity and also membrane permeability tests. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has shown a smoother seed surface for air plasma treated seeds that can explain the plasma induced-germination. During the growth stage, plants were watered using 4 kinds of water (tap and deionized waters activated or not by the low temperature plasma jet). With regards to other water kinds, the characterization of the tap water has shown a larger conductivity, acidity and concentration of reactive nitrogen and oxygen species. Only the tap water activated by the plasma jet has shown a significant effect on the plant growth. This effect could be correlated to reactive nitrogen species such as nitrite/nitrate species present in plasma activated tap water.
On geodesics of Finsler metrics via navigation problem

This paper is devoted to a study of geodesics of Finsler metrics via Zermelo navigation. We give a geometric description of the geodesics of the Finsler metric produced from any Finsler metric and any homothetic field in terms of navigation representation, generalizing a result previously only known in the case of Randers metrics with constant S-curvature. As its application, we present explicitly the geodesics of the Funk metric on a strongly convex domain.
Meta‐analysis of chromosome‐scale crossover rate variation in eukaryotes and its significance to evolutionary genomics

Understanding the distribution of crossovers along chromosomes is crucial to evolutionary genomics because the crossover rate determines how strongly a genome region is influenced by natural selection on linked sites. Nevertheless, generalities in the chromosome‐scale distribution of crossovers have not been investigated formally. We fill this gap by synthesizing joint information on genetic and physical maps across 62 animal, plant and fungal species. Our quantitative analysis reveals a strong and taxonomically widespread reduction of the crossover rate in the centre of chromosomes relative to their peripheries. We demonstrate that this pattern is poorly explained by the position of the centromere, but find that the magnitude of the relative reduction in the crossover rate in chromosome centres increases with chromosome length. That is, long chromosomes often display a dramatically low crossover rate in their centre, whereas short chromosomes exhibit a relatively homogeneous crossover rate. This observation is compatible with a model in which crossover is initiated from the chromosome tips, an idea with preliminary support from mechanistic investigations of meiotic recombination. Consequently, we show that organisms achieve a higher genome‐wide crossover rate by evolving smaller chromosomes. Summarizing theory and providing empirical examples, we finally highlight that taxonomically widespread and systematic heterogeneity in crossover rate along chromosomes generates predictable broad‐scale trends in genetic diversity and population differentiation by modifying the impact of natural selection among regions within a genome. We conclude by emphasizing that chromosome‐scale heterogeneity in crossover rate should urgently be incorporated into analytical tools in evolutionary genomics, and in the interpretation of resulting patterns.
Diffusion layer characteristics for increasing the performance of activated carbon air cathodes in microbial fuel cells

The characteristics of several different types of diffusion layers were systematically examined to improve the performance of activated carbon air cathodes used in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). A diffusion layer of carbon black and polytetrafluoroethylene (CB + PTFE) that was pressed onto a stainless steel mesh current collector achieved the highest cathode performance. This cathode also had a high oxygen mass transfer coefficient and high water pressure tolerance (>2 m), and it had the highest current densities in abiotic chronoamperometry tests compared to cathodes with other diffusion layers. In MFC tests, this cathode also produced maximum power densities (1610 ± 90 mW m−2) that were greater than those of cathodes with other diffusion layers, by 19% compared to Gore-Tex (1350 ± 20 mW m−2), 22% for a cloth wipe with PDMS (1320 ± 70 mW m−2), 45% with plain PTFE (1110 ± 20 mW m−2), and 19% higher than those of cathodes made with a Pt catalyst and a PTFE diffusion layer (1350 ± 50 mW m−2). The highly porous diffusion layer structure of the CB + PTFE had a relatively high oxygen mass transfer coefficient (1.07 × 10−3 cm s−1) which enhanced oxygen transport to the catalyst. The addition of CB enhanced cathode performance by increasing the conductivity of the diffusion layer. Oxygen mass transfer coefficient, water pressure tolerance, and the addition of conductive particles were therefore critical features for achieving higher performance AC air cathodes.
Supervision of time-frequency features selection in EEG signals by a human expert for brain-computer interfacing based on motor imagery

In the context of brain-computer interfacing based on motor imagery, we propose a method which allows an expert to select manually time-frequency features. This selection is performed specifically for each subject, by analysing a set of curves that emphasize differences of brain activity recorded from electroencephalographic signals during the execution of various motor imagery tasks. We will show that expert knowledge is very valuable to supervise the selection of a sparse set of significant time-frequency features. Features selection is performed through a graphical user interface to allow an easy access to experts with no specific programming skills. In this paper, we compare our method with three fully-automatic features selection methods, using dataset 2A of BCI competition IV. Results are better for five of the nine subjects compared to the best competing method.
The design and analysis of longitudinal studies of development and psychopathology in context: Statistical models and methodological recommendations

The utility and flexibility of recent advances in statistical methods for the quantitative analysis of developmental data—in particular, the methods of individual growth modeling and survival analysis—are unquestioned by methodologists, but have yet to have a major impact on empirical research within the field of developmental psychopathology and elsewhere. In this paper, we show how these new methods provide developmental psychpathologists with powerful ways of answering their research questions about systematic changes over time in individual behavior and about the occurrence and timing of life events. In the first section, we present a descriptive overview of each method by illustrating the types of research questions that each method can address, introducing the statistical models, and commenting on methods of model fitting, estimation, and interpretation. In the following three sections, we offer six concrete recommendations for developmental psychopathologists hoping to use these methods. First, we recommend that when designing studies, investigators should increase the number of waves of data they collect and consider the use of accelerated longitudinal designs. Second, we recommend that when selecting measurement strategies, investigators should strive to collect equatable data prospectively on all time-varying measures and should never standardize their measures before analysis. Third, we recommend that when specifying statistical models, researchers should consider a variety of alternative specifications for the time predictor and should test for interactions among predictors, particularly interactions between substantive predictors and time. Our goal throughout is to show that these methods are essential tools for answering questions about life-span developmental processes in both normal and atypical populations and that their proper use will help developmental psychopathologists and others illuminate how important contextual variables contribute to various pathways of development.
Instability of vortical and acoustic modes in supersonic round jets

The stability of “top-hat” and fully developed jet profiles is investigated by an inviscid linear stability theory for compressible flow. The study covers a wide range of the Mach number and the temperature ratio. Two types of instabilities are found: vortical and acoustic, each of which can be subdivided into non-radiating (subsonic) and radiating (supersonic) modes. The vortical mode is the continuation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability from incompressible flow. The acoustic mode is a compressible flow phenomenon, which becomes important at large Mach numbers. Temperature-ratio effects can be destabilizing or stabilizing, depending on the Mach number and mode of instability. A spectrum of unstable acoustic modes, including axisymmetric ones, are found to exist in the fully developed jet. For this jet, acoustic axisymmetric waves become more unstable than both vortical and acoustic helical waves at Mach numbers over about 3. Strong evidence of a resonance mechanism for acoustic modes is seen in the gro.
Uniform algebras generated by holomorphic and close-to-harmonic functions

The initial motivation for this paper is to discuss a more concrete approach to an approximation theorem of Axler and Shields, which says that the uniform algebra on the closed unit disc (D) over bar generated by z and h, where h is a nowhere-holomorphic harmonic function on D that is continuous up to partial derivative D, equals C((D) over bar). The abstract tools used by Axler and Shields make harmonicity of h an essential condition for their result. We use the concepts of plurisubharmonicity and polynomial convexity to show that, in fact, the same conclusion is reached if h is replaced by h + R, where R is a non-harmonic perturbation whose Laplacian is ``small'' in a certain sense.
Interferon-beta injection site reactions in patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract Interferon-beta (IFNβ) is effective treatments for relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). IFNβ treatment includes subcutaneous (SC) IFNβ-1b, intramuscular (IM) and SC IFNβ-1a, and SC pegylated IFNβ-1a (PEG-IFNβ-1a). PEG-IFNβ-1a offers the advantage of a prolonged duration of action with a less frequent administration (every 2 weeks) and a higher patient adherence. However, the use of SC interferons could be characterized by potential skin toxicity. Injection site reactions (ISRs), featured by erythema, edema, pain, and pruritus, are the most common adverse reactions. ISRs are mild or moderate in the vast majority of cases, but they can be severe enough to induce drug discontinuation. Therefore, it is very important to adopt strategies to minimize ISRs by proper patient education and counseling. These include rotation of injection sites, use of autoinjectors, use of medication at room temperature, cold compress, or local anesthetic cream before injection, early application of medium to high potency topical corticosteroids with gauze medication, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs taken before and for 24 h after the injection.
Seismic stability of slopes reinforced with sleeved and unsleeved piles

Abstract The development of urban areas in hilly portions of the ground has caused the construction of high rise structures on slopes which sometimes are in a marginal stability. In order to decrease the lateral loads transferred from piles to slopes especially at shallow depths, it is suggested to use of compressible materials such as polystyrene or geofoam as an annulus or sleeve located all-round the outer periphery of concrete piles. The dynamic soil-sleeved pile interaction has not been reported in the literature before. In this paper, 3D finite-difference dynamic analyses using an elastoplastic constitutive model considering dynamic properties of the soil are carried out to study the dynamic soil–pile interaction for both sleeved and unsleeved piles constructed in sloping ground. The effects of sleeve part on stability results, various lengths of piles, various slopes of the ground, various spaces between piles and effects of single or group of piles are investigated. The stability of slopes has been evaluated using a new code based on Strength Reduction Method technique. The variations of shear force and bending moment of piles during dynamic loading have been studied too. Finally, the effective arching distance between piles would be discussed.
An Empirical Polarizable Force Field Based on the Classical Drude Oscillator Model: Development History and Recent Applications

Molecular mechanics force fields that explicitly account for induced polarization represent the next generation of physical models for molecular dynamics simulations. Several methods exist for modeling induced polarization, and here we review the classical Drude oscillator model, in which electronic degrees of freedom are modeled by charged particles attached to the nuclei of their core atoms by harmonic springs. We describe the latest developments in Drude force field parametrization and application, primarily in the last 15 years. Emphasis is placed on the Drude-2013 polarizable force field for proteins, DNA, lipids, and carbohydrates. We discuss its parametrization protocol, development history, and recent simulations of biologically interesting systems, highlighting specific studies in which induced polarization plays a critical role in reproducing experimental observables and understanding physical behavior. As the Drude oscillator model is computationally tractable and available in a wide range of simulation packages, it is anticipated that use of these more complex physical models will lead to new and important discoveries of the physical forces driving a range of chemical and biological phenomena.
Mass Transport of Macromolecules within an In Vitro Model of Supragingival Plaque

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine the diffusion of macromolecules through an in vitro biofilm model of supragingival plaque. Polyspecies biofilms containing Actinomyces naeslundii, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Streptococcus oralis, Streptococcus sobrinus, Veillonella dispar, and Candida albicans were formed on sintered hydroxyapatite disks and then incubated at room temperature for defined periods with fluorescent markers with molecular weights ranging from 3,000 to 900,000. Subsequent examination by confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the mean square penetration depths for all tested macromolecules except immunoglobulin M increased linearly with time, diffusion coefficients being linearly proportional to the cube roots of the molecular weights of the probes (range, 10,000 to 240,000). Compared to diffusion in bulk water, diffusion in the biofilms was markedly slower. The rate of diffusion for each probe appeared to be constant and not a function of biofilm depth. Analysis of diffusion phenomena through the biofilms suggested tortuosity as the most probable explanation for retarded diffusion. Selective binding of probes to receptors present in the biofilms could not explain the observed extent of retardation of diffusion. These results are relevant to oral health, as selective attenuated diffusion of fermentable carbohydrates and acids produced within dental plaque is thought to be essential for the development of carious lesions.
Extracellular vesicles: pathogenetic, diagnostic and therapeutic value in traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Accurate classification according to injury-specific and patient-specific characteristics is critical to help informed clinical decision-making and to the pursuit of precision medicine in TBI. Reliable biomarker signatures for improved TBI diagnostics are required but still an unmet need. Areas covered: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent a new class of biomarker candidates in TBI. These nano-sized vesicles have key roles in cell signaling profoundly impacting pathogenic pathways, progression and long-term sequelae of TBI. As such EVs might provide novel neurobiological insights, enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying TBI pathophysiology and recovery, and serve as biomarker signatures and therapeutic targets and delivery systems. Expert commentary: EVs are fast gaining momentum in TBI research, paving the way for new transformative diagnostic and treatment approaches. Their potential to sort out TBI variability and active involvement in the mechanisms underpinning different clinical phenotypes point out unique opportunities for improved classification, risk-stratification ad intervention, harboring promise of predictive, personalized, and even preemptive therapeutic strategies. Although a great deal of progress has been made, substantial efforts are still required to ensure the needed rigorous validation and reproducibility for clinical implementation of EVs.
Impact of mapping errors on the reliability of landslide hazard maps

Abstract. Identification and mapping of landslide deposits are an intrinsically difficult and subjective operation that requires a great effort to minimise the inherent uncertainty. For the Staffora Basin, which extends for almost 300 km2 in the northern Apennines, three landslide inventory maps were independently produced by three groups of geomorphologists. In comparing each map with the others, large positional discrepancies arise (in the range of 55–65%). When all three maps are overlain, the locational mismatch of landslide deposit polygons increases to over 80%. To assess the impact of these errors on predictive models of landslide hazard, for the study area discriminant models were built up from the same set of geological-geomorphological factors as predictors, and the occurrence of landslide deposits within each terrain-unit, derived from each inventory map, as dependent variable. The comparison of these models demonstrates that statistical modelling greatly minimises the impact of input data errors which remain, however, a major limitation on the reliability of landslide hazard maps.
Assessment of Olfactory Perception in Individuals with Motion Sickness.

BACKGROUND Individuals who experience motion sickness (MS) frequently mention the presence of smells in the environment as a factor favoring the occurrence of MS symptoms. The aim of the present work was to compare olfactory function in MS sensitive (MS+) and insensitive (MS-) subjects. METHODS Olfactory testing included determination of odor detection thresholds, subjective evaluation of the quality (intensity, hedonicity, and familiarity) of three different odorants (limonene, isovaleric acid, and petrol) as well as measures of skin conductance responses to these three odorants. RESULTS Results showed no difference in olfactory sensitivity between MS+ and MS- subjects. However, findings of both subjective (odor quality self-rating) and objective (psychophysiological responses) measures did reveal that the affective response to petrol odor was significantly different in MS+ and in MS- subjects. Indeed, on a scale from 0 (unpleasant) to 10 (pleasant) MS+ subjects rated petrol odor as more unpleasant (mean = 2.52) than MS- subjects (mean = 4.15) and rise-time of skin conductance responses to petrol odor was significantly longer in MS+ (mean = 5.98 s) compared to MS- subjects (mean = 3.22 s). DISCUSSION Our study delves further into the knowledge of the relationship between motion sickness and olfaction by demonstrating a modified olfactory perception in motion sickness sensitive subjects at both the psychophysical and psychophysiological levels.Jacquot L, Millot J-L, Paillard AC. Assessment of olfactory perception in individuals with motion sickness. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2018; 89(5):428-433.