Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arbitrary Density of States in an Organic Thin-Film Field-Effect Transistor Model and Application to Pentacene Devices

We present a modular numerical model for organic thin-film field-effect transistors (OTFTs) that allows for an arbitrary density of states to be independently defined for the semiconductor bulk and the semiconductor surface next to the gate insulator. We can derive the surface charge density dependence on the interface field as well as the space-charge-limited current characteristics. Together with a model of the contacts, we arrive at a physical model that is applied to a series of OTFTs in staggered inverted (top contact) geometry with various gate insulator treatments
The extended evolutionary synthesis and the role of soft inheritance in evolution

In recent years, a number of researchers have advocated extending the modern synthesis in evolutionary biology. One of the core arguments made in favour of an extension comes from work on soft inheritance systems, including transgenerational epigenetic effects, cultural transmission and niche construction. In this study, we outline this claim and then take issue with it. We argue that the focus on soft inheritance has led to a conflation of proximate and ultimate causation, which has in turn obscured key questions about biological organization and calibration across the life span to maximize average lifetime inclusive fitness. We illustrate this by presenting hypotheses that we believe incorporate the core phenomena of soft inheritance and will aid in understanding them.
Accretion does not drive the turbulence in galactic discs

Rapid accretion of cold intergalactic gas plays a crucial role in getting gas into galaxies. It has been suggested that this gas accretion proceeds along narrow streams that might also directly drive the turbulence in galactic gas, dynamical disturbances and bulge formation. In cosmological simulations, however, it is impossible to isolate and hence disentangle the effect of cold stream accretion from internal instabilities and mergers. Moreover, in most current cosmological simulations, the phase structure and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) arising from stellar feedback are treated in an approximate (subgrid) manner, so that the feedback cannot generate turbulence in the ISM. In this paper we therefore test the effects of cold streams in extremely high-resolution simulations of otherwise isolated galaxy discs using detailed models for star formation and stellar feedback; we then include or exclude mock cold flows falling on to the galaxies, with mass accretion rates, velocities and flow geometry set to maximize their effect on the gaseous disc. We find (1) turbulent velocity dispersions in gas discs are identical with or without the presence of the cold flow; the energy injected by the flow is efficiently dissipated where it meets the disc. (2) In runs without stellar feedback, the presence of a cold flow has essentially no effect on runaway fragmentation (local collapse), resulting in star formation rates (SFRs) that are an order-of-magnitude too large. (3) Model discs in runs with both explicit feedback and cold flows have higher SFRs, but only insofar as they have more gas. (4) Because the flows are extended, relative to the size of the disc, they do not trigger strong resonant responses and so induce weak gross morphological perturbation (bulge formation via instabilities/fragmentation is not accelerated). (5) However, flows can thicken the disc by direct contribution of out-of-plane or misaligned star-forming streams/filaments. We conclude that while inflows are critical over cosmological time-scales to determine the supply and angular momentum of gas discs, they have weak instantaneous dynamical effects on galaxies.
Blood pressure is associated with cognitive impairment in young hypertensives

Aims: The present study was conducted to assess the effects of duration of hypertension, systolic hypertension, diastolic hypertension, drug compliance and class-of-drug on cognitive functions. Methods and results: A cohort of young hypertensive subjects was recruited after obtaining informed consent. Subjects with confounding factors, e.g., substance use, neurological disorders, endocrinopathies, inflammatory conditions, psychiatric illnesses, etc., were excluded. Their average systolic and diastolic blood pressure since onset of illness and prescribed drugs were noted from the records. Compliance was assessed with the help of information from subjects as well as the close relatives. MMSE and a battery of neuropsychological tests (Digit Span Test, Trail Making Test Form B, Stroop Test, Visuospatial Working Memory Matrix and Word Fluency Test) was applied to all the participants. Multivariate regression analysis was used for the assessment of associations and one-way ANOVA was performed to assess differences in the mean. Analysis showed that mean age of study subject was 52 years and average duration of hypertension was 9 years. Fourteen percent subjects had obvious cognitive impairment as suggested by MMSE score less than 23. However, when cut-off score was lowered to 20, only 6% subjects fell into this category. Diastolic blood pressure had significant negative association with all of the cognitive measures except Trail Making Test, which was, on the contrary, significantly and negatively associated with systolic blood pressure. Duration of hypertension did not influence cognitive performance in this study. Effect of drug compliance was somewhat variable, but in general good compliance was associated with better cognitive performance. β-Blocker therapy hampered cognitive performance, whereas the best performance, especially on tests of semantic memory and pre-frontal functions was seen in subjects taking calcium channel blockers. Conclusions: Diastolic hypertension was associated with significant impairment of cognitive functions in younger subjects. On the other hand good compliance and calcium channel blockers had protective effect on hypertension induced cognitive impairment, especially on the prefrontal functions.
Benchmarking the burden of 100 diseases: results of a nationwide representative survey within general practices

Objective To assess the burden of diseases and quality of life (QOL) of patients for a large variety of diseases within general practice. Design In a representative nationwide cross-sectional study, a total of 825 general practitioners (GPs) were randomly selected from across France. Independent investigators recruited 8559 patients attending the GPs' practices. Data on QOL (12-Item Short Form questionnaire) and other individual characteristics were documented by the independent investigators for all participants in the waiting room. Medical information was recorded by GPs. Sampling was calibrated to national standards using the CALMAR (CALage sur MARges) weighting procedure. Associations of lower scores (ie, below vs above the first quartile) of physical and mental component scores (physical component summary score (PCS) and mental component summary score (MCS), respectively) with main diseases and patients characteristics were estimated using multivariate logistic regression. Weighted morbidity rates, PCS and MCS were computed for 100 diagnoses using the International Classification of Diseases (9th version). Results Overall mental impairment was observed among patients in primary care with an average MCS of 41.5 (SD 8.6), ranging from 33.0 for depressive disorders to 45.3 for patients exhibiting fractures or sprains. Musculoskeletal diseases were found to have the most pronounced effect on impaired physical health (OR=2.31; 95% CI 2.08 to 2.57) with the lowest PCS (45.6 (SD 8.8)) and ranked first (29.0%) among main diagnoses experienced by patients followed by cardiovascular diseases (26.7%) and psychological disorders (22.0%). When combining both prevalence and QOL, musculoskeletal diseases represented the heaviest burden in general practice. Conclusions Etude épidémiologique de l'Impact de santé public sur 3 groupes de pathologies (EPI3) is the first study to provide reference figures for burden of disease in general practice across a wide range of morbidities, particularly valuable for health-economics and healthcare-system evaluation.
Intersatellite cross-calibration: integration of reflectance and NDVI from different satellites by means of a linear model

Several satellite sensor systems useful in Earth observation and monitoring have recently been launched and their derived products are being used in regional and global vegetation studies. The joint use of these multi-resolution sensors offers many opportunities for vegetation studies. Spectral vegetation indices obtained from Landsat, Spot, IRS and other sensors are now widely available for monitoring ecosystem dynamics. However, the joint use of data from different satellites requires inter-satellite cross-calibration. We will use a multi-temporal data synthesising procedure for this purpose. In this paper we analyze the broadband reflectance and NDVI relationships among the various relevant sensors. The key to the method is in using synchronous or nearsynchronous imagery from different sensors. Comparison between reflectances for different bands shows that a linear function fits well to describe the relation between different sensors. Observations made from different sensors at different spatial scales can be reliably compared only if they are spatially aggregated to an adequate grid size. This minimum spatial aggregation size depends on the spatial resolution of the sensors involved in the comparison. In any case, it must be at least 3 x 3 pixels of the coarser resolution sensor.
Treatment of an Askin tumor: A case report and review of the literature

Askin tumors are rare malignant neoplasms that are localized in the thoracopulmonary region and mainly occur in children and adolescents. Further investigation with regard to the effective treatment of this disease is required, since the disease has a low incidence and limited knowledge is available on the biological activity and prognostic factors of this type of tumor. The present study describes the case of a 30-year-old male patient with a histologically and morphologically proven Askin tumor who was treated in Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute (Jinan, China). A chest computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated a large mass filling the entire left lung, associated with mediastinum and right lung compression and accompanied by destruction of the 2nd rib. The patient accepted chemotherapy and radiotherapy instead of a radical mass resection since the mass was irresectable. A good clinical response was achieved to the chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The diagnosis and treatment of Askin tumors remains a challenge for clinicians and surgeons due to the absence of standard therapeutic guidelines for the treatment of this disease. According to the experience obtained from the cases encountered to date, treatment strategies should aim to reduce local recurrence and distant metastasis. Moreover, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy or a combination of these methods appears to constitute an effective treatment strategy for Askin tumors.
A crucial role of nitric oxide in acute lung injury secondary to the acute necrotizing pancreatitis

To investigate the role of nitric oxide (NO) in acute lung inflammation and injury secondary to acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP), 5% sodium taurocholate was retrogradely injected into the biliopancreatic duct of rats to ANP model. These ANP rats were given L-Arginine (L-Arg, 100 mg/kg), L-NAME (10 mg/kg), or their combination by intraperitoneal injection 30 min prior to ANP induction. At 1, 3, 6, and 12 hours after ANP induction, lung NO production, and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression were measured. Lung histopathological changes, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) protein concentration, proinflammatory mediators tumor necrotic factor alpha (TNF-α), and lung tissue myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity were examined. Results showed that NO production and iNOS mRNA expression in alveolar macrophages (AMs) were significantly increased along with significant increases in lung histological abnormalities and BAL proteins in the ANP group, all of which were further enhanced by pretreatment with L-Arg and attenuated by pretreatment with L-NAME, respectively. These markers were slightly attenuated by pretreatment with combination of L-Arg + L-NAME, suggesting that NO is required for initiating the acute lung damage in ANP rats, and also that L-Arg-enhanced lung injury is mediated by its NO generation rather than its direct effect. MPO activity and TNF-α expression in lung were upregulated in the ANP rats and further enhanced by pretreatment with L-Arg and attenuated by pretreatment with L-NAME, respectively. These results suggest that overproduction of NO mediated by iNOS in the lung is required for the acute lung inflammation and damage secondary to ANP.
Changes in low flow with the conversion of a coniferous plantation to a broad‐leaved forest in a summer precipitation region, Japan

Converting coniferous plantations to broad‐leaved forests is believed to result in increased runoff in Japan. This study examined low‐flow changes in runoff in the Tatsunokuchi–Minami catchment, located in a region with summer precipitation, caused by the conversion of a coniferous plantation to a broad‐leaved forest. We compared the flow duration curves for the coniferous plantation period with those for the broad‐leaved forest period. We observed no evidence of increased low flows according to the change in forest type. Thus, the commonly held belief was not supported by the results from a summer precipitation region with respect to low‐flow rates. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Estradiol Protects against Ischemic Injury

Clinical studies demonstrate that estrogen replacement therapy in postmenopausal women may enhance cognitive function and reduce neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease and stroke, This study assesses whether physiologic levels of estradiol prevent brain injury in an in vivo model of permanent focal ischemia. Sprague-Dawley rats were ovariectomized; they then were implanted, immediately or at the onset of ischemia, with capsules that produced physiologically low or physiologically high 17β-estradiol levels in serum (10 or 60 pg/mL, respectively), One week after ovariectomy, ischemia was induced. Estradiol pretreatment significantly reduced overall infarct volume compared with oil-pretreated controls (mean ± SD: oil = 241 ± 88; low = 139 ± 91; high = 132 ±88 mm3); this protective effect was regionally specific to the cortex, since no protection was observed in the striatum. Baseline and ischemic regional CBF did not differ between oil and estradiol pretreated rats, as measured by laser Doppler flowmetry. Acute estradiol treatment did not protect against ischemic injury. Our finding that estradiol pretreatment reduces injury demonstrates that physiologic levels of estradiol can protect against neurodegeneration.
Insights into the Evolution of Hydroxyproline-Rich Glycoproteins from 1000 Plant Transcriptomes1[OPEN]

Evaluation of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins identified in 1KP transcriptomic data sets to gain insight into their evolutionary history from chlorophyte algae to flowering plants. The carbohydrate-rich cell walls of land plants and algae have been the focus of much interest given the value of cell wall-based products to our current and future economies. Hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (HRGPs), a major group of wall glycoproteins, play important roles in plant growth and development, yet little is known about how they have evolved in parallel with the polysaccharide components of walls. We investigate the origins and evolution of the HRGP superfamily, which is commonly divided into three major multigene families: the arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs), extensins (EXTs), and proline-rich proteins. Using motif and amino acid bias, a newly developed bioinformatics pipeline, we identified HRGPs in sequences from the 1000 Plants transcriptome project (www.onekp.com). Our analyses provide new insights into the evolution of HRGPs across major evolutionary milestones, including the transition to land and the early radiation of angiosperms. Significantly, data mining reveals the origin of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored AGPs in green algae and a 3- to 4-fold increase in GPI-AGPs in liverworts and mosses. The first detection of cross-linking (CL)-EXTs is observed in bryophytes, which suggests that CL-EXTs arose though the juxtaposition of preexisting SPn EXT glycomotifs with refined Y-based motifs. We also detected the loss of CL-EXT in a few lineages, including the grass family (Poaceae), that have a cell wall composition distinct from other monocots and eudicots. A key challenge in HRGP research is tracking individual HRGPs throughout evolution. Using the 1000 Plants output, we were able to find putative orthologs of Arabidopsis pollen-specific GPI-AGPs in basal eudicots.
Team Formation and Self-Serving Biases

There is extensive evidence which indicates that people learn positively about themselves. We build on this finding to develop a model of team formation. We show that under complete information learning positively about oneself prevents efficient team formation. Agents becoming overconfident tend to ask for an excessive share of the group outcome. Positive learning generates divergence in workers' beliefs and hampers efficient team formation. Interestingly, in a context of incomplete information regarding the partner's ability, extensive learning biases may reduce the divergence in agents' beliefs and facilitate efficient team formation as a result. We apply our model to coauthorship and organizational issues.
Patch-Based Inpainting for Object Removal and Region Filling in Images

Abstract A large number of articles have been devoted to the application of “texture synthesis” for large regions and “inpainting” algorithms for small cracks in an image. A new approach that allows the simultaneous filling in of different structures and textures is discussed in this present study. The combination of structure inpainting and patch-based texture synthesis carried out (termed as “patch-based inpainting”) for filling and updating the target region shows additional advantages over earlier approaches. The algorithm discussed here uses the patch-based inpainting with isophote-driven patch-based texture synthesis at the core. In this algorithm, once the user selects the regions to be restored, the algorithm automatically searches and fills in these regions with the best matching information surrounding them. We have assigned high priorities to the pixels on the boundary and the structure by computing data terms D(p), and the texture and corners are prioritized by computing the confidence C(p) of the pixel. We also regularized and weighted the confidence of the pixels, RC(p), to achieve a balance of the two. The patch search area near the pixel patch to be filled is bounded for algorithm speed improvement. Patch-based filling significantly improve execution speed compared with pixel-based filling. Filling in is done in such a way that the structure information arriving at the region boundaries is propagated inside. A number of examples on real and synthetic images are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm. Robustness with respect to the shape of the selected target region is also demonstrated.
Isolation and Analysis of Phospholipids in Dairy Foods

The lipid fraction of milk is one of the most complex matrixes in foodstuffs due to the presence of a high number of moieties with different physical and chemical properties. Glycerolipids include glycerol and two fatty acids esterified in positions sn-1 and sn-2 with higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids than in the triglyceride fraction of milk. Sphingolipids consist of a sphingoid base linked to a fatty acid across an amide bond. Their amphiphilic nature makes them suitable to be added into a variety of foods and recent investigations show that phospholipids, mainly phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin, can exert antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer activities as well as positive effects in Alzheimer's disease, stress, and memory decline. Polar lipids can be found as natural constituents in the membranes of all living organisms with soybean and eggs as the principal industrial sources, yet they have low contents in phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin. Animal products are rich sources of these compounds but since there are legal restrictions to avoid transmission of prions, milk and dairy products are gaining interest as alternative sources. This review summarizes the analysis of polar lipids in dairy products including sample preparation (extraction and fractionation/isolation) and analysis by GC or HPLC and the latest research works using ELSD, CAD, and MS detectors.
Phylogeny of the tribe Archipini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Tortricinae) and evolutionary correlates of novel secondary sexual structures.

We reconstructed a preliminary phylogeny for the economically important tribe Archipini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Tortricinae) based on 135 exemplar species (including four outgroups) and a combined analyses of 28S rDNA and COI DNA using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses. A summary tree was produced as the majority rule consensus tree by first assembling all clades that were present in more than 50% of analyses. Based on the results of the analyses, several taxonomic changes are suggested. After mapping secondary sexual characters (SSCs), host plant breadth, and geographic distribution onto the phylogeny, we examined correspondences among these traits using two-by-two χ 2 tests and ancestral character state reconstructions. Absence of SSCs was associated with decreased host plant breadth and colonization of the New World, but was not significantly associated with the presence of other SSCs. There is a strong likelihood of an Australasian origin for Archipini. We propose the synonymy of Archepandemis Mutuura with Pandemis Hubner (new synonymy); the synonymy of Cudonigera Obraztsov & Powell with Choristoneura Lederer (new synonymy); and elevation of Anaphelia Razowski, Sacaphelia Razowski, and Zelotherses Lederer to genera from subgenera of Aphelia Hubner (revised status). Epiphyas Turner, may be subordinate within Clepsis Guenee, but further study is needed to confirm this.
Numerical simulation of the dynamics of fluid oscillations in a gravitationally unstable, compositionally stratified fissure

Abstract We have simulated the dynamics of convection, mixing and ascent of two basaltic magmas differing in their volatile and crystal content, giving rise to a gravitationally unstable configuration along a dyke or fissure. Numerical simulations are performed by a recently developed code which describes the transient 2D dynamics of multicomponent fluids from the incompressible to the compressible regime, and the initial and boundary conditions are inspired to the paroxysmal eruption which occurred at Stromboli in 2003 (D'Auria et al. 2006). Multicomponent (H2O+CO2) saturation is accounted for by modelling the non-ideal equilibrium between the gas phase and the melt. The numerical results show the formation of a rising bulge of light magma, and the sink of discrete batches of dense magma towards deep fissure regions. Such dynamics are associated with a complex evolution of the pressure field, which shows variations occurring over a wide spectrum of frequencies. A first order analysis of the propagation of such pressure disturbances through the country rocks shows that the pre-eruptive fissure dynamics are able to produce mm-size, mainly radial deformation of the volcano, and a detectable seismic signal with spectral peaks at periods of about 50 s.