Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functionalization and fragmentation during ambient organic aerosol aging: application of the 2-D volatility basis set to field studies

Abstract. Multigenerational oxidation chemistry of atmospheric organic compounds and its effects on aerosol loadings and chemical composition is investigated by implementing the Two-Dimensional Volatility Basis Set (2-D-VBS) in a Lagrangian host chemical transport model. Three model formulations were chosen to explore the complex interactions between functionalization and fragmentation processes during gas-phase oxidation of organic compounds by the hydroxyl radical. The base case model employs a conservative transformation by assuming a reduction of one order of magnitude in effective saturation concentration and an increase of oxygen content by one or two oxygen atoms per oxidation generation. A second scheme simulates functionalization in more detail using group contribution theory to estimate the effects of oxygen addition to the carbon backbone on the compound volatility. Finally, a fragmentation scheme is added to the detailed functionalization scheme to create a functionalization-fragmentation parameterization. Two condensed-phase chemistry pathways are also implemented as additional sensitivity tests to simulate (1) heterogeneous oxidation via OH uptake to the particle-phase and (2) aqueous-phase chemistry of glyoxal and methylglyoxal. The model is applied to summer and winter periods at three sites where observations of organic aerosol (OA) mass and O:C were obtained during the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions (EUCAARI) campaigns. The base case model reproduces observed mass concentrations and O:C well, with fractional errors (FE) lower than 55% and 25%, respectively. The detailed functionalization scheme tends to overpredict OA concentrations, especially in the summertime, and also underpredicts O:C by approximately a factor of 2. The detailed functionalization model with fragmentation agrees well with the observations for OA concentration, but still underpredicts O:C. Both heterogeneous oxidation and aqueous-phase processing have small effects on OA levels but heterogeneous oxidation, as implemented here, does enhance O:C by about 0.1. The different schemes result in very different fractional attribution for OA between anthropogenic and biogenic sources.
The Functional Calculus

One of the interesting developments in spectral theory recently has been the application of a new formula for a function j{H) of a self-adjoint operator H by Helffer and Sjostrand [8]. This formula, equation (5) below, depends upon the use of almost analytic extensions of functions initially defined on the real line, an idea due to Hormander [10; 11, p. 63]. One of its main advantages is that it allows one to pass easily and flexibly from resolvent estimates to estimates of other functions of//, a fact which has already been exploited in TV-body scattering theory [7, 17]. It was realised by Jensen and Nakamura [13,14] that this calculus may be applied to the study of Schrodinger operators on L(U) for p ^ 2, in which case e is not bounded for any t # 0. In order to clarify what is necessary for such applications we have rewritten the theory in a general axiomatic context. We show that the formula (5) yields a very simple new approach to constructing the functional calculus for selfadjoint and more general operators. We emphasise that our only hypothesis, (H3) below, has been verified for Schrodinger operators with very general non-zero potentials, acting on L(U) for all 1 </? < oo. Although we have followed an axiomatic approach, we emphasise that the hypotheses we have chosen are by no means rigid, and that many other hypotheses of a similar type can be accommodated by making appropriate choices of the almost analytic extensions. In a subsequent paper appearing in this journal [4], we use the axiomatic approach to obtain a very simple and general proof that the L spectrum of a variety of self-adjoint operators is independent of p. The theory which we describe below has much in common with the theory of integrated semigroups and spectral distributions [1, 2]. A functional calculus based upon almost analytic extensions was also constructed by Dyn'kin [5]. However, our approach is quite different from his, and more appropriate to differential operators.
The Punch-Through Effect in Silicon Strip Detectors

In order to protect AC-coupled Silicon strip detectors (SSD) in beam accidents, punch-through protection (PTP) structures are implemented, which are designed to clamp the strip potential to ground when large charges in the bulk break down the electric field. We present a study where we cause the field in the bulk to collapse by illumination with 1064 nm IR pulses, and measure the voltages on the strips as a function of the bias voltage. These voltages are compared with the results of DC I-V measurements, which are commonly used to characterize the effectiveness of the PTP structures, and we find that the PTP structures are only effective at very large currents (several mA), and clamp the strips to much larger voltage than the one derived from DC scans. We also find that the finite resistance of the strip implant compromises the effectiveness of the PTP structures. Radiation damage effects are also presented.
Current and Emerging Basic Science Concepts in Bone Biology: Implications in Craniofacial Surgery

Abstract Ongoing research in bone biology has brought cutting-edge technologies into everyday use in craniofacial surgery. Nonetheless, when osseous defects of the craniomaxillofacial skeleton are encountered, autogenous bone grafting remains the criterion standard for reconstruction. Accordingly, the core principles of bone graft physiology continue to be of paramount importance. Bone grafts, however, are not a panacea; donor site morbidity and operative risk are among the limitations of autologous bone graft harvest. Bone graft survival is impaired when irradiation, contamination, and impaired vascularity are encountered. Although the dura can induce calvarial ossification in children younger than 2 years, the repair of critical-size defects in the pediatric population may be hindered by inadequate bone graft donor volume. The novel and emerging field of bone tissue engineering holds great promise as a limitless source of autogenous bone. Three core constituents of bone tissue engineering have been established: scaffolds, signals, and cells. Blood supply is the sine qua non of these components, which are used both individually and concertedly in regenerative craniofacial surgery. The discerning craniofacial surgeon must determine the proper use for these bone graft alternatives, while understanding their concomitant risks. This article presents a review of contemporary and emerging concepts in bone biology and their implications in craniofacial surgery. Current practices, areas of controversy, and near-term future applications are emphasized.
Serum Adiponectin Level May be an Independent Predictor of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objectives: To examine whether serum adiponectin or leptin level has the ability to differentiate clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) from other subtypes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in a Chinese population. Patients and methods: We recruited 198 consecutive patients who were treated with radical or partial nephrectomy in our department from September 2011 to June 2013. Their histological types were all malignant, including clear cell, papillary, chromophobe and unclassified RCC. We also enrolled 86 people with no cancer or cancer-related diseases as normal controls. We measured patients' preoperative blood samples for plasma adiponectin and leptin concentrations using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Statistical methods were used to analyze ccRCC and other subtypes as they relate to serum adiponectin/leptin level and other factors such as body mass index or visceral fat area. Results: In our database, normal controls had significantly higher circulating adiponectin (p < 0.001) and leptin levels (p < 0.001) than patients with RCC. Among the 198 RCC patients, 156 patients had ccRCC while 42 patients had other histological types. Serum adiponectin levels were lower in ccRCC patients than in non-clear-cell RCC patients (p = 0.004). However, the plasma leptin level was not differently distributed between ccRCC and non-ccRCC patients (p = 0.940). In multivariate analysis, we found that serum adiponectin level may be an independent predictor for discriminating ccRCC patients from others (p = 0.004). Furthermore, in the ccRCC subgroup, we observed that men with ccRCC had lower leptin (p < 0.001) and adiponectin (p = 0.002) levels, and diabetic patients had lower plasma adiponectin levels (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Lower plasma adiponectin concentration was related to an increased incidence of ccRCC and may act as an independent predictor for ccRCC. Our study may help define the process from obesity to adipose tissue, to cytokines and finally to ccRCC.
Polymorphisms in genes encoding drugs and xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes in a Brazilian population

Polymorphic variations of several genes associated with drugs and xenobiotic metabolism have been linked to the factors that predispose to the carcinogenesis process. As considerable interindividual and interethnic variation in metabolizing enzyme activity has been associated with polymorphic alleles, we evaluated the frequency of the polymorphisms of CYP2D6, EPHX1 and NQO1 genes in 361 Brazilian individuals separated by ethnicity (European and African ancestry), using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length (PCR-RFLP) method. The allele frequencies of the variants *3 and *4 for the gene CYP2D6 were 0.04 and 0.14 for white subjects and 0.03 and 0.10 for black individuals, respectively. For the both variants of the gene EPHX1, we found higher allele frequencies among white individuals compared with mulatto subjects (0.62 vs 0.54 and 0.18 vs 0.14, respectively); however, these differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.39 and 0.56, respectively). For the NQO1 gene we observed a higher frequency of the homozygous genotype among black individuals (7.9%) compared with white subjects (6.3%) (p = 0.003). The genotype frequencies were within the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. We concluded that the allele frequencies of CYP2D6, EPHX1 and NQO1 gene polymorphisms in this Brazilian population showed ethnic variability when compared with those observed in other populations.
Contaminant effects on host‐parasite interactions: atrazine, frogs, and trematodes

The effects of contaminants on multispecies interactions can be difficult to predict. The herbicide atrazine is commonly used in North America for corn crops, runs off into wetlands, and has been implicated in the increasing susceptibility of larval frogs to trematode parasites. Using experimental challenges with free‐living stages of trematodes (cercariae), it was found that Rana sylvatica tadpoles exposed to 30 μg/L of atrazine had significantly higher intensity of parasitism than did larval frogs either not exposed or exposed to 3 μg/L of atrazine. This result could not be explained by high concentrations of atrazine diminishing antiparasite behavior of tadpoles. Furthermore, when tadpoles and cercariae both were exposed to the same concentration of atrazine, either 3 or 30 μg/L, the abundance of formed cysts was not different from the condition in which both were housed at 0 μg/L of atrazine. Atrazine appears to be debilitating to both free‐living cercariae and tadpoles. Studies examining relations between parasitism and contaminant levels must account for such combined effects as well as influences on other interacting species (e.g., first intermediate snail hosts).
Effects of species diversity on the primary productivity of ecosystems: extending our spatial and temporal scales of inference

The number of studies examining how species diversity influences the productivity of ecosystems has increased dramatically in the past decade as concern about global loss of biodiversity has intensified. Research to date has greatly improved our understanding of how, when, and why species loss alters primary production in ecosystems. However, because experiments have been performed at rather small spatial and short temporal scales, it is unclear whether conclusions can be readily extrapolated to the broader scales at which natural communities are most likely to influence ecosystem functioning. Here we develop a simple patch-dynamics model to examine some of the scale-dependent and independent qualities of the diversity-productivity relationship. We first simulate a typical diversity-productivity experiment and show that the influence of species richness on productivity is temporally dynamic, growing stronger through successional time. This holds true irrespective of whether resource partitioning or a sampling effect is the underlying mechanism. We then increase the spatial scale of the simulation from individual patches to a region consisting of many patch types. Results suggest that the diversity-productivity relationship is not influenced by spatial scale per se, but that the mechanism producing the relationship can change from sampling effects within individual patches to resource partitioning across patch types composing the region. This change occurs even though model dynamics are the same at both scales, suggesting that sampling effects and resource partitioning can represent different descriptions of the same biological processes operating concurrently at differing scales of observation. Lastly, we incorporate regional processes of dispersal and disturbance into the model and show that these processes can amplify the effect of species richness on productivity, resulting in patterns not easily anticipated from experiments. We conclude that the relative control of community structure by local versus regional processes may be a primary determinant of the diversity-productivity relationship in natural ecosystems. Therefore, past experiments having focused only on local processes might not reflect patterns and processes underlying diversity-productivity relationships in communities where disturbance and dispersal regulate species biomasses.
Shocks and the Expectations Formation Process. A Tale of Two Expectations

To learn the people's expectations formation process, we examine shocks and survey expectations on individual and aggregate income. Data show that shocks have permanent effects on both expectations, which do not diverge systematically because agents revise forecasts. Actually, only expectations on GDP dynamics are revised. These latter overreact to shocks and are more volatile than expectations on personal stances. Disagreement is persistently high. Astonishingly, there is even less consensus when expectations deal with the same fundamental. Lastly, we elaborate a test on whether - and find evidence that - cross sectional disagreement and time series volatility in expectations are equal.
Novel Therapeutic Approaches for the Management of Elevated Lipoprotein(a): From Traditional Agents to Future Treatment Options

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Despite the availability of effective low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering agents, an increased cardiovascular risk is still observed in individuals with therapeutic LDL-C levels. One of these cardiovascular risk factors is elevated plasma lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) concentration, which maintains chronic inflammation through the increased presence of oxidized phospholipids on its surface. In addition, due to its 90 percent homology with the fibrinolytic proenzyme plasminogen, Lp(a) exhibits atherothrombotic effects. These may also contribute to the increased cardiovascular risk in individuals with high Lp(a) levels that previous epidemiological studies have shown to exist independently of LDL-C and other lipid parameters. In this review, the authors overview the novel therapeutic options to achieve effective Lp(a) lowering treatment, which may help to define tailored personalized medicine and reduce the residual cardiovascular risk in high-risk patients. Agents that increase LDL receptor expression, including statins, proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 inhibitors, and LDL production inhibitors, are also discussed. Other treatment options, e.g., cholesterolester transfer protein inhibitors, nicotinic acid derivatives, thyroid hormone mimetics, lipoprotein apheresis, as well as apolipoprotein(a) reducing antisense oligonucleotides and small interfering RNAs, are also evaluated.
Provenance and Geochemical Variations in Shales of the Mesoarchean Witwatersrand Supergroup

New major- and trace-element data are presented for low-grade metamorphosed marine shale units of the highly auriferous Mesoarchean Witwatersrand Supergroup in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa. Comparison of the most altered with the least altered samples revealed that postdepositional modification of shale chemistry was significant only near contacts with over- and underlying coarser-grained siliciclastic rocks and along cross-cutting faults, veins, and dikes. Away from such zones, the shale composition can be used to draw inferences on sediment provenance and paleoweathering in the source region and/or on intrabasinal erosion surfaces, as well as on the likely tectonic setting of the depositional basins. The shale composition is highly variable, both laterally within and vertically across stratigraphic units. The shales are characterized by a high chemical index of alteration, chemical index of weathering, and index of compositional variability, all of which suggest that the source area was lithologically complex and subjected to intense chemical weathering. Relatively immobile trace-element ratios confirm derivation from both mafic and felsic source rocks, as indicated by previous geochemical studies on arenitic and ruditic units as well as heavy minerals, and support the contention of a passive-margin setting for the >2.98–2.91 Ga West Rand Group and an active continental margin source for the overlying >2.90–2.78 Ga Central Rand Group—in agreement with a foreland basin setting for the latter. Compositional profiles through the only major marine shale unit within the Central Rand Group, which is host to the greatest portion of Witwatersrand gold, indicate progressive unroofing of a granitic source in an otherwise greenstone-dominated hinterland in the course of sedimentation. They also point to huge differences in the mafic/felsic proportion of source rocks for the different goldfields, with a dominance of mafic to ultramafic rocks in the hinterland of the eastern parts of the basin and of felsic rocks toward the west. It can be inferred from this variation in the provenance of contemporaneous sediments in different parts of the basin that the gold endowment in the various goldfields was controlled by factors other than a specific source rock type. These results have significant implications for the genetic model for Witwatersrand gold deposits and support the hypothesis of leaching of background concentrations of gold from the hinterland, rather than erosion of discrete Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean gold deposits from a specific host rock type.
Inverting well conditioned matrices in quantum logspace

We show that quantum computers improve on the best known classical algorithms for matrix inversion (and singular value decomposition) as far as space is concerned. This adds to the (still short) list of important problems where quantum computers are of help. Specifically, we show that the inverse of a well conditioned matrix can be approximated in quantum logspace with intermediate measurements. This should be compared with the best known classical algorithm for the problem that requires Ω(log2 n) space. We also show how to approximate the spectrum of a normal matrix, or the singular values of an arbitrary matrix, with ε additive accuracy, and how to approximate the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a matrix whose singular values are well separated. The technique builds on ideas from several previous works, including simulating Hamiltonians in small quantum space (building on [2] and [10]), treating a Hermitian matrix as a Hamiltonian and running the quantum phase estimation procedure on it (building on [5]) and making small space probabilistic (and quantum) computation consistent through the use of offline randomness and the shift and truncate method (building on [8]).
Essential Head Tremor Is Associated with Cerebellar Vermis Atrophy: A Volumetric and Voxel-Based Morphometry MR Imaging Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our aim was to investigate the presence of brain gray matter (GM) abnormalities in patients with different forms of essential tremor (ET). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and manually traced single region-of-interest analysis in 50 patients with familial ET and in 32 healthy subjects. Thirty patients with ET had tremor of the arms (a-ET), whereas the remaining 20 patients had both arm and head tremor (h-ET). RESULTS: VBM showed marked atrophy of the cerebellar vermis in the patients with h-ET with respect to healthy subjects (Pcorrected < .001). Patients with a-ET showed a trend toward a vermal GM volume loss that did not reach a significant difference with respect to healthy controls (Puncorrected < .01). The region-of-interest analysis showed a reduction of the cerebellar volume (CV) in the h-ET group (98.2 ± 13.6 mm3) compared with healthy controls (110.5 ± 15.5 mm3, P < .012) as well as in the entire vermal area (790.3 ± 94.5 mm2, 898.6 ± 170.6 mm2, P < .04 in h-ET and control groups, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Atrophy of the cerebellar vermis detected in patients with h-ET strongly supports the evidence for the involvement of the cerebellum in the pathophysiology of ET. The lack of a significant CV loss observed in patients with a-ET suggests that a-ET and h-ET might represent distinct subtypes of the same disease.
Skilled Birth Attendants: Who is Who? A Descriptive Study of Definitions and Roles from Nine Sub Saharan African Countries

Background Availability of a Skilled Birth Attendant (SBA) during childbirth is a key indicator for MDG5 and a strategy for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in Africa. There is limited information on how SBAs and their functions are defined. The aim of this study was to map the cadres of health providers considered SBAs in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA); to describe which signal functions of Essential Obstetric Care (EmOC) they perform and assess whether they are legislated to perform these functions. Methods and Findings Key personnel in the Ministries of Health, teaching institutions, referral, regional and district hospitals completed structured questionnaires in nine SSA countries in 2009–2011. A total of 21 different cadres of health care providers (HCP) were reported to be SBA. Type and number of EmOC signal functions reported to be provided, varied substantially between cadres and countries. Parenteral antibiotics, uterotonic drugs and anticonvulsants were provided by most SBAs. Removal of retained products of conception and assisted vaginal delivery were the least provided signal functions. Except for the cadres of obstetricians, medical doctors and registered nurse-midwives, there was lack of clarity regarding signal functions reported to be performed and whether they were legislated to perform these. This was particularly for manual removal of placenta, removal of retained products and assisted vaginal delivery. In some countries, cadres not considered SBA performed deliveries and provided EmOC signal functions. In other settings, cadres reported to be SBA were able to but not legislated to perform key EmOC signal functions. Conclusions Comparison of cadres of HCPs reported to be SBA across countries is difficult because of lack of standardization in names, training, and functions performed. There is a need for countries to develop clear guidelines defining who is a SBA and which EmOC signal functions each cadre of HCP is expected to provide.