Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selectively increasing the clearance of protein-bound uremic solutes.

BACKGROUND The toxicity of bound solutes could be better evaluated if we could adjust the clearance of such solutes independent of unbound solutes. This study assessed whether bound solute clearances can be increased while maintaining urea clearance constant during the extended hours of nocturnal dialysis. METHODS Nine patients on thrice-weekly nocturnal dialysis underwent two experimental dialysis treatments 1 week apart. The experimental treatments were designed to provide the same urea clearance while providing widely different bound solute clearance. One treatment employed a large dialyzer and high dialyzate flow rate (Qd) of 800 mL/min while blood flow (Qb) was 270 mL/min. The other treatment employed a smaller dialyzer and Qd of 300 mL/min while Qb was 350 mL/min. RESULTS Treatment with the large dialyzer and higher Qd greatly increased the clearances of the bound solutes p-cresol sulfate (PCS: 27±9 versus 14±6 mL/min) and indoxyl sulfate (IS: 26±8 versus 14±5 mL/min) without altering the clearance of urea (204±20 versus 193±16 mL/min). Increasing PCS and IS clearances increased the removal of these solutes (PCS: 375±200 versus 207±86 mg/session; IS: 201±137 versus 153±74 mg/session), while urea removal was not different. CONCLUSIONS The removal of bound solutes can thus be increased by raising the dialyzate flow and dialyzer size above the low levels sufficient to achieve target Kt/V(urea) during extended treatment. Selectively increasing the clearance of bound solutes provides a potential means to test their toxicity.
Joint Analysis of Cluster Observations. I. Mass Profile of Abell 478 from Combined X-Ray, Sunyaev-Zel’dovich, and Weak-Lensing Data

We provide a new framework for the joint analysis of cluster observations (JACO) using simultaneous fits to X-ray, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ), and weak-lensing data. Our method fits the mass models simultaneously to all data, provides explicit separation of the gaseous, dark, and stellar components, and—for the first time—allows joint constraints on all measurable physical parameters. JACO includes additional improvements to previous X-ray techniques, such as the treatment of the cluster termination shock and explicit inclusion of the BCG's stellar mass profile. An application of JACO to the rich galaxy cluster Abell 478 shows excellent agreement among the X-ray, lensing, and SZ data. We find that Abell 478 is consistent with a cuspy dark matter profile with inner slope n = 1. Accounting for the stellar mass profile of the BCG allows us to rule out inner dark matter slopes n > 1.1 at the 99% confidence level. At large radii, an r-3 asymptotic slope is preferred over an r-4 behavior. All single power-law dark matter models are ruled out at greater than the 99% confidence level. JACO shows that self-consistent modeling of multiwavelength data can provide powerful constraints on the shape of the dark profile.
Attention, Emotion, and Enumeration: The influence of emotional valence and arousal on subitizing and counting

ATTENTION, EMOTION, AND ENUMERATION: THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL VALENCE AND AROUSAL ON SUBITIZING AND COUNTING Elizabeth Ann Infante Advisor: University of Guelph, 2019 Professor Lana M. Trick Emotional valence (un/pleasantness) has been found to alter attention in a number of paradigms. Despite this, valence effects have not been detected during simple enumeration (quantification theorized to require attention) for both subitizing, the “with-a-glance” enumeration of small quantities (~1-4), and counting, the effortful enumeration of larger quantities (5+). To investigate this puzzling finding, Experiment 1 participants saw positive, negative, or neutral images before enumerating 1-9 dots. No valence effects were detected. Consequently, Experiment 2 used a more accurate image categorization procedure and presented positive and negative images of high and low arousal before enumeration of 1-9 dots dispersed within a small or large display breadth. Negative trials were slower than positive trials for both subitizing and counting. For subitizing alone high arousal trials were enumerated faster than low arousal trials, and small displays were enumerated faster than large. No significant interaction effects between valence and display breadth were detected.
A Survey of Methods for Detection of Stator-Related Faults in Induction Machines

As evidenced by industrial surveys, stator-related failures account for a large percentage of faults in induction machines. The objective of this paper is to provide a survey of existing techniques for detection of stator-related faults, which include stator winding turn faults, stator core faults, temperature monitoring and thermal protection, and stator winding insulation testing. The root causes of fault inception, available techniques for detection, and recommendations for further research are presented. Although the primary focus is online and sensorless methods that use machine voltages and currents to extract fault signatures, offline techniques such as partial discharge detection are also examined. Condition monitoring, fault diagnostics, insulation testing, interlaminar core faults, partial discharge (PD), temperature monitoring, turn faults.
A Novel Channel Switching Scenario in Multicast IPTV Networks

In this paper we focus on the multicast IPTV networks area. In the context of the Quality of Experience we propose a novel channel switching scenario to optimize the IPTV zapping time. Therefore, to switch between channels, we propose to send at first a join message to the requested channel before leaving the currently watched channel. Simulation results show that our solution improve channel zapping time and may reduce blackout time without any increase of the multicast bandwidth utilization in the network core.
Snow Microwave Emission Modeling of Ice Lenses within the Snowpack Using the Microwave Emission Model for Layered Snowpacks (MEMLS)

Ice lens formation, which follows rain on snow events or melt-refreeze cycles in winter and spring, is likely to become more frequent as a result of increasing mean winter temperatures at high latitudes. These ice lenses significantly affect the microwave scattering and emission properties and, hence, snow brightness temperatures that are widely used to monitor snow cover properties from space. To understand and interpret the spaceborne microwave signal, the modeling of these phenomena needs improvement. This paper shows the effects and sensitivity of ice lenses on simulated brightness temperatures using the Microwave Emission Model of Layered Snowpacks (MEMLS) coupled to a soil emission model at 19 and 37 GHz in both horizontal and vertical polarizations. Results when considering pure ice lenses show an improvement of 20.5 K of the root mean square error (RMSE) between the simulated and measured Tb using several in situ datasets acquired during field campaigns across Canada. The modeled brightness temperatures were found to be highly sensitive to the vertical location of ice lenses within the snowpack.
A Comparison of X-ray and Strong Lensing Properties of Simulated X-ray Clusters

We use gas-dynamical simulations of galaxy clusters to compare their X-ray and strong lensing properties. Special emphasis is laid on mass estimates. The cluster masses range between 6 x 10^14 solar masses and 4 x 10^15 solar masses, and they are examined at redshifts between 1 and 0. We compute the X-ray emission of the intracluster gas by thermal bremsstrahlung, add background contamination, and mimic imaging and spectral observations with current X-ray telescopes. Although the beta model routinely provides excellent fits to the X-ray emission profiles, the derived masses are typically biased low because of the restricted range of radii within which the fit can be done. For beta values of ~ 2/3, which is the average in our numerically simulated sample, the mass is typically underestimated by ~ 40 per cent. The masses of clusters which exhibit pronounced substructure are often substantially underestimated. We suggest that the ratio between peak temperature and emission-weighted average cluster temperature may provide a good indicator for ongoing merging and, therefore, for unreliable mass estimates. X-ray mass estimates are substantially improved if we fit a King density profile rather than the beta model to the X-ray emission, thereby dropping the degree of freedom associated with beta. Clusters selected for their strong lensing properties are typically dynamically more active than typical clusters. Bulk flows in the intracluster gas contain a larger than average fraction of the internal energy of the gas in such objects, hence the measured gas temperatures are biased low. The bulk of the optical depth for arc formation is contributed by clusters with intermediate rather than high X-ray luminosity. Arcs occur predominantly in clusters which exhibit substructure and are not in an equilibrium state. Finally we explain why the
Comparative Genetics of Seed Size Traits in Divergent Cereal Lineages Represented by Sorghum (Panicoidae) and Rice (Oryzoidae)

Seed size is closely related to fitness of wild plants, and its modification has been a key recurring element in domestication of seed/grain crops. In sorghum, a genomic and morphological model for panicoid cereals, a rich history of research into the genetics of seed size is reflected by a total of 13 likelihood intervals determined by conventional QTL (linkage) mapping in 11 nonoverlapping regions of the genome. To complement QTL data and investigate whether the discovery of seed size QTL is approaching “saturation,” we compared QTL data to GWAS for seed mass, seed length, and seed width studied in 354 accessions from a sorghum association panel (SAP) that have been genotyped at 265,487 SNPs. We identified nine independent GWAS-based “hotspots” for seed size associations. Targeted resequencing near four association peaks with the most notable linkage disequilibrium provides further support of the role(s) of these regions in the genetic control of sorghum seed size and identifies two candidate causal variants with nonsynonymous mutations. Of nine GWAS hotspots in sorghum, seven have significant correspondence with rice QTL intervals and known genes for components of seed size on orthologous chromosomes. Identifying intersections between positional and association genetic data are a potentially powerful means to mitigate constraints associated with each approach, and nonrandom correspondence of sorghum (panicoid) GWAS signals to rice (oryzoid) QTL adds a new dimension to the ability to leverage genetic data about this important trait across divergent plants.
Places205-VGGNet Models for Scene Recognition

VGGNets have turned out to be effective for object recognition in still images. However, it is unable to yield good performance by directly adapting the VGGNet models trained on the ImageNet dataset for scene recognition. This report describes our implementation of training the VGGNets on the large-scale Places205 dataset. Specifically, we train three VGGNet models, namely VGGNet-11, VGGNet-13, and VGGNet-16, by using a Multi-GPU extension of Caffe toolbox with high computational efficiency. We verify the performance of trained Places205-VGGNet models on three datasets: MIT67, SUN397, and Places205. Our trained models achieve the state-of-the-art performance o these datasets and are made public available 1 .
Pacifier: Record and replay for relaxed-consistency multiprocessors with distributed directory protocol

Record and Deterministic Replay (R&R) of multithreaded programs on relaxed-consistency multiprocessors with distributed directory protocol has been a long-standing open problem. The independently developed RelaxReplay [8] solves the problem by assuming write atomicity. This paper proposes Pacifier, the first R&R scheme to provide a solution without assuming write atomicity. R&R for relaxed-consistency multiprocessors needs to detect, record and replay Sequential Consistency Violations (SCV). Pacifier has two key components: (i) Relog, a general memory reordering logging and replay mechanism that can reproduce SCVs in relaxed memory models, and (ii) Granule, an SCV detection scheme in the record phase with good precision, that indicates whether to record with Relog. We show that Pacifier is a sweet spot in the design space with a reasonable trade-off between hardware and log overhead. An evaluation with simulations of 16, 32 and 64 processors with Release Consistency (RC) running SPLASH-2 applications indicates that Pacifier incurs 3.9% ~ 16% larger logs. The slowdown of Pacifier during replay is 10.1% ~ 30.5% compared to native execution.
Membership Turnover and Collaboration Success in Online Communities: Explaining Rises

Firms increasingly turn to online communities to create valuable information. These communities are empowered by new information technology-enabled collaborative tools, tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks. Collaboration on these platforms is characterized by considerable membership turnover, which could have significant effects on collaborative outcomes. We hypothesize that membership retention relates in a curvilinear fashion to effective collaboration: positively up to a threshold and negatively thereafter. The longitudinal history of 2,065 featured articles on Wikipedia offers support for this hypotheses: Contributions from a mixture of new and experienced participants both increases the likelihood that an article will be promoted to featured article status and decreases the risk it will be demoted after having been promoted. These findings imply that, contrary to many of the assumptions in previous research, participant retention does not have a strictly positive effect on emerging collaborative environments. Further analysis of our data provides empirical evidence that knowledge creation and knowledge retention are actually distinct phases of communitybased peer production, and that communities may on average experience more turnover than ideal during the knowledge retention phase.
Investigating Occupational Burnout in Library Personnel

Background: This paper is an attempt to investigate occupational burnout among library personnel in University Libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria. Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion which is caused by prolonged stress. Objectives: find out if library personnel in academic libraries in Ogun State, do experience occupational burnout, Highlight the perceived causes of occupational burnout, identify the consequences of occupational burnout on the library personnel surveyed and strategies to mitigate burnout syndrome among library personnel. Methods: A descriptive survey method was adopted for the study Two hundred and thirty six copies of structured questionnaire were administered and Two hundred and twenty one (representing 93.6% response rate) were retrieved. One hypothesis was tested using Pearson correlation. Results: The causes of occupational burnout among library personnel sampled ranged from inadequate resources to work with, rigid working hours, unfavorable policies. Discussions: Drawing from the analysis carried out, there are some factors that affect the level of burnout experienced by the library personnel; these factors go a long way to affect the level of occupational burn out experienced. Conclusion: The paper concludes that the level of commitment of the library personnel could be determined by the nature of prevailing policies in the institution
Role of cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 in fibroblast-like synovial cell proliferation and invasion in rheumatoid arthritis

Cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (Cyr61) is a novel molecule that has been shown to be increased in the synovial tissues of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present study was conducted in order to investigate the role of Cyr61 in the pathogenesis of RA. A human genome-wide gene assay was used to screen gene expression in synovial tissues obtained from four patients with RA and three patients with osteoarthritis (OA). To examine the role of Cyr61 in the phenotype of RA-fibroblast-like synovial (FLS) cells, Cyr61 expression in RA-FLS cells was knocked down using small interfering RNA (siRNA). Normal FLS cells transduced with lentiviral vectors encoding Cyr61 cDNA were used to further explore the effects of this molecule on FLS cell apoptosis, proliferation and invasion. The study found that the Cyr61 gene was highly expressed in the synovial cells from patients with RA compared with those from patients with OA. Downregulation of Cyr61 by siRNA led to impaired cell proliferation and invasion. Furthermore, it decreased the levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 and MMP-13, and induced apoptosis in RA-FLS cells. Conversely, overexpression of Cyr61 in normal FLS cells led to opposite effects. In conclusion, these results indicate that Cyr61 is capable of promoting RA-FLS cell proliferation and invasion via the suppression of apoptosis and the regulation of MMP expression. Therefore, Cyr61 may be a good target molecule for the treatment and prevention of RA.
Short-Term Aerobic Exercise Reduces Arterial Stiffness in Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Hypertension, and Hypercholesterolemia

OBJECTIVE The relationship between increased arterial stiffness and cardiovascular mortality is well established in type 2 diabetes. We examined whether aerobic exercise could reduce arterial stiffness in older adults with type 2 diabetes complicated by comorbid hypertension and hyperlipidemia. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 36 older adults (mean age 71.4 ± 0.7 years) with diet-controlled or oral hypoglycemic–controlled type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia were recruited. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups: an aerobic group (3 months vigorous aerobic exercise) and a nonaerobic group (no aerobic exercise). Exercise sessions were supervised by a certified exercise trainer three times per week, and a combination of cycle ergometers and treadmills was used. Arterial stiffness was measured using the Complior device. RESULTS When the two groups were compared, aerobic training resulted in a decrease in measures of both radial (−20.7 ± 6.3 vs. +8.5 ± 6.6%, P = 0.005) and femoral (−13.9 ± 6.7 vs. +4.4 ± 3.3%, P = 0.015) pulse-wave velocity despite the fact that aerobic fitness as assessed by Vo2max did not demonstrate an improvement with training (P = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that a relatively short aerobic exercise intervention in older adults can reduce multifactorial arterial stiffness (type 2 diabetes, aging, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia).
Microbial Communities and Biogeochemistry in Marine Sediments of the Baltic Sea and the High Arctic, Svalbard

Two common quantification methods for sub-seafloor microorganisms are catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Using these methods, we quantified bacteria and archaea in Baltic Sea basin (IODP Exp. 347) sediments down to 90 meters below sea floor (mbsf), testing the following in an interlaboratory comparison: 1) proteinase K permeabilization of archaea increases CARD-FISH accuracy, and 2) qPCR varies by more than an order of magnitude between laboratories using similar protocols. CARD-FISH counts did not differ between permeabilization treatments. Thus, proteinase K did not increase accuracy of CARD-FISH counts, however, 91% of these counts were below the quantification limit of 1.3 × 10 cells cm. qPCR data varied between laboratories but were largely within the same order of magnitude if the same primers were used, with 88% of samples being above the quantification limit. Yields were elevated by preparing a sediment slurry before DNA extraction: 3.88 ×10 to 2.34 ×10 copies cm vs. 1.39 × 10 to 1.87 × 10 total cells cm. By qPCR, bacteria were more abundant than archaea, although they 16 usually were within the same order of magnitude. Overall, qPCR is more sensitive than CARDFISH, but both require optimization to consistently achieve both precision and accuracy.
Centre De Referència En Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Inequity Aversion and Team Incentives Inequity Aversion and Team Incentives *

We study optimal contracts in a simple model where employees are averse to inequity as modelled by Fehr and Schmidt (1999). A " selfish " employer can profitably exploit envy or guilt by offering contracts which create inequity off-equilibrium, i.e., when employees do not meet his demands. Such contracts resemble team and relative performance contracts. We derive conditions for inequity aversion to be in itself a reason to form work teams of distributionally concerned employees, even in situations in which effort is contractible.
Modulation of cold pain in human brain by electric acupoint stimulation: evidence from fMRI

The purpose of this study is to investigate the modulation of pain responses in the human brain by electric acupoint stimulation (EAS). Eight healthy subjects were enrolled; each received real or mock EAS treatment in separate sessions. Cool (18°C) and cold (2°C) stimuli were delivered, during which functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed, before and after treatment. Real EAS specifically increased the pain-specific activation in bilateral secondary somatosensory area, medial prefrontal cortex, and Brodmann area (BA) 32, while it decreased the activation in contralateral primary somatosensory area, BA7, and BA24. We suggest that EAS may induce an analgesic effect via modulation of both the sensory and the emotional aspect of pain processing.
Basic Values and the Dark Triad Traits

In samples from America, Brazil, and Hungary (N = 937), we examined the associations between the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and individual differences in excitement (i.e., valuing personal enjoyment), promotion (i.e., valuing achievements), existence (i.e., valuing physical survival), suprapersonal (i.e., valuing abstract ideas), interactive (i.e., valuing social relationships), and normative (i.e., valuing cultural norms) values. The traits were associated with the values of excitement and promotion, psychopathy was associated with a diminished emphasis on existence, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were associated with limited interactive or normative values, whereas narcissism was associated with a greater emphasis on suprapersonal, interactive, and normative values. We also found that sex differences in psychopathy were mediated by individual differences in the existence and normative values. Results are discussed from a life history framework.