Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed power-law seismicity changes and crustal deformation in the SW Hellenic ARC

Abstract. A region of definite accelerating seismic release rates has been identified at the SW Hellenic Arc and Trench system, of Peloponnesus, and to the south-west of the island of Kythera (Greece). The identification was made after detailed, parametric time-to-failure modelling on a 0.1° square grid over the area 20° E – 27° E and 34° N–38° N. The observations are strongly suggestive of terminal-stage critical point behaviour (critical exponent of the order of 0.25), leading to a large earthquake with magnitude 7.1 ± 0.4, to occur at time 2003.6 ± 0.6. In addition to the region of accelerating seismic release rates, an adjacent region of decelerating seismicity was also observed. The acceleration/deceleration pattern appears in such a well structured and organised manner, which is strongly suggestive of a causal relationship. An explanation may be that the observed characteristics of distributed power-law seismicity changes may be produced by stress transfer from a fault, to a region already subjected to stress inhomogeneities, i.e. a region defined by the stress field required to rupture a fault with a specified size, orientation and rake. Around a fault that is going to rupture, there are bright spots (regions of increasing stress) and stress shadows (regions relaxing stress); whereas acceleration may be observed in bright spots, deceleration may be expected in the shadows. We concluded that the observed seismic release patterns can possibly be explained with a family of NE-SW oriented, left-lateral, strike-slip to oblique-slip faults, located to the SW of Kythera and Antikythera and capable of producing earthquakes with magnitudes MS ~ 7. Time-to-failure modelling and empirical analysis of earthquakes in the stress bright spots yield a critical exponent of the order 0.25 as expected from theory, and a predicted magnitude and critical time perfectly consistent with the figures given above. Although we have determined an approximate location, time and magnitude, it is as yet difficult to assert a prediction for reasons discussed in the text. However, our results, as well as similar independent observations by another research team, indicate that a strong earthquake may occur at the SW Hellenic Arc, in the next few years.
Learning Word Representations with Hierarchical Sparse Coding

We propose a new method for learning word representations using hierarchical regularization in sparse coding inspired by the linguistic study of word meanings. We show an efficient learning algorithm based on stochastic proximal methods that is significantly faster than previous approaches, making it possible to perform hierarchical sparse coding on a corpus of billions of word tokens. Experiments on various benchmark tasks---word similarity ranking, analogies, sentence completion, and sentiment analysis---demonstrate that the method outperforms or is competitive with state-of-the-art methods. Our word representations are available at \url{this http URL}.
Genetic markers of tumour necrosis factor alpha in aggressive and chronic periodontitis.

AIM Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. TNFalpha production is influenced by gene polymorphisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate links between genetic variants and chronic/aggressive periodontitis in a multivariate model. SUBJECTS One hundred and twenty-three periodontitis patients (chronic: n=54, aggressive: n=69) and 52 healthy controls without periodontitis were included in the study. MATERIAL AND METHODS Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) c. -308G>A, c. -238G>A and haplotypes were analysed by a polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP). The clinical investigation included smoking status, plaque and bleeding indexes, pocket depth and attachment loss. RESULTS Prevotella intermedia occurred more frequently in individuals positive for the -308GG/-238GG haplotype combination (Odds Ratio=2, 95% Confidence interval: 1.1-3.7, p=0.037, 1-beta=61%). In binary logistic regression analyses, this TNFalpha haplotype could not be shown to be associated with periodontitis considering smoking, age, gender and approximal plaque index or subgingival bacterial colonization as confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS Although the genetic background of TNFalpha could be shown to be associated with subgingival colonization with P. Intermedia, there is no evidence that it is an independent risk factor for periodontitis in multivariate models.
PreSMA stimulation changes task‐free functional connectivity in the fronto‐basal‐ganglia that correlates with response inhibition efficiency

Previous work using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) demonstrated that the right presupplementary motor area (preSMA), a node in the fronto‐basal‐ganglia network, is critical for response inhibition. However, TMS influences interconnected regions, raising the possibility of a link between the preSMA activity and the functional connectivity within the network. To understand this relationship, we applied single‐pulse TMS to the right preSMA during functional magnetic resonance imaging when the subjects were at rest to examine changes in neural activity and functional connectivity within the network in relation to the efficiency of response inhibition evaluated with a stop‐signal task. The results showed that preSMA‐TMS increased activation in the right inferior‐frontal cortex (rIFC) and basal ganglia and modulated their task‐free functional connectivity. Both the TMS‐induced changes in the basal‐ganglia activation and the functional connectivity between rIFC and left striatum, and of the overall network correlated with the efficiency of response inhibition and with the white‐matter microstructure along the preSMA–rIFC pathway. These results suggest that the task‐free functional and structural connectivity between the rIFCop and basal ganglia are critical to the efficiency of response inhibition. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3236–3249, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Molding with bonded conical transfers: A new technique

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dimensional accuracy of two different molding techniques for multiple prostheses on implants-molding with bonded square transfers using an open individual impression tray, and molding with bonded conical transfers using closed individual impression tray, a variation of the conventional technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A master model was created to simulate the condition of missing teeth and fitted implants, using, thus, three implants out of alignment. A superstructure was used as measurement template and to measure adaptation in the specimens (25 for each molding technique). The transfers were bonded with self-polymerized acrylic resin. Molding procedures were performed using individual impression trays and addition silicone Futura regular fluid. The models were produced in plaster rock type IV Fuji-Rock. Measurements were obtained using Scan Electron Microscopy. RESULTS: Data relative to disadaptation measurements were analyzed with Student’s t-test for independent samples. The mean disadaptation of the master model was 4.491 µm; the open impression tray molding was 9.546 µm (standard deviation 0.893); and the closed impression tray molding, 8.033 (standard deviation 0.431). CONCLUSION: The molding technique with closed impression tray and conical transfers showed a significantly higher performance in comparison to the open impression tray technique with bonded square transfers.
Nanopillar growth by focused helium ion-beam-induced deposition

A 25 keV focused helium ion beam has been used to grow PtC nanopillars on a silicon substrate by beam-induced decomposition of a (CH3)3Pt(CPCH3) precursor gas. The ion beam diameter was about 1 nm. The observed relatively high growth rates suggest that electronic excitation is the dominant mechanism in helium ion-beam-induced deposition. Pillars grown at low beam currents are narrow and have sharp tips. For a constant dose, the pillar height decreases with increasing current, pointing to depletion of precursor molecules at the beam impact site. Furthermore, the diameter increases rapidly and the total pillar volume decreases slowly with increasing current. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed with realistic values for the fundamental deposition processes. The simulation results are in good agreement with experimental observations. In particular, they reproduce the current dependences of the vertical and lateral growth rates and of the volumetric deposition efficiency. Furthermore, the simulations reveal that the vertical pillar growth is due to type-1 secondary electrons and primary ions, while the lateral outgrowth is due to type-2 secondary electrons and scattered ions.
Magnetic Resonance - Based Evaluation of Small Molecule Release from a Thermosensitive Drug Delivery System

There is an unmet need for clinically-implementable imaging toolsets to evaluate spatio-temporal drug release from thermosensitive nanocarriers in response to hyperthermia. This thesis presents a magnetic resonance (MR)-based platform for (1) evaluating hyperthermia-induced destabilization of thermosensitive drug carriers and (2) quantifying subsequent small molecule diffusion. The platform consists of a custom designed agar phantom, a temperature-controlled T1-weighted imaging workflow and a MATLAB analysis algorithm for semi-automated quantification of small molecule kinetics. Using this platform, thermosensitive liposomes (TSL) encapsulating gadoteridol were assessed at 22°C, 37°C, and 43°C and compared to free imaging agent and nonthermosensitive liposomes. In addition, the physiological relevance of the gel phantom was benchmarked against muscle and tumor tissue. Results demonstrated complete destabilization of TSL at 43°C in 1.5% agar, with a measured diffusion coefficient of (2.90 ± 0.52)×10 mm/s which was not statistically different from free small molecule diffusion at 43°C, (2.72 ± 0.87)×10 mm/s.
A comprehensive study of the use of temporal moments in time-resolved diffuse optical tomography: part I. Theoretical material

The problem of fluorescence diffuse optical tomography consists in localizing fluorescent markers from near-infrared light measurements. Among the different available acquisition modalities, the time-resolved modality is expected to provide measurements of richer information content. To extract this information, the moments of the time-resolved measurements are often considered. In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the moments of the forward problem in fluorescence diffuse optical tomography is proposed for the infinite medium geometry. The moments are expressed as a function of the source, detector and markers positions as well as the optical properties of the medium and markers. Here, for the first time, an analytical expression holding for any moments order is mathematically derived. In addition, analytical expressions of the mean, variance and covariance of the moments in the presence of noise are given. These expressions are used to demonstrate the increasing sensitivity of moments to noise. Finally, the newly derived expressions are illustrated by means of sensitivity maps. The physical interpretation of the analytical formulae in conjunction with their map representations could provide new insights into the analysis of the information content provided by moments.
Combined sarcomatoid hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma: a case report and literature review

Hepatic sarcomatoid carcinomas are very rare. The majority of cases contain sarcomatoid features with either hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or cholangiocarcinoma (CC) elements alone. These are aggressive tumors and carry an unfavorable prognosis. We describe an extremely rare tumor sub-type of combined sarcomatoid HCC and CC in a hepatitis B virus carrier presenting with abdominal pain. Pre-operative imaging suggested a segment VI hepatocellular cancer with no metastatic spread. En bloc surgical resection with the right adrenal gland, Gerota's fascia and right hemidiaphragm was performed. The patient suffered early peritoneal tumor recurrence and lymph node metastasis. Pre-operative diagnosis of such sarcomatoid tumors is difficult. Current evidence for adjuvant treatment is also limited. Prognosis of these patients remains extremely poor, and surgery appears to be the only curative option in cases of early disease. It is essential that clinicians carry a high index of suspicion and awareness of this rare pathological entity to improve patient outcome.
Global asset optimization of open pit mining complexes under uncertainty

Global asset optimization aims to simultaneously optimize mine production schedules, destination policies and the various processing streams in order to maximize the economic value over the life of a mineral resource supply chain. Conventional mine optimization approaches are incapable of incorporating geological uncertainty and may lead to severe deviations from forecasted production targets. Stochastic optimization models that manage risk in mine design and production scheduling have been developed over the past several years, however these models are often oversimplified, thus limited to provide only a local optimum in terms of the mining complex as a whole. This paper addresses the issue of global optimization of open pit mine production schedules for complex mining supply chains under geological uncertainty. The proposed simulation-optimization framework builds on previous mining supply chain optimization work by permitting extraction decisions to be made simultaneously with material destination policies and processing stream decisions in order to maximize the value of the supply chain. The resulting framework is capable of modelling and efficiently optimizing over the non-linear intricacies that are often present in large mining complexes. The proposed optimizer uses a hybrid of both simulated annealing and particle swarm optimization. The method is tested on a copper-gold deposit and experimental results demonstrate that the optimizer is capable of generating production schedules and destination policies that reduce the risk of meeting production targets, have 14% higher net present value and increase the size of the final pit by 22%.
An update on the use of Atripla® in the treatment of HIV in the United States

Atripla® (Gilead Sciences Inc, Foster City, CA, USA and Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York City, NY, USA) is a coformulated single pill composed of efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir disoproxil, intended as a once-daily potent combination antiretroviral therapeutic agent. Its efficacy is equivalent to the 3 component drugs taken in a combination as single medications. The coformulated antiretroviral regimen can be quite effective in patients whose human immunodeficiency virus is sensitive to all 3 components of Atripla. However, women at risk of pregnancy, already pregnant, or nursing mothers should not take Atripla, due to the teratogenic potential of the efavirenz moiety. Adverse effects are similar to those seen with the constituent medications, including potential central nervous system effects and renal toxicity. Since its US Food and Drug administration approval, prescriptions for Atripla have increased steadily.
MRI OF INTRACRANIAL TUMOURS IN ADULTS

The goal of this study was to explore preoperative evaluation of patients with intracranial tumours using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods: oedema-attenuated inversion recovery (EDAIR) sequence in low-field MRI, and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) in high-field MRI. The aim was also to increase our knowledge about the effects of brain surgery on eloquent brain cortices using new MRI techniques. The total number of patients in these studies was 50 (24 women). Enhancement of the tumour in ten patients after intravenous administration of gadoliniumbased contrast agent in low-field MRI was examined with a new sequence, EDAIR, and compared with more conventionally used partial saturation spin echo sequences. EDAIR may facilitate the perception of small enhancing lesions and is valuable in low-field imaging, where T1-based contrast is inferior to high-field imaging. DWI was performed on 25 patients in order to evaluate the potential of this imaging method to assist in differential diagnosis of intracranial tumours. It was shown that apparent diffusion coefficient values of the tumour and peritumoural oedema produced by DWI were different in benign and malignant tumours. Resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI was performed on eight patients and ten healthy volunteers to examine if functional sensorimotor areas in the brain could be determined without any task-related activations. It was shown that intracranial tumours do not appear to hamper visualization of the sensorimotor area in resting-state BOLD fMRI when independent component analysis is performed, and this method may be used in preoperative imaging when activation studies cannot be performed. Conventional BOLD fMRI with motor and auditory stimuli was used with seven patients as the effect of brain surgery was studied. The results suggest that resection of a tumour with preoperative oedema probably decreases pressure on the brain and makes the functional cortex transiently more easily detectable in BOLD fMRI. In conclusion, the MRI imaging methods used in this study can give valuable additional information about the tumour, specifically for preoperative imaging and planning for surgery.
Stress in V-section band clamps

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the stresses in V-section band clamps by examining the correlation between experimental work and theoretical models. Theoretical models incorporating traditional beam-bending theories and allowing for friction were developed to calculate the stress distribution and displacements within the clamps. The theoretical models demonstrated that the normal manufacturing tolerances associated with this type of component, combined with the uncontrolled operating parameters, will produce a wide variation in working stresses. These theoretical models were validated using strain and displacement measurements from a test with a V-section band clamp positioned around rigid flanges. The experimental results all fell within the range of stresses predicted by the theoretical models. The paper provides a knowledge base for the rational design of V-section band clamps.
RELATED WORK 2 . 1 Food in Social Media

Social media provide a wealth of information for research into public health by providing a rich mix of personal data, location, hashtags, and social network information. Among these, Instagram has been recently the subject of many computational social science studies. However despite Instagram’s focus on image sharing, most studies have exclusively focused on the hashtag and social network structure. In this paper we perform the first large scale content analysis of Instagram posts, addressing both the image and the associated hashtags, aiming to understand the content of partiallylabelled images taken in-the-wild and the relationship with hashtags that individuals use as noisy labels. In particular, we explore the possibility of learning to recognise food image content in a data driven way, discovering both the categories of food, and how to recognise them, purely from social network data. Notably, we demonstrate that our approach to food recognition can often achieve accuracies greater than 70% in recognising popular food-related image categories, despite using no manual annotation. We highlight the current capabilities and future challenges and opportunities for such data-driven analysis of image content and the relation to hashtags.
Nucleation: theory and applications to protein solutions and colloidal suspensions

The status of our understanding of nucleation is reviewed. Both general aspects of nucleation and those specific to protein solutions and colloidal suspensions are considered. We conclude that although we have what we believe is a quite good understanding of homogeneous nucleation in one simple system, hard-sphere colloids, in other systems there are still basic questions that are unanswered. For example, for even the most studied protein, lysozyme, there is an ongoing debate about whether the observed nucleation is homogeneous or heterogeneous. We review theoretical and simulation work on both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. As heterogeneous nucleation appears to be much more common than homogeneous nucleation, and as earlier reviews have tended to focus more on homogeneous nucleation, we place particular emphasis on heterogeneous nucleation.
Clinical efficacy of combined topical 0.05% cyclosporine A and 0.1% sodium hyaluronate in the dry eyes with meibomian gland dysfunction.

AIM To investigate the efficacy of combined topical 0.05% cyclosporine A (CsA; Restasis®, Allergan pharmaceuticals, USA) and 0.1% sodium hyaluronate treatment in dry eyes with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). METHODS In a retrospective analysis, 53 patients (106 eyes) with MGD were enrolled and performed lid warm massage for 10min daily and be instilled preservative free sodium hyaluronate 0.1% eye drops 4 times daily. Patients were divided into subjects treated with topical 0.05% CsA and preservative free sodium hyaluronate vehicle (experimental group, n=74 eyes) and subjects treated with the preservative free sodium hyaluronate vehicle (control group, n=32 eyes). They were evaluated at baseline and 1, 2, and 3mo for subjective symptoms and objective signs including tear film break-up time (tBUT), Schirmer test, corneal staining (CS) score, lid margin telangiectasia (LMT), meibomian gland secretion (MGS), and conjunctival injection (CI). RESULTS In the short-term treatment, the experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in the ocular surface disease index (OSDI; P<0.001), tBUT (P=0.004), Schirmer test score (P=0.008) and LMT (P=0.021) by repeated measure ANOVA. Additionally, mean changes from baseline in OSDI (P<0.001), tBUT (P=0.001), Schirmer test score (P=0.029), CS score (P=0.047), LMT (P=0.002), CI (P=0.030) were improved better in the experimental group than in the control group at 3mo. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in MGS (P=0.67). CONCLUSION In dry eyes with MGD, 0.05% CsA improves the tear film stability as well as subjective ocular discomfort, and is effective in controlling lid margin inflammation.
Studies on Antioxidant Activity and Total Phenolic Content of Tinospora cordifolia (Miers.) Stem Using in Vitro Models

In the present study, we examined the anti-oxidant effects of Tinospora cordifolia stem. Dried and powdered stem of Tinospora cordifolia was extracted with ethanol and methanol. Total phenolic content of different solvent extracts were determined, to find the correlation between phenols and antioxidant activity. Ascorbic acid was used as standard. Antioxidant assay was carried out by using DPPH (1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity. Ethanolic stem extract showed the highest free radical scavenging activity (56.35%). The antioxidant activity of methanolic extract was poor when compared to the ethanolic extract. Ethanolic stem extract had the highest phenol content of 66.28 ± 0.82 mg/g. These results suggest that, Phytocompounds were better extracted in ethanol and there is direct correlation between the total polyphenols extracted and its antioxidant activity.