Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A review of the palynostratigraphy of Gondwana Late Carboniferous to Early Permian glacigene successions

The Late Carboniferous to Early Permian dominantly nonmarine, glacigene sequences of Gondwana contain a number of basic palynostratigraphic trends, including the appearance and diversification of (1) monosaccate pollen; (2) cheilocardioid spores (such as Microbaculispora); (3) Cycadopites pollen; and (4) taeniate and non-taeniate bisaccate pollen, and these and other changes mean that palynology can be used to correlate the sequences from basin to basin and interregionally. Early Permian Western Australian, Arabian, and South African sequences can be correlated using taxa such as Converrucosisporites confluens and Pseudoreticulatispora pseudoreticulata. Thus, for example, palynostratigraphy shows that the Dwyka Group of the northern Karoo Basin, South Africa, correlates with part of the Stockton Formation and the Collie Coal Measures of the Collie Basin, Western Australia. In Western Australia, an associated marine fauna allows the ranges of these and other palynomorphs to be dated approximately with the standard scale; thus, for example, Converrucosisporites confluens probably ranges within the Sakmarian. Radiometric dating of associated volcanic layers also allows palynozones to be calibrated; for example, part of the Vittatina costabilis palynozone of the Parana Basin may be Asselian in age. It is generally difficult, however, to correlate Gondwana palynological assemblages precisely to the Russian type areas because of scarcity of marine fauna in Gondwana and dissimilarity with assemblages of these type areas, which are paleoequatorial. Thus, the Carboniferous-Permian boundary cannot be precisely correlated in Gondwana by palynology.
The Essence of Quintessence and the Cost of Compression

Standard two-parameter compressions of the infinite dimensional dark energy model space show crippling limitations even with current Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) data unless strong priors are imposed. First, they cannot cope with rapid evolution—our best fit to the latest SN Ia data shows late and very rapid evolution to w0 = -2.85. However, all of the standard parameterizations (incorrectly) claim that this best fit is ruled out at more than 2 σ primarily because they track it well only at very low redshift, z ≤ 0.2. Furthermore, they incorrectly rule out the observationally compatible region w ≪ -1 for z > 1. Second, the parameterizations give wildly different estimates for the redshift of acceleration, which vary from zacc = 0.14 to zacc = 0.59. Although these failings are largely cured by including higher order terms (≥3 parameters), this results in new degeneracies and opens up large regions of previously ruled out parameter space. All of this casts serious doubt on the usefulness of the standard two-parameter compressions in the coming era of high-precision dark energy cosmology and emphasizes the need for decorrelated compressions with at least three parameters.
A TEST OF AUTOMATIC ROAD EXTRACTION APPROACHES

: Roads are important objects for many applications of topographic data. They are often acquired manually and as this entails signiﬁcant effort, automation is highly desirable. Deﬁcits in the automatic extraction hindering a wide-scale practical use have led to the idea of setting-up a EuroSDR test comparing different approaches for automatic road extraction. The goal is to show the potential of the state-of-the-art approaches as well as to identify promising directions for research and development. After describing the data and the evaluation criteria used, we present the approaches of a number of groups which have submitted results and give a detailed discussion of the outcome of the evaluation of the submitted results. We ﬁnally present a summary and conclusions.
Secreted Sulfatases Sulf1 and Sulf2 Have Overlapping yet Essential Roles in Mouse Neonatal Survival

Background Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) use highly sulfated polysaccharide side-chains to interact with several key growth factors and morphogens, thereby regulating their accessibility and biological activity. Various sulfotransferases and sulfatases with differing specificities control the pattern of HSPG sulfation, which is functionally critical. Among these enzymes in the mouse are two secreted 6-O-endosulfatases, Sulf1 and Sulf2, which modify HSPGs in the extracellular matrix and on the cell surface. The roles of Sulf1 and Sulf2 during normal development are not well understood. Methods/Results To investigate the importance of Sulf1 and Sulf2 for embryonic development, we generated mice genetically deficient in these genes and assessed the phenotypes of the resulting secreted sulfatase-deficient mice. Surprisingly, despite the established crucial role of HSPG interactions during development, neither Sulf1- nor Sulf2-deficient mice showed significant developmental flaws. In contrast, mice deficient in both Sulf1and Sulf2 exhibited highly penetrant neonatal lethality. Loss of viability was associated with multiple, although subtle, developmental defects, including skeletal and renal abnormalities. Conclusions These results show that Sulf1 and Sulf2 play overlapping yet critical roles in mouse development and are redundant and essential for neonatal survival.
Spanning tree seams for reducing parameterization distortion of triangulated surfaces

Providing a two-dimensional parameterization of three-dimensional tessellated surfaces is beneficial to many applications in computer graphics, finite-element surface meshing, surface reconstruction and other areas. The applicability of the parameterization depends on how well it preserves the surface metric structures (angles, distances, areas). For a general surface there is no mapping which fully preserves these structures. The distortion usually increases with the rise in surface complexity. For highly complicated surfaces the distortion can become so strong as to make the parameterization unusable for application purposes. One possible solution is to subdivide the surface or introduce seams in a way which will reduce the distortion. This article presents a new method for introduction of seams in three-dimensional tessellated surfaces. The addition of seams reduces the surface complexity and hence reduces the metric distortion produced by the parameterization. Seams often introduce additional constraints on the application for which the parameterization is used, hence their length should be minimal. The new method presented minimizes the seam length while reducing the parameterization distortion.
Lymphangiography in Hodgkin's disease: indications and contraindications.

Summary Lymphangiography is an invaluable tool for the detection of retroperitoneal lymphoma, and helps determine prognosis, since prognosis varies with clinical extent of disease. Patients with Stage I and IIA Hodgkin9s disease should have a lymphangiogram in order to definitely determine whether disease exists below the diaphragm in the retroperitoneal space. If disease is found, current evidence indicates that it should be treated with radiation therapy. Lymphangiography is usually not indicated in patients with Stages IIB and III disease. Retroperitoneal disease almost invariably exists and the procedure should only be done for specific indications. The contraindications of this procedure should be kept in mind and carefully scrutinized in every patient who undergoes the procedure. The error in interpretation of lymphangiogram films is at least 10%, and may well be higher, especially in inexperienced hands. Errors are almost invariably falsely negative readings, not false positives. The value of uncovering occult asymptomatic retroperitoneal Hodgkin9s disease is still unknown. One would have to assume that, with our current therapeutic tools, the therapy of all apparent foci of disease is of value in patients with generalized Hodgkin9s disease. We do not know that this is so. Although the lymphangiogram has given us a great deal of information about extent and patterns of disease in lymphoma, and has helped us with supportive management in symptomatic patients, we still do not know whether the therapy of asymptomatic nodes demonstrable on a lymphangiogram is of benefit to the patient.
Analysis of Error in Interpolation-Based Pathline Tracing

Chandler et al. [COJ15] presented interpolation-based pathline tracing as an alternative to numerical integration for advecting tracers in particle-based flow fields and showed that their method has lower error than a numerical integration-based method for particle tracing. We seek to understand the sources of the error in interpolation-based pathline tracing. We present a formal analysis of the theoretical bound on the error when advecting pathlines using this method. We characterize the error experimentally using characteristics of the flow field such as neighborhood change, flow divergence, and trajectory length. Understanding the sources of error in an advection method is important to know where there may be uncertainty in the resulting analysis. We find that for interpolation-based pathline tracing the error is closely related to the divergence in the flow field.
Constrained Sampling and Counting: Universal Hashing Meets SAT Solving

Constrained sampling and counting are two fundamental problems in artificial intelligence with a diverse range of applications, spanning probabilistic reasoning and planning to constrained-random verification. While the theory of these problems was thoroughly investigated in the 1980s, prior work either did not scale to industrial size instances or gave up correctness guarantees to achieve scalability. Recently, we proposed a novel approach that combines universal hashing and SAT solving and scales to formulas with hundreds of thousands of variables without giving up correctness guarantees. This paper provides an overview of the key ingredients of the approach and discusses challenges that need to be overcome to handle larger real-world instances.
Compartmental organization of the ventral striatum of the rat: Immunohistochemical distribution of enkephalin, substance P, dopamine, and calcium‐binding protein

In the caudate‐putamen of the rat a patch/matrix organization can be recognized on the basis of the immunohistochemical distribution of several markers, which include enkephalin, substance P, dopamine, and calcium‐binding protein. In the present experiments the distributional relations of these markers were investigated in the nucleus accumbens. The distribution of enkephalin fibers shows different inhomogeneities according to their location in the nucleus. Rostrally, heavily labeled areas stand out against a moderately stained background, whereas caudally, in medial and ventral parts of the nucleus, lightly stained areas delineate regions in the moderately stained neuropil. In the distribution of substance P, areas with high staining intensity were observed in the medial and ventral parts of the nucleus accumbens. Inhomogeneities in the distribution of strong dopamine immunoreactivity consist of weakly immunoreactive areas throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the nucleus accumbens and extremely heavily labeled areas in the medial and ventral parts of the nucleus. Calcium‐binding protein immunoreactivity can only be detected in dorsal parts of the nucleus. The generally intense immunostaining for calcium‐binding protein is interspersed with “blanks” of weak immunoreactivity.
Comparison of clinical efficacy and safety between denosumab and alendronate in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: a meta‐analysis

The aim of this study was to perform a head‐to‐head comparison of efficacy and safety profile between 60 mg denosumab (Den) subcutaneously (SC) per 6 months (Q6M) and 70 mg alendronate (Aln) orally per week (QW) for postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density. We searched electronic databases comparing efficacy and safety of Den SC Q6M and Aln QW in postmenopausal women. The primary outcomes of efficacy evaluation in included trials were incidence of clinical fracture in both groups and bone mineral density (BMD) at different skeletal sites. And adverse events (AEs), including incidence of neoplasms and infections, were considered as secondary outcomes. Following the instructions of ‘Cochrane Handbook for systematic Reviews of Interventions 5.0. 2’, we identified eligible studies, evaluated the methodological quality and abstracted relevant data. Four heterogeneous randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1942 women were identified. The results of review showed low evidence quality that supported the hypothesis the denosumab vs. alendronate could reduce risk of fracture [OR (95% CI) 1.42 (0.84 to 2.40), 11 more women per 1000 (from 4 fewer to 36 more), p = 0.19] but the moderate to high quality evidence suggesting treatment with 60 mg Den SC Q6M was more effective for postmenopausal women in increasing BMD [at distal radius (DR), total hip (TH), lumbar spine (LS), and femoral neck (FN)]. Hazards of neoplasms [OR (95% CI) 1.10 (0.65 to 1.86), 3 more per 1000 (from 10 fewer to 24 more), p = 0.62] or infections [OR (95% CI) 0.95 (0.79 to 1.15), 12 fewer per 1000 (from 53 fewer to 33 more,), p = 0.62] were appeared to be similar.Our review suggested within 1 year 60 mg Den SC Q6M treatment was more effective in increasing bone mass but could not reduce the fracture risk to a greater extent than 70 mg Aln QW therapy. Also the Den SC Q6M therapy did not increase the risks of neoplasms and infections compared with Aln QW.
The carrier of the ``30'' mu m emission feature in evolved stars. A simple model using magnesium sulfide

We present 2 45m spectra of a large sample of carbon-rich evolved stars in order to study the "30"m feature. We find the "30"m feature in a wide range of sources: low mass loss carbon stars, extreme carbon-stars, post-AGB objects and planetary nebulae. We extract the profiles from the sources by using a simple systematic approach to model the continuum. We find large variations in the wavelength and width of the extracted profiles of the "30"m feature. We modelled the whole range of profiles in a simple way by using magnesium sulfide (MgS) dust grains with a MgS grain temperature dierent from the continuum temperature. The systematic change in peak positions can be explained by cooling of MgS grains as the star evolves o the AGB. In several sources we find that a residual emission excess at26m can also be fitted using MgS grains but with ad ierent grains shape distribution. The profiles of the "30"m feature in planetary nebulae are narrower than our simple MgS model predicts. We discuss the possible reasons for this dierence. We find a sample of warm carbon-stars with very cold MgS grains. We discuss possible causes for this phenomenon. We find no evidence for rapid destruction of MgS during the planetary nebula phase and conclude that the MgS may survive to be incorporated in the ISM.
Choice of Mouse Strain Influences the Outcome in a Mouse Model of Chemical-Induced Asthma

Background The development of occupational asthma is the result of interactions between environmental factors and individual susceptibility. We assessed how our model of chemical-induced asthma is influenced by using different mouse strains. Methodology/Principal Findings On days 1 and 8, male mice of 7 different strains (BALB/c, BP/2, A/J, C57Bl/6, DBA/2, CBA and AKR) were dermally treated with toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) (0.3%) or vehicle (acetone/olive oil, AOO, 2∶3) on each ear (20 µl). On day 15, they received an oropharyngeal instillation of TDI (0.01%) or AOO (1∶4). Airway reactivity to methacholine, total and differential cell counts in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and total serum IgE and IgG2a levels were measured. Lymphocyte subpopulations in auricular lymph nodes and in vitro release of cytokines by ConA stimulated lymphocytes were assessed. In TDI-sensitized and challenged mice, airway hyper-reactivity was only observed in BALB/c, BP/2, A/J and AKR mice; airway inflammation was most pronounced in BALB/c mice; numbers of T-helper (CD4+), T-activated (CD4+CD25+), T-cytotoxic (CD8+) and B- lymphocytes (CD19+) were increased in the auricular lymph nodes of BALB/c, BP/2, A/J and CBA mice; elevated concentrations of IL-4, IL-10, IL-13 and IFN-γ were detected in supernatant of lymphocytes from BALB/c, BP/2, A/J, C57Bl/6 and CBA mice cultured with concanavaline A, along with an increase in total serum IgE. Conclusion The used mouse strain has considerable and variable impacts on different aspects of the asthma phenotype. The human phenotypical characteristics of chemically-induced occupational asthma were best reproduced in Th2-biased mice and in particular in BALB/c mice.
Prostaglandin E 2 promotes human cholangiocarcinoma cell proliferation , migration and invasion through the upregulation of β-catenin expression via EP 3-4 receptor

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is involved in cholangiocarcinoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion through E prostanoid receptors, including EP1, EP2 and EP4. However, the functions and the mechanisms of those splice variants of EP3 receptors in promoting liver cancer cell growth and invasion remain to be elucidated. In our previous studies, four isoforms of EP3 receptors, EP3-4, EP3-5, EP3-6 and EP3-7 receptors, were detected in CCLP1 and HuCCT1 cells. However, the functions of these receptors in these cells have yet to be determined. It was reported that β-catenin is closely correlated with malignancy, including cholangiocarcinoma. The present study was designed to examine the effects of 4-7 isoforms of EP3 in promoting cholangiocarcinoma progression and the mechanisms by which PGE2 increases β-catenin protein via EP3 receptors. The results showed that PGE2 promotes cholangiocarcinoma progression via the upregulation of β-catenin protein, and the EP3-4 receptor pathway is mainly responsible for this regulation. These findings reveal that PGE2 upregulated the cholangiocarcinoma cell β-catenin protein through the EP3-4R/Src/EGFR/PI3K/AKT/GSK-3β pathway. The present study identified the functions of EP3 and the mechanisms by which PGE2 regulates β-catenin expression and promoted cholangiocarcinoma cell growth and invasion.
Inequities in neonatal survival interventions: evidence from national surveys

Background: Nearly four million children die during the first four weeks of life every year, yet known and effective interventions exist. Neonatal mortality has to be addressed to reach the millennium development goal for child survival. Aims: To determine the extent of within-country inequities in neonatal mortality and effective intervention coverage. Methods: Neonatal, infant and child (under 2 years) mortality rates were calculated from empirical data from Demographic and Health Surveys for eight countries using direct estimation techniques. Wealth groups were constructed using the World Bank wealth index; neonatal mortality inequities were evaluated by comparing low:high quintile ratios; concentration indices were calculated for intervention coverage rates. Results: The proportion of under-2 deaths occurring in the neonatal period ranged from 24.3% (Malawi) to 49.4% (Bangladesh). In all countries (excluding Haiti) inequities in neonatal mortality and intervention coverage were evident across wealth groups with more deaths and less coverage in the poorest, compared with the richest, quintile; the largest mortality differential was 2.1 (Nicaragua) and the smallest was 1.2 (Eritrea). In Nicaragua 33% of the poorest women had a skilled delivery compared with 98% of the richest; in Cambodia for antenatal care this was 18% (poorest) and 71% (richest). Low coverage of interventions tended to show top inequity patterns whereas high coverage tended to show bottom inequity patterns. Conclusions: Reducing inequity is a necessary step in reducing neonatal deaths and also total child deaths. Intervention efforts need to begin to integrate approaches relevant to equity in programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Who Tweets? Deriving the Demographic Characteristics of Age, Occupation and Social Class from Twitter User Meta-Data

This paper specifies, designs and critically evaluates two tools for the automated identification of demographic data (age, occupation and social class) from the profile descriptions of Twitter users in the United Kingdom (UK). Meta-data data routinely collected through the Collaborative Social Media Observatory (COSMOS: http://www.cosmosproject.net/) relating to UK Twitter users is matched with the occupational lookup tables between job and social class provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using SOC2010. Using expert human validation, the validity and reliability of the automated matching process is critically assessed and a prospective class distribution of UK Twitter users is offered with 2011 Census baseline comparisons. The pattern matching rules for identifying age are explained and enacted following a discussion on how to minimise false positives. The age distribution of Twitter users, as identified using the tool, is presented alongside the age distribution of the UK population from the 2011 Census. The automated occupation detection tool reliably identifies certain occupational groups, such as professionals, for which job titles cannot be confused with hobbies or are used in common parlance within alternative contexts. An alternative explanation on the prevalence of hobbies is that the creative sector is overrepresented on Twitter compared to 2011 Census data. The age detection tool illustrates the youthfulness of Twitter users compared to the general UK population as of the 2011 Census according to proportions, but projections demonstrate that there is still potentially a large number of older platform users. It is possible to detect “signatures” of both occupation and age from Twitter meta-data with varying degrees of accuracy (particularly dependent on occupational groups) but further confirmatory work is needed.
North Pole Environmental Observatory Delivers Early Results

Scientists have argued for a number of years that the Arctic may be a sensitive indicator of global change, but prior to the 1990s, conditions there were believed to be largely static. This has changed in the last 10 years. Decadal-scale changes have occurred in the atmosphere, in the ocean, and on land [Serreze et al., 2000]. Surface atmospheric pressure has shown a declining trend over the Arctic, resulting in a clockwise spin-up of the atmospheric polar vortex. In the 1990s, the Arctic Ocean circulation took on a more cyclonic character, and the temperature of Atlantic water in the Arctic Ocean was found to be the highest in 50 years of observation [Morison et al., 2000]. Sea-ice thickness over much of the Arctic decreased 43% in 1958–1976 and 1993–1997 [Rothrock et al., 1999].
The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience

reasoning, it should come as no surprise if we have innate responses to personal violence that are powerful but rather primitive. That is, we might expect humans to have negative emotional responses to certain basic forms of interpersonal violence. In contrast, when a harm is impersonal, it should fail to trigger this alarmlike emotional response, allowing people to respond in a more "cognitive" way, perhaps employing a cost-benefit analysis.60 Similarly, Singer writes, For most of our evolutionary history, human beings have lived in
Relative virtual localization and vanishing of tautological classes on moduli spaces of curves

We prove a localization formula for the moduli space of stable relative maps. As an application, we prove that all codimension i tautological classes on the moduli space of stable pointed curves vanish away from strata corresponding to curves with at least i − g + 1 genus 0 components. As consequences, we prove and generalize various conjectures and theorems about various moduli spaces of curves (due to Getzler, Ionel, Faber, Looijenga, Pandharipande, Diaz, and others). This theorem appears to be the geometric content behind these results; the rest is straightforward graph combinatorics. The theorem also suggests the importance of the stratification of the moduli space by number of rational components.