Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transport of electrolytes through ceramic nanofiltration membranes

In this thesis, the separation properties of inorganic nanofiltration (NF) membranes are discussed for dilute aqueous electrolyte solutions (1<csalt<100 mol/m3) at pressure differences below 2 MPa and at ambient temperature (25 °C). Because their separation mechanisms are not known in detail, the aim of this work is to improve the understanding of transport through nanofiltration (NF) membranes by the development of a model that is able to predict their separation characteristics without any adjustable parameters. This chapter gives a general introduction into the field of NF. The state-of-the-art in NF materials is discussed and a review is given on separation descriptions currently available. The basic concepts used throughout the thesis are introduced and linked to the content of the different chapters in the thesis.
Analysis of disruptions caused by construction field rework on productivity in residential projects

Operational performance in residential construction production systems is assessed based on measures such as average house-completion time, number of houses under construction, lead time, and customer service. These systems, however, are prone to nonuniformity and interruptions caused by a wide range of variables such as inclement weather conditions, accidents at worksites, fluctuations in demand for houses, and rework. The availability and capacity of resources therefore are not the sole measures for evaluating construction production systems capacity, especially when rework is involved. The writers’ aim is to investigate the effects of rework timeframe and frequency/length on tangible performance measures. Different call-back timeframes for rework and their impact on house-completion times are modeled and analyzed. Volume home-building was chosen as the industry sector studied in the research reported in this paper because it is a data-rich environment. The writers designed several experiments to model on time, late, and early call-back timeframes in the presence of rework with different length and frequency. Both mathematical modeling and discrete-event simulation were then used to compare and contrast outputs. The measurements showed that the average completion time is shorter in systems interrupted by frequent but short rework. In other words, a smaller downstream buffer between processes is required to avoid work starvation than those systems affected by infrequent but long interruptions. Early call-backs for rework can significantly increase the number of house completions over the long run. This indicates that there is an opportunity for the mass house-building sector to improve work practice and project delivery by effectively managing rework and its related variables. The research reported in this paper builds on the current body-of-knowledge by applying even-flow production theory to the analysis of rework in the residential construction sector, with the intention of ensuring minimal disruption to construction production process and improving productivity.
What factors are important for successful embryo transfer after in-vitro fertilization?

The success rate after treatment by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) depends on the characteristics of the couples being treated, and the performance of the clinic. The former cannot be changed, and embryology laboratories have worked hard to optimize procedures. Numerous studies have been reported on how to improve insemination and culture procedures. The clinicians’ role is confined to stimulation, oocyte collection and embryo transfer. Although each edition of journals on reproductive medicine contains some reports on various stimulation regimens, the physical aspects of oocyte collection and embryo transfer have received limited interest. We confirmed the efficacy of transvaginal oocyte collection (Kovacset al., 1990) and reported on the physical effects on the oocyte (Horneet al., 1996). There has been no change in the technique of oocyte collection for the last decade, and most teams are achieving harvest rates of 60–90% of mature follicles. There has been some discussion in the journals about embryo implantation (Paulson et al., 1990; Meldrum, 1991), but mainly with respect to endometrial receptivity. The need to revisit embryo transfer technique was highlighted by an embryo transfer workshop held in Sweden during September 1997 (du Plessis and Sjoblom, 1998). A number of conclusions were made at this Scandinavian workshop, and it was decided to compare the opinion amongst highly experienced Australian IVF clinicians. A questionnaire was devised, based on a number of possible critical factors which make up the ‘embryo transfer matrix’ (Appendix I; A.Trounson, personal communication). The findings of this survey are discussed in this paper. It must be stressed the results of the survey are based purely on the opinion of the clinicians and not necessarily on any data. The director of each IVF Unit in Australia and New Zealand was sent a questionnaire to determine their attitude with respect to each of 12 factors which constitutes the embryo transfer matrix (Appendix I). They were requested to rate each step on a scale of one to ten, where one was irrelevant and ten was very important. The questionnaires were collected, and the information collated on an Excel spread sheet. Questionnaires were completed by every major IVF Unit in Australia, and four in New Zealand. Some units returned a
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test Predicts Prognosis of Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to evaluate whether oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was useful in evaluating the prognosis of patients with liver cirrhosis.METHODS:Fifty-six patients with liver cirrhosis were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. In all cases, glucose tolerance was diagnosed by a 75-g OGTT according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The relationship of clinical variables to the cirrhosis-related prognosis was investigated using univariate and multivariate regression models.RESULTS:Diabetes mellitus (DM) was diagnosed in 21 subjects (38%), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in 13 subjects (23%), and normal glucose tolerance (NGT) in 22 subjects (39%) using OGTT. The cumulative survival rates of patients with liver cirrhosis and NGT were 94.7% at 5 yr; liver cirrhosis and IGT, 68.8% at 5 yr; liver cirrhosis and DM, 56.6% at 5 yr. The survival rates of patients with liver cirrhosis and DM significantly differed from those with NGT. Univariate analysis demonstrated that serum albumin, total bilirubin, prothrombin activity, Child-Pugh scores, and glucose intolerance were highly significant prognostic factors. Multiple regression analysis yielded albumin and DM as the most powerful independent negative predictors of survival.CONCLUSIONS:OGTT appears to be useful for evaluating the prognosis of cirrhotic patients.
Cultivating Healthier Habits: The Impact of Workplace Teaching Kitchens on Employee Food Literacy

This research explores the impact of workplace teaching kitchen cooking classes on participants’ food literacy and identifies key predictors of employee engagement. Aligning with the existing literature, we demonstrate that a workplace teaching kitchen program, with hands-on cooking classes, effectively enhances food skills and intrinsic motivation—core aspects of food literacy. Importantly, our results reveal that even a single class can have a measurable impact. Teaching kitchens can successfully engage employees, particularly those with low food skills, showcasing their broad appeal beyond individuals already engaged in wellness or seeking social connection. Awareness emerges as the most influential predictor of participation, emphasizing the crucial role of marketing. Virtual classes prove as effective as onsite ones, offering the potential to increase access for employees. Recognizing employee wellness as a strategic opportunity for employers and a sought-after benefit for top talent, we underscore the importance of practical nutrition education to support individuals in shifting food choices within lifestyle constraints. Workplace teaching kitchens emerge as an effective and scalable solution to address this need. Future research should prioritize exploring the lasting impacts of teaching kitchen education on employee eating habits and health, contributing to ongoing strategy refinement.
Modeling Connectivity of Non‐floodplain Wetlands: Insights, Approaches, and Recommendations

Representing hydrologic connectivity of non‐floodplain wetlands (NFWs) to downstream waters in process‐based models is an emerging challenge relevant to many research, regulatory, and management activities. We review four case studies that utilize process‐based models developed to simulate NFW hydrology. Models range from a simple, lumped parameter model to a highly complex, fully distributed model. Across case studies, we highlight appropriate application of each model, emphasizing spatial scale, computational demands, process representation, and model limitations. We end with a synthesis of recommended “best modeling practices” to guide model application. These recommendations include: (1) clearly articulate modeling objectives, and revisit and adjust those objectives regularly; (2) develop a conceptualization of NFW connectivity using qualitative observations, empirical data, and process‐based modeling; (3) select a model to represent NFW connectivity by balancing both modeling objectives and available resources; (4) use innovative techniques and data sources to validate and calibrate NFW connectivity simulations; and (5) clearly articulate the limits of the resulting NFW connectivity representation. Our review and synthesis of these case studies highlights modeling approaches that incorporate NFW connectivity, demonstrates tradeoffs in model selection, and ultimately provides actionable guidance for future model application and development.
SecVisor: a tiny hypervisor to provide lifetime kernel code integrity for commodity OSes

We propose SecVisor, a tiny hypervisor that ensures code integrity for commodity OS kernels. In particular, SecVisor ensures that only user-approved code can execute in kernel mode over the entire system lifetime. This protects the kernel against code injection attacks, such as kernel rootkits. SecVisor can achieve this propertyeven against an attacker who controls everything but the CPU, the memory controller, and system memory chips. Further, SecVisor can even defend against attackers with knowledge of zero-day kernel exploits. Our goal is to make SecVisor amenable to formal verificationand manual audit, thereby making it possible to rule out known classes of vulnerabilities. To this end, SecVisor offers small code size and small external interface. We rely on memory virtualization to build SecVisor and implement two versions, one using software memory virtualization and the other using CPU-supported memory virtualization. The code sizes of the runtime portions of these versions are 1739 and 1112 lines, respectively. The size of the external interface for both versions of SecVisor is 2 hypercalls. It is easy to port OS kernels to SecVisor. We port the Linux kernel version 2.6. 20 by adding 12 lines and deleting 81 lines, out of a total of approximately 4.3 million lines of code in the kernel.
Reconsidering the Foundations of Network Sampling

Recently, there has been a great deal of research focusing on the development of sampling algorithms for networks with small-world and/or power-law structure. The peerto-peer research community (e.g., [7]) have used sampling to quickly explore and obtain a good representative sample of the network topology, as these networks are hard to explore completely and have significant amounts of churn in their topology. For collecting data from social networks, researchers often use snowball sampling (e.g., [2]) due to the lack of access to the complete graph. Leskovec et al. have developed Forest Fire Sampling, which uses a hybrid combination of snowball sampling and random-walk sampling to produce samples that match the temporal evolution of the underlying social network [5]. Hubler et al. have developed a Metropolis algorithm which samples in a manner designed to match desired properties in the original network [3]. Although there has been a great deal of research focusing on the the development of sampling algorithms, much of this work is based on empirical study and evaluation (i.e., measuring the similarity between sampled and original network properties). There has been some work (e.g., [4, 8, 6]) that has studied the statistical properties of samples of complex networks produced by traditional sampling algorithms such as node sampling, edge sampling and random walks. However, there has been relatively little attention paid to the development of a theoretical foundation for sampling from networks—including a formal framework for sampling, an understanding of various network characteristics and their dependencies, and an analysis of their impact on the accuracy of sampling algorithms. In this paper, we reconsider the foundations of network sampling and attempt to formalize the goals, and process of, sampling, in order to frame future development and analysis of sampling algorithms.
Mg 2 1 -induced endothelium-dependent relaxation of blood vessels and blood pressure lowering: role of NO

Mg 2 1 -induced endothelium-dependent relaxation of blood vessels and blood pressure lowering: role of NO. Am. J. Physiol. Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 278: R628–R639, 2000. —In vitro extracellular Mg 2 1 concentration ([Mg 2 1 ] 0 ) produces endothe-lium-dependent and endothelium-independent relaxations in rat aorta in a concentration-dependent manner. These relaxant effects of Mg 2 1 on intact rat aortic rings, but not denuded rat aortic rings, were suppressed by either N G -monomethyl- L arginine ( L -NMMA), N v -nitro- L -argininemethylester( L -NAME), or methylene blue. The inhibitory effects of L -NMMA and L -NAME could be reversed partly by L -arginine. [Mg 2 1 ] 0 induced dilatation in vivo in rat mesenteric arterioles and venules was almost completely inhibited by N G -nitro- L arginine and L -NMMA. Removal of extracellular Ca 2 1 concentration ([Ca 2 1 ] 0 ) or buffering intracellular Ca 2 1 concentration in endothelial cells, with 10 µM 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)- ethane- N , N , N 8 , N 8 -tetraacetic acid-AM, markedly attenuated the relaxant effects of Mg 2 1 . Mg 2 1 produced nitric oxide (NO) release from the intact aortic rings in a concentration- dependent manner. Removal of [Ca 2 1 ] 0 diminished the increased NO release induced by elevated levels of [Mg 2 1 ] 0 . In vivo infusion of increasing doses (1–30 µM/min) of MgSO 4 , directly into the femoral veins of anesthetized rats, elicited signiﬁcant concentration-dependent sustained increases in serum total Mg and concomitant decreases in arterial blood pressure. Before and after employment of various doses of MgSO 4 , intravenous administration of either L -NMMA (10 mg/kg) or L -NAME (10 mg/kg) increased (i.e., reversed) the MgSO 4 -lowered blood pressure markedly, and intravenous injection of L -arginine restored partially the increased blood pressure effects of both L -NMMA and L -NAME. Our results suggest that 1 ) small blood vessels are very dependent on NO release for Mg 2 1 dilatations and 2 ) the endothelium-depen-dent relaxation induced by extracellular Mg 2 1 is mediated by release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor-NO from the endothelium, and requires Ca 2 1 and formation of guanosine 3 8 ,5 8 -cyclic monophosphate.
MicroRNA miR-9 Modifies Motor Neuron Columns by a Tuning Regulation of FoxP1 Levels in Developing Spinal Cords

The precise organization of motor neuron subtypes in a columnar pattern in developing spinal cords is controlled by cross-interactions of multiple transcription factors and segmental expressions of Hox genes and their accessory proteins. Accurate expression levels and domains of these regulators are essential for organizing spinal motor neuron columns and axonal projections to target muscles. Here, we show that microRNA miR-9 is transiently expressed in a motor neuron subtype and displays overlapping expression with its target gene FoxP1. Overexpression or knockdown of miR-9 alters motor neuron subtypes, switches columnar identities, and changes axonal innervations in developing chick spinal cords. miR-9 modifies spinal columnar organization by specifically regulating FoxP1 protein levels, which in turn determine distinct motor neuron subtypes. Our findings demonstrate that miR-9 is an essential regulator of motor neuron specification and columnar formation. Moreover, the overlapping expression of miR-9 and its target FoxP1 further illuminates the importance of fine-tuning regulation by microRNAs in motor neuron development.
SIMS: A Hybrid Method for Rapid Conformational Analysis

Proteins are at the root of many biological functions, often performing complex tasks as the result of large changes in their structure. Describing the exact details of these conformational changes, however, remains a central challenge for computational biology due the enormous computational requirements of the problem. This has engendered the development of a rich variety of useful methods designed to answer specific questions at different levels of spatial, temporal, and energetic resolution. These methods fall largely into two classes: physically accurate, but computationally demanding methods and fast, approximate methods. We introduce here a new hybrid modeling tool, the Structured Intuitive Move Selector (sims), designed to bridge the divide between these two classes, while allowing the benefits of both to be seamlessly integrated into a single framework. This is achieved by applying a modern motion planning algorithm, borrowed from the field of robotics, in tandem with a well-established protein modeling library. sims can combine precise energy calculations with approximate or specialized conformational sampling routines to produce rapid, yet accurate, analysis of the large-scale conformational variability of protein systems. Several key advancements are shown, including the abstract use of generically defined moves (conformational sampling methods) and an expansive probabilistic conformational exploration. We present three example problems that sims is applied to and demonstrate a rapid solution for each. These include the automatic determination of “active” residues for the hinge-based system Cyanovirin-N, exploring conformational changes involving long-range coordinated motion between non-sequential residues in Ribose-Binding Protein, and the rapid discovery of a transient conformational state of Maltose-Binding Protein, previously only determined by Molecular Dynamics. For all cases we provide energetic validations using well-established energy fields, demonstrating this framework as a fast and accurate tool for the analysis of a wide range of protein flexibility problems.
Survival analysis for recurrent event data: an application to childhood infectious diseases.

Many extensions of survival models based on the Cox proportional hazards approach have been proposed to handle clustered or multiple event data. Of particular note are five Cox-based models for recurrent event data: Andersen and Gill (AG); Wei, Lin and Weissfeld (WLW); Prentice, Williams and Peterson, total time (PWP-CP) and gap time (PWP-GT); and Lee, Wei and Amato (LWA). Some authors have compared these models by observing differences that arise from fitting the models to real and simulated data. However, no attempt has been made to systematically identify the components of the models that are appropriate for recurrent event data. We propose a systematic way of characterizing such Cox-based models using four key components: risk intervals; baseline hazard; risk set, and correlation adjustment. From the definitions of risk interval and risk set there are conceptually seven such Cox-based models that are permissible, five of which are those previously identified. The two new variant models are termed the 'total time - restricted' (TT-R) and 'gap time - unrestricted' (GT-UR) models. The aim of the paper is to determine which models are appropriate for recurrent event data using the key components. The models are fitted to simulated data sets and to a data set of childhood recurrent infectious diseases. The LWA model is not appropriate for recurrent event data because it allows a subject to be at risk several times for the same event. The WLW model overestimates treatment effect and is not recommended. We conclude that PWP-GT and TT-R are useful models for analysing recurrent event data, providing answers to slightly different research questions. Further, applying a robust variance to any of these models does not adequately account for within-subject correlation.
Time Adaptation Shows Duration Selectivity in the Human Parietal Cortex

Although psychological and computational models of time estimation have postulated the existence of neural representations tuned for specific durations, empirical evidence of this notion has been lacking. Here, using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) adaptation paradigm, we show that the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) (corresponding to the supramarginal gyrus) exhibited reduction in neural activity due to adaptation when a visual stimulus of the same duration was repeatedly presented. Adaptation was strongest when stimuli of identical durations were repeated, and it gradually decreased as the difference between the reference and test durations increased. This tuning property generalized across a broad range of durations, indicating the presence of general time-representation mechanisms in the IPL. Furthermore, adaptation was observed irrespective of the subject’s attention to time. Repetition of a nontemporal aspect of the stimulus (i.e., shape) did not produce neural adaptation in the IPL. These results provide neural evidence for duration-tuned representations in the human brain.
Stable Cytotoxic T Cell Escape Mutation in Hepatitis C Virus Is Linked to Maintenance of Viral Fitness

Mechanisms by which hepatitis C virus (HCV) evades cellular immunity to establish persistence in chronically infected individuals are not clear. Mutations in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I-restricted epitopes targeted by CD8+ T cells are associated with persistence, but the extent to which these mutations affect viral fitness is not fully understood. Previous work showed that the HCV quasispecies in a persistently infected chimpanzee accumulated multiple mutations in numerous class I epitopes over a period of 7 years. During the acute phase of infection, one representative epitope in the C-terminal region of the NS3/4A helicase, NS31629-1637, displayed multiple serial amino acid substitutions in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) anchor and T cell receptor (TCR) contact residues. Only one of these amino acid substitutions at position 9 (P9) of the epitope was stable in the quasispecies. We therefore assessed the effect of each mutation observed during in vivo infection on viral fitness and T cell responses using an HCV subgenomic replicon system and a recently developed in vitro infectious virus cell culture model. Mutation of a position 7 (P7) TCR-contact residue, I1635T, expectedly ablated the T cell response without affecting viral RNA replication or virion production. In contrast, two mutations at the P9 MHC-anchor residue abrogated antigen-specific T cell responses, but additionally decreased viral RNA replication and virion production. The first escape mutation, L1637P, detected in vivo only transiently at 3 mo after infection, decreased viral production, and reverted to the parental sequence in vitro. The second P9 variant, L1637S, which was stable in vivo through 7 years of follow-up, evaded the antigen-specific T cell response and did not revert in vitro despite being less optimal in virion production compared to the parental virus. These studies suggest that HCV escape mutants emerging early in infection are not necessarily stable, but are eventually replaced with variants that achieve a balance between immune evasion and fitness for replication.