Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quaternary stratigraphy of the Fladen area, central North Sea: a multidisciplinary study

Based on detailed stratigraphic investigations on a 200.6m long core (BGS borehole No. 81/26) from the Fladen Ground area (British sector), core material from the Sleipner field (Norwegian sector) and shallow seismic profiles between the core-sites, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) The North Sea was glaciated sometime during th elaterpart of Matuyama reversed period. A complete glacial-interglacial-glacial cycle is recorded in these sediments. (2) In a period of marine sedimentation in the Middle Pleistocene, a transgression-regression cycle under boreal-arctic regime is recorded. (3) The Fladen area has subsided between 0.9 and 0.6 m/ka through the later parts of the Quaternary (4) A major glacial event dated at between 130 and 200 ka is recorded as a thick till unit in 81/26. This till, which was deposited by ice moving from the southwest (Scotland), probably represents a period when the Scandinavian and British ice sheets coalesced in the North Sea. (5) Based on the seismic data and the stratigraphy of the Sleipner core, an ice-free, open embayment/dry land is favoured for the central North Sea during the Late Weichselian. (6) From the amino-acid data, it is shown that there has been an episodic style of sedimentation through the Quaternary. (7) of the investigated sediments (which span the last 1 mill. year) ca 98% have been deposited under arctic to boreal-arctic conditions.
Ecological Characteristics of Plants of Harboi Rangeland, Kalat, Pakistan

The floristic composition, ecological characteristics and ethnoecology of plants of Harboi rangeland (Kalat; Pakistan) were done during 1997 to 1999. There were 202 species that belonged to 45 plant families Asteraceae, Papilionaceae, Poaceae, Brassicaceae and Lamiaceae were the leading families. Juniperus macropoda was the only tree species while Artemesia maritima, Sophora griffithii, Hertia intermedia, Nepeta juncea, Perovskia abrotanoides, Convolvulus leiocalycinus and Astragalus spp. were the most common shrubs. The dominant life forms were therophyte and hemicryptophyte while nanophylls, microphylls and leptophylls were dominant leaf sizes. The growing season lasts from March to November with two flowering periods. Most, i.e. 83.6% plants flowered during April to June while 63.3% plants bloomed during July to September. Some 145 species had various local uses. They included 129 fodder species, 50 medicinal species, 12 vegetable/fruits species, 7 fuel wood species, 3 species each were used for roof thatching and making herbal tea. Deforestation, over grazing and over collection of medicinal and fuel wood species have led to the degradation of this rangeland. There is need to conserve these resources with the participation of local communities.
Characterization of ATPase activity associated with corn leaf plasma membranes.

A Mg(2+)-dependent, cation-stimulated ATPase was associated with plasma membranes isolated from corn leaf mesophyll protoplasts. Potassium was the preferred monovalent cation for stimulating the ATPase above the Mg(2+)-activated level. The enzyme was substrate-specific for ATP, was inhibited by N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, diethylstilbestrol, p-chloromercuribenzoate, and orthovanadate, but was insensitive to oligomycin or sodium azide. A K(m) of 0.28 millimolar Mg(2+)-ATP was determined for the K(+)-ATPase, and the principal effect of potassium was on the V(max) for ATP hydrolysis. Since potassium stimulation was not saturated at high concentrations, a nonspecific role was proposed for potassium stimulation. A nonspecific phosphatase was also found to be associated with corn leaf plasma membranes. However, it could not be determined positively whether this activity represented a separate enzyme.The cation-stimulated ATPase of corn leaves is biochemically similar to other plant plasma membrane enzymes. Thus, the ATPase can serve as a reliable qualitative plasma membrane marker providing its activity is well characterized.
Eukaryotic stand-alone pseudouridine synthases – RNA modifying enzymes and emerging regulators of gene expression?

ABSTRACT For a long time, eukaryotic stand-alone pseudouridine synthases (Pus enzymes) were neglected as non-essential enzymes adding seemingly simple modifications to tRNAs and small nuclear RNAs. Most studies were limited to the identification and initial characterization of the yeast Pus enzymes. However, recent transcriptome-wide mapping of pseudouridines in yeast and humans revealed pervasive modification of mRNAs and other non-coding RNAs by Pus enzymes which is dynamically regulated in response to cellular stress. Moreover, mutations in at least 2 genes encoding human Pus enzymes cause inherited diseases affecting muscle and brain function. Together, the recent findings suggest a broader-than-anticipated role of the Pus enzymes which are emerging as potential regulators of gene expression. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on Pus enzymes, generate hypotheses regarding their cellular function and outline future areas of research of pseudouridine synthases.
Calpain Activity in the Rat Brain after Transient Forebrain Ischemia

Activity of the Ca(2+)-dependent protease calpain is increased in neurons after global and focal brain ischemia, and may contribute to postischemic injury cascades. Understanding the time course and location of calpain activity in the post-ischemic brain is essential to establishing causality and optimizing therapeutic interventions. This study examined the temporal and spatial characteristics of brain calpain activity after transient forebrain ischemia (TFI) in rats. Male Long Evans rats underwent 10 min of normothermic TFI induced by bilateral carotid occlusion with hypovolemic hypotension (MABP 30 mm Hg). Brain calpain activity was examined between 1 and 72 h after reperfusion. Western blot analysis of regional brain homogenates demonstrated a bimodal pattern of calpain-mediated alpha-spectrin degradation in the hippocampus, cortex, and striatum with an initial increase at 1 h followed by a more prominent secondary increase at 36 h after reperfusion. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that calpain activity was primarily localized to dendritic fields of selectively vulnerable neurons at one hour after reperfusion. Between 24 and 48 h after reperfusion neuronal calpain activity progressed from the dorsal to ventral striatum, medial to lateral CA1 hippocampus, and centripetally expanded from watershed foci in the cerebral cortex. This progression was associated with fragmentation of dendritic processes, calpain activation in the neuronal soma and subsequent neuronal degeneration. These observations demonstrate a clear association between calpain activation and subsequent delayed neuronal death and suggest broad therapeutic window for interventions aimed at preventing delayed intracellular Ca(2+) overload and pathologic calpain activation.
The development of slugging in two-layer hydraulic flows

In this paper, we develop a hydraulic theory to describe the occurrence and structure of slugging in a confined two-layer gas-liquid flow generated by prescribed, constant, upstream volumetric flow rates in each layer. A linearized theory for the uniform flow is established, after which we use bifurcation theory to study fully non-linear periodic travelling wave structures. We find that a two-parameter family of such travelling wave solutions exists. Under given conditions, the volumetric flow rate constraint provides a relation between these two parameters. To select a unique periodic travelling wave solution, we require a further relation. We first investigate the conjecture that the periodic travelling wave solution selected in the initial value problem has the same wavelength as the linearly most temporally unstable mode. To do this, we solve the initial value problem numerically on a periodic domain. We find that the separation of the liquid slugs that form is much longer than the wavelength of the most unstable temporal mode. We then develop a different conjecture based on the convective instability of the long ‘tails’ of the available periodic travelling wave solutions, which leads to a better understanding of the wavelength selection process.
Efficient Limited Feedback for MIMO-Relay Systems

In this letter, the limited feedback scheme in MIMO-Relay systems is considered. We propose a new strategy that optimizes the allocation of feedback bits between channel direction information (CDI) and phase information (PI) for multi-relay systems under the total number of feedback bits constraint. The proposed scheme eventually trades off some CDI bits for PI feedback to diminish the phase ambiguity. Simulation results show that compared to the conventional and the 1-bit PI feedback methods, the proposed scheme remarkably improves the system performance without increasing the feedback overhead.
MicroRNA Expression Patterns and Function in Endodermal Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Background/Aims microRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate cognate mRNAs post-transcriptionally. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), which exhibit the characteristics of pluripotency and self-renewal, may serve as a model to study the role of miRNAs in early human development. We aimed to determine whether endodermally-differentiated hESC demonstrate a unique miRNA expression pattern, and whether overexpression of endoderm-specific miRNA may affect hESC differentiation. Methods miRNA expression was profiled in undifferentiated and NaButyrate-induced differentiated hESC of two lines, using microarray and quantitative RT-PCR. Then, the effect of lentiviral-based overexpression of liver-specific miR-122 on hESC differentiation was analyzed, using genomewide gene microarrays. Results The miRNA profiling revealed expression of three novel miRNAs in undifferentiated and differentiated hESC. Upon NaButyrate induction, two of the most upregulated miRNAs common to both cell lines were miR-24 and miR-10a, whose target genes have been shown to inhibit endodermal differentiation. Furthermore, induction of several liver-enriched miRNAs, including miR-122 and miR-192, was observed in parallel to induction of endodermal gene expression. Stable overexpression of miR-122 in hESC was unable to direct spontaneous differentiation towards a clear endodermal fate, but rather, delayed general differentiation of these cells. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that expression of specific miRNAs correlates with that of specific genes upon differentiation, and highlight the potential role of miRNAs in endodermal differentiation of hESC.
Simultaneous deletion of the methylcytosine oxidases Tet1 and Tet3 increases transcriptome variability in early embryogenesis

Significance Development of preimplantation embryos entails global DNA demethylation on the zygotic genome. The original thought was that TET-deficient embryos would be unlikely to survive early embryogenesis because they would be unable to mediate genome-wide demethylation in the zygote and preimplantation embryo. However, mice lacking the individual TET proteins Tet1, Tet2, or Tet3 have survived until birth and beyond, suggesting redundancy among TET proteins in the early embryogenesis. Here we report that preimplantation embryos doubly disrupted for Tet1 and Tet3 show abnormal embryonic phenotypes, whose incomplete penetrance correlates with a high variability of transcriptional profiles and DNA methylation status. Our data suggest that in addition to facilitating DNA demethylation, TET proteins and oxidized methylcytosines may regulate the consistency of gene transcription during embryogenesis. Dioxygenases of the TET (Ten-Eleven Translocation) family produce oxidized methylcytosines, intermediates in DNA demethylation, as well as new epigenetic marks. Here we show data suggesting that TET proteins maintain the consistency of gene transcription. Embryos lacking Tet1 and Tet3 (Tet1/3 DKO) displayed a strong loss of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and a concurrent increase in 5-methylcytosine (5mC) at the eight-cell stage. Single cells from eight-cell embryos and individual embryonic day 3.5 blastocysts showed unexpectedly variable gene expression compared with controls, and this variability correlated in blastocysts with variably increased 5mC/5hmC in gene bodies and repetitive elements. Despite the variability, genes encoding regulators of cholesterol biosynthesis were reproducibly down-regulated in Tet1/3 DKO blastocysts, resulting in a characteristic phenotype of holoprosencephaly in the few embryos that survived to later stages. Thus, TET enzymes and DNA cytosine modifications could directly or indirectly modulate transcriptional noise, resulting in the selective susceptibility of certain intracellular pathways to regulation by TET proteins.
Marrone del Mugello PGI: Nutritional and Organoleptic Quality of European Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.)

European chestnut has been cultivated in the Mugello territory (Tuscany) since the period of the Roman Empire. Marrone del Mugello chestnut was awarded PGI recognition (Protected Geographical Indication) for its typical natural and biological characteristics with EC Regulation n.1263/96. This paper reports the main results obtained after four years of evaluation of several samples of Marrone del Mugello PGI collected in the area of the Protected Geographical Indication, by means of chemical and sensorial tests and taking into account the complexity of compounds. The analysed samples included fresh nuts, fresh cured nuts, dried nuts and flour. Curing is a preservation process that consists in pouring chestnuts in water for almost seven days. The drying process is done according to the traditional method in special drying-houses ("metati") and takes about 40 days by warming up to 35-40°C the chestnuts. The dried nut is separated mechanically from shell and episperm and it could then be marketed as whole dried nut or milled to obtain flour. Macronutrients, microelements, vitamins and antioxidants (especially biophenols and tocopherols) were chemically analysed to underline the nutritional qualities of the fruit. Chemical analysis reveals high nutritional value and healthy compounds, justifying Marrone del Mugello PGI as part of the Mediterranean diet. Sensory analysis, with a specific Panel Test by trained assessors, provides a qualitative and quantitative characterization of Marrone del Mugello PGI taste and flavour. A preliminary investigation of the aroma compounds of chestnut flour was also carried out using an HS-SPME/GC-MS method.
Magnetic fields and cosmic rays in clusters of galaxies

We argue that the observed correlation between the radio luminosity and the thermal X-ray luminosity of radio emitting galaxy clusters implies that the radio emission is due to secondary electrons that are produced by p-p interactions and lose their energy by emitting synchrotron radiation in a strong magnetic field, B > (8πaTCMB4)1/2 3 μG. We construct a simple model that naturally explains the correlation, and show that the observations provide stringent constraints on cluster magnetic fields and cosmic rays (CRs): Within the cores of clusters, the ratio βcore between the CR energy (per logarithmic particle energy interval) and the thermal energy is βcore ~ 2 10−4; The source of these CRs is most likely the cluster accretion shock, which is inferred to deposit in CRs ~ 0.1 of the thermal energy it generates; The diffusion time of 100 GeV CRs over scales 100 kpc is not short compared to the Hubble time; Cluster magnetic fields are enhanced by mergers to 1% of equipartition, and decay (to < 1 μG) on 1 Gyr time scales. The inferred value of βcore implies that high energy gamma-ray emission from secondaries at cluster cores will be difficult to detect with existing and planned instruments.
A Mixed-Methods Trial of Broad Band Noise and Nature Sounds for Tinnitus Therapy: Group and Individual Responses Modeled under the Adaptation Level Theory of Tinnitus

Objectives: A randomized cross-over trial in 18 participants tested the hypothesis that nature sounds, with unpredictable temporal characteristics and high valence would yield greater improvement in tinnitus than constant, emotionally neutral broadband noise. Study Design: The primary outcome measure was the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). Secondary measures were: loudness and annoyance ratings, loudness level matches, minimum masking levels, positive and negative emotionality, attention reaction and discrimination time, anxiety, depression and stress. Each sound was administered using MP3 players with earbuds for 8 continuous weeks, with a 3 week wash-out period before crossing over to the other treatment sound. Measurements were undertaken for each arm at sound fitting, 4 and 8 weeks after administration. Qualitative interviews were conducted at each of these appointments. Results: From a baseline TFI score of 41.3, sound therapy resulted in TFI scores at 8 weeks of 35.6; broadband noise resulted in significantly greater reduction (8.2 points) after 8 weeks of sound therapy use than nature sounds (3.2 points). The positive effect of sound on tinnitus was supported by secondary outcome measures of tinnitus, emotion, attention, and psychological state, but not interviews. Tinnitus loudness level match was higher for BBN at 8 weeks; while there was little change in loudness level matches for nature sounds. There was no change in minimum masking levels following sound therapy administration. Self-reported preference for one sound over another did not correlate with changes in tinnitus. Conclusions: Modeled under an adaptation level theory framework of tinnitus perception, the results indicate that the introduction of broadband noise shifts internal adaptation level weighting away from the tinnitus signal, reducing tinnitus magnitude. Nature sounds may modify the affective components of tinnitus via a secondary, residual pathway, but this appears to be less important for sound effectiveness. The different rates of adaptation to broadband noise and nature sound by the auditory system may explain the different tinnitus loudness level matches. In addition to group effects there also appears to be a great deal of individual variation. A sound therapy framework based on adaptation level theory is proposed that accounts for individual variation in preference and response to sound. Clinical Trial Registration: www.anzctr. org.au, identifier #12616000742471.
Acute stress disorder, alcohol use, and perception of safety among hospital staff after the sniper attacks.

OBJECTIVE This study examined emotional and behavioral effects on hospital staff after a series of sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area. METHODS Employees of a large tertiary care military hospital were anonymously surveyed about their perceptions of safety and threat, changes in activities, and peritraumatic dissociation as possible risk factors for acute stress disorder, depression, and increased alcohol use the week after the sniper suspects were captured. RESULTS Of 382 study participants, whose average age was 39 years, 24 (6 percent) met criteria for acute stress disorder, 13 (3 percent) reported increased alcohol use, and 31 (8 percent) met criteria for depression. Risk factors for acute stress disorder were female sex (odds ratio [OR]=2.59), increased alcohol use (OR=5.1), comorbid depression (OR=7.28), lower perceived safety, higher perceived threat, higher levels of peritraumatic dissociation, and greater numbers of decreased activities. Risk factors for increased alcohol use were comorbid depression (OR=4.02), lower perceived safety, higher perceived threat, and higher levels of peritraumatic dissociation. Risk factors for depression were lower perceived safety and higher levels of peritraumatic dissociation. CONCLUSIONS The sniper shootings were associated with substantial changes in perceived safety and threat assessment as well as decreased activities outside the home among highly educated hospital employees. Levels of acute stress disorder were similar to levels of posttraumatic stress disorder in New York City after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Peritraumatic dissociation was associated not only with acute stress disorder but also with depression and increased alcohol use after the attacks.
The role of growth factors and related agents in accelerating fracture healing.

In vivo studies have shown that bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), transforming growth factor (TGF) beta, insulin-like growth factor (IGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are all present during normal healing of
Predicting 3D lip shapes using facial surface EMG

Aim The aim of this study is to prove that facial surface electromyography (sEMG) conveys sufficient information to predict 3D lip shapes. High sEMG predictive accuracy implies we could train a neural control model for activation of biomechanical models by simultaneously recording sEMG signals and their associated motions. Materials and methods With a stereo camera set-up, we recorded 3D lip shapes and simultaneously performed sEMG measurements of the facial muscles, applying principal component analysis (PCA) and a modified general regression neural network (GRNN) to link the sEMG measurements to 3D lip shapes. To test reproducibility, we conducted our experiment on five volunteers, evaluating several sEMG features and window lengths in unipolar and bipolar configurations in search of the optimal settings for facial sEMG. Conclusions The errors of the two methods were comparable. We managed to predict 3D lip shapes with a mean accuracy of 2.76 mm when using the PCA method and 2.78 mm when using modified GRNN. Whereas performance improved with shorter window lengths, feature type and configuration had little influence.
Destructive margin magmatism and the contributions from the mantle wedge and subducted crust

Destructive plate margin magmas may be considered in two groups on the basis of their REE ratios. Many island arc suites have low Ce/Yb, and remarkably restricted isotope ratios of 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7033 (±0.0002), 143Nd/ 144Nd = 0.51302 (±0.December 20014), 206Pb/204Pb = 18.76 (±0.13), 207Pb/204Pb = 15.57 (±0.02) and 208Pb/204Pb = 38.4 (±0.18). However, they also have Rb/Sr (0.027 ± 0.025), Th/U (2.18 ±0.5) and Ce/Yb (8.4 ±2.7) ratios that are significantly less than accepted estimates for the bulk continental crust. The high Ce/Yb suites have higher incompatible element contents, more restricted HREE and much more variable isotope ratios, and these have been attributed to both contributions from subducted sediment, and old, trace element‐enriched material in the mantle wedge. The Th isotope ratios of destructive margin rocks are similar to those in mid ocean ridge basalt (MORB) and ocean island basalt (OIB). However, while many MORB and OIB are displaced to low (238U/230Th) on the (230Th/232Th)‐(238U/232Th).