Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Hybrid Analytical/Numerical Model for the Characterization of Preferential Flow Path with Non-Darcy Flow

Due to the long-term fluid-solid interactions in waterflooding, the tremendous variation of oil reservoir formation parameters will lead to the widespread evolution of preferential flow paths, thereby preventing the further enhancement of recovery efficiency because of unstable fingering and premature breakthrough. To improve oil recovery, the characterization of preferential flow paths is essential and imperative. In efforts that have been previously documented, fluid flow characteristics within preferential paths are assumed to obey Darcy's equation. However, the occurrence of non-Darcy flow behavior has been increasingly suggested. To examine this conjecture, the Forchheimer number with the inertial coefficient estimated from different empirical formulas is applied as the criterion. Considering a 10% non-Darcy effect, the fluid flow in a preferential path may do experience non-Darcy behavior. With the objective of characterizing the preferential path with non-Darcy flow, a hybrid analytical/numerical model has been developed to investigate the pressure transient response, which dynamically couples a numerical model describing the non-Darcy effect of a preferential flow path with an analytical reservoir model. The characteristics of the pressure transient behavior and the sensitivities of corresponding parameters have also been discussed. In addition, an interpretation approach for pressure transient testing is also proposed, in which the Gravitational Search Algorithm is employed as a non-linear regression technology to match measured pressure with this hybrid model. Examples of applications from different oilfields are also presented to illustrate this method. This cost-effective approach provides more accurate characterization of a preferential flow path with non-Darcy flow, which will lay a solid foundation for the design and operation of conformance control treatments, as well as several other Enhanced Oil Recovery projects.
New Insights into the Immunological Changes in IL-10-Deficient Mice during the Course of Spontaneous Inflammation in the Gut Mucosa

IL-10 is a regulatory cytokine that plays a major role in the homeostasis of the gut and this is illustrated by the fact that IL-10−/− mice develop spontaneous colitis. In this study, IL-10−/− mice were analyzed for immunological changes during colitis development. We found a reduced frequency of regulatory T cells CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ and higher frequency of activated T cells in the colon that precedes the macroscopic signs of the disease. Production of IL-17 and IFN-γ was higher in the colon. Colitis progression culminates with the reduction of CD4+LAP+ regulatory T cells in the intestine. Frequency of B1 cells and the secretory IgA production were both elevated. Despite these alterations, 16-week-old IL-10−/− mice could be rendered tolerant by a continuous feeding protocol. Our study provides detailed analysis of changes that precede colitis and it also suggests that oral tolerance could be used to design novel alternative therapies for the disease.
Electrical stimulation of the upper extremity in stroke: cyclic versus EMG-triggered stimulation

Objective: To compare the effect of cyclic and electromyography (EMG)-triggered electrical stimulation on motor impairment and function of the affected upper extremity in chronic stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Outpatient clinic of a rehabilitation centre. Subjects and intervention: Twenty-two subjects in the chronic stage after stroke were randomly assigned to receive either cyclic (n = 11) or EMG-triggered electrical stimulation (n = 11) of the wrist and finger extensor muscles for a six-week period. Outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was the Action Research Arm test (0—57 points) to assess arm function. Grip strength, Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment and Motricity Index were secondary outcome measures. Assessments were made at the start of the treatment and after 4, 6 and 12 weeks. Results: Both groups improved on the Action Research Arm test. The group receiving cyclic stimulation improved by 2.3 points, and the group receiving EMG-triggered stimulation improved by 4.2 points. The difference in functional gain was not statistically significant. Differences in gain on the secondary outcome measures were not significant either. Conclusion: The present study did not detect a significant difference between EMG-triggered and cyclic electrical stimulation with respect to improvement of motor function of the affected arm in chronic stroke.
Induced ovulation of the first postpartum dominant follicle in beef suckler cows using a GnRH analogue.

There is a low incidence of ovulation of the first dominant follicle that develops in the early postpartum period of beef suckler cows, which prolongs the interval from calving to first ovulation. The objective of this study was to determine whether a single injection of a GnRH analogue would ovulate the first postpartum dominant follicle. Limousin x Friesian beef suckler cows were assigned at parturition, over two years (16 cows in year 1; 19 cows in year 2), to one of three treatments: (1) untreated (control; n = 12), (2) GnRH analogue (20 micrograms buserelin i.m.) administered in the growing-plateau phase of the first postpartum dominant follicle (GnRH-G; n = 12) and (3) GnRH analogue administered in the declining phase of the first postpartum dominant follicle (GnRH-D; n = 11). From day 8 or 9 post partum, the ovaries of each cow were examined daily by ultrasound to determine the time of GnRH injection and ovulation. Blood samples were collected daily for progesterone measurement to confirm ovulation and in year 2 to determine the duration of the first oestrous cycle. The mean (+/- SEM) number of days from parturition to development of the first dominant follicle was 11.0 +/- 0.3, 10.3 +/- 0.5 and 10.1 +/- 0.7 for cows assigned to treatments 1-3, respectively (P > 0.05). The proportion of cows ovulating the first dominant follicle was higher (P < 0.05) following GnRH treatment (12 of 12 and 7 of 10; GnRH-G and GnRH-D, respectively) than with controls (2 of 12). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Barriers and Promoters of Mental Health Services Utilization in a Latino Context: A Literature Review and Recommendations from an Ecosystems Perspective

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the problems of disparities in mental health service utilization in the Latino population in the United States. It begins with an overview of the Latino population within the United States, an exploration of the diversity within this group, and shared cultural values and traits with a particular focus on the problems of Latino poverty. A review of the literature follows, including identified barriers to and promoters of mental health services utilization. These are contextualized in a Latino perspective using an ecosystems framework. Recommendations are made for future practice, research, and policy regarding mental health and mental health services utilization in the Latino community.
A Role for the Striatum in Regret-related Choice Repetition

“Regret aversion” is proposed to explain a tendency to avoid future choices that have induced past regret. However, regret might also motivate us to repeat previous regret-related choices to make up for their previous selection, a behavior resembling “chasing” in the context of gambling. In the current experiment, we acquired fMRI brain data while participants placed monetary bets on repeated gambles. Behaviorally, participants showed a tendency to repeat previously regret-related choices (operationalized as those leading to an outcome worse than what might have been), an effect restricted to early runs of the task. At gamble outcome, we show a reduction in ventral striatal activity for regret-related relative to relief-related outcomes. Critically, this modulation was only seen when subjects were responsible for the bet choice. Activity in dorsal striatum was associated with an influence of previous regret on participants' subsequent choices, which is evident in increased activity when regret-related choices were repeated, relative to avoided, on the next trial. Our findings indicate that regret can lead to choice repetition as if seeking to make up for our mistakes and in so doing may lead to subsequent chasing behavior.
Role of B Cells in Rheumatic Autoimmune Disease

There is increasing evidence that B cells can play important roles in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases, either by autoantibody secretion, production of proinflammatory cytokines or autoantigen presentation. An in- creasing number of B cell directed therapies are in development as a possible treatment strategy of rheumatic autoimmune diseases, such as Rituximab which targets the B cell specific CD20 surface marker. This article provides an overview of the principal understandings of B cell immunology in autoimmunity and selected rheumatic autoimmune diseases. Keyword: B cells, Rheumatic autoimmune disease, Autoantibody, Cytokine, B cell depletion, Rituximab
Influence of maturation and aging on mechanical and biochemical parameters of rat bone.

The influence of maturation and senescence on the mechanical strength of bone was studied in rats by measuring the breaking load of the femur shaft and calculating the breaking strength. Strength of cartilage was studied by determining the ultimate load of femoral epiphyseal plate. A sharp increase of all mechanical parameters was found between the age of 1 and 4 months which was attributed to a maturation process. The maximum was achieved at 1 year followed by a decrease in all parameters. This was considered to reflect the aging or senescence process. The following biochemical parameters were determined in the same specimens: collagen and its soluble fractions, glycosaminoglycans, the fractions thereof, and elastin. The content of insoluble collagen was very closely correlated to the strength data, thus demonstrating an increase between 1 and 4 months, a plateau up to 1 year and a decrease at 2 years. During the maturation process, the glycosaminoglycans, especially the chondroitin sulfates, fell considerably. But also during the aging period, a further decrease was noted. The elastin content fell only slightly during the whole life span. The excellent correlation between strength parameters and content of insoluble collagen as found previously in skin could thus be confirmed. Strength of bone is apparently not dependent on the content of glycosaminoglycans and elastin. This indicates the major role of insoluble collagen for the mechanical properties of connective and supporting tissue. The studies presented here show that in rat bone the senescence process can be separated from the maturation process.
DNA adducts induced by in vitro activation of extracts of diesel and biodiesel exhaust particles

Abstract Context: Biodiesel and biodiesel-blend fuels offer a renewable alternative to petroleum diesel, but few data are available concerning the carcinogenic potential of biodiesel exhausts. Objectives: We compared the formation of covalent DNA adducts by the in vitro metabolic activation of organic extracts of diesel-exhaust particles (DEP) from petroleum diesel and soy biodiesel and correlated DNA adduct levels and mutagenicity in Salmonella TA100. Methods: We examined two different DEP from petroleum diesel (C-DEP and B0), one from soy bean oil biodiesel (B100) and one from combustion of a blend of 20% B100 and 80% B0 (B20) for in vitro DNA adduct-forming potential under oxidative or nitroreductive conditions in the presence of calf thymus DNA as well as in vivo in Salmonella TA100. The modified DNA was hydrolyzed and analyzed by 32P-postlabeling using either butanol extraction or nuclease P1 pre-enrichment. Results: Multiple DNA adducts were produced with chromatographic mobilities consistent with PAH and nitro-PAH adducts. The types and quantities of DNA adducts produced by the two independent petroleum diesel DEP were similar, with both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)- and nitro-PAH-derived adducts formed. Relative potencies for S9-mediated DNA adduct formation, either per mass of particulate or per MJth energy consumed were B100 > B0 > B20. Conclusions: Soy biodiesel emissions induced DNA damage in the form of presumptive PAH and nitro-PAH DNA adducts that correlated with mutagenicity in Salmonella. B20 is the soy biodiesel used most commonly in the US, and it produced the lowest DNA adduct-emission factor, ∼50% that of petroleum diesel.
Home-Based Risk of Falling Assessment Test Using a Closed-Loop Balance Model

The aim of this study is to improve and facilitate the methods used to assess risk of falling at home among older people through the computation of a risk of falling in real time in daily activities. In order to increase a real time computation of the risk of falling, a closed-loop balance model is proposed and compared with One-Leg Standing Test (OLST). This balance model allows studying the postural response of a person having an unpredictable perturbation. Twenty-nine volunteers participated in this study for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed system which includes seventeen elder participants: ten healthy elderly (68.4 ±5.5 years), seven Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects (66.28 ±8.9 years), and twelve healthy young adults (28.27 ±3.74 years). Our work suggests that there is a relationship between OLST score and the risk of falling based on center of pressure measurement with four low cost force sensors located inside an instrumented insole, which could be predicted using our suggested closed-loop balance model. For long term monitoring at home, this system could be included in a medical electronic record and could be useful as a diagnostic aid tool.
False signs and the non-specificity of theory of mind: Evidence that preschoolers have general difficulties in understanding representations

The discovery that 3-year-old children have difficulties understanding false belief has fuelled two decades of research directed at understanding why children have this problem. One unresolved question is whether false belief problems are due to difficulties with mental or representational aspects of mental states. This question has implications for current arguments about the domain specificity of theory of mind in typically developing children and in populations with autism and brain damage. We revisit this question, presenting evidence that preschoolers' difficulty with false belief is not a domain-specific problem with mental states but a more general difficulty with understanding representations.
Erythropoietin protects newborn rat against sevoflurane‐induced neurotoxicity

Recent data on newborn animals exposed to anesthetics have raised safety concerns regarding anesthesia practices in young children. Indeed, studies on rodents have demonstrated a widespread increase in brain apoptosis shortly after exposure to sevoflurane, followed by long‐term neurologic impairment. In this context, we aimed to evaluate the protective effect of rh‐EPO, a potent neuroprotective agent, in rat pups exposed to sevoflurane.
Effects of various methodologic strategies: survey response rates among Canadian physicians and physicians-in-training.

OBJECTIVE To increase the overall 2007 response rate of the National Physician Survey (NPS) from the survey's 2004 rate of response with the implementation of various methodologic strategies. DESIGN Physicians were stratified to receive either a long version (12 pages) or a short version (6 pages) of the survey (38% and 62%, respectively). Mixed modes of contact were used-58% were contacted by e-mail and 42% by regular mail-with multiple modes of contact attempted for nonrespondents. The self-administered, confidential surveys were distributed in either English or French. Medical residents and students received e-mail surveys only and were offered a substantial monetary lottery incentive for completing their surveys. A professional communications firm assisted in marketing the survey and delivered advance notification of its impending distribution. SETTING Canada. PARTICIPANTS A total of 62 441 practising physicians, 2627 second-year medical residents, and 9162 medical students in Canada. RESULTS Of the practising physicians group, 60 811 participants were eligible and 19 239 replied, for an overall 2007 study response rate of 31.64% (compared with 35.85% in 2004). No difference in rate of response was found between the longer and shorter versions of the survey. If contacted by regular mail, the response rate was 34.1%; the e-mail group had a response rate of 29.9%. Medical student and resident response rates were 30.8% and 27.9%, respectively (compared with 31.2% and 35.6% in 2004). CONCLUSION Despite shortening the questionnaires, contacting more physicians by e-mail, and enhancing marketing and follow-up, the 2007 NPS response rate for practising physicians did not surpass the 2004 NPS response rate. Offering a monetary lottery incentive to medical residents and students was also unsuccessful in increasing their response rates. The role of surveys in gathering information from physicians and physicians-in-training remains problematic. Researchers need to investigate alternative strategies for achieving higher rates of response.
The Role of Decision Processes in Conscious Recollection

Dual-process models of recognition memory posit a rapid retrieval process that produces a general sense of familiarity and a slower retrieval process that produces conscious recollections of prior experience. The remember/know paradigm has been used to study the subjective correlates of these two processes, with remember judgments assumed to index conscious recollection and know judgments assumed to index familiarity. Recently, a two-criterion signal detection model has been proposed as an alternative account of this paradigm. This model assumes only a single memory process with a criterion separating remember from know responses. This report presents an empirical test of the model's critical prediction that manipulations that influence criterion placement should influence both remember and know judgments. An experiment confirmed this prediction, demonstrating that subjects who were told that 70% of the test items were study items produced more remember and know responses than subjects who were told that 30% of the test items were study items.
Gut microbiome analysis of type 2 diabetic patients from the Chinese minority ethnic groups the Uygurs and Kazaks

The gut microbiome may have an important influence on the development of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). To better understand the DM2 pandemic in ethnic minority groups in China, we investigated and compared the composition and richness of the gut microbiota of healthy, normal glucose tolerant (NGT) individuals and DM2 patients from two ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, northwest China, the Uygurs and Kazaks. The conserved V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR from the isolated DNA. The amplified DNA was sequenced and analyzed. An average of 4047 high quality reads of unique tag sequences were obtained from the 40 Uygurs and Kazaks. The 3 most dominant bacterial families among all participants, both healthy and DM2 patients, were the Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Enterobacteriaceae. Significant differences in intestinal microbiota were found between the NGT individuals and DM2 patients, as well as between the two ethnic groups. Our findings shed new light on the gut microbiome in relation to DM2. The differentiated microbiota data may be used for potential biomarkers for DM2 diagnosis and prevention.
Low power, low delay: Opportunistic routing meets duty cycling

Traditionally, routing in wireless sensor networks consists of two steps: First, the routing protocol selects a next hop, and, second, the MAC protocol waits for the intended destination to wake up and receive the data. This design makes it difficult to adapt to link dynamics and introduces delays while waiting for the next hop to wake up. In this paper we introduce ORW, a practical opportunistic routing scheme for wireless sensor networks. In a duty-cycled setting, packets are addressed to sets of potential receivers and forwarded by the neighbor that wakes up first and successfully receives the packet. This reduces delay and energy consumption by utilizing all neighbors as potential forwarders. Furthermore, this increases resilience to wireless link dynamics by exploiting spatial diversity. Our results show that ORW reduces radio duty-cycles on average by 50% (up to 90% on individual nodes) and delays by 30% to 90% when compared to the state of the art.
Ultrastructure of the Horse Tongue: Further Observations on the Lingual Integumentary Architecture

This investigation examined primarily epidermal specializations of the adult horse tongue by light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Samples were collected from seven regions of the normal tongue of various breeds of horse. The filiform papillae, present on the dorsal and lateral aspects but not the ventral aspect of the tongue, were short, slender and finger‐like structures with variable‐shaped terminae. The epidermal thickness and height of dermal ridges were reduced on fungiform and vallate papillae, but tissue architecture and keratinocyte ultrastructure of most of the lingual epidermis corresponded to the common mammalian epidermal paradigm. One unique finding was the highly localized clustering of epidermal cells with exceptionally high content of PAS‐negative trichohyalin cytoplasmic granules at a location atop the dermal ridges and beneath the base of filiform papillae. These granular cells were immediately subjacent to clusters of clear, non‐granulated epidermal cells. It is believed that this integumentary specialization may enhance the structural strength at this localized site of the tissue architecture, in relationship to the mechanical papillae.
A real-time cinematography system for interactive 3D environments

Developers of interactive 3D applications, such as computer games, are expending increasing levels of effort on the challenge of creating more narrative experiences in virtual worlds. As a result, there is a pressing requirement to automate an essential component of a narrative -- the cinematography -- and develop camera control techniques that can be utilized within the context of interactive environments in which actions are not known in advance. Such camera control algorithms should be capable of enforcing both low-level geometric constraints, such as the visibility of key subjects, and more elaborate properties related to cinematic conventions such as characteristic viewpoints and continuity editing. In this paper, we present a fully automated real-time cinematography system that constructs a movie from a sequence of low-level narrative elements (events, key subjects actions and key subject motions). Our system computes appropriate viewpoints on these narrative elements, plans paths between viewpoints and performs cuts following cinematic conventions. Additionally, it offers an expressive framework which delivers notable variations in directorial style. Our process relies on a viewpoint space partitioning technique in 2D that identifies characteristic viewpoints of relevant actions for which we compute the partial and full visibility. These partitions, to which we refer as Director Volumes, provide a full characterization over the space of viewpoints. We build upon this spatial characterization to select the most appropriate director volumes, reason over the volumes to perform appropriate camera cuts and rely on traditional path-planning techniques to perform transitions. Our system represents a novel and expressive approach to cinematic camera control which stands in contrast to existing techniques that are mostly procedural, only concentrate on isolated aspects (visibility, transitions, editing, framing) or do not encounter for variations in directorial style.