Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shear Strength and Stiffness of Sands Containing Plastic or Nonplastic Fines

This paper presents the results of a systematic laboratory investigation on the static behavior of silica sand containing various amounts of either plastic or nonplastic fines. Specimens were reconstituted using a new technique suitable for element testing of homogeneous specimens of sands containing fines deposited in water (e.g., alluvial deposits, hydraulic fills, tailings dams, and offshore deposits). The fabric of sands containing fines was examined using the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). Static, monotonic, isotropically consolidated, drained triaxial compression tests were performed to evaluate the stress-strain-volumetric response of these soils. Piezoceramic bender element instrumentation was developed and integrated into a conventional triaxial apparatus; shear-wave velocity measurements were made to evaluate the small-strain stiffness of the sands tested at various states. The intrinsic parameters that characterize critical state, dilatancy, and small-strain stiffness of clean, silty, and clayey sands were determined. All aspects of the mechanical behavior investigated in this study (e.g., stress-strain-volumetric response, shear strength, and small-strain stiffness) are affected by both the amount and plasticity of the fines present in the sand. Microstructural evaluation using the ESEM highlighted the importance of soil fabric on the overall soil response.
Extended Linear Refraction-Diffraction Model

An alternative derivation of the extended refraction-diffraction equation is presented. The bottom curvature and slope-squared terms ignored in the mild-slope equation are included to account for relatively steep and rapidly undulating bathymetry. The linear elliptic partial differential equation is solved by the hybrid element method and applied to three-dimensional bedforms. Quadratic triangular elements are used in the model so that the curvature can be calculated directly from the water depth defined at the nodes. The model is illustrated by simulating wave reflection from a ripple bed and wave transformation over a circular shoal in which previous experimental and numerical results exist. The relative effects of the additional terms and their significance in the model prediction are examined in a numerical experiment.
Altered Methylation Profile of Lymphocytes Is Concordant with Perturbation of Lipids Metabolism and Inflammatory Response in Obesity

Obesity is associated with immunological perturbations that contribute to insulin resistance. Epigenetic mechanisms can control immune functions and have been linked to metabolic complications, although their contribution to insulin resistance still remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the link between metabolic dysfunction and immune alterations with the epigenetic signature in leukocytes in a porcine model of obesity. Global DNA methylation of circulating leukocytes, adipose tissue leukocyte trafficking, and macrophage polarisation were established by flow cytometry. Adipose tissue inflammation and metabolic function were further characterised by quantification of metabolites and expression levels of genes associated with obesity and inflammation. Here we show that obese pigs showed bigger visceral fat pads, higher levels of circulating LDL cholesterol, and impaired glucose tolerance. These changes coincided with impaired metabolism, sustained macrophages infiltration, and increased inflammation in the adipose tissue. Those immune alterations were linked to global DNA hypermethylation in both B-cells and T-cells. Our results provide novel insight into the possible contribution of immune cell epigenetics into the immunological disturbances observed in obesity. The dramatic changes in the transcriptomic and epigenetic signature of circulating lymphocytes reinforce the concept that epigenetic processes participate in the increased immune cell activation and impaired metabolic functions in obesity.
Treponema pallidum (Nichols strain) in tissue cultures: cellular attachment, entry, and survival

The interaction of Treponema pallidum (Nichols strain) with cultured cells was investigated under aerobic conditions. Cell monolayers derived from rabbit testicular tissue extended the survival of treponemes as indicated by active motility. Large numbers of organisms rapidly attached to cultured cells. Within 3 h, one to twelve actively motile treponemes were attached to 25 to 50% of the cells. In addition, T. pallidum attained intracellularity as early as 30 min after inoculation of the cell monolayers. In sharp contrast, T. phagedenis biotype Reiter and T. denticola did not attach and did not enter cultured cells. Most importantly, intracellular and/or attached T. pallidum retained virulence for at least 24 h. Similar observations of attachment and retention of virulence were detected with ME-180, a cell line derived from a human cervical carcinoma. Preliminary studies with superoxide dismutase indicated that this enzyme prolonged treponemal motility and retention of virulence in the presence of cultured cells. These data provide guidelines for further investigations of in vitro cultivation of T. pallidum.
A Simple Model of the Decadal Response of the Ocean to Stochastic Wind Forcing

Abstract A simple linear model is used to estimate the decadal response of the extratropical ocean to wind stress forcing, assuming a flat bottom, a mean state at rest, and no dissipation. The barotropic fields are governed by a time-dependent Sverdrup balance, the baroclinic ones by the long Rossby wave equation. The ocean is bounded by a coast in the east and a radiation condition is used in the west. At each frequency, the baroclinic response consists of a forced response plus a Rossby wave generated at the eastern boundary. For zonally independent forcing, the response propagates westward at twice the Rossby phase speed. The wind stress is assumed to be stochastic with a white frequency spectrum, so the model represents the continuous excitation of the ocean interior by the weather fluctuations. The model predicts the shape and level of the frequency spectra of the oceanic pressure field and their variation with longitude and latitude. The baroclinic response is spread over a continuum of frequencies,.
Supporting Sociability in a Shared Browser

The present paper explores the importance of designing shared browsing user interfaces to support sociability. In particular, several shared browsing interfaces were empirically tested for the extent to which they helped people achieve a sense of shared understanding--or common ground--while surfing the web. We found a) that people generally preferred a shared browser to an unshared browser when shopping online together, and b) that user interface features that enhanced common ground had a greater impact on enjoyment than did features affecting ease of use or functionality. These results suggest that web designers need to take into account supporting sociability when considering the tradeoffs in their user interface designs.
On the decrease of Arctic sea ice volume

The decrease of Arctic sea ice volume is investigated using a dynamic‐thermodynamic sea ice model. The model was forced with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis winds and surface air temperatures in a hindcast simulation of the period 1958–1998. The simulation reveals pronounced decadal variability (10–12 years) along with a significant linear negative trend of total Arctic sea ice volume which amounts to −4%/decade. The decrease is apparent throughout the annual cycle with largest amplitudes from September to December. Regionally the strongest thinning of ice thickness occurs in the East Siberian Sea with magnitudes up to −30 cm/decade. The simulation also reveals some positive trends in the Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea and north of the Canadian Archipelago.
Implementation of Tidal Constituent Interpolation Method for the Israeli Coastline

Many ship-borne geodetic surveys at sea, such as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based sea surface height (SSH) observation, acoustic profiling of the bottom, and others, deal with a dynamic topography which undergoes several changes during the survey campaign (e.g., changes in tide, salinity and currents). Those changes affect the measurements and may causes for some variations in the results. There are several methods for tidal variations correction, being the most dominant phenomena, such as tidal zoning, tidal constituent interpolation or ocean tidal models. In this study, we have implemented the tidal constituent interpolation method for the Israeli coastline in order to assess its quality and determine whether it is suitable for use in this particular region. This paper depicts the interpolation method, discusses some difficulties in the implementation for the Israeli coast and presents results from exemplary processing. In addition, we compare the results to those obtained using global and regional tidal models.
Interrelationship of oral health status, swallowing function, nutritional status, and cognitive ability with activities of daily living in Japanese elderly people receiving home care services due to physical disabilities.

OBJECTIVES Malnutrition and cognitive impairment lead to declines in activities of daily living (ADL). Nutritional status and cognitive ability have been shown to correlate with oral health status and swallowing function. However, the complex relationship among the factors that affect decline in ADL is not understood. We examined direct and indirect relationships among oral health status, swallowing function, nutritional status, cognitive ability, and ADL in Japanese elderly people living at home and receiving home care services because of physical disabilities. METHODS Participants were 286 subjects aged 60 years and older (mean age, 84.5±7.9 years) living at home and receiving home care services. Oral health status (the number of teeth and wearing dentures) was assessed, and swallowing function was examined using cervical auscultation. Additionally, ADL, cognitive ability, and nutritional status were assessed using the Barthel Index, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, and the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form, respectively. Path analysis was used to test pathways from these factors to ADL. RESULTS The mean number of teeth present in the participants was 8.6±9.9 (edentates, 40.6%). Dysphagia, malnutrition, and severe cognitive impairment were found in 31.1%, 14.0%, and 21.3% of the participants, respectively. Path analysis indicated that poor oral health status and cognitive impairment had a direct effect on denture wearing, and the consequent dysphagia, in addition to cognitive impairment, was positively associated with malnutrition. Malnutrition as well as dysphagia and cognitive impairment directly limited ADL. CONCLUSIONS A lower number of teeth are positively related to swallowing dysfunction, whereas denture wearing contributes to recovery of swallowing function. Dysphagia, cognitive impairment, and malnutrition directly and indirectly decreased ADL in elderly people living at home and receiving home nursing care. The findings suggest that preventing tooth loss and encouraging denture wearing when teeth are lost may indirectly contribute to maintaining or improving ADL, mediated by recovery of swallowing function and nutritional status.
International Journal of Nephrology and Renovascular Disease Nephrolithiasis in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the Community

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been associated with renal stone formation. The objective of this study was to determine prospectively the prevalence of nephrolithiasis in a community-based population of patients with IBD and to analyze factors associated with renal calculus formation. Methods: Screening renal ultrasound was performed in a well characterized cohort of patients seen between 2009 and 2012 at an IBD clinic. We enrolled 168 patients, including 93 with Crohn's disease and 75 with ulcerative colitis. Clinical and phenotypic variables associated with asymptomatic nephrolithiasis were determined. Results: Nephrolithiasis was detected in 36 patients with Crohn's disease and in 28 patients with ulcerative colitis (38% for both). Although none of the patients had been previously hospitalized for symptomatic nephrolithiasis, nine with Crohn's disease and five with ulcerative colitis had recurrent urinary tract infections or hydronephrosis. In patients with Crohn's disease, ileocolonic (L3) disease was associated with a greater risk of nephrolithiasis than was ileal (L1) or colonic (L2) disease (odds ratio [OR] 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8–7). Active ulcerative colitis (regardless of severity) represented a significant risk factor for formation of renal calculi (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.1–15, P = 0.02). Conclusion: In surgery-naïve patients with IBD in the community, asymptomatic nephrolithiasis is common and should be considered when renal dysfunction or infection is detected.
Distributed Synchrony of Spiking Neurons in a Hebbian Cell Assembly

We investigate the behavior of a Hebbian cell assembly of spiking neurons formed via a temporal synaptic learning curve. This learning function is based on recent experimental findings. It includes potentiation for short time delays between pre - and postsynaptic neuronal spiking, and depression for spiking events occuring in the reverse order. The coupling between the dynamics of the synaptic learning and of the neuronal activation leads to interesting results. We find that the cell assembly can fire asynchronously, but may also function in complete synchrony, or in distributed synchrony. The latter implies spontaneous division of the Hebbian cell assembly into groups of cells that fire in a cyclic manner. We invetigate the behavior of distributed synchrony both by simulations and by analytic calculations of the resulting synaptic distributions.
Universal Approximation using Incremental Constructive Feedforward Networks with Random Hidden Nodes

According to conventional neural network theories, single-hidden-layer feedforward networks (SLFNs) with additive or radial basis function (RBF) hidden nodes are universal approximators when all the parameters of the networks are allowed adjustable. However, as observed in most neural network implementations, tuning all the parameters of the networks may cause learning complicated and inefficient, and it may be difficult to train networks with nondifferential activation functions such as threshold networks. Unlike conventional neural network theories, this paper proves in an incremental constructive method that in order to let SLFNs work as universal approximators, one may simply randomly choose hidden nodes and then only need to adjust the output weights linking the hidden layer and the output layer. In such SLFNs implementations, the activation functions for additive nodes can be any bounded nonconstant piecewise continuous functions $g:R\rightarrow R$ and the activation functions for RBF nodes can be any integrable piecewise continuous functions $g:R\rightarrow R$ and $\int_{R}g(x)dx\neq 0$. The proposed incremental method is efficient not only for SFLNs with continuous (including nondifferentiable) activation functions but also for SLFNs with piecewise continuous (such as threshold) activation functions. Compared to other popular methods such a new network is fully automatic and users need not intervene the learning process by manually tuning control parameters.
Tropical warming and the dynamics of endangered primates

Many primate species are severely threatened, but little is known about the effects of global warming and the associated intensification of El Niño events on primate populations. Here, we document the influences of the El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) and hemispheric climatic variability on the population dynamics of four genera of ateline (neotropical, large-bodied) primates. All ateline genera experienced either an immediate or a lagged negative effect of El Niño events. ENSO events were also found to influence primate resource levels through neotropical arboreal phenology. Furthermore, frugivorous primates showed a high degree of interspecific population synchrony over large scales across Central and South America attributable to the recent trends in large-scale climate. These results highlight the role of large-scale climatic variation and trends in ateline primate population dynamics, and emphasize that global warming could pose additional threats to the persistence of multiple species of endangered primates.
The Pathway to Detangle a Scrambled Gene

Background Programmed DNA elimination and reorganization frequently occur during cellular differentiation. Development of the somatic macronucleus in some ciliates presents an extreme case, involving excision of internal eliminated sequences (IESs) that interrupt coding DNA segments (macronuclear destined sequences, MDSs), as well as removal of transposon-like elements and extensive genome fragmentation, leading to 98% genome reduction in Stylonychia lemnae. Approximately 20–30% of the genes are estimated to be scrambled in the germline micronucleus, with coding segment order permuted and present in either orientation on micronuclear chromosomes. Massive genome rearrangements are therefore critical for development. Methodology/Principal Findings To understand the process of DNA deletion and reorganization during macronuclear development, we examined the population of DNA molecules during assembly of different scrambled genes in two related organisms in a developmental time-course by PCR. The data suggest that removal of conventional IESs usually occurs first, accompanied by a surprising level of error at this step. The complex events of inversion and translocation seem to occur after repair and excision of all conventional IESs and via multiple pathways. Conclusions/Significance This study reveals a temporal order of DNA rearrangements during the processing of a scrambled gene, with simpler events usually preceding more complex ones. The surprising observation of a hidden layer of errors, absent from the mature macronucleus but present during development, also underscores the need for repair or screening of incorrectly-assembled DNA molecules.
From Isolated Ultrafiltration to Blood-Temperature-Controlled Feedback: An Odyssey Started by Jonas Bergström

already applied isolated ultrafi ltration in 1952. Alwall showed that ultrafi ltration resulted in far better fl uid removal when compared to haemodialysis with a high dialysate glucose concentration, which was employed until that time. However, Alwall did not report haemodynamic differences between isolated ultrafi ltration and ultrafi ltration combined with haemodialysis. It is tempting to read, in the commentary of Jonas Bergstrom himself, that the improved haemodynamic stability during isolated ultrafi ltration was actually discovered in 1973 by a technical fault of the dialysis module, which had been in bypass position without alarming, meaning that no dialysate had passed during the treatment. During this faulty treatment, fl uid removal was remarkably well tolerated in a patient who used to experience symptomatic hypotension during every treatment. Due to Bergstrom’s combination of clinical and scientifi c interest, this single observation was translated into a structured research program. The paper published in the EDTA proceedings and now again in this issue of Blood Purifi cation, confi rmed the initial observations in 6 hypotension-prone patients. As you also can read in the addendum to the EDTA proceedings paper, this road was further followed by Stanley Shaldon, who developed the sequential ultrafi ltration-haemodialysis concept. Exactly 30 years ago, in 1976, Bergstrom, Asaba, Furst and Oules presented their ground-breaking fi ndings on the benefi ts of isolated ultrafi ltration at the EDTA congress. To mark this anniversary, the present issue of Blood Purifi cation contains a reprint of the fi rst description of the benefi cial effects of isolated ultrafi ltration, compared to ultrafi ltration combined with haemodialysis, on haemodynamic stability during dialysis. Although a more detailed haemodynamic analysis of the effect of isolated ultrafi ltration was published by the same group in Kidney International in 1979 [1] , the fi rst description of its clinical effects, as discussed at the EDTA congress in 1976, never appeared as a Medline-listed paper. A commentary to this paper was written some years ago by Jonas Bergstrom (1929–2001), professor emeritus at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, but was also never published until now. Here, it is published together with the original paper as an acknowledgement of the reviving interest in the thermal effects of dialysis and to give credit to the initiators of this odyssey. Bergstrom, however, was not the fi rst to prescribe isolated ultrafi ltration. As you can see in fi gure 1 , Alwall [2] Published online: January 17, 2006
The Relative Importance of Responses to S+ and S− in Simultaneous Discrimination Learning

Earlier research indicated that errors were more important in discrimination learning than correct responses (the Moss-Harlow effect). This conclusion was based on a variety of experimental designs each of which had basic methodological problems, usually involving novelty or order effects. A circular apparatus which allowed the simultaneous presentation of several different stimuli was used to study discrimination learning with S + and S − differentially weighted. It was found that variability in S − was more detrimental to discrimination learning than variability in S + although this finding depended on the presence of a constant stimulus. The results were interpreted as supporting the proposition that in discrimination learning rats learn more to avoid S− than to approach S+.
A Lifespan Perspective on Entrepreneurship: Perceived Opportunities and Skills Explain the Negative Association between Age and Entrepreneurial Activity

Researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in entrepreneurship as a means to fight youth unemployment and to improve financial stability at higher ages. However, only few studies so far have examined the association between age and entrepreneurial activity. Based on theories from the lifespan psychology literature and entrepreneurship, we develop and test a model in which perceived opportunities and skills explain the relationship between age and entrepreneurial activity. We analyzed data from the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), while controlling for gender and potential variation between countries. Results showed that age related negatively to entrepreneurial activity, and that perceived opportunities and skills for entrepreneurship mediated this relationship. Overall, these findings suggest that entrepreneurship research should treat age as a substantial variable.