Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping the rheology of the Central Chile subduction zone with aftershocks

The postseismic deformation following a large (Mw >7) earthquake is expressed both seismically and aseismically. Recent studies have appealed to a model that suggests that the aseismic slip on the plate interface following the mainshock can be the driving factor in aftershock sequences, reproducing both the geodetic (afterslip) and seismic (aftershocks) observables of postseismic deformation. Exploiting this model, we demonstrate how a dense catalog of aftershocks following the 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake in Central Chile can constrain the frictional and rheological properties of the creeping regions of the subduction interface. We first expand the aftershock catalog via a 19 month continuous matched‐filter search and highlight the log‐time expansion of seismicity following the mainshock, suggestive of afterslip as the main driver of aftershock activity. We then show how the time history of aftershocks can constrain the temporal evolution of afterslip. Finally, we use our dense aftershock catalog to estimate the rate and state rheological parameter (a − b)σ as a function of depth and demonstrate that this low value is compatible either with a nearly velocity‐neutral friction (a≈b) in the regions of the megathrust that host afterslip, or an elevated pore fluid pressure (low effective normal stress σ) along the plate interface. Our results present the first snapshot of rheology in depth together with the evolution of the tectonic stressing rate along a plate boundary. The framework described here can be generalized to any tectonic context and provides a novel way to constrain the frictional properties and loading conditions of active faults.
Efficacy of Video Capsule Endoscopy in the Management of Suspected Small Bowel Bleeding in Patients With Continuous Flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices

Background Continuous flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) patients have a high prevalence of gastrointestinal bleeding from the small bowel. Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) is often used for diagnosis in these patients, but efficacy has yet to be determined. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of VCE in the management of CF-LVAD patients with suspected small bowel bleeding by comparing to a non-VCE CF-LVAD control group. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the charts of all patients with CF-LVADs implanted at Stanford Hospital from January 2010 to October 2015. Patients were included in the study if there was a clinical suspicion of small bowel bleeding and either a negative upper endoscopy or colonoscopy. Results A total of 26 patients met inclusion criteria for a total of 15 encounters where VCE was done, and 25 where VCE was not done. There were no statistical differences when comparing these groups in terms of medical therapy use (thalidomide or octreotide), enteroscopy use (double-balloon or push), intervention on lesions, or any 30-day outcomes. There was no advantage to VCE with regard to the composite endpoint time to re-bleed or death related to re-bleeding (median 114 vs. 161 days, P = 0.15) after removing patients who did not get a VCE due to death or critical illness. Conclusions We did not find VCE changed management or outcomes in CF-LVAD patients with suspected small bowel bleeding at our institution when compared to a non-VCE control group. Our experience is small and single center, and larger, multi-center studies could further elucidate the utility of VCE in this patient population.
Biomarkers in precision therapy in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Europe. Because CRC is also a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, a lot of research has been focused on the discovery and development of biomarkers to improve the diagnostic process and to predict treatment outcomes. Up till now only a few biomarkers are recommended by expert panels. Current TNM criteria, however, cause substantial under- and overtreatment of CRC patients. Consequently, there is a growing need for new and efficient biomarkers to ensure optimal treatment allocation. An ideal biomarker should be easily translated into clinical practice, to identify patients who can be spared from treatment or benefit from therapy, ultimately resulting in precision medicine in the future. In this review we aim to provide an overview of a number of frequently studied biomarkers in CRC and, at the same time, we will emphasize the challenges and controversies that withhold the clinical introduction of these biomarkers. We will discuss both prognostic and predictive markers of chemotherapy, aspirin therapy as well as overall therapy toxicity. Currently, only mutant KRAS, mutant BRAF, MSI and the Oncotype DX® Colon Cancer Assay are used in clinical practice. Other biomarker studies showed insufficient evidence to be introduced into clinical practice. Divergent patient selection criteria, absence of validation studies and a large number of single biomarker studies are possibly responsible. We therefore recommend that future studies focus on combining key markers, rather than analysing single markers, standardizing study protocols, and validate the results in independent study cohorts, followed by prospective clinical trials.
Reading vertical text from a computer screen

In Western languages, text is traditionally presented in horizontal lines. However, reading of vertically arranged text might be more efficient because of the elimination of horizontal eye movements. We investigated the effect of vertical arrangement upon reading text presented on a computer screen. Even though vertically aligned text was read at a slower rate than horizontally aligned text, the difference was smaller than in previous studies. Analysis of eye-movement data revealed that there were no differences in fixation numbers and numbers of regressions between vertical formats and the standard-text format. But fixation durations were shorter for the standard-text format than for the vertical formats. Taken together, the results indicate that reading vertically presented text from a display device may be nearly as efficient as reading normal horizontal text. Therefore, the fact that text is normally vertically arranged in small-screen devices is not a usability problem.
Comparison of sedative drugs under peribulbar or topical anesthesia during phacoemulsification.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To compare dexmedetomidine and midazolam+fentanyl sedation primarily based on patient satisfaction during phacoemulsification under topical and peribulbar anesthesia. PATIENTS AND METHODS Prospective, randomized, and double-blind study of 80 American Society of Anesthesiology grade I-II patients who underwent phacoemulsification with local anesthesia under sedation. Patients were divided into four groups (20 patients for each): dexmedetomidine and topical anesthesia, dexmedetomidine and peribulbar anesthesia, midazolam+fentanyl and topical anesthesia, and midazolam+fentanyl and peribulbar anesthesia. Patient and surgeon satisfaction were determined on a 5-point scale. The pain was determined by verbal pain scale intraoperatively and postoperatively. Drugs were given to a Ramsay sedation scale of 3. Topical and peribulbar anesthesia were performed by an ophthalmologist. Hemodynamic, respiratory, and intraocular pressure monitoring was done. Operative and recovery times were recorded. RESULTS In the midazolam+fentanyl groups, better patient and surgeon satisfaction scores were obtained (P < .005), verbal pain scale scores were significantly lower (P < .001), and patients needed less postoperative analgesia. Ramsay sedation scale scores were between 3 and 4 in all patients and there were no significant differences. Intraocular pressure alterations were similar between groups. Recovery time was longer in the dexmedetomidine groups (P < .05). CONCLUSION The study demonstrated that the midazolam+fentanyl combination provided high-level patient satisfaction scores, low-level pain scores, and shorter recovery time. Also, both of the peribulbar and topical anesthesia procedures showed similar efficiency.
Functional test of pedotransfer functions to predict water flow and solute transport with the dual-permeability model MACRO

Estimating pesticide leaching risks at the regional scale requires the ability to completely parameterise a pesticide fate model using only survey data, such as soil and land-use maps. Such parameterisations usually rely on a set of lookup tables and (pedo)transfer functions, relating elementary soil and site properties to model parameters. The aim of this paper is to describe and test a complete set of parameter estimation algorithms developed for the pesticide fate model MACRO, which accounts for preferential flow in soil macropores. We used tracer monitoring data from 16 lysimeter studies, carried out in three European countries, to evaluate the ability of MACRO and this "blind parameterisation" scheme to reproduce measured solute leaching at the base of each lysimeter. We focused on the prediction of early tracer breakthrough due to preferential flow, because this is critical for pesticide leaching. We then calibrated a selected number of parameters in order to assess to what extent the prediction of water and solute leaching could be improved. Our results show that water flow was generally reasonably well predicted (median model efficiency, ME, of 0.42). Although the general pattern of solute leaching was reproduced well by the model, the overall model efficiency was low (median ME = −0.26) due to errors in the timing and magnitude of some peaks. Preferential solute leaching at early pore volumes was also systematically underestimated. Nonetheless, the ranking of soils according to solute loads at early pore volumes was reasonably well estimated (concordance correlation coefficient, CCC, between 0.54 and 0.72). Moreover, we also found that ignoring macropore flow leads to a significant deterioration in the ability of the model to reproduce the observed leaching pattern, and especially the early breakthrough in some soils. Finally, the calibration procedure showed that improving the estimation of solute transport parameters is probably more important than the estimation of water flow parameters. Overall, the results are encouraging for the use of this modelling set-up to estimate pesticide leaching risks at the regional-scale, especially where the objective is to identify vulnerable soils and "source" areas of contamination.
Using Empirical Estimates of Effective Bandwidth in Network-Aware Placement of Virtual Machines in Datacenters

Datacenter operators are increasingly deploying virtualization platforms to improve resource usage efficiency and to simplify the management of tenant applications. Although there are significant efficiency gains to be made, predicting performance becomes a major challenge, especially given the difficulty of allocating datacenter network bandwidth to multitier applications, which generate highly variable traffic flows between their constituent software components. Static bandwidth allocation based on peak traffic rates ensures SLA compliance at the cost of significant overprovisioning, while allocation based on mean traffic rates ensures efficient usage of bandwidth at the cost of QoS violations. We describe MAPLE, a network-aware VM ensemble placement system that uses empirical estimations of the effective bandwidth required between servers to ensure that QoS violations are within targets specified in the SLAs for tenant applications. Moreover, we describe an extended version of MAPLE, termed MAPLEx, which allows the specification of anticolocation constraints relating to the placement of application VMs. Experimental results, obtained using an emulated datacenter, show that, in contrast to the Oktopus network-aware VM placement system, MAPLE can allocate computing and network resources in a manner that balances efficiency of resource utilization with performance predictability.
A Benchmark CAD Mobile Phone Model for Specific Absorption Rate Calculations

Specific absorption rate (SAR) calculation using a computer-aided design (CAD)-based mobile phone model is still a challenging task. Seven international laboratories participated in an interlaboratory comparison of SAR calculations using a CAD-based model of a commercially available dual-band mobile phone. Return loss and peak 10 g average SAR results obtained using six different electromagnetic solvers were compared. Considering the differences in the techniques implemented in the solvers-either time or frequency domain-used for the interlaboratory comparison, overall a good agreement is observed. Proposed as a benchmark, results of the measured return loss and peak 10 g average SAR using the actual mobile phone are also provided.
Identification of recurrent and novel mutations in exon 4 of the LDL receptor gene in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia in the United Kingdom.

A group of 200 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) who were attending lipid clinics in the London area have been screened for four known point mutations and a microdeletion in exon 4 of the low density lipoprotein receptor gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of genomic DNA and either enzyme digestion of the product or hybridization with allele-specific oligonucleotides. A point mutation of Ser156-->Leu that was initially described in a Puerto Rican family was found in one patient of Polish origin on a different haplotype from that described originally and thus is likely to have occurred independently. A 3-bp deletion that causes deletion of amino acid Gly197 was found in six of the patients, who were all of Jewish origin and who shared the same haplotype for the mutant allele. A mutation of Asp206-->Glu that has been described in the Afrikaner population was found in three patients, two of UK origin and one a recent immigrant from South Africa. In all cases the haplotype of the mutant allele was compatible with that described in the original patient. The mutations at Asp154 reported in South African patients and at Glu207 reported in French Canadian patients were not detected in this sample. However, two additional mutations have been identified in this sample: the first, a 2-bp deletion in codon 206 that was found in five patients, all of British ancestry, and the second, a point mutation in a single patient of Irish origin that creates a stop codon at residue Cys210. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Occurrence of anti-D alloantibodies among pregnant women in Kasese District, Western Uganda

Objectives This study was undertaken to determine the distribution of ABO/RhD (rhesus D antigen) blood phenotypes, prevalence of anti-D alloantibodies, and the risk factors for alloimmunization among pregnant women in Kasese District, Western Uganda. Materials and methods Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid-containing plasma samples and serum samples were taken from pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. The blood groups were identified using the microplate grouping method, while the presence of anti-D alloantibodies was detected by the indirect antiglobulin test (IAT). Data were also collected from the pregnant women on the risk factors associated with anti-D alloantibody formation. Results Among the 726 participants, the blood group distribution was as follows: O: 356 (49.%); A: 190 (26.%); B: 152 (21%); and AB: 28 (4%). A total of 28 (3.86%) pregnant women were RhD negative. Anti-D alloantibodies were detected in 88 (12.1%) of the participants; and of these, 13 (14.8%) were RhD negative. Statistically significant risk factors for anti-D alloimmunization included miscarriage, stillbirth, and postpartum hemorrhage. Conclusion Blood group O was the most common among the pregnant women in this study and the prevalence of Rh negativity was 3.8%. The frequency of anti-D alloimmunization among pregnant women in Kasese District was 12.12%, with 85.5% of these being RhD positive. Risk factors such as a history of stillbirths, miscarriages, and incidence of postpartum hemorrhage were significantly associated with anti-D alloimmunization. There is a need to routinely carry out antenatal blood grouping and IAT screening on pregnant women in Uganda to detect anti-D alloimmunization. Given the high prevalence of anti-D alloantibody formation among RhD-positive women, we recommend additional research studies on the role of autoimmunity among antigen-positive women, as well as the occurrence of RhD variants plus their implications on hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, in Uganda.
Combinations of abstract domains for logic programming

Abstract interpretation [7] is a systematic methodology to designstatic program analysis which has been studied extensively in the logicprogramming community, because of the potential for optimizations inlogic programming compilers and the sophistication of the analyses whichrequire conceptual support. With the emergence of efficient genericabstract interpretation algorithms for logic programming, the mainburden in building an analysis is the abstract domain which gives a safeapproximation of the concrete domain of computation. However, accurateabstract domains for logic programming are often complex because of thevariety of analyses to perform their interdependence, and the need tomaintain structural information. The purpose of this paper is to proposeconceptual and software support for the design of abstract domains. Itcontains two main contributions: the notion of open product and ageneric pattern domain. The <? Pub Fmt italic>openproduct<? Pub Fmt /italic> is a new way of combining abstract domainsallowing each combined domain to benefit from information from the othercomponents through the notions of queries and open operations. The openproduct is general-purpose and can be used for other programmingparadigms as well. <? Pub Fmt italic>The generic patterndomain<? Pub Fmt /italic> Pat (<inline-equation><f><ge>R</ge></f> </inline-equation>)automatically upgrades a domain D with structuralinformation yielding a more accurate domain Pat (D) without additionaldesign or implementation cost. The two contributions are orthogonal andcan be combined in various ways to obtain sophisticated domains whileimposing minimal requirements on the designer. Both contributions arecharacterized theoretically and experimentally and were used to designvery complex abstract domains such as PAT(OProp<inline-equation><f>⊗</f></inline-equation>OMode<inline-equation><f>⊗</f><? Pub Caret></inline-equation>OPS) which would be very difficult todesign otherwise. On this last domain, designers need only contributeabout 20% (about 3,400 lines) of the complete system (about 17,700lines).
Short-Term and Sub-Chronic Dietary Exposure to Aspalathin-Enriched Green Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) Extract Affects Rat Liver Function and Antioxidant Status

An aspalathin-enriched green rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) extract (GRE) was fed to male Fischer rats in two independent studies for 28 and 90 days. The average dietary total polyphenol (TP) intake was 75.6 and 62.7 mg Gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/kg body weight (bw)/day over 28 and 90 days, respectively, equaling human equivalent doses (HEDs) of 12.3 and 10.2 GAE mg/kg bw/day. Aspalathin intake of 29.5 mg/kg bw/day represents a HED of 4.8 mg/kg bw/day (90 day study). Consumption of GRE increased feed intake significantly (p < 0.05) compared to the control after 90 days, but no effect on body and organ weight parameters was observed. GRE significantly (p < 0.05) reduced serum total cholesterol and iron levels, whilst significantly (p < 0.05) increasing alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity after 90 days. Endogenous antioxidant enzyme activity in the liver, i.e., catalase and superoxide dismutase activity, was not adversely affected. Glutathione reductase activity significantly (p < 0.05) increased after 28 days, while glutathione (GSH) content was decreased after 90 days, suggesting an altered glutathione redox cycle. Quantitative Real Time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis showed altered expression of certain antioxidant defense and oxidative stress related genes, indicative, among others, of an underlying oxidative stress related to changes in the GSH redox pathway and possible biliary dysfunction.
Autonomous control of microgrids

Application of individual distributed generators can cause as many problems as it may solve. A better way to realize the emerging potential of distributed generation is to take a system approach which views generation and associated loads as a subsystem or a "microgrid". The sources can operate hi parallel to the grid or can operate in island, providing UPS services. The system will disconnect from the utility during large events (i.e. faults, voltage collapses), but may also intentionally disconnect when the quality of power from the grid falls below certain standards. Utilization of waste heat from the sources will increase total efficiency, making the project more financially attractive. Laboratory verification of the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) microgrid control concepts are included
A Randomized Clinical Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Versus Unrestricted Services for Health Anxiety (Hypochondriasis)

Objective: The efficacy and acceptability of existing psychological interventions for health anxiety (hypochondriasis) are limited. In the current study, the authors aimed to assess the impact of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on health anxiety by comparing the impact of MBCT in addition to usual services (unrestricted services) with unrestricted services (US) alone. Method: The 74 participants were randomized to either MBCT in addition to US (n = 36) or US alone (n = 38). Participants were assessed prior to intervention (MBCT or US), immediately following the intervention, and 1 year postintervention. In addition to independent assessments of diagnostic status, standardized self-report measures and assessor ratings of severity and distress associated with the diagnosis of hypochondriasis were used. Results: In the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis (N = 74), MBCT participants had significantly lower health anxiety than US participants, both immediately following the intervention (Cohen's d = 0.48) and at 1-year follow-up (d = 0.48). The per-protocol (PP) analysis (n = 68) between groups effect size was d = 0.49 at postintervention and d = 0.62 at 1-year follow-up. Mediational analysis showed that change in mindfulness mediated the group changes in health anxiety symptoms. Significantly fewer participants allocated to MBCT than to US met criteria for the diagnosis of hypochondriasis, both immediately following the intervention period (ITT 50.0% vs. 78.9%; PP 47.1% vs. 78.4%) and at 1-year follow-up (ITT 36.1% vs. 76.3%; PP 28.1% vs. 75.0%). Conclusions: MBCT may be a useful addition to usual services for patients with health anxiety.