Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of mud volcanism and deep‐seated dewatering processes in the Nankai Trough accretionary prism and Kumano Basin, Japan

Circulation of water at moderate depths in subduction zones is dominantly driven by clay mineral dehydration over distinct pressure and temperature gradients. The signature of these dehydration reactions is found in mud volcano pore waters, however, it is largely unknown, how much of the deep‐seated fluids are emitted at mud volcanoes. To unravel this relation for the region off the Kii Peninsula, Japan, we calculated the water volume that is subducted in the Nankai Trough using input data from IODP holes C0011 and C0012 and the correspondent water volume released from the subducted plate under the Kumano Basin, in an area where 13 mud volcanoes are located. According to our model, water released at depth in the mud volcano area is derived almost entirely from basaltic saponite and sedimentary smectite transformation [up to 96%]. Nonetheless, the mud volcanoes themselves expel ≪1% of the total volume. To test the contribution of the accreted strata and the Kumano Basin fill to the water budget, we run a second model. Water loss due to compaction of sediments and smectite‐illite transition below the basin floor have been calculated. The results were compared with salinity measurements on background cores scattered in the study area to extrapolate the volume of water loss at depth. The comparison of the two methods yielded similar results and led us to conclude that the bulk part of the deep‐seated fluid reenters the hydrosphere via the basin floor, a mechanism rarely taken into account in fluid budgets in the literature.
Effect of khat chewing on 14 selected periodontal bacteria in sub- and supragingival plaque of a young male population.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The habit of chewing khat (Catha edulis) for its amphetamine-like effects is highly prevalent in Yemen and east Africa, and has expanded to Western countries. The purpose of this study was to estimate and compare the prevalence and levels of 14 periodontal bacteria in gingival plaque of khat chewers and khat nonchewers, as well as of khat chewing sides and khat nonchewing sides. METHODS A total of 408 sub- and supragingival plaque samples were collected from 51 young males (29 khat chewers and 22 khat nonchewers; age range 19-28 years) and analyzed using whole genomic DNA probes and checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization. Clinical parameters were recorded for all teeth at six sites per tooth. RESULTS Streptococcus intermedius and Veillonella parvula were significantly more prevalent in the subgingival plaque of chewers, which also showed significantly higher levels of V. parvula and Eikenella corrodens. Similar results were found for the subgingival plaque of the chewing sides compared to the nonchewing sides. However, there was a significantly higher prevalence and higher levels of Tannerella forsythia in the subgingival plaque of the nonchewing sides. No significant differences were observed for the supragingival plaque between the two study groups. There was a significantly lower prevalence of Capnocytophaga gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum in the khat chewing sides, and higher levels of V. parvula and Actinomyces israelii. CONCLUSION The data suggest that khat chewing induces a microbial profile that is not incompatible with gingival health.
Challenges in researching migration status, health and health service use: an intersectional analysis of a South London community

Objectives. This study aimed to investigate the associations between migration status and health-related outcomes and to examine whether and how the effect of migration status changes when it is disaggregated by length of residence, first language, reason for migration and combined with ethnicity. Design. A total of 1698 adults were interviewed from 1076 randomly selected households in two South London boroughs. We described the socio-demographic and socio-economic differences between migrants and non-migrants and compared the prevalence of health-related outcomes by migration status, length of residence, first language, reason for migration and migration status within ethnic groups. Unadjusted models and models adjusted for socio-demographic and socio-economic indicators are presented. Results. Migrants were disadvantaged in terms of socio-economic status but few differences were found between migrant and non-migrants regarding health or health service use indicators; migration status was associated with decreased hazardous alcohol use, functional limitations due to poor mental health and not being registered with a general practitioner. Important differences emerged when migration status was disaggregated by length of residence in the UK, first language, reason for migration and intersected with ethnicity. The association between migration status and functional limitations due to poor mental health was only seen in White migrants, migrants whose first language was not English and migrants who had moved to the UK for work or a better life or for asylum or political reasons. There was no association between migration status and self-rated health overall, but Black African migrants had decreased odds for reporting poor health compared to their non-migrant counterparts [odds ratio = 0.15 (0.05–0.48), p < 0.01]. Conclusions. Disaggregating migration status by length of residence, first language and reason for migration as well as intersecting it with ethnicity leads to better understanding of the effect migration status has on health and health service use.
RESERVIOR CHARACTERISTICS OF KHASIB FORMATION IN AMARA FIELD, SOUTHERN IRAQ

The Khasib Formation of Late Cretaceous (Upper Turonian – Lower Coniacian) is considered important reservoir in the Amara oil field.Knowledge of reservoirs rocks composition including fluid saturation and mineralogical components is essential for formation evaluations. The current study represents an evaluation study of the Khasib Formation using logs and cored data to evaluate the Khasib Formation in terms of its mineralogical, lithological composition and its petrophysical properties such as porosity and fluid saturation. Logs data of 15 drilled wells in the Amara Field and cored intervals of the well Am11 from the Khasib Formation were conventionally processed and integrated. Also, the mineralogical components of the Khasib Formation were revealed using a simultaneous equation approach by computer processed interpretation (CPI), where, combination of 5 logs including gamma ray, sonic, density, neutron and resistivity was integrated.The results show that the Khasib can be subdivided into upper and lower unit. It suggests that the Khasib Formation mainly consists of limestone with abundance of thin shale streaks concentrated at the upper parts. In addition, the lower part has an averaged porosity of about 0.185 (18.5%) and better hydrocarbon saturation, whereas, the upper part has recorded 0.121 (12.1%) averaged porosity. However, the lower part seems to be narrower than the upper part in terms of its thickness. The study furthermore, identified that the Khasib has deposited in a ramp setting during a transgression event caused by sea level change. Further study is needed to reveal the diagenesis process which affected reservoir quality of the Khasib Formation using petrographical techniques and to assess the Khasib Formation using the routine analysis techniques to detect directly porosity and permeability from plug samples.
Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 Metabolizes and Partially Inactivates Pyr-Apelin-13 and Apelin-17: Physiological Effects in the Cardiovascular System

Apelin peptides mediate beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system and are being targeted as potential new drugs. However, apelin peptides have extremely short biological half-lives, and improved understanding of apelin peptide metabolism may lead to the discovery of biologically stable analogues with therapeutic potential. We examined the ability of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to cleave and inactivate pyr-apelin 13 and apelin 17, the dominant apelin peptides. Computer-assisted modeling shows a conserved binding of pyr-apelin 13 and apelin 17 to the ACE2 catalytic site. In ACE2 knockout mice, hypotensive action of pyr-apelin 13 and apelin 17 was potentiated, with a corresponding greater elevation in plasma apelin levels. Similarly, pharmacological inhibition of ACE2 potentiated the vasodepressor action of apelin peptides. Biochemical analysis confirmed that recombinant human ACE2 can cleave pyr-apelin 13 and apelin 17 efficiently, and apelin peptides are degraded slower in ACE2-deficient plasma. The biological relevance of ACE2-mediated proteolytic processing of apelin peptides was further supported by the reduced potency of pyr-apelin 12 and apelin 16 on the activation of signaling pathways and nitric oxide production from endothelial cells. Importantly, although pyr-apelin 13 and apelin 17 rescued contractile function in a myocardial ischemia–reperfusion model, ACE2 cleavage products, pyr-apelin 12 and 16, were devoid of these cardioprotective effects. We designed and synthesized active apelin analogues that were resistant to ACE2-mediated degradation, thereby confirming that stable apelin analogues can be designed as potential drugs. We conclude that ACE2 represents a major negative regulator of apelin action in the vasculature and heart.
Mentoring Fathers of Children Newly Diagnosed with T1DM

PurposeTo pilot test a social support intervention for fathers of children <13 years old newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Design and MethodsThe pilot study was part of a larger randomized, controlled clinical trial. Father participants (28 fathers of children newly diagnosed) were recruited from two pediatric diabetes centers. For 12 months fathers (n = 19) and their spouses in the experimental arm received social support (home visits and phone calls). Control group fathers (n = 9) and their spouses received the phone number of an experienced parent (but not formally educated to provide social support) to call as needed. ResultsFathers in the intervention group had significantly greater confidence but scored higher on worry at 12 months than control group fathers. Fathers in the two groups did not differ significantly in disease-related concerns or perceived disease impact on the family, nor did they differ significantly in perceived amount and helpfulness of their daily management. However, mothers overall perceived fathers as contributing more care and help than fathers perceived themselves (p > .10). Fathers in the experimental arm identified parent mentors as individuals they would seek advice regarding day-to-day management and community agencies. Over this 4.5 year study, 6 of 28 father participants and two of the three father mentors dropped out. Clinical ImplicationsNurses caring for families with young children newly diagnosed with T1DM should consider fathers social support needs and encourage their participation in day-to-day management.
Rats and humans differ in processing collinear visual features

Behavioral studies in humans and rats demonstrate that visual detection of a target stimulus is sensitive to surrounding spatial patterns. In both species, the detection of an oriented visual target is affected when the surrounding region contains flanking stimuli that are collinear to the target. In many studies, collinear flankers have been shown to improve performance in humans, both absolutely (compared to performance with no flankers) and relative to non-collinear flankers. More recently, collinear flankers have been shown to impair performance in rats both absolutely and relative to non-collinear flankers. However, these observations spanned different experimental paradigms. Past studies in humans have shown that the magnitude and even sign of flanker effects can depend critically on the details of stimulus and task design. Therefore either task differences or species could explain the opposite findings. Here we provide a direct comparison of behavioral data between species and show that these differences persist--collinear flankers improve performance in humans, and impair performance in rats--in spite of controls that match stimuli, experimental paradigm, and learning procedure. There is evidence that the contrasts of the target and the flankers could affect whether surround processing is suppressive or facilitatory. In a second experiment, we explored a range of contrast conditions in the rat, to determine if contrast could explain the lack of collinear facilitation. Using different pairs of target and flanker contrast, the rat's collinear impairment was confirmed to be robust across a range of contrast conditions. We conclude that processing of collinear features is indeed different between rats and humans. We speculate that the observed difference between rat and human is caused by the combined impact of differences in the statistics in natural retinal images, the representational capacity of neurons in visual cortex, and attention.
Cerebral Metastases from Malignant Melanoma: Current Treatment Strategies, Advances in Novel Therapeutics and Future Directions

Of all primary cancers in humans, melanoma has the highest propensity to metastasize to the brain. The prognosis of patients with this disease is extremely poor. Due to its radioresistance and poor response to existing chemotherapeutic regimes, no treatment options other than surgical extirpation, when feasible, have been shown to be effective. An understanding of the underlying tumor biology therefore remains the cornerstone of offering new hope in the treatment. In this review, we comment on the current treatment strategies for melanoma brain metastases and summarize some recent experimental findings from our laboratory with potential for the development of target specific antitumor therapies.
Phylogenetic Diversity and Antifungal Activity of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Tephrosia purpurea

Abstract Sixty-one endophytic fungus strains with different colony morphologies were isolated from the leaves, stems and roots of Tephrosia purpurea with colonization rates of 66.95%, 37.50%, and 26.92%, respectively. Based on internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis, 61 isolates were classified into 16 genera belonging to 3 classes under the phylum Ascomycota. Of the 61 isolates, 6 (9.84%) exhibited antifungal activity against one or more indicator plant pathogenic fungi according to the dual culture test. Isolate TPL25 had the broadest antifungal spectrum of activity, and isolate TPL35 was active against 5 plant pathogenic fungi. Furthermore, culture filtrates of TPL25 and TPL35 exhibited greater than 80% growth inhibition against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. We conclude that the endophytic fungal strains TPL25 and TPL35 are promising sources of bioactive compounds.
Enhancing interactive public displays with social networking services

In this paper, we suggest utilizing modern social networking services for building versatile applications for interactive public displays. We demonstrate the functionality and potential of this approach by presenting a set of services deployed on top of a network of public displays, utilized in a longitudinal study in an authentic city setting. We further propose utilizing users' personal online profiles for building personalized and appealing public social services, and suggest that this may enhance the attractiveness of interactive public displays. Results of this study indicate that using interactive public displays is inherently a social event, and that services supporting group use and sociality succeed in urban smart spaces.
A two-dimensional discrete fractional Fourier transform-based pansharpening scheme

ABSTRACT In this paper, a new approach for fusion of multi-spectral (MS) and panchromatic (Pan) images based on 2D-discrete fractional Fourier transform (2D-DFRFT) is proposed. The proposed technique is closer in approach to the other filtering-based pansharpening schemes existing in the literature. In the proposed method histogram equalized Pan image is transformed using the 2D-DFRFT and further used to generate the pansharpened image using appropriate pansharpening rule. The angle parameters associated with the 2D-DFRFT provide additional degrees of freedom which are optimized by single-objective particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for finding better pansharpening results. Simulation results of the proposed technique carried out in MATLAB are presented for IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellite images and compared with existing fusion methods in terms of both visual perception and objective metrics such as Q-index (Q4), Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), relative dimensionless global error (ERGAS) and quality with-no reference (QNR). It is observed that the proposed pansharpening scheme provides improved spectral and spatial quality as compared with the existing schemes. The effects of aliasing and mis-registration errors on the proposed method are also investigated and compared with existing pansharpening methods. It is seen that the proposed method is robust against aliasing and mis-registration errors.
An Embedded Suggestive Interface for Making Home Videos

This paper describes a novel suggestive interface embedded in a smart camera prototype aimed at aiding home movie makers. We focus on the problem of generating shot capture suggestions suitable to the user filming context, intended audience and style, and formulate a novel aesthetic measure by which to judge proposed suggestions. Tight coupling between media and software allows the aesthetic measure to be sensitive to previous footage captures, including those taken without the system prompting, in a manner allowing flexible, end-to-end migration of the authoring task from user to machine. An approximate method is used to find timely, near-optimal solutions to the aesthetic measure. Qualitative evaluation in the form of a user study shows it to be a promising approach to the flexible home movie authoring context
GaN-on-Si hotspot thermal management using direct-die-attached microchannel heat sink

GaN-on-Si device posts new challenge to thermal management with its highly concentrated heat flux dissipation from HEMT. In order to characterize GaN-on-Si hotspot and to develop an effective cooling solution, a customized thermal test chip is built with highly doped resistors to produce tiny (150 × 350 μm2) hotspots. Direct-die-attached copper microchannel heat sink is used instead of the conventional slap on heat sink to significantly improve the heat removal rate from the device. By using Infra-red (IR) thermography, the current experimental work demonstrated the cooling capability of microchannel heat sink up to 11.9 kW/cm2 hotspot heat flux with a maximum hotspot temperature of 175 °C.
Strategies for the follow‐up of positive results in the in vitro genotoxicity assays—An international collaborative initiative

Identification of potential mutagens plays a critical role in the overall safety assessment of chemicals and pharmaceuticals because gene and chromosomal mutations can potentially lead to adverse health consequences, including cancer, reproductive impairment, developmental anomalies, or genetic diseases. Currently, a battery of tests is used to screen for the potential of an agent to induce mutations or chromosomal damage. This battery includes tests conducted in bacteria (popularly known as the Ames test), in cultured mammalian cells, and in rodents. While these tests have been generally effective in preventing the introduction of potent genotoxic agents into the market place, experience of the past couple of decades has also revealed that the in vitro mammalian cell culture-based assays for clastogenicity/mutagenicity generally yield a high rate of positive results. Importantly, a large number of the mammalian in vitro positive findings have not been confirmed in in vivo genotoxicity tests and have shown to be poor predictors of potential carcinogenicity in rodent bioassays. These findings raised significant concerns regarding the specificity of these assays and the relevance of the results in human risk assessment. In addition, positive in vitro results generally lead to further follow-up studies that are resource intensive including unnecessary use of animals. Furthermore, such positive in vitro results often lead to prohibiting the use and/or development of compounds of significant societal value despite the availability of other ancillary toxicity data indicating negligible concern for adverse human effects. Genetic toxicologists have recognized that there are still ample opportunities to improve and enhance the approaches used in testing, including the type of assays used, the follow-up strategies employed to resolve the relevance of positive findings, and the strategies used for data interpretation. Taking all of these points into consideration, scientists from industry, academia, and the government representing North America, Europe, and Japan initiated a project in 2006 under the auspices of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), a global branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). This initiative titled ‘‘Relevance and Follow-up of Positive Results from In Vitro Genetic Toxicity’’ (IVGT) had the following key objectives:
Prediction of Boundaries Between Intrinsically Ordered and Disordered Protein Regions

Using proteins with both disordered and ordered regions collected through literature searches and database scanning, we assembled a set of 24-residue long segments centered on their order/disorder boundaries as well as a larger set of non-boundary segments consisting of either order or disorder. We analyzed position-specific amino acid compositions around the order/disorder boundaries and found more than thirty significant (p < 0.05) compositional differences between boundary and non-boundary data. From this analysis, we constructed several logistic regression predictors of order/disorder boundaries using slightly different data modeling approaches. Exact boundary prediction accuracies were estimated to be in the range from 74% to 80% for the different predictors.