Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of low-temperature cracking in newly constructed high-modulus asphalt concrete base course of a motorway pavement

The paper presents the issue of low-temperature transverse cracks which have developed in newly constructed base courses made of high-modulus asphalt concrete mix (HMAC). Numerous transverse cracks developed in the analysed HMAC base during the winter season before the pavement was actually completed, both at the transverse joint locations and in the areas between them. This had not happened so far on such a scale during road construction projects in Poland. The research included both field examination and laboratory testing of high-modulus asphalt concrete used for construction of the base course of the A1 motorway pavement, followed by computational analysis to investigate the causes and mechanism of the analysed pavement distress. The first part of this paper describes the pavement structure, gives the main requirements applicable to HMAC, and presents the results of the cracking survey, visual assessment and laboratory tests carried out on cores cut from the analysed pavement. Later in the article, the causes of cracking are analysed, taking into account the temperature of air and pavement, performance grade assessment of the bitumen used in the works, homogeneity of the constructed layer and calculated thermal stresses induced in HMAC layers. The examinations and analyses allowed to conclude that the main causes of cracking included too stiff mix, taking into account the climate of Poland, deviations from the pre-defined installation practice during the construction of the base course and leaving the HMAC surface unprotected by the overlying layers: binder and wearing courses during winter. Finally, compliance with the best construction practice during placement of HMAC mixes and use of softer or polymer-modified bitumens are indicated as being critical to avoiding distress of HMAC pavement courses.
Bone Mass and Hip Axis Length in Healthy Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White American Youths

The primary objective of this study was to examine the associations of ethnicity, diet (calcium, protein, energy), and weight‐bearing activity with dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA)‐measured bone mass and hip axis length (HAL) in 423 Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and non‐Hispanic Caucasians, aged 9–25 years. Bone mass was expressed as bone mineral content (BMC), bone mineral density (BMD), and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD). The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression, after stratifying for gender and pubertal stage and adjusting for height and weight. With few exceptions, Asians and Hispanics had comparable bone mass to whites at all pubertal stages. Greater femoral neck BMAD in black than white females was observed at all pubertal stages. Black males displayed greater BMD and BMAD than white males at all sites in early puberty and at the femoral neck in maturity. Calcium was positively and protein negatively related to BMAD at the femoral neck in early pubertal females. Among males, calcium was negatively associated with whole body BMC and BMD and spine BMD and BMAD in midpuberty. Weight‐bearing activity was not associated with bone mass in females; in males, it was positively related only to femoral neck BMC in early puberty. There was an absence of evidence for ethnic differences in HAL among females. In males, we observed shorter HAL in mature Asians and blacks than whites. Neither diet nor activity was associated with HAL.
Sialylation and Muscle Performance: Sialic Acid Is a Marker of Muscle Ageing

Sialic acids (Sia) are widely expressed as terminal monosaccharides on eukaryotic glycoconjugates. They are involved in many cellular functions, such as cell–cell interaction and signal recognition. The key enzyme of sialic acid biosynthesis is the bifunctional UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase (GNE), which catalyses the first two steps of Sia biosynthesis in the cytosol. In this study we analysed sialylation of muscles in wild type (C57Bl/6 GNE +/+) and heterozygous GNE-deficient (C57Bl/6 GNE +/−) mice. We measured a significantly lower performance in the initial weeks of a treadmill exercise in C57Bl/6 GNE +/− mice compared to wild type C57Bl/6 GNE +/+animals. Membrane bound Sia of C57Bl/6 GNE +/− mice were reduced by 33–53% at week 24 and by 12–15% at week 80 in comparison to C57Bl/6 GNE +/+mice. Interestingly, membrane bound Sia concentration increased with age of the mice by 16–46% in C57Bl/6 GNE +/+, but by 87–207% in C57Bl/6 GNE +/−. Furthermore we could identify specific morphological changes in aged muscles. Here we propose that increased Sia concentrations in muscles are a characteristic feature of ageing and could be used as a marker for age-related changes in muscle.
Equivalent Porous Media (EPM) Simulation of Groundwater Hydraulics and Contaminant Transport in Karst Aquifers

Karst aquifers have a high degree of heterogeneity and anisotropy in their geologic and hydrogeologic properties which makes predicting their behavior difficult. This paper evaluates the application of the Equivalent Porous Media (EPM) approach to simulate groundwater hydraulics and contaminant transport in karst aquifers using an example from the North Coast limestone aquifer system in Puerto Rico. The goal is to evaluate if the EPM approach, which approximates the karst features with a conceptualized, equivalent continuous medium, is feasible for an actual project, based on available data and the study scale and purpose. Existing National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data and previous hydrogeological U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) studies were used to define the model input parameters. Hydraulic conductivity and specific yield were estimated using measured groundwater heads over the study area and further calibrated against continuous water level data of three USGS observation wells. The water-table fluctuation results indicate that the model can practically reflect the steady-state groundwater hydraulics (normalized RMSE of 12.4%) and long-term variability (normalized RMSE of 3.0%) at regional and intermediate scales and can be applied to predict future water table behavior under different hydrogeological conditions. The application of the EPM approach to simulate transport is limited because it does not directly consider possible irregular conduit flow pathways. However, the results from the present study suggest that the EPM approach is capable to reproduce the spreading of a TCE plume at intermediate scales with sufficient accuracy (normalized RMSE of 8.45%) for groundwater resources management and the planning of contamination mitigation strategies.
tCal: transcriptional probability calculator using thermodynamic model

UNLABELLED Thermodynamic model has been proposed as a realistic model of gene transcriptional regulation in bacteria, in which transcription probability calculation is based on physical interpretation of biological knowledge. We extend the published results in this area, and derive a relatively new model which could serve as a generalized form of previous results. To facilitate the application in gene network modeling studies, we implement our model in a Python module, 'tCal'. With minimum programming efforts, user can use tCal to build transcription units, and either compute the transcription probabilities, or construct SBML models of regulatory networks. AVAILABILITY tCal module and its online version can be found at: http://bioinformatics.cau. edu.cn/tCal. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The convex distance inequality for dependent random variables, with applications to the stochastic travelling salesman and other problems

We prove concentration inequalities for general functions of weakly dependent random variables satisfying the Dobrushin condition. In particular, we show Talagrand's convex distance inequality for this type of dependence. We apply our bounds to a version of the stochastic salesman problem, the Steiner tree problem, the total magnetisation of the Curie-Weiss model with external field, and exponential random graph models. Our proof uses the exchangeable pair method for proving concentration inequalities introduced by Chatterjee (2005). Another key ingredient of the proof is a subclass of $(a,b)$-self-bounding functions, introduced by Boucheron, Lugosi and Massart (2009).
Depressor effect of blocking angiotensin subtype 1 receptors in anterior hypothalamus.

Previous studies have shown that the anterior hypothalamic area participates in the centrally mediated pressor response to exogenous angiotensin II. The current study was designed to test the hypothesis that endogenous anterior hypothalamic angiotensin II plays a significant role in blood pressure control. Type 1 angiotensin II receptors in the anterior hypothalamic area were blocked by local microinjection of DuP 753 (2-n-butyl-4-chloro-5-(hydroxymethyl)-1-[(2'-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl) biphenyl-4-yl)methyl]imidazole, potassium salt), a highly selective nonpeptide antagonist. DuP 753 (20 or 40 micrograms; in 100 nl artificial cerebrospinal fluid) or vehicle alone was microinjected into the anterior hypothalamic area of conscious NaCl-sensitive spontaneously hypertensive rats and Wistar-Kyoto controls. DuP 753 caused significant dose-related decreases in mean arterial pressure (maximal decrease, 22.5 +/- 1.8 mm Hg) with unchanged heart rate in NaCl-sensitive spontaneously hypertensive rats but effected no change in Wistar-Kyoto rats. Injections of equal volumes of artificial cerebrospinal fluid into the anterior hypothalamic area had no effect in either strain. Further, microinjection of DuP 753 into the posterior hypothalamic area produced no significant effect on blood pressure or heart rate in NaCl-sensitive spontaneously hypertensive rats. Microinjection into the anterior hypothalamic area of the selective type 2 angiotensin II receptor antagonist PD 123319 did not affect blood pressure or heart rate in NaCl-sensitive spontaneously hypertensive rats. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Efficient Computation of Address Sequences in Data Parallel Programs Using Closed Forms for Basis Vectors

Arrays are mapped to processors through a two-step process? alignment followed by distribution? in data-parallel languages such as High Performance Fortran. This process of mapping creates disjoint pieces of the array that are locally owned by each processor. An HPF compiler that generates code for array statements must compute the sequence of local memory addresses accessed by each processor and the sequence of sends and receives for a given processor to access nonlocal data. In this paper, we present an approach to the address sequence generation problem using the theory of integer lattices. The set of elements referenced can be generated by integer linear combinations of basis vectors. Unlike other work on this problem, we derive closed form expressions for the basis vectors as a function of the mapping of data. Using these basis vectors and exploiting the fact that there is a repeating pattern in the access sequence, we derive highly optimized code that generates the pattern at runtime. The code generated uses table-lookup of the pattern. Experimental results show that our approach is faster than other solutions to this problem.
A Homomolecular Porous Network at a Cu(111) Surface

Anthraquinone molecules self-assemble on a Cu(111) surface into a large two-dimensional honeycomb network (\batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\sqrt{304}{\times}\sqrt{304}\) \end{document})R23° with pore diameters of ≈50 Å. The spontaneous formation of a pattern containing pores roughly five times larger than the size of the constituent molecules is unprecedented. The network originates from a delicate balance between substrate-mediated repulsion and intermolecular attraction involving an unusual chemical motif: hydrogen bonding between a carbonyl oxygen and an aromatic hydrogen atom. Substrate-mediated long-range adsorbate-adsorbate repulsion has been observed on anisotropic surfaces and in the context of the absence of pattern formation. Its applicability for the design of tailored molecular films is explored here.
The Genetic Contribution to Dental Maturation

It has been established in the literature that there is a major genetic impact on tooth size (Potter et al., 1976; Corruccini and Sharma, 1985; Sharma et al., 1985), tooth morphology (Kraus and Furr, 1952; Biggerstaff, 1970), and root formation (Garn et al., 1960; Green and Aszkler, 1970). None of the studies concerning root formation, however, used the more advanced method of path analysis and model fitting to estimate genetic influence. The aim of the present study was to determine the genetic and environmental influence on dental maturation. Dental age scores were determined on panoramic radiographs of 58 pairs of twins-26 monozygotic (MZ) and 32 dizygotic (DZ)-with the method of Demirjian et al. (1973). No mirror-image effect was found between the sides of the same individual or between twin members, so dental maturation seems to be symmetrical for both left and right sides of the mandible. Correlation coefficients were significantly higher in MZ than in DZ twins, which suggests a genetic influence. Model fitting showed that the variation in dental age was best explained by additive genetic influences (A-component) (43%) and by environmental factors common to both twins (C-component) (50%). The specific environment (E-component) added only 8% to the model. The importance of the common environmental factor can be explained by the fact that twins, being raised together, share the same prenatal, natal, and immediate post-natal conditions that are of importance for the formation of the teeth.
Mechanistic correlations between two itch biomarkers, cytokine interleukin‐31 and neuropeptide β‐endorphin, via STAT3/calcium axis in atopic dermatitis

Summary Background Itch is the cardinal symptom of atopic dermatitis (AD). β‐Endorphin, a neuropeptide, is increased in both AD skin and sera. Interleukin (IL)‐31, an itch‐relevant cytokine, activates IL‐31 receptors in keratinocytes. However, how IL‐31 and β‐endorphin interact in AD skin remains elusive.
Salience attribution and its relationship to cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms

Background Cannabis is a widely used drug associated with increased risk for psychosis. The dopamine hypothesis of psychosis postulates that altered salience processing leads to psychosis. We therefore tested the hypothesis that cannabis users exhibit aberrant salience and explored the relationship between aberrant salience and dopamine synthesis capacity. Method We tested 17 cannabis users and 17 age- and sex-matched non-user controls using the Salience Attribution Test, a probabilistic reward-learning task. Within users, cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms were measured with the Psychotomimetic States Inventory. Dopamine synthesis capacity, indexed as the influx rate constant K i cer , was measured in 10 users and six controls with 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]fluoro-l-phenylalanine positron emission tomography. Results There was no significant difference in aberrant salience between the groups [F 1,32 = 1.12, p = 0.30 (implicit); F 1,32 = 1.09, p = 0.30 (explicit)]. Within users there was a significant positive relationship between cannabis-induced psychotic symptom severity and explicit aberrant salience scores (r = 0.61, p = 0.04) and there was a significant association between cannabis dependency/abuse status and high implicit aberrant salience scores (F 1,15 = 5.8, p = 0.03). Within controls, implicit aberrant salience was inversely correlated with whole striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (r = −0.91, p = 0.01), whereas this relationship was non-significant within users (difference between correlations: Z = −2.05, p = 0.04). Conclusions Aberrant salience is positively associated with cannabis-induced psychotic symptom severity, but is not seen in cannabis users overall. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the link between cannabis use and psychosis involves alterations in salience processing. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these cognitive abnormalities are pre-existing or caused by long-term cannabis use.
Backward masking as a measure of slow processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Three groups of hospitalized adolescents (schizophrenics, schizotypal personalities, and borderline personality adolescent adjustment reactions) with 10 subjects in each group were compared for their ability to identify masked and unmasked stimuli. Results revealed that the schizophrenic group required longer minimum exposure durations for criterion identification of unmasked stimuli than the other two groups (p < .01). Under conditions of visual backward masking, however, schizotypal personalities as well as schizophrenics showed a relative deficit. Results supported Heston's notion that schizophrenia spectrum disorders may be different degrees of expression of the same underlying defect. Previous results with visual backward masking in adults were also extended to adolescents. The findings were consistent with a slow information processing hypothesis for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Theoretical implications of this hypothesis are discussed.
Water sorption and blistering of GFRP laminates with varying structures

Abstract The microstructures, water absorption as well as blistering was studied for bi- and tri- axial glass fibre vinyl ester and polyester -matrix laminates coated with gel coat layer and uncoated. The effect of manufacturing technique on water sorption characteristics was considered. It was found that water sorption characteristics of GFRP depend on manufacturing methods. The least water intake was found for specimens having perfect microstructure due to manufacturing by infusion process. Water sorption saturation value was reached after ca. 50 days of accelerated test at 70°C and was found to correspond to 250 days conditioning at 20°C. Blistering evolution was illustrated and SEM images shown corresponding to degradation of the gel coat layer and the laminate during the exposure in water.
Interplay Between Endocannabinoids, Steroids and Cytokines in the Control of Human Reproduction

The use of marijuana, which today is the most used recreational drug, has been demonstrated to affect adversely reproduction. Marijuana smokers, both men and women, show impaired fertility, owing to defective signalling pathways, aberrant hormonal regulation, or wrong timing during embryo implantation. Anandamide (N‐arachidonoylethanolamine, AEA) and 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG) mimic Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive principle of Cannabis sativa, by binding to both the brain‐type (CB1) and the spleen‐type (CB2) cannabinoid receptors. These ‘endocannabinoids’ exert several actions either in the central nervous system or in peripheral tissues, and are metabolised by specific enzymes that synthesise or hydrolyse them. In this review, we shall describe the elements that constitute the endocannabinod system (ECS), in order to put in a better perspective the role of this system in the control of human fertility, both in females and males. In addition, we shall discuss the interplay between ECS, sex hormones and cytokines, which generates an endocannabinoid−hormone−cytokine array critically involved in the control of human reproduction.
Letermovir and inhibitors of the terminase complex: a promising new class of investigational antiviral drugs against human cytomegalovirus

Infection with cytomegalovirus is prevalent in immunosuppressed patients. In solid organ transplant and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, cytomegalovirus infection is associated with high morbidity and preventable mortality. Prevention and treatment of cytomegalovirus with currently approved antiviral drugs is often associated with side effects that sometimes preclude their use. Moreover, cytomegalovirus has developed mutations that confer resistance to standard antiviral drugs. During the last decade, there have been calls to develop novel antiviral drugs that could provide better options for prevention and treatment of cytomegalovirus. Letermovir (AIC246) is a highly specific antiviral drug that is currently undergoing clinical development for the management of cytomegalovirus infection. It acts by inhibiting the viral terminase complex. Letermovir is highly potent in vitro and in vivo against cytomegalovirus. Because of a distinct mechanism of action, it does not exhibit cross-resistance with other antiviral drugs. It is predicted to be active against strains that are resistant to ganciclovir, foscarnet, and cidofovir. To date, early-phase clinical trials suggest a very low incidence of adverse effects. Herein, we present a comprehensive review on letermovir, from its postulated novel mechanism of action to the results of most recent clinical studies.
Task-modulated “what” and “where” pathways in human auditory cortex

Human neuroimaging studies suggest that localization and identification of relevant auditory objects are accomplished via parallel parietal-to-lateral-prefrontal “where” and anterior-temporal-to-inferior-frontal “what” pathways, respectively. Using combined hemodynamic (functional MRI) and electromagnetic (magnetoencephalography) measurements, we investigated whether such dual pathways exist already in the human nonprimary auditory cortex, as suggested by animal models, and whether selective attention facilitates sound localization and identification by modulating these pathways in a feature-specific fashion. We found a double dissociation in response adaptation to sound pairs with phonetic vs. spatial sound changes, demonstrating that the human nonprimary auditory cortex indeed processes speech-sound identity and location in parallel anterior “what” (in anterolateral Heschl’s gyrus, anterior superior temporal gyrus, and posterior planum polare) and posterior “where” (in planum temporale and posterior superior temporal gyrus) pathways as early as ≈70–150 ms from stimulus onset. Our data further show that the “where” pathway is activated ≈30 ms earlier than the “what” pathway, possibly enabling the brain to use top-down spatial information in auditory object perception. Notably, selectively attending to phonetic content modulated response adaptation in the “what” pathway, whereas attending to sound location produced analogous effects in the “where” pathway. This finding suggests that selective-attention effects are feature-specific in the human nonprimary auditory cortex and that they arise from enhanced tuning of receptive fields of task-relevant neuronal populations.
Analysis and Design Trade-Offs for Power Network Inter-Area Oscillations

Conventional analysis and control approaches to inter-area oscillations in bulk power systems are based on a modal perspective. Typically, inter-area oscillations are identified from spatial profiles of poorly damped modes, and they are damped using carefully tuned decentralized controllers. To improve upon the limitations of conventional decentralized strategies, recent efforts aim at distributed wide-area control which involves the communication of remote signals. Here, we introduce a novel approach to the analysis and control of interarea oscillations. Our framework is based on a stochastically driven system with performance outputs chosen such that the H2 norm is associated with incoherent inter-area oscillations. We show that an analysis of the output covariance matrix offers new insights relative to modal approaches. Next, we leverage the recently proposed sparsity-promoting optimal control approach to design controllers that use relative angle measurements and simultaneously optimize the closed-loop performance and the control architecture. For the IEEE 39 New England model, we investigate performance trade-offs of different control architectures and show that optimal retuning of decentralized control strategies can effectively guard against inter-areas oscillations.