Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age‐related differences in practice‐dependent resting‐state functional connectivity related to motor sequence learning

Decreased neural plasticity is observed with healthy ageing in the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex thought to participate in motor learning and memory consolidation processes. In the present magnetoencephalography study, the post‐training reorganization of resting‐state functional connectivity (rsFC) and its relation with motor learning and early consolidation in 14 young (19–30 years) and 14 old (66–70 years) healthy participants were investigated. At the behavioral level, participants were trained on a motor sequence learning task then retested 20–30 min later for transient offline gains in performance. Using a sensorimotor seed‐based approach, rsFC relying on beta band power envelope correlation was estimated immediately before and 10 min after the learning episode. Post‐training changes in rsFC (from before to after learning) were correlated with motor learning performance and with the offline improvement in performance within the hour after learning. Young and old participants exhibited differential patterns of sensorimotor‐related rsFC, bearing specific relationships with motor learning and consolidation. Our findings suggest that rsFC changes following learning reflect the offline processing of the new motor skill and contribute to the early memory consolidation within the hour after learning. Furthermore, differences in post‐training changes in rsFC between young and old participants support the hypothesis that ageing modulates the neural circuits underlying the learning of a new motor skill and the early subsequent consolidation stages. Hum Brain Mapp 38:923–937, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Performance Testing of Thermal Interface Filler Materials in a Bolted Aluminum Interface Under Thermal/Vacuum Conditions

A thermal interface material is one of the many tools that are often used as part of the thermal control scheme for space-based applications. These materials are placed between, for example, an avionics box and a cold plate, in order to improve the conduction heat transfer so that proper temperatures can be maintained. Historically at Marshall Space Flight Center, CHO-THERM@ 1671 has primarily been used for applications where an interface material was deemed necessary. However, there have been numerous alternatives come on the market in recent years. It was decided that a number of these materials should be tested against each other to see if there were better performing alternatives. The tests were done strictly to compare the thermal performance of the materials relative to each other under repeatable conditions and they do not take into consideration other design issues such as off-gassing, electrical conduction or isolation, etc. This paper details the materials tested, test apparatus, procedures, and results of these tests.
Cost Analysis of PAPNET-Assisted vs. Conventional Pap Smear Evaluation in Primary Screening of Cervical Smears

OBJECTIVE To assess the difference in costs between PAPNET-assisted and conventional microscopy of cervical smears when used as a primary screening tool. STUDY DESIGN We performed time measurements of the initial screening of smears by four cytotechnologists in one laboratory. Time was measured in 816 conventionally screened smears and in 614 smears with PAPNET-assisted screening. Data were collected on the components of initial screening, clerical activities and other activities in the total work time of cytotechnologists in the routine situation and on resource requirements for both techniques. RESULTS PAPNET saved an average of 22% on initial screening time per smear. Due to costs of processing and additional equipment, the costs of PAPNET-assisted screening were estimated to be $2.85 (and at least $1.79) higher per smear than conventional microscopy. The difference in costs is sensitive to the rate of time saving, the possibility of saving on quality control procedures and the component of the initial screening time in the total work time of cytotechnologists. CONCLUSION Although PAPNET is time saving as compared with conventional microscopy, the associated reduction in personnel costs is outweighed by the costs of scanning the slides and additional equipment. This conclusion holds under a variety of assumptions. Using PAPNET instead of conventional microscopy as a primary screening tool will make cervical cancer screening less cost-effective unless the costs of PAPNET are considerably reduced and its sensitivity and/or specificity are considerably improved.
Preliminary Study of Soil Available Nutrient Simulation Using a Modified WOFOST Model and Time-Series Remote Sensing Observations

The approach of using multispectral remote sensing (RS) to estimate soil available nutrients (SANs) has been recently developed and shows promising results. This method overcomes the limitations of commonly used methods by building a statistical model that connects RS-based crop growth and nutrient content. However, the stability and accuracy of this model require improvement. In this article, we replaced the statistical model by integrating the World Food Studies (WOFOST) model and time series of remote sensing (T-RS) observations to ensure stability and accuracy. Time series of HJ-1 A/B data was assimilated into the WOFOST model to extrapolate crop growth simulations from a single point to a large area using a specific assimilation method. Because nutrient-limited growth within the growing season is required and the SAN parameters can only be used at the end of the growing season in the original model, the WOFOST model was modified. Notably, the calculation order was changed, and new soil nutrient uptake algorithms were implemented in the model for nutrient-limited growth estimation. Finally, experiments were conducted in the spring maize plots of Hongxing Farm to analyze the effects of nutrient stress on crop growth and the SAN simulation accuracy. The results confirm the differences in crop growth status caused by a lack of soil nutrients. The new approach can take advantage of these differences to provide better SAN estimates. In general, the new approach can overcome the limitations of existing methods and simulate the SAN status with reliable accuracy.
A modified and calibrated drift-diffusion-reaction model for time-domain analysis of charging phenomena in electron-beam irradiated insulators

This paper presents a modified self-consistent drift-diffusion-reaction model suitable for the analysis of electron-beam irradiated insulators at both short and long time scales. A novel boundary condition is employed that takes into account the reverse electron current and a fully dynamic trap-assisted generation-recombination mechanism is implemented. Sensitivity of the model with respect to material parameters is investigated and a calibration procedure is developed that reproduces experimental yield-energy curves for uncharged insulators. Long-time charging and yield variations are analyzed for stationary defocused and focused beams as well as moving beams dynamically scanning composite insulators.
An Arabidopsis Example of Association Mapping in Structured Samples

A potentially serious disadvantage of association mapping is the fact that marker-trait associations may arise from confounding population structure as well as from linkage to causative polymorphisms. Using genome-wide marker data, we have previously demonstrated that the problem can be severe in a global sample of 95 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, and that established methods for controlling for population structure are generally insufficient. Here, we use the same sample together with a number of flowering-related phenotypes and data-perturbation simulations to evaluate a wider range of methods for controlling for population structure. We find that, in terms of reducing the false-positive rate while maintaining statistical power, a recently introduced mixed-model approach that takes genome-wide differences in relatedness into account via estimated pairwise kinship coefficients generally performs best. By combining the association results with results from linkage mapping in F2 crosses, we identify one previously known true positive and several promising new associations, but also demonstrate the existence of both false positives and false negatives. Our results illustrate the potential of genome-wide association scans as a tool for dissecting the genetics of natural variation, while at the same time highlighting the pitfalls. The importance of study design is clear; our study is severely under-powered both in terms of sample size and marker density. Our results also provide a striking demonstration of confounding by population structure. While statistical methods can be used to ameliorate this problem, they cannot always be effective and are certainly not a substitute for independent evidence, such as that obtained via crosses or transgenic experiments. Ultimately, association mapping is a powerful tool for identifying a list of candidates that is short enough to permit further genetic study.
Outcomes after extensive manual curettage and limited burring for atypical cartilaginous tumour of long bone

Aims Adjuvant treatment after intralesional curettage for atypical cartilaginous tumours (ACTs) of long bones is widely accepted for extending surgical margins. However, evaluating the isolated effect of adjuvant treatment is difficult, and it is unclear whether not using such adjuvants provides poor oncological outcomes. Hence, we analyzed whether intralesional curettage without cryosurgery or chemical adjuvants provides poor oncological outcomes in patients with an ACT. Patients and Methods A total of 24 patients (nine men, 15 women) (mean age 45 years; 18 to 62) were treated for ACTs of long bones and followed up for a median of 66 months (interquartile range 50 to 84). All patients were treated with extensive manual curettage and limited burring. Bone cement and grafts were used to fill bone defects in 16 and eight patients, respectively. No chemical adjuvants or cryosurgery were used. Results No local recurrence was detectable on plain radiographs and MRI or CT images. At the last follow‐up, there were no distant metastases or disease‐specific deaths. No procedurerelated complications or postoperative fractures developed. Conclusion Intralesional curettage without cryosurgery or chemical adjuvants may provide excellent oncological outcomes for patients with ACTs of long bones, without the risk of complications related to adjuvant use. Our investigation suggests thorough curettage alone is a reasonable treatment option for ACT. However, we acknowledge the limited size of our investigation warrants a multicentre collaborative study to confirm our findings.
Oceanic crustal carbon cycle drives 26-million-year atmospheric carbon dioxide periodicities

How seafloor weathering drives the slow carbon cycle. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) data for the last 420 million years (My) show long-term fluctuations related to supercontinent cycles as well as shorter cycles at 26 to 32 My whose origin is unknown. Periodicities of 26 to 30 My occur in diverse geological phenomena including mass extinctions, flood basalt volcanism, ocean anoxic events, deposition of massive evaporites, sequence boundaries, and orogenic events and have previously been linked to an extraterrestrial mechanism. The vast oceanic crustal carbon reservoir is an alternative potential driving force of climate fluctuations at these time scales, with hydrothermal crustal carbon uptake occurring mostly in young crust with a strong dependence on ocean bottom water temperature. We combine a global plate model and oceanic paleo-age grids with estimates of paleo-ocean bottom water temperatures to track the evolution of the oceanic crustal carbon reservoir over the past 230 My. We show that seafloor spreading rates as well as the storage, subduction, and emission of oceanic crustal and mantle CO2 fluctuate with a period of 26 My. A connection with seafloor spreading rates and equivalent cycles in subduction zone rollback suggests that these periodicities are driven by the dynamics of subduction zone migration. The oceanic crust-mantle carbon cycle is thus a previously overlooked mechanism that connects plate tectonic pulsing with fluctuations in atmospheric carbon and surface environments.
Molecular characterization of human ABHD2 as TAG lipase and ester hydrolase

Alterations in lipid metabolism have been progressively documented as a characteristic property of cancer cells. Though, human ABHD2 gene was found to be highly expressed in breast and lung cancers, its biochemical functionality is yet uncharacterized. In the present study we report, human ABHD2 as triacylglycerol (TAG) lipase along with ester hydrolysing capacity. Sequence analysis of ABHD2 revealed the presence of conserved motifs G205XS207XG209 and H120XXXXD125. Phylogenetic analysis showed homology to known lipases, Drosophila melanogaster CG3488. To evaluate the biochemical role, recombinant ABHD2 was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using pYES2/CT vector and His-tag purified protein showed TAG lipase activity. Ester hydrolase activity was confirmed with pNP acetate, butyrate and palmitate substrates respectively. Further, the ABHD2 homology model was built and the modelled protein was analysed based on the RMSD and root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) of the 100 ns simulation trajectory. Docking the acetate, butyrate and palmitate ligands with the model confirmed covalent binding of ligands with the Ser207 of the GXSXG motif. The model was validated with a mutant ABHD2 developed with alanine in place of Ser207 and the docking studies revealed loss of interaction between selected ligands and the mutant protein active site. Based on the above results, human ABHD2 was identified as a novel TAG lipase and ester hydrolase.
An Integrated Mathematical Model of Microbial Fuel Cell Processes: Bioelectrochemical and Microbiologic Aspects

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) represent a still relatively new technology for liquid organic waste treatment and simultaneous recovery of energy and resources. Although the technology is quite appealing due its potential benefits, its practical application is still hampered by several drawbacks, such as systems instability (especially when attempting to scale-up reactors from laboratory prototypes), internally competing microbial reactions, and limited power generation. This paper is an attempt to address some of the issues related to MFC application in wastewater treatment with a simulation model. Reactor configuration, operational schemes, electrochemical and microbiological characterization, optimization methods and modelling strategies were reviewed and have been included in a mathematical simulation model written with a multidisciplinary, multi-perspective approach, considering the possibility of feeding real substrates to an MFC system while dealing with a complex microbiological population. The conclusions drawn herein can be of practical interest for all MFC researchers dealing with domestic or industrial wastewater treatment.
Targeting LncRNAs in Cardiovascular Disease: Options and Expeditions

Nucleic acid-based therapeutics constitutes the next frontier in cardiovascular disease (CVD) management. Recent findings have shown a strong regulatory role of a new class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) known as long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), on biological pathways, cell function, and cardiovascular tissue homeostasis in health and disease. Accumulating studies demonstrate that lncRNAs may regulate protein-coding genes, RNAs, and epigenetic factors in a tight spatial and temporal manner. Herein, we discuss key technical hurdles, current limitations and challenges as well as advantages and disadvantages of emerging experimental methods in the lncRNA field.
Supplementation With Multivitamins and Vitamin A and Incidence of Malaria Among HIV-Infected Tanzanian Women

Introduction:HIV and malaria infections occur in the same individuals, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. We examined whether daily multivitamin supplementation (vitamins B complex, C, and E) or vitamin A supplementation altered malaria incidence in HIV-infected women of reproductive age. Methods:HIV-infected pregnant Tanzanian women recruited into the study were randomly assigned to daily multivitamins (B complex, C, and E), vitamin A alone, both multivitamins and vitamin A, or placebo. Women received malaria prophylaxis during pregnancy and were followed monthly during the prenatal and postpartum periods. Malaria was defined in 2 ways: presumptive diagnosis based on a physician's or nurse's clinical judgment, which in many cases led to laboratory investigations, and periodic examination of blood smears for malaria parasites. Results:Multivitamin supplementation compared with no multivitamins significantly lowered women's risk of presumptively diagnosed clinical malaria (relative risk: 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.67 to 0.92), although multivitamins increased their risk of any malaria parasitemia (relative risk: 1.24, 95% confidence interval: 1.02 to 1.50). Vitamin A supplementation did not change malaria incidence during the study. Conclusions:Multivitamin supplements have been previously shown to reduce HIV disease progression among HIV-infected women, and consistent with that, these supplements protected against development of symptomatic malaria. The clinical significance of increased risk of malaria parasitemia among supplemented women deserves further research, however. Preventive measures for malaria are warranted as part of an integrated approach to the care of HIV-infected individuals exposed to malaria.
Fabrication of Porous Al with Controlled Pore Size by Spark Plasma Sintering

Porous Al with controlled pore size was prepared by the spacer method including spark plasma sintering and the dissolution of space-holding NaCl particles. The NaCl of the controlled pore size (particle diameter control range of 5˰ڌm~20˰ڌm) were prepared by precipitation method. The effects of sintering condition such as the sintering electric current intensity, voltage and the size, morphology and content of NaCl powder on the porosity and size of porous Al are investigated. The porous Al with higher porosity of 69.41% and smaller pore size of 5 ڌm was obtained.
Remote Data Auditing in Cloud Computing Environments

Cloud computing has emerged as a long-dreamt vision of the utility computing paradigm that provides reliable and resilient infrastructure for users to remotely store data and use on-demand applications and services. Currently, many individuals and organizations mitigate the burden of local data storage and reduce the maintenance cost by outsourcing data to the cloud. However, the outsourced data is not always trustworthy due to the loss of physical control and possession over the data. As a result, many scholars have concentrated on relieving the security threats of the outsourced data by designing the Remote Data Auditing (RDA) technique as a new concept to enable public auditability for the stored data in the cloud. The RDA is a useful technique to check the reliability and integrity of data outsourced to a single or distributed servers. This is because all of the RDA techniques for single cloud servers are unable to support data recovery; such techniques are complemented with redundant storage mechanisms. The article also reviews techniques of remote data auditing more comprehensively in the domain of the distributed clouds in conjunction with the presentation of classifying ongoing developments within this specified area. The thematic taxonomy of the distributed storage auditing is presented based on significant parameters, such as scheme nature, security pattern, objective functions, auditing mode, update mode, cryptography model, and dynamic data structure. The more recent remote auditing approaches, which have not gained considerable attention in distributed cloud environments, are also critically analyzed and further categorized into three different classes, namely, replication based, erasure coding based, and network coding based, to present a taxonomy. This survey also aims to investigate similarities and differences of such a framework on the basis of the thematic taxonomy to diagnose significant and explore major outstanding issues.
Rab23’s genetic structure, function and related diseases: a review

Rab23 has been proven to play a role in membrane trafficking and protein transport in eukaryotic cells. Rab23 is also a negative regulator of the Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway in an indirect way. The nonsense mutation and loss of protein of Rab23 has been associated with neural tube defect in mice and aberrant expression in various diseases in human such as neural system, breast, visceral, and cutaneous tumor. In addition, Rab23 may play joint roles in autophagosome formation during anti-infection process against Group A streptococcus. In this review, we give a brief review on the functions of Rab23, summarize the involvement of Rab23 in genetic research, membrane trafficking, and potential autophagy pathway, especially focus on tumor promotion, disease pathogenesis, and discuss the possible underlying mechanisms that are regulated by Rab23.
4‐Cyanoresorcinol‐Based Bent‐Core Mesogens with Azobenzene Wings: Emergence of Sterically Stabilized Polar Order in Liquid Crystalline Phases

A new series of azobenzene containing bent‐core molecules incorporating 4‐cyanoresorcinol as the central core unit exhibiting cybotactic nematic, rectangular, columnar, and different types of tilted smectic (SmC) phases are synthesized. The mesophase behavior and phase structures are characterized in bulk and freely suspended films using a variety of experimental techniques. Depending on the chain length and temperature a series of different mesophases is observed in these compounds, ranging from cybotactic nematic via paraelectric SmC phases, polarization randomized SmCsPR phases to ferroelectric and antiferroelectric SmC phases, associated with increasing size and correlation length of the polar domains. Spontaneous formation of chiral domains is observed in the paraelectric SmC and the SmCsPR phases and discussed in relation with superstructural chirality, bend elastic constants, and surface effects.
Species turnover promotes the importance of bee diversity for crop pollination at regional scales

Many, many more pollinators needed Numerous studies have shown that biodiversity is necessary for ecosystem function. The majority of these, however, have taken place at relatively small experimental scales. Winfree et al. looked across more than 3000 square kilometers for relationships between biodiversity and crop pollination (see the Perspective by Kremen). The number of wild bee species required for successful pollination rapidly increased with spatial scale, largely owing to variation in the species present across sites and the degree to which the most abundant species played a role. In the end, more than an order of magnitude more species than predicted by smaller-scale experiments were required for full ecosystem functioning. Science, this issue p. 791; see also p. 741 Biodiversity required for ecosystem function increases with landscape scale. Ecologists have shown through hundreds of experiments that ecological communities with more species produce higher levels of essential ecosystem functions such as biomass production, nutrient cycling, and pollination, but whether this finding holds in nature (that is, in large-scale and unmanipulated systems) is controversial. This knowledge gap is troubling because ecosystem services have been widely adopted as a justification for global biodiversity conservation. Here we show that, to provide crop pollination in natural systems, the number of bee species must increase by at least one order of magnitude compared with that in field experiments. This increase is driven by species turnover and its interaction with functional dominance, mechanisms that emerge only at large scales. Our results show that maintaining ecosystem services in nature requires many species, including relatively rare ones.