Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth of South Rough Ridge, Central Otago, New Zealand: using in situ cosmogenic isotopes and geomorphology to study an active, blind reverse fault

[1] In situ cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements on sedimentary quartzites, together with analysis of abandoned river terraces, can be used to show how drainage responded to the lateral propagation of a late Quaternary anticline forming above a blind reverse fault in Central Otago, New Zealand. A close link between the progression of cosmogenic ages and the tectonic geomorphology allows us to confirm that uplift and propagation rates on the anticline are in the ranges 0.08–0.12 mm yr−1 and 0.8–1.5 mm yr−1, respectively, over the last 550,000 years. The agreement between the isotopic and geomorphological evidence in turn requires that minimum 10Be exposure ages as great as 660 ka are not in steady state with respect to erosion. This is a geochemical result of significance, as it opens the possibility of a more regional analysis of landscape evolution in this region, using the same rocks. On an adjacent anticline, thought to be even older on geomorphological arguments, 10Be concentrations give minimum exposure ages in the range 750–1400 ka. These extremely old minimum ages are rare worldwide, as they are usually limited to smaller values by erosion. They are attributable to the very resistant nature of the quartz-rich boulders in which the measurements were made, which in places are shown to have erosion rates lower than 0.5 mm kyr−1.
Pre-emptive use of the space blanket reduces shivering after general anaesthesia.

We have investigated the role of aluminized metal foil (space blanket, UN 320), used pre-emptively, in post-anaesthetic shivering and patients' subjective perception of cold after general anaesthesia of short duration. Sixty-eight ASA I and II patients undergoing orthopaedic and plastic surgery on the peripheries were allocated randomly to two groups: those in group 1 were wrapped (not less than 60% of body surface area) in the space blanket before induction of anaesthesia. In group 2 patients had standard surgical draping. In all subjects, anaesthesia was induced with fentanyl and propofol, and maintained with nitrous oxide and enflurane in oxygen, after a laryngeal mask airway was positioned. Patients were asked to grade their perception of cold on a visual analogue scale, before induction and on recovery. Skin (dorsum of hand) and core (nasopharyngeal) temperatures were recorded at 15-min intervals. Occurrence of shivering and cold scores were recorded by blinded observers. Groups were similar in age and gender; duration of anaesthesia was also similar (mean 41.6 (SEM 4.8) vs 47.5 (3.3) min, respectively). The incidences of shivering were 15% and 63% in groups 1 and 2, respectively (P < 0.001). Cold scores were 2.4 (0.4) and 5.7 (0.5), respectively (P < 0.001). Skin temperatures increased with increasing duration of anaesthesia in both groups but were greater at 15, 30 and 45 min in group 1 (33.38 (0.25) vs 31.56 (0.31), 34.46 (0.25) vs 32.45 (0.31) and 35.22 (0.36) vs 33.13 (0.34), respectively; P < 0.001 each comparison). Core temperature increased slightly in group 1 and decreased in group 2 (P = 0.11). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
PDE1C deficiency antagonizes pathological cardiac remodeling and dysfunction

Significance Heart failure is the leading global cause of death; therefore developing a greater understanding of disease etiology and identifying novel therapeutic targets is critical. Here, we describe the role of the cyclic nucleotide-degrading protein phosphodiesterase 1C (PDE1C) in the context of pathological cardiac remodeling. In cardiac myocytes, we found that PDE1C regulates both cyclic AMP- and cyclic GMP-mediated signaling pathways under different conditions. In both isolated cells and mice we found that inhibition of PDE1C could potentiate protective signaling and prevent the development of many aspects of heart failure, potentially by signaling through multiple cell types. PDE1 inhibition therefore may represent a viable therapeutic strategy for treatment of heart failure. Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase 1C (PDE1C) represents a major phosphodiesterase activity in human myocardium, but its function in the heart remains unknown. Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, we studied the expression, regulation, function, and underlying mechanisms of PDE1C in the pathogenesis of cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. PDE1C expression is up-regulated in mouse and human failing hearts and is highly expressed in cardiac myocytes but not in fibroblasts. In adult mouse cardiac myocytes, PDE1C deficiency or inhibition attenuated myocyte death and apoptosis, which was largely dependent on cyclic AMP/PKA and PI3K/AKT signaling. PDE1C deficiency also attenuated cardiac myocyte hypertrophy in a PKA-dependent manner. Conditioned medium taken from PDE1C-deficient cardiac myocytes attenuated TGF-β–stimulated cardiac fibroblast activation through a mechanism involving the crosstalk between cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts. In vivo, cardiac remodeling and dysfunction induced by transverse aortic constriction, including myocardial hypertrophy, apoptosis, cardiac fibrosis, and loss of contractile function, were significantly attenuated in PDE1C-knockout mice relative to wild-type mice. These results indicate that PDE1C activation plays a causative role in pathological cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. Given the continued development of highly specific PDE1 inhibitors and the high expression level of PDE1C in the human heart, our findings could have considerable therapeutic significance.
Evaluation of candidate geomagnetic field models for IGRF-11

The eleventh generation of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) was agreed in December 2009 by a task force appointed by the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Division V Working Group V-MOD. New spherical harmonic main field models for epochs 2005.0 (DGRF-2005) and 2010.0 (IGRF-2010), and predictive linear secular variation for the interval 2010.0–2015.0 (SV-2010-2015) were derived from weighted averages of candidate models submitted by teams led by DTU Space, Denmark (team A); NOAA/NGDC, U.S.A. (team B); BGS, U.K. (team C); IZMIRAN, Russia (team D); EOST, France (team E); IPGP, France (team F); GFZ, Germany (team G) and NASA-GSFC, U.S.A. (team H). Here, we report the evaluations of candidate models carried out by the IGRF-11 task force during October/November 2009 and describe the weightings used to derive the new IGRF-11 model. The evaluations include calculations of root mean square vector field differences between the candidates, comparisons of the power spectra, and degree correlations between the candidates and a mean model. Coefficient by coefficient analysis including determination of weighting factors used in a robust estimation of mean coefficients is also reported. Maps of differences in the vertical field intensity at Earth’s surface between the candidates and weighted mean models are presented. Candidates with anomalous aspects are identified and efforts made to pinpoint both troublesome coefficients and geographical regions where large variations between candidates originate. A retrospective analysis of IGRF-10 main field candidates for epoch 2005.0 and predictive secular variation candidates for 2005.0–2010.0 using the new IGRF-11 models as a reference is also reported. The high quality and consistency of main field models derived using vector satellite data is demonstrated; based on internal consistency DGRF-2005 has a formal root mean square vector field error over Earth’s surface of 1.0 nT. Difficulties nevertheless remain in accurately forecasting field evolution only five years into the future.
Clients' Positive and Negative Expressiveness within Their Families and Alexithymia

49 prospective clients from a midwestern urban community, who sought counseling at a university training clinic, completed the Self-expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. As predicted, the positive self-expressiveness scores were significantly negatively correlated —. 52 with scores on alexithymia, and the negative self-expressiveness scores were significantly positively correlated . 34 with alexithymia. These results support the premise that mental health clients' self-reported lack of positive expressiveness and abundance of negative expressiveness within their family context may be attributes associated with their tendency to be alexithymic.
Multiscale Empirical Interpolation for Solving Nonlinear PDEs using Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Methods

In this paper, we propose a multiscale empirical interpolation method for solving nonlinear multiscale partial differential equations. The proposed method combines empirical interpolation techniques and local multiscale methods, such as the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM). To solve nonlinear equations, the GMsFEM is used to represent the solution on a coarse grid with multiscale basis functions computed offline. Computing the GMsFEM solution involves calculating the residuals on the fine grid. We use empirical interpolation concepts to evaluate the residuals and the Jacobians of the multiscale system with a computational cost which is proportional to the coarse scale problem rather than the fully-resolved fine scale one. Empirical interpolation methods use basis functions and an inexpensive inversion which are computed in the offline stage for finding the coefficients in the expansion based on a limited number of nonlinear function evaluations. The proposed multiscale empirical interpolation techniques: (1) divide computing the nonlinear function into coarse regions; (2) evaluate contributions of nonlinear functions in each coarse region taking advantage of a reduced-order representation of the solution; and (3) introduce multiscale proper-orthogonal-decomposition techniques to find appropriate interpolation vectors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods on several examples of nonlinear multiscale PDEs that are solved with Newton's methods and fully-implicit time marching schemes. Our numerical results show that the proposed methods provide a robust framework for solving nonlinear multiscale PDEs on a coarse grid with bounded error.
The epidemiology of obesity: the size of the problem

The epidemic of obesity took off from about 1980 and in almost all countries has been rising inexorably ever since. Only in 1997 did WHO accept that this was a major public health problem and, even then, there was no accepted method for monitoring the problem in children. It was soon evident, however, that the optimum population body mass index is about 21 and this is particularly true in Asia and Latin America where the populations are very prone to developing abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. These features are now being increasingly linked to epigenetic programming of gene expression and body composition in utero and early childhood, both in terms of fat/lean tissue ratios and also in terms of organ size and metabolic pathway regulation. New Indian evidence suggests that insulin resistance at birth seems linked to low birth weight and a higher proportion of body fat with selective B12 deficiency and abnormalities of one carbon pool metabolism potentially responsible and affecting 75% of Indians and many populations in the developing world. Biologically there are also adaptive biological mechanisms which limit weight loss after weight gain and thereby in part account for the continuing epidemic despite the widespread desire to slim. Logically, the burden of disease induced by inappropriate diets and widespread physical inactivity can be addressed by increasing physical activity (PA), but simply advocating more leisure time activity is unrealistic. Substantial changes in urban planning and diet are needed to counter the removal of any every day need for PA and the decades of misdirected food policies which with free market forces have induced our current ‘toxic environment’. Counteracting this requires unusual policy initiatives.
Chemical deterrent enables a socially parasitic ant to invade multiple hosts

Social parasites are involved in a coevolutionary arms race, which drives increasing specialization resulting in a very narrow host range. The Formicoxenus ants are a small group of social parasites with a xenobiotic lifestyle. Formicoxenus quebecensis and Formicoxenus provancheri are highly specialized ants using chemical mimicry to blend into their respective Myrmica ant host colonies. However, Formicoxenus nitidulus is unique in being able to survive in over 11 different ant host species. We observed that when live or dead F. nitidulus adults are seized by their host they are immediately dropped undamaged, despite possessing a cuticular hydrocarbon profile that differs markedly from its host. Hexane extracts of the F. nitidulus cuticle made previously acceptable prey items unattractive to their Formica host, indicating a chemical deterrent effect. This is the first time that a social parasite has been shown to exploit the generalized deterrence strategy to avoid host aggression over long periods of time. This supports the idea that coevolved and generalist diseases or parasites require fundamentally different defence mechanisms. We suggest that F. nitidulus uses its cuticular chemistry, possible alkadienes, as a novel deterrent mechanism to allow it to switch hosts easily and so become a widespread and abundant social parasite.
Chenodeoxycholic acid stimulates glucagon‐like peptide‐1 secretion in patients after Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass

Postprandial secretion of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) is enhanced after Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass (RYGB), but the precise molecular mechanisms explaining this remain poorly understood. Plasma concentrations of bile acids (BAs) increase after RYGB, and BAs may act as molecular enhancers of GLP‐1 secretion through activation of TGR5‐receptors. We aimed to evaluate GLP‐1 secretion after oral administration of the primary bile acid chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) and the secondary bile acid ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) (which are available for oral use) in RYGB‐operated participants. Eleven participants (BMI 29.1 ± 1.2, age 37.0 ± 3.2 years, time from RYGB 32.3 ± 1.1 months, weight loss after RYGB 37.0 ± 3.1 kg) were studied in a placebo‐controlled, crossover‐study. On three different days, participants ingested (1) placebo (water), (2) UDCA 750 mg, (3) CDCA 1250 mg (highest recommended doses). Oral intake of CDCA increased plasma concentrations of GLP‐1, C‐peptide, glucagon, peptide YY, neurotensin, total bile acids, and fibroblast growth factor 19 significantly compared with placebo (all P < 0.05 for peak and positive incremental area‐under‐the‐curve (piAUC)). All plasma hormone concentrations were unaffected by UDCA. Neither UDCA nor CDCA changed glucose, cholecystokinin or glucose‐dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) concentrations. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the primary bile acid chenodeoxycholic acid is able to enhance secretion of gut hormones when administered orally in RYGB‐operated patients—even in the absence of nutrients.
Hand-eye and robot-world calibration by global polynomial optimization

The need to relate measurements made by a camera to a different known coordinate system arises in many engineering applications. Historically, it appeared for the first time in the connection with cameras mounted on robotic systems. This problem is commonly known as hand-eye calibration. In this paper, we present several formulations of hand-eye calibration that lead to multivariate polynomial optimization problems. We show that the method of convex linear matrix inequality (LMI) relaxations can be used to effectively solve these problems and to obtain globally optimal solutions. Further, we show that the same approach can be used for the simultaneous hand-eye and robot-world calibration. Finally, we validate the proposed solutions using both synthetic and real datasets.
Experiments with Cross-Language Information Retrieval on a Health Portal for Psychology and Psychotherapy

Few studies have been performed within cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) in the field of psychology and psychotherapy. The aim of this paper is to to analyze and assess the quality of available query translation methods for CLIR on a health portal for psychology. A test base of 100 user queries, 50 Multi Word Units (WUs) and 50 Single WUs, was used. Swedish was the source language and English the target language. Query translation methods based on machine translation (MT) and dictionary look-up were utilized in order to submit query translations to two search engines: Google Site Search and Quick Ask. Standard IR evaluation measures and a qualitative analysis were utilized to assess the results. The lexicon extracted with word alignment of the portal's parallel corpus provided better statistical results among dictionary look-ups. Google Translate provided more linguistically correct translations overall and also delivered better retrieval results in MT.
Cardiac effects of the c.1583 C→G LMNA mutation in two families with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy

The present study aimed to examine and analyze cardiac involvement in two Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) pedigrees caused by the c.1583 C→G mutation of the lamin A/C gene (LMNA). The clinical and genetic characteristics of members of two families with EDMD were evaluated by performing neurological examinations, skeletal muscle biopsies, cardiac evaluations, including electrocardiography, 24 h Holter, ultrasound cardiography and 99TcM-MIBI-gated myocardiac perfusion imaging, and genomic DNA sequencing. Family history investigations revealed an autosomal dominant transmission pattern of the disease in Family 1 and a sporadic case in Family 2. The three affected patients exhibited typical clinical features of EDMD, including joint contractures, muscle weakness and cardiac involvement. Muscle histopathological investigation revealed dystrophic features. In addition, each affected individual exhibited either cardiac arrhythmia, which was evident as sinus tachycardia, atrial flutter or complete atrioventricular inhibition. Cardiac imaging revealed dilated cardiomyopathy in two of the individuals, one of whom was presented with heart failure. The second patient presented with no significant abnormalities in cardiac structure or function. The three affected individuals exhibited a heterozygous missense mutation in the LMNA gene (c.1583 C→G), which caused a T528R amino acid change in the LMNA protein. In conclusion, the present study identified three patients with EDMD, exhibiting the same dominant LMNA mutation and presenting with a spectrum of severe cardiac abnormalities, including cardiac conduction system defects, cardiomyopathy and heart failure. As LMNA mutations have been associated with at least six clinical disorders, including EDMD, the results of the present study provide additional mutational and functional data, which may assist in further establishing LMNA mutational variation and disease pathogenesis.
A Mechanistic Tumor Penetration Model to Guide Antibody Drug Conjugate Design

Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) represent novel anti-cancer modalities engineered to specifically target and kill tumor cells expressing corresponding antigens. Due to their large size and their complex kinetics, these therapeutic agents often face heterogeneous distributions in tumors, leading to large untargeted regions that escape therapy. We present a modeling framework which includes the systemic distribution, vascular permeability, interstitial transport, as well as binding and payload release kinetics of ADC-therapeutic agents in mouse xenografts. We focused, in particular, on receptor dynamics such as endocytic trafficking mechanisms within cancer cells, to simulate their impact on tumor mass shrinkage upon ADC administration. Our model identified undesirable tumor properties that can impair ADC tissue homogeneity, further compromising ADC success, and explored ADC design optimization scenarios to counteract upon such unfavorable intrinsic tumor tissue attributes. We further demonstrated the profound impact of cytotoxic payload release mechanisms and the role of bystander killing effects on tumor shrinkage. This model platform affords a customizable simulation environment which can aid with experimental data interpretation and the design of ADC therapeutic treatments.
Rapid Image Completion System Using Multiresolution Patch-Based Directional and Nondirectional Approaches

This study presents a rapid image completion system comprising a training (or analysis) process and an image completion (or synthesis) process. The proposed system adopts a multiresolution approach, which not only improves the convergence rate of the synthesis process, but also provides the ability to deal with large replaced regions. In the training process, a down-sampling approach is applied to create a patch-based texture eigenspace based on multiresolution background region information. In the image completion process, an up-sampling approach is applied to synthesize the replaced foreground regions. To ensure the continuity of the geometric texture structure between the original background scene regions and the replaced foreground regions, directional and nondirectional image completion approaches are developed to reconstruct the global geometric structure and to enhance the local detailed features of the replaced foreground regions in the lower and higher resolution level images, respectively. Moreover, the synthesis priority order of the individual patches and the appropriate choice of completion scheme (i.e., directional or nondirectional) are both determined in accordance with a Hessian matrix decision value (HMDV) parameter. Finally, a texture refinement process is performed to optimize the resolution of the synthesized result.
Internet prevention messages: targeting the right online behaviors.

BACKGROUND Internet safety programs urge youth to avoid sharing personal information and talking with "strangers" online. OBJECTIVE To examine whether sharing personal information and talking with strangers online or other behaviors are associated with the greatest odds for online interpersonal victimization. DESIGN The Second Youth Internet Safety Survey was a cross-sectional random digit-dial telephone survey. SETTING United States. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1500 youth aged 10 to 17 years who had used the Internet at least once a month for the previous 6 months. MAIN EXPOSURE Online behavior, including disclosure of personal information, aggressive behavior, talking with people met online, sexual behavior, and downloading images using file-sharing programs. OUTCOME MEASURE Online interpersonal victimization (ie, unwanted sexual solicitation or harassment). RESULTS Aggressive behavior in the form of making rude or nasty comments (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.3; P<.001) or frequently embarrassing others (AOR, 4.6; P = .003), meeting people in multiple ways (AOR, 3.4; P<.001), and talking about sex online with unknown people (AOR, 2.0; P = .02) were significantly related to online interpersonal victimization after adjusting for the total number of different types of online behaviors youth engaged in. Engaging in 4 types of online behaviors seemed to represent a tipping point of increased risk for online interpersonal victimization (OR, 11.3; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Talking with people known only online ("strangers") under some conditions is related to online interpersonal victimization, but sharing personal information is not. Engaging in a pattern of different kinds of online risky behaviors is more influential in explaining victimization than many specific behaviors alone. Pediatricians should help parents assess their child's online behaviors globally in addition to focusing on specific types of behaviors.