Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuity and Episodicity in the Early Alpine Tectonic Evolution of the Western Carpathians: How Large‐Scale Processes Are Expressed by the Orogenic Architecture and Rock Record Data

The early Alpine tectonic evolution of the Western Carpathian orogenic system is differentiated into four main periods: (i) Middle‐Late Triassic rifting and spreading of the Meliata Ocean, but its relationships to the Tethyan realm remain uncertain; (ii) Jurassic subduction of the Meliata oceanic lithosphere and coeval rifting of the Carpathian lower plate and oceanic breakup and spreading of the Atlantic‐related Piemont‐Váh Ocean, as well as short‐term back‐arc rifting of the Adriatic upper plate; (iii) Early Cretaceous slow and continuous but intermittent growth of the asymmetric, doubly vergent orogenic wedge still driven by the Meliata slab, concurrently with expansion of the outer Pennine oceanic zones; and (iv) Late Cretaceous to Middle Eocene northward drift of the Adriatic microplate with Austroalpine domains appended at its front that eliminated the external oceanic zones with intervening continental ribbons and sequentially accreted the Carpathian Penninic units. While dynamics of the periods (i) and (iv) was governed by the large‐scale plate motions, periods (ii) and (iii) are interpreted as driven by the self‐generated forces exerted by the subduction pull of oceanic and lower continental lithosphere. Tectonic evolution of particularly the latter two periods is documented in detail by rich structural, sedimentary, metamorphic, and magmatic rock records. It is inferred that periods of accelerating activity of the orogenic wedge progradation, distinguished as the regional tectonic phases, resulted from interactions between buildup of tectonic stresses and their structural realization dependent on the rheological properties of crustal rocks.
Sparse Linear Regression With Structured Priors and Application to Denoising of Musical Audio

We describe in this paper an audio denoising technique based on sparse linear regression with structured priors. The noisy signal is decomposed as a linear combination of atoms belonging to two modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) bases, plus a residual part containing the noise. One MDCT basis has a long time resolution, and thus high frequency resolution, and is aimed at modeling tonal parts of the signal, while the other MDCT basis has short time resolution and is aimed at modeling transient parts (such as attacks of notes). The problem is formulated within a Bayesian setting. Conditional upon an indicator variable which is either 0 or 1, one expansion coefficient is set to zero or given a hierarchical prior. Structured priors are employed for the indicator variables; using two types of Markov chains, persistency along the time axis is favored for expansion coefficients of the tonal layer, while persistency along the frequency axis is favored for the expansion coefficients of the transient layer. Inference about the denoised signal and model parameters is performed using a Gibbs sampler, a standard Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling technique. We present results for denoising of a short glockenspiel excerpt and a long polyphonic music excerpt. Our approach is compared with unstructured sparse regression and with structured sparse regression in a single resolution MDCT basis (no transient layer). The results show that better denoising is obtained, both from signal-to-noise ratio measurements and from subjective criteria, when both a transient and tonal layer are used, in conjunction with our proposed structured prior framework.
Effects of Dietary Calcium Supplementation on Blood Pressure: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objective. —To review the effect of supplemental calcium on blood pressure. Data Source. —We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for 1966 to May 1994. We contacted authors of eligible trials to ensure accuracy and completeness of data and to identify unpublished trials. Study Selection. —We included any study in which investigators randomized people to calcium supplementation or placebo and measured blood pressure for at least 2 weeks. Fifty-six articles met the inclusion criteria, and 33 were eligible for analysis, involving a total of 2412 patients. Data Extraction. —Two pairs of independent reviewers abstracted data and assessed validity according to six quality criteria. Data Synthesis. —We calculated the differences in blood pressure change between the calcium supplementation group and the control group and pooled the estimates, with each trial weighted with the inverse of the variance using a random-effects model. Predictors of blood pressure reduction that we examined included method of supplementation, baseline blood pressure, and the methodological quality of the studies. The pooled analysis showed a reduction in systolic blood pressure of -1.27 mm Hg (95% confidence interval [CI], -2.25 to -0.29 mm Hg;P=.01) and in diastolic blood pressure of -0.24 mm Hg (95% CI, -0.92 to 0.44 mm Hg;P=.49). None of the possible mediators of blood pressure reduction explained differences in treatment effects. Conclusions. —Calcium supplementation may lead to a small reduction in systolic but not diastolic blood pressure. The results do not exclude a larger, important effect of calcium on blood pressure in subpopulations. In particular, further studies should address the hypothesis that inadequate calcium intake is associated with increased blood pressure that can be corrected with calcium supplementation. (JAMA. 1996;275:1016-1022)
Online Measurement of Large Traffic Aggregates on Commodity Switches

Traffic measurement plays an important role in many network-management tasks, such as anomaly detection and traffic engineering. However, existing solutions either rely on custom hardware designed for a specific task, or introduce a high overhead for data collection and analysis. Instead, we argue that a practical traffic-measurement solution should run on commodity network elements, support a range of measurement tasks, and provide accurate results with low overhead. Inspired by the capabilities of OpenFlow switches, we explore a measurement framework where switches match packets against a small collection of rules and update traffic counters for the highest-priority match. A separate controller can read the counters and dynamically tune the rules to quickly "drill down" to identify large traffic aggregates. As the first step towards designing measurement algorithms for this framework, we design and evaluate a hierarchical heavy hitters algorithm that identifies large traffic aggregates, while striking a good balance between measurement accuracy and switch overhead.
Elimination by Aspects in Electronic Commerce -- Evidence from Online Marketplace and Implications for Empirical Model Specification

Consumers often use heuristics in making online purchase decisions. The use of heuristics could have significant implications on empirical model specifications for ecommerce research. In this study, we consider the effect of decision heuristics in the context of the relationship between seller reputation and product sales in a large scale online marketplace. Our analysis suggests that the data are consistent with consumers' use of Elimination By Aspects (EBA), one of the most well-known heuristics in their purchase decisions. We propose a parsimonious non-linear regression model to account for this heuristic behavior.
Tissue-type plasminogen activator for stroke mimics: continuing to be swift rather than delaying treatment to be sure.

In the April issue of Stroke , we have yet another study on the safety of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) for patients with stroke mimics (SM). Zinkstok et al1 conducted a multicenter retrospective analysis of patients with SM treated with tPA at primary and community hospitals. With 100 patients reported in the largest series to date, the authors found, like all the previous cohort studies, a low rate of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage and death.2,3 There were no instances of orolingual edema or fatal intracerebral hemorrhages. The incidence of SM in their cohort among all tPA-treated patients was on the lower end of other reports: 2% to 31%. 2,4–6 This rate is also much lower than the 7% misdiagnosis rate reported for emergency departments in which tPA was administered without a stroke team evaluation.7 In fact, …
Relationship of brain and skull in pre‐ and postoperative sagittal synostosis

Models of vertebrate skull evolution stress the coordinated developmental relationship between the skull and the brain that it houses. This study investigates the relationship between altered skull morphology and brain morphology in premature fusion of the cranial sagittal suture (isolated sagittal synostosis; ISS), a condition associated with dysmorphology of both neurocranium and brain. Although the skull displays a more normal shape following reconstructive cranial vault surgery, effects of this surgery on the brain have not been investigated. Landmark coordinate data were collected from three‐dimensional magnetic resonance imaging reconstructions of the brain in a sample of ISS patients and an age‐matched unaffected cohort. These data were analysed using Euclidean distance matrix analysis (EDMA). Results show that the brain in ISS is dysmorphic preoperatively, displaying a posteriorly directed neural expansion that does not ‘worsen’ with growth. Postoperatively, the brain in ISS displays a more globular shape overall as compared with the preoperative morphology, but differs from normal in its subcortical morphology. These results show that the ISS brain is altered following neurocranial surgery, but does not more closely approximate that of unaffected individuals. This suggests that although the brain is affected by manipulation of the skull, it retains a growth pattern that is, at least in part, independent of the skull.
Beneficial effects of astragaloside IV against angiotensin II-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in rat vascular smooth muscle cells

Angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced mitochondrial dysfunction is a prominent characteristic of the majority of cardiovascular diseases. Astragaloside IV (As-IV), the major active ingredient of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. (a traditional Chinese herbal medicine), possesses antioxidant properties. The present study was carried out to examine whether As-IV can reverse Ang II-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Cultured rat aortic VSMCs treated with Ang II (1 µM) for 24 h exhibited mitochondrial dysfunction, including a decrease in mitochondrial oxygen consumption rates (OCRs), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) levels, as well as the disruption of mitochondrial structural integrity. Following treatment with Ang II, As-IV (50 µg/ml) was added to the culture medium followed by incubation for a further 24 h. The administration of As-IV significantly increased the mitochondrial OCRs, ATP production and the mtDNA levels, and reversed the mitochondrial morphological changes which occurred in the VSMCs. Treatment with As-IV also reversed the Ang II-induced increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the increase in NADPH oxidase and xanthine oxidase activity, as well as the decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) activity. Furthermore, treatment with As-IV led to an increase in the mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) and mitochondrial transcription factor A (Tfam), and in the protein expression of PGC-1α, parkin and dynamin 1-like protein 1 (Drp1) in the VSMCs. These results indicate that As-IV exerts beneficial effects on Ang II-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in rat VSMCs and that these effects are mediated through the inhibition of ROS overproduction, as well as the promotion of mitochondrial autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis. These data demonstrate the antioxidant properties of As-IV.
The Impact of TCR-Binding Properties and Antigen Presentation Format on T Cell Responsiveness1

TCR interactions with cognate peptide-MHC (pepMHC) ligands are generally low affinity. This feature, together with the requirement for CD8/CD4 participation, has made it difficult to dissect relationships between TCR-binding parameters and T cell activation. Interpretations are further complicated when comparing different pepMHC, because these can vary greatly in stability. To examine the relationships between TCR-binding properties and T cell responses, in this study we characterized the interactions and activities mediated by a panel of TCRs that differed widely in their binding to the same pepMHC. Monovalent binding of soluble TCR was characterized by surface plasmon resonance, and T cell hybridomas that expressed these TCR, with or without CD8 coexpression, were tested for their binding of monomeric and oligomeric forms of the pepMHC and for subsequent responses (IL-2 release). The binding threshold for eliciting this response in the absence of CD8 (KD = 600 nM) exhibited a relatively sharp cutoff between full activity and no activity, consistent with a switchlike response to pepMHC on APCs. However, when the pepMHC was immobilized (plate bound), T cells with the lowest affinity TCRs (e.g., KD = 30 μM) responded, even in the absence of CD8, indicating that these TCR are signaling competent. Surprisingly, even cells that expressed high-affinity (KD = 16 nM) TCRs along with CD8 were unresponsive to oligomers in solution. The findings suggest that to drive downstream T cell responses, pepMHC must be presented in a form that supports formation of appropriate supramolecular clusters.
Quarter Sphere Based Distributed Anomaly Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Anomaly detection is an important challenge for tasks such as fault diagnosis and intrusion detection in energy constrained wireless sensor networks. A key problem is how to minimise the communication overhead in the network while performing in-network computation when detecting anomalies. Our approach to this problem is based on a formulation that uses distributed, one-class quarter-sphere support vector machines to identify anomalous measurements in the data. We demonstrate using sensor data from the Great Duck Island Project that our distributed approach is energy efficient in terms of communication overhead while achieving comparable accuracy to a centralised scheme.
A mathematical basis for plant patterning derived from physico‐chemical phenomena

The position of leaves and flowers along the stem axis generates a specific pattern, known as phyllotaxis. A growing body of evidence emerging from recent computational modeling and experimental studies suggests that regulators controlling phyllotaxis are chemical, e.g. the plant growth hormone auxin and its dynamic accumulation pattern by polar auxin transport, and physical, e.g. mechanical properties of the cell. Here we present comprehensive views on how chemical and physical properties of cells regulate the pattern of leaf initiation. We further compare different computational modeling studies to understand their scope in reproducing the observed patterns. Despite a plethora of experimental studies on phyllotaxis, understanding of molecular mechanisms of pattern initiation in plants remains fragmentary. Live imaging of growth dynamics and physicochemical properties at the shoot apex of mutants displaying stable changes from one pattern to another should provide mechanistic insights into organ initiation patterns.
Expression of p53 in oral squamous cell carcinoma is associated with the presence of IgG and IgA p53 autoantibodies in sera and saliva of the patients

Around 50% of head and neck cancers are known to have aberrations of the p53 gene. Overexpression of the mutant p53 protein can induce a specific humoral response in cancer patients. Matched saliva, serum, and tissue samples from 26 patients with histologically confirmed oral squamous and verrucous carcinoma were investigated. p53 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and antibodies specific for 53 protein were analysed in sera and whole mouth saliva by ELISA, immunoprecipitation, and competition assays; 16/25 (64%) samples demonstrated the stabilized p53 protein in tissues and 7/26 (27%) had a high level of p53 antibody in serum. In samples where matching saliva was available, p53 antibody was also present in saliva. In some tumours, only IgA‐type p53 antibody was detected. p53 antibodies were found only in the serum and saliva of patients who showed p53 overexpression in their tumour tissues. These results demonstrate that detection of p53 antibodies can offer a specific and non‐invasive method for the detection of a subset of tumours with p53 aberrations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Learning Treewidth-Bounded Bayesian Networks with Thousands of Variables

We present a method for learning treewidth-bounded Bayesian networks from data sets containing thousands of variables. Bounding the treewidth of a Bayesian network greatly reduces the complexity of inferences. Yet, being a global property of the graph, it considerably increases the difficulty of the learning process. Our novel algorithm accomplishes this task, scaling both to large domains and to large treewidths. Our novel approach consistently outperforms the state of the art on experiments with up to thousands of variables.
Scaling Relations of Dwarf Galaxies without Supernova-driven Winds

Nearby dwarf galaxies exhibit tight correlations between their global stellar and dynamical properties, such as circular velocity, mass-to-light ratio, stellar mass, surface brightness, and metallicity. Such correlations have often been attributed to gas or metal-rich outflows driven by supernova energy feedback to the interstellar medium. We use high-resolution cosmological simulations of high-redshift galaxies with and without energy feedback, as well as analytic modeling, to investigate whether the observed correlations can arise without supernova-driven outflows. We find that the simulated dwarf galaxies exhibit correlations similar to those observed as early as z ≈ 10, regardless of whether supernova feedback is included. We also show that the correlations can be well reproduced by our analytic model that accounts for realistic gas inflow but assumes no outflows, and a star formation rate obeying the Kennicutt-Schmidt law with a critical density threshold. We argue that correlations in simulated galaxies arise due to the increasingly inefficient conversion of gas into stars in low-mass dwarf galaxies, rather than supernova-driven outflows. We also show that the decrease of the observed effective yield in low-mass objects, often used as an indicator of gas and metal outflows, can be reasonably reproduced in our simulations without outflows. We show that this trend can arise if a significant fraction of metals in small galaxies is spread to the outer regions of the halo outside the stellar extent via mixing. In this case the effective yield can be significantly underestimated if only metals within the stellar radius are taken into account. Measurements of gas metallicity in the outskirts of gaseous disks of dwarfs would thus provide a key test of such an explanation.
How to hide large-scale outflows: size constraints on the jets of Sgr A*

Despite significant strides made towards understanding accretion, outflow and emission processes in the Galactic Centre supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, the presence of jets has been neither rejected nor proven. We investigate here whether the combined spectral and morphological properties of the source at radio through near-infrared wavelengths are consistent with the predictions for inhomogeneous jets. In particular, we construct images of jets at a wavelength of 7 mm based on models that are consistent with the spectrum of Sgr A*. We then compare these models through closure quantities with data obtained from the Very Long Baseline Array at 7 mm. We find that the best-fitting jet models give comparable or better fits than the best-fitting Gaussian models for the intrinsic source found in previous analyses. The best-fitting jet models are bipolar, are highly inclined to the line of sight (theta >~ 75°), may favour a position angle on the sky of 105°, and have compact bases with sizes of a few gravitational radii.
Chemical and Textural Re-equilibration in the UG2 Chromitite Layer of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa

Variations of mineral chemistry and whole-rock compositions were studied in detail, at millimetre to centimetre intervals, in two vertical drill core profiles through the platiniferous UG2 chromitite layer in the western and eastern limbs of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa. Analytical methods included electron microprobe and LA-ICP-MS analyses of the main rock-forming minerals, orthopyroxene, plagioclase and interstitial clinopyroxene. One profile was also studied by synchrotronsource XRF. Statistical analysis of crystal size distribution of chromite was also performed at different levels in the chromitite layer and in adjacent silicate rocks. The results provide new evidence for chemical and textural late magmatic re-equilibration in the UG2 layer and in the silicate rocks at the contact zones. The chromite crystal size distributions imply extensive coarsening of that mineral within the main chromitite seam, which has erased any textural evidence of primary deposition features such as recharge or mechanical sorting of crystals, if those features originally existed. The mineral compositions in chromitite differ from those in adjacent silicate rocks, in general agreement with predictions of chemical re-equilibration with evolved, residual melt (the trapped liquid shift effect). In detail, the geochemical data imply, however, that the conventional trapped liquid shift model has shortcomings, due to the effects of material transport driven by chemical gradients between modally contrasting layers of crystal mush undergoing reequilibration reactions. In the presence of such gradients, selective open-system conditions may hold for alkalis and hydrogen because of their higher diffusion rates in silicate melts. Differential mobility of components in the interstitial melt can also sharpen the original modal layering by causing minerals to crystallise in one layer and dissolve in another. Detailed trace element profiles by synchrotron XRF reveal an uneven vertical distribution of incompatible elements which implies that the permeability of the chromitite layer may have been significant, even at the latest stages of interstitial crystallization.
Add-On Pricing: Theory and Evidence from the Cruise Industry

In many industries, firms give consumers the opportunity to add (at a price) optional goods and services to a baseline product. The aim of our paper is to provide a theoretical model of add-on pricing in competitive environments with two new distinctive features. First, we discuss the choice of offering the add-on, assuming that this entails a fixed cost. Second, we allow firms to have a varying degree of market power over the add-on, associated with the ability to capture the value that consumers obtain from such an additional good/service. Our model shows that the conventional wisdom, according to which offering the add-on should unambiguously lower the price of the baseline product, is not always supported. In asymmetric equilibria, in which only one firm offers the add-on, baseline prices are higher if the firm’s market power over the add-on is limited. The predictions of the model are confirmed by a hedonic price model on a dataset of cruises offered worldwide.