Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Particle size effect on porosity and specific surface area measurements of shales

Petrophysical properties such as surface area and porosity control the hydrocarbon storage properties in shales. These two properties are generally measured on crushed samples. Concerns have been raised regarding the potential damage induced to the samples during the crushing process and how crushed rock porosity and specific surface area can be related to porosity and specific surface area measured on intact rocks. To address these potential issues we have measured the specific surface area and porosity of several Haynesville, Wolfcamp, and Barnett shale samples as a function of sample sizes. The Haynesville and Barnett samples were selected from gas producing wells while the Wolfcamp samples were selected from an oil producing well. Porosity was measured on samples having particles sizes of 5.7mm, 3.5mm, 1.6mm and 0.7mm. Specific surface area was measured on 1.6mm and 0.7mm and 0.07mm particle sizes. Specific surface area was measured with the standard BET method while porosity was measured with mercury porosimetry after conformance and blank correction. Additional porosity measurements were performed using the crushed rock helium porosity method. Our results show that porosity is fairly constant when the particle size is larger or equal to 1.6mm. However below 1.6mm we observed a noticeable increase in porosity. Specific surface area is constant between particle sizes of 1.6mm and 0.7mm but increases between 0.7mm and 0.07mm. This increase in porosity and surface area is due to an increase in accessibility to the pore volume as the particle size decreases. Introduction and Background Hydrocarbons are produced from shale reservoirs after the host rocks are hydraulically fractured. Hydraulic fracturing is necessary because the low permeability of the shale formations does not allow hydrocarbon to flow at commercial rates without stimulation. This low permeability renders numerous standard laboratory techniques impractical. In shales, porosity and permeability are often measured on crushed rock particles [1]. The early study by Luffel et al., (1993) [1] known as the GRI method, proposed crushing the shale samples before porosity and permeability measurements were performed because shale plugs generally contain numerous fractures that can affect the measurements. Luffel et al., (1993) [1] assumed that the crushing process would minimize the number of fractures present because the sample will break along the
Enumeration and Identification of Microflora in Roub, A Sudanese Traditional Fermented Dairy Product

This investigation was carried out to isolate and identify the predominant microflora in Roub samples collected from different parts of the Sudan. A tot al of 30 s amples were collected from E l-Obied, North Kordofan State; Nyala, South Darfur State and Abu Naama, The Blue Nile State, in sterile bottles and transported in a cool box at 4oC for analysis. The samples were subjected to microbiological examination (total viable bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella sp., lactic acid bacteria and yeasts and moulds). The results showed the occurrence of coliform bacteria, S. aureus, lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and moulds in the samples, while Salmonella sp. was not detected. Coliform bacteria were not detected in samples collected from Abu Naama area, and detected in 30 and 20% of samples collected from El Obied and Nyala areas respectively. S. aureus was detected in 40, 60 and 20% of samples from El Obied, Nyala and Abu Naama, respectively while yeasts and moulds were detected in 100, 90 and 90% of samples from El Obied, Nyala and Abu Naama areas, respectively. Llactic acid bacteria were detected in all samples under study.
Deep Convolution Neural Network and Autoencoders-Based Unsupervised Feature Learning of EEG Signals

Epilepsy is a health problem that seriously affects the quality of humans for many years. Therefore, it is important to accurately analyze and recognize epilepsy based on EEG signals, and for a long time, researchers have attempted to extract new features from the signals for epilepsy recognition. However, it is very difficult to select useful features from a large number of them in this diagnostic application. As the development of artificial intelligence progresses, unsupervised feature learning based on the deep learning model can obtain features that can better describe identified objects from unlabeled data. In this paper, the deep convolution network and autoencoders-based model, named as AE-CDNN, is constructed in order to perform unsupervised feature learning from EEG in epilepsy. We extract features by AE-CDNN model and classify the features based on two public EEG data sets. Experimental results showed that the classification results of features obtained by AE-CDNN are more optimal than features obtained by principal component analysis and sparse random projection. Using several common classifiers to classify features obtained by AE-CDNN model results in high accuracy and not inferior to the research results from most recent studies. The results also showed that the features of AE-CDNN model are clear, effective, and easy to learn. These features can speed up the convergence and reduce the training times of classifiers. Therefore, the AE-CDNN model can be effectively applied to feature extraction of EEG in epilepsy.
The weekend effect in liver transplantation

Background The weekend effect describes a phenomenon whereby patients admitted to hospitals on weekends are at higher risk of complications compared to those admitted during weekdays. However, if a weekend effect exists in orthotopic liver transplantation (oLT). Methods We analyzed oLT between 2006 and 2016 and stratified patients into weekday (Monday to Friday) and weekend (Saturday, Sunday) groups. Primary outcome measures were one-year patient and graft survival. Results 364 deceased donor livers were transplanted into 329 patients with 246 weekday (74.77%) and 83 weekend (25.23%) patients. Potential confounders (e.g. age, ischemia time, MELD score) were comparable. One-year patient and graft survival were similar. Frequencies of rejections, primary-non function or re-transplantation were not different. The day of transplantation was not associated with one-year patient and graft survival in multivariate analysis. Conclusions We provide the first data for the Eurotransplant region on oLT stratified for weekend and weekday procedures and our findings suggest there was no weekend effect on oLT. While we hypothesize that the absent weekend effect is due to standardized transplant procedures and specialized multidisciplinary transplant teams, our results are encouraging showing oLT is a safe and successful procedure, independent from the day of the week.
Free Vibration Analysis of Functionally Graded Beams with General Elastically End Constraints by DTM

The differential transformation method (DTM) is applied to investigate free vibration of functionally graded beams supported by arbitrary boundary conditions, including various types of elastically end constraints. The material properties of functionally graded beams are assumed to obey the power law distribution. The main advantages of this method are known for its excellence in high accuracy with small computational expensiveness. The DTM also provides all natural frequencies and mode shapes without any frequency missing. Fundamental frequencies as well as their higher frequencies and mode shapes are presented. The significant aspects such as boundary conditions, values of translational and rotational spring constants and the material volume fraction index on the natural frequencies and mode shapes are discussed. For elastically end constraints, some available results of special cases for isotropic beams are used to validate the present results. The new frequency results and mode shapes of functionally graded beams resting on elastically end constraints are presented.
The ability of rheumatologists blinded to prior workup to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis only by clinical assessment: a cross-sectional study

Objectives We aimed to study the ability of board-certified rheumatologists, blinded to all prior diagnostic test results, to establish the presence/absence of an inflammatory rheumatic disease (IRD) or RA among polyarthralgia or arthritis patients, solely relying on clinical assessment. Methods We performed a prospective, examiner-blinded, cross-sectional study documenting the diagnostic work in four sequential steps (medical history, physical examination, musculoskeletal ultrasonography and laboratory tests) of board-certified rheumatologists in a convenience cohort of 100 patients referred for inpatient diagnostic workup to a tertiary care rheumatology centre. Results The ability to correctly identify patients with or without an IRD (diagnostic accuracy) increased from 27% after the clinical assessment to 53% after the ultrasonography and to 70% after taking laboratory test results into account. The corresponding values for correctly identifying patients with or without RA were 19, 42 and 60%, respectively. Therefore the diagnostic accuracy of solely clinical assessment for determining the diagnosis of IRD or RA compared with the diagnosis established by a consecutive thorough in-patient workup was only 27 and 19% in our cohort, respectively. Pretreatment with corticosteroids (in the prior 7 days) vs none did not alter these results substantially (20 vs 29% for IRD, 15% vs 20% for RA). Conclusion Experienced rheumatologists, if deprived of information on prior external imaging and laboratory workup by blinding, were not able to correctly classify the majority of patients presenting with polyarthralgia or arthritis symptoms for inpatient workup, relying only on a brief symptom-focused medical history and physical examination.
Risk Prediction of Atrial Fibrillation Based on Electrocardiographic Interatrial Block

Background The electrocardiographic interatrial block (IAB) has been associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to test whether IAB can improve risk prediction of AF for the individual person. Methods and Results Digital ECGs of 152 759 primary care patients aged 50 to 90 years were collected from 2001 to 2011. We identified individuals with P‐wave ≥120 ms and the presence of none, 1, 2, or 3 biphasic P‐waves in inferior leads. Data on comorbidity, medication, and outcomes were obtained from nationwide registries. We observed a dose‐response relationship between the number of biphasic P‐waves in inferior leads and the hazard of AF during follow‐up. Discrimination of the 10‐year outcome of AF, measured by time‐dependent area under the curve, was increased by 1.09% (95% confidence interval 0.43–1.74%) for individuals with cardiovascular disease at baseline (CVD) and 1.01% (95% confidence interval 0.40–1.62%) for individuals without CVD, when IAB was added to a conventional risk model for AF. The highest effect of IAB on the absolute risk of AF was observed in individuals aged 60 to 70 years with CVD. In this subgroup, the 10‐year risk of AF was 50% in those with advanced IAB compared with 10% in those with a normal P‐wave. In general, individuals with advanced IAB and no CVD had a higher risk of AF than patients with CVD and no IAB. Conclusions IAB improves risk prediction of AF when added to a conventional risk model. Clinicians may consider monitoring patients with IAB more closely for the occurrence of AF, especially for high‐risk subgroups.
Performance and Structures of the German Science System in an International Comparison 2009 with a Special Focus on East Germany

1 Abstract The report analyses the performance and structures of the German science system in an international comparison based on publications recorded in the database Science Citation Index. As major observation, the share of Germany and other advanced countries in international reputed journals decreases due to a steadily growing activity of catchingup countries, in particular China. At the same time, the scientific regard of Chinese publications is improving, but the majority of publications still appears in journals with limited international visibility. As to a more detailed structural analysis, the performance of Germany is particularly high in the fields optics, measurement/ control, medical technology, polymers and physics, where both bibliometric performance indicators, Scientific Regard and International Alignement, are positive distinctly above average. A shift share analysis examines the growth of the scientific fields more in-depth. According to this, the general decrease of the German share is even much stronger in organic chemistry, polymers, chemical engineering, and materials research; an increase can be observed only for ecology/ climate and geosciences. The publication analysis for the former East Germany reveals that it has almost achieved the performance level of West Germany. Specific strengths of East Germany can be found in physics, ecology/climate and geo sciences. Specific areas of specialization in Berlin are optics, medical technology and medicine. Since a few years, the database SCOPUS is available as alternative to the Web of Science (WoS). The comparison of both files shows that the number of publications in SCOPUS is substantially higher than that of WoS, in particular in the engineering and social sciences as well as in the humanities. However, many documents in SCOPUS do not provide a country code, so that the database has to be completed for meaningful country analyses. In troduct ion to th is Issue
Can honey bees discriminate between floral-fragrance isomers?

ABSTRACT Many flowering plants present variable complex fragrances, which usually include different isomers of the same molecule. As fragrance is an essential cue for flower recognition by pollinators, we ask whether honey bees discriminate between floral-fragrance isomers in an appetitive context. We used the olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response, which allows training a restrained bee to an odor paired with sucrose solution. Bees were trained under an absolute (a single odorant rewarded) or a differential conditioning regime (a rewarded versus a non-rewarded odorant) using four different pairs of isomers. One hour after training, discrimination and generalization between pairs of isomers were tested. Bees trained under absolute conditioning exhibited high generalization between isomers and discriminated only one out of four isomer pairs; after differential conditioning, they learned to differentiate between two out of four pairs of isomers but in all cases generalization responses to the non-rewarding isomer remained high. Adding an aversive taste to the non-rewarded isomer facilitated discrimination of isomers that otherwise seemed non-discriminable but generalization remained high. Although honey bees discriminated isomers under certain conditions, they achieved the task with difficulty and tended to generalize between them, thus showing that these molecules were perceptually similar to them. We conclude that the presence of isomers within floral fragrances might not necessarily contribute to a dramatic extent to floral odor diversity. Summary: Discrimination of floral-fragrance isomers by bees is difficult, even under learning protocols that enhance discrimination; thus, isomers may not necessarily enhance plant odor diversity for pollinators.
Vein of Galen Aneurysmal Malformation: Advances in Management and Endovascular treatment

BACKGROUND Vein of Galen aneurysmal malformation (VGAM) is a rare congenital vascular malformation representing <1% of all arteriovenous malformations. The knowledge and strategies in the management are constantly evolving. OBJECTIVE To review our series of postneonatal VGAM patients treated over 11-yr period. METHODS Retrospective analysis of 113 VGAM treated between January 2004 and April 2015. After exclusions, 45 patients were included: 33 choroidal and 12 mural types. RESULTS Presenting symptom in the order of frequency: enlarged head circumference, antenatal diagnosis, mild CHF, and PHT at birth. Older patients were diagnosed following trauma, headache, cognitive decline, and incidentally during workup for other diseases. Hydrocephalus due to hydrodynamic disorder was present in 70% of choroidal and 58% of mural types. Only a quarter needed cerebrospinal fluid diversion procedure. Radiological cure was achieved in 82%; the outcome graded on a 5-point scale: 0 (death) to 4 (normal). A total of 66.6% are neurologically and developmentally intact with outcome score 4, 20% had outcome score of 3, and 8.9% had outcome score of 2. There was 4.4% mortality. Dural feeders to VGAM were found either in the initial or during the treatment in 22.2% in the current series. Angiogenesis from pial vessels developed after partial embolization in 17.7% that resolved completely following complete obliteration of VGAM. CONCLUSION Technical and technological advancements in endovascular embolization along with better understanding of clinical, anatomic, and pathophysiological aspects have resulted in significantly improved outcome and prognosis in VGAM. Most patients with proper treatment can now survive and most develop normally following appropriately timed treatment.
Speculation and Price Indeterminacy in Financial Markets: An Experimental Study

To explore how speculative trading influences prices in financial markets we conduct a laboratory market experiment with speculating investors (who do not collect dividends and trade only for capital gains) as well as dividend-collecting investors. We find that in markets with only speculating investors (i) price deviations from fundamentals are larger; (ii) prices are more volatile; (iii) the “mispricing” is likely to be strategic and not irrational; (iv) mispricing increases with the number of transfers until maturity; and (v) speculative trading pushes prices upward (downward) when liquidity is high (low).
Spindle Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity: A Case Report

Introduction: Spindle Cell Carcinoma (SpCC) also known as sarcomatoid carcinoma is a rare biphasic malignant neoplasm that occurs mainly in the upper aerodigestive tract. It has spindled or pleomorphic tumor cells which simulate a true sarcoma but of epithelial origin. WHO classification has placed this tumour under a highly malignant variant of squamous cell carcinoma and labelled it spindle cell carcinoma. It is known for propensity for recurrence and metastases. Material and methods: A 33 -years old lady presented with a rapidly enlarging fungating mass over right lower alveolar in the molar region of two month duration. It was associated with pain, odynophagia and trismus. She had foetor ex ore, and there was large fungating mass in the right lower alveolar measuring 4-5 cm in its largest diameter. The buccal mucosa and the floor of mouth in the vicinity of the tumour were spared. There were multiple small nodes palpable in the submandibular area. Biospy reported as spindle carcinoma. Results: A pre-operative Computed Tomography (CT) of the neck showed a lytic lesion in the alveolar margin of right angle of mandible. She then underwent surgery to remove the tumour entailed: right segmental mandibulectomy along with the primary tumour and right modified neck dissection. However, the posterior end of the intraoral wound broke down and closure of the wound with a tongue flap was performed one week later. The tongue flap took well and the pedicle is intact.
Dissipation of terbuthylazine, metolachlor, and mesotrione in soils with contrasting texture

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the dissipation of terbuthylazine, metolachlor, and mesotrione at different depths in soils with contrasting texture. The field trial was conducted at the Padua University Experimental Farm, north-east Italy. The persistence of three herbicides was studied in three different soil textures (clay soil, sandy soil, and loamy soil) at two depths (0–5 and 5–15 cm). Soil organic carbon content was highest in the clay (1.10%) followed by loam (0.67%) and sandy soil (0.24%); the pH of soils was sub-alkaline. Terbuthylazine, metolachlor, and mesotrione were applied on maize as a formulated product (Lumax®) at a dose of 3.5 L ha−1. Their dissipation in the treated plots was followed for 2 months after application. The concentrations of herbicides were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The dissipation of terbuthylazine, metolachlor, and mesotrione could be described by a pseudo first-order kinetics. Terbuthylazine showed the highest DT50, followed by metolachlor and mesotrione. Considering the tested soil, the highest DT50 value was found in clay soil for terbuthylazine and metolachlor, whereas for mesotrione there was no difference among soils. Significant differences were found between the two soil depths for terbuthylazine and metolachlor, whereas none were found for mesotrione. These results suggest that soil texture and depth have a strong influence on the dissipation of terbuthylazine and metolachlor, whereas no influence was observed on mesotrione because of its chemical and physical properties.
Actinomycetes, an Inexhaustible Source of Naturally Occurring Antibiotics

Global public health faces a desperate situation, due to the lack of effective antibiotics. Coordinated steps need to be taken, worldwide, to rectify this situation and protect the advances in modern medicine made over the last 100 years. Work at Japan’s Kitasato Institute has been in the vanguard of many such advances, and work is being proactively tailored to promote the discovery of urgently needed antimicrobials. Efforts are being concentrated on actinomycetes, the proven source of most modern antibiotics. We devised a novel physicochemical screening mechanism, whereby simple physico-chemical properties, in conjunction with related detection methods, such as LC/MS, LC/UV, and polarity, could be used to identify or predict new compounds in a culture broth, simply by comparing results with existing databases. New compounds are isolated, purified, and their structure determined before being tested for any bioactivity. We used lyophilized actinomycete strains from the Kitasato Microbial Library, most more than 35 years old, and found 330 strains were producers of useful bioactive substances. We also tested organisms found in fresh samples collected in the complex environments from around plant roots, as well as from sediments of mangrove forests and oceans, resulting in the discovery of 36 novel compounds from 11 actinomycete strains. A compound, designated iminimycin, containing an iminium ion in the structure was discovered from the culture broth of Streptomyces griseus OS-3601, which had been stored for a long time as a streptomycin-producing strain. This represented the first iminium ion discovery in actinomycetes. Compounds with a cyclopentadecane skeleton containing 5,6-dihydro-4-hydroxyl-2-pyrone ring and tetrahydrofuran ring, designated mangromicins, were isolated from the culture broth of Lechevalieria aerocolonigenes K10-0216 obtained from sediment in a mangrove forest. These structures are extremely unique among natural compounds. From the same culture broth, new steroid compounds, named K10-0216 KA and KB, and other new compounds having a thiazole and a pyridine ring, named pyrizomicin A and B, were discovered. New substances can be found from actinomycetes that have been exhaustively studied. Novel compounds with different skeletons can be found from a single broth of one strain. The sought after new antibiotics will arise from continued exploitation of the actinomycetes, especially rare actinomycetes. Work on new organisms and samples should be augmented by re-examination of known actinomycetes already in storage. New research should also be carried out on the manipulation of culture media, thereby stimulating actinomycete strains to produce novel chemicals. The establishment of wide-ranging international research collaborations will facilitate and expedite the efficient and timely discovery and provision of bioactive compounds to help maintain and promote advances in global public health.