Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feasibility of MRI assessment of maternal–fetal oxygen transport and consumption relative to maternal position in healthy late gestational pregnancies

Late gestational supine positioning reduces maternal cardiac output due to inferior vena caval (IVC) compression, despite increased collateral venous return. However, little is known about the impact of maternal position on oxygen (O2) delivery and consumption of the gravid uterus, fetus, placenta and lower limbs. We studied the effects of maternal positioning on these parameters in 20 healthy pregnant subjects at 36 ± 2 weeks using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); a follow‐up MRI was performed 6‐months postpartum (n = 16/20). MRI techniques included phase‐contrast and T1/T2 relaxometry for blood flow and oximetry imaging, respectively. O2 transport was measured in the following vessels (bilateral where appropriate): maternal abdominal descending aorta (DAoabdo), IVC, ovarian, paraspinal veins (PSV), uterine artery (UtA) and external iliacs, and umbilical. Maternal cardiac output was measured by summing DAothoracic and superior vena cava flows. Supine mothers (n = 6) had lower cardiac output and O2 delivery in the DAoabdo, UtA and external iliac arteries, and higher PSV flow than those in either the left (n = 8) or right (n = 6) lateral positions during MRI. However, O2 consumption in the gravid uterus, fetus, placenta and lower limbs was unaffected by maternal positioning. The ratio of IVC/PSV flow decreased in supine mothers while ovarian venous flow and O2 saturation were unaltered, suggesting a major route of pelvic venous return unaffected by maternal position. Placental–fetal O2 transport and consumption were similar between left and right lateral maternal positions. In comparison to non‐pregnant findings, DAoabdo and UtA O2 delivery and pelvic O2 consumption increased, while lower‐limb consumption remained constant , despite reduced external iliac artery O2 delivery in late gestation.
Molecular Modeling of the Deamidation Reaction in Solution: A Theoretical–Computational Study

In this work, a theoretical–computational method is applied to study the deamidation reaction, a critical post-translational modification in proteins, using a simple model molecule in solution. The method allows one to comprehensively address the environmental effect, thereby enabling one to accurately derive the kinetic rate constants for the three main steps of the deamidation process. The results presented, in rather good agreement with the available experimental data, underline the necessity for a rigorous treatment of environmental factors and a precise kinetic model to correctly assess the overall kinetics of the deamidation reaction.
Clay mineral assemblages as palaeoclimatic indicators in a shallowing carbonate lacustrine system: Oligocene-Mmiocene, central Ebro Basin (Ne Spain)

Abstract This paper focuses on the clay mineralogy (using XRD, SEM and TEM methods) of the lacustrine ‘‘Calizas de Torrente de Cinca’’ unit that represents the Oligocene-Miocene transition in the central part of the Ebro Basin (NE Spain). Phyllosilicates are mainly detrital although Mgsmectites could have been generated in the lake.Although a temperate, relatively humid climate dominated the source area during the Oligocene-Miocene transition (Chattian-Aquitanian), as deduced by detrital phyllosilicates assemblage, mineralogical vertical trends along with sedimentological studies indicate some changes.Relatively warmer and more humid conditions during the late Chattian, that favoured increasing chemical weathering, were replaced during the early Aquitanian by drier conditions coinciding with the Mi-1 glaciation effects; this change is coeval with a transition from deeper to shallower lacustrine facies. Phyllosilicate association analysis has also permitted an improvement in the palaeogeographical sketch and infers that the Pyrenees are the main source area for the lacustrine system.
HDAC6 decreases H4K16 and α-tubulin acetylation during porcine oocyte maturation

ABSTRACT HDAC6 is an essential factor in mouse oocyte maturation. However, the roles of HDAC6 in porcine oocyte maturation are still unclear. Therefore, we analyzed the roles of HDAC6 in porcine oocyte maturation by treatment with Tubastatin A (TubA) which is an HDAC6 inhibitor. Our results showed that treatment with 10 μg/ml TubA significantly decreased the rate of porcine oocyte maturation, but it did not influence the rate of germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Then, we found that TubA treatment disrupted spindle organization by increasing the α-tubulin acetylation level during porcine oocyte maturation. Moreover, TubA treatment significantly increased H4K16 acetylation, which may compromise kinetochore and microtubule (K-MT) attachment during meiosis in porcine oocytes. We also analyzed the effects of TubA on meiosis-related (H3T3pho and H3S10pho) and transcription-related histone modifications (H3K4me3, H3K9me3 and H3K4ac) during porcine oocyte maturation. The results showed that TubA treatment increased H3S10pho and H3K4ac levels, but no influence was seen in H3T3pho, H3K4me3 and H3K9me3 levels in porcine oocytes. TubA treated oocytes also showed a compromised ability to develop after parthenogenetic activation. Finally, we found that HDAC6 exhibited higher mRNA levels and lower DNA methylation levels in porcine oocytes than it did in porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEFs). These results indicate that the low level of DNA methylation in HDAC6 promoter ensures high expression. HDAC6 regulates the deacetylation of α-tubulin and H4K16, which promotes correct spindle organization and meiotic apparatus assembly during porcine oocyte maturation. This study illustrates a new pathway by which HDAC6 modulates mammalian oocyte maturation.
Modelling relationships between a comfortable indoor environment, perception and performance change

The attention within the communitymoves from sustainability to a healthy society. The loss of health in our society, as a result of aging, lifestyle as well as a creeping loss of attention to the primary requirement of building (i.e. Health improvement), is a major problem. The real-estate world is able to reverse this loss of health by providing healthy environments as a holistic model for the prevention of building and lifestyle related health problems, as well as to support the well-being and performance of people. The real-estate world in that respect has to offer something to the world of health. A healthy environment is of value to people and organizations. By evaluating buildings in the context of sustainability, health and performance of people is an investment in the quality of the work environment, which will result in a reduced environmental impact, better performance, greater well-being and better health. The result is a win-win situation for all participants in the housing process. Today studies and conferences still show that there is room for improvement and that indoor environmental quality is often still poor, despite policy directives, standards and guidelines. This PhD thesis attempts to support finding improvements needed to create a good indoor environment. Much knowledge is available in the literature, but difficult to access for practioners and is hard to translate this knowledge into comparison of different options. This PhD thesis tries to fill a gap between theory and practice. An attempt is made to model a large part of the knowledge that is available in such a way that it will become accessible for the professional practice.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF LOCALLY LOADED SLOPES

A three-dimensional slope stability analysis for drained frictional-cohesive material based on the upper-bound technique of limit analysis is presented. A rigid-block toe or above-the-toe collapse mechanism is considered, with energy dissipation taking place along planar velocity discontinuities. The technique is appropriate for slope analysis when question arises as to the level of permissible loads on slopes where the load is confined to a limited area (local load). The results in terms of limit loads are compared with those available in the literature for a particular case of a frictionless material. It was found that, for a wide variety of parameters (especially for large safety margins), the present analysis yields lower values of limit loads. Since they are rigorous upper bounds to the true limit load, these results should be considered as closer to the actual limit load. Une analyse a trois dimension de la stabilite d'une pente pour un materiaux draine et basee sur la technique de la limite superie.
Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Central Stars of High-Excitation Planetary Nebulae with WFC and WFPC2

We present observations of four high excitation planetary nebulae (IC 2165, Me 2-1, NGC 2440, NGC 7027) taken with the Wide Field Camera and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The high angular resolution of the instruments allows for the unambiguous identification of the central star, which was not found to be the case in most previous studies. In addition, the panchromatic nature of the data, which include several ultraviolet bandpasses, permits us to directly determine the amount of dust extinction present along the sight line to the central star. The combination of these two characteristics make it possible to delineate the spectral energy distribution of the central stars. Assuming a Planck function spectrum and a standard interstellar extinction law with RV = 3.1, the adopted EB-V values are 0.40 (IC 2165), 0.15 (Me 2-1), 0.15 (NGC 2440), and 1.10 (NGC 7027). The wavelength coverage of our measurements is not particularly sensitive to temperature values in the range 150,000–400,000 K. However, we do find that 200,000 K produces the best fits. Again using a Planck function to represent the wavelength dependence of the stellar flux, we determine V magnitudes of 17.47 ± 0.06 (IC 2165), 18.40 ± 0.05 (Me 2-1), 17.63 ± 0.16 (NGC 2440), and 16.04 ± 0.04 (NGC 7027). Combining these results with literature values for the emission-line fluxes and distances, we derive the Zanstra temperature, crossover magnitude, radius, and luminosities for each object. The implications of these measurements for the mass and the evolutionary state of each object is briefly discussed.
Flow past a Cylinder on a β Plane, with Application to Gulf Stream Separation and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Abstract The classical problem of flow past a cylinder is revisited in the context of understanding two oceanographic phenomena: separation of the Gulf Stream from the North American coastline at Cape Hatteras and the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current with topographic obstacles. Numerical solutions are presented for eastward, barotropic flow past a cylinder in a β-plane channel. The solutions are dependent on two nondimensional parameters: the Reynolds number, Re, and a nondimensional β parameter, β. In line with previous studies, increasing β reduces the separation downstream of the cylinder but introduces a blocked stagnant region upstream of the cylinder, flanked by two inertial jets. The large β limit is relevant to the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current with topographic obstacles such as the Kerguelen Plateau. However, a new regime is obtained for high Reynolds number (Re > 200) and moderate β parameter (β ∼ 10–100) with two separated jets downstream of the cylinder.
Tidal Channel, Levee, and Crevasse-Splay Deposits from a Cambrian Tidal Channel System: A New Mechanism to Produce Shallowing-Upward Sequences

ABSTRACT Two cliff exposures, 1 km and 0.7 km long and 10 m high, of the Middle-Upper Cambrian Waterfowl Formation were mapped in detail on the Costigan Thrust in southwestern Alberta. The formation here comprises 5 rock types: intraformational conglomerate; cross-stratified grainstone; wavy-bedded grainstone-mudstone; massive dolomite mudstone; and prism-cracked, cryptmicrobial-laminated mudstone. These rock types form a grainstone body in the upper 7 m of the outcrops and 4 fining-upwards sequences in the lower 3 m. The grainstone body is divided into 5 storeys, each of which has a basal erosion surface overlain by an intraformational conglomerate with interbedded thrombolites. Storeys contain lateral accretion bedding that is composed of decimeter-thick bedsets which are inclined up to 12 d grees relative to the basal erosion surfaces. The fining-upwards sequences comprise basal cross-stratified grainstone overlain by wavy-bedded grainstone-mudstone that is capped by prism-cracked, cryptmicrobial-laminated mudstones. Three fining-upwards sequences are laterally continuous. However, one fining-upward sequence pinches out along the outcrop face. We interpret the grainstone body as the deposits of laterally migrating, sinuous tidal channels. It is not clear whether the stacking of channel deposits into storeys represents superimposed channel-bar and channel-fill deposits from a single channel belt or superimposed channel-belts. The fining-upwards sequences may be shallowing-upwards sequences in the sense of James (1984) and represent aggrading-prograding tidal flat deposits. A ternatively, these sequences may be crevasse-splay and levee deposits analogous to fluvial overbank flood sequences. In this case, these sequences may not be related to eustatic sea level changes, although they resemble classic shallowing-upwards sequences and "punctuated aggradational cycles. "
Synthesis of functionalized poly(vinyl acetate) mediated by alkyne-terminated RAFT agents

Two new xanthates with alkyne functionalities were synthesized for the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of vinyl acetate (VAc). The new RAFT agents were fully characterized by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Unlike the alkyne terminated RAFT agent (AT-X1) the protected alkyne-terminated RAFT agent (PAT-X1) was able to conduct the RAFT polymerization of VAc with a good control over the molecular weight (MW) and relatively narrow MW distributions (Đ < 1.4). The linear evolution of Mn with conversion as well as the close agreement between Mn,th and Mn,GPC values confirmed the controlled features of the RAFT system. It is worth mentioning that the polymer dispersity remained very low (Đ < 1.20) until relatively high monomer conversions (60%) due to the non-activated nature of VAc. The chain end-functionality of the obtained polymers was evaluated by 1H NMR, FTIR-ATR and UV-Vis absorption analysis. The “livingness” of the obtained polymer was confirmed by a successful chain extension experiment. The deprotection of the alkyne functionality in the PVAc, allowed a further copper catalyzed azide–alkyne [3 + 2] dipolar cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC) with an azido terminated-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-N3), to afford PVAc–PEG block-copolymers as a proof-of-concept.
Morphological Functions to Quantify Three‐Dimensional Tomograms of Macropore Structure in a Vineyard Soil with Two Different Management Regimes

Soil structure controls important physical and biological processes in soil–plant–microbial systems. Those processes are dominated by the geometry of soil pore structure, and a correct model of this geometry is critical for understanding them. Soil tomography has been shown to provide rich three‐dimensional digital information on soil pore geometry. Recently, mathematical morphological techniques have been proposed as powerful tools to analyze and quantify the geometrical features of porous media. Minkowski functionals and morphological functions built over Minkowski functionals provide computationally efficient means to measure four fundamental geometrical features of three‐dimensional geometrical objects, that is, volume, boundary surface, mean boundary surface curvature, and connectivity. We used the threshold and the dilation and erosion of three‐dimensional images to generate morphological functions and explore the evolution of Minkowski functionals as the threshold and as the degree of dilation and erosion changes. We analyzed the three‐dimensional geometry of soil pore space with X‐ray computed tomography (CT) of intact soil columns from a Spanish Mediterranean vineyard by using two different management practices (conventional tillage versus permanent cover crop of resident vegetation). Our results suggested that morphological functions built over Minkowski functionals provide promising tools to characterize soil macropore structure and that the evolution of morphological features with dilation and erosion is more informative as an indicator of structure than moving threshold for both soil managements studied.
Emotion recognition in relation to tumor characteristics in patients with low-grade glioma

Abstract Background Patients with low-grade gliomas (LGG) treated with surgery, generally function well and have a favorable prognosis. However, LGG can affect neurocognitive functioning. To date, little is known about social cognition (SC) in these patients, although impaired SC is related to social-behavioral problems and poor societal participation. Frontal brain areas are important for SC and LGG frequently have a frontal location. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether emotion recognition, a key component of SC, was impaired, and related to general cognition, tumor location, laterality, tumor volume, and histopathological characteristics in patients with LGG, postsurgery, and before start of adjuvant therapy. Methods A total of 121 patients with LGG were matched with 169 healthy controls (HC). Tumor location [including (frontal) subregions; insula, anterior cingulate cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), orbitofrontal-ventromedial PFC] and tumor volume were determined on MRI scans. Emotion recognition was measured with the Ekman 60 faces test of the Facial Expressions of Emotion-Stimuli and Tests (FEEST). Results Patients with LGG performed significantly lower on the FEEST than HC, with 33.1% showing impairment compared to norm data. Emotion recognition was not significantly correlated to frontal tumor location, laterality, and histopathological characteristics, and significantly but weakly with general cognition and tumor volume. Conclusions Emotion recognition is impaired in patients with LGG but not (strongly) related to specific tumor characteristics or general cognition. Hence, measuring SC with individual neuropsychological assessment of these patients is crucial, irrespective of tumor characteristics, to inform clinicians about possible impairments, and consequently offer appropriate care.
RNF6 promotes gastric cancer progression by regulating CCNA1/CREBBP transcription

ABSTRACT Ring finger protein 6 (RNF6) is a member of the E3 ubiquitin ligase family. Previous studies have reported the involvement of RNF6 as a ubiquitin ligase in the progression of gastric cancer (GC). However, this study found that RNF6 has a clear localization in the nucleus of GC, indicating a role other than ubiquitin ligase. Further chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis revealed that RNF6 has DNA binding and transcriptional regulatory effects and is involved in important pathways such as tumor cell cycle and apoptosis. Cyclin A1 (CCNA1) and CREB binding protein (CREBBP) are downstream targets for RNF6 transcription regulation in GC. RNF6 binds to the promoter region of CCNA1/CREBBP and is actively regulating their expression in GC cells. Silencing CCNA1/CREBBP partially reversed the promoting effect of RNF6 overexpression on the biological function of GC cells. Our study suggests that RNF6 promotes the progression of GC by regulating CCNA1/CREBBP transcription.
A critical evaluation of our understanding of bone transport and deposition in fluvial channels

Skeletal element orientations are often used to infer fluvial transport or winnowing in the taphonomic history of remains utilizing a method that assumes there is a correlation between flow direction and bone orientation. Analysts assume a correlation between bone orientation and flow direction because preferred bone orientations have been observed during flume trials. However because flumes are an unnaturally homogenous environment, flume results may not be an accurate analog for bone transport in natural fluvial systems. The hypothesis that there is a correlation between flow direction and bone orientation was tested by observing the orientation of remains found in natural rivers, and bones of various shapes that had been seeded in river systems. No consistent orientation of elongate bones that moved in natural rivers was observed. However, concave bones, on average, oriented concave down ~70% of the time, similar to flume based predictions. Orientation results for elongate bones directly conflict with flume observations of elongate bone orientation. The discrepancy can likely be explained by the variation in substrates, bed materials, obstructions, channel cross section 59 geometry, the bed material transport effects, increased turbulence, and a higher prevalence of three-dimensional flow patterns that are all inherent in natural fluvial channels. Some of the discrepancy might also be related to changes in bone density that occur during residence in natural channels. Flumes provide a remarkably uniform environment in which to perform observations, which is largely why they are such an effective tool. However, natural river systems are heterogeneous with constantly changing conditions. Similarly, flume trials utilizing bone have frequently been run over short time spans in which bone density does not change radically. Naturally bone density continually changes during long periods of transport, causing bones to float, be neutrally buoyant, or behave more like woody debris. Consequently, bones do not adopt the predicted orientations in natural fluvial systems because the analog used to develop the predictions is sufficiently different from natural conditions.
Shear wave splitting as a proxy for stress forecast of the case of the 2006 Manyas-Kus Golu ( M b = 5.3) earthquake

Abstract. The 2006 Mb = 5.3 Manyas-Kus Golu (Manyas) earthquake has been retrospectively "stress-forecasted" using variations in time-delays of seismic shear wave splitting to evaluate the time and magnitude at which stress-modified microcracking reaches fracture criticality within the stressed volume where strain is released. We processed micro earthquakes recorded by 29 TURDEP (Multi-Disciplinary Earthquake Research in High Risk Regions of Turkey) and 33 KOERI (Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute) stations in the Marmara region by using the aspect-ratio cross-correlation and systematic analysis of crustal anisotropy methods. The aim of the analysis is to determine changes in delay-times, hence changes in stress, before and after the 2006 Manyas earthquake. We observed that clear decreases in delay times before the impending event, especially at the station GEMT are consistent with the anisotropic poro-elasticity (APE) model of fluid-rock deformation, but we could not observe similar changes at other stations surrounding the main event. The logarithms of the duration of the stress-accumulation are proportional (self-similar) to the magnitude of the impending event. Although time and magnitude of th 2005 Manyas earthquake could have been stress-forecasted, as has been recognized elsewhere, shear-wave splitting does not appear to provide direct information about the location of impending earthquakes.