Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Building weight on Tunnelling-Induced Ground and Building Deformation

In urban areas, the ground movements induced by tunnelling can distort and damage overlying buildings. Potts and Addenbrooke (1997) presented new design charts to assist in the assessment of building damage in response to tunnelling. The charts were based on the results of two-dimensional plane-strain finite element analyses considering variations in the bending and axial stiffness of a building relative to the soil stiffness, the building's width, its position relative to the tunnel axis, and the tunnel depth. In all cases, weightless elastic beams represented the building. This paper presents the results of analyses that additionally consider building weight in order to investigate its influence on the tunnelling-induced deformation of a structure. The mechanisms that control this interaction problem are investigated. It is demonstrated how the application of building load changes the stress regime in the ground and how this stress change alters tunnelling induced ground and building deformation. The results of a parametric study are used to quantify the effect of a building's self weight. This paper shows that the trend in deflection ratio and horizontal strain with building stiffness is very similar for a wide range of loads investigated. Following the approach of Potts and Addenbrooke (1997), the deformation values are then compared with the greenfield cases to give modification factors. The results reveal an increase in these factors with weight. On the other hand, when plotted against relative stiffness the results are shown to be close to the 'weightless' design curves provided by Potts and Addenbrooke (1997).
Understanding the Geography of Pellagra in the United States: The role of social and place-based identities

This article examines the intersection of constructs such as North and South, white and black, rich and poor, male and female in the creation of the diseased Other during the pellagra epidemic in the United States in the early twentieth century. Pellagra was a disease of poverty, caused by poor nutrition and resulting in over 100,000 deaths in the country between 1900 and 1940. Endemic in the American South, its victims were largely low-income, female and black. The author argues that the conception of the South as the regional Other by Northern interests, a reluctance to acknowledge widespread deprivations in the region by Southern leaders, compounded by inadequate scrutiny of the racial and gender dimensions of the disease, delayed the discovery of the cause of pellagra and the implementation of public health measures to prevent and treat the disease. By highlighting the critical roles of geographical location and identity in disease prevalence, this article adds to debates on the links between place-based identity and health. It also amplifies feminist understandings of how racist, sexist and class-based binaries are refracted and reconstituted in the articulation of socio-culturally produced identities and their consequences for health.
Natural killer T cells are critical for dendritic cells to induce immunity in Chlamydial pneumonia.

RATIONALE We previously showed an important role of natural killer T cells (NKT) in skewing the adaptive T cell immunity to Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn), an intracellular bacterial lung infection, but the mechanism remains unclear. OBJECTIVES To investigate the underlying mechanism by which NKT modulate T cell responses in chlamydial pneumonia. METHODS We examined the effect of NKT activation in modulating DC function, especially in generating protective immunity against Cpn infection using combination of NKT knockout (KO) mice and specific NKT activation approaches. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We found that NKT activation in vivo after Cpn infection induces phenotypic and functional changes in dendritic cells (DC). DC from NKT-deficient mice showed reduced CD40 expression and IL-12 production, whereas enhancing NKT activation using alpha-GalCer increased CD40 expression and IL-12 production. Co-culture of DC with NKT enhanced bioactive IL-12p70 production by DC in a CD40L-, IFN-gamma-, and cell-cell contact-dependent manner. Further, co-culture of T cells with DC isolated from infected wild-type (WT) and NKT-deficient mice induced type-1 and type-2 responses, respectively, while DC from alpha-GalCer-treated, infected mice led to enhanced type-1 responses. Moreover, upon adoptive transfer, DC from infected WT mice induced strong type-1 immunity, whereas those from knockout mice induced type-2 responses and increased disease severity upon challenge infection. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide direct evidence of the critical role of NKT activation in the functional modulation of DC for the development of protective immunity in a clinically relevant respiratory infection.
Pollen evidence from tropical Australia for the onset of an ENSO-dominated climate at c. 4000 BP

The Holocene climatic history of tropical northern Australia is re-examined using the recently published pollen record from Groote Eylandt to corroborate and refine previous climatic inter pretations. We identify a four-stage Holocene comprising: (1) a continuous increase in effective precipitation (EP) from the beginning of the Holocene to about 5000 BP; (2) a mid-Holocene EP maximum from about 5000 to about 4000 BP; (3) a marked decline in EP somewhere between 4000-3500 Bp; and (4) an EP recovery in the last <2000 years. The mid-Holocene EP maximum is 1000 years later than Holocene EP maxima from temperate Southern Australia and suggests that the records are decoupled at this time. We focus on pollen evidence of environmental change at c. 4000 BP, which marks a break between a continuously ameliorating (increasing EP) climate but with small mean variation in the earlier Holocene and a steady (no directional trend) but highly variable later Holocene. We believe that this break represents the first evidence from the monsoonal lowlands of northern Australia for the onset of 'modern' ENSO-dominated ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Holocene. A simple conceptual model of trans-Pacific teleconnections is presented to explain this onset and as an hypothesis for testing.
ETS-VI Magnetic Field Observations of the Near-Earth Magnetotail during Substorms

The magnetic field experiment on board ETS-VI (the Engineering Test Satellite-VI) and initial results from the experiment are presented. ETS-VI was launched on August 28, 1994 and has been placed in anear equatorial orbit with a perigee of 2.3Re, an apogee of 7.1Re, an inclination of 13.4°, and an orbital period of 14.4 hours. The spacecraft is three-axis stabilized. The magnetic field experiment on board the satellite consists of a triaxial fluxgate magnetometer. The magnetometer has a sampling interval of 3 s, and except near perigee, it is operated in the mode having a ±256 nT dynamic range and a 0.125 nT resolution. We have examined the magnetometer data obtained at radial distances from 5.0 to 7.1Re, magnetic latitudes from-10° to 25°, and local times from 14 MLT through midnight to 04 MLT, to study magnetic field variations associated with substorms. Substorm-associated field variations are easily seen at larger radial distances and at local times later than 19 MLT. Using 92 substorm events that occurred in the 21-01 MLT sector, we have constructed the average field configuration during the growth phase. The magnetic field becomes highly taillike and its intensity increases at high latitudes (> 10°), while the field intensity decreases at lower latitudes (<10°). The field configuration suggests that the inner edge of the growth phase current system is located near the synchronous altitude at the end of the growth phase.
DELAYED HYPERSENSITIVITY I. INDUCTION OF HYPERSENSITIVITY TO DIPHTHERIA Toxin IN Gu~-F~ PIGs

Infections in animals and in man, caused by a wide variety of bacteria, commonly lead to a state of hypersensitivity in the recovered host, specifically directed against the infecting organism or its products. While the most extensively studied example of bacterial allergy is tuberculosis (1), many other infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses, fungi, protozoa, and other bacteria such as streptococci, Brucella, and Corynebacterium diphtheria induce the hypersensitive state, Small doses of specific antigens cause delayed inflammatory reactions when injected intradermally into sensitized animals. Larger doses may give rise to severe delayed systemic reactions which may terminate in fatal shock. Only two methods have been available for experimental induction of the delayed hypersensitive state to protein antigens. The first method is the classical one of infection, usually with an attenuated organism such as BCG, in which the animal becomes sensitized to a number of the proteins and other components elaborated by the infecting organism. The second method for induction of the hypersensitive state consists in injecting an antigen, such as ovalbumin, in adjuvant containing either killed Mycobacteria (Dienes (2) and Freund and McDermott (3)) or certain fipides contained in the "hard wax" fraction of Mycobacteria (Raffel (4)). Although incorporation of an antigen into oil-water emulsion results in enhanced antibody formation, delayed hypersensitivity cannot usually be demonstrated unless Mycobacteria themselves or the mycobacterial wax fraction is added. Neither of these methods has proved entirely satisfactory for experimental
Data‐based estimation of anthropogenic carbon and acidification in the Weddell Sea on a decadal timescale

[1] The amount of anthropogenic CO2 (Cant) that entered the Weddell Sea between 1992 and 2008 (Cant1992–2008) was assessed using the extended multiple linear regression (eMLR) method. In the Warm Deep Water (WDW) and the Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW), Cant1992–2008 values were insignificant, whereas values as high as 8 μmol kg−1 were observed over the shelf. Cant1992–2008 concentrations in the surface layer varied with latitude between 2 and 11 μmol kg−1. Weak intrusion of anthropogenic CO2 into Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW) was demonstrated (Cant1992–2008 yields 1.5–2 μmol kg−1). That more Cant1992–2008 was found in the WSDW than in the WSBW is surprising, but can be explained by intense ventilation of the WSDW originating from east of the Weddell Gyre. The invasion of Cant1992–2008 provokes a shift in the equilibria of the carbonate system, resulting in acidification and reduction of CO32− concentration. The mean decrease of pH in the upper 200 m layer was 0.016. The largest decrease of calcite and aragonite saturation states was observed at the surface. This implies that surface waters might become undersaturated with respect to aragonite in the future while the underlying WDW is still saturated. Results of this analysis suggest that complete undersaturation of surface waters in the Weddell Sea will be reached after the 21st century.
Study on Generation of Periodical Large Surface Eddies in a Composite Channel Flow

A set of comparative experiments are employed to identify a predominant factor in the generation of large eddies on the water surface at the interface between the main channel and the floodplain in a composite channel flow. It is indicated that the large surface eddies are not phenomena whose action resembles boiling but tornadolike vortices generated by the local shear layer at the interface. Flow visualization technique showed that there existed a complicated three-dimensional structure in the form of inclined vortex tubes which behaved like longitudinal vortices near the top edge of the floodplain as well as periodically generated large surface eddies. The periodicity of those phenomena is explained as the preferred mode of the local shear layer with two-dimensional stability analysis.
The Interaction Between Deep Convection and Easterly Waves over Tropical North Africa: A Weather State Perspective

AbstractThe interaction between deep convection and easterly waves over tropical North Africa is studied using a weather state (WS) dataset from the International Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and reanalysis products from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast, as well as radiative fluxes from ISCCP and a precipitation dataset from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project. Composite analysis based on 21 yr of data shows that stronger latent and radiative heating of the atmosphere are associated with stronger, more organized, convective activity than with weaker, less organized, convective activity, implying that any transition from less to more organized and stronger convection increases atmospheric heating. Regression composites based on a meridional wind predictor reveal coherent westward propagation of WS and large-scale wind anomalies from the Arabian Sea into East Africa and through West Africa. The analysis shows that enhanced, but unorganized, convective activity, which devel.
TRIAC disrupts cerebral thyroid hormone action via a negative feedback loop and heterogenous distribution among organs

3,3’,5-triiodothyroacetic acid (TRIAC) is a metabolite of endogenous thyroid hormones (THs) that can bind to and activate TH receptors. As TRIAC was previously detected in sewage effluent, we aimed to investigate exogenous TRIAC’s potential for endocrine disruption. We administered either TRIAC or 3,3’,5-triiodo-L-thyronine (LT3) to both euthyroid mice and 6-propyl-2-thiouracil-induced hypothyroid mice. In hypothyroid mice, TRIAC alleviated growth retardation, suppressed the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis, and upregulated TH-responsive genes in the pituitary gland, liver, and heart. We observed that, unlike LT3, TRIAC does not upregulate the expression of TH-responsive genes in the cerebrum. Measurement of organ-specific TRIAC levels suggested that TRIAC was not efficiently trafficked into the cerebrum. Furthermore, by analyzing euthyroid mice, we found that cerebral TRIAC levels did not increase despite TRIAC administration at higher concentrations, whereas serum and cerebral TH levels were substantially decreased. Hence, TH-responsive genes in the cerebrum appear to be downregulated by TRIAC. In summary, TRIAC administration decreases circulating TH levels by suppressing the HPT axis, while the consequent attenuation of TH actions was compensated by TRIAC in peripheral tissues but not in the cerebrum due to the relative impermeability of the blood–brain barrier towards TRIAC. We verified that exogenous TRIAC disrupts TH actions in the cerebrum. This disruption is apparently due to the additive effects of circulating endogenous THs being depleted via a negative feedback loop involving the HPT axis and heterogenous distribution of TRIAC among different organs. Our findings indicate that environmental TRIAC poses a potential neurodevelopmental risk.
Robust Inductive Matrix Completion strategy to explore associations between lincRNAs and human disease phenotypes

Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are associated with a wide variety of human diseases. Piles of data about the lincRNAs are becoming available, thanks to the High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) platforms, which open opportunity for cutting-edge machine learning and data mining approaches to analyze the disease association better. However, there are only a few in silico association inference tools available to date, and none of them utilizes the heterogeneous data about the lincRNAs and diseases. The standard Inductive Matrix Completion (IMC) technique provides with a platform among the two entities considering respective side information. But, it has two major issues pertaining to the noise and sparsity in the dataset. Thus, a robust version of IMC is needed to adequately address the issues. In this paper, we propose Robust Inductive Matrix Completion (RIMC) to address these challenges. Then, we applied RIMC to the available association dataset between the lincRNAs and OMIM disease phenotypes with a diverse set of side information of the both. The proposed method performs better than the state-of-the-art methods in terms of precision@k and recall@k at the top-k disease prioritization to the subject lincRNAs. Moreover, with an induction experiment we showed that RIMC performs superior than the standard IMC for ranking unexplored disease phenotypes to a set of known lincRNAs.
Visual Realism Enhances Realistic Response in an Immersive Virtual Environment - Part 2

Does realistic lighting in an immersive VR application enhance presence - that is, the participants' feeling that they're actually in the scene and behaving accordingly? Part 1 of this study indicated that presence is more likely with real-time ray tracing than with ray casting. However, that research couldn't separate the effects of overall illumination quality from the dynamic effects of real-time shadows and reflections. In a new experiment, 20 people experienced a scene rendered with either global or local illumination. Both conditions included dynamically changing shadows and reflections. Illumination quality didn't affect presence, so the earlier result must have been caused by dynamic shadows and reflections. Nevertheless, global illumination did result in greater plausibility - that is, participants were more likely to respond as if the virtual events were real. These results indicate that global illumination does affect participant responses and is worth the effort.
The halite‐bearing Zag and Monahans (1998) meteorite breccias: Shock metamorphism, thermal metamorphism and aqueous alteration on the H‐chondrite parent body

Abstract— Zag and Monahans (1998) are H‐chondrite regolith breccias comprised mainly of light‐colored metamorphosed clasts, dark clasts that exhibit extensive silicate darkening, and a halite‐bearing clastic matrix. These meteorites reflect a complex set of modification processes that occurred on the H‐chondrite parent body. The light‐colored clasts are thermally metamorphosed H5 and H6 rocks that were fragmented and deposited in the regolith. The dark clasts formed from light‐colored clasts during shock events that melted and mobilized a significant fraction of their metallic Fe‐Ni and troilite grains. The clastic matrices of these meteorites are rich in solar‐wind gases. Parent‐body water was required to cause leaching of chondritic minerals and chondrule glass; the fluids became enriched in Na, K, Cl, Br, Al, Ca, Mg and Fe. Evaporation of the fluids caused them to become brines as halides and alkalies became supersaturated; grains of halite (and, in the case of Monahans (1998), halite with sylvite inclusions) precipitated at low temperatures (≤100 °C) in the porous regolith. In both meteorites fluid inclusions were trapped inside the halite crystals. Primary fluid inclusions were trapped in the growing crystals; secondary inclusions formed subsequently from fluid trapped within healed fractures.
Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid levels of amyloid beta proteins 1-40 and 1-42 in Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND In brains with AD, Abeta is a major component of diffuse plaques. Previous reports showed that CSF Abeta42 levels were lower in patients with AD than in controls. Although studies showed higher plasma Abeta42 levels in familial AD, a recent report has indicated that plasma Abeta42 levels were similar in a sporadic AD group and controls. However, no information is published on plasma Abeta40 and Abeta42 levels in relation to Apo E genotype or severity of dementia in sporadic AD. OBJECTIVE To examine plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of amyloid beta protein 1-40 (Abeta40) and 1-42 (Abeta42) levels in patients with probable Alzheimer disease (AD) and elderly nondemented control subjects in relation to the apolipoprotein E (Apo E) genotype and dementia severity. SETTING Two university medical centers. PATIENTS AND METHODS Levels of Abeta40 and Abeta42 were measured in plasma from 78 patients with AD and 61 controls and in CSF from 36 patients with AD and 29 controls by means of a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS Mean plasma Abeta40 levels were higher in the AD group than in controls (P = .005), but there was substantial overlap; Abeta42 levels were similar between the groups. Levels of Abeta40 and Abeta42 showed no association with sex or Mini-Mental State Examination scores. There was a significant relationship between age and Abeta40 level in controls but not in the AD group. Levels of Abeta40 were higher in patients with AD with the Apo E epsilon4 allele than in controls (P<.01). Cerebrospinal fluid Abeta40 levels were similar in the AD group and controls. However, Abeta42 levels were lower in the AD group than in controls (P<.001). The levels showed no association with severity of dementia. CONCLUSIONS Although mean plasma Abeta40 levels are elevated in sporadic AD and influenced by Apo E genotype, measurement of plasma Abeta40 levels is not useful to support the clinical diagnosis of AD. Lower levels of CSF Abeta42 in the AD group are consistent with previous studies.
Repeating earthquakes and interplate aseismic slip in the northeastern Japan subduction zone

[1] On the basis of a waveform similarity analysis, we detected 321 earthquake clusters with very similar (cross-correlation coefficient >0.95) waveforms on the plate boundary in the northeastern Japan subduction zone. Most of them were not found within the subducting Pacific plate with a few exceptions. Moreover, even on the plate boundary, they were not located in the large moment release areas of large interplate earthquakes that occurred recently or in the areas where the plates are inferred to be strongly coupled from GPS data analyses. These observations suggest that these similar earthquakes are caused by repeating slips of small asperities with a dimension of around 0.1 to 1 km surrounded by stable sliding areas on the plate boundary. If the aseismic slip portion in these small asperities is negligible, we can estimate the cumulative amount of aseismic slip in the area surrounding each asperity. In other words, repeating earthquake data potentially can be used to estimate the spatiotemporal aseismic slip distribution on the plate boundary. We estimated the spatial distribution of slip rate on the plate boundary from repeating earthquake data. The scaling relation between seismic moment and seismic slip by Nadeau and Johnson [1998] is used for the estimation of the slip amount by each repeating earthquake cluster. Obtained spatial distribution is consistent with that estimated from GPS data on land.
Sources of Indoor Radon in Houses: A Review

The primary sources of indoor radon are analyzed and discussed. These include soil gas, building materials, and tap water. Within the framework of a simple steady-state analysis of the radon concentration in a model of a typical house, the potential contribution to indoor radon levels from each source is determined. When these results are compared with reported field studies of radon in houses, it appears that the infiltration of soil gas directly into a house is generally by far the largest contributor to indoor radon levels. In a few regions of the country, where drinking water supplies are drawn from aquifers in granite and other radium-bearing strata, water usage can be another major contributor to indoor radon. Even in well ventilated houses, with air exchange rates in excess of one house volume per hour, soil gas and water can lead to radon concentrations above existing health protection guides, such as those developed for remedial actions addressing the use of uranium mill tailings in houses. In ex.