Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of the cell inclination on the heat transport and large-scale circulation in liquid metal convection

Inclined turbulent thermal convection in liquid sodium is studied at large Rayleigh numbers $Ra\gtrsim 10^{7}$ based on the results of both experimental measurements and high-resolution numerical simulations. For a direct comparison, the considered system parameters are set to be similar: $Ra=1.67\times 10^{7}$ in the direct numerical simulations (DNS), $Ra=1.5\times 10^{7}$ in the large-eddy simulations and $Ra=1.42\times 10^{7}$ in the experiments, while the Prandtl number of liquid sodium is very small ($Pr\approx 0.009$). The cylindrical convection cell has an aspect ratio of one; one circular surface is heated, while the other one is cooled. Additionally, the cylinder is inclined with respect to gravity and the inclination angle varies from $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}=0^{\circ }$, which corresponds to Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC), to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}=90^{\circ }$, as in a vertical convection (VC) set-up. Our study demonstrates quantitative agreement of the experimental and numerical results, in particular with respect to the global heat and momentum transport, temperature and velocity profiles, as well as the dynamics of the large-scale circulation (LSC). The DNS reveal that the twisting and sloshing of the LSC at small inclination angles periodically affects the instantaneous heat transport (up to $\pm 44\,\%$ of the mean heat transport). The twisted LSC is associated with a weak heat transport, while the sloshing mode that brings together the hot and cold streams of the LSC is associated with a strong heat transport. The experiments show that the heat transport scales as $Nu\sim Ra^{0.22}$ in both limiting cases (RBC and VC) for Rayleigh numbers around $Ra\approx 10^{7}$, while any inclination of the cell, $0<\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leqslant 90^{\circ }$, leads to an increase of $Nu$.
Developing a dashboard to meet Competence Committee needs: a design-based research project

Background Competency-based programs are being adopted in medical education around the world. Competence Committees must visualize learner assessment data effectively to support their decision-making. Dashboards play an integral role in decision support systems in other fields. Design-based research allows the simultaneous development and study of educational environments. Methods We utilized a design-based research process within the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Saskatchewan to identify the data, analytics, and visualizations needed by its Competence Committee, and developed a dashboard incorporating these elements. Narrative data were collected from two focus groups, five interviews, and the observation of two Competence Committee meetings. Data were qualitatively analyzed to develop a thematic framework outlining the needs of the Competence Committee and to inform the development of the dashboard. Results The qualitative analysis identified four Competence Committee needs (Explore Workplace-Based Assessment Data, Explore Other Assessment Data, Understand the Data in Context, and Ensure the Security of the Data). These needs were described with narratives and represented through visualizations of the dashboard elements. Conclusions This work addresses the practical challenges of supporting data-driven decision making by Competence Committees and will inform the development of dashboards for programs, institutions, and learner management systems.
Using Oral and Intranasal Dosage Forms of Ketamine for Managing Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Review of the Literature

A lack of effective treatment for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has led to the evaluation of ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist. Despite the demonstrated short-term benefits of using intravenous (IV) ketamine, side effects and the difficulty in administering ketamine outside the health-care setting has raised interest in alternative dosage forms. Research articles evaluating oral or intranasal (IN) ketamine were retrieved from the PubMed database. Patients who received oral or IN ketamine experienced a similar reduction in depressive symptoms within 24 hours of treatment and fewer side effects compared to patients who received IV ketamine. Novel administration forms of ketamine provide an opportunity for patients with TRD to achieve remission with fewer adverse side effects. Future studies should continue to evaluate these administration strategies in the hope of promoting ketamine’s use outside health-care settings and for longer time periods.
Randomized Controlled Trial of Minimally Invasive Sacroiliac Joint Fusion Using Triangular Titanium Implants vs. NonSurgical Management for Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction

Introduction Sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction is a prevalent cause of unremitting low back pain. Does minimally invasive SIJ fusion provide superior outcomes compared with nonsurgical treatment? Methods 148 subjects with SI joint dysfunction were randomly assigned at 19 US centers to minimally invasive SI joint fusion with triangular titanium implants (N = 102) or nonsurgical management (NSM, n = 46). Pain, disability and quality of life scores were collected at baseline and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. Success rates were compared using Bayesian methods. Crossover from nonsurgical to surgical care was allowed after the 6month study visit was complete. Results Sixmonth success rates were higher in the surgical group (81.4% versus 26.1%, posterior probability of superiority > 0.9999). Clinically important (≥15 point) ODI improvement at 6 months occurred in 73.3% of the SIJ fusion group versus 13.6% of the NSM group (p < 0.0001). Improvements in SIJ pain and ODI were sustained at 12 months in the surgical group. Subjects who crossed over had improvements in pain, disability and quality of life similar to those in the original surgical group. Adverse events were slightly more common in the surgical group (1.3 versus 1.1 events per subject, p = 0.3063). One patient underwent immediate revision surgery for neuropathic pain related to implant malposition. 77 and 78% of subjects assigned to SIJ fusion were “very satisfied” with SIJ fusion at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Conclusions In this study, minimally invasive SI joint fusion using triangular titanium implants was more effective than nonsurgical management at one year in relieving pain, improving function and improving quality of life in patients with SI joint dysfunction.
The development and regeneration of the serotonergic system.

9 CHAPTER I: General Introduction 11 Serotonin: discovery, function, and anatomy 12 Development of the serotonergic system 13 Serotonergic neurons: specification, differentiation and maturation 15 Migration: radial glial-guided locomotion versus somal translocation 16 Intracellular machinery for migration 17 Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans: diverse roles from development to adulthood 19 Laminin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans 21 CNS injury, serotonergic fibers and GAP-43 22 The glial scar and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans 24 Other components of the lesion 25 Relieving CSPG inhibition by Chondroitinase ABC 27 Questions addressed by this dissertation research 28 CHAPTER II: Serotonergic neurons migrate radially through the neuroepithelium by dynamin-mediated somal translocation 31 Abstract 32 Introduction 3232 Introduction 32 2 Materials and Methods 34 Results 39 Serotonergic neuron morphology suggests somal translocation 39 Further characterization of ePet-EYFP-expressing cells 41 Growth-promoting and inhibitory extracellular matrices 43 Slice culture time-lapse imaging verified somal translocation 45 Dynamin participates in the somal translocation mechanism 48 Discussion 49 CHAPTER III: The unusual response of serotonergic neurons after CNS injury: lack of axonal dieback and enhanced sprouting within the inhibitory environment of the glial scar 81 Abstract 82 Introduction 83 Materials and Methods 84 Results 89 Serotonergic fibers persist at the edge of the lesion 89 Serotonergic fibers sprout within high levels of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and laminin 91 Serotonergic fibers survive among macrophages/microglia, GFAP+ and vimentin+ cells, while callosal fibers die back 92 The subventricular zone and ependyma mimic the lesion environment 94
Use of precision methods to accelerate drug development in oncology

ABSTRACT Introduction: To allow broader application of cancer precision medicine, consideration of how use of molecular abnormalities could enhance the drug development plan and how these findings inform drug combination therapy should begin early. This requires a framework to define molecular ‘actionability,’ and a screening plan for enrichment of clinical trials with patients thought most likely to benefit. Areas covered: Literature was reviewed to illustrate how preclinical studies, including patient derived models and genetically engineered models are used to find initial predictive biomarkers. Co-clinical trials and studies of exceptional responders can postulate which molecular variants predict response. ‘Actionable mutations (or molecular variants)’ are refined during early clinical trials, based initially on preclinical evidence, but gathering additional signals from clinical trials and exceptional responders. Use of biomarkers in early drug development to understand the drug’s interaction with the intended target enhance confidence that future development will be fruitful. Expert commentary: Issues remaining to be solved include the timing of tumor profiling for optimal use of precision medicine, assessment of the effect of tumor heterogeneity within individual patients and development of efficient methods for testing combinations and for understanding the functional impact of various genomic variants, such as mutations and co-mutations.
Effect of Two Estrous Synchronization Programs on Reproductive Performance of Dairy Cows under Summer Condition in Jordan

Two treatment groups of postpartum Friesian cows (n =276) were synchronized for estrus starting on d 10 of the estrous cycle. GPG: GnRH-PGFB2-BGnRH and timed AI, GPE: GnRH-PGFB2B-EB and AI at detected estrus. Pregnancy rates for first AI at d 28 (46.7 ± 4.4 and 48.4 ± 4.9%), at d 45 post-AI (34.7 ± 4.2 and 34.1 ± 4.7%) and the cumulative (87.3 ± 2.3 and 86.5 ± 3.3 %) for GPG and GPE cows, respectively, did not differ between the two treatments. Whereas pregnancy rates to the first AI for primiparous and multiparous cows (38.8 ± 4.8 and 24.1 ± 4.3%, respectively) were significantly different (P < 0.02). Meanwhile, the cumulative pregnancy rates (87.6 ± 2.4 and 85.5 ± 3.8% for primiparous and multiparous, respectively) were not different. No differences were observed in days open for pregnant cows between GPG and GPE cows (85.2 ± 3.4 and 87.2 ± 3.8 d, respectively) and between primiparous and multiparous cows (84.9 ± 2.7 and 87.4 ± 4.3 d, respectively). Results indicate no additional improvement in reproductive performance of cows inseminated at detected estrus following GnRH-PGFB2B-EB program compared to cows inseminated at determined time following GnRH-PGFB2B-GnRH program as measured by pregnancy rate and days open under summer condition.
Strengthening interlinked marketing exchange systems to improve water and sanitation in informal settlements of Kigali, Rwanda

ABSTRACT Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is a significant health burden in Rwanda. Although current approaches for improving water and sanitation provision to enhance health outcomes are often narrowly associated with monetary exchange, analysis of two informal settlements in Kigali (Gitega and Kimisagara) shows that households attempt to meet their water and sanitation needs through four interlinked exchange systems (market-based, command-based, culturally determined and non-market-based exchange systems). By focusing on existing social relations and exchange systems, sanitation practitioners may be able to foster and strengthen these interlinked water and sanitation marketing exchange systems embedding in the local context and local capabilities, and as a consequence improve the lives of the low-income communities of informal settlements.
A Phase 2 Evaluation of Single Agent Clofarabine as First Line Treatment for Older Patients with AML Who Are Not Considered Fit for Intensive Chemotherapy.

Patients over 70 years represent a significant proportion of patients with AML. They respond poorly to intensive chemotherapy. Although 50% of patients can achieve CR, only 8% are alive at 2 years (MRC Database). In addition significant numbers of these patients either do not wish to undergo, or are not considered fit for intensive chemotherapy. This represents a significant unmet medical need. Nucleoside analogues (Ara-C) provide an active group of agents in AML, Fludarabine however is ineffective at tolerable doses. Clofarabine has been modified by introducing a Fluorine in the 2′ position which confers reduced susceptibility to cleavage of the glycosidic linkage and also reduced toxicity caused by halogenated nucleobases. As such the drug has potential use as an oral formulation. Previous clinical and in vitro studies have established a dose schedule at 40mg/m 2 days 1–5. This is associated with CRs in relapse/refractory AML, but with grade ¾ liver toxicity in 25% of patients. Because of these characteristics we undertook a non-randomised study using a dose of 30mg/m 2 days 1-5 IV, which could be repeated for up to 4 courses at a minimum of 28 days apart. The target patient group were patients >70 years, or patients 60–70 with a cardiac history, who were not considered fit for conventional chemotherapy. Twenty-eight patients entered the study: 16 males, 12 females of a median age 71 years (range 60 – 79). The FAB distribution was, M0=1;M1=9; M2=8; M4=2; M5=4; M6=3; Unknown=1. The cytogenetic risk group (MRC criteria) were 26 standard and 2 unfavourable risk. All patients received course 1. Five patients died before response could be assessed from causes which were not thought to be associated with the drug. One patient is too early to assess response. Five did not enter complete remission although there was a reduction in bm blasts from 58 to 18%, 55 to 20% and 30 to 15% in 3 cases. Sixteen patients (59%) achieved complete remission after course 1. Grade 3 toxicity was seen in 3 patients, but this recovered in all cases in a few days. Patients who did not enter CR did not show haematological recovery after course 1 and were considered treatment failures. Of the 16 patients who entered CR, haematological recovery to ANC 1.0 x 10 9 /l took 28 days (range 21–42) Platelets to 50x10 9 /l took 25 days (range 21–38). Conclusions: Clofarabine is an active agent when used alone as first line treatment. It is well tolerated but is associated with cytopenia of an average 28 days. At the dose chosen for this study grade ¾ liver toxicity was uncommon. The drug is a candidate for evaluation in a randomised trial and/or in combination schedules, and lower doses should be explored in older patients. This study was partially supported by an unrestricted grant from Bioenvison Inc.
Cytoglobin overexpression facilitates proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells

Cytoglobin, a recently discovered globin, is expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Loss of cytoglobin provides a protective effect on vascular reconstruction but the effect of its overexpression is unclear. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of cytoglobin overexpression on the migration and proliferation of VSMCs and possible mechanisms. We detected the expression of cytoglobin in hypertensive and normotensive rat aortas, with negative feedback regulation between cytoglobin and hypertension observed. The expression of cytoglobin was significantly decreased in hypertensive rats compared to normotensive rats, but VSMCs overexpressing cytoglobin displayed increased cell migration and proliferation, which led to a phenotypic switch. The increased expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 and collagen Ia suggests a role for cytoglobin in extracellular matrix remodeling. Increased expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and decreased expression of p27 implies that cytoglobin is involved in modulating VSMC proliferation. Our findings indicate that cytoglobin may play an important role in vascular wall remodeling.
Assessing the impact of projected climate change on the future of grape growth and wine production in the Niagara Peninsula (Canada)

ABSTRACT The impacts of projected climate change on several key climatic indicators for grape growth and wine production are assessed for the Niagara Peninsula (Canada). Global Climate Model outputs are evaluated and ranked for the study region to create selective ensembles of seasonal climate change projections. Statistical downscaling is performed to create local, daily, climate change scenarios. Average growing season temperature and the number of growing degree days have been increasing over time (1981–2010) and are projected to increase further under climate change (2011–2100). There were trends in total accumulated growing season precipitation or in the number of days with total precipitation greater than 10 mm, but slight increases were still projected under climate change. Minimum winter temperatures were warming over time and the number of days with temperatures below −20°C were decreasing, with both these trends projected to continue. There were no statistically significant trends associated with maximum summer temperatures or the number of days with temperatures above 30°C, but both were projected to increase considerably in the future. A warmer, wetter climate in the region is expected to lengthen growing seasons, increase growth potential, diminish risk of winter freeze damage, while increasing summer heat stress.
Advancing Global Assessments of Freshwater Systems

Quantifying mean annual flow of rivers (MAf) at ungauged sites is essential for assessments of global water supply, ecosystem integrity and water footprints. MAf can be quantified with spatially explicit process-based models, which might be overly time-consuming and data-intensive for this purpose, or with empirical regression models that predict MAf based on climate and catchment characteristics. Yet, regression models have mostly been developed at a regional scale and the extent to which they can be extrapolated to other regions is not known. In this study, we developed a global-scale regression model for MAf based on a dataset unprecedented in size, using observations of discharge and catchment characteristics from 1,885 catchments worldwide, measuring between 2 and 106 km2. In addition, we compared the performance of the regression model with the predictive ability of the spatially explicit global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB by comparing results from both models to independent measurements. We obtained a regression model explaining 89% of the variance in MAf based on catchment area and catchment averaged mean annual precipitation and air temperature, slope and elevation. The regression model performed better than PCR-GLOBWB for the prediction of MAf, as root-mean-square error (RMSE) values were lower (0.29–0.38 compared to 0.49–0.57) and the modified index of agreement (d) was higher (0.80–0.83 compared to 0.72–0.75). Our regression model can be applied globally to estimate MAf at any point of the river network, thus providing a feasible alternative to spatially explicit process-based global hydrological models. 2 a global-sCale regression model to prediCt mean annual flow | 19
Learning Deep-Latent Hierarchies by Stacking Wasserstein Autoencoders

Probabilistic models with hierarchical-latent-variable structures provide state-of-the-art results amongst non-autoregressive, unsupervised density-based models. However, the most common approach to training such models based on Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) often fails to leverage deep-latent hierarchies; successful approaches require complex inference and optimisation schemes. Optimal Transport is an alternative, non-likelihood-based framework for training generative models with appealing theoretical properties, in principle allowing easier training convergence between distributions. In this work we propose a novel approach to training models with deep-latent hierarchies based on Optimal Transport, without the need for highly bespoke models and inference networks. We show that our method enables the generative model to fully leverage its deep-latent hierarchy, avoiding the well known"latent variable collapse"issue of VAEs; therefore, providing qualitatively better sample generations as well as more interpretable latent representation than the original Wasserstein Autoencoder with Maximum Mean Discrepancy divergence.
Three-dimensional Homogenized Constrained Mixture Model of Anisotropic Vascular Growth and Remodeling

This thesis deals with the mathematical modeling of growth and remodeling processes in soft biological tissues. In this area, it extends the so-called homogenized constrained mixture models for the first time to three dimensions. In addition to that, a new theory is introduced to determine from fundamental micromechanical considerations the anisotropy of the changes of the tissue geometry resulting from volumetric growth in soft biological tissues.
Automatic Segmentation of Macular Holes in Optical Coherence Tomography Images

The retina is a part of the ocular system responsible for vision. In the central region of the retina is the macula, that enables detailed view. There is a distinct macular disease called Macular Hole (MH). It causes a condition of low vision related to the weakening of the fovea, high myopia, eye trauma and severe exposure to the sun. A surgery depends of the size and shape of the MH. A macular hole can be identified in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images through the top boundaries of the Internal Limiting Membrane (ILM) and the Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE). Manual segmentation of OCT images is time consuming whereas automatic segmentation is fast and has a low computational cost, and consequently of interest to specialists. Thus, the main objective of this work is to develop an algorithm that automatically segments the ILM boundary layer and the area of the MH in OCT images. Another objective that was also pursued included the automatic acquisition of MH measurements. The segmentation was performed through a set of techniques involving shortest distance from a point to a curve (Euclidean Distance), Flood Fill and Border Following algorithms. The proposed method reached satisfactory results for all applications made. The automatic segmentation of MH and the extraction of its measures is a significant contribution to aid the medical diagnosis of the macular hole pathology.