Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-situ Chemical Oxidation of Residual TCE by Permanganate in Epikarst

In-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) has been widely used for source zone remediation of Dense Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs) in subsurface environments. DNAPL source zones for karst aquifers are generally located in epikarst where the DNAPL mass is trapped either in karst soil or at the regolith contact with carbonate bedrock. This study aims to investigate the performance of oxidation of residual trichloroethylene found in such environments by potassium permanganate. Batch and flow cell experiments were conducted to determine the kinetics and the mass removal rate of TCE. pH change, Cl production, TCE and MnO4 destruction were monitored routinely during experiments. Nonreactive tracer tests were also conducted prior and after the oxidation process to determine the influence of oxidation on flow conditions. The results show that oxidant consumption rate of the calcareous epikarst soil was significant and the oxidant demand was determined to be 20 g KMnO4/kg soil. Oxidation rate of residual TCE (1.26x10 s) was faster than the oxidant consumption rate of the soil (2.54 2.92x10 s) at only high oxidant concentrations (> 40 mM KMnO4). Half life of TCE oxidation ranged from 7.9 to 10.7 min. Although highly significant fraction of residual TCE mass in the system was destroyed by permanganate oxidation, TCE concentration in the effluent remained above its MCL. Flow interruption tests indicate that efficiency of ISCO was limited by the rate of TCE dissolution and the rate-limited desorption of TCE. The residence time and the initial concentration of the oxidant in the source zone also controlled the efficiency of ISCO in epikarst. Keywords—Epikarst, in-situ chemical oxidation, permanganate.
ESTRUTURA FACTORIAL DA VERSÃO PORTUGUESA DO JOB DIAGNOSTIC SURVEY (JDS)

O objectivo deste trabalho e analisar a estrutura factorial da escala "Job Diagnostic Survey" (HACKMAN; OLDHAM, 1980), construida para avaliar as cinco dimensoes caracteristicas do trabalho: variedade de aptidoes, identidade do trabalho, significado do trabalho, autonomia e feedback. Utilizou-se uma amostra heterogenea de 552 trabalhadores pertencentes a diversos grupos profissionais. Avaliaram-se nove modelos alternativos sobre a estrutura do instrumento, recorrendo a analise factorial confirmatoria. Os resultados mostram que o modelo de Hackman e Oldham mais um factor de metodo relacionado com os itens negativos e o modelo que apresenta um melhor ajuste. Esta solucao identifica uma estrutura de seis factores (os cinco factores do Modelo das Caracteristicas do Trabalho e um sexto factor de metodo constituido pelos itens negativos). Os itens associados a estas dimensoes definem subescalas com niveis de fiabilidade razoaveis, o que permite considera-las operacionalizacoes psicometricamente aptas para avaliar as cinco dimensoes caracteristicas do trabalhodefinidas por Hackman e Oldham.
Using CNN ’ s To Detect Mathematical Properties of Strange Attractor Images

Strange attractors are subsets of the phase space of a dynamical system. When a strange attractor is present, the state of the system will evolve towards positions within the attractor. However, unlike simple attractors such as limit cycles, the behavior of the system remains unpredictable even after it has entered this pseudo-steady-state. Depictions of these attracting sets have been found to have intrinsic aesthetic value. In fact, research has suggested that human taste naturally converges to depictions of attractors with specific mathematical properties, even though it is difficult to estimate these properties by simple inspection. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN’s) have shown themselves to be capable of almost human level visual classification. Therefore, I explore their ability to learn to judge this subtle property.
Perceived Discrimination, Cultural Identity Development, and Intimate Partner Violence Among a Sample of Hispanic Young Adults

Objective: Despite the prevalence of interpersonal violence (IPV), scientific understanding of the risk and protective factors for unidirectional and bidirectional IPV, and especially the role of sociocultural variables in these behaviors, is limited. This study investigates the association between ethnic-identity search, ethnic-identity affirmation, perceived discrimination, and unidirectional (victimization only, perpetration only) and bidirectional (reciprocal violence) IPV behaviors among foreign-born and U.S.-born Hispanic young adults. Method: Data are from Project RED (Reteniendo y Entendiendo Diversidad para Salud), a study investigating the effect of psychosocial and sociocultural factors on health behavior among a community sample of Hispanic young adults in Southern California (n = 1,267). Results: Approximately 40% of the sample reported unidirectional or bidirectional IPV, with significant gender differences across the three categories. Compared with men, women had approximately 70% lower odds of victimization (OR = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.15–0.71), over twice the odds of perpetration (OR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.98–3.62), and 35% higher odds (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.04–1.81) of bidirectional IPV. Higher ethnic-identity affirmation was protective for victimization (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.81–0.99) and bidirectional IPV (OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.62–0.89), whereas higher perceived discrimination scores increased the odds for bidirectional IPV (OR = 1.37 95% CI = 1.26–1.56) and was particularly detrimental for foreign-born participants. Conclusion: Intervention strategies should consider gender-specific risk profiles, cultural contexts, and the influence of sociocultural stressors. Addressing the harmful effects of perceived discrimination and leveraging the protective effects of ethnic-identity affirmation may be promising IPV-prevention strategies for Hispanic young adults. Future research directions and implications are discussed.
Injection Guidance System for Cellular Microinjections

In this paper we present a novel injection guidance system that assists an operator in the microinjection of living adherent cells. The system includes a micromanipulator, an injection system, an impedance measurement device and control software. The impedance measurement system detects changes in the resistance of an injection capillary during cell injections. From the measurement signal, the software determines parameters that can be used to detect several injection events such as cell—capillary contact, capillary breakage and capillary clogging, which are all unavailable in the current microinjection systems. Real cell injection experiments indicate that injection success rates can be significantly increased: from 30—40% without the system to 65% with the system.
Upper Limb Strength and Function Changes during a One-Year Follow-Up in Non-Ambulant Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: An Observational Multicenter Trial

Introduction Upper limb evaluation of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is crucially important to evaluations of efficacy of new treatments in non-ambulant patients. In patients who have lost ambulation, there are few validated and informative outcome measures. In addition, longitudinal data demonstrating sensitivity to clinical evolution of outcome measures over short-term periods are lacking. Patients and Methods We report here the results of a one-year multicenter study using specifically designed tools to assess grip, pinch strength, and hand function in wheelchair-bound patients. Our study assessed 53 non-ambulant patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy aged 17.1 ± 4.8 years (range: 9 – 28.1 years). The average Brooke functional score of these patients was 4.6 ± 1.1. The average forced vital capacity was 44.5% predicted and 19 patients used non-invasive ventilation. Patients were assessed at baseline, 6 months, and one year using the Motor Function Measure and innovative devices (namely the MyoSet composed of MyoGrip, MyoPinch, and MoviPlate). Results Our study confirmed preliminary data previously reported regarding feasibility of use and of reliability of the MyoSet and the correlation at baseline between distal strength and clinical outcomes such as FVC, Brooke score, age, and duration since loss of ambulation. A significant correlation was observed between the distal upper limb strength and clinical variables. The sensitive dynamometers (MyoGrip and MyoPinch) and MoviPlate captured a 12-month change in non-ambulant Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients of all ages. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00993161 NCT00993161
Semantic Mappings: Out of Ontology World Limits

Mappings usually relate two similar knowledge representations. Thus, we can find many examples of mappings amid thesauri, databases, ontologies (domain ontologies, top-level and domain ontologies, PSM (Problem Solving Method) and domain ontologies, linguistic and domain ontologies); additionally, we can frequently find systems with mappings that relate two different knowledge representations, for instance, databases and ontologies. All these mappings are operationally different, and are also named differently (mappings, correspondences, semantic bridges, transformations, semantic relations, functions, conversions, domain-PSM relations), but is there a single definition for these concepts? Can we find common characteristics? This paper analyzes the existing definitions and representation of the term ldquomappingrdquo (and related terms) in the ontology world and its semantic neighborhood and proposes a new definition and representation of ldquomappingrdquo for the Semantic Web field.
Strong male bias drives germline mutation in chimpanzees

Male chimps evolve faster with age Chimpanzees are evolving faster than humans. Venn et al. examined the genetics of three generations of western chimpanzees and found that overall the mutation rate is similar between humans and chimpanzees. However, while male humans had three to four times the mutation rate of females, in chimpanzees the sex difference was even higher, with a male mutation rate five to six times that of females. Blame aging dads. For every extra year of the father's age, baby chimpanzees exhibited approximately one extra mutation. This finding will inform future studies of primate evolution. Science, this issue p. 1272 Overall, the mutation rate per year in chimps is similar to that in humans, but the male mutation bias with age is stronger. Germline mutation determines rates of molecular evolution, genetic diversity, and fitness load. In humans, the average point mutation rate is 1.2 × 10−8 per base pair per generation, with every additional year of father’s age contributing two mutations across the genome and males contributing three to four times as many mutations as females. To assess whether such patterns are shared with our closest living relatives, we sequenced the genomes of a nine-member pedigree of Western chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus. Our results indicate a mutation rate of 1.2 × 10−8 per base pair per generation, but a male contribution seven to eight times that of females and a paternal age effect of three mutations per year of father’s age. Thus, mutation rates and patterns differ between closely related species.
An Intramolecular Interaction between Src Homology 3 Domain and Guanylate Kinase-Like Domain Required for Channel Clustering by Postsynaptic Density-95/SAP90

Members of the postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95)/SAP90 family of membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) proteins function as multimodular scaffolds that organize protein-signaling complexes at neuronal synapses. MAGUK proteins contain PDZ, Src homology 3 (SH3), and guanylate kinase (GK)-like domains, all of which can function as sites for specific protein–protein interactions. We report here a direct protein–protein interaction between the SH3 domain and the GK region in the PSD-95 family of MAGUKs. The SH3 domain of the PSD-95 family appears to have an atypical binding specificity, because the classical SH3 binding (-P-X-X-P-) motif is absent from the GK domain. Although SH3–GK binding can occur in either an intramolecular or intermolecular manner, the intramolecular mode is preferred, possibly because of additional tertiary interactions available when the SH3 and GK domains are adjacent in the same polypeptide. Mutations disrupting the intramolecular SH3–GK interaction do not interfere with PSD-95 association with the K+ channel Kv1.4 or with the GK domain-binding protein GKAP. The same mutations, however, inhibit the clustering of Kv1.4 by PSD-95, suggesting that the intramolecular SH3–GK interaction may modulate the clustering activity of PSD-95.
Local similarity in RNA secondary structures

We present a systematic treatment of alignment distance and local similarity algorithms on trees and forests. We build upon the tree alignment algorithm for ordered trees given by Jiang et. al (1995) and extend it to calculate local forest alignments, which is essential for finding local similar regions in RNA secondary structures. The time complexity of our algorithm is O(/F/sub 1///spl middot//F/sub 2//)/spl middot/deg(F/sub 1/)/spl middot/deg(F/sub 2/)/spl middot/(deg(F/sub 1/)+deg(F/sub 2/)) where /Fi/ is the number of nodes in forest Fi and deg(Fi) is the degree of Fi. We provide carefully engineered dynamic programming implementations using dense, two-dimensional tables which considerably reduces the space requirement. We suggest a new representation of RNA secondary structures as forests that allow reasonable scoring of edit operations on RNA secondary structures. The comparison of RNA secondary structures is facilitated by a new visualization technique for RNA secondary structure alignments. Finally, we show how potential regulatory motifs can be discovered solely by their structural preservation, and independent of their sequence conservation and position.
Changes in brain connectivity related to the treatment of depression measured through fMRI: a systematic review

Depression is a mental illness that presents alterations in brain connectivity in the Default Mode Network (DMN), the Affective Network (AN) and other cortical-limbic networks, and the Cognitive Control Network (CCN), among others. In recent years the interest in the possible effect of the different antidepressant treatments on functional connectivity has increased substantially. The goal of this paper is to conduct a systematic review of the studies on the relationship between the treatment of depression and brain connectivity. Nineteen studies were found in a systematic review on this topic. In all of them, there was improvement of the clinical symptoms after antidepressant treatment. In 18 out of the 19 studies, clinical improvement was associated to changes in brain connectivity. It seems that both DMN and the connectivity between cortical and limbic structures consistently changes after antidepressant treatment. However, the current evidence does not allow us to assure that the treatment of depression leads to changes in the CCN. In this regard, some papers report a positive correlation between changes in brain connectivity and improvement of depressive symptomatology, particularly when they measure cortical-limbic connectivity, whereas the changes in DMN do not significantly correlate with clinical improvement. Finally, some papers suggest that changes in connectivity after antidepressant treatment might be partly related to the mechanisms of action of the treatment administered. This effect has been observed in two studies with stimulation treatment (one with rTMS and one with ECT), and in two papers that administered three different pharmacological treatments. Our review allows us to make a series of recommendations that might guide future researchers exploring the effect of anti-depression treatments on brain connectivity.
Inside Family Viewing : Ethnographic Research on Television's Audiences

Against a backdrop of growing unease with traditional quantitative empirical research methods and an equal unease with abstract psychoanalytical models, ethnography is increasingly seen as one of the few empirical methods which is not completely undercut by contemporary theoretical work. Indeed, it is only recently that ethnography has begun to show its power to construct and explain in media studies. James Lull's work in this area has proved an influential model, and in this collection he covers writing on "social uses", the case study of television use in the family, and ethnographic theory and method.
Deployment of femtocell and its interference management approaches in LTE heterogeneous networks

With a vast number of wireless devices being connected to the system, the need for very high data rates and extremely low latency with ultra-high reliability is becoming more and more challenging. And with such density of network nodes, it is a huge challenge to provide wide coverage and high quality service in indoor environments. Femtocell, a new add-on in the small cell technology, acts as an extension to the existing outdoor macrocell with the aim of providing quality indoor coverage. However, vast deployment of femtocell network in the absence of proper network planning and coverage strategy makes it difficult to maintain the desired quality of service. Additionally, the service of femtocell in densely deployed heterogeneous network is challenged by interference, unwanted handover and signaling overhead in the system. Given the huge potential of the femtocell technology, extensive research has been carried out by companies, service providers and operators to mitigate the interference and to ensure the highest benefit of femtocell deployment. Against this backdrop, a rigorous review has been attempted in this paper with abrief analysis on femtocell technology and its deployment in LTE Heterogeneous Networks. Challenges of vast femtocell deployment and different interference management techniques have been studied with a quantitative comparison. Graphical and tabular analysis on the interference management techniques is also presented along with their advantages and limitations.
Frizzled3 controls axonal development in distinct populations of cranial and spinal motor neurons

Disruption of the Frizzled3 (Fz3) gene leads to defects in axonal growth in the VIIth and XIIth cranial motor nerves, the phrenic nerve, and the dorsal motor nerve in fore- and hindlimbs. In Fz3−/− limbs, dorsal axons stall at a precise location in the nerve plexus, and, in contrast to the phenotypes of several other axon path-finding mutants, Fz3−/− dorsal axons do not reroute to other trajectories. Affected motor neurons undergo cell death 2 days prior to the normal wave of developmental cell death that coincides with innervation of muscle targets, providing in vivo evidence for the idea that developing neurons with long-range axons are programmed to die unless their axons arrive at intermediate targets on schedule. These experiments implicate planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling in motor axon growth and they highlight the question of how PCP proteins, which form cell–cell complexes in epithelia, function in the dynamic context of axonal growth. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.01482. 001
A FRAMEWORK FOR THE FUSION OF DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS

In recent years, collection and processing techniques for Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) generation have improved rapidly, allowing surfaces to be represented with more detail and accuracy. Fusion of overlapping DEMs, generated from data captured with different acquisition techniques, or from different times, allows to find inconsistencies, improve density, accuracy and currency, and eliminate gaps. This is of crucial importance for the improvement of global DEMs, like SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission). Since the DEMs may have substantial differences, simple amalgamation of all available points would not be satisfying and it would degrade the accuracy of the merged model. Any integration approach aiming at high-quality models needs an increased level of robustness. Computational efficiency and global convergence are further preferable properties. In this paper, an approach is presented for DEM fusion. The goal is to use existing DEMs to create automatically a new DEM surface which is: geometrically accurate by depicting the correct height information of the area, clean by eliminating blunders and errors which are present in the initial data and complete by modelling all the area on the highest possible resolution. The method is presented and the first results achieved after fusing a Lidar-based DEM and an IKONOS-based DEM on Thun, Switzerland, are shown and commented.
Learning unbiased features

A key element in transfer learning is representation learning; if representations can be developed that expose the relevant factors underlying the data, then new tasks and domains can be learned readily based on mappings of these salient factors. We propose that an important aim for these representations are to be unbiased. Different forms of representation learning can be derived from alternative definitions of unwanted bias, e.g., bias to particular tasks, domains, or irrelevant underlying data dimensions. One very useful approach to estimating the amount of bias in a representation comes from maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) [5], a measure of distance between probability distributions. We are not the first to suggest that MMD can be a useful criterion in developing representations that apply across multiple domains or tasks [1]. However, in this paper we describe a number of novel applications of this criterion that we have devised, all based on the idea of developing unbiased representations. These formulations include: a standard domain adaptation framework; a method of learning invariant representations; an approach based on noise-insensitive autoencoders; and a novel form of generative model.
The Structure of Phobias in Panic Disorder

Fear and avoidance of individual phobic situations were measured in 1168 patients with panic disorder suffering current attacks. Correlation and principal-components analyses give components of agoraphobia, illness phobia, and social phobia in panic disorder. Agoraphobia does not stand out so clearly as illness phobia and social phobia as a separate factor; ‘fear of open spaces' shows some separation from other agoraphobic situations. Frequency of panic attacks and changes associated with their remission have no special relationship to agoraphobia. Closer attention to social and illness phobia may be fruitful in discerning the evolution of panic disorder.
Markerless Real-Time Target Region Tracking: Application to Frameless Sterotactic Radiosurgery

Accurate and fast registration of intra-operative 2D projection images to 3D pre-operative images is an important component of many image-guided surgical procedures. If the 2D image acquisition is repeated several times during the procedure, the registration problem can be cast instead as a 3D tracking problem. To solve the 3D problem, we propose in this paper to apply a real-time 2D region tracking algorithm to first recover the components of the transformation that are in-plane to the projections. From the 2D motion estimates of all projections, a consistent estimate of the 3D motion is derived. We compare this method to computation in 3D and a combination of both. Using clinical data with a goldstandard transformation, we show that a standard tracking algorithm is capable of accurately and robustly tracking regions in x-ray projection images, and that the use of 2D tracking greatly improves the accuracy and speed of 3D tracking.