Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustained Uplift at a Continental Rift Caldera

Caldera systems are often restless and experience pulses of uplift and subsidence, with a weak, but significant link to eruption. Characterizing the spatial and temporal patterns of deformation episodes provides insight into the processes responsible for unrest and the architecture of magmatic and hydrothermal systems. Here we combine interferometric synthetic aperture radar images with data from Global Positioning System and a network of seismometers at a continental rift caldera Corbetti, Ethiopia. We document inflation that started mid‐2009 and is ongoing as of 2017, with associated seismicity. We investigate the temporal evolution of the deformation source using a Hastings‐Metropolis algorithm to estimate posterior probability density functions for source model parameters and use the Akaike information criterion to inform model selection. Testing rectangular dislocation and point sources, we find a point source at a depth of 6.6 km (95% confidence: 6.3 − 6.8 km) provides the statistically justified fit. The location of this source is coincident with a conductive anomaly derived from magnetotelluric measurements. We use a joint inversion of two geodetic data sets to produce a time series, which shows a volume input of 1.0 × 107 m3/year. This is the first observation of a prolonged period of magma reservoir growth in the Main Ethiopian Rift and has implications for hazard assessment and monitoring. Corbetti is < 20 km from two major population centers and has estimated return periods of ∼500 and ∼900 years for lava flows and Plinian eruptions, respectively. Our results highlight the need for long‐term geodetic monitoring and the application of statistically robust methods to characterize deformation sources.
Interpersonal complexity: a cognitive component of person-centered care.

PURPOSE This study concerns one component of the ability to provide person-centered care: the cognitive skill of perceiving others in relatively complex terms. This study tested the effectiveness of a social motivation for increasing the number of psychological constructs used to describe an unfamiliar senior citizen. DESIGN AND METHODS Forty-four certified nurse aide students participated. Students were mostly 30-year-old (M = 31) females (86%) with a high school education (72%). A quasi-experimental design was used. Early in training, participants completed the Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ), which measured their interpersonal cognitive complexity. On the basis of their RCQ scores, participants were matched and assigned to the experimental or control condition. Five weeks later, participants viewed a 15-min videotaped biography of an unfamiliar senior citizen--Mitch. Participants in both conditions were told they would be asked to describe Mitch as a person after watching the video. Only participants in the experimental condition were additionally asked to imagine that they would be having a personal conversation with him afterward. RESULTS As hypothesized, participants in the experimental condition (M = 14.6) used more constructs to describe Mitch than did participants in the control condition (M = 11.8): F(1, 41) = 4.03, p < . 05. Participants' RCQ scores were significantly correlated with the complexity of their descriptions of Mitch. IMPLICATIONS The findings suggest that new training materials should be created that include experienced certified nurse aides' modeling how biographical and personal information can be used in caregiving tasks to gain residents' cooperation.
Patients’ view on health-related aspects of functioning and disability of joint contractures: a qualitative interview study based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify health-relevant aspects of functioning and disability of persons aged 65 years or older with joint contractures, to link the findings to corresponding ICF categories and to describe the patients’ perspective. Methods: We conducted 43 qualitative, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with affected persons in two different locations (Witten, Munich) and in three different settings. Data were analyzed using the “meaning condensation procedure” and then linked to ICF categories. Results: From all interviews a total of 2499 single meaning-concepts were extracted which were linked to 324 different ICF categories. The participants in all settings mainly reported problems related to “Mobility of a single joint (b710)”, “Sensation of pain (b280)” and problems related to “Walking (d450)”. Almost all participants reported “Products and technology for personal indoor and outdoor mobility and transportation (e120)” as a relevant environmental factor. Conclusions: From the patients’ perspective, joint contractures have an impact on multifaceted aspects of functioning and disability, mainly body functions, environmental factors and activities and participation. The results of this study will contribute to the development of a standard instrument for measuring functioning, disability and health-relevant aspects for patients with joint contractures. Implications for Rehabilitation Joint contractures are a major cause for the development of disability in older people. Patients’ perspectives and their personal experiences have to be considered when assessing the impact of joint contractures. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is an appropriate framework for describing the patients’ multifaceted experience of joint contractures.
Manipulation of ovarian and uterine function to increase conception rates in cattle

In cattle, embryonic and fetal losses are the major causes of reproductive failure. Losses associated with failure in the process of maternal recognition of pregnancy can amount to as much as 30%. Successful establishment of pregnancy depends on a delicate balance between luteolytic mechanisms inherent to the endometrium at the end of diestrus and antiluteolytic mechanisms, orchestrated by the conceptus to change endometrial function and, ultimately, block luteolysis. Antiluteolytic strategies are pharmacological, mechanical, nutritional and management manipulations of the process of maternal recognition of pregnancy that aim to increase the probability of successful gestations. Objective of the present paper is to review the recent literature on antiluteolytic strategies in cattle. Specifically, we focused on strategies to stimulate production of progesterone, strategies to reduce production of estradiol and other strategies. Future directions for research in this area are proposed.
Information Aggregation Techniques in Different Networks

aggregation is a method for reducing the information being exchanged between Grid networks. Resource manager takes the scheduling decisions by using this aggregated information. Aggregated information is kept across each node and the detailed information is kept private, but the resources are available publicly for use. This paper does a comparative study for some of the information aggregation techniques used in different networks.
A core cochlear phenotype in USH1 mouse mutants implicates fibrous links of the hair bundle in its cohesion, orientation and differential growth

The planar polarity and staircase-like pattern of the hair bundle are essential to the mechanoelectrical transduction function of inner ear sensory cells. Mutations in genes encoding myosin VIIa, harmonin, cadherin 23, protocadherin 15 or sans cause Usher syndrome type I (USH1, characterized by congenital deafness, vestibular dysfunction and retinitis pigmentosa leading to blindness) in humans and hair bundle disorganization in mice. Whether the USH1 proteins are involved in common hair bundle morphogenetic processes is unknown. Here, we show that mouse models for the five USH1 genetic forms share hair bundle morphological defects. Hair bundle fragmentation and misorientation (25-52° mean kinociliary deviation, depending on the mutant) were detected as early as embryonic day 17. Abnormal differential elongation of stereocilia rows occurred in the first postnatal days. In the emerging hair bundles, myosin VIIa, the actin-binding submembrane protein harmonin-b, and the interstereocilia-kinocilium lateral link components cadherin 23 and protocadherin 15, all concentrated at stereocilia tips, in accordance with their known in vitro interactions. Soon after birth, harmonin-b switched from the tip of the stereocilia to the upper end of the tip link, which also comprises cadherin 23 and protocadherin 15. This positional change did not occur in mice deficient for cadherin 23 or protocadherin 15. We suggest that tension forces applied to the early lateral links and to the tip link, both of which can be anchored to actin filaments via harmonin-b, play a key role in hair bundle cohesion and proper orientation for the former, and in stereociliary elongation for the latter.
Online Input Data Reduction in Scientific Workflows

Many scientific workflows are data-intensive and need be iteratively executed for large input sets of data elements. Reducing input data is a powerful way to reduce overall execution time in such workflows. When this is accomplished online (i.e., without requiring users to stop execution to reduce the data and resume execution), it can save much time and user interactions can integrate within workflow execution. Then, a major problem is to determine which subset of the input data should be removed. Other related problems include guaranteeing that the workflow system will maintain execution and data consistent after reduction, and keeping track of how users interacted with execution. In this paper, we adopt the approach " human-in-the-loop " for scientific workflows by enabling users to steer the workflow execution and reduce input elements from datasets at runtime. We propose an adaptive monitoring approach that combines workflow provenance monitoring and computational steering to support users in analyzing the evolution of key parameters and determining which subset of the data should be removed. We also extend a provenance data model to keep track of user interactions when users reduce data at runtime. In our experimental validation, we develop a test case from the oil and gas industry, using a 936-cores cluster. The results on our parameter sweep test case show that the user interactions for online data reduction yield a 37% reduction of execution time. CCS Concepts • Massively parallel and high-performance simulations.
On the impact of PMU placement on observability and cross-validation

Significant investments have been made into deploying phasor measurement units (PMUs) on electric power grids worldwide. PMUs allow the state of the power system - the voltage phasor of system buses and current phasors of all incident transmission lines - to be directly measured. In some cases, it is also possible to infer the voltage and current phasors at neighboring buses and lines. Because PMUs are expensive, it is typically not possible to deploy enough PMUs to observe all phasors in a grid network [3, 6]. In this paper, we prove the NP-Completeness of four problems relating to PMU placements at a subset of system buses to achieve different goals: FullObserve, MaxObserve, FullObserve-XV, and MaxObserve-XV. FullObserve considers the minimum number of PMUs needed to observe all nodes, while MaxObserve considers the maximum number of buses that can be observed with a given number of PMUs. While the first of these two has been considered in the past, our formulation here generalizes the systems being considered. Next, FullObserve-XV and MaxObserve-XV consider these two problems under the constraints that PMUs must be placed “close” to each other so their measurements can be cross-validated. FullObserve-XV considers observing the entire network, while MaxObserve-XV considers maximizing the number of observed buses under this new constraint. Motivated by their high complexity, for each problem we investigate the performance of a suitable greedy approximation algorithm for PMU placement. Through simulations, we compare the performance of these algorithms with the optimal placement of PMUs over several IEEE bus systems as well as over synthetic graphs. In our simulations these algorithms yield results that are close to optimal - for all four placement problems, the greedy algorithms yield, on average, a PMU placement that is within 97% of optimal.
Fact sheet: Genetic considerations for restoring forests of the southwest after severe disturbance.

Climate change models predict increases in temperature and more frequent severe droughts and forest fires in the Southwest United States (Garfin et al. 2013). Aridity stress to forests caused by climate change will be especially severe in forests and woodlands of the Southwest because productivity is already strongly limited by low precipitation and humidity (Williams et al. 2013). Intense drought predisposes trees to disease and insect attack, such as bark beetles that have killed many trees in the Southwest in the last two decades (Raffa et al. 2008, Gaylord et al. 2013). Climate warming and fuel buildups in the Southwest are increasing wildfire-caused deforestation (Williams et al. 2010, Williams et al. 2013). There is a high risk of conversion of ponderosa pine forests to grassland or shrubs when intense burning, drought, or bark beetles cause high tree mortality, create large openings, and kill local tree seed sources (Roccaforte et al., 2012). Future increase in drought intensity caused by climate warming will reduce opportunities for ponderosa pine regeneration after deforestation (Savage et al. 2013). Moreover, climate-envelope models predict substantial shrinking of the range of ponderosa pine in the Southwest over the next century, especially at low-elevations (Rehfeldt et al. 2014). The purpose of this fact sheet is to explain the need for using emerging knowledge about climate change and tree genetics to guide post-disturbance restoration of ponderosa pine in the Southwest.
Potential PET Ligands for Imaging of Cerebral VPAC and PAC Receptors: Are Non-Peptide Small Molecules Superior to Peptide Compounds?

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) have been known for decades to mediate neuroendocrine and vasodilative actions via G-protein-coupled receptors of Class B. These are targets of imaging probes for positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission tomography (SPECT) in tumor diagnostics and tumor grading. However, they play only a subordinate role in the development of tracers for brain imaging. Difficulties in development of non-peptide ligands typical for cerebral receptors of PACAP and VIP are shared by all members of Class B receptor family. Essential landmarks have been confirmed for understanding of structural details of Class B receptor molecular signalling during the last five years. High relevance in the explanation of problems in ligand development for these receptors is admitted to the large N-terminal ectodomain markedly different from Class A receptor binding sites and poorly suitable as orthosteric binding sites for the most small-molecule compounds. The present study is focused on the recently available receptor ligands for PAC1, VPAC1 and VPAC2 receptors as well as potential small-molecule lead structures suitable for use in PET or SPECT. Recently, biaryl, cyanothiophene and pentanamide structures with affinities in nM-range have been proposed as non-peptide ligands at VPAC1 and VPAC2 receptors. However, most of these ligands have been classified as non-competitive related to the orthosteric binding site of endogenous peptide ligands of VPAC receptors. For PAC1 receptors have been identified hydrazide compounds for which an inhibitory and potentially competitive mechanism of receptor binding has been postulated based on molecular docking studies.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells – Sources and Clinical Applications

Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from different tissue sources share many characteristics and generally fulfill accepted criteria for MSC (plastic adherence, certain surface marker expression, and ability to differentiate into mesenchymal tissues), we are increasingly learning that they can be distinguished at the level of cytokine production and gene expression profiles. Their ability to differentiate into different tissues including endodermal and ectodermal lineages, also varies according to tissue origin. Importantly, MSC from fetal sources can undergo more cell divisions before they reach senescence than MSC from adult tissue such as bone marrow or adipose tissue. As we learn more about the differentiation and plasticity of MSC from different sources, health care providers in the future will use them tailored to different medical indications.
Secondary Hyperparathyroidism and Chronic Kidney Disease

In Brief Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) describes a complex alteration in bone and mineral metabolism that occurs as a direct result of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Bone disease, a well-recognized complication of SHPT, represents only a small concern in light of the evidence that correlates SHPT with cardiovascular disease and an increased risk of morbidity and mortality in patients with CKD. Patients with mild CKD may be asymptomatic and therefore may not be identified until the pathology of SHPT has begun. Identifying patients at risk and evaluating for SHPT is imperative because early intervention may slow or arrest the progression of both bone and cardiac disease. Dietary concerns, pharmacotherapy, and patient adherence are all important considerations in creating a successful treatment plan.
A constant-g/sub m/ rail-to-rail op amp input stage using dynamic current scaling technique

We introduce an innovative constant-transconductance (g/sub m/) CMOS input stage. Rather than handling the tail currents of the input differential pairs, the proposed circuit scales the output signal currents of the input differential pairs dynamically for a constant g/sub m/ while keeping the tail currents of the input transistors unchanged. The operation of the new circuit does not rely on the quadratic characteristic of the input MOS devices, and is independent of the operating regions of the input transistors. The new constant-g/sub m/ scheme, which has potential for high-frequency applications, can be employed universally to both short and long channel transistors, and is suitable for new generations of deep submicrometer CMOS technologies. The technique is demonstrated through the design of a rail-to-rail CMOS op amp with supply voltage of 3 V in 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. Simulations show that, when the input common-mode voltage swings from rail to rail, the op amp's input stage g/sub m/ varies around /spl plusmn/1.5% and /spl plusmn/2.9%, respectively, for input transistors in the strong and weak inversion regions.
A Micro-displacement Sensor Based on Cladding Mode Resonance of Optical Special Fiber

A novel micro-displacement sensor based on the special fiber cladding mode resonance is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The special fiber with double cladding was spliced into single mode fiber which presented very strong resonant spectrum. Based on the high sensitivity to fiber curvature, the micro-displacement sensor was researched. As indicated by experimental results, the sensitivity is achieved to be about 0.1 nm/um. With the high sensitivity, the micro-displacement sensor can be found wide applications in fields of structure health monitor, aerospace, MEMS and so on.
Apoptosis Signaling Is Altered in CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T Regulatory Lymphocytes in Pre-Eclampsia

The aim of our study was to estimate the surface expressions of CD95 (APO-1/Fas) antigen and the intracellular expressions of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and pro-apoptotic protein Bax in CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T regulatory lymphocytes (Tregs) as well as the percentage of CD8+CD28+ T cytotoxic cells in peripheral blood of patients with pre-eclampsia in comparison with healthy pregnant women in the third trimester of physiological pregnancy. Twenty-four women with pre-eclampsia and 20 normal third trimester pregnant women were included in the study. The lymphocytes were isolated from peripheral blood samples and labeled with monoclonal antibodies. The expressions of surface antigens and intracellular proteins were estimated using flow cytometry. The population of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg cells was significantly lower in peripheral blood of patients with pre-eclampsia when compared to normal third trimester pregnant women. The percentages of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg cells that express Bcl-2 protein were significantly lower in peripheral blood of patients with pre-eclampsia when compared to healthy pregnant women, whereas the percentages of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg cells with the expressions of Bax protein did not differ in both groups. Moreover, the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of Bcl-2 protein in CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg cells was significantly lower and MFI of Bax protein significantly higher in pre-eclampsia when compared to the control group. The percentage of CD8+CD28+ T cells did not differ in both studied groups but MFI of CD28 antigen on T CD8+ cells was significantly higher in pre-eclampsia when compared to the control group. The obtained results suggest that the deficit of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg lymphocytes which is observed in pre-eclampsia may be associated with altered apoptosis signaling in Tregs.
A prospective study of inflammatory cytokines and diabetes mellitus in a multiethnic cohort of postmenopausal women.

BACKGROUND Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-6 (interleukin 6), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), have been related to both insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, prospective studies that comprehensively assess their roles in the development of type 2 diabetes are few, especially in minority populations. METHODS Among 82,069 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years without cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus who participated in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, we prospectively examined the relationships of plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 2, IL-6, and hsCRP to diabetes risk. During a median follow-up period of 5.9 years, 1584 women who had clinical diabetes were matched by age, ethnicity, clinical center, time of blood draw, and duration of follow-up to 2198 study participants who were free of the disease. RESULTS After adjustment for matching factors and known diabetes risk factors, all 3 markers were significantly associated with increased diabetes risk; the estimated relative risks comparing the highest with the lowest quartiles were 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10-1.97) for tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 2, 3.08 (95% CI, 2.25-4.23) for IL-6, and 3.46 (95% CI, 2.50-4.80) for hsCRP (P for trend, <.01 for all biomarkers). When mutually adjusted, IL-6 and hsCRP remained significant in each ethnic group. While no statistically significant interactions were observed between ethnicity and these biomarkers on diabetes risk, there were consistent trends for the associations of hsCRP and IL-6 with increased diabetes risk in all ethnic groups. CONCLUSION These prospective data showed that elevated levels of IL-6 and hsCRP were consistently and significantly associated with an increased risk of clinical diabetes in postmenopausal women.