Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phosphatization of calcium carbonate in phosphorites: microstructure and importance

Fabrics of phosphatized calcium carbonate particles in various phosphorites have been studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with X-ray dispersive microanalysis. Replacement of calcium carbonate by apatite has been observed in bivalve shell fragments and in foraminiferal tests; replacement proceeds at constant volume with excellent preservation of the original microtextures. In some deposits, replacement of carbonate by apatite is the main phosphogenic process. However, in general, the process seems to be far less important than might be believed purely on the basis of thin section observations. In many phosphorites, internal or external apatite moulds of bioclasts are common, including very small particles such as coccoliths in phosphatized chalks. Apatite precipitation was typically followed by carbonate dissolution. Later apatite precipitation within the dissolution voids may produce partial or total phosphate pseudomorphs of the original carbonate grain. In these examples direct replacement of carbonate by phosphate cannot be demonstrated.
Low power signal generation at 24 GHz using a frequency multiplier

A low power 24 GHz signal generator consisting of a 12 GHz VCO and a frequency doubler in GaAs HBT technology is presented. Overall power consumption is 43 mW at 0 dBm output power, tuning range is 800 MHz for 3 V tuning voltage. The doubler by itself provides 3 dB gain at 13 mW power consumption. Its design is based on harmonic termination of an HBT producing the desired harmonic frequency
Concept-Based Word Learning in Human Infants

Whether infants initially learn object labels by mapping them onto similarity-defining perceptual features or onto concepts of object kinds remains under debate. We addressed this question by attempting to teach infants words for behaviorally defined action roles. In a series of experiments, we found that 14-month-olds could rapidly learn a label for the role played by the chaser in a chasing scenario, even when the different instances of chasers did not share perceptual features. Furthermore, when infants could choose, they preferred to interpret a novel label as expressing the agent’s role within the observed interaction rather than as being associated with the agent’s appearance. These results demonstrate that infants can learn labels as easily (or even more easily) for concepts identified by abstract behavioral characteristics as for objects identified by perceptual features. Thus, at early stages of word learning, infants already expect that novel words express concepts.
Blood flow in simple microchannels

Development of medical micro-assay systems must be based on an understanding of blood flow mechanics at scales of tens to hundreds of microns. This study investigated the use of a simple power law model for blood flow of between 2.5 and 100 /spl mu/l/min in channels with 200/spl times/60 /spl mu/m cross-sections and the following configurations: straight, 90 degree bend, and sudden contraction from 200 to 100 /spl mu/m. Experimental measurements of pressure vs. flow rate for blood flow in these channels were compared to predictions generated by CFD simulations. The experiments and simulations were consistent in their predictions of the magnitude of hydrodynamic resistances of the channels and the slight non-linearity of pressure vs. flow in each of the channel configurations.
A naturalistic investigation of eating behavior in bulimia nervosa.

Simon Fraser University Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Toronto General Hospital, Ontario, Canada This study investigated the parameters of eating behavior in subjects meeting the diagnosis of bu- limia nervosa (BN). Twenty BN and 24 female comparison (FC) subjects monitored hourly over a number of consecutive days their food intake, mood, hunger, social circumstances, and experiences of unpleasant events. Compared with FC subjects, BN subjects reported more positive moods rela- tive to their typical moods in the hour prior to consuming a meal. Within the BN group, subjects reported more negative moods in the hour prior to a binge episode compared with their moods prior to consuming a snack or meal. The BN subjects were also calorie deprived in the hour prior to a binge episode relative to FC subjects at an equivalent time of the day. These results are discussed within the framework of restraint theory. Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a psychogenic disturbance in eating behavior characterized by episodes of uncontrolled overeating, termed
Androgen receptor function is required in Sertoli cells for the terminal differentiation of haploid spermatids

Androgen receptor function is required for male embryonic sexual differentiation, pubertal development and the regulation of spermatogenesis in mammals. During spermatogenesis, this requirement is thought to be mediated by Sertoli cells and its genetic and pharmacological disruption is manifested in spermatocytes as meiotic arrest. Through studies of a hypomorphic and conditional allele of the androgen receptor (Ar) gene, we have uncovered a dual post-meiotic requirement for androgen receptor activity during male germ cell differentiation. Observations in Ar hypomorphic animals demonstrate that terminal differentiation of spermatids and their release from the seminiferous epithelium is AR dependent and maximally sensitive to AR depletion within the testis. Cell-specific disruption of Ar in Sertoli cells of hypomorphic animals further shows that progression of late-round spermatids to elongating steps is sensitive to loss of Sertoli cell AR function, but that progression through meiosis and early-round spermatid differentiation are surprisingly unaffected.
Saccadic Adaptation Alters the Attentional Field

It is currently unknown whether changes to the oculomotor system can induce changes to the distribution of spatial attention around a fixated target. Previous studies have used perceptual performance tasks to show that adaptation of saccadic eye movements affects dynamic properties of visual attention, in particular, attentional shifts to a cued location. In this study, we examined the effects of saccadic adaptation on the static distribution of visual attention around fixation (attentional field). We used the classic double step adaptation procedure and a flanker task to test for differences in the attentional field after forward and backward adaptation. Reaction time (RT) measures revealed that the shape of the attentional field changed significantly after backward adaptation as shown through altered interference from distracters at different eccentricities but not after forward adaptation. This finding reveals that modification of saccadic amplitudes can affect metrics of not only dynamic properties of attention but also its static properties. A major implication is that the neural mechanisms underlying fundamental selection mechanisms and the oculomotor system can reweight each other.
Role of neuronal synchronizing mechanisms in the propagation of spreading depression in the in vivo hippocampus

To detect what initiates spreading depression (SD), the early prodromal events were investigated in hippocampal CA1 of urethane-anesthetized rats. SD was provoked by microdialysis or focal microinjection of high- K+ solution. Extracellular DC potentials and extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]o) were recorded, and spontaneous and evoked potentials analyzed for current source-density (CSD). In the front of an approaching SD wave, several seconds before the onset of the typical sustained negative potential shift (delta Vo) and the increased [K+]o, fast electrical activity was detected. This consisted initially of small rhythmic (60–70 Hz) sawtooth wavelets, which then gave way to a shower of population spikes (PSs) of identical frequency. Prodromal wavelets and PSs were synchronized over considerable distances in the tissue. Sawtooth wavelets were identified as pacemakers of the prodromal PS burst. Simultaneous recording at three depths revealed that the spontaneous prodromal PSs occurred exactly in phase in dendrites and somata whereas synaptically transmitted PSs arose first in the proximal dendrites and were conducted from there into the soma membrane. During a spike burst, stratum (st.) pyramidale served as current sink, while in the proximal sublayer of st. radiatum spike- sinks gave way to spike sources that grew larger as the sinks in st. pyramidale began to subside. Blocking synaptic transmission did not abolish the prodromal spike burst, yet repetitive orthodromic activation inhibited it without altering the subsequent SD waveform. Complex changes in cell excitability were detected even before fast spontaneous activities. We concluded that, in the initial evolution of SD, changes in neuron function precede the regenerating depolarization by several seconds. We propose that the opening of normally closed electric junctions among neurons can best explain the long-distance synchronization and the flow current that occurs in the leading edge of a propagating wave of SD.
Expression and Characterization of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Serine/Threonine Protein Kinase PknB

ABSTRACT PknB is a member of the newly discovered eukaryotic-like protein serine/threonine kinase (PSTK) family of proteins. The pknBgene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The active recombinant protein was purified and shown to be reactive with antiphosphoserine antibodies, as well as with antibodies to the phosphorylated eukaryotic Ser/Thr kinases mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 3 and 6, P38, and Creb. In vitro kinase assays demonstrated that PknB is a functional kinase that is autophosphorylated on serine/threonine residues and is also able to phosphorylate the peptide substrate myelin basic protein. Analysis ofpknB expression in Mycobacterium tuberculosisindicates the presence of pknB mRNA in (i) organisms grown in vitro in bacteriological media, (ii) a murine macrophage in vitro infection model, and (iii) in vivo alveolar macrophages from a patient with tuberculosis.
Estuaries: Dynamics, Mixing, Sedimentation and Morphology

1. Introduction 2. Tidal dynamics 3. Currents 4. Saline intrusion 5. Sediment regimes 6. Synchronous estuaries: dynamics, saline intrusion and bathymetry 7. Synchronous estuaries: sediment trapping and sorting, stable morphology 8. Strategies for global climate change Bibliography Index.
Mining Induced Seismic Event on an Inactive Fault

On 19 March 2013, a tremor shook the surface of Polkowice town where the Rudna Mine is located. This event, of ML = 4.2, was the third most powerful seismic event recorded in the Legnica Głogów Copper District (LGCD). Inhabitants of the area reported that the felt tremor was bigger and lasted longer than any other ones felt in the last couple of years. Analysis of spectral parameters of the records from in-mine seismic system and surface LUMINEOS network along with broadband station KSP record were carried out. The location of the event was close to the Rudna Główna Fault zone; the nodal planes orientations determined with two different approaches were almost parallel to the strike of the fault. The mechanism solutions were also obtained as Full Moment Tensor from P-wave amplitude pulses of underground records and waveform inversion of surface network seismograms. The results from the seismic analysis along with macroseismic survey and observed effects from the destroyed part of the mining panel indicate that the mechanism of the event was complex rupture initiated as thrust faulting on an inactive tectonic normal fault zone. The results confirm that the fault zones are the areas of higher risk, even in case of carefully taken mining operations.
Comparison of SSM/I ice-concentration algorithms for the Weddell Sea

Four different algorithms for retrieving ice concentration from passive microwave imagery are applied to SSM/I data collected over the Weddell Sea in September 1989. Comparison of the results along a typical transect from the ice edge to the coast shows point-wise differences of up to 45% in ice concentration. The observed differences can largely be explained by the different combinations of the 19 and 37 GHz, horizontal and vertical polarization, data channels utilized by each algorithm. Through their frequency/polarization signatures, and with the aid of coincident surface observations, the differences are further related to ice type, specifically the presence of grease ice or thin ice, and surface conditions.
DYNAMICALLY INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEM MODEL

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a security layer used to detect ongoing intrusive activities in information systems. Traditionally, intrusion detection relies on extensive knowledge of security experts, in particular, on their familiarity with the computer system to be protected. The system is evaluated using the KDDCup’99 intrusion detection dataset. Experimental results show that the system achieves up to 35% improvement in terms of misclassification cost when compared with a system lacking the tuning feature. If only 10% false predictions are used to tune the model, the system still achieves about 30% improvement. Moreover, when tuning is not delayed too long, the system can achieve about 20% improvement, with only 1.3% of the false predictions used to tune the model.
Regulation of Cellular and SV40 Virus Origins of Replication by Chk1-dependent Intrinsic and UVC Radiation-induced Checkpoints*

DNA replication is inhibited by DNA damage through cis effects on replication fork progression andtrans effects associated with checkpoints. In this study, we employed a combined pulse labeling and neutral-neutral two-dimensional gel-based approach to compare the effects of a DNA damaging agent frequently employed to invoke checkpoints, UVC radiation, on the replication of cellular and simian virus 40 (SV40) chromosomes in intact cells. UVC radiation induced similar inhibitory effects on the initiation and elongation phases of cellular and SV40 DNA replication. The initiation-inhibitory effects occurred independently of p53 and were abrogated by the ATM and ATR kinase inhibitor caffeine, or the Chk1 kinase inhibitor UCN-01. Inhibition of cellular origins was also abrogated by the expression of a dominant-negative Chk1 mutant. These results indicate that UVC induces a Chk1- and ATR or ATM-dependent checkpoint that targets both cellular and SV40 viral replication origins. Loss of Chk1 and ATR or ATM function also stimulated initiation of cellular and viral DNA replication in the absence of UVC radiation, revealing the existence of a novel intrinsic checkpoint that targets both cellular and SV40 viral origins of replication in the absence of DNA damage or stalled DNA replication forks. This checkpoint inhibits the replication in early S phase cells of a region of the repetitive rDNA locus that replicates in late S phase. The ability to detect these checkpoints using the well characterized SV40 model system should facilitate analysis of the molecular basis for these effects.
Planning in Dynamic Worlds : More Than External Events

Hardly any environment is a static domain in which an agent is the only one who is changing states of the world. Thus, many events occur that are not a direct consequence of an agent’s actions. Besides events that occur in full independence of an agent, there are events that can be influenced indirectly, e.g., by asking other agents to perform specific tasks. Even in the absence of other agents, an action by an agent can lead to a complex effect chain. Explicitly reasoning about such indirect consequences of actions is indispensable in nearly all real-world domains. Action planning systems to drive an intelligent agent, however, do not incorporate concepts to handle such world dynamics. An action usually has a definite effect — without a possibility of further indirect consequences. Some planning systems allow for the occurrence of external events, but do not enable relations to an agent’s actions. In this paper, we propose a solution to this shortcoming of planning systems by integrating a kind of enhanced rule-based system. Using this approach, a planning system can reason about indirect consequences and exploit these external mechanics in order to achieve its goals. The enhancements are demonstrated from the perspective of a constraintbased planning system based on local search.
Boundary Conditions for Spin-Wave Absorption Based on Different Site-Dependent Damping Functions

Finite-difference time-domain techniques applied to nonconfined geometries impose the numerical implementation of computational areas smaller than the physical ones, so that it is necessary to develop a method for the waves absorption at the artificial boundaries. Due to the impossibility to implement some sort of analytical Higdon-type operators within a micromagnetic framework for point-contact geometries, two different absorbing boundary conditions are proposed. They are based on different site-dependent damping functions, whose value rises either abruptly or smoothly close to the computational boundaries. In this paper, it is first tested their robustness and then pointed out their effectiveness in reducing the rate of wave reflection of about three orders of magnitude in some cases
A measurement study of the Wuala on-line storage service

Wuala is a popular online backup and file sharing system that has been successfully operated for several years. Very little is known about the design and implementation of Wuala. We capture the network traffic exchanged between the machines participating in Wuala to reverse engineer the design and operation of Wuala. When Wuala was launched, it used a clever combination of centralized storage in data centers for long-term backup with peer-assisted file caching of frequently downloaded files. Large files are broken up into transmission blocks and additional transmission blocks are generated using a classical redundancy coding scheme. Multiple transmission blocks are sent in parallel to different machines and reliability is assured via a simple Automatic Repeat Request protocol on top of UDP. Recently, however, Wuala has adopted a pure client/server based architecture. Our findings and the underlying reasons are substantiated by an interview with a co-founder of Wuala. The main reasons are lower resource usage on the client side, which is important in the case of mobile terminals, a much simpler software architecture, and a drastic reduction in the cost of data transfers originating at the data center.
Overall health and healthcare utilization among Latino American women in the United States.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the chronic conditions, behavioral-mental health and service utilization of Latino American women in the first epidemiologic survey in the United States. METHODS Using a national sample (n=1427) from the National Latino and Asian American Study, we assessed and compared the prevalence of overall health and service use in three major subgroups, Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican, and in other Latino American women. Service use included general medical, mental health, and subspecialists. RESULTS In physical health, Puerto Rican American women reported the highest rate of asthma, whereas Mexican American women reported the highest rate of diabetes. Cuban American women reported the highest rate of hypertension and heart diseases. Body mass index (BMI) indicated that overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m(2)) were prevalent in all three subgroups: two thirds of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, respectively, and >50% of Cuban Americans. Of the sample, 11.6% rated their mental health status as fair or poor, and 10.8% reported at least one major depressive disorder (MDD) in the past 12 months. Puerto Rican American women had the highest rates on depression, substance abuse, and seeking mental health service, and Cuban American women saw specialists most frequently. CONCLUSIONS Patterns of overall health issues varied among Latino American subgroup women, yet they have low rates of healthcare use. It is critical to further examine factors associated with the sex-specific health issues and with their health services underuse.
Dike emplacement on Venus and on Earth

Many long linear troughs are visible in synthetic aperture radar images of the surface of Venus. Their geometry closely resembles that of dike swarms on Earth. Such troughs will be formed if dikes fail to reach the surface, or if the magma in them is partially drained. Dikes that form closed ellipses in plan view can be produced by intrusions near a depression, and intersecting dikes can result if the stress field changes with time. Because of the absence of erosion and sedimentation, all these effects are better displayed on Venus than they are on Earth. The magnitude of the regional stress on Venus can be estimated from the dike patterns to be about 3 MPa, or similar to that of Earth. Dikes consisting of en echelon segments whose total length is 1500 km or more occur on both Earth and Venus. On Earth their widths are generally greater than 30 m and are sometimes as great as 250 m, and they are likely to be similar on Venus. The melt velocity during their emplacement is predicted to be a few meters per second, and the calculated rate of heat loss is sufficiently slow that they can remain molten as they propagate for distances of more than 1000 km. The same calculations apply to sills, though less is known about their geometry. The results therefore suggest that magma intrusion in thin sheets extending over 1000 km or more could produce regional crustal thickening and uplift on both Earth and Venus.
Uniformly ultimate boundedness control for switched linear systems with parameter uncertainties

This paper presents uniformly ultimate boundedness (UUB) control design for switched linear systems with parametric uncertainties. Only the possible bound of the uncertainty is needed. Under arbitrary switching laws, a continuous state feedback control scheme is proposed in order to guarantee uniformly ultimate boundedness of every system response within an arbitrary small neighborhood of the zero state. The design techniques are based on common Lyapunov functions and Lyapunov minimax approach.
Wood ants use resin to protect themselves against pathogens

Social life is generally associated with an increased exposure to pathogens and parasites, due to factors such as high population density, frequent physical contact and the use of perennial nest sites. However, sociality also permits the evolution of new collective behavioural defences. Wood ants, Formica paralugubris, commonly bring back pieces of solidified coniferous resin to their nest. Many birds and a few mammals also incorporate green plant material into their nests. Collecting plant material rich in volatile compounds might be an efficient way to fight bacteria and fungi. However, no study has demonstrated that this behaviour has a positive effect on survival. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence that animals using plant compounds with antibacterial and antifungal properties survive better when exposed to detrimental micro-organisms. The presence of resin strongly improves the survival of F. paralugubris adults and larvae exposed to the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens, and the survival of larvae exposed to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. These results show that wood ants capitalize on the chemical defences which have evolved in plants to collectively protect themselves against pathogens.