Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vivo and in vitro assessment of the androgenic potential of a pulp and paper mill effluent

The androgenic potential of a New Zealand pulp and paper mill effluent was measured by applying a combination of in vitro and in vivo bioassays with mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) and goldfish (Carassius auratus). The in vivo method assessed the rate of gonopodial development (masculinization) and alterations from normal reproductive behavior in adult female mosquitofish exposed for 21 d to untreated or secondary‐treated pulp mill effluent. A second in vivo mosquitofish exposure tested the effect of glass‐fiber (type C) filtration of secondary‐treated effluent on rates of expression of the same endpoints. Extractable organics analyses of effluents and extracts thereof were conducted. Mosquitofish demonstrated significant masculinization on exposure to either treated or untreated effluent; the frequency of gonopodial development was reduced with effluent secondary‐treatment. Male mating behavior was observed in the masculinized adult females. Glass‐fiber (type F) filtration of the treated effluent eliminated the masculinizing effect, suggesting that the bioactive compounds were associated with the suspended solids. The in vitro method measured the binding of compounds within a treated thermomechanical/bleached kraft effluent extract to androgen receptors contained in goldfish testis cytosol. Exposure to extracts of either the particulate (glass‐fiber filtered) or the dissolved organic fraction of the effluent produced significant binding (as indicated by the displacement of radiolabeled testosterone) to the androgen receptor in goldfish gonadal tissue. Thus, the dissolved organics extract of the treated effluent contained compounds androgenic to goldfish in vitro but not to mosquitofish in vivo. The combined in vitro and in vivo data suggest that the effluent in question could exert effects on the reproductive physiology of fishes through an androgenic mechanism. The androgenic compounds androstenedione and testosterone were not detected in the extracts used for the in vitro component of this study.
A Study of Mate Selection Schemes in Genetic AlgorithmsPart I

In the Genetic Algorithm (GA) literature, many models focus on problems where each individual’s fitness is independent of others (or implicitly defined by others). In this paper, a framework is introduced for studying mate selection in the context of GA. The objective is to model interdependent fitnesses of population individuals by allowing them to search for mates. The resulting GA thus forms a more complex system in which each individual’s fitness depends on both the environment and other population members. The methods for investigation consist of the Schema Theorem, a Markov chain analysis, along with several empirical results. I will show that mate selection plays a crucial role in GA’s search power. In particular, individuals with more distinct characteristics collectively facilitate the search for a single, better solution. The results presented on the effects of mate selection are a first step toward a deeper understanding of how GAs work, and thus how to design more robust GAs.
Using on-line available sources of bilingual information for word-level machine translation quality estimation

This paper explores the use of external sources of bilingual information available on-line for word-level machine translation quality estimation (MTQE). These sources of bilingual information are used as a black box to spot sub-segment correspondences between a source-language (SL) sentence S to be translated and a given translation hypothesis T in the target-language (TL). This is done by segmenting both S and T into overlapping sub-segments of variable length and translating them into the TL and the SL, respectively, using the available bilingual sources of information on the fly. A collection of features is then obtained from the resulting sub-segment translations, which is used by a binary classifier to determine which target words in T need to be post-edited. Experiments are conducted based on the data sets published for the word-level MTQE task in the 2014 edition of the Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation (WMT 2014). The sources of bilingual information used are: machine translation (Apertium and Google Translate) and the bilingual concordancer Reverso Context. The results obtained confirm that, using less information and fewer features, our approach obtains results comparable to those of state-of-the-art approaches, and even outperform them in some data sets. c © 2015 The authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CCBY-ND.
Neurobehavioral performance of Inuit children with increased prenatal exposure to methylmercury

Exposure to methylmercury from marine mammals and other seafood may affect the development of the central nervous system. In a traditional Inuit community in Qaanaaq, Greenland, mercury concentrations in cord blood and maternal hair have been examined in connection with all births. We examined 43 children at age 7–12 years with a battery of neurobehavioral tests. The average mercury concentration in hair was 5.0 μ/g and 1.5 μ/g in children and mothers, respectively. Clinical neurological examination did not reveal any obvious deficits. However, neuropsychological tests showed possible exposure-associated deficits, though only in a few cases reaching statistical significance. In conjunction with data from other studies, peak latencies on brainstem auditory evoked potentials tended to be prolonged at increased exposure levels. The data from the present study therefore appears in accordance with other evidence that prenatal or early postnatal exposures to methylmercury may cause subtle neurobehavioral deficits.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided ethanol ablation of a large metastatic carcinoid tumor: success with a note of caution

Endoscopic ultrasonography with fine needle infusion (EUS-FNI) of alcohol is the most reported method for EUS-guided tumor ablation. Several studies have reported successful EUS-guided ablation of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. However, these tumors have been relatively small (< 3 cm). In this report, a 50-year-old man with a metastatic carcinoid tumor with a large porta hepatis mass was referred to our clinic for EUS-guided ethanol ablation. After two separate EUS-FNI ablations, there was a 36 % reduction in tumor size (9.0 × 11.4 cm to 6.7 × 9.8 cm) with associated tumor lysis syndrome. Chromogranin A levels decreased from 460 to 132 ng/mL. The patient reported complete resolution of abdominal pain within 2 weeks, but only mild improvement in flushing and diarrhea. In conclusion, large metastatic neuroendocrine tumors can be successfully treated with EUS-guided ethanol ablation. Evidence-based guidelines are needed with regard to the appropriate volume of ethanol injected in EUS-guided ablation to promote the efficacy and safety of this emerging procedure.
Informational Economies of Scale

The theory of the firm under uncertainty is examined in the context of several examples which illustrate that opportunities to purchase technological information at some cost in resources may induce economies of scale even though the technology of physical production has no economies of scale. Better information justifies a higher scale of operations and vice versa. The two effects combined lead to an unbounded optimal scale of operations when information acquisition is adjusted optimally.
Did Railroads Make Antebellum U.S. Banks More Sound?

We investigate the relationships of bank failures and balance sheet conditions with measures of proximity to different forms of transportation in the United States over the period from 1830-1860. A series of hazard models and bank-level regressions indicate a systematic relationship between proximity to railroads (but not to other means of transportation) and "good" banking outcomes. Although railroads improved economic conditions along their routes, we offer evidence of another channel. Specifically, railroads facilitated better information flows about banks that led to modifications in bank asset composition consistent with reductions in the incidence of moral hazard.
Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes and Induction of β-Cell Proliferation in NOD Mice by Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

We evaluated the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HOT) on autoimmune diabetes development in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice. Animals received no treatment or daily 60-min HOT 100% oxygen (HOT-100%) at 2.0 atmospheres absolute and were monitored for diabetes onset, insulitis, infiltrating cells, immune cell function, and β-cell apoptosis and proliferation. Cyclophosphamide-induced diabetes onset was reduced from 85.3% in controls to 48% after HOT-100% (P < 0.005) and paralleled by lower insulitis. Spontaneous diabetes incidence reduced from 85% in controls to 65% in HOT-100% (P = 0.01). Prediabetic mice receiving HOT-100% showed lower insulitis scores, reduced T-cell proliferation upon stimulation in vitro (P < 0.03), increased CD62L expression in T cells (P < 0.04), reduced costimulation markers (CD40, DC80, and CD86), and reduced major histocompatibility complex class II expression in dendritic cells (DCs) (P < 0.025), compared with controls. After autoimmunity was established, HOT was less effective. HOT-100% yielded reduced apoptosis (transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling-positive insulin-positive cells; P < 0.01) and increased proliferation (bromodeoxyuridine incorporation; P < 0.001) of insulin-positive cells compared with controls. HOT reduces autoimmune diabetes incidence in NOD mice via increased resting T cells and reduced activation of DCs with preservation of β-cell mass resulting from decreased apoptosis and increased proliferation. The safety profile and noninvasiveness makes HOT an appealing adjuvant therapy for diabetes prevention and intervention trials.
Solution to the strong CP problem: Supersymmetry with parity.

We find that supersymmetry with parity can solve the strong {ital CP} problem in many cases including the interesting cases of having the minimal supersymmetric standard model or some of its extensions below the Planck, grand unified theory, and intermediate scales, as well as for the case where we have a low-energy supersymmetric left-right model. Predictions emerge for some of the {ital CP} violating phases in these supersymmetric models. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
A Chemical Screen Identifies Novel Compounds That Overcome Glial-Mediated Inhibition of Neuronal Regeneration

A major barrier to regeneration of CNS axons is the presence of growth-inhibitory proteins associated with myelin and the glial scar. To identify chemical compounds with the ability to overcome the inhibition of regeneration, we screened a novel triazine library, based on the ability of compounds to increase neurite outgrowth from cerebellar neurons on inhibitory myelin substrates. The screen produced four “hit compounds,” which act with nanomolar potency on several different neuronal types and on several distinct substrates relevant to glial inhibition. Moreover, the compounds selectively overcome inhibition rather than promote growth in general. The compounds do not affect neuronal cAMP levels, PKC activity, or EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) activation. Interestingly, one of the compounds alters microtubule dynamics and increases microtubule density in both fibroblasts and neurons. This same compound promotes regeneration of dorsal column axons after acute lesions and potentiates regeneration of optic nerve axons after nerve crush in vivo. These compounds should provide insight into the mechanisms through which glial-derived inhibitors of regeneration act, and could lead to the development of novel therapies for CNS injury.
Random projections of random manifolds

Interesting data often concentrate on low dimensional smooth manifolds inside a high dimensional ambient space. Random projections are a simple, powerful tool for dimensionality reduction of such data. Previous works have studied bounds on how many projections are needed to accurately preserve the geometry of these manifolds, given their intrinsic dimensionality, volume and curvature. However, such works employ definitions of volume and curvature that are inherently difficult to compute. Therefore such theory cannot be easily tested against numerical simulations to understand the tightness of the proven bounds. We instead study typical distortions arising in random projections of an ensemble of smooth Gaussian random manifolds. We find explicitly computable, approximate theoretical bounds on the number of projections required to accurately preserve the geometry of these manifolds. Our bounds, while approximate, can only be violated with a probability that is exponentially small in the ambient dimension, and therefore they hold with high probability in cases of practical interest. Moreover, unlike previous work, we test our theoretical bounds against numerical experiments on the actual geometric distortions that typically occur for random projections of random smooth manifolds. We find our bounds are tighter than previous results by several orders of magnitude.
Near-infrared and optical broadband surface photometry of 86 face-on disk dominated galaxies. ?;?? II. A two-dimensional method to determine bulge and disk parameters

In this Paper I present a new two-dimensional decomposition technique, which models the surface photometry of a galaxy with an exponential light profile for both bulge and disk and, when necessary, with a Freeman bar. The new technique was tested for systematic errors on both artificial and real data and compared with widely used one-dimensional decomposition techniques, where the luminosity profile of the galaxy is used. The comparisons indicate that a decomposition of the two-dimensional image of the galaxy with an exponential light profile for both bulge and disk yields the most reproducible and representative bulge and disk parameters. An extensive error analysis was made to determine the reliability of the model parameters. If the model with an exponential bulge profile is a reasonable description of a galaxy, the maximum errors in the derived model parameters are of order 20%. The uncertainties in the model parameters will increase, if the exponential bulge function is replaced by other often used bulge functions as the de Vaucouleurs law. All decomposition methods were applied to the optical and near-infrared data set presented by de Jong & van der Kruit (1994), which comprises 86 galaxies in six passbands.
Nutrient Inflows and Levels in Lake: A Case Study of Lake Muhazi, Rwanda

The purpose of this study was to assess the water quality in Lake Muhazi and its tributary rivers, focusing on nutrients. Parameters studied were nitrogen, phosphorous, chlorophyll-a, pH, temperature and transparency. Samples were collected at depths of 0.5m, 2m, 5m from the surface and 1m from the bottom of the Lake at the four sampling stations. Samples were collected using Van Dorn Bottle water sampler, and were preserved and analyzed in the laboratory for TP, TN and chlorophyll-a. The temperature, transparency (Secchi disc), and pH were measured. The results revealed that the levels of nutrient in the Lake are higher. The total nitrogen was 0.85±0.22mg/L, total phosphorus 0.29 ±0.15mg/L, chlorophyll-a 18.1±10. 5μg/L, and Secchi disc 0.76±0.07m. The results indicate the Lake is undergoing eutrophic. The study recommends conducting appropriate catchment management interventions to reduce nutrient inflows into the Lake and the development of suitable discharge standards for all Lakeshore activities.
Financial Consolidation: Dangers and Opportunities

This paper argues that although financial consolidation creates some dangers because it is leading to larger institutions who might expose the U.S. financial system to increased systemic risk, these dangers can be handled by vigilant supervision and a government safety net with an appropriate amount of constructive ambiguity. Financial consolidation also opens up opportunities to dramatically reduce the scope of deposit insurance and limit it to narrow bank accounts, thus substantially reducing the moral hazard created by the government safety net. Reducing the scope of deposit insurance, however, does not eliminate the need for a government safety net, and thus there is still a strong need for adequate prudential supervision of the financial system. Moving to a world in which we have larger, nationwide, diversified financial institutions and in which deposit insurance plays a very limited role, should improve the efficiency of the financial system. However, it is no panacea: the job of financial regulators and supervisors will continue to be highly challenging in the future.
CAPACITIVE TRANSDUCER STRENGTHENING VIA ALD-ENABLED PARTIAL-GAP FILLING

T ra ns m is si on [d B ] The electromechanical coupling factors (ηe’s) of capacitively-transduced micromechanical resonators have been increased by a factor of 8.1× via a process technology that utilizes atomic layer deposition (ALD) to partially fill the electrode-to-resonator gaps of released resonators with high-k dielectric material and thereby achieve effective electrode-to-resonator gap spacings as small as 32 nm. The electromechanical coupling increase afforded by gaps this small not only lowers termination impedances for capacitively-transduced micromechanical filters from the kΩ range to the sub-100Ω range, thereby making them compatible with board-level RF circuits; but does so in a way that reduces micromechanical filter termination resistance RQ much faster than the electrode-to-resonator overlap capacitance Co, thereby also substantially increasing the 1/(RQCo) figure of merit (FOM).
Meta-Cognitive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System for human emotion recognition

In this paper, we propose a Meta-Cognitive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (McFIS) for recognition of emotions from facial features. Local binary patterns have been proven to effectively describe the statistical characteristics of face image as it contains information related to edges, spots, etc. The aim of McFIS is to approximate the functional relationship between the facial features and various emotions. McFIS classifier and its sequential learning algorithm is developed based on the principles of self-regulation observed in human meta-cognition. McFIS decides on what-to-learn, when-to-learn and how-to-learn based on the knowledge stored in the classifier and the information contained in the new training samples. The sequential learning algorithm of McFIS is controlled and monitored by the meta-cognitive components which uses class-specific, knowledge based criteria along with self-regulatory thresholds to decide on one of the following strategies: a) sample deletion b) sample learning and c) sample reserve. Performance of proposed McFIS based facial emotion recognition is evaluated on LBP features extracted from JAFFE database. The simulation results are compared with support vector machine classifier and other results available in literature. The results indicate the superior performance of McFIS in comparison to other algorithms.
Geography, demography, and early development

This paper explores the role of geography in early development. It presents a model where the odds of survival are higher in geographically favorable regions. In such regions, higher life expectancy prompts parents to devote more of their resources to old-age consumption and enables them to invest relatively more in the quantity and quality of their offspring. Investment in education, together with population growth, helps geographically-favorable economies to attain high levels of a more educated population that is necessary for sustained economic growth. The empirical evidence is generally supportive of the view that geographic attributes influenced regional population levels in Europe and its colonial offshoots around 1500 A.D. and that they affected population levels and educational attainment in low-income countries of the 1990s.
Empirical analysis of software coupling networks in object-oriented software systems

The increasing scale and complexity of software systems have led to a large amount of work being performed in the area of software architecture of object-oriented systems. For the purpose of reasonable description of software structure, we make use of complex network theory to characterize and describe their macroscopic properties. We propose a directed software coupling network, and then empirical analysis of four open source software is implemented. We summarize the general statistical features of software coupling network, and find that software coupling network is of small-world and scale-free property, the exponents of in-degree and out-degree distributions are different, and the betweenness distribution of SCN is also power law. Furthermore, we analyzed the causes of behaviors software coupling network possessed.
THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE RED SUPERGIANT WOH G64: THE LARGEST STAR KNOWN?

WOH G64 is an unusual red supergiant (RSG) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), with a number of properties that set it apart from the rest of the LMC RSG population, including a thick circumstellar dust torus, an unusually late spectral type, maser activity, and nebular emission lines. Its reported physical properties are also extreme, including the largest radius for any star known and an effective temperature that is much cooler than other RSGs in the LMC, both of which are at variance with stellar evolutionary theory. We fit moderate-resolution optical spectrophotometry of WOH G64 with the MARCS stellar atmosphere models, determining an effective temperature of 3400 ± 25 K. We obtain a similar result from the star's broadband V − K colors. With this effective temperature, and taking into account the flux contribution from the asymmetric circumstellar dust envelope, we calculate log(L/L☉) = 5.45 ± 0.05 for WOH G64, quite similar to the luminosity reported by Ohnaka and collaborators based on their radiative transfer modeling of the star's dust torus. We determine a radius of R/R☉ = 1540, bringing the size of WOH G64 and its position on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram into agreement with the largest known Galactic RSGs, although it is still extreme for the LMC. In addition, we use the Ca ii triplet absorption feature to determine a radial velocity of 294 ± 2 km s−1 for the star; this is the same radial velocity as the rotating gas in the LMC's disk, which confirms its membership in the LMC and precludes it from being an unusual Galactic halo giant. Finally, we describe the star's unusual nebula emission spectrum; the gas is nitrogen-rich and shock-heated, and displays a radial velocity that is significantly more positive than the star itself by 50 km s−1.