Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Levels of nitrate and phosphate in some satellite lakes within the Lake Victoria basin, Tanzania

Levels of nitrates (NO 3 -N) and phosphates (PO 4 -P) in some satellite lakes within the Lake Victoria basin were determined in Kagera (Lake Burigi), in Mara (River Mara) and in Mwanza region (Lake Malimbe) during August/September 2002 (dry season) and January/February 2003 (wet season). Water samples were collected using a van Dorn water sampler at chosen points from both deep and shallow areas of the water bodies. Results of the two surveys revealed that deep and shallow areas of the lakes had varying nutrient levels. In deep waters, PO4-P values ranged between 0.171-0.225mg/l, 0.067-0.364mg/l, and 0.043-0.096 mg/l in Lake Malimbe, Burigi and Mara River, respectively. NO 3 -N values ranged between 0.034-0.762mg/l, 0.019-1.367 and 0.034-1.54mg/l in Lake Malimbe, Lake Burigi and Mara River, respectively. In shallow areas, PO 4 -P values ranged between 0.144-0.343 mg/l, 0.072-0.203mg/l and 0.025 –0.096 mg/l in Lakes Malimbe, Burigi and Mara River, respectively. NO 3 -N values ranged between 0.035- 0.932 mg/l, 0.017-0.622 mg/l and 0.028-0.912 mg/l in Lakes Malimbe, Burigi and Mara River, respectively. Generally, levels were higher during the dry than during the wet season. Appropriate pollution control measures should be taken though levels encountered are still within those recommended in the Tanzania Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Amendment Act of 1981 for receiving waters. Tanzania Journal of Science Vol.30(1) 2004: 1-10
Binding of Sperm to the Zona Pellucida Mediated by Sperm Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins is not Species-Specific in vitro between Pigs and Cattle

Carbohydrates are candidates for the basis of species-selective interaction of gametes during mammalian fertilization. In this study, we sought to clarify the roles of sugar residues in the species-selective, sperm–oocyte interaction in pigs and cattle. Acrosome-intact porcine and bovine sperm exhibited their strongest binding affinities for β-Gal and α-Man residues, respectively. Porcine-sperm specificity changed from β-Gal to α-Man after the acrosome reaction, while bovine-sperm specificity did not. Binding of acrosome-intact and acrosome-reacted sperm decreased after trypsinization, indicating that the carbohydrate-binding components are proteins. While immature oocytes bound homologous sperm preferentially to heterologous sperm, oocytes matured in vitro bound similar numbers of homologous and heterologous sperm. Lectin staining revealed the aggregation of α-Man residues on the outer surface of the porcine zona during maturation. In both species, zona-free, mature oocytes bound homologous sperm preferentially to heterologous sperm. The lectin-staining patterns of the zona pellucida and zona-free oocytes coincided with the carbohydrate-binding specificities of acrosome-intact and acrosome-reacted sperm, respectively, supporting the involvement of carbohydrates in gamete recognition in pigs and cattle. These results also indicate that sperm-zona pellucida and sperm–oolemma bindings are not strictly species-specific in pigs and cattle, and further suggest that sperm penetration into the zona and/or fusion with oolemma may be species-specific between pigs and cattle.
Characteristics of downward leader in a positive cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash observed by high‐speed video camera and electric field changes

Leader process in a positive single‐stroke cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash was captured by a high‐speed video camera with a time resolution of 1000 frames/s. The positive leader process and the intracloud discharge process before the return stroke, which lasted about 600 ms, are studied in detail by combining the data from fast and slow antenna. The channel branches seemed to develop horizontally with a speed of the order of 104 m/s during the initial stage just outside the thundercloud. The luminous duration of the leader was about 12 ms, and the luminous intensity at the tip was much stronger than the channel behind it, presented obviously a stepped‐like characteristic. The 2‐D propagation speed of the stepped‐like leader ranged from 0.1 × 105 m/s to 3.8 × 105 m/s. The time interval between 26 leader pulses during the last 0.5 ms just before the stroke was about 17 μs according to E‐field changes.
Flexible and Stable Value Coding Areas in Caudate Head and Tail Receive Anatomically Distinct Cortical and Subcortical Inputs

Anatomically distinct areas within the basal ganglia encode flexible- and stable-value memories for visual objects (Hikosaka et al., 2014), but an important question remains: do they receive inputs from the same or different brain areas or neurons? To answer this question, we first located flexible and stable value-coding areas in the caudate head (CDh) and caudate tail (CDt) of two rhesus macaque monkeys, and then injected different retrograde tracers into these areas of each monkey. We found that CDh and CDt received different inputs from several cortical and subcortical areas including temporal cortex, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, amygdala, claustrum and thalamus. Superior temporal cortex and inferior temporal cortex projected to both CDh and CDt, with more CDt-projecting than CDh-projecting neurons. In superior temporal cortex and dorsal inferior temporal cortex, layers 3 and 5 projected to CDh while layers 3 and 6 projected to CDt. Prefrontal and cingulate cortex projected mostly to CDh bilaterally, less to CDt unilaterally. A cluster of neurons in the basolateral amygdala projected to CDt. Rostral-dorsal claustrum projected to CDh while caudal-ventral claustrum projected to CDt. Within the thalamus, different nuclei projected to either CDh or CDt. The medial centromedian nucleus and lateral parafascicular nucleus projected to CDt while the medial parafascicular nucleus projected to CDh. The inferior pulvinar and lateral dorsal nuclei projected to CDt. The ventral anterior and medial dorsal nuclei projected to CDh. We found little evidence of neurons projecting to both CDh and CDt across the brain. These data suggest that CDh and CDt can control separate functions using anatomically separate circuits. Understanding the roles of these striatal projections will be important for understanding how value memories are created and stored.
Annular modes and Hadley cell expansion under global warming

Projections of 21st century climate from the latest state‐of‐the‐art climate models consistently call for a poleward expansion of the tropical Hadley cell (HC) and subtropical dry zones (SDZ) in response to increasing levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. We find that approximately half of the model‐simulated HC and SDZ expansion during the next hundred years can be explained by positive trends in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere annular modes (NAM and SAM), implying a close connection between changes in the tropical and extratropical atmospheric circulation. The link between NAM and SAM variability and the SDZ expansion suggests that future changes in the hydrologic cycle are likely to be strongly influenced by atmospheric dynamics.
Google Goes Cancer: Improving Outcome Prediction for Cancer Patients by Network-Based Ranking of Marker Genes

Predicting the clinical outcome of cancer patients based on the expression of marker genes in their tumors has received increasing interest in the past decade. Accurate predictors of outcome and response to therapy could be used to personalize and thereby improve therapy. However, state of the art methods used so far often found marker genes with limited prediction accuracy, limited reproducibility, and unclear biological relevance. To address this problem, we developed a novel computational approach to identify genes prognostic for outcome that couples gene expression measurements from primary tumor samples with a network of known relationships between the genes. Our approach ranks genes according to their prognostic relevance using both expression and network information in a manner similar to Google's PageRank. We applied this method to gene expression profiles which we obtained from 30 patients with pancreatic cancer, and identified seven candidate marker genes prognostic for outcome. Compared to genes found with state of the art methods, such as Pearson correlation of gene expression with survival time, we improve the prediction accuracy by up to 7%. Accuracies were assessed using support vector machine classifiers and Monte Carlo cross-validation. We then validated the prognostic value of our seven candidate markers using immunohistochemistry on an independent set of 412 pancreatic cancer samples. Notably, signatures derived from our candidate markers were independently predictive of outcome and superior to established clinical prognostic factors such as grade, tumor size, and nodal status. As the amount of genomic data of individual tumors grows rapidly, our algorithm meets the need for powerful computational approaches that are key to exploit these data for personalized cancer therapies in clinical practice.
Short communication Antimicrobial activity of bark extracts of Syzygium jambos (L.) Alston (Myrtaceae)

Syzygium jambos (L.) Alston (Myrtaceae) is a widespread medicinal plant traditionally used in sub-Saharan Africa to treat infectious diseases. Acetone and aqueous extracts from the bark of S. jambos were tested for antimicrobial activity in vitro by the agar dilution method in petri dishes. Both extracts showed some activity against the tested micro-organisms. They proved to be particularly effective on Staphylococcus aureus, Yersinia enterocolitica and coagulase negative staphylococci among which Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus cohnii and Staphylococcus warneri. These properties seem to be related to the high tannin content of S. jambos extracts (77 and 83% for the aqueous and acetone extracts, respectively, determined according to the European Pharmacopoeia method) which were generally more active than Hamamelis 6irginiana, Krameria triandra, Alchemilla 6ulgaris and Rubus fruticosus extracts containing 48, 44, 46 and 28% tannins, respectively. Furthermore, elimination of tannins totally suppressed these antimicrobial activities. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Impacts of long‐range transport of global pollutants and precursor gases on U.S. air quality under future climatic conditions

[1] The U.S. air quality is impacted by emissions both within and outside the United States. The latter impact is manifested as long-range transport (LRT) of pollutants across the U.S. borders, which can be simulated by lateral boundary conditions (LBC) into a regional modeling system. This system consists of a regional air quality model (RAQM) that integrates local-regional source emissions and chemical processes with remote forcing from the LBC predicted by a nesting global chemical transport model (model for ozone and related chemical tracers (MOZART)). The present-day simulations revealed important LRT effects, varying among the five major regions with ozone problems, i.e., northeast United States, midwest United States, Texas, California, and southeast United States. To determine the responses of the LRT impacts to projected global climate and emissions changes, the MOZART and RAQM simulations were repeated for future periods (2048–2052 and 2095–2099) under two emissions scenarios (IPCC A1Fi and B1). The future U.S. air quality projected by the MOZART is less sensitive to the emissions scenarios than that simulated by the RAQM with or without incorporating the LRT effects via the LBC from the MOZART. The result of RAQM with the LRT effects showed that the southeast United States has the largest sensitivity of surface ozone mixing ratio to the emissions changes in the 2095–2099 climate (−24% to +25%) followed by the northeast and midwest United States. The net increase due to the LRT effects in 2095–2099 ranges from +4% to +13% in daily mean surface ozone mixing ratio and +4% to +11% in mean daily maximum 8-h average ozone mixing ratios. Correspondingly, the LRT effects in 2095–2099 cause total column O3 mixing ratio increases, ranging from +7% to +16%, and also 2 to 3 more days with the surface ozone exceeding the national standard. The results indicate that future U.S. air quality changes will be substantially affected by global emissions.
Epidemiological characteristics of Bancroftian filariasis and the Nigerian environment

Bancroftian filariasis , caused by Wuchereria bancrofti is widespread in Nigeria. It is a serious public health problem as well as a major cause of acute and chronic morbidity in Nigeria. Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus are the main vectors in the rural Nigeria while Culex quenquifasciatus is the vector in the urban and semi-urban areas. Although these mosquito vectors breed and transmit bancroftian filariasis in Nigeria, human behaviour and activities, urbanization and overcrowding as well as industrialization in Nigeria have created abundant breeding sites. The availability and proximity of human settlement to these numerous breeding sites for the vectors play important role in the disease transmission and intensity in both rural and urban areas. Our quick drive and desire to develop some of the river basins into hydroelectric dams and irrigation schemes in the country has, in some cases led to increased threat to public health including aggravation of bancroftian filariasis. Together with other careless engineering practices, these projects have either aggravated the prevalence of bancroftian filariasis or directly introduced it into new areas by providing new and permanent habitat for the vector species. The epidemiological significance of these is discussed.
Activation of nuclear transcription factor kappa B (NF‐κB) is essential for dopamine‐induced apoptosis in PC12 cells

The etiology of Parkinson's disease is still unknown, though current investigations support the notion of the pivotal involvement of oxidative stress in the process of neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra (SN). In the present study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular response to a challenge by dopamine, one of the local oxidative stressors in the SN. Based on studies showing that nuclear factor kappa B (NF‐κB) is activated by oxidative stress, we studied the involvement of NF‐κB in the toxicity of PC12 cells following dopamine exposure. We found that dopamine (0.1–0.5 m m) treatment increased the phosphorylation of the IκB protein, the inhibitory subunit of NF‐κB in the cytoplasm. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated the presence of NF‐κB‐p65 protein in the nuclear fraction and its disappearance from the cytoplasmic fraction after 2 h of dopamine exposure. Dopamine‐induced NF‐κB activation was also evidenced by electromobility shift assay using radioactive labeled NF‐κB consensus DNA sequence. Cell‐permeable NF‐κB inhibitor SN‐50 rescued the cells from dopamine‐induced apoptosis and showed the importance of NF‐κB activation to the induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, flow cytometry assay demonstrated a higher level of translocated NF‐κB‐p65 in the apoptotic nuclei than in the unaffected nuclei. In conclusion, our findings suggest that NF‐κB activation is essential to dopamine‐induced apoptosis in PC12 cells and it may be involved in nigral neurodegeneration in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Influence of grading on the mechanical behaviour of Stava tailings

Tailings dams can be fragile structures and too often they are subject to liquefaction. The material they are composed of is rather peculiar, having a man-made origin, and their behaviour is still not very well understood. The soil from the Stava tailings dams, structures that were subject to liquefaction in 1985 causing extensive destruction, was investigated in this study as an example of tailings. Two main aspects of their behaviour have been examined: the influence of the percentage of silt and sand that compose the soil on its mechanical behaviour, and the susceptibility to liquefaction, analysing the behaviour within a critical state framework. In this paper it is shown that, as the quantity of silt increases, the slope and intercept of the normal compression line and critical state line at higher pressures decrease until an inversion of behaviour is observed, while at lower stress levels the critical state line changes its position but not its slope. This means that the effect of adding silt on the.
Geographical Characterization of YouTube: a Latin American View

Online social media applications have exploded in popularity in the Web. In most of these applications, users interact with other users and create content that becomes available on the Web, such as textual information, photos, and videos. YouTube is the largest online social video sharing service, that generates a huge amount of Web traffic. This paper presents a geographical characterization of YouTube usage. It analyzes video and user characteristics for different geographical regions, concentrating mainly on Latin America. We develop efficient crawlers for collecting data about videos and users. Because the number of videos and users is very large, we sample from the object spaces, sampling over 2 million videos and 5 million users. Based on the collected data, we show that there exists relationships between geography and the social network features available in YouTube. We present evidences that indicate that geography creates a locality space in YouTube, which could be used to explore infrastructure improvements, such as caching, content distribution networks and broadband pricing mechanisms.
Rigid immobilization alters matrix organization in the injured rat medial collateral ligament

The effects of mobilization on matrix reorganization and density after ligament injury were studied in rat medial collateral ligaments using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Both medial collateral ligaments of 14 Sprague‐Dawley rats were sharply incised transversely at their midpoint. A 1.14‐mm threaded Kirschner wire was driven through the tibia and into the femur of the right leg (through the knee) to immobilize that knee at 90° of flexion. Four additional rats were used as controls. The right medial collateral ligament of the control rats was exposed in the same manner as the experimental rats and the wound closed without damaging the ligament. Rats were sacrificed on the 7th and 14th days postinjury and the ligaments evaluated by SEM. The electron micrographs from this study demonstrated that early on, the tissue at the injury site is disorganized on a gross scale with large bundles of poorly organized matrix. Large “defects” were present between bundles in the substance of the ligament and appeared as holes in the ligament around the injury site. As healing progressed, the matrix in the mobilized specimens appeared to bridge the injury site more rapidly and completely with fewer “defects” and thus higher density than the immobilized specimens.
Integration of distributed cortical systems by reentry: a computer simulation of interactive functionally segregated visual areas

A computer model based on visual cortex has been constructed to analyze how the operations of multiple, functionally segregated cortical areas can be coordinated and integrated to yield a unified perceptual response. We propose that cortical integration arises through the process of reentry--the ongoing, parallel, recursive signaling between separate maps along ordered anatomical connections. To test the efficacy of this reentrant cortical integration (RCI) model, we have carried out detailed computer simulations of 3 interconnected cortical areas in the striate and extrastriate cortex of the macaque. The simulated networks contained a total of over 222,000 units and 8.5 million connections. The 3 modeled areas, called VOR, VOC, and VMO, incorporate major anatomical and physiological properties of cortical areas V1, V3, and V5 but are vastly simplified compared with monkey visual cortex. Simulated area VOR contains both orientation and directionally selective units; simulated area VMO discriminates the direction of motion of arbitrarily oriented objects; and simulated area VOC responds to both luminance and occlusion boundaries in the stimulus. Area VOC is able to respond to illusory contours (Kanizsa, 1979) by means of the same neural architecture used for the discrimination of occlusion boundaries. This architecture also generates responses to structure-from-motion by virtue of reentrant connections from VMO to VOC. The responses of the simulated networks to these illusions are consistent with the perceptual responses of humans and other species presented with these stimuli. The networks also respond in a consistent manner to a novel illusion that combines illusory contours and structure-from-motion. The response synthesized to this combined illusion provides a strong argument supporting the need for a recursive reentrant process in the cortex. Functional integration of the simulated areas in the RCI model were found to depend upon the combined action of 3 reentrant processes: (1) conflicting responses among segregated areas are competitively eliminated, (2) outputs of each area are used by other areas in their own operations, and (3) outputs of an area are “reentered” back to itself (through lower areas) and can thus be used iteratively to synthesize responses to complex or illusory stimuli. Transection of the reentrant connections selectively abolished these integrative processes and led to failure of figural synthesis. The proposed model of reentry suggests a basis for understanding how multiple visual areas as well as other cortical areas may be integrated within a distributed system.
Chronology of Devonian to early Carboniferous rifting and igneous activity in southern Magdalen Basin based on U-Pb (zircon) dating

Fifteen UPb (zircon) radiometric age determinations have been made on igneous rocks of Middle Devonian to Early Carboniferous age from the southern margin of the Magdalen basin in Cape Breton Island and northern mainland Nova Scotia. Volcanic rocks interbed with early rift-basin sedimentary rocks with some palynological biostratigraphy; dated intrusive rocks cut these sedimentary units. Our biostratigraphically constrained ages are in close agreement with the current Devonian time scale. Combined with previously published data, the age determinations show that igneous activity occurred in four pulses: Middle Devonian (390385 Ma), early Late Devonian (375370 Ma), latest Devonian to early Tournaisian (365354 Ma), and late Tournaisian to early Visean (ca. 339 Ma). Middle Devonian (385389 Ma) volcanic rocks are confined to the Guysborough Group. The Fisset Brook Formation (basalt and minor rhyolite) in the type area and elsewhere in Cape Breton Island and northern mainland Nova Scotia is Late Devonian (c.