Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Chinese EIA in Myanmar: Myitsone Dam, the Lappadaung Copper Mine and the Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines

ABSTRACT The economic relationship between China and Myanmar is regarded as a win–win cooperation. However, Chinese investments, especially in extractive and natural resource sectors, are associated with a number of unwanted environmental consequences. Moreover, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) quality of Chinese enterprises has often been criticized. EIA identifies adverse impacts to the environment through evidence-based decision making. On this basis, this paper provides an evaluation of Chinese EIA performance within the natural resources sector through a structured review of 15 environmental impact statements (EISs). This research also evaluates the EISs of the three largest and most controversial projects, the Myitsone Hydropower Dam, Lappadaung Copper Mine and Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines. The findings reveal several omissions, inadequacies and deficiencies in all the projects with a significant number of EISs falling short of satisfactory quality. Through the analysis, the paper summarizes the factors affecting the EIA performance and proposes feasible recommendations to improve EIA practices in Chinese development projects in Myanmar.
Asian emissions in 2006 for the NASA INTEX-B mission

Abstract. A new inventory of air pollutant emissions in Asia in the year 2006 is developed to support the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-Phase B (INTEX-B) funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Emissions are estimated for all major anthropogenic sources, excluding biomass burning. We estimate total Asian anthropogenic emissions in the year 2006 as follows: 47.1 Tg SO2, 36.7 Tg NOx, 298.2 Tg CO, 54.6 Tg NMVOC, 29.2 Tg PM10, 22.2 Tg PM2.5, 2.97 Tg BC, and 6.57 Tg OC. We emphasize emissions from China because they dominate the Asia pollutant outflow to the Pacific and the increase of emissions from China since 2000 is of great concern. We have implemented a series of improved methodologies to gain a better understanding of emissions from China, including a detailed technology-based approach, a dynamic methodology representing rapid technology renewal, critical examination of energy statistics, and a new scheme of NMVOC speciation for model-ready emissions. We estimate China's anthropogenic emissions in the year 2006 to be as follows: 31.0 Tg SO2, 20.8 Tg NOx, 166.9 Tg CO, 23.2 Tg NMVOC, 18.2 Tg PM10, 13.3 Tg PM2.5, 1.8 Tg BC, and 3.2 Tg OC. We have also estimated 2001 emissions for China using the same methodology and found that all species show an increasing trend during 2001–2006: 36% increase for SO2, 55% for NOx, 18% for CO, 29% for VOC, 13% for PM10, and 14% for PM2.5, BC, and OC. Emissions are gridded at a resolution of 30 min×30 min and can be accessed at our web site ( http://mic.greenresource.cn/intex-b2006 ).
Assembly of snRNP-containing coiled bodies is regulated in interphase and mitosis--evidence that the coiled body is a kinetic nuclear structure

Coiled bodies (CBs) are nuclear organelles in which splicing snRNPs concentrate. While CBs are sometimes observed in association with the nucleolar periphery, they are shown not to contain 5S or 28S rRNA or the U3 snoRNA. This argues against CBs playing a role in rRNA maturation or transport as previously suggested. We present evidence here that CBs are kinetic structures and demonstrate that the formation of snRNP-containing CBs is regulated in interphase and mitosis. The coiled body antigen, p80 coilin, was present in all cell types studied, even when CBs were not prominent. Striking changes in the formation of CBs could be induced by changes in cellular growth temperature without a concomitant change in the intracellular p80 coilin level. During mitosis, CBs disassemble, coinciding with a mitotic-specific phosphorylation of p80 coilin. Coilin is shown to be a phosphoprotein that is phosphorylated on at least two additional sites during mitosis. CBs reform in daughter nuclei after a lag period during which they are not detected. CBs are thus, dynamic nuclear organelles and we propose that cycling interactions of splicing snRNPs with CBs may be important for their participation in the processing or transport of pre-mRNA in mammalian cells.
Minimizing delivery cost in scalable streaming content distribution systems

Recent scalable multicast streaming protocols for on-demand delivery of media content offer the promise of greatly reduced server and network bandwidth. However, a key unresolved issue is how to design scalable content distribution systems that place replica servers closer to various client populations and route client requests and response streams so as to minimize the total server and network delivery cost. This issue is significantly more complex than the design of distribution systems for traditional Web files or unicast on-demand streaming, for two reasons. First, closest server and shortest path routing does not minimize network bandwidth usage; instead, the optimal routing of client requests and server multicasts is complex and interdependent. Second, the server bandwidth usage increases with the number of replicas. Nevertheless, this paper shows that the complex replica placement and routing optimization problem, in its essential form, can be expressed fairly simply, and can be solved for example client populations and realistic network topologies. The solutions show that the optimal scalable system can differ significantly from the optimal system for conventional delivery. Furthermore, simple canonical networks are analyzed to develop insights into effective heuristics for near-optimal placement and routing. The proposed new heuristics can be used for designing large and heterogeneous systems that are of practical interest. For a number of example networks, the best heuristics produce systems with total delivery cost that is within 16% of optimality.
From screen to target: insights and approaches for the development of anti-virulence compounds

A detailed understanding of host-pathogen interactions provides exciting opportunities to interfere with the infection process. Anti-virulence compounds aim to modulate or pacify pathogenesis by reducing expression of critical virulence determinants. In particular, prevention of attachment by inhibiting adhesion mechanisms has been the subject of intense research. Whilst it has proven relatively straightforward to develop robust screens for potential anti-virulence compounds, understanding their precise mode of action has proven much more challenging. In this review we illustrate this challenge from our own experiences working with the salicylidene acylhydrazide group of compounds. We aim to provide a useful perspective to guide researchers interested in this field and to avoid some of the obvious pitfalls.
Parameterization of In‐Cloud Aerosol Scavenging Due To Atmospheric Ionization: 2. Effects of Varying Particle Density

Simulations and parameterization of collision rate coefficients for aerosol particles with 3 μm radius droplets have been extended to a range of particle densities up to 2,000 kg m−3 for midtropospheric (~5 km) conditions (540 hPa, −17°C). The increasing weight has no effect on collisions for particle radii less than 0.2 μm, but for greater radii the weight effect becomes significant and usually decreases the collision rate coefficient. When increasing size and density of particles make the fall speed of the particle relative to undisturbed air approach to that of the droplet, the effect of the particle falling away in the stagnation region ahead of the droplet becomes important, and the probability of frontside collisions can decrease to zero. Collisions on the rear side of the droplet can be enhanced as particle weight increases, and for this the weight effect tends to increase the rate coefficients. For charges on the droplet and for large particles with density ρ < 1,000 kg m−3 the predominant effect increases in rate coefficient due to the short‐range attractive image electric force. With density ρ above about 1,000 kg m−3, the stagnation region prevents particles moving close to the droplet and reduces the effect of these short‐range forces. Together with previous work, it is now possible to obtain collision rate coefficients for realistic combinations of droplet charge, particle charge, droplet radius, particle radius, particle density, and relative humidity in clouds. The parameterization allows rapid access to these values for use in cloud models.
Antibody profiling with protein antigen microarrays in early stage cancer.

INTRODUCTION Proteins not present in normal cells, that is, cancer cells, may elicit a host immune response that leads to the generation of antibodies that might react with these tumor-associated proteins. In recent years, a growing number of reports have showed that autoantibody profiling may provide an alternative approach for the detection of cancer. However, most studies of antigen-autoantibody reactivity have relied on recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins lack the proper post-translational modifications present in native proteins. Because of this limitation, native or natural protein antigen microarrays are gaining popularity for profiling antibody responses. AREAS COVERED i) To illustrate some examples of autoantibodies as signatures for early stage cancer; ii) to briefly outline the various protein antigen microarray platforms; iii) to illustrate the use of native or natural protein microarrays in the discovery of potential biomarkers and iv) to discuss the advantages of native protein antigen microarrays over other approaches. EXPERT OPINION The nature of protein microarray platforms is conducive to multiplexing, which amplifies the potential for uncovering effective biomarkers for many significant diseases. However, the major challenge will be in integrating microarray platforms into multiplexed clinical diagnostic tools, as the main drawback is the reproducibility and coefficient of variation of the results from array to array, and the transportability of the array platform to a more automatable platform.
Fuzzy $n$-Ellipsoid Numbers and Representations of Uncertain Multichannel Digital Information

In this paper, we present the definition of fuzzy n-ellipsoid numbers that are a special kind n-dimensional fuzzy numbers which are not only more objective and more rational in expressing uncertain multichannel digital information than are fuzzy n-cell numbers but keep the convenience being used in applications and researches of the theory as well. We also obtain two representation results. Then, for the sake of the application of fuzzy n-ellipsoid numbers, we define some special kinds of fuzzy n-ellipsoid numbers, investigate their properties, set up a specific iterative algorithm of their membership function value, and prove the convergence of the iterative algorithm. And then, we establish an algorithmic version of constructing fuzzy n-ellipsoid numbers to express an object that is characterized by a group of uncertain multichannel digital information, as well as give practical examples to show the application and rationality of the proposed techniques.
Spontaneous septostomy in monochorionic diamniotic twins: Difficult diagnosis, difficult management

complications during pregnancy associated with Marfan syndrome is approximately 3.9% (Katsuragi et al. 2011), or fi ve times higher than in women who are not pregnant (Pacini et al. 2009). Th e prognoses of mother and fetus are extremely poor when acute aortic dissection occurs during pregnancy. Th e mortality rate associated with aortic dissection during pregnancy is 22% (Weiss et al. 1998). Although rapid treatment of pregnant women with Marfan syndrome is necessary, use of anticoagulants during aortic repair make it diffi cult to determine the optimal treatment strategies. Aortic surgery with extracorporeal circulation requires the use of large quantities of anticoagulants. Th ese may cause massive bleeding due to placental abrasions and uterine wounds. Haas et al. (2011) reported that when surgical repair of type A aortic dissection was performed with extracorporeal circulation just aft er an urgent caesarean section at 34 weeks ’ gestation, uterine haemorrhage occurred immediately postoperatively, and hysterectomy was eventually performed because conservative therapy of the bleeding was impossible. It may be recommended here that hysterectomy aft er caesarean section is considered, so as to prevent bleeding caused by anticoagulants. In this case, we planned to perform the surgical repair of the aorta a few days aft er the caesarean section and hysterectomy, in consideration of wound healing following obstetric surgery and in order to avoid uterine bleeding caused by anticoagulants. However, because of worsened postoperative pneumonia, we had to postpone the aortic repair and associated extracorporeal circulation until day 9 aft er the obstetric operation.
Relationship Between Interleukin-10 Gene C-819T Polymorphism and Gastric Cancer Risk: Insights From a Meta-Analysis

Background As a pleiotropic cytokine, interleukin-10 (IL-10) plays a regulatory role in carcinogenesis and tumor growth. The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the susceptibility of the IL-10 gene C-819T polymorphism to gastric cancer. Material/Methods Study identification and data extraction were independently completed by 2 authors. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated and summarized. Results In total, 11 articles including 1960 gastric cancer patients and 3705 controls were qualified. Overall analyses revealed a 13% reduced risk of gastric cancer conferred by the −819T allele relative to the −819C allele (OR=0.87; 95% CI: 0.77–0.97; P=0.016), without heterogeneity (I2=35.1%). In subgroup analyses, a significant difference was identified in East Asian populations (OR=0.85; 95% CI: 0.73–0.98; P=0.029, I2=43.6%), for gastric adenocarcinoma (OR=0.80; 95% CI: 0.66–0.96; P=0.017, I2=0.0%), and in population-based studies (OR=0.81; 95% CI: 0.70–0.93; P=0.003, I2=0.0%). The visual funnel plots and Egger’s tests suggested no evidence of publication bias. Conclusions Extending previous findings, we demonstrate a protective role of the IL-10 gene −819T allele in susceptibility to gastric cancer, and this role was more evident for gastric adenocarcinoma.
A Case-Controlled Study of the Oncologic Safety of Fat Grafting

Background: Currently, there is no clinical evidence of oncologic risk associated with fat grafting, although its safety has been questioned. The authors investigated the risk of relapse associated with fat grafting in women with a history of breast cancer. Methods: Of 328 women with previously treated malignant breast disease who underwent fat grafting at the Nottingham Breast Institute, complete data were available for 211 (invasive carcinoma, n = 184; ductal carcinoma in situ, n = 27). Mean follow-up was 88 months after primary cancer surgery and 32 months after fat grafting. Control subjects were matched 2:1 for date of primary cancer operation (within 2 years), age (within 5 years), type of surgery, tumor histology, estrogen receptor status, and disease-free status by time equivalent to that of fat grafting. Final endpoints were tumor recurrence and death. Outcome results were compared with a systematic review of all patients undergoing fat grafting with adequate follow-up reported in the literature. Results: No significant excess oncologic events were observed in patients who had fat grafting compared to controls with regard to local (0.95 percent versus 1.90 percent; p = 0.33), regional (0.95 percent versus 0 percent; p = 0.16), and distant recurrences (3.32 percent versus 2.61 percent; p = 0.65). A systematic review identified case series with a total of 1573 women who had fat grafting after primary oncologic breast surgery. The locoregional relapse rate for these patients was 2.92 percent (0.95 percent per year). Conclusion: This study has found no evidence of increased oncologic risk associated with fat grafting in women previously treated for breast cancer. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, II.
Cancer of unknown primary site.

common sites of origin for cancer of unknown primary (CUP) Prognostic factors are limited nodal or single visceral sites, good performance status, weight loss <10%, absenced liver metastases Breast, ovary and prostate are the more treatable origins of adenocarcinoma of unknown primary (ACUP) Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and germ cell tumours are rare but curable causes of poorly differentiated CUP Occult head and neck primary squamous cancer are a curable cause of CUP in cervical lymph nodes
Boosting Access Parallelism to PCM-Based Main Memory

Despite its promise as a DRAM main memory replacement, Phase Change Memory (PCM) has high write latencies which can be a serious detriment to its widespread adoption. Apart from slowing down a write request, the consequent high latency can also keep other chips of the same rank, that are not involved in this write, idle for long times. There are several practical considerations that make it difficult to allow subsequent reads and/or writes to be served concurrently from the same chips during the long latency write. This paper proposes and evaluates several novel mechanisms - re-constructing data from error correction bits instead of waiting for chips currently busy to serve a read, rotating word mappings across chips of a PCM rank, and rotating the mapping of error detection/correction bits across these chips - to overlap several reads with an ongoing write (RoW) and even a write with an ongoing write (WoW). The paper also presents the necessary micro-architectural enhancements needed to implement these mechanisms, without significantly changing the current interfaces. The resulting PCM access parallelism (PCMap) system incorporating these enhancements, boosts the intra-rank-level parallelism during such writes from a very low baseline value of 2.4 to an average and maximum values of 4.5 and 7.4, respectively (out of a maximum of 8.0), across a wide spectrum of both multiprogrammed and multithreaded workloads. This boost in parallelism results in an average IPC improvement of 15.6% and 16.7% for the multi-programmed and multi-threaded workloads, respectively.
Investigation of black and brown carbon multiple‐wavelength‐dependent light absorption from biomass and fossil fuel combustion source emissions

Quantification of the black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC) components of source emissions is critical to understanding the impact combustion aerosols have on atmospheric light absorption. Multiple‐wavelength absorption was measured from fuels including wood, agricultural biomass, coals, plant matter, and petroleum distillates in controlled combustion settings. Filter‐based absorption measurements were corrected and compared to photoacoustic absorption results. BC absorption was segregated from the total light extinction to estimate the BrC absorption from individual sources. Results were compared to elemental carbon (EC)/organic carbon (OC) concentrations to determine composition's impact on light absorption. Multiple‐wavelength absorption coefficients, Angstrom exponent (6.9 to <1.0), mass absorption cross section (MAC), and Delta C (97 µg m−3 to ~0 µg m−3) were highly variable. Sources such as incense and peat emissions showed ultraviolet wavelength (370 nm) BrC absorption over 175 and 80 times (respectively) the BC absorption but only 21 and 11 times (respectively) at 520 nm wavelength. The bulk EC MACEC, λ (average at 520 nm = 9.0 ± 3.7 m2 g−1; with OC fraction <0.85 = ~7.5 m2 g−1) and the BrC OC mass absorption cross sections (MACBrC,OC,λ) were calculated; at 370 nm ultraviolet wavelengths; the MACBrC,OC,λ ranged from 0.8 m2 g−1 to 2.29 m2 g−1 (lowest peat, highest kerosene), while at 520 nm wavelength MACBrC,OC,λ ranged from 0.07 m2 g−1 to 0.37 m2 g−1 (lowest peat, highest kerosene/incense mixture). These MAC results show that OC content can be an important contributor to light absorption when present in significant quantities (>0.9 OC/TC), source emissions have variable absorption spectra, and nonbiomass combustion sources can be significant contributors to BrC.
Kinneretia THG-SQI4 mediated biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and its antimicrobial efficacy

Abstract Simple, facile, effective approach for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Kinneretia species and its antimicrobial activity against human pathogens has been demonstrated in this study. Kinneretia THG-SQI4 has been isolated from soil sample collected from Shangqui, China. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry (UV–vis), field emission transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), elemental mapping, selected area diffraction pattern, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by a peak at 425 nm in the UV–vis spectrum. The TEM data reveals that the nanoparticles are monodisperse and spherical in shape having a diameter ranging from 15 to 20 nm. The bright circular spots in SAED pattern confirm the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles. The XRD spectra exhibited the characteristic Bragg peaks of 1 1 1, 2 0 0, 2 2 0, and 3 1 1 facets of the face centered cubic symmetry of nanoparticles. The synthesized silver nanoparticles showed potent antibacterial activity against human pathogens like Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Moreover, the silver nanoparticles show enhanced synergistic effects in combination with different standard antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria. This method for synthesis of silver nanoparticle is valuable and has antimicrobial potential.
Body mass index (BMI) as predictor of ALSFRS-R score decline in ALS patients

Abstract Recent studies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest that body mass index (BMI) predicts patients’ survival in a curvilinear manner. We sought to determine the relationship of initial BMI to decline in the revised Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) score over time. We used data from the high dose Coenzyme-Q10 in ALS (QALS) clinical trial, with in-person ALSFRS-R interviews at baseline and nine months (n = 150). Multiple regression analysis allowed adjustment for a range of predictors. The final analysis, adjusted for age and FVC, indicated a significant, non-linear association of BMI with the change of ALSFRS-R over time (p < 0.01). The smallest decline was at BMI of 30. Among non-obese patients (BMI < 30, n = 126), higher BMI was associated with slower ALSFRS-R decline (p = 0.03). Among obese patients (BMI ≥ 30, n = 24), higher BMI was associated, although not significantly, with faster decline (p = 0.17). In conclusion, for ALS patient with BMI less than 30, higher initial BMI predicts slower functional decline. For patients with BMI greater than 30, higher initial BMI predicts more rapid decline. These results indicate that previous, apparently contradictory results can be reconciled, and suggest that initial BMI may help predict disease progression in ALS patients.