Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secondary organic aerosol formation and primary organic aerosol oxidation from biomass-burning smoke in a flow reactor during FLAME-3

Abstract. We report the physical and chemical effects of photochemically aging dilute biomass-burning smoke. A "potential aerosol mass" (PAM) flow reactor was used with analysis by a high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer and a proton-transfer-reaction ion-trap mass spectrometer during the FLAME-3 campaign. Hydroxyl (OH) radical concentrations in the reactor reached up to ~1000 times average tropospheric levels, producing effective OH exposures equivalent to up to 5 days of aging in the atmosphere, and allowing for us to extend the investigation of smoke aging beyond the oxidation levels achieved in traditional smog chambers. Volatile organic compound (VOC) observations show aromatics and terpenes decrease with aging, while formic acid and other unidentified oxidation products increase. Unidentified gas-phase oxidation products, previously observed in atmospheric and laboratory measurements, were observed here, including evidence of multiple generations of photochemistry. Substantial new organic aerosol (OA) mass ("net SOA"; secondary OA) was observed from aging biomass-burning smoke, resulting in total OA average of 1.42 ± 0.36 times the initial primary OA (POA) after oxidation. This study confirms that the net-SOA-to-POA ratio of biomass-burning smoke is far lower on average than that observed for urban emissions. Although most fuels were very reproducible, significant differences were observed among the biomasses, with some fuels resulting in a doubling of the OA mass, while for others a very small increase or even a decrease was observed. Net SOA formation in the photochemical reactor increased with OH exposure (OH exp ), typically peaking around three days of equivalent atmospheric photochemical age (OH exp ~3.9 × 10 11 molecules cm −3 s), then leveling off at higher exposures. The amount of additional OA mass added from aging is positively correlated with initial POA concentration, but not with the total VOC concentration or the concentration of known SOA precursors. The mass of SOA formed often exceeded the mass of the known VOC precursors, indicating the likely importance of primary semivolatile/intermediate volatility species, and possibly of unidentified VOCs as SOA precursors in biomass burning smoke. Chemical transformations continued even after mass concentration stabilized. Changes in the biomass-burning tracer f 60 ranged from substantially decreasing to remaining constant with increased aging. With increased OH exp , oxidation was always detected (as indicated by f 44 and O/C). POA O/C ranged from 0.15 to 0.5, while aged OA O/C reached up to 0.87. The rate of oxidation and maximum O/C achieved differs for each biomass, and appears to increase with the initial O/C of the POA.
Anti-trypanosomal and cytotoxic activity of ethanolic extracts of Psidium guajava leaves in Alamar Blue based assays.

Ethanolic extracts prepared from the leaves of Psidium guajava were evaluated for anti-trypanosoma and cytotoxicity activity in the bloodstream species of Trypanosoma brucei brucei (BS427) and HEK293 in 384-well Alamar Blue assays respectively. Cytotoxicity activity in HEK293 cells was subsequently used to estimate the selectivity index of the extracts. The activities of the plant extracts were determined to evaluate if further chemical and biological profi ling may be warranted for potential development in early drug discovery for African Sleeping Sickness. Two trypanocides, pentamidine and diminazene, were employed as reference drugs, while puromycin was also included as control for general cell growth inhibition. The results show that the extracts inhibited growth of T. b. brucei with an IC50 of 6.3 姯mL and 48.9 姯mL for 80% and 20% ethanolic preparations respectively, with corresponding activity of less than 50% against HEK293 at the highest screening dose of 238.10 姯mL. The estimated selectivity index of the extracts compares favourably with pentamidine and diminazene. Meanwhile the reference compounds were found to have activities in agreement with published sensitivities at the doses screened. The lack of cytotoxicity at the doses screened and direct activity against T. b. brucei whole cells, make these extracts suitable candidates for further chemical elucidation and biological profi ling.
Gender Differences in Toddlers’ Visual-Spatial Skills

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to determine whether there are visual-spatial gender differences in two-year-olds, to investigate the environmental and cognitive factors that contribute to two-year-olds’ visual-spatial skills, and to explore whether these factors differ for boys and girls. Children (N = 63; Mage = 28.17 months) were assessed on their visual-spatial skills and on measures related to visual-spatial skills: intelligence, quantitative reasoning, working memory, and home spatial activity engagement. Children’s mothers were assessed on mental rotation ability. Results found no difference between boys’ and girls’ visual-spatial skills at age two. Quantitative reasoning contributed the most to girls’ visual-spatial skills. No variables were predictive for the boys, though boys with higher spatial activity frequency had higher visual-spatial skills. The differential predictors have implications for the development and fostering of visual-spatial skills, particularly for girls, who may be at a disadvantage in this area when they are older.
Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Coated with a Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotide and a Cationic Peptide: Exploring Four Different Ways of Surface Functionalization

The superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have great potential in therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Due to their superparamagnetic behavior, they are used clinically as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agent. Iron oxide nanoparticles are also recognized todays as smart drug-delivery systems. However, to increase their specificity, it is essential to functionalize them with a molecule that effectively targets a specific area of the body. Among the molecules that can fulfill this role, peptides are excellent candidates. Oligonucleotides are recognized as potential drugs for various diseases but suffer from poor uptake and intracellular degradation. In this work, we explore four different strategies, based on the electrostatic interactions between the different partners, to functionalize the surface of SPIONs with a phosphorothioate oligonucleotide (ODN) and a cationic peptide labeled with a fluorophore. The internalization of the nanoparticles has been evaluated in vitro on RAW 264.7 cells. Among these strategies, the “«one-step assembly»”, i.e., the direct complexation of oligonucleotides and peptides on iron oxide nanoparticles, provides the best way of coating for the internalization of the nanocomplexes.
Alternative Modes of Interaction in Proximal Human-in-the-Loop Operation of Robots

Ambiguity and noise in natural language instructions create a significant barrier towards adopting autonomous systems into safety critical workflows involving humans and machines. In this paper, we propose to build on recent advances in electrophysiological monitoring methods and augmented reality technologies, to develop alternative modes of communication between humans and robots involved in large-scale proximal collaborative tasks. We will first introduce augmented reality techniques for projecting a robot's intentions to its human teammate, who can interact with these cues to engage in real-time collaborative plan execution with the robot. We will then look at how electroencephalographic (EEG) feedback can be used to monitor human response to both discrete events, as well as longer term affective states while execution of a plan. These signals can be used by a learning agent, a.k. a an affective robot, to modify its policy. We will present an end-to-end system capable of demonstrating these modalities of interaction. We hope that the proposed system will inspire research in augmenting human-robot interactions with alternative forms of communications in the interests of safety, productivity, and fluency of teaming, particularly in engineered settings such as the factory floor or the assembly line in the manufacturing industry where the use of such wearables can be enforced.
Molecular Characterization of the Regenerating Retinal Ganglion Cells using Quantitative PCR and Immunohistochemistry

This dissertation is dedicated to my family. Deep gratitude for their love and support. Acknowledgements I wish to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Solon Thanos. I am especially indebted to him for his invaluable comments and unfailing patience, professionalism and wisdom. His guidance and encouragement enable me to complete my dissertation successfully. I would like to express my profound gratitude to Univ-Prof. Neuropathology for their advice on technical issues for real-time PCR, especially Dr. Hasselblat for his in computer graphics, results analysis and helpfulness at any time. All other members of the group for instructive and pleasant to cooperation , and many times joint pleasure. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to all the people who contributed to this research, including all the staff of I am also indebted to those who helped me revise my dissertation. Thanks to my parents and my brothers and sisters for being the best family I could ever hope for. They have always given me their support throughout my life. For love, support, and everything else, I will never stop thanking my husband Yong Zeng and my lovely daughter Xinrui Zeng. Their support and firm confidence in my ability helped me to persevere in academic pursuit. thank each of these organizations for their generous financial support.
Word Embeddings and Their Use In Sentence Classification Tasks

This paper have two parts. In the first part we discuss word embeddings. We discuss the need for them, some of the methods to create them, and some of their interesting properties. We also compare them to image embeddings and see how word embedding and image embedding can be combined to perform different tasks. In the second part we implement a convolutional neural network trained on top of pre-trained word vectors. The network is used for several sentence-level classification tasks, and achieves state-of-art (or comparable) results, demonstrating the great power of pre-trainted word embeddings over random ones.
The ATLAS project-???: Two-dimensional kinematic analysis of simulated galaxies and the cosmological origin of fast and slow rotators

We present a detailed two-dimensional stellar dynamical analysis of a sample of 44 cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of individual central galaxies with stellar masses of 2×1010M⊙ . M∗ . 6×10 11M⊙. Kinematic maps of the stellar line-of-sight velocity, velocity dispersion, and higher-order Gauss-Hermite moments h3 and h4 are constructed for each central galaxy and for the most massive satellites. The amount of rotation is quantified using the λR-parameter. The velocity, velocity dispersion, h3, and h4 fields of the simulated galaxies show a diversity similar to observed kinematic maps of early-type galaxies in the ATLAS survey. This includes fast (regular), slow, and misaligned rotation, hot spheroids with embedded cold disk components as well as galaxies with counter-rotating cores or central depressions in the velocity dispersion. We link the present day kinematic properties to the individual cosmological formation histories of the galaxies. In general, major galaxy mergers have a significant influence on the rotation properties resulting in both a spin-down as well as a spin-up of the merger remnant. Lower mass galaxies with significant (& 18 per cent) in-situ formation of stars since z ≈ 2, or with additional gas-rich major mergers resulting in a spin-up in their formation history, form elongated (ǫ ∼ 0.45) fast rotators (λR ∼ 0.46) with a clear anti-correlation of h3 and v/σ. An additional formation path for fast rotators includes gas poor major mergers leading to a spin-up of the remnants (λR ∼ 0.43). This formation path does not result in anti-correlated h3 and v/σ. The formation histories of slow rotators can include late major mergers. If the merger is gas-rich the remnant typically is a less flattened slow rotator with a central dip in the velocity dispersion. If the merger is gas poor the remnant is very elongated (ǫ ∼ 0.43) and slowly rotating (λR ∼ 0.11). The galaxies most consistent with the rare class of nonrotating round early-type galaxies grow by gas-poor minor mergers alone. In general, more massive galaxies have less in-situ star formation since z ∼ 2, rotate slower and have older stellar populations. We discuss general implications for the formation of fast and slowly rotating galaxies as well as the weaknesses and strengths of the underlying models.
Heart rate and heart rate variability of Yo-Yo IR1 and simulated match in young female basketball athletes: A comparative study

To verify the cardiac autonomic response following the Yo-Yo IR1 and simulated basketball matches (SM) 20 young female Brazilian basketball players (16.92±1.07 years; 179.60±9.27 m; 73.33±15.71 kg; BMI = 22.59±3.56) performed the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (Yo-Yo) and the SM. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were monitored continually 10-min before, during, and 10-min after both experimental sessions. Global HRV indexes, measured maximal heart rate (HRmax), and several estimated HRmax were assessed. The time duration of Yo-Yo IR1 was lower than SB (6.12 ± 1.81 and 24.21 ± 4.04 min, respectively; ES=5.78). Higher values of measured-HRmax were registered in SM (195.27±8.40 beats.min-1) than during Yo-Yo IR1 (187.47±9.54 beats.min-1; ES=-0.93). No differences were found between the mean HR of the efforts (177±9 and 173±10 beats.min-1 for Yo-Yo and SM, respectively; ES =0.20). The six estimated HRmax ranged from 92.31±4.59 to 102.59±4.41% of the measured HRmax. Higher cardiac autonomic depression was found after SM. The technical-tactical requirement during the SM seemed to be able to reach HRmax but with lower cardiac autonomic response than Yo-Yo. This information may help coaches and physical conditioners to evaluate, prescribe and monitor training sessions regarding HR and HRV responses during common team sports practices.
Religious Belief, Scientific Expertise, and Folk Ecology

In the United States, lay-adults with a range of educational backgrounds often conceptualize species change within a non-Darwinian adaptationist framework, or reject such ideas altogether, opting instead for creationist accounts in which species are viewed as immutable. In this study, such findings were investigated further by examining the relationship between religious belief, scientific expertise, and ecological reasoning in 132 college-educated adults from 6 religious backgrounds in a Midwestern city. Fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist religious beliefs were differentially related to concepts of evolution, adaptation, and extinction. Biological expertise ( r = .28) and creationism ( r = –.46) were significantly and differentially related to the endorsement of the Darwinian concept of common descent. Yet, creationists were more likely to reject macroevolutionary than microevolutionary concepts. Overall, the greater the taxonomic distance between species, the less likely were participants to agree that species-pairs had common ancestors. It is argued that lay adults from contemporary industrialized societies adopt a view of evolution in which species adapt to novel environments, but remain the same "kind" despite changes. Therefore, extinction is considered unlikely and the relations between micro- and macroevolution misconstrued. Lay-adults' species concepts appear to be an amalgam of a common-sense understanding of species and of evolutionary ideas, modified but not transformed by religious and scientific beliefs. Finally, it is argued that the development of scientific expertise does not involve the radical transformation of ingrained worldviews. Rather, scientists select specializations that are compatible with their existing philosophies, then consciously apply the constructs of their disciplines in order to transcend their common-sense folk beliefs.
A longitudinal study of attention and inhibitory control in 6- to 11-year-old children

iii Declaration . v Preface. vi Acknowledgements . vii List of publications, conference abstracts and awards during candidature . viii List of Abbreviations . ix List of Figures . xii List of Tables . xiv Table of
Too Much of a Good Thing? Product Proliferation and Organizational Failure

When organizations make important changes, such as introducing products based on new technologies, they may gain strategic advantages but they also experience disruptions. We argue that these disruptions are especially strong when organizations introduce multiple products simultaneously, leading to a temporary increase in the hazard of organizational failure. To test this hypothesis, we study the effects of new product introduction on the survival of U.S. semiconductor manufacturers. We find that having a large number of products--especially innovative products--lowers organizational mortality rates, but that mortality rates increase because of the simultaneous introduction of multiple products. This hazard is substantial, amounting to an increase in the market exit rate of over 40% for the "average" case of simultaneous product innovation. These results are robust in models that control for a wide variety of other factors. Our findings call into question the idea that organizations can overcome disruptions from structural inertia by introducing multiple products simultaneously.
Robust Model Predictive Control for hypersonic vehicle based on LPV

For the complicated aerodynamics characteristic and severely uncertainty of nonlinear model of a hypersonic vehicle, a novel Model Predictive Controller design methodology based on Linear Parameter-Varying was developed. Firstly, the nonlinear model was transformed into Linear Parameter- Varying form by Jacobian linearization of nonlinear plant about a family of equilibrium points. And then the ploytopic decomposition of LPV models was obtained by tensor-product model transformation method. So the robust controller can be calculated at every sampling time instant, by convex optimization involving LMIs in MPC. The control system of the hypersonic vehicle developed by this method not only avoided the complex design process of nonlinear method, but also restrained the effects of model parameter changes in complicated fight conditions. Therefore, it can provide the longitudinal stability for hypersonic vehicle. The numerical simulation results proved availability of the proposed method.
Explanations of prospective middle school mathematics teachers for potential misconceptions on the concept of symmetry

This study is an explanatory study, which follows a qualitative methodology and aims to reveal the explanations of prospective mathematics teachers for the potential misconceptions of secondary school students in relation to the concept of symmetry and the correction of such misconceptions. The study group consisted of a total of 26 prospective middle school mathematics teachers, who were senior students. The data of the study were obtained from the open-ended test prepared by the researchers. Following the data analysis, it was found out that the majority of the participants failed to identify the mistakes of students and suggested the ways to “letter the corners of the shape and measure the distance based on the axis of symmetry” in order to correct these mistakes. Moreover, the study notably observed that the participants adopted practical solutions such as the use of a mirror, paper folding, and the use of unit squares more in teaching the concept of symmetry. It may be stated that the prospective teachers, in this way, overlooked the development of conceptual knowledge in students.
Collaborative Project Small-medium-scale focused

of large-scale interconnected systems. In an additional development, a modiﬁcation of the subspace ID for large-scale systems was proposed which uses better internal data representation and dramatically reduces memory requirements. Hence, the modiﬁed algorithm improves scalability of subspace ID methods. Another approach for grey-box iden-tiﬁcation was being developed in parallel. This approach is based on numerical optimization of mixed prediction and simulation error based criterion. The results were published in [HPL3] and [HPL6].
Long-Lasting Cranial Nerve III Palsy as a Presenting Feature of Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy

We describe a patient with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in which an adduction deficit and ptosis in the left eye presented several years before the polyneuropathy. A 52-year-old man presented with a 14-year history of unremitting diplopia, adduction deficit, and ptosis in the left eye. At the age of 45 a mild bilateral foot drop and impaired sensation in the four limbs appeared, with these symptoms showing a progressive course. The diagnostic workup included EMG/ENG which demonstrated reduced conduction velocity with bilateral and symmetrical sensory and motor involvement. Cerebrospinal fluid studies revealed a cytoalbuminologic dissociation. A prolonged treatment with corticosteroids allowed a significant improvement of the limb weakness. Diplopia and ptosis remained unchanged. This unusual form of CIDP presented as a long-lasting isolated cranial nerve palsy. A diagnostic workup for CIDP should therefore be performed in those patients in which an isolated and unremitting cranial nerve palsy cannot be explained by common causes.
Complete mesocolic excision in right hemicolectomy: comparison between hand-assisted laparoscopic and open approaches

Purpose To demonstrate the feasibility, safety, and technical strategies of hand-assisted laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision (HAL-CME) and to compare oncological outcomes between HAL-CME and the open approach (O-CME) for right colon cancers. Methods Patients who were scheduled to undergo a right hemicolectomy were divided into HAL-CME and O-CME groups. Measured outcomes included demographic variables, perioperative parameters, and follow-up data. Demographic variables included age, sex distribution, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification, previous abdominal surgery, tumor localization, and potential comorbidities. Perioperative parameters included incision length, operative time, blood loss, conversion rate, postoperative pain score, postoperative first passage of flatus, duration of hospital stay, total cost, number of lymph nodes retrieved, TNM classification, and postoperative complications. Follow-up data included follow-up time, use of chemotherapy, local recurrence rate, distant metastasis rate, and short-term survival rate. Results In total, 150 patients (HAL-CME, 78; O-CME, 72) were included. The groups were similar in age, sex distribution, BMI, ASA classification, history of previous abdominal surgeries, tumor localization, and potential comorbidities. Patients in the HAL-CME group had shorter incision lengths, longer operative times, less operative blood loss, lower pain scores, earlier first passage of flatus, shorter hospital stay, higher total costs, similar numbers of lymph nodes retrieved, similar TNM classifications, and a comparable incidence of postoperative complications. The 2 groups were also similar in local recurrence rate, distant metastasis rate, and short-term survival rate. Conclusion The results demonstrate that the HAL-CME procedure is a safe, valid, and feasible surgical method for right hemicolon cancers.