Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
METAL SORPTION ON MINERAL SURFACES : AN OVERVIEW WITH EXAMPLES RELATING TO MINERAL DEPOSITS

Sorption reactions, involving both inorganic and organic particulates, are an important control on the transport and fate of many trace elements in natural systems. Understanding the controls on trace-element concentrations in waters is critical for a number of applications including the transport of contaminants and nutrients, geochemical prospecting, agriculture, municipal and industrial water treatment, and bioavailability to name a few. This chapter provides an overview of metal sorption on mineral surfaces and gives examples of predictive modeling of metalsorption reactions in mine-drainage systems. The word “sorption” is a general term that describes removal of a solute from solution to a contiguous solid phase and is used when the specific removal mechanism is not known. “Sorbate” or “adsorbate” refers to the solute that sorbs on the solid phase. “Sorbent” or “adsorbent” is the solid phase or substrate onto which the sorbate sorbs. “Adsorption” refers to the two-dimensional accumulation of an adsorbate at a solid surface. In the case of “surface precipitation,” there is a three-dimensional accumulation of sorbate at the solid surface. The term “absorption” is used when there is diffusion of the sorbate into the solid phase. Absorption processes usually show a significant time dependency. Sposito (1986) and Jenne (1998) provide a more detailed description of these terms. In this chapter, the term adsorption is used when describing laboratory studies with simple, well-characterized systems, and when discussing models that have been developed to describe adsorption phenomena.
Release and dispersion of vegetation and peat fire emissions in the atmosphere over Indonesia 1997/1998

Abstract. Smoke-haze episodes caused by vegetation and peat fires affect parts of Indonesia every year with significant impacts on human health and climate. Particularly fires in degenerated peat areas release huge amounts of trace gases, e.g. CO2, CO and CH4, and particles into the atmosphere, exceeding by far the emissions per unit area from fires in surface vegetation. However, only limited information is available about the current distribution of pristine and degenerated peat areas in Indonesia, their depth, drainage condition and modification by fire. Particularly during the strong El Nino event in 1997/1998 a huge uncertainty exists about the contribution of Indonesian peat fire emissions to the measured increase of atmospheric CO2, as the published estimates of the peat area burned differ considerably. In this paper we study the contribution of peat fire emissions in Indonesia during the El Nino event 1997/1998. A regional three-dimensional atmosphere-chemistry model is applied over Indonesia using two emission estimates. These vegetation and peat fire emission inventories for Indonesia are set up in 0.5° resolution in weekly intervals and differ only in the size of the fire affected peat areas. We evaluate simulated rainfall and particle concentrations by comparison with observations to draw conclusions on the total carbon emissions released from the vegetation and peat fires in Indonesia in 1997/1998.
Annexin VII as a Novel Marker for Invasive Phenotype of Malignant Melanoma

Both F10 and BL6 sublines of B16 mouse melanoma cells are metastatic after intravenous injection, but only BL6 cells are metastatic after subcutaneous injection. While examining the genetic difference between the two sublines, we found a marked reduction of annexin VII expression in BL6 cells. In addition, fusion cell clones of both sublines, were as poorly metastatic as F10 cells after subcutaneous injection, and contained the annexin VII message as abundantly as F10 cells. Hence, we examined whether the annexin VII expression was correlated with the less malignant phenotype of clinical cases by immunohistochemistry. Immunoreactivities to anti‐annexin VII antibody in melanoma cells were evaluated quantitatively by using skin mast cells as an internal positive control. Eighteen patients with malignant melanoma were divided into two groups: lymph node metastasis‐negative and positive groups. The ratio of numbers of patients positive versus negative to the antibody was significantly larger in the former than in the latter group. These results not only indicated that annexin VII serves as a marker for less invasive phenotype of malignant melanoma, but also suggested a possible role of annexin VII in tumor suppression.
Direct Inhibition of Pumilo Activity by Bam and Bgcn in Drosophila Germ Line Stem Cell Differentiation*

The fate of stem cells is intricately regulated by numerous extrinsic and intrinsic factors that promote maintenance or differentiation. The RNA-binding translational repressor Pumilio (Pum) in conjunction with Nanos (Nos) is required for self-renewal, whereas Bam (bag-of-marbles) and Bgcn (benign gonial cell neoplasm) promote differentiation of germ line stem cells in the Drosophila ovary. Genetic analysis suggests that Bam and Bgcn antagonize Pum/Nos function to promote differentiation; however, the molecular basis of this epistatic relationship is currently unknown. Here, we show that Bam and Bgcn inhibit Pum function through direct binding. We identified a ternary complex involving Bam, Bgcn, and Pum in which Bam, but not Bgcn, directly interacts with Pum, and this interaction is greatly increased by the presence of Bgcn. In a heterologous reporter assay to monitor Pum activity, Bam, but not Bgcn, inhibits Pum activity. Notably, the N-terminal region of Pum, which lacks the C-terminal RNA-binding Puf domain, mediates both the ternary protein interaction and the Bam inhibition of Pum function. These studies suggest that, in cystoblasts, Bam and Bgcn may directly inhibit Pum/Nos activity to promote differentiation of germ line stem cells.
The X-Ray Luminosity-Mass Relation for Local Clusters of Galaxies

We investigate the relationship between soft X-ray luminosity and mass for low-redshift clusters of galaxies by comparing observed number counts and scaling laws to halo-based expectations of ΛCDM cosmologies. We model the conditional likelihood of halo luminosity as a lognormal distribution of fixed width, centered on a scaling relation, L ∝ Mpρ(z), and consider two values for s, appropriate for self-similar evolution or no evolution. Convolving with the halo mass function, we compute expected counts in redshift and flux that, after appropriate survey effects are included, we compare to REFLEX survey data. Counts alone provide only an upper limit on the scatter in mass at fixed luminosity, σln M < 0.4. We argue that the observed, intrinsic variance in the temperature-luminosity relation is directly indicative of mass-luminosity variance and derive σln M = 0.43 ± 0.06 from HIFLUGCS data. When added to the likelihood analysis, we derive values p = 1.59 ± 0.05, ln L15,0 = 1.34 ± 0.09, and σln M = 0.37 ± 0.05 for self-similar redshift evolution in a concordance (Ωm = 0.3, ΩΛ = 0.7, σ8 = 0.9) universe. The present-epoch intercept is sensitive to power spectrum normalization, L15,0 ∝ σ, and the slope is weakly sensitive to the matter density, p ∝ Ω. We find a substantially (factor 2) dimmer intercept and slightly steeper slope than the values published using hydrostatic mass estimates of the HIFLUGCS sample and show that a Malmquist bias of the X-ray flux-limited sample accounts for this effect. In light of new WMAP constraints, we discuss the interplay between parameters and sources of systematic error and offer a compromise model with Ωm = 0.24, σ8 = 0.85, and somewhat lower scatter σln M = 0.25, in which hydrostatic mass estimates remain accurate to ~15%. We stress the need for independent calibration of the L-M relation via weak gravitational lensing.
Interdicting Structured Combinatorial Optimization Problems with {0, 1}-Objectives

Interdiction problems ask about the worst-case impact of a limited change to an underlying optimization problem. They are a natural way to measure the robustness of a system, or to identify its weakest spots. Interdiction problems have been studied for a wide variety of classical combinatorial optimization problems, including maximum $s$-$t$ flows, shortest $s$-$t$ paths, maximum weight matchings, minimum spanning trees, maximum stable sets, and graph connectivity. Most interdiction problems are NP-hard, and furthermore, even designing efficient approximation algorithms that allow for estimating the order of magnitude of a worst-case impact, has turned out to be very difficult. Not very surprisingly, the few known approximation algorithms are heavily tailored for specific problems. Inspired by an approach of Burch et al. (2003), we suggest a general method to obtain pseudoapproximations for many interdiction problems. More precisely, for any $\alpha>0$, our algorithm will return either a $(1+\alpha)$-approximation, or a solution that may overrun the interdiction budget by a factor of at most $1+\alpha^{-1}$ but is also at least as good as the optimal solution that respects the budget. Furthermore, our approach can handle submodular interdiction costs when the underlying problem is to find a maximum weight independent set in a matroid, as for example the maximum weight forest problem. The approach can sometimes be refined by exploiting additional structural properties of the underlying optimization problem to obtain stronger results. We demonstrate this by presenting a PTAS for interdicting $b$-stable sets in bipartite graphs.
The role of medicinal plants in the treatment of diabetes: a systematic review

Introduction Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder and plenty of medical plants are used in traditional medicines to treat diabetes. These plants have no side effects and many existing medicines are derived from the plants. The purpose of this systematic review is to study diabetes and to summarize the available treatments for this disease, focusing especially on herbal medicine. Methods Required papers about diabetes and effective plants were searched from the databases, including Science direct, PubMed, Wiley, Scopus, and Springer. Keywords in this study are ”medicinal plants”, “diabetes”, “symptom”, “herbal”, and “treatment”. Out of the 490 collected articles (published in the period between 1995 and 2015), 450 were excluded due to non-relevance or lack of access to the original article. Results Diabetes is mainly due to oxidative stress and an increase in reactive oxygen species that can have major effects. Many plants contain different natural antioxidants, in particular tannins, flavonoids, C and E vitamins that have the ability to maintain β-cells performance and decrease glucose levels in the blood. Conclusion According to published results, it can be said that medical plants are more affordable and have less side effects compared synthetic drugs, and are more effective in treatment of diabetes mellitus.
From Gestures to Gaming: Visible Embodiment of Remote Actions

Teleoperation is the act of controlling an object that exists in a space, real or virtual, physically disconnected from the user. During such situations, it is not uncommon to observe those controlling the remote object exhibiting movement consistent with the behaviour of the remote object. Though this behaviour has no obvious impact on one's control of the remote object, it appears tied to one's intentions, thus, possibly representing an embodied representation of ongoing cognitive processes. In the present investigation, we applied a natural behaviour approach to test this notion, (a) first by identifying the representational basis for the behaviour and (b) by identifying factors that influence the occurrence of the behaviour. Each study involved observing participant behaviour while they played a racing video game. Results revealed that the spontaneous behaviour demonstrated in a teleoperation setting is tied to one's remote actions, rather than local actions or some combination of remote and local actions (Experiment 1). In addition, increasing task demand led to an increase in the occurrence of the spontaneous behaviour (Experiment 2). A third experiment was conducted to rule out the possible confound of greater immersion that tends to accompany greater demand (Experiment 3). The implications of these results not only suggest that spontaneous behaviour observed during teleoperation reflects a form of visible embodiment, sensitive to task demand, but also further emphasizes the utility of natural behaviour approaches for furthering our understanding of the relationship between the body and cognitive processes.
Somatostatin molecular variants in the vitreous fluid: a comparative study between diabetic patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and nondiabetic control subjects.

OBJECTIVE There is growing evidence to indicate that somatostatin could be added to the list of natural antiangiogenic factors that exist in the vitreous fluid. In addition, a deficit of intravitreous somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) has been found in diabetic patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). In the present study, we have determined the main molecular variants of somatostatin (somatostatin-14 and somatostatin-28) in the vitreous fluid and plasma of nondiabetic control subjects and diabetic patients with PDR. In addition, the contribution of cortistatin, a neuropeptide with strong structural similarities to somatostatin, to SLI and its levels in vitreous and plasma in both nondiabetic and diabetic patients has also been measured. RESERCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Plasma and vitreous fluid from 22 diabetic patients with PDR and 22 nondiabetic control subjects were analyzed. Somatostatin-14, somatostatin-28 and cortistatin were measured by radioimmunoassay but separation by high-performance liquid chromatography was required to measure somatostatin-14. RESULTS The predominant molecular form of somatostatin within the vitreous fluid was somatostatin-28 (fivefold higher than somatostatin-14 in control subjects and threefold higher in patients with PDR). Cortistatin significantly contributed to SLI and its intravitreous levels were higher than those detected in plasma (nondiabetic control subjects: 147 [102-837] vs. 78 [24-32] pg/ml; patients with PDR: 187 [87-998] vs. 62 [24-472] pg/ml; P = 0.01 for both). Intravitreous somatostatin-14 was similar in both subjects with PDR and the control group (P = 0.87). By contrast, somatostatin-28 concentration was lower in patients with PDR than in nondiabetic control subjects (350 +/- 32 vs. 595 +/- 66 pg/ml; P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS Somatostatin-28 is the main molecular variant in the vitreous fluid. The intravitreous SLI deficit detected in patients with PDR is mainly due to somatostatin-28. Cortistatin is abundant in the vitreous fluid and significantly contributes to SLI. These findings could open up new strategies for PDR treatment.
Phenotype-associated sequence variation in the third variable domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gp120 molecule

The third variable (V3) domain has been implicated in determining the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) phenotype, including fusion capacity and monocytotropism. In a large set of primary HIV type 1 (HIV-1) isolates, V3 sequence analysis revealed that fast-replicating, syncytium-inducing isolates contained V3 sequences with a significantly higher positive charge than those of slow-replicating, non-syncytium-inducing monocytotropic isolates. It appeared that these differences in charge could be attributed to highly variable amino acid residues located on either side of the V3 loop, midway between the cysteine residues and the central GPG motif. In non-syncytium-inducing monocytotropic isolates, these residues were negatively charged or uncharged, whereas in syncytium-inducing nonmonocytotropic isolates, either one or both were positively charged. The substitutions at these positions result in changes in the predicted secondary structure of the V3 loop. Our data suggest that two amino acid residues in the highly variable V3 domain are responsible for phenotype differences and point to conformational differences in V3 loops from phenotypically distinct HIV-1 isolates.
Variational Bayes for Regime-Switching Log-Normal Models

The power of projection using divergence functions is a major theme in information geometry. One version of this is the variational Bayes (VB) method. This paper looks at VB in the context of other projection-based methods in information geometry. It also describes how to apply VB to the regime-switching log-normal model and how it provides a computationally fast solution to quantify the uncertainty in the model specification. The results show that the method can recover exactly the model structure, gives the reasonable point estimates and is very computationally efficient. The potential problems of the method in quantifying the parameter uncertainty are discussed.
Deontic Modals: Why Abandon the Classical Semantics?

I begin by reviewing classical semantics and the problems presented by normative conflicts. After a brief detour through default logic, I establish some connections between the treatment of conflicts in each of these two approaches, classical and default, and then move on to consider some further issues: priorities among norms, or reasons, conditional oughts, and reasons about reasons.
Heterogeneity in Early Responses in ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial)

Randomized trials of hypertension have seldom examined heterogeneity in response to treatments over time and the implications for cardiovascular outcomes. Understanding this heterogeneity, however, is a necessary step toward personalizing antihypertensive therapy. We applied trajectory-based modeling to data on 39 763 study participants of the ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial) to identify distinct patterns of systolic blood pressure (SBP) response to randomized medications during the first 6 months of the trial. Two trajectory patterns were identified: immediate responders (85.5%), on average, had a decreasing SBP, whereas nonimmediate responders (14.5%), on average, had an initially increasing SBP followed by a decrease. Compared with those randomized to chlorthalidone, participants randomized to amlodipine (odds ratio, 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.31), lisinopril (odds ratio, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.73–2.03), and doxazosin (odds ratio, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.52–1.78) had higher adjusted odds ratios associated with being a nonimmediate responder (versus immediate responder). After multivariable adjustment, nonimmediate responders had a higher hazard ratio of stroke (hazard ratio, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.21–1.84), combined cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.11–1.31), and heart failure (hazard ratio, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.24–1.78) during follow-up between 6 months and 2 years. The SBP response trajectories provided superior discrimination for predicting downstream adverse cardiovascular events than classification based on difference in SBP between the first 2 measurements, SBP at 6 months, and average SBP during the first 6 months. Our findings demonstrate heterogeneity in response to antihypertensive therapies and show that chlorthalidone is associated with more favorable initial response than the other medications.
Sooty shearwater ( Puffinus griseus ) harvest intensity and selectivity on Poutama Island , New Zealand

Rakiura Maori annually harvest sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus) chicks from islands in Foveaux Strait and adjacent to Stewart Island, New Zealand. Chick availability and the number of chicks harvested were estimated during the 1994 and 1995 seasons on Poutama (Evening Island). Burrow entrance densities estimated using circular plots were significantly higher in 1994 (0.45 ± 0.03 m) than in 1995 (0.41 ± 0.03 m). A similar burrow entrance density (0.45 ± 0.04 m) was obtained in 1995 using a transect sampling technique. The number of usable burrows estimated using circular plots in 1994 and 1995 was 387 508 and 337 732 respectively. Of these, chicks occupied 24% ± 6% in 1994 and 29% ± 4% in 1995. It was estimated the muttonbirders harvested 13-24% (15 722) of the chicks present on Poutama in 1994 and 17-28% (22 092) in 1995. Muttonbirders targeted areas of the island with higher chick density and less fallen stems. Excluding chicks rejected by the muttonbirder ( 750g), harvested chicks were significantly heavier and had less down than randomly encountered chicks. If larger heavier chicks are more likely to return and breed, then the preference for these chicks by muttonbirders would affect predictions of harvest impacts. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Body weight-supported gait training for restoration of walking in people with an incomplete spinal cord injury: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of body weight-supported gait training on restoration of walking, activities of daily living, and quality of life in persons with an incomplete spinal cord injury by a systematic review of the literature. METHODS Cochrane, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro, DocOnline were searched and identified studies were assessed for eligibility and methodological quality and described regarding population, training protocol, and effects on walking ability, activities of daily living and quality of life. A descriptive and quantitative synthesis was conducted. RESULTS Eighteen articles (17 studies) were included. Two randomized controlled trials showed that subjects with injuries of less than one year duration reached higher scores on the locomotor item of the Functional Independence Measure (range 1-7) in the over-ground training group compared with the body weight-supported treadmill training group. Only for persons with an American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale C or D was the mean difference significant, with 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.04-1.56). No differences were found regarding walking velocity, activities of daily living or quality of life. CONCLUSION Subjects with subacute motor incomplete spinal cord injury reached a higher level of independent walking after over-ground training, compared with body weight-supported treadmill training. More randomized controlled trials are needed to clarify the effectiveness of body weight-supported gait training on walking, activities of daily living, and quality of life for subgroups of persons with an incomplete spinal cord injury.
Smart antenna arrays for correlated and imperfectly-estimated Rayleigh fading channels

Eigenbeamforming, herein referred to as maximal-ratio eigen-combining (MREC), was recently proposed as an alternative to maximum average signal-to-noise ratio beamforming (Max-ASNR BF) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) in antenna array systems. An analysis of MREC is undertaken and an average error probability (AEP) expression is obtained for BPSK modulation and Rayleigh fading when the channel gains may be imperfectly-known and partially correlated. The analysis is further specialized to pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation, to allow an analytical performance assessment of smart antenna arrays (SAAs) employing MREC in realistic scenarios with angle-of-arrival (AOA) dispersion. Numerical results show that MREC may significantly outperform Max-ASNR BF and MRC in imperfect conditions.