Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microplastics transport in soils: A critical review

Microplastics (MPs) in terrestrial environments are an emerging contaminant of huge concern to ecosystems and human health. However, our understanding of the MPs fate, particularly their transport mechanisms, remains elusive. This knowledge gap arises from the multiplicity of coupled physical, chemical and biological processes and parameters affecting MPs transport, together with scarcity of systematic studies that aim to isolate their individual effects. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the state-of-the-art in our understanding of MPs transport, highlight knowledge gaps, and suggest future research to bridge them. We classify the governing factors into four main categories: (i) MPs properties; (ii) soil properties; (iii) hydrological conditions; and (iv) biological activity. Our analysis highlights the intricacy of MPs transport, showing that seemingly non-monotonic trends and even complete lack of correlation between some parameters and MPs transport could be explained by the interference (co-effects) with other parameters and processes.
Androgen Level in the Sheep Fetus During Gestation 1

Summary The androgen content of amniotic fluid, plasma, and gonads from 107 fetal lambs was determined by radioimmunoassay in an attempt to understand the ontogeny of gonadal function. Testosterone (T) was too low to be reliably measured in the amniotic fluid from fetuses of either sex. Ovaries were without T activity at an ofy the stages of gestation studied. Testicular T-5α-dihydrotestosterone (T-DHT) concentration steadily decreased from 1.4 ± 0.2 to 0.08 ± 0.01 μg T-DHT/g testis during the last 80 days of gestation. This was due to both increasing gonadal size as well as a decline in the absolute amount of T-DHT/testis. T was detected in the plasma of fetuses of both sexes. In females, levels rose steadily from 112 ± 20 to 459 ± 223 pg/ml during the last 80 days of fetal development. The pattern in the male was different in that plasma T at 70 days of gestation was 658 ± 145 pg/ml; then fell to 279 ± 51 pg/ml at about 100 days of gestation. Plasma T then rose to 866 ± 141 pg/ml near term. It is suggested that nongonadal testosterone production increases during fetal life and that T secretion by the fetal testis may contribute steadily less to the plasma pool of T as gestation proceeds. The John R. Morrell Packing Company, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was most cooperative in allowing us to obtain tissue and blood samples. H. Eiler and R. Curnock assisted in the collection of the samples. Mrs. Lei-Hwa Yen performed much of the technical work reported here.
Is clinical virtual reality ready for primetime?

OBJECTIVE Since the mid-1990s, a significant scientific literature has evolved regarding the outcomes from the use of what we now refer to as clinical virtual reality (VR). This use of VR simulation technology has produced encouraging results when applied to address cognitive, psychological, motor, and functional impairments across a wide range of clinical health conditions. This article addresses the question, "Is clinical VR ready for primetime? " METHOD After a brief description of the various forms of VR technology, we discuss the trajectory of clinical VR over the last 20 years and summarize the basic assets that VR offers for creating clinical applications. The discussion then addresses the question of readiness in terms of the theoretical basis for clinical VR assets, the research to date, the pragmatic factors regarding availability, usability, and costs of clinical VR content/systems, and the ethical issues for the safe use of VR with clinical populations. RESULTS Our review of the theoretical underpinnings and research findings to date leads to the prediction that clinical VR will have a significant impact on future research and practice. Pragmatic issues that can influence adoption across many areas of psychology also appear favorable, but professional guidelines will be needed to promote its safe and ethical use. CONCLUSIONS Although there is still much research needed to advance the science in this area, we strongly believe that clinical VR applications will become indispensable tools in the toolbox of psychological researchers and practitioners and will only grow in relevance and popularity in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record
Evaluation of ibuprofen toxicity for zebrafish (Danio rerio) targeting on selected biomarkers of oxidative stress.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of subchronic exposure of zebrafish to ibuprofen, using selected oxidative stress parameters as a target. DESIGN Toxicity tests were performed on Danio rerio according to OECD No. 203 and No. 215. In the growth test, fish were exposed to subletal concentrations of ibuprofen (0.0001, 0.05, 1, 8, and 25 mg.L-1) for 28 days. For the assessment of free radical defense in fish, the catalytic activities of glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT), as well as the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured. RESULTS Ibuprofen did not affect the activity of glutathione reductase and catalase. A significant (p<0.01) increase in the activity of glutathione peroxidase was found, which was proved dose-dependent (10.58 nmol NADPH per min per mg protein in the control and 20.53, 26.36, 26.89, and 45.87 nmol NADPH per min per mg protein in the ibuprofen concentrations of 0.5, 1, 8, and 25 mg.L-1. An increased (p<0.05) activity of glutathione S-transferase in the highest concentration was found compared to control. Malondialdehyde levels were found significantly (p<0.01) decreased from control in the concentrations of 0.0001 and 8 mg.L-1, but no dose-dependence was found. CONCLUSION The results suggest that ibuprofen causes the increase in the activity of some antioxidative and biotransformation enzymes in zebrafish (GPx and GST). We also found a significant decrease in lipid peroxidation in the concentrations of 0.0001 and 8 mg.L-1 compared to control.
COLT-Cancer: functional genetic screening resource for essential genes in human cancer cell lines

Genome-wide pooled shRNA screens enable global identification of the genes essential for cancer cell survival and proliferation and provide a ‘functional genetic’ map of human cancer to complement genomic studies. Using a lentiviral shRNA library targeting approximately 16 000 human genes and a newly developed scoring approach, we identified essential gene profiles in more than 70 breast, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cell lines. We developed a web-accessible database system for capturing information from each step in our standardized screening pipeline and a gene-centric search tool for exploring shRNA activities within a given cell line or across multiple cell lines. The database consists of a laboratory information and management system for tracking each step of a pooled shRNA screen as well as a web interface for querying and visualization of shRNA and gene-level performance across multiple cancer cell lines. COLT-Cancer Version 1.0 is currently accessible at http://colt.ccbr. utoronto.ca/cancer.
Online Learning to Rank in Stochastic Click Models

Online learning to rank is a core problem in information retrieval and machine learning. Many provably efficient algorithms have been recently proposed for this problem in specific click models. The click model is a model of how the user interacts with a list of documents. Though these results are significant, their impact on practice is limited, because all proposed algorithms are designed for specific click models and lack convergence guarantees in other models. In this work, we propose BatchRank, the first online learning to rank algorithm for a broad class of click models. The class encompasses two most fundamental click models, the cascade and position-based models. We derive a gap-dependent upper bound on the T-step regret of BatchRank and evaluate it on a range of web search queries. We observe that BatchRank outperforms ranked bandits and is more robust than CascadeKL-UCB, an existing algorithm for the cascade model.
The subcellular distribution of chromosome 6-encoded dystrophin-related protein in the brain

Chromosome 6-encoded dystrophin-related-protein (DRP) shows significant structural similarities to dystrophin at the carboxyl terminus, though the two proteins are encoded on different chromosomes. Both DRP and dystrophin are expressed in muscle and brain and show some similarity in their subcellular localization. For example, in skeletal muscle both are expressed at neuromuscular and myotendinous junctions. However, while dystrophin is absent or severely reduced in Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, DRP continues to be expressed. Within the brain, dystrophin is enriched at the postsynaptic regions of specific subsets of neurons, while the distribution of DRP is yet to be described. In this study we demonstrate a distinct though highly specific pattern of distribution of DRP in the brain. DRP is enriched in the choroid plexus, pia mater, intracerebral vasculature, and ependymal lining. Within the parenchyma proper, DRP is located at the inner plasma face of astrocytic foot processes at the abluminal aspect of the blood-brain barrier. The distribution of DRP is conserved across a large evolutionary distance, from mammals to elasmobranchs, suggesting that DRP may play a role in the maintenance of regional specializations in the brain.
Loss of anisotropy in trigeminal neuralgia revealed by diffusion tensor imaging

We studied the trigeminal nerve in seven healthy volunteers and six patients with trigeminal neuralgia using the diffusion tensor imaging derived parameter fractional anisotropy (FA). While controls did not show a difference between both sides, there was a reduction of FA in the affected nerve in three of six patients with accompanying nerve–vessel conflict and atrophy. Reversibility of abnormally low FA values was demonstrated in one patient successfully treated with microvascular decompression.
Polydatin Attenuates H2O2-Induced Oxidative Stress via PKC Pathway

Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction, which is found to precede the development of diverse cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The aim of this study was to observe the protective effects of PD against H2O2-induced oxidative stress injury (OSI) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the possible mechanism of PD in OSI treatment. HUVECs were subjected to H2O2 in the absence or presence of PD. It turned out that PD improved cell viability and adhesive and migratory abilities, inhibited the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), and elevated the content of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). TUNEL, fluorometric assays, and Western blotting showed that OSI upregulated the apoptosis ratio, the activity of caspase-3 and the level of proapoptotic protein Bax and decreased the level of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2. However, PD treatment partially reversed these damage effects and Protein Kinase C (PKC) activation by thymeleatoxin (THX) in turn eliminated the antiapoptotic effect of PD. Furthermore, PD attenuated the H2O2-induced phosphorylation of PKCs α and δ and increased the phosphorylation of PKC ε. Our results indicated that PD might exert protective effects against OSI through various interactions with PKC pathway.
The Effect of Kinesio Taping in Forward Bending of the Lumbar Spine

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of a lumbar fascia Kinesio Taping® technique forward bending range of motion. [Subjects and Methods] This was a longitudinal study with a randomized clinical trial composed of 39 subjects divided into three groups (control, Kinesio Without Tension-KWT, and Kinesio Fascia Correction-KFC). The subjects were assessed by Schober and fingertip-to-floor tests and left the tape in place for 48 hours before being reassessed 24 hours, 48 hours and 30 days after its removal. [Results] In all three experimental groups no significant differences were observed with the Schober test, but it was possible to observe an increase in lumbar flexion after 30 days. With the fingertip-to-floor distance assessment, the KFC and KWT groups showed significantly improved flexibility 24 hours and 48 hours after tape removal. [Conclusion] The Kinesio Taping® influenced fascia mobility, allowing for slight improvement of lumbar flexibility.
of the birational morphism

In this paper we prove that every quasi-projective base space V of smooth family of minimal projective manifolds with maximal variation is pseudo Kobayashi hyperbolic, i.e. V is Kobayashi hyperbolic modulo a proper subvariety Z ( V . In particular, V is algebraically degenerate, that is, every nonconstant entire curve f : C → V has image f ( C ) which lies in that proper subvariety Z ( V . As a direct consequence, we prove the Brody hyperbolicity of moduli spaces of minimal projective manifolds, which answers a question by Viehweg-Zuo in 2003.
The impact of substrate and irrigation interval on the post-transplant root growth of container-grown zinnia and tomato1

Abstract Substrate type and irrigation interval were studied to determine their impact on the post-transplant root growth of ‘Thumbelina' zinnia (Zinnis elegans Jacq.) and ‘Celebrity Hybrid' tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Seeds of both species were planted in 80 cm3 (2.7 fl oz) plug cells containing either Metromix 360™ (MM360) or Ball Professional Growing Mix™ (BPGM) and, following germination, the seedlings were transplanted into 450 cm3 (27.5 in3) plastic pots containing the same substrate. Evapotranspiration (ETO) was measured gravimetrically each day and the water lost via ETO added back to the substrate at intervals of 24, 48 or 96hr. For zinnia, root growth was consistently better for seedlings grown in BPGM, a substrate with greater water holding capacity and air-filled porosity. For plants grown in BPGM and irrigated every 48hr, root dry weight was significantly greater than it was for any of the remaining treatments. For tomato, root growth was greater for seedlings grown in BPGM and fo.
Empirical quantizer design in the presence of source noise or channel noise

The problem of vector quantizer empirical design from training vectors is studied for noisy channels and for noisy sources. It is shown that global empirical error minimization for designing quantizers for transmission over a discrete noisy channel have the same performance (convergence rate) as in ordinary quantizer design. For noisy source quantization an appropriate analogue of empirical error minimization is developed. Consistency and convergence rates are proved under appropriate regularity conditions in this case.
Experimental education research: rethinking why, how and when to use random assignment

Over the last twenty years, education researchers have increasingly conducted randomised experiments with the goal of informing the decisions of educators and policymakers. Such experiments have generally employed broad, consequential, standardised outcome measures in the hope that this would allow decisionmakers to compare effectiveness of different approaches. However, a combination of small effect sizes, wide confidence intervals, and treatment effect heterogeneity means that researchers have largely failed to achieve this goal. We argue that quasi-experimental methods and multi-site trials will often be superior for informing educators’ decisions on the grounds that they can achieve greater precision and better address heterogeneity. Experimental research remains valuable in applied education research. However, it should primarily be used to test theoretical models, which can in turn inform educators’ mental models, rather than attempting to directly inform decision making. Since comparable effect size estimates are not of interest when testing educational theory, researchers can and should improve the power of theory-informing experiments by using more closely aligned (i.e., valid) outcome measures. We argue that this approach would reduce wasteful research spending and make the research that does go ahead more statistically informative, thus improving the return on investment in educational research.
Proximity report triggering threshold optimization for network-based indoor positioning

Driven by the promising beaconing techniques, this paper presents a general received-signal-strength (RSS) threshold optimization procedure for proximity reports to support network-based indoor positioning. The desired RSS threshold is found through optimizing a metric function (for instance the localization root-mean-square-error) in terms of both the deployment information and the RSS modeling in consideration of an evaluation area. The resulting RSS threshold provides a trade-off between triggering many but less informative proximity reports with a low threshold, and triggering few but very informative proximity reports with a high threshold, and thus enables enhanced performance for some low-cost and low-complex proximity based positioning algorithms. The proposed framework is also validated with real RSS measurements collected in an office area with deployed bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons.
. (2020). Theoretical “t-z” Curves for Piles in Radially Inhomogeneous Soil. DFI Journal: Journal of the Deep Foundation Institute, 14(1).

: Accurate estimates of pile settlement are key for efficient design of axially loaded piles. Calculations of pile settlement can be simplified using one-dimensional “ t-z ” curves describing pile settlement at a certain depth as a function of side friction. In the realm of this simplified framework, theoretical “ t-z ” curves can be derived by substituting an attenuation function describing the variation of shear stress with distance from the pile, into a soil constitutive model relating shear strain to shear stress, then integrating with respect to distance to get the settlement at the pile circumference due to an applied shear stress. A handful of analytical “ t-z ” curves are available in the literature using the concentric cyl-inder model to define an attenuation function; these include solutions for linear-elastic, power-law and hyperbolic constitutive models. However, radially homogeneous soil has often been assumed, ignoring the effect of the pile installation resulting in unconservative calculations of pile settlement. This paper considers the installation of the pile, resulting in a radially variable shear modulus distribution in the surrounding soil. A radial inhomogeneity correction factor has been developed for selected constitutive models based on two simplified functions for the soil inhomogeneity, which can be applied to the previously derived “ t-z ” curves produced assuming radially homogeneous soil. The performance of this simplified method is investigated.
Researching Social Media and Activism With Children and Youth: A Scoping Review

This scoping review explores current research on social media and activism involving children and youth under the age of 18. After analyzing a selection of 34 journal articles published between 2010 and 2021, available in major scholarly databases, this study provides a comprehensive overview of the research topics, participants, methodologies, and the sociocultural and political contexts surrounding this area of study. Most of the articles, published in the Global North, focused on the roles that social media play in inspiring activism among minors, on the online and offline media in children’s civic lives, and on the support and education they receive. However, there was a notable lack of children’s active involvement in the research process and limited inclusion of diverse participants. We contend that future research should prioritize inclusivity, acknowledge children’s diverse identities, and apply participatory methodologies that empower children and youth to share their subjective experiences and unique standpoints
. Automatic Explicitation to Bridge the Back-ground Knowledge Gap in Translation and its Evaluation with Multilingual QA . Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing , 2023, 9 pages

Translations help people understand content written in another language. However, even correct literal translations do not fulfill that goal when people lack the necessary background to understand them. Professional translators incorporate explicitations to explain the missing context by considering cultural differences between source and target audiences. Despite its potential to help users, NLP research on ex-plicitation is limited because of the dearth of adequate evaluation methods. This work introduces techniques for automatically generating explicitations, motivated by W IKI E XPL 1 : a dataset that we collect from Wikipedia and annotate with human translators. The resulting ex-plicitations are useful as they help answer questions more accurately in a multilingual question answering framework.
A Class of Stable Perturbations for a Minimal Mass Soliton in Three-Dimensional Saturated Nonlinear Schrödinger Equations

In this result, we develop the techniques of [J. Krieger and W. Schlag, J. Amer. Math. Soc. , 19 (2006), pp. 815–920] and [J. Bourgain and W. Wang, Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa Cl. Sci. (4), 25 (1998), pp. 197–215] in order to determine a class of stable perturbations for a minimal mass soliton solution of a saturated, focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Using dispersive estimates proved in [J. L. Marzuola, Dispersive Estimates Using Scattering Theory for Matrix H amiltonian Equations, submitted], which are similar to those in [W. Schlag, Ann. of Math. (2), 169 (2009), pp. 139–227] and [J. Krieger and W. Schlag, J. Amer. Math. Soc. , 19 (2006), pp. 815–920], by projecting an initial perturbation $\phi$ onto a subspace of the continuous spectrum of the operator $\mathcal{H}$ resulting from linearization about a minimal mass soliton $R_{min}$, we are able to use a contraction mapping similar to that from [J. Bourgain and W. Wang, Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa Cl. Sci. (4), 25 (1998), pp. 1.
Alpha Particles Induce Autophagy in Multiple Myeloma Cells

Objectives Radiation emitted by the radionuclides in radioimmunotherapy (RIT) approaches induce direct killing of the targeted cells as well as indirect killing through the bystander effect. Our research group is dedicated to the development of α-RIT, i.e., RIT using α-particles especially for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). γ-irradiation and β-irradiation have been shown to trigger apoptosis in tumor cells. Cell death mode induced by 213Bi α-irradiation appears more controversial. We therefore decided to investigate the effects of 213Bi on MM cell radiobiology, notably cell death mechanisms as well as tumor cell immunogenicity after irradiation. Methods Murine 5T33 and human LP-1 MM cell lines were used to study the effects of such α-particles. We first examined the effects of 213Bi on proliferation rate, double-strand DNA breaks, cell cycle, and cell death. Then, we investigated autophagy after 213Bi irradiation. Finally, a coculture of dendritic cells (DCs) with irradiated tumor cells or their culture media was performed to test whether it would induce DC activation. Results We showed that 213Bi induces DNA double-strand breaks, cell cycle arrest, and autophagy in both cell lines, but we detected only slight levels of early apoptosis within the 120 h following irradiation in 5T33 and LP-1. Inhibition of autophagy prevented 213Bi-induced inhibition of proliferation in LP-1 suggesting that this mechanism is involved in cell death after irradiation. We then assessed the immunogenicity of irradiated cells and found that irradiated LP-1 can activate DC through the secretion of soluble factor(s); however, no increase in membrane or extracellular expression of danger-associated molecular patterns was observed after irradiation. Conclusion This study demonstrates that 213Bi induces mainly necrosis in MM cells, low levels of apoptosis, and autophagy that might be involved in tumor cell death.