Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Microscale Investigation of Naphthalene Dissolution and Biodegradation

Michelle Anne Sullivan: A Microscale Investigation of Naphthalene Dissolution and Biodegradation (Under the direction of Dr. Frederic K. Pfaender) Biodegradation of PAHs by soil microbes is often hindered because the compounds are not always available to the microorganisms responsible for metabolism. Light microscopy, with digital photography and image analysis, was used to observed naphthalene dissolution. A small scale flow cell containing a naphthalene crystal was viewed at 100x magnification. Abiotic, biotic, and azide-inhibited systems were examined in this experimental system. Changes in the crystal's mass were determined from image analysis, and changes in the aqueous naphthalene's mass were determined with a fluorescence detector. Naphthalene's mass decreased approximately 6 x 10-3 mg/hr, 1.5 x 10-3 mg/hr, and 1.0 x 10-3 mg/hr for abiotic, biotic, and azide-inhibited experiments, respectively. Cellular material around the crystal caused slower dissolution rates for the biotic and azide-inhibited experiments. There was no evidence that bacterial metabolism was occurring in the system. A model was developed which underestimated the dissolution rate by approximately one order of magnitude. Environmental Health Sciences (Grant ES11890). I would like to thank the Pfaender/Aitken lab members for their advice, insight, and friendship. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Chad Roper, for his thoughts and suggestions that have helped shape this project. Lastly, I would like to thank my committee, Dr.
Age-Related Disease Association of Endogenous γ-H2AX Foci in Mononuclear Cells Derived from Leukapheresis

The phosphorylated form of histone H2AX (γ-H2AX) forms immunohistochemically detectable foci at DNA double strand breaks. In peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from leukapheresis from patients enrolled in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, γ-H2AX foci increased in a linear fashion with regards to age, peaking at ∼57 years. The relationship between the frequency of γ-H2AX foci and age-related pathologies was assessed. We found a statistically significant (p = 0.023) 50% increase in foci in PBMCs derived from patients with a known history of vitamin D deficiency. In addition, there were trends toward increased γ-H2AX foci in patients with cataracts (34% increase, p<0.10) and in sleep apnea patients (44%, p<0.10). Among patients ≥57 y/o, we found a significant (p = 0.037) 36% increase in the number of γ-H2AX foci/cell for patients with hypertension compared to non-hypertensive patients. Our results support a role for increased DNA damage in the morbidity of age-related diseases. γ -H2AX may be a biomarker for human morbidity in age-related diseases.
Radical Innovation across Nations: The Preeminence of Corporate Culture

Radical innovation is an important driver of the growth, success, and wealth of firms and nations. Because of its importance, authors across various disciplines have proposed many theories about the drivers of such innovation, including government policy and labor, capital, and culture at the national level. The authors contrast these theories with one based on the corporate culture of the firm. They test their theory using survey and archival data from 759 firms across 17 major economies of the world. The results suggest the following: First, among the factors studied, corporate culture is the strongest driver of radical innovation across nations; culture consists of three attitudes and three practices. Second, the commercialization of radical innovations translates into a firm's financial performance; it is a stronger predictor of financial performance than other popular measures, such as patents. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.
School choice and implications for equity: the new political geography of the Swedish upper secondary school market

Abstract The current study investigated the spatial restructuring of the Swedish upper secondary school market over time, which happened as a consequence of school choice reform started in the early 1990s. The school choice reform enabled students to choose and attend schools (public or private) based on preference rather than residential area. Consequently, public and private school providers compete for students in a form of quasi-market. Using register data for Swedish upper secondary school students from 1997 to 2011 (N = 664,895), the study showed two major changes in school market structure: an increase in urbanised commuting patterns and differentiated school choice possibilities within and across municipalities. The assumption of economic balance between supply and demand through school choice is strongly contested by these outcomes. Furthermore, not only is market failure prevalent and creating differences in educational opportunities between places but these tendencies are so far progressively escalating over time and demonstrating how students’ choices today affect and limit educational opportunities for future students.
A unified framework for capacitive series-parallel DC-DC converter design

This paper presents a design framework to select the best topology and conversion ratio of operation for series-parallel capacitive buck/boost DC-DC converters. The framework models all converter families providing design insights and tradeoffs among the various topologies. We select the 10 optimal topologies that always performs better than any of the 96 permutations that are possible for series-parallel converters. A logical extension of the framework includes the impact of parasitics and other second order effects including partial charging of bucket capacitors and finite tank capacitor size. The paper includes a step by step design methodology. Finally, we analyze a number of prior designs and one new design and show how they fit into our framework.
JPEG Steganalysis Using Empirical Transition Matrix in Block DCT Domain

This paper presents a novel steganalysis scheme to effectively attack the JPEG steganographic schemes. The proposed method exploits the correlations between block-DCT coefficients in both intra-block and inter-block sense. We use Markov empirical transition matrices to capture these dependencies. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is superior to the existing steganalyzers in attacking OutGuess, F5, and MB1
Exploring student centered learning and its effect on the self-efficacy of students

With the advent of technology and the move away from a manufacturing economy, there is currently a paradigm shift occurring in the expectations for graduates entering the workforce in the United States. Today’s workers are expected to be fluent in 21 century skills and will most likely transition between various jobs throughout their working career. However, most schools are still educating students in a way that was developed for the industrial economy of decades ago. In addition to not providing adequate preparation teacher perception, a key indicator for student engagement and success, can be negatively affected by the structure of today’s schools. One pedagogy, Student Centered Learning (SCL), has been used by some schools to help combat these issues. The purpose of this case study was to explore whether SCL could help prepare students with the skills they need for today’s workforce while also increasing student self-efficacy. Social Cognitive Theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Participants included three teachers, one administrator and six students from a SCL school located in the Northeast of the United States. Through the review of interviews, observations and other artifacts collected, two themes, each with three subthemes, emerged as key factors in the increase of student selfefficacy. First, it was obvious that finding student passion was at the heart of what this SCL school accomplishes. Once this was found, the sub-themes of student led learning, student happiness and 21 century skills were found to flow naturally. Secondly, the theme of changing the educational system emerged, which included the sub-themes of the advisory approach, connecting learning to the real world and community.
Collapse of a Molecular Cloud Core to Stellar Densities: The First Three-dimensional Calculations

We present results from the first three-dimensional calculations ever to follow the collapse of a molecular cloud core (~10-18 g cm-3) to stellar densities (>0.01 g cm-3). The calculations resolve structures over 7 orders of magnitude in spatial extent (~5000 AU-0.1 R☉) and over 17 orders of magnitude in density contrast. With these calculations, we consider whether fragmentation to form a close binary stellar system can occur during the second collapse phase. We find that, if the quasi-static core that forms before the second collapse phase is dynamically unstable to the growth of nonaxisymmetric perturbations, the angular momentum extracted from the central regions of the core, via gravitational torques, is sufficient to prevent fragmentation and the formation of a close binary during the subsequent second collapse.
Venture Capital Investments and Financing in Estonia: A Case Study Approach

The aim of the article is to describe how Estonian venture capitalists make financing and investment decisions, and compare these results with theoretical recommendations found in corporate finance and venture capital literature. The focus is on the methodological procedures in venture capital investment and financing. A case study approach is used to collect information about the current practice of venture capital investments and financing in Estonia. Five of the largest Estonian venture capital funds were analyzed in this article, and different problems have been presented in the article. Some of them require an academic and some a practical solution. The problems are divided into four parts: venture capital deal structuring, corporate governance and investor protection, the cost of venture capital and valuation. Venture capital deal structuring is discussed first, and we look at of the following topics: syndication, staged investment, use of financial instruments, ownership share and dilution problems. Syndication of investments, staged investments and convertible financial instruments are used quite rarely by Estonian venture capitalists. Most Estonian venture capitalists take a minority holding in their portfolio companies and the ownership share changes mainly due to the use of convertible instruments and financial options. Estonian venture capitalists do not consider this kind of dilution a big problem. Most Estonian venture capitalists do not have a measure of the required rate of return as considered in financial theory. The determination of the rate of return among Estonian venture capitalists is more intuitive: they use an internal rate of return instead. The required rates of return used by Estonian venture capitalists have about the same interval as in the rest of the world. Corporate control and investor protection are important issues in the venture capital process. These are closely linked to deal structuring. The Estonian Commercial code has average investor protection, but it restricts the use of preferred shares, which are often used in venture capital deal structuring abroad. Some corporate control problems have arisen at the board level in Estonia. Although venture capitalists do not use complicated models to find the cost of capital, they pay much more attention to complicated valuation models. Multiples, book value, and DCF methods are used. Numerical analysis is not as important as the authors expected. Much attention is paid to the linkages between these themes.
Single-channel and immunochemical evidence demonstrate the presence of Ca- dependent K Channels in Chemosensory Cilia, supporting a role in Odor Transduction

Olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) respond to odorants with changes in the action potential firing rate. Excitatory responses, consisting on firing increases, are mediated by a cyclic AMP cascade that leads to the activation of cationic non-selective cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels and Ca-dependent Cl (ClCa) channels. This process takes place in the olfactory cilia, where all protein components of this cascade are confined. ORNs from various vertebrate species have also been shown to generate inhibitory odor responses, expressed as decreases in action potential discharges. Odorinhibition appears to rely on Ca-dependent K (KCa) channels, but the underlying transduction mechanism remains unknown. If these channels are involved in odortransduction, they are expected to be present in the olfactory cilia. We found that a specific antibody against a large conductance KCa recognized a protein of ∼116 kDa in Western blots of purified rat olfactory ciliary membranes. Moreover, the antibody labeled ORN cilia in isolated ORNs from rat and toad (Caudiverbera caudiverbera). In addition, single-channel recordings from inside-out membrane patches excised from toad chemosensory cilia showed the presence of four different types of KCa channels, with unitary conductances of 210, 60, 12 and 29 and 60 pS, high K-selectivity and Ca sensitivities in the low micromolar range. Our work demonstrates the presence of K channels in the ORN cilia and supports their participation in odor transduction.
FIXATION STABILITY MEASUREMENT USING THE MP1 MICROPERIMETER

Purpose: The Nidek microperimeter (MP1, Nidek Instruments, Italy) is a microperimetry device that also assesses fixation stability. The MP1 does not use the method of quantifying fixation stability by calculating a bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA). Here we compare the MP1 fixation quantification with the BCEA technique by correlating these values to various parameters of reading known to be related to fixation stability. Methods: Twenty-five people with age-related macular disease were assessed. Eye position was recorded using the MP1 during a fixation task. Fixation score and central 2° and central 4° values were obtained from the MP1. Bivariate contour ellipse area values were calculated from raw fixation data. Reading was assessed using MNREAD, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, and European reading tests. Results: Fixation data could not be collected for two observers. For the other 23 participants, the MP1 fixation scores were very poorly related to reading parameters. In contrast, there was a significant relationship between fixation stability assessed using the BCEA technique and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation reading speed (r = −0.59, P < 0.01), European reading test reading error rate (r = 0.66, P < 0.01), and MNREAD peak reading speed (r = 0.55, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Using the software supplied with the MP1 does not adequately quantify fixation stability in people with age-related macular disease. We recommend that the BCEA technique is used to quantify fixation stability when using the MP1 microperimeter.
Bmc Medical Informatics and Decision Making a Survey of Factors Affecting Clinician Acceptance of Clinical Decision Support

Background: Real-time clinical decision support (CDS) integrated into clinicians' workflow has the potential to profoundly affect the cost, quality, and safety of health care delivery. Recent reports have identified a surprisingly low acceptance rate for different types of CDS. We hypothesized that factors affecting CDS system acceptance could be categorized as relating to differences in patients, physicians, CDS-type, or environmental characteristics.
Understanding language assessment literacy: Developing language assessments

Language assessment literacy has become a critical competence for a language teacher to have. Accordingly, there are many studies in the literature which have researched different aspects of language assessment literacy (i.e., language assessment training, professional development and language assessment literacy levels of language teachers). However, they have not investigated how language teachers develop appropriate language assessment according to instructional purposes. Therefore, this study has aimed to reveal the development of language assessment by language teachers. The study was designed as a qualitative study and was carried out with eight participants working in a Turkish foundation university as English language instructors. Think-aloud protocols were used to collect data and the collected data were content-analyzed. The results of the study have indicated that developing language assessments has a critical, student- and course book-centered structure which helps to make exams valid in terms of content and construct validity. This structure also helps to have positive washback effects on students. Its limitations were explained and suggestions for further studies were made.
The Generalized Star-Height Problem

It has been found that excellent quality photopolymer printing plates having resistance to alcohol-based inks can be prepared by (a) spreading a photopolymer composition comprising a chain extended, liquid, terminally olefinically unsaturated polymer; from about 1% to about 50% by weight based on the weight of the polymer of at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer; from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight based on the weight of the polymer of photoinitiator; and from about 0.01% to about 2% by weight based on the weight of the polymer of a stabilizer on a support to form a photopolymer element, (b) exposing to actinic light selected areas of said photopolymer composition on said support until substantial cross-linking takes place in the exposed areas without significant cross-linking in the unexposed areas, and (c) removing the unexposed areas of photopolymer composition by washing the plate with an aqueous detergent solution.
Dimerization of a cell-penetrating peptide leads to enhanced cellular uptake and drug delivery

Over the past 20 years, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have gained tremendous interest due to their ability to deliver a variety of therapeutically active molecules that would otherwise be unable to cross the cellular membrane due to their size or hydrophilicity. Recently, we reported on the identification of a novel CPP, sC18, which is derived from the C-terminus of the 18 kDa cationic antimicrobial protein. Furthermore, we demonstrated successful application of sC18 for the delivery of functionalized cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (cymantrene) complexes to tumor cell lines, inducing high cellular toxicity. In order to increase the potential of the organometallic complexes to kill tumor cells, we were looking for a way to enhance cellular uptake. Therefore, we designed a branched dimeric variant of sC18, (sC18)2, which was shown to have a dramatically improved capacity to internalize into various cell lines, even primary cells, using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. Cell viability assays indicated increased cytotoxicity of the dimer presumably caused by membrane leakage; however, this effect turned out to be dependent on the specific cell type. Finally, we could show that conjugation of a functionalized cymantrene with (sC18)2 leads to significant reduction of its IC50 value in tumor cells compared to the respective sC18 conjugate, proving that dimerization is a useful method to increase the drug-delivery potential of a cell-penetrating peptide.
Investigating the motivation, participation, and achievement of students

This research focused on students’ motivation, class participation and achievement in male and female class as well as mixed class. The research used the quantitative method to investigate the students’ motivation, participation, and achievement in different classroom composition. The findings of this research indicated that there is no difference in students’ motivation in gender-based EFL classroom. Male class gained the highest scores in performance goal and achievement goal in factors of motivation. Meanwhile, female class gained the highest scores in science learning value, and learning environment stimulation and mixed class gained the highest scores in self-efficacy and active learning strategy. Students’ participation in gender-based EFL classroom for male class gained the highest scores in all factors of participation. It means that students of male class more participate in EFL class than students of female class and mixed class.
Management and business issues for B2B ecommerce implementation

Until recently, little research had been undertaken into the process of e-commerce implementation, especially in relation to the implementation of business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Given the complexity of this process, we endeavour to contribute to what we perceive as a gap in the body of theory surrounding the implementation process in the extant business-to-business literature. We describe the findings of a series of multiple case studies comprising ten major Australian e-commerce initiators. In addition to confirming our earlier finding of the importance of nontechnical factors for the success of the implementation process, we also present, through our case studies, the various management and business issues associated with the success or otherwise of B2B e-commerce implementation.
Evolution of partner selection

Partner selection is a mechanism that promotes sustainability of cooperators in cooperative dilemmas. In this paper we investigate the conditions that favour the evolution of a particular partner selection model that can be applied to any n-player game. The model allows a player to select partner combinations that satisfy his preferences. A limit case of the model is random choice of partners. Model parameters are under evolutionary control. We present simulations of our model that show evidence of the evolution of partner selection instead of random choice.
Wage Losses of Displaced Workers in France and the US

This paper develops a theoretical search framework to analyse the wage losses experienced by displaced workers. We underline the importance of accounting for two different sources of wage losses whose consequences might differ, namely the loss of rents earned on their pre-displacement job and the loss of accumulated firm-specific human capital. We then turn to the measurement and decomposition of wage losses in France and the US using micro data from labor force surveys. We show that while the order of magnitude of wage losses ar comparable in the two economies (10 to 15\%), the sources of wage adjustment differ strongly: all of the wage decline in France seems to be due to the loss of accumulated firm specific earning potential, while in the US\ case, they only account for half of the total wage adjustment.
Detection by Epitope-defined Monoclonal Antibodies of Werner DNA Helicases in the Nucleoplasm and Their Upregulation by Cell Transformation and Immortalization

We prepared several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specific for the NH2- and COOH-terminal regions of the DNA helicase (WRN helicase) responsible for Werner's syndrome known as a premature aging disease. With these antibodies, we detected by immunoblot analysis the endogenous WRN helicase of a relative mass of 180 kD in several lines of cultured cells, but not in patient cells with a defined mutation. Immunocytochemical staining of proliferating fibroblasts and tumor cells showed that the major part of WRN helicase is in the nucleoplasm and not in the nucleolus. Similar experiments with a rat mAb specific to the mouse homologue of human WRN helicase yielded an identical conclusion. Although this nucleoplasmic staining was evident in cells in interphase, the condensed chromatin structure in metaphase was not stained by the same mAbs, suggesting that WRN helicases exist perhaps in a soluble form or bound to the unfolded chromatin structure. From quantitative immunoblot analysis, higher levels of WRN helicase were observed in all transformed cells and tumor cells examined than those of normal cells. The expression of WRN helicase was enhanced consistently in fibroblasts and B-lymphoblastoid cells by transformation with SV-40 and Epstein-Barr virus, respectively, suggesting that rapidly proliferating cells require a high copy numbers of WRN helicase.