Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxygen‐Enhanced Biodegradation of Phenoxy Acids in Ground Water at Contaminated Sites

The effects of adding oxygen to anaerobic aquifer materials on biodegradation of phenoxy acid herbicides were studied by laboratory experiments with aquifer material from two contaminated sites (a former agricultural machinery service and an old landfill). At both sites, the primary pollutants were phenoxy acids and related chlorophenols. It was found that addition of oxygen enhanced degradation of the six original phenoxy acids and six original chlorophenols. Inverse modeling on 14C 4‐chloro‐2‐methylphenoxypropanoic acid (MCPP) degradation curves revealed that increasing the oxygen concentrations from <0.3 mg/L up to 7 to 8 mg/L shortened the lag phases (from ∼150 d to 5 to 25 d) and increased first‐order degradation rate constants by 1 order of magnitude (from ∼5 × 10−2 d−1 to up to 30 × 10−2 d−1). Additionally, the degree of MCPP mineralization was increased (30% to 50% mineralized at low oxygen concentrations and 50% to 70% mineralized at high oxygen concentrations, based on 14CO2 recovery). These positive effects on degradation were observed even at relatively low oxygen concentrations (2 mg/L). Furthermore, effects related to the addition of oxygen on the general geochemistry were studied. An oxygen consumption of 2.2 to 2.6 mg O2/g dw was observed due to oxidation of solid organic matter and, to some extent (0.5% to 11% of the total oxygen consumption), water‐soluble compounds such as Fe2+, dissolved Mn, nonvolatile organic carbon, and NH4+. Overall, the results suggest that stimulated biodegradation by addition of oxygen might be a feasible remediation technology at herbicide‐contaminated sites, although oxygen consumption by the sediment could limit the applicability.
Postantibiotic effects of imipenem, norfloxacin, and amikacin in vitro and in vivo

The postantibiotic effects (PAEs) of imipenem and norfloxacin were tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus (Enterococcus) faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Amikacin was tested against the same bacteria except Streptococcus faecalis. For in vitro tests, a viable count-washing method was used, and for in vivo tests, the thread technique in normal mice was used. All three drugs produced PAEs of 1.1 to 3.8 h in vitro and 1.4 to 4.3 h in vivo against the pathogens tested. In vitro and in vivo results correlated well. The PAE had a significantly (P less than 0.01 to 0.001) longer duration in vivo than in vitro, but the PAE of imipenem on Staphylococcus aureus was longer in vitro. The PAE was not due to residual antibiotics at the site of infection, and no PAE was obtained if at any time the antibiotic concentration at the infection site reached the MIC for the pathogen tested. The results indicate that the presence of a PAE may enable antibiotics to be given more intermittently without a loss of efficacy and that the PAE can only be induced if the level of the antibiotic exceeds the MIC for the pathogen in question for at least several minutes.
Score lists in bipartite multi hypertournaments

Abstract. Given non-negative integers m, n, h and k with m ≥ h ≥ 1 and n ≥ k ≥ 1, an [h, k]-bipartite multi hypertournament (or briefly [h, k]-BMHT) on m + n vertices is a triple (U, V,A), where U and V are two sets of vertices with |U | = m and |V | = n and A is a set of (h + k)-tuples of vertices, called arcs with exactly h vertices from U and exactly k vertices from V , such that for any h + k subset U1 ∪ V1 of U ∪ V , A contains at least one and at most (h + k)! (h + k)-tuples whose entries belong to U1 ∪ V1. If A is a set of (r + s)-tuples of vertices, called arcs for r (1 ≤ r ≤ h) vertices from U and s (1 ≤ s ≤ k) vertices from V such that A contains at least one and at most (r + s)! (r + s)-tuples, then the bipartite multi hypertournament is called an (h, k)-bipartite multi hypertournament (or briefly (h, k)-BMHT). We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a pair of sequences of non-negative integers in non-decreasing order to be losing score lists and score lists of [h, k]-BMHT and (h, k)-BMHT.
Combinational Optimization of Strut Placement for Intracranial Stent Using a Realistic Aneurysm

Stent insertion for cerebral aneurysm has been studied using ideal and realistic aneurysms in recent years. Stent insertion aims at reducing the flow in an aneurysm. To minimize the average velocity in an aneurysm, we applied optimization to the strut position in a realistic aneurysm based on computational fluid dynamics. The result shows the effect on velocity reduction of strut placement in the inflow area.
Complications of craniofacial surgery for tumors involving the anterior cranial base.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk factors for postoperative complications among patients undergoing craniofacial resection for the treatment of anterior cranial base tumors, a retrospective analysis of patients treated in University of Tokyo Hospital between September 1987 and November 1996 was conducted. METHODS Twenty-nine patients underwent 33 craniofacial resections for tumors involving the anterior cranial base. Twenty-three of the 29 patients had malignant tumors and 6 patients had benign tumors. Anterior craniofacial resection was performed using a combination of intracranial and extracranial approaches. Radiotherapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were administrated to some patients. RESULTS Severe intracranial infections were more common among patients who underwent partial frontal lobectomies (P < 0.03). These infections occurred only in patients who had been treated previously with a craniotomy (P < 0.02) and a total radiation dose of > or =60 Gy (P = 0.06). Neither management of the extracranial structures nor methods of reconstruction of the cranial base showed significant correlation with major postoperative complications. CONCLUSION Compared with previous reports, craniofacial resection has become a relatively safe and effective procedure for the treatment of tumors involving the anterior cranial base. However, additional care should be taken with patients who have experienced a previous craniotomy, frontal lobe involvement, or radiotherapy with a total dose of > or =60 Gy.
The Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study

The Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study (CHATS) took place in spring 2007 and is the third in the series of Horizontal Array Turbulence Study (HATS) experiments. The HATS experiments have been instrumental in testing and developing subfilterscale (SFS) models for large-eddy simulation (LES) of planetary boundary layer (PBL) turbulence. The CHATS campaign took place in a deciduous walnut orchard near Dixon, California, and was designed to examine the impacts of vegetation on SFS turbulence. Measurements were collected both prior to and following leafout to capture the impact of leaves on the turbulence, stratification, and scalar source/sink distribution. CHATS utilized crosswind arrays of fast-response instrumentation to investigate the impact of the canopy-imposed distribution of momentum extraction and scalar sources on SFS transport of momentum, energy, and three scalars. To directly test and link with PBL parameterizations of canopy-modified turbulent exchange, CHATS also included a 30-m profile .
Women and Political Participation: Toward Attainment of 35% Affirmative Action and Obstacles to the Women Participation in Nigerian Politics and Decision Making Process

Women politicalparticipation in Nigeria is an issue of concern to many because of the continuing record of women's underrepresentation in both elective and appointive positions. Although, several effortshave been made by both government and non-governmental organizations to increase the level of women's participation in politics through affirmative action. This paper examined these efforts and the obstacles facing women in political participation. Previous literature shown that, after the reintroduction of democracy from 1999 - 2011, women political participation trend witnessed a drastic change. This wasdue to the efforts made by government and non-governmental organizations towards attainment of the mandated 35% affirmative actions. However,despite the increasing number of women in both elective and appointive positions from 1999- 2011, it has been observed that women are still marginalized considering the disparity in the proportion of men to women in political and decision making positions. The authors found that, some factors, such as socioeconomic, ecological, cultural practice, political violence, illiteracy among women, contradictory nature of government policies has led to the lower level of women's political participation, and these factors consequently become an obstacle to the full realization of 35% affirmative action in the Nigerian political system.
Detection of Yersinia pestis DNA in two early medieval skeletal finds from Aschheim (Upper Bavaria, 6th century A.D.).

In the course of a molecular genetic investigation of a double inhumation, presumably a mother/child burial from Aschheim (Upper Bavaria, 6th century A.D.), which included analysis of mitochondrial DNA, molecular sexing, and polymorphic nuclear DNA, Yersinia pestis-specific DNA was detected. Molecular analyses were performed on DNA extracts obtained from two teeth of one skeleton and four teeth of the other. The use of the primer pair YP12D/YP11R (Raoult et al. [2000] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97:12800-12803), able to amplify part of the Y. pestis plasmid pPCP1 pla sequence, resulted in amplification products of the expected fragment size. Using BLASTN 2.2. 2, the sequences of these amplification products shared 100% identity with that of the modern Y. pestis pla sequence in GenBank, with the exception of one amplification product which revealed a single base substitution. The application of a "suicide PCR" with the independent primer pair YP11D/YP10R (Raoult et al. [2000] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97:12800-12803) resulted in amplification products which shared a 96-98% homology with that of the modern Y. pestis pla sequence in GenBank. The observed deviations were presumably due to miscoding lesions in the template DNA. No modern Y. pestis DNA was introduced into the institute, and thus no positive controls were carried along. All extraction and PCR controls remained negative. The identification of Y. pestis-specific DNA sequences in these two skeletons, buried in the second half of the 6th century A.D., constitutes molecularly supported evidence for the presence of Y. pestis, the causative agent of plague, during the first pandemic recorded.
Magnetic transient birefringence of ferrofluids: particle size determination

Relaxation time measurements of magnetically induced birefringence of ferrofluid solutions are performed with samples of various polydispersities. d H, the hydrodynamic diameter of particles deduced from experiments, is compared to a numerical computation with a log-normal distribution. Dynamic magnetic birefringence appears to be a good test of the tail of the sample size distribution. For a narrow distribution (σ ≃ 0.25), the experiment is in good agreement with the model: dH is two times larger than the most probable diameter and corresponds to the largest particles in the sample.
The Informativeness of Forward-Looking News in Earnings Announcements

An emerging literature in accounting and finance has shown that, incremental to quantitative accounting information, qualitative or narrative information in financial disclosure can also provide new information to the market. One limitation of these studies is that they largely focus on the overall tone of financial disclosure, leaving unanswered questions about the importance of its underlying components. This study seeks to further our understanding of narrative disclosure news by investigating whether its temporal components (i.e., forwardlooking vs. non-forward-looking) differentially relate to its information content. We find evidence of a significant wedge between the way the market incorporates forwardversus nonforward-looking news, with the market response to forward-looking news being roughly 75 percent smaller than the response to non-forward-looking news. In examining several possible explanations for the wedge, we find little evidence that the wedge can be explained by information processing costs related to the textual characteristics of disclosure. However, the information wedge is explained in part by both analysts’ expectations of future fundamentals and realizations of those fundamentals. Further, when considering the context in which firms’ make disclosures, we find that the information gap between forward and non-forward-looking news is larger for firms with poor performance, in financial distress, or in highly competitive industries. Additional tests reveal that managers’ appear to strategically alter their relative use of forward and non-forward-looking news when so incentivized. Our findings contribute to the recent accounting and finance literature on disclosure that shows the importance of examining the characteristics of qualitative disclosure to better understand how managers communicate with the marketplace and how market participants process and interpret such communication. Our paper provides a natural extension of a nascent literature which has yet to “open up the black box,” as it were, of qualitative news by examining its temporal dimension.
Microslip as a Simulated Artificial Mind

A microslip is a type of action hesitation we experience in everyday life, which highlights the gap between human action and machine action patterns. By proposing a simple computational model for microslips, we examine the microslip as an implicit parallel dynamics underneath human cognition. Here, an agent, given as a dynamical system of a simple neural architecture, takes one of two choices, whose neural net is evolved using a genetic algorithm. An evolved agent often shows a hierarchy of action primitives and intentionality, and the agent is sensitive to the subtle differences of the object's layout, which results in a complex basin structures in the action-selection landscape.
Finite Volume Evolution Galerkin Methods for Hyperbolic Systems

The subject of the paper is the derivation and analysis of new multidimensional, high-resolution, finite volume evolution Galerkin (FVEG) schemes for systems of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws. Our approach couples a finite volume formulation with approximate evolution operators. The latter are constructed using the bicharacteristics of the multidimensional hyperbolic system such that all of the infinitely many directions of wave propagation are taken into account. In particular, we propose a new FVEG scheme, which is designed in such a way that for a linear wave equation system the approximate evolution operator calculates any one-dimensional planar wave exactly. This operator improves the stability of the FVEG scheme considerably, leading to a stability limit closer to 1. Using the results obtained for the wave equation system, a new approximate evolution operator for the linearized Euler equations is also derived. The integrals over the cell interfaces also need to be approximated with care; in this case, our choice of Simpson's rule is guided by stability analysis of model problems. Second order resolution is obtained by means of a piecewise bilinear recovery. Numerical experiments confirm the accuracy and multidimensional behavior of the new scheme.
Diet-induced impulsivity: Effects of a high-fat and a high-sugar diet on impulsive choice in rats

Impulsive choice is a common charactertistic among individuals with gambling problems, obesity, and substance abuse issues. Impulsive choice has been classified as a trans-disease process, and understanding the etiology of trait impulsivity could help to understand how diseases and disorders related to impulsive choice are manifested. The Western diet is a possible catalyst of impulsive choice as individuals who are obese and who eat diets high in fat and sugar are typically more impulsive. However, such correlational evidence is unable to discern the direction and causal nature of the relationship. The present study sought to determine how diet may directly contribute to impulsive choice. After 8 weeks of dietary exposure (high-fat, high-sugar, chow), the rats were tested on an impulsive choice task, which presented choices between a smaller-sooner reward (SS) and a larger-later reward (LL). Then, the rats were transferred to a chow diet and retested on the impulsive choice task. The high-sugar and high-fat groups made significantly more impulsive choices than the chow group. Both groups became more self-controlled when they were off the diet, but there were some residual effects of the diet on choice behavior. These results suggest that diet, specifically one high in processed fat or sugar, induces impulsive choice. This diet-induced impulsivity could be a precursor to other disorders that are characterized by impulsivity, such as diet-induced obesity, and could offer potential understanding of the trans-disease nature of impulsive choice.
High-Performance Cooperative Distributed Model Predictive Control for Linear Systems

Distributed model predictive control (DMPC) has been proven a successful method in regulating the operation of large-scale networks of constrained dynamical systems. This paper is concerned with cooperative DMPC in which the control actions of the systems are derived by the solution of a system-wide optimization problem. To exploit the merits of distributed computation algorithms, we investigate how to approximate this system-wide optimization problem by a number of loosely coupled subproblems. In this context, the main challenge is to design appropriate terminal cost-to-go functions and invariant sets that comply with the coupling pattern of the network. The goal of this paper is to present a unified framework for the synthesis of a terminal distributed controller, cost-to-go function and invariant set based on an existing optimal centralized terminal controller. We construct an objective function for the synthesis problem, which mathematically quantifies the closeness of the given centralized and distributed control systems. This objective function is formulated using the optimizer of a robust optimization problem. Conditions for global Lyapunov stability are imposed in the synthesis problem in a way that allows the terminal cost-to-go function and invariant set to admit the desired distributed structure. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on a benchmark spring-mass-damper problem.
Effect of inhaled corticosteroids on blood eosinophil count in steroid-naïve patients with COPD

Introduction Sputum and blood eosinophil counts have attracted attention as potential biomarkers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). One question regarding the use of blood eosinophils as a biomarker in COPD is whether their levels are affected by the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), which are commonly prescribed for COPD. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of peripheral blood leucocytes from a previously completed clinical trial that examined effects of ICS in steroid-naïve patients with COPD. Results and conclusion The data show that the ICS-containing treatment arms (containing fluticasone propionate) had a small effect on peripheral blood eosinophils in steroid-naïve patients with COPD. Trial registration number NCT00358358; Post-results.
Pharmacologic management of neuropsychiatric lupus

Neuropsychiatric lupus affects above 50% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and may span from mild symptoms to acute devastating life-threatening ones. Owing to the clinical variability, most pharmacological data rely on small, uncontrolled trials and case reports. The mainstay of therapy relies on immune-suppression by glucocorticoids, in adjunction with cyclophosphamide or anti-B-cell therapy, in moderate to severe cases. In selected scenarios (e.g., chorea) intravenous immunoglobulin or plasmapheresis may be effective. Anticoagulation is warranted if anti-phospholipid antibodies are present. In parallel there may be a need for symptomatic treatment such as anti-epileptic or anti-depressive treatments, etc. In the future, more studies addressed to assess pathogenesis and preferred treatments of specific manifestations are needed in order to personalize treatments.
Cost-Utility of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Low Back Pain From the Commercial Payer Perspective

Study Design. Markov cost-utility model. Objective. To evaluate the cost-utility of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the treatment of persistent nonspecific low back pain (LBP) from the perspective of US commercial payers. Summary of Background Data. CBT is widely deemed clinically effective for LBP treatment. The evidence is suggestive of cost-effectiveness. Methods. We constructed and validated a Markov intention-to-treat model to estimate the cost-utility of CBT, with 1-year and 10-year time horizons. We applied likelihood of improvement and utilities from a randomized controlled trial assessing CBT to treat LBP. The trial randomized subjects to treatment but subjects freely sought health care services. We derived the cost of equivalent rates and types of services from US commercial claims for LBP for a similar population. For the 10-year estimates, we derived recurrence rates from the literature. The base case included medical and pharmaceutical services and assumed gradual loss of skill in applying CBT techniques. Sensitivity analyses assessed the distribution of service utilization, utility values, and rate of LBP recurrence. We compared health plan designs. Results are based on 5000 iterations of each model and expressed as an incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year. Results. The incremental cost-utility of CBT was $7197 per quality-adjusted life-year in the first year and $5855 per quality-adjusted life-year over 10 years. The results are robust across numerous sensitivity analyses. No change of parameter estimate resulted in a difference of more than 7% from the base case for either time horizon. Including chiropractic and/or acupuncture care did not substantively affect cost-effectiveness. The model with medical but no pharmaceutical costs was more cost-effective ($5238 for 1 yr and $3849 for 10 yr). Conclusion. CBT is a cost-effective approach to manage chronic LBP among commercial health plans members. Cost-effectiveness is demonstrated for multiple plan designs. Level of Evidence: 2