Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Inhibition of α −Amanitin Uptake in Perfused Rat Liver Blokowanie wątrobowego wychwytu α −amanityny w modelu pozaustrojowej perfuzji wątroby szczura

Background. Death by death cap (Amanita phalloides) poisoning is attributable to acute failure of the liver, which is responsible for the uptake of 57% of circulating amanitins, the main toxins of this mushroom. Amanitin uptake by hepatocytes is mediated by organic anion−transporting polypeptide. Discovery of the transporter blockers would probably reduce liver damage and improve treatment efficacy. Many different substances are substrates or inhibitors of both human and rat organic anion−transporting polypeptide, since both systems show 66% sequence homology. Objectives. Determining the efficacy of selected substances in blocking α −amanitin uptake by rat liver. Material and Methods. The experiment involved extracorporeal liver perfusion in Wistar rats divided into a con− trol group and 16 treatment groups (I–XVI). In all groups, the perfusion fluid was supplemented with α −amanitin at 25 ng/ml; the treatment groups were perfused with fluid also containing potential inhibitors of α −amanitin uptake at the following concentrations: penicillin G 0.5 mM (group I) and 1.0 mM (II), ceftazidime 0.5 mM (III) and 1.0 mM (IV), rifamycin SV 5.0 µM (V) and 10.0 µM (VI), silibinin 10.0 µM (VII) and 20.0 µM (VIII), acetylcysteine (ACC) 0.5 mM (IX) and 1.0 mM (X), sulfobromophthalein 5.5 µM (XI) and 11.0 µM (XII), β−estradiol−17−(β−D− glucuronide) 160 µM (XIII) and 320 µM (XIV), and taurocholate sodium 135 µM (XV) and 270 µM (XVI). α −Amanitin concentration was assayed in the perfusion fluid using ELISA before the experiment and after 60 and 120 min of perfusion, and its uptake was calculated per gram of liver tissue. Results. α −Amanitin uptake was reduced only by rifamycin SV (group VI), silibinin (VII, VIII), acetylcysteine (IX, X), sulfobromophthalein (XII), β−estradiol−17−(β−D−glucuronide) (XIV), and taurocholate sodium (XV, XVI). Conclusions. Silibinin, ACC, and taurocholate sodium were found to be the most effective inhibitors of α −aman− itin uptake by rat liver. Unlike in human liver, penicillin G does not inhibit α −amanitin uptake in rats, which indi− cates significant interspecies differences in xenobiotic transport systems. Therefore, extrapolation of the results in experimental animals to humans demands caution (Adv Clin Exp Med 2007, 16, 3, 353–360).
Savings, investment and economic growth in Ethiopia: Evidence from ARDL approach to co-integration and TYDL Granger-causality tests

This paper examines the causal relationship among savings, investment and economic growth in Ethiopia using annual time series data from 1969/70-2010/11 in a multivariate framework. Results from the PP unit root test shows that all variables under consideration are I(1). Result from the ARDL Bounds Testing indicates that there exists co-integration among gross domestic savings, gross domestic investment, real gross domestic product, labor force and human capital when RGDP is taken as dependent variable. Labor and investment have significant positive effect on economic growth of Ethiopia both in the short-run and long-run while GDS and human capital are statistically insignificant. Moreover, Toda-Yamamoto and Dolado-Lutkepohl as well as Innovative Accounting Techniques (i.e., IRFs and FEVD) approach to Granger causality analysis shows that there exists bidirectional causality between gross domestic investment and economic growth as well as between gross domestic savings and gross domestic investment. Granger causality running from investment to savings and from investment to growth is stronger as witnessed from impulse responses and variance decompositions. Although there is unidirectional Granger causality running from economic growth to gross domestic savings, it is weak. To attain high and sustained growth in the country, increased savings and especially investment are required due to its dual effect. Key words: Economic growth, Ethiopia, Granger causality, savings, investment.
The Neoproterozoic West-Congo “ Schisto-Calcaire ” sedimentary succession from the Bas-Congo region ( Democratic Republic of the Congo ) in the frame of regional tentative correlations

New detailed lithological, sedimentological, major chemical, δ13C and δ18O stable isotopes data were obtained from exploration drilling samples on carbonate formations of the Neoproterozoic Schisto-Calcaire Subgroup (> 635-575 Ma) in the Lukala area (Bas-Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo). This work characterizes and reinterprets the stratigraphical succession from the C2 (Bulu) up to the C4 (Lukunga) formations. The C3 (Luanza) Formation is subdivided into four submembers and the transition of the C3 Formation with both the C2 and C4 formations is examined. New δ13C and δ18O stable isotope data obtained complete the dataset for the Schisto-Calcaire Subgroup in the frame of a correlation with the same succession in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. The aged equivalent stratigraphic units and lithologies of the West-Congolian (WCB), Katangan (CAC) and Bambuí (SFB) successions are examined, compared and coupled with the available carbon and oxygen isotope values, and a regional correlation is proposed.
MIMO Encoder and Decoder Design for Signal Estimation

We study the joint design of optimal linear MIMO encoders and decoders for filtering and transmission of a vector- valued signal over parallel Gaussian channels subject to a real- time constraint. The objective is to minimize the sum of the estimation error variances at the receiving end. The design problem is nonconvex, but it is shown that a global optimum can be found by solving a related two-stage problem. The first stage consists of a mixed norm minimization problem, where the 2-norm corresponds to the error variance in a corresponding Wiener-Kolmogorov filtering problem and the 1-norm is induced by the channel noise. The second stage consists of a matrix spectral factorization.
Effect of various irrigating solutions on working length determination by electronic apex locator: In vitro study

The purpose of this study is to compare and evaluate the effect of various irrigating solutions on the working length determination by Electronic apex locator in an in vitro model. The accuracy of the apex locator was compared using single canal single rooted teeth (incisors and canine) that were to be extracted for periodontal or orthodontic reasons. A total of 90 extracted anterior teeth, preserved in 0.9% saline solution were used for the study. Teeth having single root canal were selected for the study. The study consisted of two parts: in the first part root canal access cavity preparation was done in all teeth followed by determination of actual working length. biomechanical preparation of teeth were done to three files size larger than the initially fitting file and then teeth were divided into 6 groups of 15 teeth each. Prior to assessment of working length by electronic apex locator an alginate model was developed to simulate the oral conditions, after embedding teeth in it readings were taken. Electronic measurement of working length was taken by electronic apex locator in dry conditions and various irrigating solutions. Each measurement was repeated till a stable reading came on the electronic apex locator. Results obtained were analyzed using paired sample t test and ANOVA. Chlorhexidine solution as an electroconductive medium was found to be most reliable.
Evolutionary interactions of brood parasites and their hosts : recognition, communication and breeding biology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in nests of other species, relying on these host parents to care for their offspring. This phenomenon has been a curiosity amongst researchers since its first description and has become a model study system for testing such ideas as coevolution and species recognition. This thesis examines a few of the many questions that arise from this breeding system. The New Zealand Grey Warbler (Gerygone igata) and its brood parasite, the Shining Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus) are used as the main study species, although research on the eviction behaviour of Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) has also been conducted. First, the current state of knowledge and recent discoveries regarding nestling rejection abilities of hosts is reviewed in chapter one. Second, a comparative study of New Zealand passerine begging calls has been conducted to test for begging call similarity between a brood parasite and its host, as well as developing a new technique for detecting the mode of coevolution that may be occurring in the parasite – host relationship. Parent-offspring communication in Grey Warblers is also examined to test for both parental and nestlings Parents use both alarm calls to warn offspring of potential danger, and also parental feeding calls to elicit a begging response from nestlings. By contrast, nestlings are able to signal both age and short term levels of need to parents through the acoustic structure of the begging call. The evolutionary costs and benefits of egg eviction behaviour in the Common Cuckoo are also tested. An experimental approach showed that egg eviction had a growth cost, but this cost was temporary and restricted to during and immediately after the egg eviction phase. A pattern of compensatory growth was observed after the eviction period, so that during the later nestling stages there was no difference in mass,
Imminent ocean acidification in the Arctic projected with the NCAR global coupled carbon cycle-climate model

Abstract. Ocean acidification from the uptake of anthropogenic carbon is simulated for the industrial period and IPCC SRES emission scenarios A2 and B1 with a global coupled carbon cycle-climate model. Earlier studies identified seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite, a mineral phase of calcium carbonate, as a key variable governing impacts on corals and other shell-forming organisms. Globally in the A2 scenario, water saturated by more than 300%, considered suitable for coral growth, vanishes by 2070 AD (CO2≈630 ppm), and the ocean volume fraction occupied by saturated water decreases from 42% to 25% over this century. The largest simulated pH changes worldwide occur in Arctic surface waters, where hydrogen ion concentration increases by up to 185% (ΔpH=−0.45). Projected climate change amplifies the decrease in Arctic surface mean saturation and pH by more than 20%, mainly due to freshening and increased carbon uptake in response to sea ice retreat. Modeled saturation compares well with observation-based estimates along an Arctic transect and simulated changes have been corrected for remaining model-data differences in this region. Aragonite undersaturation in Arctic surface waters is projected to occur locally within a decade and to become more widespread as atmospheric CO2 continues to grow. The results imply that surface waters in the Arctic Ocean will become corrosive to aragonite, with potentially large implications for the marine ecosystem, if anthropogenic carbon emissions are not reduced and atmospheric CO2 not kept below 450 ppm.
Changes in the volume and circumference of the torso, leg and arm after cycling in the heat determined using 3D whole body scanners : conference paper, Lugano, Switzerland,

Whole body volume changes due to sweat loss after exercise in the heat are well documented, but little is known about the relative contribution of the torso and extremities to these volume changes. It is the purpose of this study to quantify these effects. Therefore, seven healthy male subjects were scanned using a SizeStream and Vitronic whole body scanner prior to and shortly after they lost 1.7 ± 0.1% of their body weight due to cycling at 2 W/kg in a 35°C, 20% relative humidity climatic chamber for 75 minutes. Whole body volume loss was 1.0 ± 0.7% using the SizeStream scanner and 1.3 ± 0.6% using the Vitronic scanner. Torso volume decreased most with 2.1 ± 1.5% (p=0.009) and 5.6 ± 3.1% (p=0.002) followed by the legs with 1.1 ± 2.7% (N.S.) and 2.9 ± 1.0% (p<0.0001) for SizeStream and Vitronic respectively. Changes in arm volume were negligible. The circumference decreased significantly for the chest and upper legs but not for the waist and arms. We conclude that the major part of sweat loss originates from the torso and legs, but since both scanners did not produce similar results likely due to differences in accuracy, we recommend using high-resolution scanners to record volume changes in more detail.
Guest Editorial: Towards a comprehensive approach of online political participation

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Guest Editorial: Towards a comprehensive approach of online political participation Simon Gadras, Fabienne Greffet
Global warming feedbacks on terrestrial carbon uptake under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Emission Scenarios

A coupled physical‐biogeochemical climate model that includes a dynamic global vegetation model and a representation of a coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation model is driven by the nonintervention emission scenarios recently developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Atmospheric CO2, carbon sinks, radiative forcing by greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols, changes in the fields of surface‐air temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, ocean thermal expansion, and vegetation structure are projected. Up to 2100, atmospheric CO2 increases to 540 ppm for the lowest and to 960 ppm for the highest emission scenario analyzed. Sensitivity analyses suggest an uncertainty in these projections of −10 to +30% for a given emission scenario. Radiative forcing is estimated to increase between 3 and 8 W m−2 between now and 2100. Simulated warmer conditions in North America and Eurasia affect ecosystem structure: boreal trees expand poleward in high latitudes and are partly replaced by temperate trees and grasses at lower latitudes. The consequences for terrestrial carbon storage depend on the assumed sensitivity of climate to radiative forcing, the sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature, and the rate of increase in radiative forcing by both CO2 and other GHGs. In the most extreme cases, the terrestrial biosphere becomes a source of carbon during the second half of the century. High GHG emissions and high contributions of non‐CO2 agents to radiative forcing favor a transient terrestrial carbon source by enhancing warming and the associated release of soil carbon.
Forest owners’ social networks – possibilities to enhance knowledge exchange

Forest owners’ decision making is influenced by the people around them. In this thesis, social network approach was used to examine owners’ relationships with different individuals and organisations. The motivation of the thesis was to detect effective information channels that reach owners and the network structures that support owners’ decision-making. Social network data from Finnish, small-scale forest owners were collected with a mail questionnaire and by phone interviews in two decision-making situations, timber trade (n=753) and voluntary biodiversity protection (n=44). For examining owners’ peer networks, data were collected via forest owners’ and forest professionals’ focus group interviews (n=43) and by interviewing and observing a study circle (n=7). Characteristics of egocentric networks were calculated with quantitative methods of social network analysis. Protection processes and owners’ mutual interactions were analysed with qualitative theory driven content analysis. Results indicate that several owners have one trusted professional with whom they deal both in timber trade and in voluntary protection. When owners have large holdings or significant decisions to make, such as permanent protection, their networks are large and diverse. To keep owners actively making forest-related decisions, it is important to transfer functioning channels between the professional and the owner to the next generation of owners. A forest management plan is a way to promote activities other than silviculture, such as biodiversity protection. Owners’ peer networks particularly exist among families and in the countryside between neighbours. In urban areas, owners meet mainly in expert-led extension events, where they have only a little space for mutual communication. One of the few owner-led practices is forest owner clubs. To strengthen forest owners’ identities, owner-driven and sufficiently homogenous peer groups that focus on diverse and interesting topics need to be created. Moreover, it is important to support the delivery of forest-related knowledge among families and via mentor owners.
Importance of space and the local environment for linking local and regional abundances of microbes

It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on several different mechanisms that control the process of microbial community assembly. Here, we show that environmental variables were associated with the community specific degree of regional invariance in 9 of 10 datasets of microbial communities in aquatic systems, being the main set of variables explaining differences in regional invariance in 5 of them. This indicates that variation in local environmental conditions across a region reduces the degree of regional invariance amongst communities. Spatial distances between communities were not related to the degrees of regional invariance, but in 7 of the datasets, regional invariance differed among different parts of the regions, particularly for phytoplankton communities. This suggests an influence of spatial or historical processes on the community specific degree of regional invariance. We conclude that both local environmental conditions and spatial/historical processes cause between-site differences in the degree of invariance between local and regional abundances in aquatic microbial metacommunities. We argue that studies of regional invariance can be an important complement to other statistical methods due to its propensity to detect variation in stochastic processes along gradients.
Characterization of Bacterial Mannanase for Hydrolyzing Palm Kernel Cake to Produce Manno-oligosaccharides Prebiotics

Palm kernel cake (PKC) is a promising source of prebiotics, since it contains high amount of βmannan which can be further hydrolyzed to manno-oligasaccharides (MOS), a prebiotic. Therefore, this research was carried out to analyze the capability of a bacterial isolate (A2 isolates) previously isolated from soils sample from around IPB campus to hydrolyze PKC. Based on 16S-DNA analysis, isolate A2 was identified as Brevibacillus borstelensis. Mannanase of A2 isolate had an optimum condition at 90 oC and pH 7. Mannanase activity of crude extracts using Locust Bean Gum (LBG) and PKC as substrates were 0.37U/mL and 0.032U/mL, respectively. However, the most favorable production of oligosaccharides based on the degree of polymerization was obtained after 72-h of incubation with the ratio of substrate:enzyme, 1.2:1, on 1.5% PKC as substrate. The manno-oligosaccharides prebiotic obtained was found to interfere the growth of both lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus casei) and pathogenic microflora (Escherichia coli). E. coli apparently could not use this prebiotic as the carbon sources, in contrast to L. casei. Substitution of carbon source in medium with prebiotics reduced the capability of L. casei to produce organic acids. It is concluded that local A2 isolate (B. borstelensis) produces mannanase which can be used to produce prebiotics from PKC.
Pulsating low-mass white dwarfs in the frame of new evolutionary sequences

Context. Some low-mass white-dwarf (WD) stars with H atmospheres currently being detected in our galaxy, show long-period g(gravity)-mode pulsations, and comprise the class of pulsating WDs called extremely low-mass variable (ELMV) stars. At present, it is generally believed that these stars have thick H envelopes. However, from stellar evolution considerations, the existence of low-mass WDs with thin H envelopes is also possible. Aims. We present a thorough asteroseismological analysis of ELMV stars on the basis of a complete set of fully evolutionary models that represents low-mass He-core WD stars harboring a range of H envelope thicknesses. Although there are currently nine ELMVs, here we only focus on those that exhibit more than three periods and whose periods do not show significant uncertainties. Methods. We considered g-mode adiabatic pulsation periods for low-mass He-core WD models with stellar masses in the range [0.1554–0.4352] M⊙, effective temperatures in the range [6000–10 000] K, and H envelope thicknesses in the interval −5.8 ≲ log(MH/M⋆)≲ −1.7. We explore the effects of employing different H-envelope thicknesses on the adiabatic pulsation properties of low-mass He-core WD models, and perform period-to-period fits to ELMV stars to search for a representative asteroseismological model. Results. We found that the mode-trapping effects of g modes depend sensitively on the value of MH, with the trapping cycle and trapping amplitude larger for thinner H envelopes. We also found that the asymptotic period spacing, ΔΠa, is longer for thinner H envelopes. Finally, we found asteroseismological models (when possible) for the stars under analysis, characterized by canonical (thick) and by thin H envelope. The effective temperature and stellar mass of these models are in agreement with the spectroscopic determinations. Conclusions. The fact that we have found asteroseismological solutions with H envelopes thinner than canonical gives a suggestion of the possible scenario of formation of these stars. Indeed, in the light of our results, some of these stars could have been formed by binary evolution through unstable mass loss.