Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drug delivery by magnetic microspheres

Magnetically targeted drug delivery is a method for delivering a drug to a specific site in the body. It is made possible by attaching the drug to small paramagnetic particles. These are then injected into the patient’s blood stream and are attracted to the target (for example a tumour) by inducing a magnetic field which has a maximum intensity close to the target. The advantages of this method over conventional drug delivery are that much smaller doses of the drug (which in many cases are highly toxic) are required to treat the patient and larger concentrations can be achieved at the target site. In practice the magnetic field is usually generated by placing a magnet on the surface of the patient as close to the target site as possible. In order to investigate this process we will formulate a model based on a setup which is schematically represented in figure 1. We consider a blood vessel in the target region, inside which magnetic microspheres are being convected. Typically the radius of the microspheres, a, is much smaller than the width of the blood vessel, h. This in turn is typically much smaller than the lengthscale of the magnet, L. The distance of the magnet away from the target region is usually comparable with the lengthscale of the magnet (i.e. O(L)). We begin by outlining the physics underlying the process, in §2. In §3 we formulate a general mathematical model intended to describe this process for a single magnetic particle, firstly in three space dimensions, before restricting to two dimensions in §3.1 for some explicit calculations. In §4 we list some possible extensions to the model and summarise its limitations, notable among these being the omission of interaction between particles. We conclude in §5 by using force and energy estimates to investigate the possible effects of particle-particle interaction, and the formation of ‘chains’ of particles under the influence of the magnetic field.
Extraction properties of tetraheptylresorcin[4]arenes in relation to Cr(III) ions

Resorcin(4)arene-based ligand bearing four heptyl chains at the lower rim of the molecule was prepared and modified by four tetradietoxyphosphoryl groups in the upper rim. The compounds obtained were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and their extractability toward chromium(III) ions was studied. The influence of process parameters such as the pH of aqueous phase, agitation time and also extractant's structure and concentration on efficiency of Cr(III) ions solvent extraction is presented. The highest yield of Cr(III) solvent extraction was obtained for two-hour agitation time of 5.010 −4 M metal solution of pH 5.0 and 5.010 −3 M chloroform solution of the tetradietoxyphosphorylated derivative of heptyl- resorcin(4)arene. Under optimal conditions, competitive solvent extraction of Cr(III), Zn(II), and Cd(II) ions was performed and separation factor values were established as 77.0 and 24.9 for Cr(III)/Cd(II) and Cr(III)/Zn(II) ions pairs, respectively. The stoichiometry of formed metal-ligand complexes 1:1 was found by classical slope analysis method.
Simultaneous voltammetric determination of acetaminophen and caffeine at a graphite and polyurethane screen-printed composite electrode

A selective electrochemical method was developed for the individual or simultaneous determination of acetaminophen and caffeine in phosphate buffer pH 6.0 on graphite and polyurethane screen-printed composite electrode (EIGPU) using Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV). The oxidation peaks of acetaminophen and the caffeine appeared at 0.3 V and 1.3 V(vs. pseudo-Ag/AgCl), respectively, showing the possibility of simultaneous determination of both analytes, at the EIGPU, besides the individual determination. Analytical curves for the simultaneous determination showed a linear response for both compounds. The acetaminophen presented a linear region in the concentration range 1.00 - 40.0 µmol L-1 with detection limit of 0.84 µmol L-1, and the caffeine presented a linear region, in the concentration range 4.00 - 200 µmol L-1 with detection limit of 1.6 µmol L-1. The proposed method was applied in the simultaneous determination of acetaminophen and caffeine in three pharmaceutical formulations, with results similar to those obtained using a HPLC method, at 95% confidence level (Student t-Test).
Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG) and Cerebellum Show Different Activation Profile during Simple Arithmetic Addition Task in Quiet and in Noisy Environment: An fMRI Study

Despite a vast number of studies that were focused on the roles of superior temporal gyrus (STG) and cerebellum as sensory area, little is known about their involvement in cognitive function such as attention and perception. The present fMRI study aimed to identify this cognitive role from brain activation profile of STG and cerebellum obtained from an arithmetic addition task. Eighteen healthy right hand dominance male adults participated in this study. They were instructed to solve single-digit addition tasks in quiet and noisy background during the fMRI scan. Both the in-quiet and in-noise addition tasks activated the bilateral STG and cerebellum (lobule VI and lobule VII) significantly but differentially. In both quiet and noisy conditions, STG activation is dominant in the left hemisphere while cerebellum showed a right hemisphere dominance. Bilateral STG and cerebellum (lobule VI) activation decreasedin noise, conversely cerebellum (lobule VII) activation increased in noise. These asymmetrical activation indicated hemispheric lateralization and differential behaviors of both brain areas in different environment while performing simple arithmetic addition task. DOI : http://dx.doi. org. /10.17576/JSKM-2016-1402-14
Effects of various salts on IMPase activity and IMP quantity in coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum 1792), Salmonidae.

Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum 1792), Salmonidae is a fast growing species that is reared for food worldwide. After harvest, coho salmon is often salted and stored. When a fish dies, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is degraded in the muscles to inosinic acid (IMP), the taste component that gives the fish its flavour. During storage, IMP is degraded to non-taste components by the IMP-degrading enzyme (IMPase), resulting in a loss of flavour. Therefore, it is crucial to suppress IMPase activity in order to maintain IMP levels. In this study, IMPase activity was investigated at various pH levels and with salts used for storage of coho salmon, along with the resulting amount of IMP and changes in pH level. The results showed that the amount of IMP significantly decreased from 9.5 µmol·g -1 on day 0 to 4.6 µmol·g -1 on day 4 (p< 0.05) in fish stored at 4 o C in our laboratory but the pH level remained constant at 6.1±0.1. The enzyme activity was the highest at pH 6 and decreased sharply at pH 7-8. The salts that effectively maintained IMP in coho salmon were in the following order, MgSO4 and Na2SO4 at pH 4-5; MgCl2, CaCl2, MgSO4, and Na2SO4 at pH 6; and NaCl, CaCl2, and Na2SO4 at pH 7-8. These results indicated that the amount of IMP present after several days of storage was significantly higher with the addition of these salts.
Formazione e percorsi lavorativi dei laureati dell'Università degli Studi di Milano

All’interno delle proprie attivita istituzionali, il COSP (Centro per l’Orientamento allo Studio e allaProfessioni) dell’Universita degli Studi di Milano ha deciso di promuovere un’indagine periodica suipercorsi lavorativi dei propri laureati. A questo scopo nel mese di febbraio 2001 e stata commissionataalla societa demoscopica Abacus l’incarico di svolgere una rilevazione sui laureati dell’Universita degliStudi di Milano e dell’Universita degli Studi di Milano Bicocca. Si e trattato di un questionario postalecon risposta preaffrancata, spedito e autosomministrato a tutti i laureati e diplomati dei due ateneinell’anno solare 1997 (che nella maggioranza risultavano quindi iscritti all’anno accademico 1996-97, mache potevano anche risultare iscritti all’anno precedente se laureatisi nella sessione primaverile). 3 Afronte di un universo di 7. 251 laureati in 13 facolta sono rientrati 1. 950 questionari compilati, pari al26. 6. 4.
Direct effects of increased CO2 concentrations in seawater on the net primary production of charophytes in a shallow, coastal, brackish-water ecosystem

Charophytes are found in fresh and brackish waters across the globe and play key roles in coastal ecosystems. However, their response to increasing CO2 is not well understood. The aim of the study was to detect the effects of elevated CO2 on the physiology of charophyte species growing in the brackish Baltic Sea by measuring net primary production. Mesocosm experiments were conducted in the Kõiguste Bay (N Gulf of Riga) during the field season of 2012. Separate mesocosms were maintained at different pCO2 levels: ~2000, ~1000 and ~200 μatm. The experiments were carried out with three species of charophytes: Chara aspera, C. tomentosa and C. horrida. The short-term photosynthetic responses of charophytes to different treatments were measured by the oxygen method. The results show that elevated CO2 levels in brackish water may enhance the photosynthetic activity of charophyte species and suggest that increasing CO2 in the Baltic Sea could have implications for interspecific competition and community structure in a future high CO2 world.
INFLUENCE OF HOMOCYSTEINE AND VERTEBRAL FRACTURES ON PREVALENT ABDOMINAL AORTIC CALCIFICATION IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN - A MULTICENTRIC CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

The main of this study was to examine the relationship between plasma homocysteine (Hcy), asymptomatic osteoporotic vertebral fractures (VFs) using vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) and prevalent abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) in Moroccan postmenopausal women. The study cohort consisted of 188 consecutive postmenopausal women with no prior known diagnosis of osteoporosis or taking medication interfering with bone metabolism. Mean age, weight, height, body mass index and plasma homocysteine were determined. Lateral VFA images and scans of the lumbar spine and proximal femur were obtained using a Lunar Prodigy Vision densitometer (GE Healthcare Inc., Waukesha, WI). VFs were defined using a combination of Genant’s semiquantitative approach and morphometry. VFA images were also scored for prevalent AAC using a validated 24 point scale. Fifty-eight (30.9%) patients had densitometric osteoporosis. VFs were identified using VFA in 76 (40.4%) patients: 61 women had grade 1 VFs and 15 had grade 2 or 3 VFs. One hundred twenty nine women (68.6%) did not have any detectable AAC, whereas the prevalence of significant atherosclerotic burden defined as AAC score of 5 or higher, was 13.8%. A significant positive correlation between AAC score and homocysteine was observed. Women with extended AAC, were older, had a lower weight, BMI and BMD, higher homocysteine levels and more prevalent VFs than women without extended AAC. Multiple regression analysis showed that the presence of extended AAC was significantly associated with Age and grade 2/3 VFs and not independently associated with homocysteine levels. This study did not confirm that homocysteine is important determinant of extended AAC in postmenopausal women. However, this significant atherosclerotic marker is independently associated with VFs regardless of age.
Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction

Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction traces the preoccupation in Murdoch's fiction with the way the past makes its mark upon us, haunting us and eluding our attempts to grasp it. This argument was given an extra resonance by the death of Murdoch after Alzheimer's disease in 1999, when the book was first published a curious blurring of life and work typical of the posthumous reassessment of Murdoch. This new edition includes detailed readings of novels not discussed in the original (The Bell, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, and The Philosopher's Pupil) and includes a new preface, an updated bibliography and three new chapters covering Murdoch's most important and popular novels, considering in more depth her relationship with the dominant literary and intellectual currents of her time.
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich galaxy clusters number counts : consequences of cluster scaling laws evolution

Galaxy cluster surveys based on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) mapping are expected from ongoing experiments. Such surveys are anticipated to provide a significant amount of information relevant to cosmology from the number counts redshift distribution. We carry out an estimation of predicted SZE counts and their redshift distribution taking into account the current cosmological constraints and the X-ray cluster temperature distribution functions. Comparison between local and distant cluster temperature distribution functions provides evidence for an evolution in the abundance of X-ray clusters that is not consistent with the use of standard scaling relations of cluster properties in the framework of the current concordance model. The hypothesis of some evolution of the scaling law driven by non-gravitational processes is a natural solution to this problem. We perform a MCMC statistical study using COSMOMC, combining current CMB observations from WMAP, the SNIa Hubble diagram, the galaxy power spectrum data from SDSS and X-ray clusters temperature distributions to predict SZE cluster number counts. Models reproducing well the X-ray cluster temperature distribution function evolution lead to a significantly lower SZE clusters number counts with a distinctive redshift distribution. Ongoing microwave SZE surveys will therefore shed new light on intracluster gas physics and greatly help to identify the role of possible non-gravitational physics in the history of the hot gas component of x-ray clusters.
Surgical Skill and Video Games: A Meta-Analytic Review

As the popularity of video games has grown over the past decade, so has interest in their capacity to serve as tools for education. The technology behind modern laparoscopic surgery draws strong parallels to modern video games, and as such has inspired initial research into the potential relationship between video game play and surgical performance. To date, a number of researchers have conducted studies on this relationship; however, no structured, statistical review of accessible data has taken place. Thus, the goal of this analysis was to examine the available literature and report the significance of the cumulative findings. Through my process, a total of 21 studies involving 1220 participants were gathered through multi-step review, and organized into one of three experimental domains game training, VR training, and gaming history. Effect size analysis using Hedge’s G and Fisher’s Z yielded statistically significant results in all three domains, thus supporting the consensus belief that video game play has a positive effect on laparoscopic surgical training and performance. Given the particularly strong effect of virtual reality training on surgical performance, it would be valuable to investigate the differential effects of virtual reality, and how these effects might be further developed into more effective educational instruments.
An “island” in the stratosphere – on the enhanced annual variation of water vapour in the middle and upper stratosphere in the southern tropics and subtropics

Abstract. The amplitude of the annual variation in water vapour exhibits a distinct isolated maximum in the middle and upper stratosphere in the southern tropics and subtropics, peaking typically around 15° S in latitude and close to 3 hPa (∼ 40.5 km) in altitude. This enhanced annual variation is primarily related to the Brewer–Dobson circulation and hence also visible in other trace gases. So far this feature has not gained much attention in the literature and the present work aims to add more prominence. Using Envisat/MIPAS (Environmental Satellite/Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) observations and ECHAM/MESSy (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Hamburg/Modular Earth Submodel System) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) simulations we provide a dedicated illustration and a full account of the reasons for this enhanced annual variation.
A DYNAMIC ANALOGY BETWEEN INTEGRO-DIFFERENTIAL OPERATORS AND MUSICAL EXPRESSIVENESS

Music is often related to mathematics. Since Pythagoras, the focus is mainly on the relational and structural aspects of pitches described by arithmetic or geometric theories, and on the sound production and propagation described by differential equation, Fourier analysis and computer algorithms. However, music is not only score or sound; it conveys emotional and affective content. The aim of this paper is to explore a possible association between musical expressiveness and basic physical phenomena described by integro-differential operators.
Quantum interactions between a laser interferometer and gravitational waves

LIGO’s detection of gravitational waves marks a first step in measurable effects of general relativity on quantum matter. In their current operation, laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors are already quantum limited at high frequencies, and planned upgrades aim to decrease the noise floor to the quantum level over a wider bandwidth. This raises the interesting idea of what a gravitational-wave detector—or, more generally, an optomechanical system—may reveal about gravity beyond detecting gravitational waves from highly energetic astrophysical events, such as its quantum versus classical nature. In this paper we develop a quantum treatment of gravitational waves and their interactions with the detector. We show that the treatment recovers known equations of motion in the classical limit for gravity, and we apply our formulation to study the system dynamics, with a particular focus on the implications of gravity quantization. Our framework can also be extended to study alternate theories of gravity and the ways in which their features manifest themselves in a quantum optomechanical system.
Can irregularities of solar proxies help understand quasi-biennial solar variations?

Abstract. We define, calculate and analyze irregularity indices λISSN of daily series of the International Sunspot Number ISSN as a function of increasing smoothing from N = 162 to 648 days. The irregularity indices λ are computed within 4-year sliding windows, with embedding dimensions m = 1 and 2. λISSN displays Schwabe cycles with ~5.5-year variations ("half Schwabe variations" HSV). The mean of λISSN undergoes a downward step and the amplitude of its variations strongly decreases around 1930. We observe changes in the ratio R of the mean amplitude of λ peaks at solar cycle minima with respect to peaks at solar maxima as a function of date, embedding dimension and, importantly, smoothing parameter N. We identify two distinct regimes, called Q1 and Q2, defined mainly by the evolution of R as a function of N: Q1, with increasing HSV behavior and R value as N is increased, occurs before 1915–1930; and Q2, with decreasing HSV behavior and R value as N is increased, occurs after ~1975. We attempt to account for these observations with an autoregressive (order 1) model with Poissonian noise and a mean modulated by two sine waves of periods T1 and T2 (T1 = 11 years, and intermediate T2 is tuned to mimic quasi-biennial oscillations QBO). The model can generate both Q1 and Q2 regimes. When m = 1, HSV appears in the absence of T2 variations. When m = 2, Q1 occurs when T2 variations are present, whereas Q2 occurs when T2 variations are suppressed. We propose that the HSV behavior of the irregularity index of ISSN may be linked to the presence of strong QBO before 1915–1930, a transition and their disappearance around 1975, corresponding to a change in regime of solar activity.
Khat Chewing Induces Cardiac Arrhythmia

Background: Khat is a natural stimulant from the Catha edulis plant containing several chemical components, which can explain palpitation as a frequent symptom that develops during or after khat chewing. Aims: To study the effects of khat chewing on cardiac rhythm. Methods: We selected sixty khat-chewing Yemeni individuals and divided them into two groups: 30 were cardiac patients and the other 30 were non-cardiac individuals. All 60 individuals underwent 24 hours holter monitoring for 2 consequent days; the first was a khat-free day and the next was a khat-chewing day. The two groups were matched for age, sex, smoking habit, BSA, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Non sustained Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) was defined as 3 or more wide QRS complexes at a rate of 120 beats/min and for a period less than 20 seconds. Results: The non-sustained VT was found on 7 (23.3%) of the 30 cardiac patients on a khat-chewing day compared to 2 patients (6.6%) on a khat-free day (p was also seen among the normal individuals; 1 patient (3.3%) developed short runs of VT on a khat-chewing day compared to non VT on a khat-free day. Conclusions: 1) Serious arrhythmias occur in both cardiac and non-cardiac individuals during khat chewing days although they are more prominent among cardiac patients. 2) This may indicate beta-blocker usage for high risk khat chewers before khat chewing.
Public Spending and National Income Before and After Economic Reform in China: An Application of Asymmetric Threshold Cointegration

This paper re-examines Wagner’s law of an expanding government sector with progress of the economy for China. This study divides the sample into two periods: “pre-reform” (1960–1978) and “post-reform” (1979–2009). The empirical results indicate that a long-run relationship between national income and public spending does exist in the “pre-reform” and “post-reform” period. The results show that unidirectional Granger causality from national income to public spending is found in the “post-reform” period, thus providing support for Wagner’s law. Alternatively, no causal relationship between public spending and national income is found in the “pre-reform” period, thus lending no support to the validity of Wagner’s law.