Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Behaviors and Relationships of PCDD/Fs and Chlorobenzenes in the Whole Process of one Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator

We examined the characteristics of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and chlorobenzenes (CBzs) in the flue gas and fly ash of a municipal solid-waste incinerator in four locations: the outlet of the furnace, the outlet of the high-temperature superheater, the inlet of the semi-dry scrubber and the stack after air pollution control device (APCD) processing. Both PCDD/Fs and CBzs were mostly formed at low temperatures. The dominant PCDD/Fs generated in the gaseous phase were 23478-PeCDF and TCDF, and 124-TrCBz was the major CBz in both the gaseous and solid phase. More PCDD/Fs were found in the solid phase with the decrease of temperature, while CBzs exhibited the opposite trend. Furthermore, activated carbon with a low surface area and mesoporous volume showed low flue gas removal efficiencies for PCDD/Fs and CBzs in the flue gas. The fraction of PCDD/Fs in the solid phase largely decreased when the flue gas passed through the fabric filter. Additionally, the memory effects of the aged filters increased the fractions of 234678-HxCDF, 1234678-HpCDF and 1234678-HxCDD. Most important, the relationships between PCDD/Fs and CBzs in the flue gas and fly ash were analyzed, respectively. In the gaseous phase, most of the CBzs displayed high correlation coefficients with PCDD/Fs, especially 123-TrCBz (R2 > 0.8). In the solid phase, low correlation coefficients were found between CBzs and PCDD/Fs except for 135-TrCBz and 123-TrCBz (R2 = 0.8). A remarkable correlation was also found between 124-TrCBz in the flue gas and PCDD/Fs in the fly ash. We conclude that TrCBzs may be regarded as the best indicator for PCDD/Fs in both flue gas and fly ash.
Mentally ill or chosen by spirits? ‘Shamanic illness’ and the revival of Kazakh traditional medicine in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

This article discusses spiritual healing in post-Soviet Kazakhstan with reference to changing discourses about ‘shamanic illness’: a condition that afflicts the future healer. What had traditionally been identified as the call of spirits was seized in the Soviet period by biomedical discourse which ascribed those symptoms to mental illness. Whereas this attitude also influenced popular understandings of ‘shamanic illness’ at the time, traditional ideas have been gradually restored in the context of the political and social changes of the 1990s. Biomedical discourse on ‘shamanic illness’ has also undergone significant changes. I argue that this was induced by multiple interconnected factors, among which are the reappraisal and support of the government for Kazakh ‘folk’ medicine as a part of the national heritage, and a favourable attitude to local, traditional forms of religiosity. This allowed for collaboration between doctors and healers in the context of institutionalization of traditional medicine. Alongside these influences the strength of the tradition of remembering the spirits of ancestors prompted the re-establishment of this core experience in the process of becoming a healer: the call of spirits.
Simulation of one-dimensionally polarized x-ray semiconductor detectors

A pixelated X-ray semiconductor detector (="direct converter") is studied which contains an inhomogeneous electric field parallel to the depth axis caused by different concentrations of ionized dopants. X-ray energy depositions and charge movements within the detector are modeled in Monte-Carlo simulations giving access to a statistical analysis of electron drift times and current pulse widths for various degrees of static polarization. Charges induced on the pixel electrodes and pulse heights are evaluated and put to histograms of spectral detector responses and pulse height spectra, respectively, considering energy measurements before and after electronic pulse shaping. For n-doped semiconductors, the detector performance degrades due to pulse broadening. In contrast, a moderate p-doping can improve the detector performance in terms of shorter electron pulses, as long as the detector is not limited by dynamic polarization.
Glacial‐interglacial modulation of the marine nitrogen cycle by high‐latitude O2 supply to the global thermocline

[1] An analysis of sedimentary nitrogen isotope records compiled from widely distributed marine environments emphasizes the global synchrony of denitrification changes and provides evidence for a strong temporal coupling of these variations to changes in nitrogen fixation as previously inferred. We explain the global coherence of these records by a simple physical control on the flux of dissolved oxygen to suboxic zones and the coupling to fixation via the supply of phosphorus to diazotrophs in suitable environments. According to our hypothesis, lower glacial-stage sea surface temperature increased oxygen solubility, while stronger winds in high-latitude regions enhanced the rate of thermocline ventilation. The resultant colder, rapidly flushed thermocline lessened the spatial extent of denitrification and, consequently, N fixation. During warm periods, sluggish circulation of warmer, less oxygen rich thermocline waters caused expansion of denitrification zones and a concomitant increase in N fixation. Local fluctuations in export productivity would have modulated this global signal.
Effect of hydrocolloids addition on rheological properties , and sensory quality of tomato ketchup during storage

The effect of two different hydrocolloids on rheological properties and sensory quality of tomato ketchup during storage was studied. The starch was add to tomato ketchup at level of 0 ,1 ,2 and 3% while pectin was add at level 0.5 and 1%. Tomato ketchup was stored at room temperature for six months. The rheological behavior of tomato ketchup samples contained different ratios of hydrocolloids were measured in shear rate range 0.0 to 100 s and studied at a wide range of temperatures (5 75 °C) using a Brookfield Digital Viscometer. The results indicated that these tomato ketchups behave as nonNewtonian fluids (pseudoplastic) and have a definite yield stress. Higher significant correlation was found between the viscosity and temperature. The viscosity decreased with increasing in the temperature. All hydrocolloids increased consistency of tomato ketchup. With increasing storage period, viscosity of tomato ketchup decreased. The water separation as important sensory attribute decreased with the addition level of hydrocolloid and increased with increasing storage duration. The effect of temperature on their viscosity can be described by means of an Arrhenius-type equation. The activation energy for viscous flow depends on the chemical composition; the activation energy decreased with increasing hydrocolloids addition. Sensory tests for tomato ketchups were done during storage and the results indicated that the hydrocolloid addition improved the quality of tomato ketchup in zero time and during storage period.
The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis: Finding Sparse, Trainable Neural Networks

Neural network pruning techniques can reduce the parameter counts of trained networks by over 90%, decreasing storage requirements and improving computational performance of inference without compromising accuracy. However, contemporary experience is that the sparse architectures produced by pruning are difficult to train from the start, which would similarly improve training performance. We find that a standard pruning technique naturally uncovers subnetworks whose initializations made them capable of training effectively. Based on these results, we articulate the "lottery ticket hypothesis:" dense, randomly-initialized, feed-forward networks contain subnetworks ("winning tickets") that - when trained in isolation - reach test accuracy comparable to the original network in a similar number of iterations. The winning tickets we find have won the initialization lottery: their connections have initial weights that make training particularly effective. We present an algorithm to identify winning tickets and a series of experiments that support the lottery ticket hypothesis and the importance of these fortuitous initializations. We consistently find winning tickets that are less than 10-20% of the size of several fully-connected and convolutional feed-forward architectures for MNIST and CIFAR10. Above this size, the winning tickets that we find learn faster than the original network and reach higher test accuracy.
Fraud Risk Assessment and Detection of Fraud: The Moderating Effect of Personality

External auditors are required by the auditing standards to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatements. Inability of the external auditors to detect material misstatements, particularly fraud, may expose the external auditors to litigation. The present study aims to examine the moderating effect of personality factors (that are neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness) on the relationship between the external auditors’ ability to assess fraud risk and their ability to detect the likelihood of fraud. The present study utilizes an experimental approach by sending case materials to audit partners or audit managers attached to auditing firms operating in Malaysia. The result, however, shows that none of the personality factors has moderating effect on the relationship between the external auditors’ ability to assess fraud risk and their ability to detect the likelihood of fraud.
1 Product Innovation as a Mediator in the Impact of R & D Expenditure and Brand Equity on Marketing Performance

This paper combines the signaling theory and dynamic marketing capabilities perspective to investigate the mediating role of product innovation in the influence of R&D expenditure and brand equity on marketing performance. The study shows that MNC firms are able to use R&D expenditure to improve their product innovation and market share to a greater extent compared to SME and retailer firms. However, the stronger brand equity of MNC firms may actually hurt the performance of their new products by inhibiting product innovation. The authors use regression and probit analysis to study a panel data for 1,356 food brands. Overall, this research provides fresh insights into the process by which R&D expenditure and brand equity affect product innovation and marketing performance in highly competitive product categories.
Inorganic carbon speciation and fluxes in the Congo River

Seasonal variations in inorganic carbon chemistry and associated fluxes from the Congo River were investigated at Brazzaville‐Kinshasa. Small seasonal variation in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was found in contrast with discharge‐correlated changes in pH, total alkalinity (TA), carbonate species, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DIC was almost always greater than TA due to the importance of CO2*, the sum of dissolved CO2 and carbonic acid, as a result of low pH. Organic acids in DOC contributed 11–61% of TA and had a strong titration effect on water pH and carbonate speciation. The CO2* and bicarbonate fluxes accounted for ~57% and 43% of the DIC flux, respectively. Congo River surface water released CO2 at a rate of ~109 mol m−2 yr−1. The basin‐wide DIC yield was ~8.84 × 104 mol km−2 yr−1. The discharge normalized DIC flux to the ocean amounted to 3.11 × 1011 mol yr−1. The DOC titration effect on the inorganic carbon system may also be important on a global scale for regulating carbon fluxes in rivers.
Predation by Atlantic cod Gadus morhua on northern shrimp Pandalus borealis in inshore and offshore areas of Iceland

Northern shrimp Pandalus borealis is found in both inshore and offshore areas around Iceland, where it has supported an important commercial fishery. However, in the past 15 yr the northern shrimp population has decreased in size and collapsed in most of the inshore areas. In this study, the importance of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua on northern shrimp stock dynamics was studied by comparing stomach contents of cod between 2 different habitats, inshore and offshore northern shrimp fishery areas. Many prey items were observed in cod stomachs, but only a few dominated. The most important prey types, in decreasing order of importance, included northern shrimp, fish and euphausiids in the inshore area, as opposed to capelin Mallotus villosus, other fish species, northern ambereye Hymenodora glacialis and northern shrimp in the offshore area. Low northern shrimp biomass was observed during periods of high cod density, suggesting that predation by cod affected northern shrimp biomass in both areas.
Association of TLR 4 and CARD 15 / NOD 2 polymorphisms with SCC in Holstein – Friesian cattle

Mastitis is one of the most important dairy cattle diseases which results in economic losses in dairy production. Mastitis cases can be classified as subclinical or clinical. All forms of mastitis lead to changes in milk composition and induce an increase in somatic cell count (SCC). SCC is a very important and basic indicator of udder health. An increase in SCC is usually caused by the immune response to the invasion of pathogens contributing to mastitis. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between the polymorphisms of selected genes (TLR4 and CARD15/NOD2) whose products are involved in the identification of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) during the innate immune response to infection, and immunity to mastitis expressed as SCC. The genes under study were also examined for epistatic effects as well as effects of interactions with parity and stages of lactation. In all the studied classes, allele G of TLR4 had a favourable additive effect with negative values, contributing to a lower lnSCC. Allele A of CARD15/NOD2 had a desirable additive effect which varied with time and the changing internal environment during lactation. With regard to the dominance effect, allele A of CARD15/NOD2 was found to be significantly associated with a higher SCC in milk in the first lactation and in the third stage of each single lactation. Moreover, statistically significant epistatic effects were found, in particular additive–additive and dominance–additive interactions were favourably associated with SCC which was lower than expected in the case of no epistasis.
Digest World Bank Can Participation by Parents Improve School Quality ?

Schooling is not the same as learning, emphasizes the World Bank’s newly released World Development Report 2018. In Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, when grade 3 students were asked recently to read a sentence such as “The name of the dog is Puppy” in English or Kiswahili, three-quarters of the students did not understand what it said. In rural India nearly three-quarters of students in grade 3 could not solve a two-digit subtraction such as 46 −17, and half still could not do so by grade 5. Although the skills of Brazilian 15-year-olds have improved, at their current rate of improvement they will not reach the OECD average score in math for 75 years. In reading it will take more than 260 years. And these are all countries that have measured learning and made the results public; in too many other countries the problem remains hidden. Schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a great injustice: the children whom society is failing most are the ones in greatest need of a good education to succeed in life. Within countries, learning outcomes are almost always much worse for the disadvantaged. In Uruguay poor children in grade 6 are assessed as “not competent” in math at five times the rate of wealthy children. Moreover, such data are for children and youth lucky enough to be in school. Together, Realizing Education’s Promise . page 1
The Pathogenic Component of the APOE-TOMM40 Region in Alzheimer’s disease: Its Implications in Metabolomics and Pharmacogenomics

The genetic and epigenetic defects identified so far in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) include Mendelian mutations, susceptibility singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, and epigenetic changes. Mendelian mutations affect genes directly linked to AD, including mutations in the amyloid beta precursor protein (APP) gene (21q21) (AD1), mutations in the presenilin 1 (PSEN1) gene (14q24.3) (AD3), and mutations in the presenilin 2 (PSEN2) gene (1q31-q42) (AD4) [1-2]. There are over 600 genes potentially associated with AD, of which the top ten are APOE (19q13.2), BIN1 (2q14), CLU (8p21-p12), ABCA7 (19p13.3), CR1 (1q32), PICALM (11q14), MS4A6A (11q12.1), CD33 (19q13.3), MS4A4E (11q12.2), and CD2AP (6p12).
Novel therapeutic venues for glioblastoma: novel rising preclinical treatment opportunities

High grade gliomas, including anaplastic glioma WHO grade III and glioblastoma WHO IV (GBM), carry a dismal prognosis. Taking all nowadays-available therapeutics options, including radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, for GBM into consideration the prognosis after initial diagnosis is about 12 month. Despite this bad prognosis, researchers gained a tremendous insight into the molecular and genetic signatures of low and high grade gliomas. Several different subtypes of GBM were demonstrated with respect to their genetic background. These genetic alterations include p53 mutation in secondary GBMs and EGFR amplification in primary GBMs, respectively. Very recently, great excitement was raised after the discovery of IDH1 mutation in low-grade gliomas and secondary GBMs. This discovery is of great significance since it allows further categorizing of GBMs and is helpful in distinguishing low-grade gliomas from non-neoplastic adjacent brain tissue. Despite all this progress there is an urgent need for fresh additional therapeutic strategies. In addition to the identification of novel therapeutic regimens it is of utmost importance to gain an understanding about the molecular mechanisms on how GBMs manage to evade from almost any anti-cancer treatment regimen. In experimental models of glioblastoma there are a number of novel therapeutic regimens that exhibited promising results. These novel therapeutics include, but are not limited to: Apoptosis-based therapeutics (Tumor necrosis factor alpha related apoptosis inducing ligand, TRAIL), tyrosinkinase-inhibitors, Heat-shock-protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitors, polyphenols, novel drug combinations and intracranial application based strategies. This chapter will primarily review and focus on molecular mechanisms of resistance in GBM and rising new therapeutic venues for high-grade gliomas. High-grade gliomas are a group of primary heterogenous tumors of which glioblastoma World Health Organisation, WHO IV (GBM), is the most common one. Once the diagnosis of GBM is made, the average survival time is approximately 12-15 month (Hegi, Diserens et al., 2005). Treatment usually consists of temozolomide (commonly used chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of GBM, TMZ), radiation (either alone or in combination with chemotherapeutics) and surgery (Hegi, Diserens et al., 2005).
Software Process Improvement in Industry in a Graduate Software Engineering Curriculum

Software process improvement (SPI) is considered one of the most important fields in the software engineering discipline. But despite its importance, increasing its coverage in educational settings is still challenging. By influencing the syllabus for university-level graduate and undergraduate courses to include quality and process improvement, the future professionals, on entering the various industries, could act as ambassadors for process improvement. This article deals with one such example at the Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS), where SPI is taught in lecture format and with a 10-week implementation project in organizations by teams of students from the graduate software engineering curriculum. The SPI course is taught using a “problem-goal-solution” approach where students learn that any process improvement initiative must be based on issues preventing an organization from achieving its organizational goals whether the organization is a company or a not-for-profit organization. An important aspect of this course is the management of technological change where students learn and put into practice in their project the “soft” issues, which are part of most SPI organizational initiatives. In addition to the one-semester graduate SPI course, a few students pursue the work done during the 10-week team project as their graduate project.
7 Redesigning Work Design Theories: The Rise of Relational and Proactive Perspectives

Abstract Many scholars assume that the fundamental questions about work design have been answered. However, a global shift from manufacturing economies to service and knowledge economies has dramatically altered the nature of work in organizations. To keep pace with these important and rapid changes, work design theory and research is undergoing a transformation. We trace the highlights of two emerging viewpoints on work design: relational perspectives and proactive perspectives. Relational perspectives focus on how jobs, roles, and tasks are more socially embedded than ever before, based on increases in interdependence and interactions with coworkers and service recipients. Proactive perspectives capture the growing importance of employees taking initiative to anticipate and create changes in how work is performed, based on increases in uncertainty and dynamism. Together, these two perspectives challenge the widely held belief that new developments in work design theory and research are no longer needed.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome : Current Insights Force up to a Paradigm Shift

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have been the subjects of controversy: from diagnosis and cause to therapies. The disagreement with regard to the diagnosis relates to various case criteria (ME, CFS, ME/CFS, chronic fatigue) and the assessment of symptoms. While the case criteria for ME and CFS define two distinct, partially overlapping clinical entities, many researchers conceive ME and CFS to be ‘similar disorders’. Symptoms are almost always assessed by subjective measures, sensitive to bias and other effects and incomparable between patients and over time. For that reason objective tests should be employed to assess the severity of the symptoms. The controversy relating to the cause and treatment of ME and CFS originates from two contradictory paradigms: the (bio) psychosocial model(s) for ‘incapacitating fatigue’ and the biomedical explanatory model(s) for ME/CFS. The (bio) psychosocial models for ‘CFS’, biased towards psychological explanations, are invalid and lack to explain the organic abnormalities in ‘ME/CFS’. CBT and GET have shown to have no objective effect at all. Moreover CBT and GET are potentially harmful. Biomedical researchers have observed various immunological, neurological, mitochondrial and other abnormalities, both in rest as in response to exertion. A clear-cut etiologic model is still lacking. Some studies suggest that rituximab and rintalomid are effective in a (large) CFS patient subgroup. Looking at the evidence, it is time to leave the (bio)psychosocial framework(s) behind us and to investigate the abnormalities observed in ‘ME/CFS’ in ME patients and (symptomatic) CFS patient subgroups, in order to develop effective therapies.