Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Different Exogeneous Compounds on Biosorption of Endosulfan

Problem statement: Organochlorine pesticide endosulfan is widely used as a replacement for DDT and dieldrin in many parts of the world. Pr esence of residual pesticides in the water, air and soil environment was confirmed since 1960s. Such Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are of concern because of their long-term subtle effects on hormon es, the immune system and reproduction. Therefore, it becomes imperative to develop indigen ous technologies for remediation of endosulfan in contaminated water and contaminated sites. Comparison to conventional pesticide removal techniques, biosorption is a kind of promising technique that c an accumulate organic and inorganic matter from aqueous solution. The presence of exogenous compounds might shows significant influence on the performance of biosorption/adsorption process and i t may become necessary to perform certain pretreatment to diminish their impacts. Approach: The effects of pH, size of biosorbent, ionic strength, presence of inorganic substances such as calcium ion, magnesium ions, chloride ions, fertilizers and presence of organic substances such as dissolved organic matter, surfactant and other pesticides on biosorption of endosulfan onto biosor bent prepared from fungal culture Aspergillus Nidulans (ANS) was investigated in this study. Results: The removal efficiency was more for fine biosorbent particles. Maximum removal of endosulfan was observed at pH 6.4 and no significant effect was found with variation of ionic strength. The pre sence of chloride, magnesium and calcium ions and surfactant did not affect the removal significantly . The presence of fertilizers such as Urea and Sing le Super Phosphate did not affect the removal efficien cy significantly. Background dissolved organic matter (as humic and polyacrylic acids) was found a ffecting the removal efficiency of endosulfan significantly. Both the co-sorbents viz. atrazine a nd monocrotophos almost equally hindered the sorption capacity of ANS biosorbent for the biosorp tion of endosulfan. Conclusion: Exogenous parameters played an important role in removal effi ciency of endosulfan during the biosorption process by ANS biosorbent. There is a need for pretreatment in order to design integrated endosulfan biosorpti on treatment with concern of the substances present al ong with endosulfan in water environment.
Ontology Integration Approaches: A Systematic Mapping

Ontology integration is an important topic of interest in Ontology Engineering. Integrating ontologies is a complex process that involves finding suitable ontologies, interpreting them and integrating them into a new integrated ontology. This paper presents a systematic mapping that investigated ontology integration approaches and provides a panorama of this topic. The results revealed a limited use of semantic relationships to map ontologies and a lack of concern with the integration scope, the goals the integrated ontology must achieve, search and selection of the ontologies to be integrated, and integration-based development processes.
Regulation of the alternative polyadenylation in T cells

Alternative pre-mRNA 3’ end processing plays a major role in gene expression and most mammalian genes have multiple polyadenylation (pA) sites that can be differentially selected, thus contributing to the enrichment of the transcriptional heterogeneity. The alternative pA signals (PAS) can be located in an internal exon or an intron, yielding different protein isoforms, or be positioned in tandem at the 3’ UTR, resulting in mRNAs with different 3’ UTR lengths, with the inclusion or exclusion of binding sites for specific RNA binding proteins (RBPs) or microRNA target sites. APA is regulated at the chromatin and mRNA levels, and may vary under specific conditions, such as cellular differentiation, development and cancer. CD5 is a transmembrane glycoprotein with three scavenger receptor cysteine rich (SRCR) domains, constitutively expressed in T-cells and in a subset of B-cells, B1a cells. CD5 has an inhibitory function in the TCR and BCR activation and its deregulation triggers a defective immune response. We mapped the mRNA 3’ ends of CD5 in a Jurkat T cell line and identified three major mRNA isoforms differing in the 3’ UTR length – pA1, pA2 and pA3. The shortest isoform (pA1), defined by the predicted weakest PAS, is the most expressed one, both in Jurkat and primary T cells, while the longest isoform (pA3), defined by the canonical PAS, is the least expressed. Even though, the proportions of the different CD5 APA isoforms vary in the two cell types. The pA3 isoform presents a higher percentage in primary T cells, relative to Jurkat, while the pA2 isoform is favored in Jurkat cells. Surprisingly, this is the most efficiently translated isoform, as reported in a previous work, which suggests a protein production optimization mechanism. The tight relation between the different mRNA processing mechanisms and transcription relies on activity of protein factors that often play multiple functions. We investigated the role of splicing factors in CD5 APA by siRNA knockdown, and we showed that PTB favors the selection of the pA1 signal and inhibits the usage of the pA2 signal, and that SRSF6 also favors the pA1 signal but inhibits the pA3 signal. Moreover, we showed that the surrounding regions of the three PAS have different patterns of binding of RNA binding proteins. The chromatin state also showed to influence CD5 APA, as low levels of acetylation increase the usage of pA2 and pA3 isoforms. Our results suggest that CD5 is regulated by APA through several distinct mechanisms, and that they may work together in a PAS specific manner. FCUP Regulation of alternative polyadenylation in T cells V
C iv emission-line properties and systematic trends in quasar black hole mass estimates

Black-hole masses are crucial to understanding the physics of the connection between quasars and their host galaxies and measuring cosmic black hole-growth. At high redshift, z > 2.1, black hole masses are normally derived using the velocity-width of the CIV broad emission line, based on the assumption that the observed velocity-widths arise from virial-induced motions. In many quasars, the CIV-emission line exhibits significant blue asymmetries (`blueshifts') with the line centroid displaced by up to thousands of km/s to the blue. These blueshifts almost certainly signal the presence of strong outflows, most likely originating in a disc wind. We have obtained near-infrared spectra, including the H$\alpha$ emission line, for 19 luminous ($L_{Bol}$ = 46.5-47.5 erg/s) Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars, at redshifts 2 2000 km/s, the velocity-widths appear to be dominated by non-virial motions. Black-hole masses, based on the full width at half maximum of the CIV-emission line, can be overestimated by a factor of five at large blueshifts. A larger sample of quasar spectra with both CIV and H$\beta$, or H$\alpha$, emission lines will allow quantitative corrections to CIV-based black-hole masses as a function of blueshift to be derived. We find that quasars with large CIV blueshifts possess high Eddington luminosity ratios and that the fraction of high-blueshift quasars in a flux-limited sample is enhanced by a factor of approximately four relative to a sample limited by black hole mass.
Inter-Battery Factor Analysis via PLS: The Missing Data Case

In this article we develop the Inter-battery Factor Analysis (IBA) by using PLS (Partial Least Squares) methods. As the PLS methods are algorithms that iterate until convergence, an adequate intervention in some of their stages provides a solution to problems such as missing data. Specifically, we take the iterative stage of the PLS regression and implement the ``available data'' principle from the NIPALS (Non-linear estimation by Iterative Partial Least Squares) algorithm to allow the algorithmic development of the IBA with missing data. We provide the basic elements to correctly analyse and interpret the results. This new algorithm for IBA, developed under the R programming environment, fundamentally executes iterative convergent sequences of orthogonal projections of vectors coupled with the available data, and works adequately in bases with or without missing data. To present the basic concepts of the IBA and to cross-reference the results derived from the algorithmic application, we use the complete Linnerud database for the classical analysis; then we contaminate this database with a random sample that represents approximately 7\% of the \textit{non-available} (NA) data for the analysis with missing data. We ascertain that the results obtained from the algorithm running with complete data are exactly the same as those obtained from the classic method for IBA, and that the results with missing data are similar. However, this might not always be the case, as it depends on how much the `original' factorial covariance structure is affected by the absence of information. As such, the interpretation is only valid in relation to the available data.
The Chinese interbank repo market: An analysis of term premiums

Because of the lack of short‐term government bonds, the interbank repo market in China has been providing the best information about market‐driven short‐term interest rates since its inception. This article examines the behavior of the repo rates of various terms and their term premiums. The work in this article supplements the study by F. Longstaff (2000), which reports supportive evidence for the pure expectations hypothesis over the short range of the term structure with the use of repo data from the United States. It is found that the pure expectations hypothesis is statistically rejected, although the term premiums are economically small. It is shown that the short‐term repo rate, repo rate volatility, repo market liquidity, and repo rate spreads are all important in determining the term premiums. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:153–167, 2006
Orientation Characterisation of Aerospace Materials by Spatially Resolved Acoustic Spectroscopy

Material characteristics in metals such as strength, stiffness and fracture resistance are strongly related to the underlying microstructure. The crystallographic structure and orientation are related to the ultrasonic properties through the stiffness matrix. In individual grains it is possible to analytically determine the ultrasonic velocity from the orientation and stiffness, or determine the stiffness from the known orientation and measured velocity. In this paper we present a technique for imaging the crystallographic orientation of grains in metals using spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy (SRAS) and a novel inverse solver that can determine the crystallographic orientation from the known stiffness matrix for the material and the SRAS velocity measurement. Previously we have shown the ability of this technique to determine the orientation on single crystal nickel samples; we extended the technique to multigrain industrial metals, such as aluminium, nickel and Inconel. The comparison between SRAS and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) on the nickel sample is presented. SRAS is a fast, accurate, quantitative and robust technique for imaging material microstructure and orientation over a wide range of scales and industrial materials.
The Intergalactic Propagation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei: an Analytic Approach

It is likely that ultra-high energy cosmic rays contain a significant component of heavy or intermediate mass nuclei. The propagation of ultra-high energy nuclei through cosmic radiation backgrounds is more complicated than that of protons and its study has required the use of Monte Carlo techniques. We present an analytic method for calculating the spectrum and the composition at Earth of ultra-high energy cosmic rays which start out as heavy nuclei from their extragalactic sources. The results obtained are in good agreement with those obtained using numerical methods.
Disentangling phonological well-formedness and attestedness: An ERP study of onset clusters in English

Disentangling the roles of phonological well-formedness and lexical attestedness in phonotactic processing has proven challenging. In this study, we present results from a passive listening ERP study showing that English speakers exhibit distinct neural responses to CCVC nonce words according to the phonological well-formedness and attestedness (in English) of the onset cluster. Clusters with poor sonority sequencing evoked an N400 effect compared to those without poor sonority sequencing, regardless of whether the well-formed clusters were attested in English. In contrast, unattested clusters, regardless of whether they were well-formed or ill-formed in terms of sonority sequencing, evoked a late positivity compared to attested clusters. The results suggest that listeners first perform a phonological analysis on potential words before submitting them to a lexical search.
Sound production during competitive feeding in the grey gurnard

The acoustic repertoire of captive grey gurnard Eutrigla gurnardus during competitive feeding consisted of three types of sound: knocks, grunts and growls. Knocks were audible as a single sound, whereas grunts and growls were perceived as longer, pulsed sounds to the human ear. Typically, knocks were composed of 1-2 pulses, grunts of 4-8 pulses and growls >10 pulses. Growls were longer and had shorter pulse periods than grunts. All sound types had peak frequencies of c. 500 Hz. The sequences of behaviours observed during feeding interactions suggest that grey gurnard obtain food both by scramble and contest tactics. Competing fish emitted knocks mainly while grasping a food item and also during other non-agonistic behaviour, suggesting that knock production may reflect a state of feeding arousal but could also serve as a warning of the forager's presence to nearby competitors. Grunts were mainly emitted during frontal displays, which were the most frequent behavioural act preceding grasps, suggesting that they may play a role in deterring other fish from gaining access to disputed food items.
Effect of NaCl concentrations on germination of Jatropha curcas L. Seeds in vitro condition

The present work was carried out to study the effect of salinity (NaCl: 0, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 35 g/l) on the germination of Jatropha curcas L. seeds (provenance Nioro). The experiment was placed in a germinator at 30°C. A batch of 20 seeds were soaked for 24 h in these different salt concentrations and sown in 14 cm Petri plate on filter paper beds Whatman No. 1. The water uptake was calculated and seed germination recorded every three days up to 18 days. The results showed that NaCl concentration affected the water uptake, the germination percentage and mean daily germination of J. curcas. These parameters were significantly affected from 8 g/l. The results also showed that germination is inhibited by 35 g/l. There was significant negative linear correlation between NaCl concentrations and water uptake, germination percentage and mean daily germination.
GMM Estimation of Spatial Autoregressive Models with Autoregressive and Heteroskedastic Disturbances

We consider a spatial econometric model containing a spatial lag in the dependent variable and the disturbance term with an unknown form of heteroskedasticity in innovations. We first prove that the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for spatial autoregressive models is generally inconsistent when heteroskedasticity is not taken into account in the estimation. We show that the necessary condition for the consistency of the ML estimator of spatial autoregressive parameters depends on the structure of the spatial weight matrices. Then, we extend the robust generalized method of moment (GMM) estimation approach in Lin and Lee (2010) for the spatial model allowing for a spatial lag not only in the dependent variable but also in the disturbance term. We show the consistency of the robust GMM estimator and determine its asymptotic distribution. Finally, through a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation, we compare finite sample properties of the robust GMM estimator with other estimators proposed in the literature.
Study on the antioxidant activity and in vitro antifungal activity of Verbascum speciosum methanolic extract

The present study was conducted to determine the antioxidant and antifungal effects ofmethanol extract from aerial part of Verbascum speciosum. The total phenolic andflavonoid content and the antioxidant activity of the plant extract were determined byusing the Folin-Ciocalteau and the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicalscavenging assays. The total phenols and flavonoid content of leaves were determined as82±6.43 mg GAE/g extract and 30.79±0.5 mg RE/g extract, respectively. The extractexhibited significant radical scavenging activity with IC50 value of 32. 35μg/ml. Themethanolic extract was investigated for its antifungal activity against some fungalreference strains which include: Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candidaparapsilosis, Candida krusei, Candida dubliniensis, A. flavus, A.niger, Penicillium andAlternaria. For minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) determination, a brothmicrodilution method according to CLSI M27-A and M38-A for yeasts and filamentousspecies was performed. The results showed that the highest in vitro antifungal activitieswere against C. parapsilosis and Alternaria. However, there were no significantdifferences between different fungal species. These results indicate a high potential ofantifungal properties of this methanolic extract. Therefore, it can be suggested to be aneffective replacement treatment for fungal infections or for the preservation of foodsagainst pathogenic and toxigenic microorganisms.
Effect of Mechanical Vibration on Resistance to Sliding in the Fixed Orthodontic Appliance

EFFECT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATION ON RESISTANCE TO SLI DING IN THE FIXED ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE David Kennedy, D.M.D. Marquette University, 2014 Objective: To determine the effects of mechanical vibrations p roduced from electric tooth brushes and a commercially available device c all d AcceleDent, on the resistance to sliding at the bracket-arch wire interface. Materials and Methods: All as-received wires and brackets were cleaned wi th 95% ethanol prior to testing. An individual metal brac ket was mounted on a custom metal fixture. The custom metal fixture had a polyurethan e material that resembled the mechanical feature of the human periodontal ligamen t. The test metal bracket was aligned and bonded passively with 4 other non-movab le brackets using a straight piece of . 0215” X . 025” SS wire. Another test bracket was th en bonded at a 2 mm offset from the other test bracket. A new wire (7 cm straight piece of .016” X .022” NiTi) was ligated to the brackets using a conventional ligature tie. Res istance to sliding was measured over a 7 mm sliding distance using the mini-Instron univer sal testing machine with a 50 Newton load cell and a crosshead speed of 5 mm/min. Initia l control testing of static and kinetic friction were performed. After baseline tests (cont r l) were established, mechanical vibration was introduced to the testing both with e lectric tooth brushes and an AcceleDent device. During each test run, new test b rackets and test wire were used and bonded in the same fashion as stated above. The eff ects of mechanical vibration on the static and kinetic friction were recorded and analy zed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey Post Hoc comparison. Statistical significance was considere when p value was less than 0.05. Results: Compared to the control (no vibration), the AcceleD ent static and dynamic resistances to sliding were reduced by 8.5 % and 22 . 26 %, respectively. The Oral B side test group showed reductions of 14.6 % and 22.46 %. The Sonicare side test group showed reductions of 11.46% and 28.51%. The Oral B front test group showed reductions of 12.73 % and 30.3 %. The Sonicare fron t test group showed reductions 11.18 % and 28.84 %. All these changes were statist ic lly significant (p = 0.000), with no significant differences found between vibration sou rces. Conclusions: Mechanical vibration from AcceleDent and electric ooth brushes significantly reduce the resistance to sliding in t he orthodontic bracket-wire interface.
Hanging on the Telephone? Doorstep and Telephone Canvassing at the British General Election of 1997

After years of neglect, a growing literature has reclaimed the constituency campaign as an important aspect of British elections. However, relatively little work has been done to disentangle which aspects of the local campaign are effective, and which are not. For much of the twentieth century, the mechanics of the local campaign were in essentials unchanged. But changing campaign technologies in the last decade offer new possibilities to party campaign managers. The 1997 British general election was the first in which parties made extensive use of telephone canvassing as well as the more traditional doorstep canvass. This article provides a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of traditional versus telephone constituency campaigns. Traditional face-to-face canvassing had a statistically significant influence on the outcome of the 1997 general election. But the telephone canvass did not.
Discontinuous Galerkin calculations for a nonlinear PDE model of DNA transcription with short, transient and frequent pausing

一个不连续的 Galerkin 有限元素方法习惯于古典交通流动 PDE 的近似答案。 这 PDE 被用来为抄写的生物过程建模；mRNA 从 DNA 把基因信息转移到或到 rRNA 的过程。 抄写过程被短、经常的 RNAP 标点暂停它作为交通灯被合并到模型。 这些暂停在平均抄写过程引起延期。 非线性的模型的 DG 答案被用来计算延期并且在平均抄写时间决定 pauses 的效果。 在 DG 答案和真答案之间的数字错误大小(由特征的方法发源) 为一个简单模型问题被给。 它为延期计算在一位邻居显示出一个优秀协议离开震动以及 O (x) 集中。 初步的参数研究在一个系统显示那与多重暂停地点和 pauses 罐头的时间持续时间显著地影响 RNAP 经验丰富的平均延期。 [从作者抽象]
Wettability and Impact Performance of Wood Veneer/Polyester Composites

Fiber-reinforced thermosetting composites have been of interest since the 1940s due to their ease of use in processing, fast curing times, and high specific stiffness and strength. While the use of plant fibers in a polyester matrix has been thoroughly studied, only limited information is available regarding using wood as reinforcement. In this study, composites of thin wood veneer and a polyester matrix were made and the difficulties in the lamination and curing processes were investigated. Sheets of Douglas fir, maple, and oak veneers using a catalyzed polyester resin were assembled as unidirectional, balanced, and unbalanced cross-ply laminates. These were compared to control specimens using glass fiber as reinforcement. The impact properties of the samples, with respect to the laminate thicknesses, were characterized using a drop-weight impact tester. The wettability and surface roughness of unsanded and sanded wood veneers were also investigated. Results showed that Douglas fir cross-ply laminates had an impact energy equivalent to glass fiber laminates, making them an interesting alternative to synthetic fiber composites. Wood/polyester laminates absorbed a considerable amount of energy through a higher number of fracture modes. The balanced lay-up limited twisting of the wood/polyester composites. The lowest contact angle and highest wettability were observed in unsanded Douglas fir veneers.