Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Control of salinity on the mixed layer depth in the world ocean : 2. Tropical areas - art. no. C10010

[1] A new global climatology of the barrier layer (BL) thickness based on the analysis of instantaneous temperature and salinity profiles was presented in the first part of this paper. It is used here to revisit the mean properties of the phenomenon in the tropics. Consistent with previous studies, thick and persistent BLs are detected in the deep tropics of each ocean. Their formation involves various mechanisms such as intense precipitations, oceanic circulation, wind seasonality, and river runoff, in relation with the specific geography and climatology of each basin. The weak seasonal cycle of the BL in the equatorial Pacific is analyzed in particular. Thick BLs are also detected in winter on the equatorial flank of each of the subtropical salinity maxima. They are due to the specific salinity stratification in this area and to the seasonal homogenization of temperature over the vertical under the action of atmospheric heat fluxes. Thick BLs in the western tropical Atlantic that are partly associated with important vertical temperature inversions are furthermore identified and described. More generally, agreement of the BLs mean properties in these areas with previous literature confirms the robustness of the features and validates this new product that uses most available data including the most recent ones issued from the ARGO floats.
1D mapping of seminal plasma proteins in Anglo-Nubian goats.

The lack of information about seasonal variation of seminal plasma proteins in goats from Northeast Brazil led us to investigate the protein band distribution throughout the year. The experiment lasted one year (from April 2006 to March 2007) in which 230 semen collections from five adult goats (Capra hircus) were carried out, at ages ranging from 18 to 22 months, weighing 42.0 ± 10.0 kg, belonging to Anglo Nubian breed. A pool of seminal plasma samples from all the animals in each month of the year was submitted to 1D electrophoresis SDS-PAGE, 12.5%. The gels were analyzed through Life Science Software from UVP, Inc ® . The correlation between air humidity and total seminal plasma proteins was not significant (r = -0.24; P > 0.05), while a moderate and significant correlation was found between temperature and total protein (r = 0.39; P 0.05). The analyzed gels showed a high frequency of molecular mass bands below 50 kDa throughout the year, followed by protein bands from 50 to 100 kDa. The major numbers of bands occurred in October and November, while May was the month that presented a smaller number of protein bands. The molecular bands of 14, 22, 24, 40, 55 and 66 kDa were present in all the months of the year. The band of 16 kDa was found in 41.7% of the months. May was the only month that did not show the 30 kDa. August and September did not present the bands of 34 and 35 kDa, while October showed both bands. The 45 kDa band was found in 75% of the months, being present in January, May, July, September and November. The 46 kDa band was identified in June and August, while the 47 kDa was identified in April. The 70 kDa band was identified from May to November (58.3%), the 72 kDa band was found in January, March and April (25%) and bands of 92 to 97 kDa were found from April to December (75%). These results showed a band distribution variation throughout the year in the Anglo Nubian goat breed in the semi-arid area of Brazil. It is concluded that medium rainfall or water scarcity in the dryer months seems to promote variation in semen volume and concentration and total protein distribution throughout the year. As no month variation was observed in semen motility and vigor, and protein bands probably related to fertility showed an uniform distribution throughout the year, it is suggested that there is no fertility variation during the year in AngloNubian goats the semi-arid region.
Knowledge, attitude and practice of gutkha chewing among youth in Hiroli village of Kalaburagi district

Background: Gutkha is a preparation of crushed tobacco, lime, catechu, areca nut and flavouring agent. Gutkha chewing may lead to various diseases like cancer of oral cavity, gingival diseases, addiction, submucosal fibrosis and overall poor health of an individual. The use of gutkha in youths is highly prevalent due to a lack of awareness and education and has misconceptions, particularly in rural areas like chewing tobacco products aids in digestion, acts as germ-killer, mood enhancement and tension relief.Methods: The study was undertaken to know the knowledge, attitude and practice among gutkha chewers of Hiroli village in Kalaburagi district, Karnataka, India. The study sample comprised a total of 479 participants.Results: The result of the study showed that the prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption is high in rural population (49.2%). And most of the participants (51%) agreed that gutkha chewing is injurious to health, but the knowledge of gutkha causing oral and throat cancer was limited (40.6% and 36.4% respectively). Conclusions: The result indicated to increase awareness programs on associated health risks that focus on improving the knowledge, attitude and practice of gutkha chewing.
Enacting masculinities: Pleasure to men and violence to women

abstract Feminist anthropologists have shown how women's bodies have been appropriated and rendered ‘docile’ by so called cultural or traditional practices, as well as by discourse. The compelled docility of African women (as that of other women in the global south), is perhaps especially visible within subtly coerced performances within a context of ‘traditional’ masculinised practices, such as unprotected sex, that leave many African women vulnerable and forced to negotiate a host of health concerns around sexually transmitted diseases and of course HIV/AIDS. This is to be seen as a form of violence perpetrated by men against their female partners. However, in probing condom use through a qualitative study with a small group of women, we notice that it is not simply a case of discerning patterns of hegemonic masculinities in relation to condom use or non-use, and that masculinities are also propped up and held together by the relational configurations of practice formed by (mutual) gender relations.
Career Changers in Teaching Jobs: A Case Study Based on the Swiss Vocational Education System

This study investigates the determinants and motives of professionals who change career to vocational teaching. The framework for this study is the Swiss vocational education system, which requires that teachers of vocational subjects must have a prior career in that specific field. Thus, to work in teaching, every vocational teacher has to change his or her initial career. This paper focuses on the relevance of monetary motives for changing a career to teaching. Using a unique data set of trainee teachers, we show that professionals who change their careers to teaching earned on average more in their first career than comparable workers in the same occupation. Our findings additionally demonstrate that the average career changer still expects to earn significantly more as a teacher than in the former career. However, the study shows substantial heterogeneity and a zero wage elasticity of the teacher supply, suggesting that non-monetary motives are more relevant for career change than monetary factors.
Hyperbilirubinemia as a predictor of the severity of acute appendicitis - an observational study

Background: Appendicitis is the most common acute abdominal condition requiring emergency surgery, with a lifetime risk of 6%. Appendectomy continues to be one of the commonest procedures in general surgery, accounts for approximately 1% of all surgical operation. Despite the increased use of ultrasonography, computed tomography scanning and laparoscopy, the rate of misdiagnosis of appendicitis has remained constant (15.3%). The aim of this study was to whether Serum Bilirubin can be considered as a new laboratory marker to aid in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and if so, does it have the predictive capacity to warn us about complicated appendicitis . Methods: This was prospective observational study done in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry between November 2014 and August 2016. About 110 patients of acute appendicitis who had undergone appendicectomy were studied. Data was collected and analyzed critically. Results: Males 66 (60%) outnumbered females 44 (40%) and overall mean age was 26.61±12.37 years. Of the 110 patients, 9% were normal appendix, 59.09% were confirmed as acute appendicitis while 31.81% were diagnosed with complicated appendicitis on biopsy. The Sensitivity and Specificity of serum bilirubin as a marker in predicting Acute appendicitis and complicated appendicitis was 47.6% and 90.9% respectively. Similarly, the Positive predicative value and Negative predicative value for the same was 88.5% and 61.5% respectively with odds ratio 12.4 with significant p value <0.0001. Conclusions: Serum bilirubin is easily available test and cheap and can be estimated from the sample of blood drawn for routine blood investigations. Patients with clinical signs and symptoms of appendicitis and with hyperbilirubinemia should be identified as having a higher probability of complicated appendicitis. Hence, serum bilirubin levels have a predictive potential for the diagnosis of severity of acute appendicitis and need for early appendicectomy. If total serum bilirubin is added to already existing laboratory tests, then the diagnosis of complicated appendicitis in clinically suspected cases can be made with fair degree of accuracy, the need for CECT and MRI can be reduced and unnecessary delay in appendicectomy can be avoided.
Data mining of social manifestations in Twitter: Analysis and aspects of the social movement “Bela, recatada e do lar” (Beautiful, demure and housewife)

In recent years, the Online Social Networks (OSN) enabled the growth of many social movements in digital media, because they allow messages to be posted and shared instantly. In the political scope, the OSN are a means by which social groups been assembled themselves and defended their causes. On 04/18/2016, the Brazilian magazine Veja published an article entitled “bela, recatada e do lar” (beautiful, demure and housewife), whose repercussion mobilized several social groups and generated a virtual protest in nationwide scale. The goal of this research was to analyze behavior of users in the social network Twitter to identify how people reacted to the article “bela, recatada e do lar”. To achieve this, a network of shared messages (retweets) was built, where the centrality metrics Degree, Betweenness and Pagerank were calculated to identify which users most influenced the social movement. Also, a data mining technique known as sentiment analysis was used with the aid of the ETL (Extract, Transform & Load) methodology and the Naive Bayes probabilistic algorithm to study users behavior and opinion. Furthermore, an analysis of highlighted events was performed from most frequently tweeted hashtags. Results showed that (i) users that had more influence in the social movement could be split into two main classes: one represented by users with high Pagerank values, or in other words, users that published relevant content and were shared extensively by others, and another class represented by users with high Betweenness values, meaning that they acted in an influential manner only inside specific communities; (ii) in its majority, users expressed opinions against the conservative standard for women defended by the magazine article; and (iii) events that occurred in parallel to the social movement “bela, recatada e do lar” apparently influenced the content and amount of published messages in the OSN.
Low methane (CH 4 ) emissions downstream of a monomictic subtropical hydroelectric reservoir (Nam Theun 2, Lao PDR)

Abstract. Methane (CH4) emissions from hydroelectric reservoirs could represent a significant fraction of global CH4 emissions from inland waters and wetlands. Although CH4 emissions downstream of hydroelectric reservoirs are known to be potentially significant, these emissions are poorly documented in recent studies. We report the first quantification of emissions downstream of a subtropical monomictic reservoir. The Nam Theun 2 Reservoir (NT2R), located in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, was flooded in 2008 and commissioned in April 2010. This reservoir is a trans-basin diversion reservoir which releases water into two downstream streams: the Nam Theun River below the dam and an artificial channel downstream of the powerhouse and a regulating pond that diverts the water from the Nam Theun watershed to the Xe Bangfai watershed. We quantified downstream emissions during the first 4 years after impoundment (2009–2012) on the basis of a high temporal (weekly to fortnightly) and spatial (23 stations) resolution of the monitoring of CH4 concentration. Before the commissioning of NT2R, downstream emissions were dominated by a very significant degassing at the dam site resulting from the occasional spillway discharge for controlling the water level in the reservoir. After the commissioning, downstream emissions were dominated by degassing which occurred mostly below the powerhouse. Overall, downstream emissions decreased from 10 GgCH4 yr−1 after the commissioning to 2 GgCH4 yr−1 4 years after impoundment. The downstream emissions contributed only 10 to 30 % of total CH4 emissions from the reservoir during the study. Most of the downstream emissions (80 %) occurred within 2–4 months during the transition between the warm dry season (WD) and the warm wet season (WW) when the CH4 concentration in hypolimnic water is maximum (up to 1000 µmol L−1) and downstream emissions are negligible for the rest of the year. Emissions downstream of NT2R are also lower than expected because of the design of the water intake. A significant fraction of the CH4 that should have been transferred and emitted downstream of the powerhouse is emitted at the reservoir surface because of the artificial turbulence generated around the water intake. The positive counterpart of this artificial mixing is that it allows O2 diffusion down to the bottom of the water column, enhancing aerobic methane oxidation, and it subsequently lowered downstream emissions by at least 40 %.
Quality Characters of Maize and NPK Status of Soil as Influenced by Various Sole and Intercropping Treatments

Maize is one of the most important cereal crops of the world and contributes to food security in most of the developing countries. United States is the largest maize producer and also has a large surplus, which also makes it the largest maize exporter. Brazil, Ukraine and Argentina are the other key maize producing countries behind USA. The four countries together account for 80 85% of the total exports in maize. In India, maize is emerging as third most important crop after rice and wheat. Its importance lies in the fact that it is not only used for human food and animal feed but at the same time it is also widely used for corn starch industry, corn oil production, baby corns etc.
Tidal influences on a future evolution of the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf cavity in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Abstract. Recent modeling studies of ocean circulation in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica, project an increase over this century of ocean heat into the cavity beneath Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS). This increase in ocean heat would lead to more basal melting and a modification of the FRIS ice draft. The corresponding change in cavity shape will affect advective pathways and the spatial distribution of tidal currents, which play important roles in basal melting under FRIS. These feedbacks between heat flux, basal melting, and tides will affect the evolution of FRIS under the influence of a changing climate. We explore these feedbacks with a three-dimensional ocean model of the southern Weddell Sea that is forced by thermodynamic exchange beneath the ice shelf and tides along the open boundaries. Our results show regionally dependent feedbacks that, in some areas, substantially modify the melt rates near the grounding lines of buttressed ice streams that flow into FRIS. These feedbacks are introduced by variations in meltwater production as well as the circulation of this meltwater within the FRIS cavity; they are influenced locally by sensitivity of tidal currents to water column thickness (wct) and non-locally by changes in circulation pathways that transport an integrated history of mixing and meltwater entrainment along flow paths. Our results highlight the importance of including explicit tidal forcing in models of future mass loss from FRIS and from the adjacent grounded ice sheet as individual ice-stream grounding zones experience different responses to warming of the ocean inflow.
Brand Community Duty: The Role of Duty in Brand Communities

BRAND COMMUNITY DUTY: THE ROLE OF DUTY IN BRAND COMMUNITIES Katharina Goellner Advisor: University of Guelph, 2012 Professor T. Mark In their exploratory study Muniz & O’Guinn (2001) found three markers of a brand community: a sense of belonging, rituals and tradition and a sense of duty toward the community. Two of the three markers of community have been included in conceptual models on brand communities. However, the third marker (sense of duty) has not been implemented up to now. Hence, the objective of this thesis is to extend Bagozzi & Dholakia’s (2006) brand community model by incorporating the construct “sense of duty”. In this research, a conceptual model of brand communities is developed. Overall, the findings support the conceptual model. The results show that sense of duty is a decisive mediator of brand community behaviours and that sense of duty is divided into three distinct components: new member integration, product usage and member retention. Further, this research indicates that community-related behavioural intentions are not significantly related to purchase intentions.
Immigrant children school experience: how gender influences social capital formation and fruition?

The scientific debate on the integration processes of ethnic minorities over the years has become ever deeper and wider. A common acknowledgment has emerged from this debate of the role of education as a valid strategy to unfold such processes. The school experience of young migrants or the young of immigrant origin develops itself along trajectories differentiated from those of natives. The migratory event and the status of ethnic minority give shape to the educative destinies of youth emphasizing or arranging particularly with class effect. However, a third factor, related to gender, enters this relation determining more outstanding differences than those traditionally evidenced in the school population as a whole that sees female students get the better over male classmates. The analyses of educational history of the young migrants has often been “gender blind”; the purpose of this paper is to analyse international research to find the elements connected both to the ethnicity and to the gender differences that lead towards this differentiated frame, analysing the results of some research realised on Ecuadorian boys and girls studying in Genoese high schools. Key-words: gender, school achievement, second generation, social capital, ethnic
Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1-α (HIF-1α) Induces Apoptosis of Human Uterosacral Ligament Fibroblasts Through the Death Receptor and Mitochondrial Pathways

Background Hypoxia induces cell apoptosis in the uterosacral ligaments of patients with pelvic organ prolapse by upregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α). This study aimed to investigate the effects of HIF-1α on human uterosacral ligament fibroblasts (hUSLFs) following treatment with the chemical inducer of hypoxia, cobalt chloride (CoCl2), and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Material/Methods Ten women who underwent hysterectomy for benign disease provided uterosacral ligament tissue for cell extraction. Following CoCl2 treatment, cell viability of isolated and cultured hUSLFs was evaluated by the MTT assay. JC-1 fluorescence mitochondrial imaging was used to study the change in mitochondrial membrane potential. Cell apoptosis and expression of apoptosis-associated proteins and collagen type I alpha 1 (COL1A1) were measured by flow cytometry, TUNEL and Western blot, respectively. Results Hypoxia increased the expression of HIF-1α and increased cell apoptosis, decreased cell viability and expression levels of COL1A1. The JC-1 assay showed that the mitochondrial membrane potential was reduced and caspase-8, and -9 inhibitors partly reduced hUSLF apoptosis. HIF-1α treatment downregulated the expression of cellular FLICE inhibitory protein (c-FLIP), decoy receptor 2 (DcR2), and the ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax, and upregulated the expression tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), death receptor 5 (DR5) or TRAIL-R2, Fas, Bcl-2 interacting protein 3 (BNIP3), and cytochrome C, and increased the activation of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9, all of which were reversed by knockdown of HIF-1α. Conclusions HIF-1α significantly induced apoptosis of hUSLFs through both the cell death receptor and the mitochondrial-associated apoptosis pathways.
Seeing the bigger picture: an amblyopic advantage in the global integration of moving visual information?

Devices used to incorporate global information by normal and amblyopic eyes were investigated using the Classification Image (CI) technique. An orientation task with randomly orientated tilting Gabor patches and a motion-direction task using randomly directed moving discs were utilized. Participants judged the near-threshold average global orientation or motion-direction in each. CIs were calculated, adding noise samples eliciting correct responses and subtracting noise samples producing incorrect responses. Results illustrated normal participants had consistently narrow perceptive fields as was the case for amblyopes in the orientation task. For global motion-direction judgements, amblyopic perceptive fields were far wider, illustrating sparse sampling of elements. This reflected reduced inhibition for amblyopic motion processing mechanisms; a diminished suppression device proving advantageous for this type of observer.
Control of mode and intermediate water mass properties in Drake Passage by the Amundsen Sea low

The evolutionof the physical properties of Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW)and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) in the Drake Passage region is examined on time scales down to intraseasonal, within the 1969‐2009 period. Both SAMW and AAIW experience substantial interannual to interdecadal variability, significantly linked to the action of the Amundsen Sea low (ASL) in their formation areas. Observations suggest that the interdecadal freshening tendency evident in SAMW over the past three decades has recently abated, while AAIW has warmed significantly since the early 2000s. The two water masses have also experienced a substantial lightening since the start of the record. Examination of the mechanisms underpinning water mass property variability shows that SAMW characteristics are controlled predominantly by a combination of air‐sea turbulent heat fluxes, cross-frontal Ekman transport of Antarctic surface waters, and the evaporation‐precipitation balance in the Subantarctic zone of the southeast Pacific and Drake Passage, while AAIW properties reflect air‐sea turbulent heat fluxes and sea ice formation in the Bellingshausen Sea. The recent interdecadal evolution of the ASL is consistent with both the dominance of the processes described here and the response of SAMW and AAIW on that time scale.