Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-meat diets and cancer risk

Up to 80 % of breast, bowel and prostate cancers are attributed to dietary practices, and international comparisons show strong positive associations with meat consumption. Estimates of relative risk obtained from cohort investigations are in the same direction, although generally weak, and red and processed meats rather than white meat seem to be associated with elevated risk of colon cancer. In breast cancer, there are consistent associations with total meat intake and there is evidence of a dose response. Despite these associations with meat, existing studies suggest that vegetarians do not have reduced risk of breast, bowel or prostate cancer, but there are no quantitative estimates of amounts of meat consumed by meat eaters in these cohort studies. Possible mecha-nisms underlying epidemiological associations include the formation of heterocyclic amines in meat when it is cooked. These heterocyclic amines require acetylation by P450 enzymes, and individuals with the fast-acetylating genotype who eat high amounts of meat may be at increased risk of large-bowel cancer. NH3 and N-nitroso compounds (NOC) formed from residues by bacteria in the large bowel are probably also important. NH3 is a promotor of large-bowel tumours chemically induced by NOC, and some of the chromosomal mutations found in human colo-rectal cancer are consistent with effects of NOC and heterocyclic amines. However, the type, amount, and cooking method of meat or protein associated with increased risk are not certain. The effects of high levels of meat on NH3 and NOC output are not reduced by increasing the amount of fermenta-ble carbohydrate in the diet, but interaction between meat, NSP and vegetable intakes on the risk of cancer has not been studied comprehensively. The interaction between dietary low-penetrance genetic polymorphic and somatic mutation factors has also been investigated to a limited extent. Current Department of Health (1998) recommendations are that meat consumption should not rise, and that consumers at the top end of the distribution should consider a reduction in intakes.
A facile microfluidic method for production of liposomes.

BACKGROUND Ethanol injection is widely used in liposome preparation. However, the parameters determining particle size distribution of the liposomal preparation has not been fully defined. MATERIALS AND METHODS A syringe pump-driven microfluidic injection device was used to produce liposomes under different conditions. RESULTS Particle size of the liposomes was decreased with decrease in needle diameter (or increase in hydrodynamic pressure), decrease in lipid concentration in the alcohol solution, decrease in phase transition temperature (T(m)) of the lipid bilayer and the absence of cholesterol (or decrease in, membrane rigidity). CONCLUSION The device used is simple to adopt and can be used for affordable production of liposomes with tunable particle size.
Negative Thermal Expansivity of Ice: Comparison of the Monatomic mW Model with the All-Atom TIP4P/2005 Water Model

We calculate the thermal expansivity of ice I for the monatomic mW model using the quasi-harmonic approximation. It is found that the original mW model is unable to reproduce the negative thermal expansivity experimentally observed at low temperatures. A simple prescription is proposed to recover the negative thermal expansion by re-adjusting the so-called tetrahedrality parameter, λ. We investigate the relation between the λ value and the Grüneisen parameter to explain the origin of negative thermal expansion in the mW model and compare it with an all-atom water model that allows the examination of the effect of the rotational motions on the volume of ice.
Antiviral Activity of CTC-8 against Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1) in Cell Culture: Evidence for a Selective Antiviral Effect via a Cellular Mechanism

A synthetic programme produced a series of compounds related to natural prostaglandins, which are known to affect the growth of a number of viruses. Several of the compounds showed potent biological activity including antiviral effects. The compound CTC-8 [(S)-4-tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy-2-cyclopenten-1-one] contains the cyclopentenone ring of prostaglandin A1, but the extended side chains common to the prostaglandin family are truncated. The present study demonstrates that CTC-8 inhibits HSV-1 replication in cell culture at sub-toxic concentrations. The antiviral effect was evidenced by reduction in infectious virus yield, although the compound was not effective in the standard plaque-reduction assay. Time-of-addition studies and other experiments provide a possible explanation for these results by suggesting that the antiviral activity is confined to a single cycle. Under the standard conditions of high-multiplicity infection in BHK cells it was notable that CTC-8 is most effective when added for a short period 6–8 h post-infection. Furthermore, multiple passage of HSV-1 in the presence of CTC-8 did not result in the selection of resistant mutants. The results of these and other experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that the mechanism by which CTC-8 inhibits virus replication involves a cellular target. These results encourage further research into the therapeutic potential of this series of compounds.
Learning Multi-Objective Rewards and User Utility Function in Contextual Bandits for Personalized Ranking

This paper tackles the problem of providing users with ranked lists of relevant search results, by incorporating contextual features of the users and search results, and learning how a user values multiple objectives. For example, to recommend a ranked list of hotels, an algorithm must learn which hotels are the right price for users, as well as how users vary in their weighting of price against the location. In our paper, we formulate the context-aware, multi-objective, ranking problem as a Multi-Objective Contextual Ranked Bandit (MOCR-B). To solve the MOCR-B problem, we present a novel algorithm, named Multi-Objective Utility-Upper Confidence Bound (MOU-UCB). The goal of MOU-UCB is to learn how to generate a ranked list of resources that maximizes the rewards in multiple objectives to give relevant search results. Our algorithm learns to predict rewards in multiple objectives based on contextual information (combining the Upper Confidence Bound algorithm for multi-armed contextual bandits with neural network embeddings), as well as learns how a user weights the multiple objectives. Our empirical results reveal that the ranked lists generated by MOU-UCB lead to better click-through rates, compared to approaches that do not learn the utility function over multiple reward objectives.
Soil cover management: initial development of pear trees hosui cultivar and its effects on soil and weeds

Abstract Soil management is a practice that influences the development of fruit trees. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different soil cover/mulching types on weed control and on the early development of pear trees Hosui cultvar. The experiment was conducted in two consecutive cycles: 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. Treatments consisted of the following soil covers in pear tree planting rows: natural cover, ryegrass straw intercropped with millet, pine sawdust, shading cover (70%), rice husk, Curauá fiber and weeding. Soil infestation by weeds was evaluated in the spring-summer period for two years, as well as the vegetative pear tree development (plant height and diameter and SPAD chlorophyll index). Managements using Curauá fiber and ryegrass straw + millet had the greatest suppression effects on weeds. The height and diameter of pear trees were smaller with natural cover and pine sawdust, while higher plant growth was observed with Curauá fiber and with weeding. Higher SPAD indexes was observed with Curauá fiber, weeding and ryegrass + millet. Curauá fiber also stood out for Fe and Mn leaf contents, while Zn contents were higher with ryegrass + millet and rice husk. Ryegrass straw + millet and rice husk can be highlighted for the chemical attributes of soil fertility and soil macrofauna indexes. It could be concluded that Curauá fiber and azevem + millet weed control weeds in the orchard, thus promoting better initial development of pear trees Hosui cultivar.
Long-period Ground Motion Characteristics of the Osaka Sedimentary Basin during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake

Seismic risk by long-period ground motion is one of important issues in mega-cities in the large sedimentary basin because the resonances of long-period structures such as oil tanks, long bridges, and high-rise buildings would cause the seismic disaster. For example, strong long-period ground motion cause a ﬁre in Tomakomai, 200km away from the epicenter, in the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake. In this study, we analyze long-period ground motions of the 2011 great Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw9.0). Its long-period ground motions are well-recorded at about 100 strong motion stations by many organizations in and around the Osaka sedimentary basin. This data set could help detail feature of the ground motion propagation characteristics in the Osaka sedimentary basin. in the coda part, HV sprctral ratio, and azimuthal spectral characteristics will be analyzed. We used ground motion data of seismic intensity observation network in Osaka prefecture, K-NET, KiK-net and F-net of NIED, CEORKA network, and BRI network.
Dual Processing in Syllogistic Reasoning

The study aimed to examine several assumptions of dual process theories of reasoning by employing individual difference approach. A set of categorical syllogisms was administered to a relatively large sample of participants (N = 247) along with attached confidence rating scales, and measures of intelligence and cognitive reflection. As expected, response accuracy on syllogistic reasoning tasks highly depended on task complexity and the status of belief-logic conflict, thus demonstrating beliefbias on the group level. Individual difference analyses showed that more biased subject also performed poorer on Raven's Matrices (r = .25) and Cognitive Reflection Test (r = .27), which is in line with assumptions that willingness to engage and capacities to carry out type 2 processes both contribute to understanding of rational thinking. Moreover, measures of cognitive decoupling were significantly correlated with the performance on conflict syllogisms (r = .20). Individual differences in sensitivity to conflict detection, on the other side, were not related to reasoning accuracy in general (r = .02). Yet, additional analyses showed that noteworthy correlation between these two can be observed for easier syllogistic reasoning tasks (r = .26). Such results indicate that boundary conditions of conflict detection should be viewed as a function of both tasks' and participants' characteristics.
The impacts of institutional quality and infrastructure on overall and intra-Africa trade

Abstract The authors examine the impacts of quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure on overall and intra-Africa trade covering 44 African countries and their 173 trade partners for the periods 2000–2014. Aggregate indicators are derived for the quality of economic institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure using principal component analysis. The findings disclose that intra-Africa and overall Africa's trade robustly determined by the quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure. The estimates also indicate that the marginal effect of the quality of institutions, physical and communication infrastructure on trade flow appears to be increasing in GDP per capita. In contrast, the marginal effect of border and transport efficiency on trade decreases in GDP per capita. The authors compute the simulation of improving each indicator to the best performer in the sample. Their findings are robust to estimation method conducted to account for potential endogeneity.
Prognosis of contact dermatitis in epoxy resin workers

Between January 1993 and February 2002, 40 of 1354 (3%) workers who attended a tertiary referral occupational dermatology clinic were diagnosed with allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) from epoxy resin systems (ER). 20 of these patients were followed up at least 2 years post‐diagnosis to establish prognosis. Characteristics collected at diagnosis, including age, atopic status and severity, were compared between the follow‐up and not followed‐up groups. No significant differences were observed. A clinician contacted patients and administered a telephone questionnaire based on variables identified from the literature, which were considered of importance for prognosis. All patients reported improvement of their skin condition since diagnosis. 12 of the 20 {60%[95% confidence interval (CI) 56–94%]} patients had applied for workers' compensation; all of these claims were successful. 16 had ceased working with ER. Of these, 9 [56% (95% CI 29–80%)] reported complete healing and 7 [44% (95% CI 19–70%)] reported ongoing dermatitis. Although no conclusions could be drawn because of the small sample size, factors that may be associated with a poor prognosis were age, atopy, duration of symptoms and severity at diagnosis. The prognosis of ACD from ER is not always favourable, even if a worker ceases exposure.
Italian validation of the Wagnild and Young Resilience Scale: a perspective to rheumatic diseases.

OBJECTIVES Studying the characteristics of resilience may help to explain how, in the face of a chronic disease, people are able to cope in productive and effective ways. The Wagnild and Young Resilience Scale (RS) is an appropriate instrument to study resilience and has already been translated from the original English version into several languages. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the RS, a 25-item scale ranging from 25 to 175 where higher scores indicate stronger resilience. METHODS The Minimal Translation Criteria were followed to translate the scale which was then filled out by 1090 students to assess the reliability, stability, internal consistency and concurrent validity. RESULTS Time stability was assessed in a sample of 117 students (M age=20.18 yr, SD 1.25) by test-retest correlation (r=0.78). RS reliability was evaluated in a second sample of 973 students (M age=16.95 yr, SD 1.50) with RS mean of 126.6 (SD 17.4). Concurrent validity was assessed by correlation with General Health Questionnaire (r=-0.51), Ego-Resilience Scale (r=0.63) and Beck Depression Inventory (r=-0.45). Internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach alpha (α=0.84). Principal component analysis was performed on 24 out of the 25 items and resulted in six components. CONCLUSIONS Our data indicated that the 24-item Italian version of the RS scale can be considered a useful instrument to measure resilience and can be used by healthcare staff to help patients cope effectively with stressful situations such as rheumatic and other chronic diseases.
ECM Encoder Emotion Embedding Internal Memory External Memory Decoder Emotion Classifier Emotional Responses Corpus Post 2 Response 2 Post 3 Response 3

Perception and expression of emotion are key factors to the success of dialogue systems or conversational agents. However, this problem has not been studied in large-scale conversation generation so far. In this paper, we propose Emotional Chatting Machine (ECM) that can generate appropriate responses not only in content (relevant and grammatical) but also in emotion (emotionally consistent). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that addresses the emotion factor in large-scale conversation generation. ECM addresses the factor using three new mechanisms that respectively (1) models the high-level abstraction of emotion expressions by embedding emotion categories, (2) captures the change of implicit internal emotion states, and (3) uses explicit emotion expressions with an external emotion vocabulary. Experiments show that the proposed model can generate responses appropriate not only in content but also in emotion.
Outgoing the shadows : estimating the impact of bureaucracy simpli cation and tax cut on formality and investment

The paper evaluates the impact of a program of bureaucracy simpli cation and tax reduction on the formality of small rms in Brazil and its consequence to investment. We document an increase of 13 percentage points in formal licensing among retail rms created after the program when compared to rms in non-eligible sectors. The e¤ect is more prominent for medium-sized rms, rms selling to individual customers (in opposition to other rms) and those located in the owners house. The expanded business formality represents an increase in the amount invested and a change in the composition of the expenditures toward long-run projects. JEL Classi cation: D73, D92, E26, K34
Verification and evaluation of the DREAM model for subphotospheric dissipation in prompt GRB emission

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic events in the universe, lasting only seconds and for that brief time outshining all other gamma-ray sources in the universe. However, after decades of studies the emission processes of the prompt gamma-ray emission phase is still not well understood. A suggested model is the Dissipation with Radiative Emission as A table Model (DREAM). In this thesis a series of systematic tests were performed to test different implementations the DREAM model. The aim was to quantify different kinds of uncertainties in the model, and make suggestions for improvements. The models were tested for their dependence on signal-to-noise ratio, how the interpolation of spectra affect the result, and any degeneracies. An optimum signal-to-noise ratio of 40 − 100 was found. The systematic errors due to using interpolated spectra were found to be 10 − 15 % in most of the parameter space and to never exceed the estimated uncertainties arising from assumptions made in the physical scenario. In more than ∼ 80 % of the parameter space, no strong degeneracies were found. The degenerate region is characterized by a small fraction of the dissipated energy going to the electrons.
Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China

We take Chinese A-share listed companies in years 2010–2015 as a sample to examine the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) information disclosure and stock price crash risk using the fixed effect model. The results show that: (1) There is an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between CSR information disclosure and stock price crash risk. That is, as the CSR information disclosure level increases, the CSR information disclosure first aggravates and then reduces the stock price crash risk; (2) under different disclosure motives, there is a significant difference in the impact of CSR information disclosure on stock price crash risk. There is still an inverted U-shaped relationship between mandatory CSR information disclosure and stock price crash risk, but not for the semi-mandatory and voluntary disclosure; (3) the academic independent director has a positive adjustment effect on the relationship between CSR information disclosure and stock price crash risk, while the institutional investor has a negative adjustment effect on the relationship between CSR information disclosure and stock price crash risk. The research is of great significance for promoting the fulfillment of CSR, improving corporate governance and stabilizing the capital market.
The acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase beta (ACACB) gene is associated with nephropathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs2268388, in the acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase beta (ACACB) gene is associated with susceptibility to type 2 diabetic nephropathy (T2DN) in Japanese and European-American populations. Whether this association also exists in Chinese patients is unclear. Attempts at replication in small Singaporean and Korean samples were not significant. METHODS Eight ACACB SNPs were genotyped in 595 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus born in Hong Kong or southern China, 295 with advanced T2DN and 300 with long-standing diabetes lacking nephropathy. Association analyses were focused primarily on SNP rs2268388 and secondarily on flanking SNPs and haplotypes. RESULTS Adjusting for age, gender and diabetes duration, ACACB SNP rs2268388 was significantly associated with advanced T2DN (odds ratio = 2.39; recessive model; P = 0.0129). CONCLUSION These results in the Chinese replicate the association between T2DN and rs2268388, as seen in Japanese and European Americans. The ACACB gene and attendant alterations in fatty acid oxidation may play important roles in susceptibility to T2DN. Targeting this pathway may provide novel treatment options for the prevention of diabetic nephropathy.
Catalyst Preparation , Characterization and Catalytic Activity of Kaolinite Clay from Nileswar , Kerala

A new economically and environmentally benign clay catalyst for benzylation of benzene with benzyl chloride has been prepared from thermally calcined Kaolinite , that was activated with different concentration of sulphuric acid . The activated samples were characterized by acidity measurements, XRD, SEM, FTIR, TG/DTA and surface area measurement. The sample activated with 3N sulphuric acid showed maximum acidity and maximum activity. The activity of this catalyst was enhanced by metal chloride supporting using FeCl3, ZnCl3, MnCl3, CoCl3 and SnCl3. The activity also monitored by using different solvents
Mental Models or Probabilistic Reasoning or Both

The present paper presents an overview of contemporary reasoning research to examine the evidence for and implications of the Dual Strategy Model of Reasoning. The Dual Strategy Model of Reasoning proposes that there are two types of reasoning strategy applied in deductive reasoning - counterexample and statistical. The paper considers Mental Models Theory and The Probability Heuristics Model as candidate specifications for these respective strategies and hypotheses are proposed on this basis. The Dual Strategy Model is further considered in the context of Dual Process theory, the Dual Source Model and Meta-reasoning and implications of the synergy between these proposals are considered. We finally consider the Dual Strategy Model in the context of individual differences, and normative considerations before proposing novel hypotheses and further avenues of research which we argue require exploration in this context.