Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A PRECISE ASTEROSEISMIC AGE AND RADIUS FOR THE EVOLVED SUN-LIKE STAR KIC 11026764

The primary science goal of the Kepler Mission is to provide a census of exoplanets in the solar neighborhood, including the identification and characterization of habitable Earth-like planets. The asteroseismic capabilities of the mission are being used to determine precise radii and ages for the target stars from their solar-like oscillations. Chaplin et al. published observations of three bright G-type stars, which were monitored during the first 33.5 days of science operations. One of these stars, the subgiant KIC 11026764, exhibits a characteristic pattern of oscillation frequencies suggesting that it has evolved significantly. We have derived asteroseismic estimates of the properties of KIC 11026764 from Kepler photometry combined with ground-based spectroscopic data. We present the results of detailed modeling for this star, employing a variety of independent codes and analyses that attempt to match the asteroseismic and spectroscopic constraints simultaneously. We determine both the radius and the age of KIC 11026764 with a precision near 1%, and an accuracy near 2% for the radius and 15% for the age. Continued observations of this star promise to reveal additional oscillation frequencies that will further improve the determination of its fundamental properties.
Borders ? Immigration in Open Source Projects

Open source software is built by teams of volunteers. Each project has a core team of developers, who have the authority to commit changes to the repository; this team is the elite, committed foundation of the project, selected through a meritocratic process from a larger number of people who participate on the mailing list. Most projects carefully regulate admission of outsiders to full developer privileges; some projects even have formal descriptions of this process. Understanding the factors that influence the “who, how and when” of this process is critical, both for the sustainability of FLOSS projects, and for outside stakeholders who want to gain entry and succeed. In this paper we mount a quantitative case study of the process by which people join FLOSS projects, using data mined from the Apache web server, Postgres, and Python. We develop a theory of open source project joining, and evaluate this theory based on our data.
Critical appraisal of the role of everolimus in advanced neuroendocrine tumors of pancreatic origin

For many years, the treatment of advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) has been limited almost entirely to somatostatin analogs and streptozocin-based chemotherapy, with modest benefit. Increasing knowledge of the biologic features of pNETs has allowed the design of molecular-based clinical trials, which have taken a step forward in the management of these tumors. In this review, we discuss the molecular rationale for the development of everolimus for patients with advanced pNETs, critically review the clinical data obtained by the main studies in this setting, and discuss essential considerations based on recent findings in pNET biology for future drug development involving the phosphatidylinositol 3' kinase- AKT-mTOR pathway.
Chitin Synthase in Aspergillus nidulans: Properties and Proteolytic Activation

SUMMARY: Chitin synthase (EC 2.4.1.16) from membrane preparations of Aspergillus nidulans was characterized and the optimum conditions for enzyme activity were determined. A reaction velocity--substrate concentration plot was sigmoidal, but was hyperbolic in the presence of N-acetylglucosamine when the K m for UDP-N-acetylglucosamine was 3·1 mmol 1−1. Chitin synthase activity could be increased sixfold by digestion of enzyme preparations with trypsin for short periods. The trypsin-activated enzyme had altered kinetic and storage properties.
WT 1 silencing by RNAi synergizes with chemotherapeutic agents and induces chemosensitization to doxorubicin and cisplatin in B 16 F 10 murine melanoma cells

The Wilm's tumor gene (WT1), encoding a transcription factor that modulates the expression of certain genes that are involved in proliferation and apoptosis, is overexpressed in numerous solid tumors. WT1 is important for cell proliferation and in the diagnosis of melanoma. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether WT1 silencing is capable of synergizing with chemotherapeutic agents and whether this silencing is capable of sensitizing cancer cells to doxorubicin and cisplatin in the B16F10 murine melanoma cell line. In the present study, B16F10 cells were simultaneously treated with median lethal doses (LD50s) of WT1-1 or WT1-2 small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and chemotherapeutic agents. A total of 24 h posttransfection, a [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2,5diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay] MTT assay was performed. To determine whether shRNA interference (shRNAi) is capable of sensitizing B16F10 cells to chemotherapeutic agents, cells were transfected with an LD50 of each of the recombinant plasmids, treated with varying concentrations of doxorubicin or cisplatin 24 h post-transfection, and analyzed 48 h later for inhibition of cell proliferation using the MTT assay. We observed that WT1-RNAi and the two chemotherapeutic agents acted synergistically to inhibit B16F10 cell proliferation. The greatest inhibition of cell proliferation was observed with the WT1-2/cisplatin (91%) and WT1-1/cisplatin combinations (85%). WT1 silencing using shRNAi induced the chemosensitization of cells to doxorubicin and cisplatin, with the greatest inhibition (85%) of cell proliferation being observed in the cells treated with the WT1-2/cisplatin 6 ng/μl combination. Our results provide direct evidence that WT1 gene silencing has a synergistic effect with chemotherapeutic drugs and sensitizes B16F10 melanoma cells to doxorubicin and cisplatin. This suggests that these combination strategies are potentially utilized in melanoma therapy.
Conflicts about water in Lake Chad: Are environmental, vulnerability and security issues linked?

This article builds on the growing literature that explores the relationships between environmental change and non-traditional security, defined as non-military threats that challenge the survival and well-being of peoples and states. The Lake Chad basin in Africa is used as a case study for analysis. Focusing on a set of questions that have dominated recent theoretical debates, this article investigates whether conflicts resulting from water scarcity are as much about the broader vulnerability of the Lake Chad region as they are about changes in the lake system and its environment. It argues that conflict is a probable outcome only in locations that are already challenged by a multitude of other context-specific factors besides resource scarcity. In the Lake Chad context, the likelihood of scarcity-driven conflict depends on whether vulnerability increases or decreases in the face of a declining water supply. The article provides perspectives for a nuanced understanding of how the receding Lake Chad has led to conflict and outlines an integrated, forward-looking research agenda for linking environmental change, vulnerability and security issues in integrated human–environment systems.
Welfare Policy, Language Group, and the Duration of Lone Motherhood Spells

We use a large sample of linked income tax records to estimate a competing risk model of the likelihood of an exit from lone motherhood to either a marital or common-law union. We find that recent Canadian welfare policy reforms have had only a small impact at most on the duration of lone motherhood spells. Lone mothers in Francophone Quebec and in the rest of Canada exit to different states, but spend similar lengths of time as single parents. Finally, the economic consequences of an exit from lone motherhood are similar for exits to marital and to common-law unions.
FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES IN A SAMPLE OF DIVERSIFIED PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATIONS

This research aimed at studying the factors that affect HR practices in some Palestinian organizations. The factors in this paper include firm size (No. of employees), sector (whether government, private or non-government organization), and profitability (profit Vs non-profit organization). A stratified random sample of 70 establishments that employ more than 50 employees was selected to cover government, private and non-government sectors. Findings show that larger firms apply more formalized HR practices than smaller firms do. Taking into account certain contextual factors, the direct relation with firm size becomes substantially less; in addition non-government organization (NGO) sector proved to be significantly related with the implementation of HRM practices better than private and public establishments regardless of their size, i.e., their number of employees.
On the Andrianov type identity for power series attached to Jacobi forms and its application

In this paper, we derive a local expression of the standard $L$-function attached to a Jacobi form of higher degree in terms of a certain power series related to its Fourier coefficients. This can be regarded as an analogue of Andrianov's identity for Siegel modular forms. As an application, we also show the rationality theorem for a formal power series related to a polynomial appearing in the theory of local densities of quadratic forms, which is very similar to the result obtained by Boecherer and Sato. This would play an important role in proving a conjecture on the period of the Duke-Imamoglu-Ikeda lift proposed by Ikeda.
RIP CURRENT RELATED DROWNING DEATHS AND RESCUES IN AUSTRALIA 2004–2011

Background Rip currents are narrow, strong currents that move seaward through the surf zone. Rip currents are the number one drowning hazard on surf beaches globally. A comprehensive review of rip current related drowning and rescue has not been reported to date. Aims To describe rip current related drowning deaths and rescues in Australia from 2004 to 2011. Methods A retrospective search was undertaken for fatal and non-fatal rip related drowning incidents in Australia from the National Coroner's Information System (NCIS), SurfGuard Incident Reporting Database (IRD), and Media Monitors, between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2011. Results There were 629 fatal coastal drowning deaths recorded and rip currents were a factor in 145 fatalities (22.9%), an average of 21 per year. There were a total of 1246 ‘major rescues’, lifesavers reported the involvement of rip currents in 602 rescues (48.3%), an average of 86 per year. Significance Using similar data sets from life saving organisations in the USA, UK, and NZ an international range of 48.3%–57.9% of all rescues are rip related, which is comparable to Australia. Rip related events are common though preventable. Priority strategies for rip related drowning prevention include educating beachgoers to: swim between the flags; identify rip currents; and appropriate responses if caught in a rip. Interventions should target young males in particular, as they are overrepresented in rip related drowning and rescue incidents.
An improved flow‐injection analysis method for the determination of dissolved aluminum in seawater

An improved, highly sensitive, flow‐injection analysis method for the determination of dissolved aluminum in seawater, based on the work of Resing and Measures (1994), is presented. The most significant modification to this earlier work is the use of in‐line preconcentration of seawater onto a commercially available resin, eliminating the resin‐synthesis step. Other modifications include the addition of a column‐conditioning step prior to sample loading that increases the quantitative retention and sensitivity, in‐line buffering of samples prior to column loading to achieve optimal sample pH, an increased acid‐eluent concentration to efficiently remove Al from the resin column, and an increased reaction buffer concentration. The method has a detection limit of 0.1 nM Al when preconcentrating 10 mL sample and a precision of 2.5% based on replicate analyses of a 5 nM Al sample when preconcentrating 2.5 mL sample. The method was applied to surface and deepwater samples collected in the North Pacific (2004 Sampling and Analysis for Fe [SAFe] cruise) and from surface water samples collected across the Columbia River plume. Results suggest that the SAFe samples could potentially serve as seawater reference materials for dissolved Al following further investigation by other researchers using different methods. The use of low‐density polyethylene bottles with low‐density polyethylene caps as standard protocol for storage of acidified seawater samples for Al analysis is also discussed.
Evaluation of total Phenol, Flavonoid and Anthocyanin Content in Different Varieties of Eggplant

Eggplant or brinjal (Solanum melongena) fruit is known as vegetables of diet food because of high moisture content and low coloristic value. Eggplant is endowed with nutrients as other plants. The eggplant fruit possess medicinal properties because of the presence of phyto-chemicals which attributes to its anti-carcinogenic activity. In this study, five eggplants genotypes (violet nadan, long green, small round green, violet suphol and violet with white stripes) were evaluated for total phenolic activity, total flavonoid activity and anthocyanin activity. The results showed that the total phenolic and flavonoid values of eggplant varieties extract varied from 856.76 to 386.75 gallic acid equivalents mg/100 g extract and total flavonoid content from 102.01 to 22.62 catechin equivalents mg/100 g extract Violet suphol which contained high total phenolic and flavonoid content had better anthocyanin value as compared (129.29 mg/gm) to other varieties. Vegetables provide the body, an added source of antioxidants to fight against free radicals.
Replication files for "Between Ballots and Bullets: Executive Competitiveness and Civil War Incidence, 1976-2000"

Although recent research has yielded some determining elements to civil war, the influence of political factors on internal conflicts remains disputed. This article presents a critical review of the most widely used indices of democracy in civil war studies, and suggests that the competitiveness of the executive power can be a useful measure for quantitative conflict research. The paper also analyses, by means of statistical regression, the relationship between the competitiveness in the executive recruitment and civil war incidence from 1976 to 2000. The findings indicate that both single-candidate and multi-party elections reduce the incidence of civil war. Furthermore, the results lend support to the hypotheses put forward by recent literature that ethnic fractionalisation, mountainous terrain, large population and centralised political systems significantly heighten the risk of incidence of civil war, while high GDP per capita and economic growth decrease the likelihood of internal conflicts.
Relationships among Typha Biomass, Pore Water Methane, and Reflectance in a Delaware (U.S.A.) Brackish Marsh

Methane is a "greenhouse effect" gas produced in wetland soils, yet factors controlling its production and emission are not well understood. Often, methane pore water concentration and atmospheric flux are positively correlated. If correlations can be found among wetland plant biomass, reflectance, and methane concentrations or flux, it may be possible to study the global methane cycle using remote sensing. Our study had two objectives: (1) to determine if remote sensing could be used to estimate biomass of Typha angustifolia plants in a Delaware (U.S.A.) brackish marsh, and (2) to determine if Typha plants influence dissolved pore water methane concentrations throughout a year. Canopy reflectance was correlated (r = 0.887) with live aerial biomass, which was correlated with live belowground biomass (r = 0.809). Dissolved pore water methane concentrations were generally lower in vegetated than in unvegetated areas. In vegetated areas only, concentrations were much lower in the top 10 cm of sediments than at greater depths. Since over 60% of the live root/rhizome biomass is in the top 10 cm, it is likely that an oxygenated rhizosphere and methane transport through roots kept the methane concentration low near the soil surface. Substantial growing season increases in methane at depths of 10-20 cm, where the remaining live tissue is, suggest the release of enough methanogenic substrates to cause methane production to exceed methane emission/oxidation. Overall, methane concentrations diminished in winter and increased in late spring, but lagged changes in soil temperature and in live aerial biomass by two months, and were not significantly correlated with substrate salinity. Since remote sensing can be used to estimate Typha biomass, and since live root biomass influences the sedimentary methane reservoir, it might be possible to estimate methane concentrations indirectly based on remote sensing measurements.
GROWTH AND SPORULATION OF Septoria carvi Syd . IN DIFFERENT CULTURE CONDITIONS

Abstract. The quantity and quality of the herb material are reduced by pathogenic fungi. In the case of caraway this pathogen is Septoria carvi. In the vegetation periods the fungus occurs with varying intensity, which is related to the requirements of life. The present study found that the growth of fungal colonies is possible at the temperatures from 0 to 30°C, the optimum being from 20 to 25°C, and sporulation is possible at the temperatures from 10 to 30°C, with the optimum at 25°C. It was shown that the most useful medium for the isolation of S. carvi from caraway plants is malt medium and malt medium with decoction of the leaves of this plant. Pycnidia and conidia of the fungus, which are necessary to identify the species, are formed the fastest on the malt medium with decoction of the leaves or schizocarps of caraway and on PDA medium and it is these substrates that should be used for the cultivation of S. carvi.
Incidence, clinical presentation, and demographic factors associated with oral cancer patients in the southern region of Saudi Arabia: A 10-year retrospective study

Background: This is a retrospective study design to assess the incidence of oral cancer in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. The study involves three tertiary care centers primarily involved in oral cancer care. Incidence, type, distribution of oral cancer among age group, gender, region, and site are assessed. Materials and Methods: A self-designed questionnaire assessed the incidence of oral cancer over 10 years among patients visiting tertiary care centers in Southern Saudi Arabia. A total of 2850 files were screened. Demographic data included gender, age group, and the region from where the patient represented. The clinical presentation of the lesion, site, bilateral involvement, and histopathological variant was included in the study. Data are presented as frequency tables and percentages. Results: A total of 94 patients presented with oral cancer. The incidence of oral cancer in Southern Saudi Arabia is 3.29%; 44 (46.8%) were female and rest 50 were male (53.2%). Patients from 8 regions of Southern Saudi Arabia presented with oral cancer. Of the 8 regions, patients from Abha had the highest incidence of oral cancer (20.2%). Clinical presentation varied from the ulcer (59.3%), swelling (19%), ulcer and swelling (12%), and swelling of the neck along with ulcer in primary site (9.6%) in descending order. 37.2% of the patients presented with a lesion in the tongue making it the highest prone site. 91.5% of the patients were diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma followed by 5.3% as verrucous carcinoma and 3.5% as sarcoma. The mean follow was 5.3 years. Conclusion: The incidence of oral cancer in Southern Saudi Arabia is 3.29% over 10 years. This is significantly low when compared to similar studies conducted elsewhere. The lower incidence might be attributed to the absence of habits such as betel chewing, pan masala, and gutkha habits normally seen in India and regions around. The presentation of oral cancer is similar to other regions of the world. Surprisingly, females have an almost similar rate of incidence as males though slightly less. This makes it mandatory to assess the habits such as smoking among females more thoroughly. Tongue remains to be the site with the highest incidence which correlates with similar findings in other regions of the world.
Effect of Feed Additives on Intestinal Histomorphology of Broilers Fed Wheat-Based Diet

A 2 × 3 factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of enzyme Endofeed W (EEW) at 0 and 0.05%, thyme essential oil (TEO), probiotic Primalac ® (PP) and non-feed additive, on intestinal histomorphology of broilers fed wheat-based diet. Each of the 6 dietary treatments was replicated 4 times with 12 chicks each from 0 to 42 days of age. There was n interaction between enzyme and growth promoters on any measured parameters. Data showed that suppl mentation of wheat-based diet with EEW enhanced (P<0.05) intestinal histomorphology including jejunal villus height (VH), villus width (VW), villus surface area (VS), crypt depth (CD), mucosa layer thickness (MCL), muscular layer thickness (MSL) and number of goblet cells (GC) and ileal VH, MCL and GC at 21 and 42 days of age, as compared to broilers fed control diet. The TEO in diet did ameliorate (P<0.05) some jejunal and ileal morphological parameters, but it was less effective as compared to EEW or PP supplementation. The PP improved (P<0.05) the intestinal histomorphology in the present study in all measured parameters except the jejunal and ileal VH:CD. It was concluded that dietary EEW and growth promoters (TEO or PP) supplementation improved (P<0.05) gut health in broilers fed wheat-based diet, but the effect of probiotic Primalac o e
A cladistic analysis of the opilionid superfamily Ischyropsalidoidea, with descriptions of the new family Ceratolasmatidae, the new genus Acuclavella, and four new species

A cladistic analysis ofthe opilionid superfamily Ischyropsalidoidea revealed three groups of genera, each probably monophyletic, and recognized here as families. The family Ischyropsalididae Simon is redefined to include only the genus Ischyropsalis, the family Sabaconidae Dresco is expanded to include Sabacon (= Tomicomerus, new synonymy) and Taracus, and the family Ceratolasmatidae is described as new for the genera Ceratolasma, Hesperonemastoma, Crosbycus, and Acuclavella, new genus. Acuclavella consists offour new species from Idaho and Washington: cosmetoides, shoshone, merickeli, and quattuor. Crosbycus dasycnemus (Crosby) is redescribed and illustrated, and new distribution records are given.
The Evolving World of Chronic Kidney Disease Mineral Bone Disorder

Chronic kidney disease – mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD) is associated with a significant morbidity and mortality. In vitro and animal models suggest that phosphorous, calcium, parathyroid hormone, and vitamin D abnormalities, mediate the cardiovascular and bone diseases that characterise CKD-MBD and increase the risk of death. Currently, mineral abnormalities are corrected through phosphorous restriction, phosphate binders, calcimimetics and vitamin D administration. Nonetheless, data in humans that support the use of these compounds are still scarce, mainly based on observational studies. Thus, a considerable number of doubts and questions still challenge clinicians dealing with CKD patients and mineral metabolism imbalances. We herein critically review clinical evidence that support the use of different drugs in CKD-MBD.