Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidant Activity of Gamma-Irradiated Asparagus cochinchinensis (Asparagi radix) (Lour.) Merr. Extract and Inhibition Effect on Lipid Oxidation of Emulsion-Type Pork Sausage

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine the antioxidant activity of gamma- irradiated Asparagus cochinchinensis (Asparagi radix) (Lour.) Merr. Extract (ARE) and its inhibition effect on food lipid oxidation using emulsion-type pork sausage as a model. ARE was prepared from dried Asparagi radix root and ARE solution (1.0 g/mL) was gamma-irradiated with designated doses at 5, 10, and 20 kGy. Antioxidant activity of ARE solution was determined by measuring 1,1-diphenyl-e-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-9-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radicals. Activities of DPPH and ABTS radicals were decreased, whereas total phenolic contents increased after gamma irradiation with a dose dependence. Addition of gamma-irradiated ARE dose-dependently retarded lipid oxidation of emulsion-type pork sausage during storage at 4℃. These results indicated that gamma-irradiated ARE might have antioxidant activity more than non-irradiated ARE due to increase of the content of polyphenolic compounds by ionizing radiation.
Recent advances in the management of chronic stable angina ii. Anti-ischemic therapy, options for refractory angina, risk factor reduction, and revascularization

: The objectives in treating angina are relief of pain and prevention of disease progression through risk reduction. Mechanisms, indications, clinical forms, doses, and side effects of the traditional antianginal agents – nitrates, β -blockers, and calcium channel blockers – are reviewed. A number of patients have contraindications or remain unrelieved from anginal discomfort with these drugs. Among newer alternatives, ranolazine, recently approved in the United States, indirectly prevents the intracellular calcium overload involved in cardiac ischemia and is a welcome addition to available treatments. None, however, are disease-modifying agents. Two options for refractory angina, enhanced external counterpulsation and spinal cord stimulation (SCS), are presented in detail. They are both well-studied and are effective means of treating at least some patients with this perplexing form of angina. Traditional modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) – smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and obesity – account for most of the population-attributable risk. Individual therapy of high-risk patients differs from population-wide efforts to prevent risk factors from appearing or reducing their severity, in order to lower the national burden of disease. Current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines to lower risk in patients with chronic angina are reviewed. The Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation (COURAGE) trial showed that in patients with stable angina, optimal medical therapy alone and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with medical therapy were equal in preventing myocardial infarction and death. The integration of COURAGE results into current practice is discussed. For patients who are unstable, with very high risk, with left main coronary artery lesions, in whom medical therapy fails, and in those with acute coronary syndromes, PCI is indicated. Asymptomatic patients with CAD and those with stable angina may defer intervention without additional risk to see if they will improve on optimum medical therapy. For many patients, coronary artery bypass surgery offers the best opportunity for relieving angina, reducing the need for additional revascularization procedures and improving survival. Optimal medical therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention, and surgery are not competing therapies, but are complementary and form a continuum, each filling an important evidence-based need in modern comprehensive management.
Stakeholder meanings and robustness in social-ecological systems : implications for managing change.

Alignment of stakeholder behaviour with policies and rules is a key concern where natural resources are managed in the public interest. This thesis is based on the premise that behaviours are founded upon meanings as meanings direct stakeholder preferences for resource benefits. I developed a framework representing a social-ecological system and drew on the theories of symbolic interactionism and ecosystem services to illustrate the dynamic relationship between meaning, context, behaviour, perception of benefits and public infrastructure (policies). I propose that by incorporating meanings into the design of institutions, public infrastructure will continually reflect adjustments in meaning reordering in relation to the meanings of the collective to promote supportive stakeholder behaviour and enhancing system robustness during times of slow as well as rapid, disruptive change. The validity of the framework was tested using a case study from Tokai, South Africa. An interpretive and post-normal paradigm provided the foundation for the detection of stakeholder meanings brought to the fore by semistructured narrative interviews. Computer aided software and a combination of inductive and deductive analysis were used to generate themes and expressions to illustrate the construction and evolution of meanings during two distinctive phases in the social-ecological history of
Super-resolution microscopy of the ß-carboxysome reveals a homogenous matrix

Carbon fixation in cyanobacteria makes a major contribution to the global carbon cycle. The cyanobacterial carboxysome is a proteinaceous microcompartment that protects and concentrates the carbon-fixing enzyme RuBisCO in a paracrystalline lattice, making it possible for these organisms to fix CO2 from the atmosphere. The protein responsible for the organization of this lattice in beta-type carboxysomes of the freshwater cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus, CcmM, occurs in two isoforms thought to localize differentially within the carboxysome matrix. Here we use widefield timelapse and 3D-structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) to study the recruitment and localization of these two isoforms. We demonstrate that this super-resolution technique is capable of successfully resolving the outer protein shell of the carboxysome from its internal cargo. We develop an automated analysis pipeline to analyze and quantify 3D-SIM images and generate a population level description of carboxysome shell protein, RuBisCO, and CcmM isoform localization. We find that both CcmM isoforms colocalize in space and time, prompting a revised model of the internal arrangement of the beta carboxysome.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Asking today the crucial questions of tomorrow: Social robots and the internet of toys

Social robots and the Internet of Toys present key technologies in children’s future life. Based on Winfield (2012), we conceptualize the relationship between social robots and smart/connected toys with six characteristics: interactivity, energy, sensors, software-control, movement, and embodiment. These characteristics, in turn, help to classify social robots and smart/connected toys along three dimensions (i.e., horizontal, vertical, and spatial integration), which suggests that social robots and smart/connected toys differ gradually rather than categorically. We identify three common theoretical (absence or heterogeneity of theory, lacking developmental perspective, insufficient attention to intercultural differences) and three methodological issues (lack of standardized measures, study design issues, dominance of cross-sectional studies) that research on both social robots and the Internet of Toys needs to address.
Benchmark experiments for higher-order and full Stokes ice sheet models ( ISMIP-HOM ) ∗

1 Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP160/03, Av. F. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium 2 Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland 3 Institute for Geophysics, University of Muenster, Corrensstrasse 24, 48149 Muenster, Germany 4 Vakgroep Geografie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium 5 Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l’Environnement (LGGE), CNRS, UJF-Grenoble I, BP 96, 38402 Saint Martin d’Hères Cedex, France
Modeling Physical and Biological Processes in Antarctic Sea Ice

The Southern Ocean (ca. 20% of the world ocean surface) and its ice covered area play a significant role in global climate regulation, representing a priori a potential sink area for atmospheric CO2. During the winter, the sea ice cover acts as a barrier and its presence has an enormous effect on the exchange of heat, moisture and momentum between ocean and atmosphere. From a biological point of view, sea ice with its network of brine channels is a rich habitat for microbial communities and a variety of small organisms, and therefore of vital importance for the whole Antarctic ecosystem. In this work, a coupled biological-physical sea ice model was developed to investigate the influence of transient changes in environmental conditions (e.g. light, temperature and nutrient dynamics) on the sea ice biological communities. To simulate this complex environment, the biological model uses self-adapting physiological schemes and variable cellular N:C and Si:C quotas, including co-limitation, to decouple biomass accumulation and inorganic nutrient availability. Forcing terms (ice temperature, brine salinity, light and nutrients) are controlled by the thermodynamic sea ice model, with emphasis on the light and heat conduction through the sea ice and desalination processes (flux of brine). The model indicates that thermodynamic processes controlling ice formation and growth play a key role in the establishment and vertical distribution of biological sea ice communities. The coupled biological-physical model is described in a Lagrangian manner, where the time-dependent position of simulated ice floes extracted from ice velocity fields are used to compute forcing parameters (e.g. air temperature, oceanic heat flux, solar radiation). A good agreement between model results and field observations was found, indicating that the model well represents the physical and biological processes in sea ice. The model was also used to estimate the total productivity of sea ice in the Weddell Sea, resulting in an annual carbon production of ≈ 11 Tg C with a strong seasonal variability. The most productive months are between December and February, when light and temperature conditions in the sea ice are considerably enhanced as compared to the other months. Between May and September, the sea ice productivity ranges from 0.16 to 0.6 Tg C month −1 contributing 17% to the total annual production. This production has an important role in the sea ice ecosystem, particularly for the overwintering organisms associated with the pack-ice, such as the Antarctic krillEuphasia superba . The exercise of modeling physical and biological processes in sea ice presented in this work provides an improvement of our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice ecosystem.
A study of the Earth's response to surface loading with application to Lake Bonneville

Summary. Analytical solutions are presented for the deformation of a three‐layered plane earth with elastic—viscoelastic rheology and subject to time‐dependent vertical surface loads. The models investigated are: (1) elastic or viscoelastic layers overlying an inviscid fluid; (2) viscoelastic half‐space; (3) elastic layer over a viscoelastic layer with different boundary conditions at the base of the second layer. Emphasis is given to the interdependence between the dominant parameters of thickness of the elastic layer, the effective viscosity of the viscoelastic layer, the change in viscosity with depth and the wavelength and duration of loading. The models have been applied to the loading and unloading of the late Pleistocene pluvial Lake Bonneville using the load histories given by Crittenden. The studies differ from earlier analyses of the Bonneville uplift in several important aspects including: a rigorous treatment of the horizontal and vertical coupling between the elastic and viscoelastic media; the mantle is treated as viscoelastic rather than as a viscous medium; the wavelength information has been introduced by using a more realistic model for the load geometry; and the effect of the Wasatch Fault has been considered. The models indicate that the two principal parameters defining the rebound are the effective viscosity of the upper mantle and the effective thickness of the elastic layer and that those two parameters can be separated only if both wavelength and amplitude information of the deformation is available at more than one epoch. Observations of uplift at one epoch are not sufficient to resolve the thickness of the elastic layer and the effective viscosity of the upper mantle but upper bounds for these quantities are well established as 30km and 1.2 ± 10 poise respectively. The uplift results do not confirm or deny the possibility of a low viscosity channel in the upper mantle but this can be resolved only if the uplift data are supplemented with observations of the present uplift rate. The published rates are controversial, but if valid they point to a thin (± 15 km) elastic layer and a relatively narrow (± 200km) low viscosity channel. While the models predict uplift near the centre of the former lake, they also predict that the peripheral regions should be subsiding appreciably if flow is confined into a shallow channel of low viscosity. Observations reported by Anderson & Bucknam suggests such behaviour. Likewise the present rate of uplift changes sign at some distance from the centre of the lake and detailed observations of warping of the shorelines and repeated levelling in the area may yield further constraints on the rebound model. Copyright
Language Policy and Economic Development

We explore the role of language policy choices as a source of growth and development of nation states. First in a cross-country framework we document that choosing as official a language that is distant from the ones spoken by the local population is negatively correlated with the level of income per capita. This effect is economically meaningful and robust to a wide variety of controls such as institutional quality, geography, ethno-linguistic fractionalization and natural resources. To help interpret the cross-country results, we identify theoretically two channels: (a) the individual’s exposure to and (b) the individual’s mother tongue’s distance from the official language. Next, using individual level data from a set of twelve African countries and India, we provide empirical support on how these two channels affect human capital and occupational outcomes. Finally, we present narrative evidence on why, given the welfare implications of language policy, post-colonial elites have sustained inefficient policies. The theoretical and empirical evidence presented suggest the need for further exploration of the role of language in economic development. JEL: I24, I25, I28, Z18.
Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series Working

Empirical studies of the role of non-cognitive skills in driving economic behavior often rely heavily on the assumption that these skills are stable over the relevant time frame. We analyze the change in a specific non-cognitive skill, i.e. locus of control, in order to directly assess the validity of this assumption. We find that short-and medium-run changes in locus of control are rather modest on average, are concentrated among the young or very old, do not appear to be related to the demographic, labor market, and health events that individuals experience, and are unlikely to be economically meaningful. Still, there is no evidence that locus of control is truly time-invariant implying that the use of lagged measures results in an errors-in-variables problem that could downward bias the estimated wage return to locus of control by as much as 50 percent. Those researchers wishing to analyze the economic consequences of non-cognitive skills should consider (i) restricting their analysis to the working-age population for whom there is little evidence of systematic change in skill levels and (ii) accounting for error in the skill measures they employ.
Exhumation history of the Tatry Mountains, Western Carpathians, constrained by low‐temperature thermochronology

This study tests alternative models for the growth of the Tatry Mountains (Central Western Carpathians) by the application of low‐temperature thermochronology. Zircon (U + Th)/He ages from the north of the range are mostly between 48 and 37 Ma and indicate cooling prior to the onset of fore‐arc sedimentation in the region (42–39 Ma). In contrast, zircon (U + Th)/He ages in the south of the range are around 22 Ma. Apatite fission track ages across the sampled sites range from 20 to 15 Ma. Apatite (U + Th)/He ages range from 18 to 14 Ma with little variation with elevation or horizontal location. Based on thermal modeling and tectonic reconstructions, these Miocene ages are interpreted as cooling in the hanging wall of a northward dipping thrust ramp in the current location of the sub‐Tatric fault with cooling rates of ~20°C/Myr at ~22–14 Ma. Modeled cooling histories require an abrupt deceleration in cooling after ~14 Ma to <5°C/Myr. This is associated with termination of deformation in the Outer Carpathians and is synchronous with the transition of the Pannonian Basin from a syn‐rift to a postrift stage and with termination of N‐S compression in the northern part of the Central Western Carpathians. Overall, the timing of shortening and exhumation is synchronous with the formation of the Outer Carpathian orogen and so the Miocene exhumation of the Tatry records retrovergent thrusting at the northern margin of the Alcapa microplate.
EFFECTS OF PLANT DENSITY, ORGANIC MATTER AND NITROGEN RATES ON RICE YIELDS IN THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) IN THE "OFFICE DU NIGER" IN MALI

A study was conducted to determine influence of combined application of farmyard manure and different levels of inorganic fertilizer on growth, yield and yield components in the System of Rice Intensification in Mali. Three types of experiments were conducted at the agronomic research station of the Regional Centre of Agronomic Research of Niono (CRRA-N) in the Office du Niger zone, which extends in the North-eastern direction (between 13° and 15° latitudes North and 4°-6° Western longitudes). The materials used comprised a rice variety, mineral fertilizers and organic matter. The rice variety used was Kogoni 91-1 also called (Gambiaka Suruni) which is an improved variety with a cycle of 120 days. The mineral fertilizers used were, triple superphosphate (TSP), Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP, urea and potassium chloride. The potassium chloride was uniformly applied to all plots, while the rate of application of TSP, urea and DAP depended on the treatments described in the research protocol. The organic matter (OM) source was animal manure coming from the animal park of the research station. This manure was characterized by low content of nitrogen (0, 34 %N), phosphorus (0.16% P) and potassium (0.65% K). The results indicated significant yield benefit of the SRI system although the drainage system not efficient. Significant interaction between row spacing and soil fertility level occurred showing that row spacing as wide as 30cm x 30cm can be used in SRI system when soil fertility is high. However, when soil fertility level is low, it is reasonable to use row spacing of 25cm x 25cm or narrower as certain studies have already shown it. Although good yield can be obtained using farmyard manure, addition of mineral fertilizer still increase rice yield showing that combination of organic and inorganic fertilizer should be considered to sustain rice yield.
WHP 165 A multi-cue bayesian state estimator for gaze prediction in open signed video

On most delivery platforms, bandwidth or bit-rate is limited; it thus becomes important to match the quality of compression coding used for any service to the particular service needs. An approach to compression which preferentially assigns values of precedence to the “salient” elements of a scene offers a potential route to more efficient or successful coding especially in bit-rate scarce delivery systems. This paper describes research on optimising the coding of open-signed video which has been undertaken by Sam Davies at the University of Bristol as part of his BBC-sponsored Ph.D. The work has direct potential relevance to the provision of signed TV content but will have other potential applications relevant to a broadcaster. Additional key words: none
Interannual variability in global biomass burning emissions from 1997 to 2004

Biomass burning represents an important source of atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases, yet little is known about its interannual variability or the underlying mechanisms regulating this variability at continental to global scales. Here we investigated fire emissions during the 8 year period from 1997 to 2004 using satellite data and the CASA biogeochemical model. Burned area from 2001–2004 was derived using newly available active fire and 500 m. burned area datasets from MODIS following the approach described by Giglio et al. (2006). ATSR and VIRS satellite data were used to extend the burned area time series back in time through 1997. In our analysis we estimated fuel loads, including organic soil layer and peatland fuels, and the net flux from terrestrial ecosystems as the balance between net primary production (NPP), heterotrophic respiration ( R h ), and biomass burning, using time varying inputs of precipitation (PPT), temperature, solar radiation, and satellite-derived fractional absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR). For the 1997–2004 period, we found that on average approximately 58 Pg C year −1 was fixed by plants as NPP, and approximately 95% of this was returned back to the atmosphere via R h . Another 4%, or 2.5 Pg C year −1 was emitted by biomass burning; the remainder consisted of losses from fuel wood collection and subsequent burning. At a global scale, burned area and total fire emissions were largely decoupled from year to year. Total carbon emissions tracked burning in forested areas (including deforestation fires in the tropics), whereas burned area was largely controlled by savanna fires that responded to different environmental and human factors. Biomass burning emissions showed large interannual variability with a range of more than 1 Pg C year −1 , with a maximum in 1998 (3.2 Pg C year −1 ) and a minimum in 2000 (2.0 Pg C year −1 ).