Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extraction and Characterization of Cottonseed ( Gossypium ) Oil

This study investigated the extraction and characterization of cottonseed oil using solvent extraction method. Normal hexane was used asolvent in the extraction process. The AOAC method of Analysis was employed i n the determination of the chemical, physical and proximate compositions of the oil. The chemical properties of the oil determined include the saponification va lue, free fatty acid, iodine value, peroxide value and acid value. The physical propert ies of the oil determined are viscosity, specific gravity, refractive index, color, odor, taste and pH. The values obtained are Saponification value (189mgKOH/g), fre e fatty acid (5.75mgKOH/g), iodine value (94.7gI/100g), peroxide value (9.25mEq/kg) and acid value (11.50mgKOH/g). The proximate compositio ns obtained are Carbohydrate (57.06%), lipid/fat (13.30%), crude fi ber (0.5%), ash (1.5%), moisture content (7.21%), and crude protein (15.40% ). The oil yield was 15.05%. From the results obtained it can be seen that cotto nseed oil has great potential for use as domestic and industrial oil.
Organic vs conventional winter wheat quality and organoleptic bread test.

In the frame of a long-term experiment carried out in Central Italy, conventional and organic winter wheat cropping systems were compared in 2004 and 2005 to evaluate the effect of system management on wheat grain yield and quality. The organic system showed grain and straw yield about 50% lower than the conventional system. Organic grain samples resulted 20% lower in protein content and exhibited poor bread production qualities. Despite that, organic bread, did not show differences in crust thickness, crumb volume and in crumb alveolus structure in a visual evaluation. Differences were, however, appreciated by panellists who found organic bread harder and more flavourful than conventional.
Frailty and dementia: what can the body tell us about the brain? Commentary on "Frailty and neuropathology in relation to dementia status: The Cambridge City over-75s Cohort study " by Wallace et al.

We have been repeatedly confronted with the failure of tau and amyloid-targeting drugs to meaningfully impact the clinical course of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. Although tau and amyloid biomarkers have shown promise in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, they will have limited real-world impact until clinically effective, disease-modifying therapies are attainable. Our attention has increasingly turned to prevention strategies, signaled by the recent Lancet Dementia Commission (Livingston et al., 2020), which reported around 40% of dementias worldwide can be prevented or delayed via a number of potentially modifiable risk factors. Wallace and colleagues (Wallace et al., 2021) retrospectively analyzed post-mortem data and found that frailty, a clinical syndrome of systemic vulnerability, predicted dementia risk in the ‘oldest-old’ that was not accounted for by age or neuropathological burden, supporting the concept that frailty could be a prevention target for dementia.
Shopping for hydrologically representative connectivity metrics in a humid temperate forested catchment

In order for connectivity to serve as an effective diagnostic classification tool of hydrological behavior, it clearly matters (1) how it is measured and (2) whether the chosen measures are correlated not only to catchment‐scale antecedent moisture conditions but also to streamflow discharges. Previous studies have advocated that connectivity in shallow soil moisture patterns induces threshold‐like changes in runoff in temperate rangeland catchments but not in temperate humid forested catchments. We argue that in the latter environments, capturing critical spatial organization in soil moisture patterns depends on the way the chosen connectivity metric is built. We therefore tested a large selection of 2‐D and 3‐D connectivity measures in a temperate humid forested catchment (Laurentians, Canada). Computations were based on continuous soil moisture patterns collected on 16 occasions at four soil depths and then transformed into indicator patterns using either time‐variable or time‐invariant thresholds. Assessments of connectivity were variable depending on the computed metric, as just a few measures were significantly correlated with both antecedent moisture conditions and catchment discharges. In particular, topography‐based connectivity metrics reflected changes in catchment macrostate and stormflow response better than omnidirectional methods. Also, source‐to‐stream connectivity metrics were more hydrologically sensitive than metrics that did not consider the spatial linkage to the stream channel. These conclusions stress the importance of searching for the right connectivity metric for hydrologic prediction, especially in humid forested environments that exhibit much larger variability in soil hydrologic properties than temperate rangeland catchments.
Large-scale impact and explosion craters - Comparisons of morphological and structural analogs

Crater studies indicate now that there are a broad set of morphological and structural analogs which occur in both impact and explosion craters. A description is presented of impact and explosion analogs for three basic crater types, including bowl-shaped craters, flat-floored craters with central uplift, and flat-floored craters with multirings. A systematic documentation is provided of the more critical morphological and structural analogs common between large natural bowl-shaped impact and explosion craters, between central uplift impact and explosion craters, and between multiring impact and explosion craters. The data presented consist of a set of published and unpublished cratering studies assembled into a single ordered outline with each crater described in the same format and graphic style.
AN APPROACH TO THE CONSOLIDATION OF SNOW.

Abstract : A consolidation theory is developed for an age-hardened snow under uniaxial stress in the porosity range of 35 to 55% by considering one mechanism, viz., viscous flow of interparticle bonds. For a uniaxial stress sigma, the differential equation for porosity n in terms of time t is shown to be 1/(1-n) dn/dt = nu sigma n/eta (1-an) where a and nu are structural parameters and eta is the coefficient of viscosity of ice. Comparison of this equation and the integrated form with existing data predicts consistent and reasonable values for a. The predicted values of eta/nu range from 0.01 to 100 times the published values for eta, which may indicate that nu, and hence the consolidation rate, is greatly affected by the diagenetic history of the snow and the conditions of experimentation. (Author)
THE IMPACT OF USING THE UPGRADE PROCESSING OF ASAR LEVEL 2 WAVE PRODUCTS IN THE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM

The ASAR data provided by the upgraded level 2 wave mode have been used in the assimilation system developed at Meteo France. Two periods of last week of May and the month of July 2004 are considered for this study. The validation of upgraded level-2 wave mode with the WAM model showed the improvement of the wave parameters and their consistency. The assimilation runs have been performed with ASAR wave spectra from the new and old level-2 wave mode. Two cases of wavelength cut-off have been investigated in order to evaluate their impact on the results. Statistical analysis in comparison with altimeter Jason-1 and buoys data exhibits a positive impact for the upgraded level-2 wave mode in terms of root mean square error of significant wave height. Furthermore, the accepted ASAR wave spectra in the analysis process are well increased.
Diagenetic origin of Basal Anhydrite in the Cretaceous Maha Sarakham salt: Khorat Plateau, NE Thailand

Development of a diagenetic anhydrite bed at the base of the Cretaceous Maha Sarakham Saline Formation (the `Basal Anhydrite' member) of the Khorat Plateau in north‐eastern Thailand took place due to leaching and/or pressure dissolution of salt at the contact between an underlying active sandstone aquifer system and an overlying massive halite‐dominated evaporite sequence. Basal evaporites composed of halite with intercalated anhydrite of the latter sequence are undergoing dissolution as a result of subsurface flushing, with anhydrite produced as the insoluble residue. The result is a 1·1 m thick interval of nodular anhydrite displaying unique, basin‐wide continuity. Observed textures, petrographic features and chemical data from the anhydrite and associated authigenic minerals support the origin of the Basal Anhydrite Member as an accumulation residue from the dissolution of the Maha Sarakham salts. Petrographically, the anhydrite in this unit is made up of crystals that are blocky and recrystallized, sheared, generally elongated and broken, and is bounded at the bottom by organic‐rich stylolite surfaces. Authigenic and euhedral dolomite and calcite crystals are associated with the anhydrite. Traces of pyrite, galena and chalcopyrite are present along the stylolite surfaces suggesting supply of fresh water from the underlying sandstone at highly reducing conditions of burial. The δ34S of sulphate in the Basal Anhydrite averages 15 ‰ (CDT) and falls within the isotopic composition of the anhydrite in the Cretaceous Maha Sarakham Formation proper and the Cretaceous values of marine evaporites. Measured δ18O in dolomite range from −4·37 to −14·26‰ (PDB) suggesting a re‐equilibration of dolomite with basinal water depleted in 18O and possible recrystallization of dolomite under relatively elevated temperatures. The δ13C, however, varies from +1·57 to −2·53‰ (PDB) suggesting a contribution of carbon from oxidation of organic matter. This basal anhydrite bed, similar to basinwide beds found at the bottom of many giant evaporite sequences, has always been considered to be depositional. Here, at the base of the Maha Sarakham Formation, we demonstrate that the anhydrite is diagenetic in origin and was formed by accumulation of original anhydrite by dissolution of interbedded halite from waters circulating though the underlying aquifer: it represents an `upside‐down' caprock.
Assisting the training of deep neural networks with applications to computer vision

Deep learning has recently been enjoying an increasing popularity due to its success in solving challenging tasks. In particular, deep learning has proven to be effective in a large variety of computer vision tasks, such as image classification, object recognition and image parsing. Contrary to previous research, which required engineered feature representations, designed by experts, in order to succeed, deep learning attempts to learn representation hierarchies automatically from data. More recently, the trend has been to go deeper with representation hierarchies. Learning (very) deep representation hierarchies is a challenging task, which involves the optimization of highly non-convex functions. Therefore, the search for algorithms to ease the learning of (very) deep representation hierarchies from data is extensive and ongoing. In this thesis, we tackle the challenging problem of easing the learning of (very) deep representation hierarchies. We present a hyper-parameter free, off-the-shelf, simple and fast unsupervised algorithm to discover hidden structure from the input data by enforcing a very strong form of sparsity. We study the applicability and potential of the algorithm to learn representations of varying depth in a handful of applications and domains, highlighting the ability of the algorithm to provide discriminative feature representations that are able to achieve top performance. Yet, while emphasizing the great value of unsupervised learning methods when labeled data is scarce, the recent industrial success of deep learning has revolved around supervised learning. Supervised learning is currently the focus of many recent research advances, which have shown to excel at many computer vision tasks. Top performing systems often involve very large and deep models, which are not well suited for applications with time or memory limitations. More in line with the current trends, we engage in making top performing models more efficient, by designing very deep and thin models. Since training such very deep models still appears to be a challenging task, we introduce a novel algorithm that guides the training of very thin and deep models by hinting their intermediate representations. Very deep and thin models trained by the proposed algorithm end up extracting feature representations that are comparable or even better performing than the ones extracted by large state-of-the-art models, while compellingly reducing the time and memory consumption of the model.
Prediction of Organic Anion-Transporting Polypeptide 1B1- and 1B3-Mediated Hepatic Uptake of Statins Based on Transporter Protein Expression and Activity Data

Organic anion-transporting polypeptides (OATP) 1B1 and OATP1B3 are drug transporters mediating the active hepatic uptake of their substrates. Because they exhibit overlapping substrate specific-ities, the contribution of each isoform to the net hepatic uptake needs to be considered when predicting drug-drug interactions. The relative contribution of OATP1B1- and OATP1B3-mediated uptake of statins into hepatocytes was estimated based on either relative transporter protein expression data or relative activity data. Therefore, kinetics of eight statins and OATP1B1- and OATP1B3-specific reference substrates was determined in OATP1B1- and OATP1B3-expressing human embryonic kidney 293 cells and in human cryopreserved hepatocytes. Absolute OATP1B1 and OATP1B3 protein abundance was determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in all expression systems. Transporter activity data generated in recombinant cell lines were extrapolated to hepatocyte values using relative transporter expression factors (REF) or relative activity factors (RAF). Our results showed a pronounced OATP1B1 and comparatively low OATP1B3 protein expression in the investigated hepatocyte lot. Based on REF scaling, we demonstrated that the active hepatic uptake clearances of reference substrates, atorvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin were well predicted within twofold error, demonstrating that OATP1B1 and OATP1B3 were major contributors. For other statins, the net hepatic uptake clearance was underpredicted, suggesting the involvement of other hepatic uptake transporters. Summarized, we showed that REF- and RAF-based pre-dictions were highly similar, indicating a direct transporter expression-activity relationship. Moreover, we demonstrated that the REF-scaling method provided a powerful tool to quantitatively assess the transporter-specific contributions to the net uptake clearance of statins in hepatocytes. differences in uptake clearances obtained in incubations in the presence and absence of transporter inhibitors was assessed by unpaired, two-tailed Student ’ s t test. Differences were considered to be statistically significant for P values below 0.05. For parameter estimation based on data fitting, the co- efficients of determination (R 2 ) were determined to assess the goodness of fit. Moreover, fold-error deviations between the observed and predicted hepatic PS act,max values were calculated to assess the performance of the REF- and RAF-based prediction methods.
An analytical fiber bundle model for pullout mechanics of root bundles

[1] Roots in soil contribute to the mechanical stability of slopes. Estimation of root reinforcement is challenging because roots form complex biological networks whose geometrical and mechanical characteristics are difficult to characterize. Here we describe an analytical model that builds on simple root descriptors to estimate root reinforcement. Root bundles are modeled as bundles of heterogeneous fibers pulled along their long axes neglecting root-soil friction. Analytical expressions for the pullout force as a function of displacement are derived. The maximum pullout force and corresponding critical displacement are either derived analytically or computed numerically. Key model inputs are a root diameter distribution (uniform, Weibull, or lognormal) and three empirical power law relations describing tensile strength, elastic modulus, and length of roots as functions of root diameter. When a root bundle with root tips anchored in the soil matrix is pulled by a rigid plate, a unique parameter, , that depends only on the exponents of the power law relations, dictates the order in which roots of different diameters break. If 1, large roots break first. When = 1, all fibers break simultaneously, and the maximum tensile force is simply the roots' mean force times the number of roots in the bundle. Based on measurements of root geometry and mechanical properties, the value of is less than 1, usually ranging between 0 and 0.7. Thus, small roots always fail first. The model shows how geometrical and mechanical characteristics of roots and root diameter distribution affect the pullout force, its maximum and corresponding displacement. Comparing bundles of roots that have similar mean diameters, a bundle with a narrow variance in root diameter will result in a larger maximum force and a smaller displacement at maximum force than a bundle with a wide diameter distribution. Increasing the mean root diameter of a bundle without changing the distribution's shape increases both the maximum force and corresponding displacement. Estimates of the maximum pullout forces for bundles of 100 roots with identical diameter distribution for different species range from less than 1 kN for barley (Hordeum vulgare) to almost 16 kN for pistachio (Pistacia lentiscus). The model explains why a commonly used assumption that all roots break simultaneously overpredicts the maximum pullout force by a factor of about 1.6–2. This ratio may exceed 3 for diameter distributions that have a large number of small roots like the exponential distribution.
Possible Role of Adipose Tissue and Endocannabinoid System in COVID-19 Pathogenesis: Can Rimonabant Return?

Perspective Possible Role of Adipose Tissue and Endocannabinoid System in COVID-19 Pathogenesis: Can Rimonabant Return? Fabienne Briand-Mésange, Stéphanie Trudel, Juliette Salles, Jérôme Ausseil, Jean-Pierre Salles, and Hugues Chap* Centre de Physiopathologie de Toulouse Purpan (CPTP), Université de Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, U5282, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1043, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse F-31300, France
Sexual Dysfunction and Psychotropic Medications

Abstract Psychotropic drugs are often associated with sexual dysfunction. The frequency of antidepressant-associated sexual dysfunction is greatly underestimated in clinical trials that rely on patient self-report of these adverse events. Direct inquiry reveals that delayed orgasm/ejaculation occurs in ≥50% and anorgasmia in at least one third of patients given selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction can be successfully managed. A different antidepressant without significant sexual effects, such as bupropion or mirtazapine, can often be substituted. Other strategies involve drug holidays or adjunctive therapy with drugs such as sildenafil. Dopamine antagonist antipsychotic drugs are most commonly associated with decreased libido. The newer atypical antipsychotics, with less effect on dopamine, are less commonly associated with sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction is commonly reported with seizure disorders, and many anticonvulsant drugs affect levels of sex hormones. Because sexual dysfunction can be related to many factors, care must be taken to establish the patient's baseline sexual functioning before the initiation of psychotropic drug therapy and to rule out other etiologies before drugs are implicated as causative.
Evidence of internal mixing of African dust and biomass burning particles by individual particle analysis using electron beam techniques

[1] In this investigation, the interaction between aerosols derived from biomass burning and dust aerosol is the focus of interest. We have examined the morphology and chemical composition of dust and biomass burning aerosol particles sampled on airborne filters using an environmental scanning electron microscope equipped with both an energy dispersive X-ray analysis and an image analysis system. Using these techniques, we were able to study both mineral dust and biomass burning particles in samples containing significant amounts of both biomass burning and dust aerosol, compared to samples dominated by biomass burning aerosol and a sample dominated by dust aerosol. Thirteen particle types were classified in the samples. Aluminosilicates were the dominant particle type in the sample dominated by dust aerosol. Many more particles were found to be rich in S, Na, and K in the sample dominated by biomass burning aerosols, and particles in these samples were also found to be completely devoid of Cl due to aging of the aerosol and chemical conversion during atmospheric transport. We suggest that biomass burning particles containing all three characteristic elements are internal mixtures. Particle imaging showed that up to a third of soot particles were internally mixed with mineral dust particles in samples containing significant numbers of both biomass burning and mineral dust particles. This internal mixing would change the optical properties of the particle ensemble and the direct radiative forcing caused by biomass burning significantly.
Effect of Mica on Particle-Size Analyses Using the Laser Diffraction Technique

New sizing technologies commonly make particle-size analyses more routine, simpler, and less time consuming. The proliferation of new technologies led Syvitski et al. (1991) to recommend that "new particle size instruments should no longer have their results compared with those of the classical methods of sieving and pipetting. " However, care is required to ensure that results are broadly comparable to those obtained using established methodologies, especially where sediment classification and environmental processes are being interpreted using traditional schemes. The progressive development of new classification schemes based on modern particle-size analysis techniques will eventually mitigate this problem. Laser particle-size analyses of Upper Neogene micaceous terrigenous deposits from New Zealand have yielded some significantly different grain-size distributions compared to traditional sieving methods. These differences typically escalated with increasing sand content. A series of test samples spiked with increasing amounts of mica demonstrate that very small amounts of mica (< 2 wt%) have the potential to significantly alter the grain-size characteristics obtained using a laser particle sizer compared to sieve analyses. This is probably due to the mica particles having (a) a higher light-scattering property, and (b) large numbers of particles per unit volume, resulting in mica being overestimated.