Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-pulsing discharge in hollow cathode simulated by a fluid model

A fluid model without an external circuit is used in simulating self-pulses in hollow cathode discharge under a He-Ar gas at 10 Torr. The average discharge current increases with anode potential, and three types of self-pulsing discharge modes are obtained: (a) regular self-pulse, (b) low amplitude self-pulse, and (c) damped oscillating pulses modes. The temporal and spatial distributions of plasma parameters in the self-pulsing discharge mode are studied. Results show that the electron density, electric potential, electric field, total net electron production rates integrated over the entire discharge cell and net positive charge density change periodically in a self-pulsing period. Self-pulsing frequency ranges from tens of kHz to more than 100 kHz, and increases linearly with the average discharge current approximately. In the present average discharge current range, the peak value and current amplitude of pulsing current increases and then decreases with the increasing average current, whereas the minimum pulsing current consistently increases. The change trend of extreme self-pulsing discharge current is consistent with the change trends of total net electron production rate and net positive charge density in the discharge space. Finally, the mechanism of self-pulse in a hollow cathode discharge is proposed. Simulated results show that the phases of different plasma parameters are different in different discharge regions in a self-pulsing period. Non-equilibrium fluctuation of plasma parameters in different discharge regions is one of important factors in the formation of self-pulse. Self-pulse does not depend on an external circuit and originates from the internal microcosmic mechanism of discharge: the enhancement and weakening of the positive charge layer.
Future cooling gap in shared socioeconomic pathways

The extent to which societies will globally be able to adapt to climate change is not well understood. Here we analyze socioeconomic dimensions of adaptive capacity of populations to deal with heat stress and find income, urbanization and income inequality to be important factors in explaining adaptation to heat stress with air conditioning (AC). Using the scenario framework of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), we estimate the future cooling gap, which represents the difference between the population exposed to heat stress and the population able to protect against heat stress with AC. Depending on the scenario of socioeconomic development, total population affected by the cooling gap may vary between 2 billion and 5 billion people in 2050, with the scenario-dependent range widening further towards the end of the century. Our analysis shows vast regional inequalities in adaptive capacity for one of the most universal manifestations of climate change, underscoring the need to account for the different potential levels of adaptive capacity in assessments of climate change impacts.
Mapping the landscape of synthetic lethal interactions in liver cancer

Almost all the current therapies against liver cancer are based on the “one size fits all” principle and offer only limited survival benefit. Fortunately, synthetic lethality (SL) may provide an alternate route towards individualized therapy in liver cancer. The concept that simultaneous losses of two genes are lethal to a cell while a single loss is non-lethal can be utilized to selectively eliminate tumors with genetic aberrations. Methods: To infer liver cancer-specific SL interactions, we propose a computational pipeline termed SiLi (statistical inference-based synthetic lethality identification) that incorporates five inference procedures. Based on large-scale sequencing datasets, SiLi analysis was performed to identify SL interactions in liver cancer. Results: By SiLi analysis, a total of 272 SL pairs were discerned, which included 209 unique target candidates. Among these, polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) was considered to have considerable therapeutic potential. Further computational and experimental validation of the SL pair TP53-PLK1 demonstrated that inhibition of PLK1 could be a novel therapeutic strategy specifically targeting those patients with TP53-mutant liver tumors. Conclusions: In this study, we report a comprehensive analysis of synthetic lethal interactions of liver cancer. Our findings may open new possibilities for patient-tailored therapeutic interventions in liver cancer.
Climate change and potential distribution of lima beans in Mesoamérica and Aridoamérica

The objectives of this investigation were to characterize the ecological descriptors and to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the potential distribution of the lima bean Phaseolus lunatus L. in the Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica regions. A database of sites of occurrence was integrated taking six sources. From the geographical coordinates of these sites of occurrence and by using geographic information systems, values of agroclimatic variables derived from rasters of the Worldclim, USGS/NASA SRTM and CGIAR systems were extracted. Thus, an agroclimatic data matrix was integrated through which the ecological descriptors of Phaseolus lunatus were determined. The distribution of P. lunatus was modeled with the Maxent model. The results showed that P. lunatus adapts to a wide range of environmental conditions that includes a hydric condition that goes from semi-arid to humid, a thermal condition that ranges from tempered to very warm, and has a presence in the altitudinal, thermal and rain ranges of 0-2 386 masl, 13.2-29.9 °C and 400-4 250 mm, respectively. These descriptors indicate the existence of populations carrying genes resistant to climatic stress conditions. The Maxent model successfully modeled the distribution of Phaseolus lunatus in the different climatic scenarios evaluated (AUC= 0.94). The climate change projected by the HADGEM-ES model for 2050 and 2070 and RCPs 4.5 and 8.5 is unfavorable for the distribution of P. lunatus, while according to the CCMS4 model the climate 2050 and 2070 is favorable on the RCP4.5 route and unfavorable on route RCP8.5.
The Effect of pH Cycling on Surface Microhardness and Fluoride Release of Two Modified Nanoclay Glass Ionomer Restorations In Class V Cavities

Purpose: To assess the effect of pH cycling on surface microhardness and fluoride release of two modified nanoclay glass ionomer restorations (in vitro). Materials and Methods: A total of 180 permanent human caries free premolars were used. Class V were prepared on facial surfaces of the teeth. They were classified according to type of glass ionomer used for restoration of the cavities into three groups (60 teeth each); conventional glass ionomer medifill (A1), Dellite 43 modified glass ionomer (A2), and Dellite LVF modified glass ionomer (A3). Each group was moreover subdivided into three subgroups (20 teeth each) relative to the immersion solution used. The First subgroup remained in distilled Water (B1 control), the second subgroup was stored in artificial Saliva (B2) whereas the third subgroup was subjected to PH cycling (B3). Microhardness and fluoride release were measured after 7 and 30 days respectively. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean microhardness and fluoride release between the different materials after pH cycling (p≤0.001). PH cycling reduced the mean microhardness of the materials but induced the highest fluoride release. Conclusion: The proposed pH cycling model affected the microhardness of the tested materials while improved their fluoride release. Although the incorporation of montmorillonite into glass ionomer liquid improved the microhardness of the materials but it had yet, no effect on its fluoride release.
Effect of Adding Broccoli Leaves (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) Extract to Drinking Water on Eggs Production and Intestinal Microflora of Japanese Quail Coturnix japonica Temmink

Abstract: This study was carried out to determine the effects of adding broccoli leaves extract to drinking water on eggs production and intestinal microflora (total bacteria, lactobacilli and Escherichia coli) of breeder Japanese quails. One hundred and thirty-two 45 days-old of Japanese quails (males and females) were randomly distributed into four groups. Each group has three replicates. The groups were included: The first group was kept without any addition as the control. The extraction of broccoli leaves as 100, 200 and 300 mg. l were added to bird's drinking water of the second, third and fourth groups respectively. The results showed a significant improvement in eggs production (HD %), accumulative eggs per 30 days and eggs mass in the third and fourth groups compared to the other groups. While, no significant differences were shown in the feed consumption, feed conversion ratio and eggs weight among groups. Caecal and duodenum E. coli showed a significant decrease in third and fourth groups compared to the others. However, duodenum lactobacilli increased significantly in the fourth group compared to other groups. It was also showed no significant differences in the total duodenum bacteria among studied groups. While, the total caecal bacteria decrease significantly in the third group compared to other groups. Based on the presented results can be concluded that alcoholic extract of broccoli leaves at levels 200 and 300 mg. l could enhance productive characteristics (eggs production HD %, accumulative eggs per 30 days and eggs mass). On the other hand, it increased duodenum lactobacilli and decreased caecal and duodenal E. coli population of breeder Japanese quails.
Collective Remembrance and Private Choice: German–Greek Conflict and Behavior in Times of Crisis

When does collective memory influence behavior? We highlight two conditions under which the memory of past events comes to matter for the present: the associative nature of memory and institutionalized acts of commemoration by the state. During World War II, German troops occupying Greece perpetrated numerous massacres. Memories of those events resurfaced during the 2009 Greek debt crisis, leading to a drop in German car sales in Greece, especially in areas affected by German reprisals. Differential economic performance did not drive this divergence. Multiple pieces of evidence suggest that current events reactivated past memories, creating a backlash against Germany. This backlash also manifested in political behavior, with vote shares of anti-German parties increasing in reprisal areas after the start of the debt crisis. Using quasi-random variation in public recognition of victim status, we show that institutionalized collective memory amplifies the effects of political conflict on economic and political behavior.
Online Reviews and the Information Overload: The Role of Selective, Parsimonious and Concordant Top Reviews and their Valence

By empowering customers to make fitting purchases, user reviews play an important role in reducing inefficiencies in the provisioning of product information. Because of the abundance of reviews and the signals they provide, this information may become confusing and risks overloading customers. Consequently, review hosting platforms have adjusted their designs to feature a signal “distilled” from a selective set of Top Reviews and their valences. The expected ease with which customers process this signal is intended to increase their satisfaction, thus reducing dispersion in their subsequent review ratings. In this study, we analyze the influential role that Top Reviews and their valence play under various scenarios: when customers are overloaded by a large number of reviews, when Top Reviews themselves are not parsimonious in number, and when the signals from Top Reviews are not in concordance with that from all the other reviews. We find that the valence of Top Reviews plays a central role in mitigating information overload. Yet, Top Reviews’ influence diminishes when they too pose an overload risk, but is strengthened when their signal is reaffirmed by signals from all other reviews. Finally, the impact of Top Reviews weakens for less popular products.
New ion-exchanged zeolite derivatives: antifungal and antimycotoxin properties against Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxin B1

Zeolites are microporous crystalline hydrated aluminosilicates with absorbent and catalytic properties. This material can be used in many applications in stored-pest management such as: pesticide and fertilizer carriers, animal feed additives, mycotoxin binders and food packaging materials. Herein, four 4A zeolite forms were prepared by ion-exchange and their antifungal effect against Aspergillus flavus was highlighted. Additionally, the antimycotoxin activity and the aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) adsorption capacity of these zeolites as well as their toxic effects on Artemia sp. were investigated. The ion-exchanged zeolites with Li+ and Cu2+ showed the best antifungal activity against A. flavus, including effects on conidia germination and hyphae morphological alterations. Regarding to antimycotoxin activity, all zeolite samples efficiently inhibited the AFB1 production by A. flavus. However, the ion-exchanged zeolites exhibited better results than the 4A zeolite. On the other hand, the AFB1 adsorption capacity was only observed by the 4A zeolite and zeolite-Li+. Lastly, our data showed that all zeolites samples used at effective concentrations for antifungal and antimycotoxin assays (2 mg ml−1) showed no toxic effects towards Artemia sp. Results suggest that some these ion-exchanged zeolites have great potential as an effective fungicide and antimycotoxin agent for agricultural and food safety applications.
A New Surface Tension Model for Prediction of Interaction Energy between Components and Activity Coefficients in Binary Systems

In this work, we develop a correlative model based on the surface tension data in order to calculate thermodynamic parameters, such as interaction energy between components (Uij), activity coefficients and etc. In the new approach, by using Li et al. (LWW) model, a three-parameter surface tension equation is derived for liquid mixtures. The surface tension data of 54 aqueous and 73 non-aqueous binary mixtures have been correlated as a function of composition using the new model, then the interaction energy between two compounds (Uij) of mixtures and their activity coefficients have been calculated with the results of this model. The average relative error obtained from the comparison of experimental and calculated surface tension values for 127 binary systems is less than 2.8%. In order to evaluate new method, the obtained values using this method were comparable with the results of the UNIFAC group contribution model.
The Role of Scavenger Receptor-A in Heat Shock Protein 27-mediated Atheroprotection: Mechanistic Insights into a Novel Anti-atherogenic Therapy

II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . IV TABLE OF CONTENTS . XI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . XIV LIST OF FIGURES . XVIII LIST OF TABLES.XX 1.0 INTRODUCTION. 1 1.1 An introduction to atherosclerosis . 2 1.1.1 Risk factors, causes, and clinical outcomes. 3 1.1.2 Socioeconomic impact on Canadian society . 5 1.1.3 Treatment strategies. 6 1.2 Pathophysiology of Atherosclerosis . 7 1.2.1 Early stages of lesion development: initiation of fatty streaks . 8 1.2.2 Development of intermediate and advanced lesions . 13 1.3 Role of the macrophages in atherosclerosis. 14 1.3.1 Activation states and phenotypes. 16 1.3. 2 Macrophage foam cell formation. 19 1.4 Mechanisms of lipid uptake: Scavenger receptor A . 25 1.4. 1 Scavenger receptor-A structure and functional properties . 27 1.4. 2 Expression and regulation of SR-A . 29 1.4. 3 Cellular Functions of SR-A . 34 1.4. 4 Role of SR-A in atherosclerosis . 35 1.5 NF-κB and atherosclerosis . 43 1.6 Heat Shock Protein-27. 45 1.6. 1. General introduction about heat shock proteins . 45 1.6. 2 HSP27: Structure and Function . 48 1.6. 3 Intracellular cellular functions. 53 1.6. 4 Role of HSP27 in atherosclerosis . 54 1.7 Background on HSP27 in the O’Brien Lab . 55 2.0 RATIONALE AND STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS / OBJECTIVES . 59 2.1 Rationale . 59 2.2 Statement of hypothesis / objectives. 60 2.2.1 Hypothesis . 60 2.2.2 Global Objectives . 60 3.0 METHODS AND MATERIALS. 61 3.1 O’Brien Lab recombinant proteins . 61
DROPWISE CONDENSATION ON HYDROPHOBIC MICROPOROUS POWDER AND THE TRANSITION TO INTRAPOWDER DROPLET REMOVAL

To improve condensation heat transfer technologies, various coating techniques have been used to generate rough hydrophobic surfaces. Condensation on micro-textured hydrophobic surfaces can demonstrate variable heat transfer enhancement compared to smooth hydrophobic surfaces. This is primarily directed towards the improvement in efficiency of condensers for direct dry cooling power plants. Here we investigate the use of a thiol-based self-assembled monolayer deposited on variably-sized microporous copper powder wick monolayers. A custom condensation chamber was fabricated to demonstrate the effect of enhanced dropwise condensation. Although rough hydrophobic surfaces have shown advantageous droplet growth dynamics, precise heat transfer measurements are underdeveloped at high heat flux. At consistent operating conditions, we experimentally demonstrated a 23% improvement in the local condensation heat transfer coefficient for a 4μm hydrophobic microporous copper powder surface compared to a smooth hydrophobic copper surface. This improvement is attributed to the reduction in contact angle hysteresis as evidenced by the decrease in departing droplet size. For larger powder sizes, surface flooding inhibited thermal performance due to larger departing droplet sizes and a decreased conduction pathway. With microporous powder sizes greater than 119μm, a transition of dropwise condensation to intrapowder droplet removal is evident. The use of enhanced two-phase thermal management technologies for high heat flux applications can benefit from the specific design of textured hydrophobic surfaces.
High Yields of Bio Oils from Hydrothermal Processing of Thin Black Liquor without the Use of Catalysts or Capping Agents

Black liquor (BL) from the kraft pulping process has been treated at elevated temperatures (380 °C) in a batch reactor to give high yields of a bio oil comprising monomeric phenolic compounds that were soluble in organic solvents and mineral oil and a water fraction with inorganic salts. The metal content in the product was <20 ppm after a simple extraction step. A correlation between concentration, temperature, and reaction time with respect to yield of desired product was found. At optimal reaction conditions (treating BL with 16 wt % dry substance at 380 °C for 20 min), the yield of extractable organics was around 80% of the original lignin with less than 7% of char. The product was analyzed by gel permeable chromatography, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, elemental analysis, and inductively coupled plasma. It was found that a large fraction composed of mainly cresols, xylenols, and mesitols. This process provides a pathway to convert a major waste stream from a pulp mill into a refinery feed for fuel or chemical production, whereas at the same time the inorganic chemicals are recovered and can be returned back to the pulp mill.
Regulating Big Techs in Finance

Big tech firms entering financial services can scale up rapidly with user data from their existing business lines in e-commerce and social media, and by harnessing the inherent network effects in digital services. In addition to traditional policy concerns such as financial risks, consumer protection and operational resilience, the entry of big techs into financial services gives rise to new challenges surrounding the concentration of market power and data governance. The current framework for regulating financial services follows an activities-based approach where providers must hold licences for specific business lines. There is scope to address the new policy challenges by developing specific entity-based rules, as proposed in several key jurisdictions – notably the European Union, China and the United States.
Industry Growth at the Zero Lower Bound

US monetary policy was constrained from 2008 to 2015 by the zero lower bound, during which the Federal Reserve would likely have lowered the federal funds rate if it were able to. This paper uses industry-level data to examine how growth was affected. Despite the zero bound constraint, industries historically more sensitive to interest rates, such as construction, performed relatively well in comparison to industries not typically affected by monetary policy.
Use of econometrics and machine learning models to predict the number of new cases per day of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemics will impact the demand for healthcare severely. It is essential to continually monitor and predict the expected number of new cases for each country. We explored the use of econometrics, machine learning, and ensemble models to predict the number of new cases per day for Brazil, China, Italy, and South Korea. These models can be used to make predictions in the short term, complementing the epidemiological models. Our main findings were: (i) there is no single best model for all countries; (ii) ensembles can, in some instances, improve the results of individual models; and (iii) the ML models had worse results due to the lack of data.
Minimum Quality Regulations and the Demand for Child Care Labor

Minimum quality regulations are often justified in the child care market because of the presence of information frictions between parents and providers. However, regulations can also have unintended consequences for the quantity and quality of services provided. In this paper, we merge new data on states' child care regulations for maximum classroom group sizes and child-to-staff ratios with the universe of online job postings to study the impact of regulations on the demand for and characteristics of child care labor. Our identification strategy exploits the unprecedented variation in regulatory reform during the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on changes both within states over time and across children's age groups. We find robust evidence that these regulations reduce the number of child care job postings and encourage providers to substitute away from higher-skilled postings, thereby increasing the number of positions that are out-of-compliance with state law. Furthermore, we show that regulations adversely affect mothers' labor force participation. In sum, the results imply that child care regulations may reduce the demand for child care labor, while simultaneously altering the composition of the workforce.