Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multilayer WO3/BiVO4 Photoanodes for Solar-Driven Water Splitting Prepared by RF-Plasma Sputtering

A series of WO3, BiVO4 and WO3/BiVO4 heterojunction coatings were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), by means of reactive radio frequency (RF) plasma (co)sputtering, and tested as photoanodes for water splitting under simulated AM 1.5 G solar light in a three-electrode photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell in a 0.5 M NaSO4 electrolyte solution. The PEC performance and time stability of the heterojunction increases with an increase of the WO3 innermost layer up to 1000 nm. A two-step calcination treatment (600 °C after WO3 deposition followed by 400 °C after BiVO4 deposition) led to a most performing photoanode under back-side irradiation, generating a photocurrent density of 1.7 mA cm−2 at 1.4 V vs. SCE (i.e., two-fold and five-fold higher than that generated by individual WO3 and BiVO4 photoanodes, respectively). The incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) measurements reveal the presence of two activity regions over the heterojunction with respect to WO3 alone: The PEC efficiency increases due to improved charge carrier separation above 450 nm (i.e., below the WO3 excitation energy), while it decreases below 450 nm (i.e., when both semiconductors are excited) due to electron–hole recombination at the interface of the two semiconductors.
Adubação fosfatada no desenvolvimento e produção de feijão guandu em latossolo vermelho do cerrado em primeiro cultivo = Phosphorus fertilization on the development and production of pigeonpea in the cerrado oxisol in first cultivation

O fosforo e um importante macronutriente, requerido por todas as plantas para crescimento, desenvolvimento e reproducao, sendo o fator de producao mais importante para a agricultura apos a calagem em solos sob vegetacao de Cerrado. Assim, objetivou-se avaliar o desenvolvimento e producao do feijao guandu submetido a adubacao fosfatada, sem inoculacao de sementes, em Latossolo Vermelho do Cerrado em primeiro cultivo. O experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetacao no periodo de agosto a novembro de 2010. Utilizaram-se vasos contendo 3 dm­3 de solo coletado na profundidade de 0-0,20 m em area de Cerrado. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado, com seis doses de fosforo (P2O5): 0; 50; 100; 150; 200 e 250 mg dm-3 em quatro repeticoes. Houve efeito significativo a 5% de probabilidade para todas as variaveis avaliadas com ajuste aos modelos quadratico e linear de regressao. O melhor desenvolvimento e producao de feijao guandu ocorre no intervalo de doses de fosforo de 162 a 225 mg dm-3. O feijao guandu responde de forma positiva a adubacao fosfatada, sem a inoculacao de sementes em Latossolo Vermelho do Cerrado em area de primeiro cultivo.
Fish community structure in the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario: The influence of nutrient levels and invasive species

Intensive, long-term sampling in the Bay of Quinte with multiple gears (i.e. gill nets, bottom trawls, trap nets and boat electrofishing) allowed examination of the fish community and major fish populations in the context of key stressors up to 2009. Excessive nutrient input and hyper-abundant non-native fish species, White Perch and Alewife, shaped the depreciated fish community of the 1970s. After implementation of phosphorus input control measures and simultaneous winter-kills of the hyper-abundant non-native fish in the late 1970s, Walleye recovered and served to restore a predator-prey balance to the fish community by the late 1980s. However, in the absence of a significant recovery of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in littoral areas, off-shore species (e.g. Alewife and White Perch) still tended to dominate; even in littoral areas. Following establishment of Dreissenid Mussels in the mid-1990s, water transparency increased and SAV increased significantly in littoral areas. This pivotal event led to a shift in the fish community that included an overall decline in Walleye, an increase followed by a decrease in Yellow Perch, and dominance by centrarchids (i.e. Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Black Crappie and Largemouth Bass) in the nearshore. Round Goby invaded in 1999, proliferated and became important in the diet of piscivores by 2003. The current species assemblage, including the piscivores, is diverse and indicative of a healthy fish community.
Estructura de la población prehistórica del Noroeste argentino (sector septentrional)

The structure of the prehistoric population of the Argentinean northwest is studied by means of the use of nonmetric cranial traits. The sample consists of 673 individuals from Puna (1 1 I), Quebrada de Humahuaca (269), Selvas Occidentales (50) and Valliserrana (243) regions. Thirty-three nonmetric traits were used and the ~2 test was applied to analyze the distribution of the sample for sex, age, artificial deformation and region. The population structure was studied using correspondence analysis, mean measure of standardized divergence (sMMD) and cluster analysis. We observe that six traits are associated with deformation, five with sex, seven with age and twelve with region. The multivariate results show the existence of two biological components, the first of which is constituted by Quebrada de Humahuaca and Puna and the second one by Valliserrana and Las Pirguas. Both components possibly shared an ancestral group, probably of Andean origin, and then they differed for the action of different evolutionary factors (particular mating systems, genetic drift and gene flow). Rev. Arg. Antrop. Biol. 6(1): 77-102,2004.
Historical and future changes in global flood magnitude – evidence from a model–observation investigation

Abstract. To improve the understanding of trends in extreme flows related to flood events at the global scale, historical and future changes of annual maxima of 7 d streamflow are investigated, using a comprehensive streamflow archive and six global hydrological models. The models' capacity to characterise trends in annual maxima of 7 d streamflow at the continental and global scale is evaluated across 3666 river gauge locations over the period from 1971 to 2005, focusing on four aspects of trends: (i) mean, (ii) standard deviation, (iii) percentage of locations showing significant trends and (iv) spatial pattern. Compared to observed trends, simulated trends driven by observed climate forcing generally have a higher mean, lower spread and a similar percentage of locations showing significant trends. Models show a low to moderate capacity to simulate spatial patterns of historical trends, with approximately only from 12 % to 25 % of the spatial variance of observed trends across all gauge stations accounted for by the simulations. Interestingly, there are statistically significant differences between trends simulated by global hydrological models (GHMs) forced with observational climate and by those forced by bias-corrected climate model output during the historical period, suggesting the important role of the stochastic natural (decadal, inter-annual) climate variability. Significant differences were found in simulated flood trends when averaged only at gauged locations compared to those averaged across all simulated grid cells, highlighting the potential for bias toward well-observed regions in our understanding of changes in floods. Future climate projections (simulated under the RCP2.6 and RCP6.0 greenhouse gas concentration scenarios) suggest a potentially high level of change in individual regions, with up to 35 % of cells showing a statistically significant trend (increase or decrease; at 10 % significance level) and greater changes indicated for the higher concentration pathway. Importantly, the observed streamflow database under-samples the percentage of locations consistently projected with increased flood hazards under the RCP6.0 greenhouse gas concentration scenario by more than an order of magnitude (0.9 % compared to 11.7 %). This finding indicates a highly uncertain future for both flood-prone communities and decision makers in the context of climate change.
Dictyostelium discoideum: Novel Insights into the Cellular Biology of Neurological Disorders

Here we will review the somewhat surprising, and novel emerging use of the classic model organism Dictyostelium discoideum, a species of soil-living amoeba, as a valuable biomedical tool to study the function of mutant genes implicated in human neurological disorders. Many neurodegenerative disorders, although related by their destruction of brain function, display remarkable cellular and/or regional pathogenic specificity most likely initiated through some deregulated aspect of the activity of the mutant protein. However, the expression of many neurodegenerative disease genes, including but not limited to huntingtin (HTT), the ataxins, the presenilins (PSEN1/PSEN2) are not simply localized to neurons but are found ubiquitously expressed throughout peripheral tissues. It is safe to say that when considering neurodegeneration, a term used to describe the progressive loss of function or death of neurons; it is paramount to properly understand the earliest precipitating events that lead to neuronal pathogenesis in order to ultimately develop long-term effective therapies. This means, in no unequivocal terms, that it is critical to understand the normal function of the disease-causing gene. Unfortunately, the normal function(s) of a large majority of mutant genes remain largely unknown which may in fact delay, and often precludes the development of assays for rapid and accurate assessment as to how the mutation initiates disease. As a result, a variety of lower and higher metazoan model systems have been established that range from worms to flies to mice, all designed to better understand neurological disease in humans. So the question arises: how reasonable is the use of simple organisms to study neurological disorders especially when the model of choice does not contain neurons? Historically, I believe the evidence suggesting the usefulness of using simple organisms to understand the etiology of cellular pathology cannot be denied. But using an organism without a central nervous system to understand diseases of the brain? The intrinsic complexity of the brain, without question, greatly complicates the accessibility to study the biochemical processes that contribute to pathology. Furthermore, functional genomic studies through the targeted deletion of genes may preclude their study due to essential cellular roles. As a consequence, determining the direct functional role and subsequent alteration of function by the mutation through phenotypic analysis is once again complicated further. Specifically, this has been true for huntingtin, the causative agent of Huntington’s disease, and the beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins, responsible for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as a host of other
Comparison of occurrence-bias-adjusting methods for hydrological impact modelling

Abstract. Over the past decade, various methods for bias adjustment of precipitation occurrence or intensity have been proposed. However, the performance of combined methods has not yet been thoroughly evaluated, especially in a hydrological and climate change context. In this study, four occurrence-bias-adjusting methods are combined with one univariate and one multivariate intensity-bias-adjusting method. The occurrence-bias-adjusting methods include thresholding, Stochastic Singularity Removal, Triangular Distribution Adjustment, and are compared with the intensity-bias-adjusting methods without specific adjustment as a baseline. These combined methods are compared with respect to precipitation amount, precipitation occurrence and discharge. This comparison, summarized in terms of the residual bias relative to both the observations and the model bias,shows significant differences in performance. Occurrence-bias-adjusting methods that add stochasticity perform worse, an effect that is reinforced by multivariate intensity-bias-adjusting methods. The use of simpler methods is thus advised until the uncertainty caused by combining methods is better understood.
Is there any Relation between the Type of Surgery and Radiation Induced Non-rectal Bowel Toxicity in Patients with Gynecologic Cancer Receiving Adjuvant Radiotherapy?

METHODS 36 patients who meet study criteria were retrospectively evaluated and classified as laparoscopy (group 1) and open surgery (group 2). Intestinal volumes that received a 10% range of total radiotherapy dose at 10% (V10%) to 100% (V100%) and dosimetric data (V40-45 Gy, Dmax.) were obtained from the dosevolume histogram. The toxicities were graded acute and late according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) scoring.
The Exclusive Role of Centralized Fund Family Management

Fund families are centrally managed, and can directly control resource allocations between funds. We quantify multiple manageable fund family attributes, and examine their combined effects upon returns and investor flows. We focus upon five attributes that are exclusively manageable by fund families: marginal fee economies of scale, star fund offerings, mixed high and low risk product offerings, within-family manager scope, and manager outsourcing. We find sensitivity differences during the financial crisis and non-crisis time periods. Management of these exclusive attributes significantly improve a fund family’s returns and investor flows, benefiting fund families and their investors during both normal and financial crisis periods. We find that investors reward fund families with greater performance sensitive inflows and weaker performance sensitive outflows, indicating that investors identify greater utility in centrally managed fund families.
Pronouns, Interrogatives, and (Quichua-Media Lengua) Code-Switching: The Eyes Have It

This study examines the processing of two putatively problematic intra-sentential code-switching configurations, following subject pronouns and interrogatives, in a bilingual speech community in which there are no confounding grammatical differences. The languages are Ecuadoran Quichua and the mixed language known as Media Lengua, consisting of the entire Quichua morphosyntactic system but with all lexical roots replaced by their Spanish counterparts. In eye-tracking processing experiments utilizing the visual world paradigm with auditorily presented stimuli, Quichua–Media Lengua bilinguals identified the languages more quickly after pronouns and interrogatives than after lexical items, while acknowledgement of code-switches after pronouns and interrogatives was delayed in comparison with switches following lexical items. The facilitation effect of pronouns and interrogatives evidently provokes a surprise reaction when they are immediately followed by items from another language, and this relative delay may play a role in the low acceptability of code-switched utterances that otherwise violate no grammatical constraints.
FcγRIIb-BCR coligation inhibits B-cell receptor signaling in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling plays a key role in the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, which exhibit higher intrinsic BCR activity than normal B cells. In normal B cells, BCR signaling can be inhibited by the low affinity receptor FcγRIIb (CD32b). This receptor exerts its negative effect when coligated with the BCR by cognate immune complexes (IC) and contributes to maintain peripheral tolerance and to shape the B-cell repertoire. FcγRIIb-BCR coligation counteracts BCR signaling by inducing phosphorylation of the intracellular immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif (ITIM) of FcγRIIb, and the subsequent recruitment of (SH2)-containing inositol phosphatases (SHIP), which inhibits Ca flux and cell proliferation. Considering the major role of BCR in the pathogenesis of CLL and the activated nature of the leukemic cells, we aimed at investigating whether FcγRIIb could regulate BCR signaling in this malignancy. For that purpose, we compared molecular and functional effects of BCR ligation and BCR-FcγRIIb cross-linking on purified B-CLL cells and normal B cells after exposure to equimolar concentrations of F(ab’)2 anti-human immunoglobulin M (IgM) (10 mg/mL) or whole anti-human IgM (15 mg/mL) for 5 minutes. In agreement with previous reports, BCR ligation induced highly heterogeneous responses on CLL cells. Twelve of 22 (55%) CLL samples responded to BCR binding with an increase of phospho-AKT (p-AKT) and/or phospho-ERK (p-ERK) levels, as well as an increase of intracellular Ca influx (Online Supplementary Figure S1). BCR responsiveness was neither significantly associated with FcγRIIb expression (P=0.053) nor with IgM expression (P=0.307). As a subset of CLL patients show high levels of circulating IC and express poly-reactive BCR, it is reasonable to expect CLL cell interactions with a variety of IC, which could activate FcγRIIb inhibitory signaling. In murine B cells, recruitment of SHIP through FcγRIIb-BCR coligation leads to inactivation of anti-apoptotic kinase AKT and/or inhibition of ERK. Nevertheless, the inhibitory effect of FcγRIIb on BCR signaling has been only cursorily investigated in CLL. Gamberale et al. suggested that FcγRIIb may inhibit BCR signaling in CLL cells by reducing ERK phosphorylation. Here, similarly to what we observed in normal B cells (Online Supplementary Figure S2A-C), the crosslinking of FcγRIIb and BCR in leukemic B cells from BCR-responsive patients induced a significant increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of the ITIM domain of FcγRIIb as well as SHIP phosphorylation (pSHIP) and translocation to the membrane (Figure 1). In addition, as observed in normal B cells, FcγRIIb-BCR coligation blocked the BCR-induced increase of p-AKT and p-ERK levels (Figure 1C). These inhibitory effects of FcγRIIb were reverted when coligation with BCR was abrogated by adding the specific anti-FcγRIIb monoclonal antibody 2B6 to the whole anti-IgM pAb. Interestingly, ligation of BCR alone also induced a significant increase
The Impact of Earnings Quality on Firm Value: The Case of Vietnam

The study aims to investigate the impact level of earnings quality on firm value. The study has used data with 3,910 observations at listed firms on Vietnam Stock Exchange for the period from 2010 to 2018, and GLS regression analysis is employed in this research. Earnings quality is measured in the aspects of earnings management, earnings persistence, and timeliness of profitability. This study also considers a number of controlled variables that positively influence the firm's value such as firm size, fixed asset investment rate and dividend payout ratio. The results show that earnings quality is positively associated with firm value with having statistical significance. In contrast, some determinants negatively influence firm value such as financial leverage, ratio of market value to book value, and revenue growth. Determinants of firm size, the rate of investment in fixed assets, the rate of dividend payment positively affect the firm value. In contrast, determinants of financial leverage, revenue growth rate and market value to book value ratio are inversely related to firm value according to economic value, Tobin‟s Q or Price. Based on the findings, some recommendations are proposed for investors, management and policy makers as well in the context of emerging countries
LATE AND NON-PAYMENTS ISSUES IN THE MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: PERSPECTIVE OF BUILDING MATERIAL SUPPLIERS

Payment in the Malaysian construction industry has generally been an issue of concern. Late and non-payment problem is endemic in construction and needs to be addressed. The aim of this study is to investigate the issues related to late and non-payment based on the building materials suppliers’ perspective. Questionnaires were distributed to suppliers of building materials in the Klang Valley. Findings from the study shows the main cause of late and non-payment is the paymaster’s poor financial management while the main effect of late and non-payment is problem with the cash flow. The most recommended possible solution to cope with the issue is for the paymaster to conduct training on financial and cash flow management to the management team in the company.
Distribution of Retinoids Applied Exogenously to Chick Limb Buds: an Autoradiographic Analysis

An autoradiographic analysis was undertaken to examine the localization of retinoids applied exogenously to chick limb buds. Ion‐exchange beads (AGI‐X2) containing a tritium‐labeled synthetic retinoid, Am80, were implanted to various regions of chick wing buds. This synthetic retinoid is known to induce a duplicated limb pattern as retinoic acid (RA) does. One to 24 hours after the application, wing buds were fixed, sectioned, and prepared for autoradiography. Heavy labeling was observed in the peripheral region of the wing mesoderm, but no gradient along the antero‐posterior axis was found.
Monitoring the Sonographic Ovarian Dynamics and Pregnancy Rate in Cyclic Murrah Buffalo Cows Synchronized with Prostaglandin F2α

Department of Surgery and Obstetrics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh Department of Livestock Services, Krishi Khamar Sarak, Farmgate, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh Division of Animal Physiology and Reproduction, Central Institute for Research on Buffalo (CIRB), Hisar, Haryana 125001, India Department of Physiology, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh Original Article J Anim Reprod Biotechnol 2020;35:50-57 pISSN: 2671-4639 • eISSN: 2671-4663 https://doi.org/10.12750/JARB.35. 1.50 JARB Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
Light-Induced Relocalization of the Photoreceptor G Protein Transducin is Mediated by Binding Partner-Restricted Diffusion: New Insights into G Protein Subunit Dissociation

of a doctoral dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Vladlen Z. Slepak. No. of pages in text: (133). Phototransduction is a well characterized system for study of G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling. The GPCR rhodopsin couples to the heterotrimeric G protein transducin. Light-stimulated activation of transducin in turn activates phosphodiesterase (PDE), leading to closure to cGMP-gated channels and inhibition of glutamate release. Rod and cone photoreceptors are highly polarized neurons consisting of the outer segment (OS) where phototransduction biochemistry occurs, the inner segment containing mitochondria and other organelles, the nuclear layer, an axon, and a glutamatergic synapse. Upon illumination, activated G protein transducin redistributes from the rod OS (where it is localized in the dark) to the inner compartments of the cell. Interestingly, cone transducin does not translocate in light. Opposite to this, visual arrestin migrates from the inner compartments to the OS, where it binds to rhodopsin. Previous reports from other groups and our lab argue for either an active or passive mechanism for transducin and arrestin redistribution. Our lab has shown that arrestin migration occurs by diffusion which is restricted by molecular sinks (Nair et al, 2005b). The focus of my dissertation was to unravel the molecular mechanism of rod transducin translocation. Specifically, I found energy (ATP) was not required for transducin movement within photoreceptors. Also, I found that the disc membranes of the rod outer segments as well as protein-protein interactions with retinal guanylate cyclase serve to restrict transducin diffusion through the cell. In addition, I used the insights gained from these studies of transducin to re-examine the relationship of other G proteins’ subcellular localization and signal transduction. Ultimately, I found that most G proteins do not undergo subunit dissociation under physiological activating conditions. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES . vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. ix CHAPTER