Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ocean methane hydrates as a slow tipping point in the global carbon cycle

We present a model of the global methane inventory as hydrate and bubbles below the sea floor. The model predicts the inventory of CH4 in the ocean today to be ≈1600–2,000 Pg of C. Most of the hydrate in the model is in the Pacific, in large part because lower oxygen levels enhance the preservation of organic carbon. Because the oxygen concentration today may be different from the long-term average, the sensitivity of the model to O2 is a source of uncertainty in predicting hydrate inventories. Cold water column temperatures in the high latitudes lead to buildup of hydrates in the Arctic and Antarctic at shallower depths than is possible in low latitudes. A critical bubble volume fraction threshold has been proposed as a critical threshold at which gas migrates all through the sediment column. Our model lacks many factors that lead to heterogeneity in the real hydrate reservoir in the ocean, such as preferential hydrate formation in sandy sediments and subsurface gas migration, and is therefore conservative in its prediction of releasable methane, finding only 35 Pg of C released after 3 °C of uniform warming by using a 10% critical bubble volume. If 2.5% bubble volume is taken as critical, then 940 Pg of C might escape in response to 3 °C warming. This hydrate model embedded into a global climate model predicts ≈0.4–0.5 °C additional warming from the hydrate response to fossil fuel CO2 release, initially because of methane, but persisting through the 10-kyr duration of the simulations because of the CO2 oxidation product of methane.
The Effect of Internal Audit on Budget Process and Execution of Local Government of Rwanda

This study aimed at investigating the effect of internal audit on budget process and execution of local government of Rwanda taking Musanze District as case study. The problem of failing to consolidate transactions and balances of NBAs in financial statements of local government has still persisted. Many local governments have not been examining efficiently the internal audit in budgeting process and execution and this has consequently led to mismanagement; lack of control and less budget execution from their activities or operations. Moreover to prove the general objective, the results of this study was presented in accordance with specific objectives stated by the researcher such as, to analyze the internal audit functions in local government of Rwanda; to assess budget process and execution in local government in Rwanda and to analyze the relationship between internal audit and budget process and execution in Rwanda. Descriptive research design was adopted for this study using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The study used a sample of 18 employees of Musanze District office selected purposive sampling techniques from a targeted population of 18 employees from department of finance of Musanze district Office. The study used primary data collected from semi-structured questionnaires. Based on the findings of this study, it was found that asset management; management control and staffing management are well used to enhance good budgeting process and execution in local government as it was indicated by 100% of respondents. The budget process and execution in local government is based on budget formulation; budget proposal and dialogue, budget monitoring, budget adjusting, budget control and budget reporting (100%). As significant level is at 0.01 (1%), the p value of 0.000(i.e. 0.0%) is less than 1%. This leads to confirm that there is significant relationship correlation between internal audit and budget process and execution in Musanze district office. As it was recommended that Musanze District should put more efforts in raising more revenue to supplement the government transfers and smoothen the budget execution.
Reactive oxygen species in plants: their generation, signal transduction, and scavenging mechanisms

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a by-product of normal cell metabolism in plants; however, under stress conditions, the balance between production and elimination is disturbed. ROS rapidly inactivate enzymes, damage vital cellular organelles in plants, and destroy membranes by inducing the degradation of pigments, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids which ultimately results in cell death. In addition to degrading macromolecules, ROS act as a diffusible signal in signal transduction pathways and also as a secondary messenger in various developmental pathways in plants. Plants possess a complex battery of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidative defense systems that can protect cells from oxidative damage and scavenge harmful ROS that are produced in excess of those normally required for various metabolic reactions. The mechanism by which ROS is generated in aerobic organisms is poorly understood. This review paper describes the generation, origin, and role of ROS in signal transduction and cell death, and the removal of ROS by antioxidative defense systems in plants during various developmental pathways.
Mandibular thickness measurements in young dentate adults.

OBJECTIVE To measure thicknesses in clinical landmark areas of the dentate mandibles of young men and women. DESIGN Using standard radiologic software, we obtained mean (SD) thickness measurements at the inferior or posterior borders of the mandible at the following 7 surgically useful sites: (1) the symphysis, (2) a point halfway between the symphysis and the mental nerve, (3) the mental nerve, (4) a point halfway between the mental nerve and the facial artery notch, (5) the facial artery notch, (6) the angle vertex, and (7) the ramus-condylar neck border. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS A total of 150 dentate men and 75 dentate women aged 18 to 30 years who had undergone computed tomography of the head and neck region during the period of December 20, 2006 to February 20, 2007. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Thicknesses of 7 mandibular sites. RESULTS Mean (SD) thicknesses at the 7 mandibular sites were as follows: symphysis, 14.03 (1.53) mm for men and 13.21 (1.46) mm for women; halfway between the symphysis and the mental nerve, 11.17 (1.37) mm for men and 10.00 (1.08) mm for women; mental nerve, 9.48 (1.28) mm for men and 8.72 (1.00) mm for women; halfway between the mental nerve and the facial artery notch, 10.33 (1.24) mm for men and 9.45 (0.92) mm for women; facial artery notch, 7.27 (0.82) mm for men and 7.10 (0.88) mm for women; angle vertex, 5.42 (0.90) mm for men and 5.39 (0.66) mm for women; and ramus-condylar neck border, 5.90 (0.86) mm for men and 5.85 (0.71) mm for women. CONCLUSIONS Clinical landmark areas in young dentate mandibles have mean thicknesses with limited SDs. The thickness measurements obtained at the sites in this study provide practical reference information for mandibular reconstruction and bicortical screw length estimation.
Speech-specificity of two audiovisual integration effects

Seeing the talker’s articulatory mouth movements can influence the auditory speech percept both in speech identification and detection tasks. Here we show that these audiovisual integration effects also occur for sine wave speech (SWS), which is an impoverished speech signal that naïve observers often fail to perceive as speech. While audiovisual integration in the identification task only occurred when observers were informed of the speech-like nature of SWS, integration occurred in the detection task both for informed and naïve observers. This shows that both speech-specific and general mechanisms underlie audiovisual integration of speech.
Load forecasting using deep neural networks

Short-term electricity demand prediction is of great importance to power companies since it is required to ensure adequate capacity when needed and, in some cases, it is needed to estimate the supply of raw material (e.g., natural gas) required to produce the required capacity. The deregulation of the power industry in many countries has magnified the importance of this need. Research in this area has included the use of shallow neural networks and other machine learning algorithms to solve this problem. However, recent results in other areas, such as Computer Vision and Speech Recognition, have shown great promise for Deep Neural Networks (DNN). Unfortunately, far less research exists on the application of DNN to short-term load forecasting. In this paper, we apply DNN as well as other machine learning techniques to short-term load forecasting in a power grid. The data used is taken from periodic smart meter energy usage reports. Our results indicate that DNN performs quite well when compared to traditional approaches. We also show how these results can be used if dynamic pricing is introduced to reduce peak loading.
Training Contracts, Employee Turnover, and the Returns from Firm-Sponsored General Training

Firms may be reluctant to provide general training if workers can quit and use their gained skills elsewhere. "Training contracts" that impose a penalty for premature quitting can help alleviate this inefficiency. Using plausibly exogenous contractual variation from a leading trucking firm, we show that two training contracts significantly reduced post-training quitting, particularly when workers are approaching the end of their contracts. Simulating a structural model, we show that observed worker quit behavior exhibits aspects of optimization (for one of the two contracts), and that the contracts increased firm profits from training and reduced worker welfare relative to no contract.
Intra‐abdominal follicular dendritic cell tumour: a rare tumour in need of recognition

Neoplasms of follicular dendritic cells are uncommon and the majority of them occur in lymph nodes. Rarely, they may occur inside the abdominal cavity. We describe two examples of intra‐abdominal follicular dendritic cell (FDC) tumour. One involved the liver and the other involved the ampulla of Vater. Our aims are to complement the current understanding on this disease and to alert histopathologists and clinicians to this rare entity.
Causal Recipes for Internationalization speed – an exploratory study

This study explores causal combinations that are associated to internationalization speed. It uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis to study a sample of small entrepreneurial software exporters. The study examines the configurations of motivations and perceptions that lead entrepreneurs to fast internationalization. The study finds three configurations that combine the insights of different theoretical approaches and lead to the same outcome: fast internationalization.
Prolactin and thyrotropin in serum during electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depressive illness

ABSTRACT– Thirty‐three patients with major depressive illness received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and serum prolactin (PRL) and thyrotropin (TSH) levels were measured 30 min before and 1, 5, 15, 30, and 60 min after the treatment. There was a threefold increase in PRL levels with a maximum after 15 min. The TSH plasma levels rose significantly with a maximum at 30 min after ECT. No change in PRL and TSH concentrations was seen in control experiments when the patients received anaesthesia only. In 15 patients the hormone levels were studied both during the first and sixth (last) ECT. The PRL and TSH levels were significantly higher following the first as compared to the sixth ECT. Patients on phenothiazines had higher PRL and lower TSH levels than those on other drugs or without medication, but there was no significant difference in the mean increment by ECT. Dopamine depresses PRL and TSH secretion. The diminished hormone release after a series of ECT may be explained by ECT‐induced increase of postsynaptic dopamine receptor function leading to inhibition of PRL and TSH release from the pituitary gland.
Design of broadband, low cost single layer reflectarray using phoenix cell

The design and implementation of a broadband single-layer low cost reflectarray is studied in this paper. The element in the reflectarray provides a nearly 360° linear phase range and have rebirth capability. The reflectarray is fed by a printed microstrip log-periodic dipole antenna. Using a sub-wavelength arrangement of element enables the reflectarray to achieve broadband characteristic. Then, a prime-focus 256-element reflectarray with phoenix cell is designed and measured. The maximum measurement gain is about 21dB at 5.2GHz. The measurement results also show 27.5% 3-dB gain bandwidth in the range 4.4~5.8GHz.
Power control for multiple interfering D2D communications underlaying cellular networks: An approximate interior point approach

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a promising technique to enhance spectrum efficiency of the cellular systems by enabling direct transmissions between end users close to each other. However, the arising interference issue should be carefully addressed to obtain the potential spectrum efficiency gains. In this paper, we develop an approximate interior point method to maximize the sum throughput of the D2D pairs underlaying cellular networks, while satisfying the rate requirement of the cellular user. The key of the approximate interior point method is to replace the time-consuming inversion of Hessian matrix with a simple diagonal one, by which we can update Newton step quickly. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm can achieve near optimal throughput with lower computational complexity compared to other methods.
Anti-oxidant N-acetylcysteine diminishes diesel exhaust-induced increased airway responsiveness in person with airway hyper-reactivity.

BACKGROUND Inhalation of diesel exhaust (DE) at moderate concentrations causes increased airway responsiveness in asthmatics and increased airway resistance in both healthy and asthmatic subjects, but the effect of baseline airway responsiveness and anti-oxidant supplementation on this dynamic is unknown. OBJECTIVES We aimed to determine if changes in airway responsiveness due to DE are attenuated by thiol anti-oxidant supplementation, particularly in those with underlying airway hyper-responsiveness. METHODS Participants took N-acetylcysteine (600 mg) or placebo capsules three times daily for 6 days. On the last of these 6 days, participants were exposed for 2 h to either filtered air (FA) or DE (300 μg/m(3) of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns). Twenty-six non-smokers were studied under each of three experimental conditions (filtered air with placebo, diesel exhaust with placebo, and diesel exhaust with N-acetylcysteine) using a randomized, double-blind, crossover design, with a 2-week washout between conditions. Methacholine challenge was performed pre-exposure (baseline airway responsiveness) and post-exposure (effect of exposure). RESULTS Anti-oxidant supplementation reduced baseline airway responsiveness in hyper-responsive individuals by 20% (p = 0.001). In hyper-responsive individuals, airway responsiveness increased 42% following DE compared with FA (p = 0.03) and this increase was abrogated with anti-oxidant supplementation (diesel exhaust with N-acetylcysteine vs. filtered air with placebo, p = 0.85). CONCLUSIONS Anti-oxidant (N-acetylcysteine) supplementation protects against increased airway responsiveness associated with DE inhalation and reduces need for supplement bronchodilators in those with baseline airway hyper-responsiveness. Individuals with variants in genes of oxidative stress metabolism when exposed to DE are protected from increases in airway responsiveness if taking anti-oxidant supplementation.
E‐assessment of Matlab assignments in Moodle: Application to an introductory programming course for engineers

This article introduces a novel extension for Moodle supporting the automatic verification of codes written in Matlab. It has been applied when teaching the basics of imperative programming in a course aimed at chemical engineering students. The extension derives from the module CTPracticals, originally developed by the authors to enable the automatic assessment of VHDL assignments in Moodle. Several major changes have been made, mainly in the automatic verification engine, in the core of the system, and in several user interfaces. The module partially frees teachers from the repetitive task of verifying assignments, allowing them to invest more time assisting students and tackling new pedagogical objectives. An anonymous student survey proved that students are satisfied with the system because they find the feedback and the constantly updated view of the status of their assignments helpful. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 728–736, 2013
Induction of Pancreatic Islet Cell Tumors in Rats by Repeated Intravenous Administration of 4-hydroxyaminoquinoline 1-oxide

The inducibility of pancreatic islet cell tumors by administration of 4-hydroxyaminoquinolin e 1-oxide (4HAQO) was investigated in male 6-week-old Sprague—Dawley rats. Rats were given 4HAQO intravenously at a weekly dose of 5 mg/kg 4 times (group 1) or a single dose of 10 mg/kg (group 2). Control rats received the vehicle alone (group 3). Fifty-six weeks after the first 4HAQO administration, all surviving animals were killed and the pancreas was examined histopathologically, immunohistochemically and ultrastructurally. The incidences and multiplicities of islet cell tumors in groups 1, 2, and 3 were 52.3% (p < 0.05 vs group 2, p < 0.01 vs group 3), 19.2% and 0%, and 0.70/animal (p < 0.05 vs group 2, p < 0.01 vs group 3), 0.23 and 0, respectively. Islet cell carcinomas were induced only in group 1, accounting for 6/44 (26%) tumors. Islet cell hyperplasias were found in 61.4% (p < 0.05 vs group 3), 42.3% and 10.0% of groups 1, 2, and 3, with multiplicities of 0.95 ( p < 0.05 vs groups 2 and 3), 0.54 and 0.20, respectively. As compared with normal islets from control subjects, islet cell tumors showed an increase in the number of insulin positive cells associated with cytological features indicative of enhanced insulin synthesis and secretion, and a decrease in the number of glucagon positive cells without ultrastructural signs of modified secretory activity. Thus our results indicate that repeated intravenous administration of 4HAQO to rats is useful for the induction of islet cell tumors at high incidence.
The Caregiving Burden Scale among Chinese Caregivers of Alzheimer Patients

From April 1996 to January 1997, a total of 76 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and their caregivers were recruited for participation in a comprehensive assessment at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, a 2,198-bed tertiary-care teaching hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. The AD patients responded to the Chinese version of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument. Primary caregivers rated the patients using the Symptom Check List-90 (SLC-90) and the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist and then rated themselves with the caregiving burden scale (CBS), coping strategies scale and the short version of the Geriatric Depression Score (GDS-S). The internal consistency of the CBS, as assessed by Cronbach’s α, was 0.849. The correlations between the CBS, SCL-90 and GDS-S ranged from 0.435 to 0.698. The CBS scores increased with disease progression and were higher among spouse caregivers than adult children caregivers. Multiple-regression analysis revealed that caregivers with higher CBS scores were more likely to have lower education levels and to use the meaning subscales of coping strategies, and that these caregivers’ patients had greater disruptive behavior and were older (R2 = 0.727, p = 0.001). The current study establishes the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the CBS for assessment of Chinese caregivers of AD patients.
Avoiding Pitfalls of Using Species Distribution Models in Conservation Planning

Abstract: Museum records have great potential to provide valuable insights into the vulnerability, historic distribution, and conservation of species, especially when coupled with species‐distribution models used to predict species' ranges. Yet, the increasing dependence on species‐distribution models in identifying conservation priorities calls for a more critical evaluation of model robustness. We used 11 bird species of conservation concern in Brazil's highly fragmented Atlantic Forest and data on environmental conditions in the region to predict species distributions. These predictions were repeated for five different model types for each of the 11 bird species. We then combined these species distributions for each model separately and applied a reserve‐selection algorithm to identify priority sites. We compared the potential outcomes from the reserve selection among the models. Although similarity in identification of conservation reserve networks occurred among models, models differed markedly in geographic scope and flexibility of reserve networks. It is essential for planners to evaluate the conservation implications of false‐positive and false‐negative errors for their specific management scenario before beginning the modeling process. Reserve networks selected by models that minimized false‐positive errors provided a better match with priority areas identified by specialists. Thus, we urge caution in the use of models that overestimate species' occurrences because they may misdirect conservation action. Our approach further demonstrates the great potential value of museum records to biodiversity studies and the utility of species‐distribution models to conservation decision‐making. Our results also demonstrate, however, that these models must be applied critically and cautiously.
EFFECT OF PACEMAKER LOCATION ON CARDIAC FUNCTION IN COMPLETE A-V HEART BLOCK.

These experiments were designed to determine if the location of ectopic ventricular stimulation influences ventricular performance. Heart block was produced in dogs by ligating the A-V bundle. Small bipolar electrodes were implanted in the apex, high lateral wall, and posterior septal region in six dogs. Several days after recovery dye dilution cardiac outputs, femoral arterial, and right atrial pressures were measured while stimulating from each of the three sites at varying rates between 60 and 240 beats/min. Mean cardiac outputs from stimulation at each of the three sites were similar and their 95% confidence intervals overlapped. Mean systemic pressure did not change significantly with frequency or location of ventricular stimulation. The experiments suggest that the pathway of ventricular activation does not affect ventricular function in complete heart block.
Characterization of Huntingtin Pathologic Fragments in Human Huntington Disease, Transgenic Mice, and Cell Models

Huntington disease (HD) is caused by the expansion of a glutamine (Q) repeat near the N terminus of huntingtin (htt), resulting in altered conformation of the mutant protein to produce, most prominently in brain neurons, nuclear and cytoplasmic inclusion pathology. The inclusions and associated diffuse accumulation of mutant htt in nuclei are composed of N-terminal fragments of mutant protein. Here, we used a panel of peptide antibodies to characterize the htt protein pathologies in brain tissues from human HD, and a transgenic mouse model created by expressing the first 171 amino acids of human htt with 82Q (htt-N171-82Q). In tissues from both sources, htt pathologic features in nuclei were detected by antibodies to htt peptides 1-17 and 81-90 but not 115-129 (wild-type huntingtin numbering with 23 repeats). Human HEK 293 cells transfected with expression vectors that encode either the N-terminal 233 amino acids of human htt (htt-N233-82Q) or htt-N171-18Q accumulated smaller N-terminal fragments with antibody-binding characteristics identical to those of pathologic peptides. We conclude that the mutant htt peptides that accumulate in pathologic structures of human HD and httN171-82Q in mice are produced by similar, yet to be defined, proteolytic events in a region of the protein near or within amino acids 90-115.