Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Designing a Real-World Course for Environmental Studies Students: Entering a Social-Ecological System

There is increasing interest in using “real-world pedagogy” to train students in ways that make them better able to contribute toward a more sustainable society. While there is a robust body of literature on the competencies that students need as sustainability professionals, there is a lack of specific guidance in the literature on how to teach for competency development or on how to structure a program or course to support competency development. Our research addresses this gap in the literature through a description and autoethnographic reflection on the design and early implementation of a “real-world” course. The course is from the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH, USA), but it takes place in the environs of the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in the Namib Desert of Namibia and in nearby Topnaar settlements. Our research objective was to articulate strategies to address the primary pedagogical challenges that we faced during the design and first five iterations of the course. These include: How do we frame this course and communicate it to students in a way that is understandable and works within the particular context and constraints of the course? Can we provide students with a coherent framework that helps them to understand the approach and also provides a platform for thoughtful consideration, acquisition, and retention of appropriate competencies? How do we develop collaborations with our community partners that are ethical and effective? How do we frame these real-world experiences in a way that allows for students to integrate their experience with the theory and broader empiricism they learn on campus? To address these pedagogic challenges, we framed the course as a research-based course, more specifically community-based research (CBR), conducted in a social-ecological system (SES). We developed lower-level strategies for implementing this framing, including preparing students for collaborative research, encouraging student ownership of their learning, linking theory to research, and thoughtfully navigating time constraints. Furthermore, program-level and student-level engagement with community have been critical for avoiding becoming “helicopter researchers. ” Drawing on our personal reflections and those of our community partners, we conclude with a discussion of emergent outcomes and the next steps for continual improvement and adaptation.
ELF magnetic fields, breast cancer, and melatonin: 60 Hz fields block melatonin's oncostatic action on ER+ breast cancer cell proliferation

Abstract: In this study we investigated whether a 60 Hz magnetic field can act at the cellular level to influence the growth of human estrogen‐dependent breast cancer cells. Our experimental design assessed cell proliferation of a human breast cancer cell line, MCF‐7, in the absence or the presence of melatonin which inhibits growth at a physiological concentration of 10‐9 M. In three experiments, continuous exposure to average sinusoidal 60 Hz magnetic fields of 1.90 ± 0.01, 2.40 ± 0.70, and 2.53 ± 0.50 mG, or simultaneous exposure in matched incubators to average 60 Hz magnetic fields of 10.4 ± 2.12, 11.95 ± 2.73, and 11.95 ± 3.28 mG, respectively, had no effect on cell proliferation in the absence of melatonin. When MCF‐7 cells were cultured in the presence of 10‐9 M melatonin, an 18% inhibition of growth was observed for cells in a 2.40 ± 0.70 mG field. This effect was blocked by a 60 Hz magnetic field of 11.95 ± 2.75 mG. In a second experiment, a 27% inhibition of MCF‐7 cell growth was observed for cells in a 2.53 ± 0.50 mG magnetic field, and this was blocked by a 60 Hz magnetic field of 11.95 ± 3.28 mG. These results provide the first evidence that ELF frequency magnetic fields can act at the cellular level to enhance breast cancer cell proliferation by blocking melatonin's natural oncostatic action. In addition, there appears to be a dose threshold between 2 and 12 mG. The mechanism(s) of action is unknown and may involve modulation of signal transduction events associated with melatonin's regulation of cell growth.
Network-Based Output Tracking Control for a Class of T-S Fuzzy Systems That Can Not Be Stabilized by Nondelayed Output Feedback Controllers

This paper investigates network-based output tracking control for a T-S fuzzy system that can not be stabilized by a nondelayed fuzzy static output feedback controller, but can be stabilized by a delayed fuzzy static output feedback controller. By intentionally introducing a communication network that produces proper network-induced delays in the feedback control loop, a stable and satisfactory tracking control can be ensured for the T-S fuzzy system. Due to the presence of network-induced delays, the fuzzy system and the fuzzy tracking controller operate in an asynchronous way. Taking the asynchronous operation and network-induced delays into consideration, the network-based tracking control system is modeled as an asynchronous T-S fuzzy system with an interval time-varying delay. A new delaydependent criterion for L2-gain tracking performance is derived by using the deviation bounds of asynchronous normalized membership functions and a complete Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional. Applying a particle swarm optimization technique with the feasibility of the derived criterion, a novel design algorithm is presented to determine the minimum L2-gain tracking performance and control gains simultaneously. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by performing network-based output tracking control of a Duffing-Van der Pol's oscillator.
Velocity estimation of cellular terminals in urban environment using ray tracing

The paper discusses the problem of estimating the velocity of a mobile cellular terminal within an urban, multipath-rich environment, using available geographical information such as terrain and building maps. The method suggested in the paper is the use of ray tracing in order to characterize the propagation environment. The paper discusses the usage of Doppler processing of a signal received from a single antenna and suggests using a two stage algorithm - location followed by velocity estimation. The paper presents an algorithm and an error analysis describing the potential sources of errors encountered in implementation including inaccuracies in the geographical and network databases, measurement accuracy and location accuracy.
Design of Chronomodulated Drug Delivery System of Valsartan: In Vitro Characterization

The aim of the present study was to design and evaluate a chronomodulated time-clock pulsatile tablets of valsartan to release it after a certain lag time, independent of the gastrointestinal pH, in its absorption window to cope with the circadian rhythm of human body for blood pressure elevation. Core tablets were prepared by direct compression of a homogenous mixture of valsartan, Avicel PH101, croscarmellose sodium, magnesium stearate and Aerosil. The core tablets were then sprayed coated with a sealing layer formed of ethyl cellulose that was subsequently coated with a release-controlling layer. Three different aqueous dispersions namely; carnauba wax or beeswax or a mixture in a ratio of 2.5:1, respectively, were used to form five time-clock tablet formulations having the release controlling layer with different thickness {B5, B10, B20, BW5 and CW5}. Quality control testing were carried out to the core tablets. Differential scanning calorimetry was also performed to detect the possible drug excipient interaction in the core tablet formulation. The release was carried out, for the prepared time-clock tablet formulations, in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for the first 2 h, followed by phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) for 4.5 h. The effect of pH on valsartan release was studied through a release study in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for 6.5 h. Two phase dissolution study was performed to the selected time-clock tablet formulation to predict the drug permeation through the gastrointestinal tract. Stability study of the selected formula was performed at 25°/60% RH and at 40°/75% RH for 3 months. Results showed that a release-controlling layer composed of a mixture of carnauba wax and beeswax in a ratio of 2.5:1 showed a reasonable release lag time. The release lag time of the tablets increased with the increase of the coat thickness, thus B20>B10>B5 with corresponding lag time values of 4.5, 3 and 2.5 h, respectively. Selected B5 tablet formula exhibited a reasonable lag time after which the highest, complete % drug release at pH 6.8 was obtained. In addition, a good partitioning of valsartan, between the aqueous and organic phases in a ratio of 1:7, was observed. The selected formula was stable for at least 3 months under standard long-term and accelerated storage conditions. In conclusion, in vitro studies revealed that the novel time-clock system could be used successfully to deliver valsartan in a pulsatile pH-independent manner. It provided a desirable lag time followed by a rapid and complete drug release accompanied by an expected effective permeation through the biological membranes upon release in the duodenum; the window of absorption, as indicated by the two phase release study.
Soluble CD70: a novel immunotherapeutic agent for experimental glioblastoma.

OBJECT Given the overall poor outcome with current treatment strategies in malignant gliomas, immunotherapy has been considered a promising experimental approach to glioblastoma for more than 2 decades. A cell surface molecule, CD70, may induce potent antitumor immune responses via activation of the costimulatory receptor CD27 expressed on immune effector cells. There is evidence that a soluble form of CD70 (sCD70) may exhibit biological activity, too. A soluble costimulatory ligand is attractive because it may facilitate immune activation and may achieve a superior tissue distribution. METHODS To test the antiglioma effect of sCD70, the authors genetically modified SMA-560 mouse glioma cells to secrete the extracellular domain of CD70. They assessed the immunogenicity of the transfected cells in cocultures with immune effector cells by the determination of immune cell proliferation and the release of interferon-gamma. Syngeneic VM/Dk mice were implanted orthotopically with control or sCD70-releasing glioma cells to determine a survival benefit mediated by sCD70. Depletion studies were performed to identify the cellular mediators of prolonged survival of sCD70-releasing glioma-bearing mice. RESULTS The authors found that ectopic expression of sCD70 enhanced the proliferation and interferon-gamma release of syngeneic splenocytes in vitro. More importantly, sCD70 prolonged the survival of syngeneic VM/Dk mice bearing intracranial SMA-560 gliomas. The survival rate at 60 days increased from 5 to 45%. Antibody-mediated depletion of CD8-positive T cells abrogates the survival advantage conferred by sCD70. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that sCD70 is a potent stimulator of antiglioma immune responses that depend critically on CD8-positive T cells. Soluble CD70 could be a powerful adjuvant for future immunotherapy trials for glioblastoma.
Analytical evaluation of Diazyme procalcitonin (PCT) latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay on Beckman Coulter AU5800

Abstract Background: This study was aimed to evaluate the analytical performance of the novel Diazyme procalcitonin (PCT) immunoturbidimetric assay on Beckman Coulter AU5800. Methods: Diazyme PCT is a latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay, developed for use on laboratory instrumentations with capability of reading absorbance at 600 nm. This analytical evaluation included the assessment of limit of blank (LOB), limit of detection (LOD), functional sensitivity, imprecision, linearity, carryover, and method comparison between Diazyme PCT and Kryptor PCT on 129 routine serum inpatient samples. Results: The LOB, LOD, and functional sensitivity of Diazyme PCT were 0.16, 0.26, and 0.28 ng/mL, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay imprecision of Diazyme PCT was between 2.9% and 7.8%. The linearity was excellent in the range of PCT values between 0.16 and 56 ng/mL, and the carryover was negligible (0.02%). A highly significant agreement was found between Kryptor PCT and Diazyme PCT in a range of concentrations between 0.16 and 111 ng/mL (Diazyme PCT=1.10×Kryptor PCT–0.89; r=0.960; p<0.001). The mean bias was 0.48 ng/mL (95% CI, –0.58 to 1.54 ng/mL). The strength of agreement between Kryptor PCT and Diazyme PCT was between 85% and 96% at 0.50, 2.0, and 10 ng/mL cutoffs. Conclusions: Diazyme PCT appears to be a reliable assay for diagnosis and management of critical care patients susceptible to severe bacterial infections.
Postnatal Follow-Up of Hydronephrosis Detected by Prenatal Ultrasound: The Natural History

Babies with hydronephrosis detected antenatally who were born at or referred to our hospital from 1990 to 1995 were followed up with ultrasound (U/S), micturating cystourethrogram (MCU) or nuclear medicine studies after birth. One hundred and three patients were diagnosed antenatally at 17–42 weeks gestation. Twelve cases were excluded from the analysis of the results because of incomplete data. Fifty-one (56%) patients had hydronephrosis without organic obstruction, and 80% of these became normal in 3 years. Fifteen patients (17%) had a normal scan 4 days after birth. This suggests the possibility of antenatal spontaneous regression. Seven (8%) had a ureterocele and 4 (5%) had pelviureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction. Four (5%) had vesicoureteric reflux, and 4 (5%) had primary megaureter. Two (2%) had posterior urethral valves (PUV), 3 (3%) had refluxing primary megaureter, and 1 (1%) had urethral atresia. Fifteen patients (17%) underwent surgical intervention. Six had a nephrectomy, 1 a vesicostomy, 3 an Anderson-Hynes pyeloplasty, 3 had the ureterocele unroofed, 1 had a ureteric reimplant, and 1 ablation of valves. In 42 infants with 60 abnormal kidneys, the renal anteroposterior diameter of the pelvis was measured. Retrospectively, 48 kidneys diagnosed as having hydronephrosis, antenatally had a renal pelvis diameter ≥4 mm before 33 weeks gestation or ≥7 mm after 33 weeks gestation. One patient with PUJ obstruction lost kidney function, but there is no good marker to detect these patients. Early unroofing of ureteroceles may rescue kidney function. Our follow-up protocol for antenatal hydronephrosis is U/S at 4 days, 1 month and 1 year of age. An MCU is not required unless the ureter is seen on antenatal U/S. If dilatation persists past 1 month, a radionucleotide (MAG3) scan and repeat U/S are performed at 3 months. The methods for assessing obstruction and the indications for surgical intervention in these patients require reexamination.
Cross-Database Facial Expression Recognition Based on Fine-Tuned Deep Convolutional Network

Facial expression recognition is a very important research field to understand human emotions. Many facial expression recognition systems have been proposed in the literature over the years. Some of these methods use neural network approaches with deep architectures to address the problem. Although it seems that the facial expression recognition problem has been solved, there is a large difference between the results achieved using the same database to train and test the network and the cross-database protocol. In this paper, we extensively investigate the performance influence of fine-tuning with cross-database approach. In order to perform the study, the VGG-Face Deep Convolutional Network model (pre-trained for face recognition) was fine-tuned to recognize facial expressions considering different well-established databases in the literature: CK+, JAFFE, MMI, RaFD, KDEF, BU3DFE, and AR Face. The cross-database experiments were organized so that one of the databases was separated as test set and the others as training, and each experiment was ran multiple times to ensure the results. Our results show a significant improvement on the use of pre-trained models against randomly initialized Convolutional Neural Networks on the facial expression recognition problem, for example achieving 88.58%, 67.03%, 85.97%, and 72.55% average accuracy testing in the CK+, MMI, RaFD, and KDEF, respectively. Additionally, in absolute terms, the results show an improvement in the literature for cross-database facial expression recognition with the use of pre-trained models.
A disjoint route-sets approach to design of path-protecting p-cycle networks

Recent work has proposed the concept of failure-independent path-protecting (FIPP) p-cycles as a pre-connected, failure independent, path-protecting network architecture [A. Kodian, W. D. Grover (2005)]. FIPP p-cycles extend p-cycles by adding the property, like shared backup path protection (SBPP), of providing end-to-end failure independent path switching against either span or node failures. Especially in a transparent or translucent optical network, the property of pre-cross-connection of protection paths can be even more important than just increasing restoration-speed: when optical protection paths are pre-cross-connected, they can be guaranteed in advance to work when required. FIPP p-cycles therefore offer a fully pre-connected, alternative to SBPP in which protection paths must be assembled on the fly from spare wavelength channels. Design results from small networks in [A. Kodian, W. D. Grover (2005)] showed that FIPP p-cycle designs can be as efficient as SBPP but it is very difficult to design larger networks using the ILP design model in [A. Kodian, W. D. Grover (2005)]. We now develop a new ILP model and a related heuristic method for FIPP p-cycle design that produces network designs with much faster runtimes. Results indicate that the heuristic generates FIPP p-cycle designs that have total capacity costs within 10-18% of optimally designed SBPP solutions.
Prodos Is a Conserved Transcriptional Regulator That Interacts with dTAFII16 in Drosophila melanogaster

ABSTRACT The transcription factor TFIID is a multiprotein complex that includes the TATA box binding protein (TBP) and a number of associated factors, TAFII. Prodos (PDS) is a conserved protein that exhibits a histone fold domain (HFD). In yeast two-hybrid tests using PDS as bait, we cloned the Drosophila TAFII, dTAFII16, as a specific PDS target. dTAFII16 is closely related to human TAFII30 and to another recently discovered Drosophila TAF, dTAFII24. PDS and dTAFII24 do not interact, however, thus establishing a functional difference between these dTAFs. The PDS-dTAFII16 interaction is mediated by the HFD motif in PDS and the N terminus in dTAFII16, as indicated by yeast two-hybrid assays with protein fragments. Luciferase-reported transcription tests in transfected cells show that PDS or an HFD-containing fragment activates transcription only with the help of dTAFII16 and TBP. Consistent with this, the eye phenotype of flies expressing asev-Ras1 construct is modulated by PDS and dTAFII16 in a gene dosage-dependent manner. Finally, we show that PDS function is required for cell viability in somatic mosaics. These findings indicate that PDS is a novel transcriptional coactivator that associates with a member of the general transcription factor TFIID.
First outbreak of pitch canker in a South African pine plantation

Fusarium circinatum, the causal agent of pitch canker, was first reported in South Africa in 1990 on Pinus patula seedlings in a nursery. Subsequent to this outbreak the pathogen has spread throughout South African pine nurseries causing a serious root and collar rot disease of various Pinus spp. The stem canker disease on plantation trees that typifies pitch canker in other parts of the world has never been observed in South Africa. An outbreak of a serious disease with symptoms resembling those of pitch canker on 5- and 9-year-old P. radiata in the Western Cape Province, prompted a study to determine the causal agent. Besides having stem cankers exuding copious amounts of resin, dying trees were infested by the weevil, Pissodes nemorensis. Isolations were thus made from infected tissue, weevil galleries and from adult insects. A Fusarium sp. was consistently isolated from both pine tissue and insects. The fungus was characterised based on morphological features and using DNAsequence comparisons for the genes encoding translation elongation factor 1-α and β-tubulin. These studies showed conclusively that the fungus represents the pitch canker fungus, F. circinatum. Three isolates from trees in the affected area were inoculated onto P. radiata seedlings and their ability to cause disease was thus evaluated. Three weeks after inoculation, die-back symptoms were recorded on all inoculated plants. This report represents the first outbreak of pitch canker on plantation trees in South Africa. The fungus can thus no longer be considered only as a nursery pathogen in the country, where it seriously threatens the future of plantation forestry.
Conflict Fragmentation Index

Abstract It is widely accepted that fragmentation influences conflict processes in a profound way. Multi-party conflicts with several fronts are notoriously hard to resolve. However, there is no easily computable measure to approximate conflict fragmentation. In this article, we introduce the conflict fragmentation index (CFI), which is computed by adapting the Herfindahl–Hirschman index. The CFI considers the relative prominence of each dyadic-level conflict-fronts nested in the entire civil war. The relative prominence is approximated by using available information on conflict casualties. The CFI is time-variant and highly sensitive to battlefield dynamics. The flexibility of CFI can bring several advantages. Most notably, it is possible to calculate monthly or even daily measures of conflict fragmentation by taking state-based (government vs. NSA) as well as non-state based (NSA vs. NSA) conflicts into account. Overall, the CFI provides a theoretically-informed and easy to compute measure to approximate conflict fragmentation.
Efficient Process Parameters Optimization of Rapid Heat Cycling Molding Technology Based on Response Surface Methodology and Improved Genetic Algorithm

An independently developed vehicle-borne high-gloss bluetooth product is taken as an example in the research of optimization of rapid heat cycle molding(RHCM) technology.Coupling with the experiment and numerical simulation technology,the center composite design(CCD) method is employed in arranging the experimental points.With an interference factor introduced artificially,the simulation results are kept in good consistency with experimental result.And the samples qualitative data is processed to more truly response the product quality by integrating entropy-based weight(EBW) method and technique for order preference by similarity ideal solution(TOPSIS) method.Then a predictive response surface model(RS) for comprehensive quality index is created by using response surface methodology(RSM) based on analysis of variance(ANOVA) method.The RS model is interfaced with an effective improved genetic algorithm(IGA) to find the optimum process parameters values.And the actual production achieves good result,which shows that the process control technology is feasible and effective in processing quality optimization of high-gloss plastic part.