Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of carbon dioxide pneumoperitoneum on metastasis of ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV

The long suspicion of the potential harm of carbon dioxide (CO2) pneumoperitoneum exists in laparoscopic cancer surgery. For better understanding of this problem, we targeted this study at the effects of CO2 pneumoperitoneum on the invasive ability of ovarian carcinoma cell line and the possible mechanism within it. To study the effects of CO2 pneumoperitoneum on carcinoma cell, SKOV3 cells were divided into 2 groups, respectively exposed to pneumoperitoneal CO2-insufflation and normal conditions. To study the possible mechanism, SKOV3 cells were divided into 3 groups, one was exposed to CO2 pneumoperitoneum, one to N2 and the other to normal conditions served as control. The in vitro adhesive and invasive ability of the cells was analyzed through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and Boyden filters metastasis model; the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) were determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction( RT-PCR), and Western blot. We found that the adhesive ratio of SKOV3 cells exposed to CO2 was significantly higher than that of the control group; cells exposed to CO2 invaded the matrigel with a greater number (P<0.01); the expression of VEGF-C exposed to both CO2 and N2 was significantly increased compared with control group (P<0.05); the MMP9 expression level of CO2 group was higher than that of N2 group, P<0.05. We concluded that carbon dioxide pneumoperitoneum may improve the adhesive and invasive ability of ovarian carcinoma cell line in vitro and CO2 can also be an independent factor to stimulate the expression of MMP9.
Generating Test Data for Programs with Flag Variables using Goal-oriented Concolic Testing

This paper presents a goal-oriented test data generation technique that specializes concolic testing. The proposed technique, referred to as GCT (Goal-oriented Concolic Testing) produces test inputs which execute a specific target. Concolic testing can be seen as the brute force approach to search the space of all possible paths until a required test input is found. In contrast, GCT restricts the number of program paths that are explored by using data flow information to identify statements that should be executed beforehand in order for the target to be executed. We conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of GCT with programs with flag variables to show its effectiveness.
Incidental Effects of Automated Retweeting: An Exploratory Network Perspective on Bot Activity During Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election in 2015

The role of automated or semiautomated social media accounts, commonly known as “bots,” in social and political processes has gained significant scholarly attention. The current body of research discusses how bots can be designed to achieve specific purposes as well as instances of unexpected negative outcomes of such use. We suggest that the interplay between social media affordances and user practices can result in incidental effects from automated agents. We examined a Twitter network data set with 1,782 nodes and 5,640 edges to demonstrate the engagement and outreach of a retweeting bot called Siripalabot that was popular among Sri Lankan Twitter users. The bot served the simple function of retweeting tweets with hashtags #SriLanka and #lk to its follower network. However, the co-use of #Sri Lanka and/or #lk with #PresPollSL, a hashtag used to discuss politics related to Sri Lanka’s presidential election in 2015, resulted in the bot incidentally amplifying the political voice of less engaged actors. The analysis demonstrated that the bot dominated the network in terms of engagement (out-degree) and the ability to connect distant clusters of actors (betweenness centrality) while more traditional actors, such as the main election candidates and news accounts, indicated more prestige (in-degree) and power (eigenvector centrality). We suggest that the study of automated agents should include designer intentions, the design and behavior of automated agents, user expectations, as well as unintended and incidental effects of interaction.
Credit Market Constraints, Consumption Smoothing, and the Accumulation of Durable Production Assets in Low-Income Countries: Investments in Bullocks in India

In this paper we formulate and estimate a finite-horizon, structural dynamic model of agricultural investment behavior that incorporates the major features of low-income agricultural environments: income uncertainty, constraints on borrowing and rental markets, and the use of investment assets to generate income and smooth consumption. The model is fit to longitudinal Indian household data on farm profits, bullock stocks, and pump sets. The estimated structural parameters are used to assess the effects on the life cycle accumulation of bullocks, agricultural profits, and welfare associated with complete markets and bullock liquidity and with second-best policies that provide assured sources of income to farmers and weather insurance.
Anomalous Fermi surface in FeSe seen by Shubnikov–de Haas oscillation measurements

We have observed Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in FeSe. The Fermi surface deviates significantly from predictions of band-structure calculations and most likely consists of one electron and one hole thin cylinder. The carrier density is in the order of 0.01 carriers/ Fe, an order-of-magnitude smaller than predicted. Effective Fermi energies as small as 3.6 meV are estimated. These findings call for elaborate theoretical investigations incorporating both electronic correlations and orbital ordering.
Springtime aerosol load as observed from ground-based and airborne lidars over northern Norway

Abstract. To investigate the origin of springtime aerosols in the Arctic region we performed ground-based and airborne 355 nm Raman lidar observations in the north of Norway (Hammerfest). Two lidars were embedded (i) on an ultralight aircraft for vertical (nadir) or horizontal line-of-sight measurements and (ii) in an air-conditioned van on the ground for vertical (zenith) measurements. This field experiment was designed as part of the Pollution in the ARCtic System (PARCS) project of the French Arctic Initiative and took place from 13 to 26 May 2016. The consistency among lidar measurements is verified by comparing nadir, horizontal line of sight, and ground-based Raman lidar profiles. Dispersion of the order of 0.01 km−1 is obtained among lidar-derived aerosol extinction coefficients at 355 nm. The aerosol load measured in the first 3 km of the troposphere remains low throughout the campaign, with aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of 0.1 at 355 nm (∼0.05 at 550 nm). The main contributors to the evolution of the aerosol load at low altitude prove to be one of the flares of the nearby Melkøya gas processing facility, the oceanic source, and the transport of aerosols from industrial sites in Russia. Moreover, ground-based lidar measurements allowed us to identify three cases of long-range aerosol transport (between 3 and 8 km above the mean sea level). Using back trajectories computed with the Lagrangian model FLEXPART-WRF, these aerosol plumes are shown to be the result of the strong forest fires that occurred in the area of Fort McMurray, in Canada. They can at most double the AOT value over the Arctic area, with an anomaly of 0.1 on the AOT at 355 nm.
Phosphorus and potassium uptake, partitioning, and removal across a wide range of soybean seed yield levels

Maintenance of adequate soil phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) levels is critical for profitable soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] production. To accomplish this, precise knowledge of soybean P and K uptake, utilization, and removal is critical, yet a comprehensive study characterizing these requirements across wideranging seed yield environments is nonexistent for modern soybean production systems. Using six site-years and eight soybean varieties, plants were sampled at six growth stages , partitioned into their respective plant parts, and analyzed. Distinctly different uptake patterns and rates were found between P and K, where soybean accumulated greater relative amounts of K by R1 and 91 to 100% of its season-long K total by R5.5, compared with only 68 to 77% of its season-long P total. Removal of P (0.0054 kg P kg−1 grain) and K (0.016 kg K kg−1 grain) with the seed was consistent across environments and varieties and displayed strong relations with yield (R2 = 0.89–0.92). For each kilogram increase in yield, total P and K uptake increased by 0.0054 kg and 0.017 to 0.030 kg, respectively. The difference between total uptake and removal for each nutrient resulted in average nutrient harvest indices of 81 and 49% for P and K, respectively. However, significant variation in total uptake and nutrient harvest indices existed due to the environment, not variety, and was more pronounced for K, resulting in significant variability in the amount of K removed in stover. These results can be incorporated into future fertility recommendations to improve P and K management for profitable and environmentally sound soybean production. A.P. Gaspar and S.P. Conley, Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of WisconsinMadison, 1575 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706; C.A.M. Laboski, Dep. of Soil Science, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, 1525 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53706; S.L. Naeve, Dep. of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Univ. of Minnesota, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, MN 55108. Received 25 May 2016. Accepted 4 Apr. 2017. *Corresponding author (adam.gaspar@pioneer.com). Assigned to Associate Editor P.V. Vara Prasad. Abbreviations: ANCOVA, analysis of covariance; DAE, days after emergence; DM, dry matter; KHI, potassium harvest index; PHI, phosphorus harvest index. Published in Crop Sci. 57:2193–2204 (2017). doi: 10.2135/cropsci2016.05. 0378 © Crop Science Society of America | 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Published May 18, 2017
Inkjet printed resistive strain gages on flexible substrates

In this paper, resistive strain gages designed and fabricated in inkjet printing technology with three different silver nanoparticle inks are presented. Inks have different Ag content (15, 20 or 25  wt%) and solvents (water type or organic type). Strain gages were printed on a 50  µm thick polyimide and 140 µm thick PET-based substrate with different printer types (professional and desktop). All printed sensors have the same size (17  mm  ×  5  mm). To determine the change of resistance due to bending of the steel beam, tensile tests were performed up to 1500 microstrains. Due to performed cycles of loading and unloading of the steel beam, gauge factor and stability of the response of the strain gages are measured. Resistance change was measured with Keithley SourceMeter 2410. For acquisition of measured data, in-house software tool was developed. Measured gauge factors of the sensors are in the range between 1.07 and 2.03 (depending on a used ink, substrate and printer). Results of this research indicate the strain gages with good GF can be produced even with low-cost equipment, such as desktop printer EPSON C88+ and PET-based substrate.
Relative Toxicity of Leaf Extracts of Eucalyptus globulus and Centella asiatica against Mosquito Vectors Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi

The larvicidal activity of different solvent leaf extracts (hexane, diethyl ether, dichloromethane, and methanol) of Eucalyptus globulus and Centella asiatica against two geographically different strains of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi was investigated. The extracts were tested against the late third instar larvae of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi, and larval mortality was observed after 24 hours of treatment. LC50 and LC90 were calculated. The LC50 values of hexane extract of Eucalyptus globulus against the late third instar larvae of the BSN and JPN strains of Aedes aegypti and the DLC and KNG strains of Anopheles stephensi were 225.2, 167.7, 118.8, and 192.8 ppm, while those of the hexane extract of Centella asiatica were 246.5, 268.7, 50.6, and 243.5 ppm, respectively. The LC50 values of diethyl ether extract of Centella asiatica were 339.6, 134.5, 241, and 14.7 ppm. The hexane extracts of both plants and the diethyl ether extract of C. asiatica presented the highest potential for the control of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi. The present findings also reveal the necessity of assaying multiple strains of a species to fully comprehend the larvicidal efficacy of a compound.
Image Compression using ITT and ICT and a Novel Variable Quantization Technique

The need for novel transform coding techniques promising improved reconstruction and reduced computational complexity in the field of image and data compression is undeniable. Currently, there is a prevalent use of the integer adaptation of the popular discrete cosine transform (DCT) with fixed quantization in the video compression domain due to its ease of computation and adequate performance. However, there cannot be a single method or technique that would not only provide maximum compression possible, but also offer the best quality for different types of images. The influence of specific features of the image, such as its structure and content, on the quality of reconstructed image after decompression cannot be ignored. This thesis intends to utilize this aspect and identify areas where an alternative to integer DCT (ICT) for image compression can be proposed. There exist polynomial-based orthogonal transforms like discrete Tchebichef transform (DTT), which possess valuable properties like energy compaction, but are potentially unexploited in comparison with DCT. This thesis examines, in detail, where DTT stands as a viable alternative to DCT for lossy image compression based on various image quality parameters. It introduces a multiplier-free fast implementation of integer DTT (ITT) of size 8×8 that significantly reduces the computational complexity. Normally, images have detail spread across them in a non-homogenous manner. Hence, when the image is divided into blocks, some blocks might have intricate detail, whereas the amount of detail in some might be very sparse. This feature is exploited in this thesis by proposing a technique to adapt the quantization performed during compression according to the characteristics of the image block. The novelty of this variable quantization is that it is simple to implement without much computational or transmission overhead. The image compression performance of ITT and ICT, using both variable and fixed quantization, are evaluated and compared for a variety of images. Eventually, the cases suitable for ITT-based image compression employing variable quantization are identified.
Validation of three satellite-derived databases of surface solar radiation using measurements performed at 42 stations in Brazil

Abstract. The SoDa website ( www.soda-pro.com ) is populated with numerous solar-related Web services. Among them, three satellite-derived irradiation databases can be manually or automatically accessed to retrieve radiation values within the geographical coverage of the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite: the two most advanced versions of the HelioClim-3 database (versions 4 and 5, respectively HC3v4 and HC3v5), and the CAMS radiation service. So far, these databases have been validated against measurements of several stations in Europe and North Africa only. As the quality of such databases depends on the geographical regions and the climates, this paper extends this validation campaign and proposes an extensive comparison on Brazil and global irradiation received on a horizontal surface. Eleven stations from the Brazilian Institute of Space Research (INPE) network offer 1 min observations, and thirty-one stations from the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET) network offer hourly observations. The satellite-derived estimates have been compared to the corresponding observations on hourly, daily and monthly basis. The bias relative to the mean of the measurements for HC3v5 is mostly comprised between 1 and 3 %, and that for HC3v4 between 2 and 5 %. These are very satisfactory results and they demonstrate that HC3v5, and to a lesser extent HC3v4, may be used in studies of long-term changes in SSI in Brazil. The situation is not so good with CAMS radiation service for which the relative bias is mostly comprised between 5 and 10 %. For hourly irradiation, the relative RMSE ranges from 15 to 33 %. The correlation coefficient is very large for all stations and the three databases, with an average of 0.96. The three databases reproduce well the hour from hour changes in SSI. The errors show a tendency to increase with the viewing angle of the MSG satellite. They are greater in tropical areas where the relative humidity in the atmosphere is important. It is concluded that except for the overestimation by CAMS radiation service, the three databases are suitable for studies of the solar resources in Brazil.
Increase of upper troposphere/lower stratosphere wave baroclinicity during the second half of the 20th century

Abstract. A strengthening of the equatorward temperature gradient in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS), at subtropics and midlatitudes, is consistently reproduced in several modelling studies of the atmospheric response to the increase of greenhouse gas radiative forcing. Some of those studies suggest an increase of the baroclinicity in the UTLS region because of the enhanced meridional temperature gradient. This study presents observational evidence of an increase of the baroclinic wave components of UTLS circulation (UTLS wave baroclinicity), during the second half of the 20th century. The evidence is given by significant positive trends in the energy of baroclinic normal modes of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, and significant positive trends in the UTLS eddy available potential energy of the NCEP/NCAR, ERA-40, NCEP-2 and JRA-25 reanalyses. Significant positive trends in the frequency of double tropopause events in radiosonde data are also interpreted as a manifestation of an increase of the UTLS wave baroclinicity.
Effects of Decomposition Levels of Wavelets in Image Compression Algorithms

Image compression finds extensive application in storage of image and image transfer. Imagecompression techniques require the application of suitable and effective transforms to achieve the task. In this work, Discrete Wavelet Transform based image compression algorithm is used for decomposing the image. The effectiveness of different wavelets with various decomposition levels are analyzed based on the values of Peak signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Compression ratio (CR), Means square error (MSE) and bits per pixel (BPP). The optimum compression algorithm is also found based on the results
Explorer Evolution of Inconsistent Ontologies in Physics

Inconsistency robustness in autonomous software can be seen as a problem of automated reasoning about ontology evolution. Formal ontologies specify the knowledge that software systems use when reasoning about the entities in their domain. Such knowledge is bound to evolve in the face of new information. Robust software should therefore be able to maintain the consistency between its own ontologies and any incoming information that contradicts them. This can be achieved either by isolating the inconsistency or by evolving the ontologies. We propose a higher-order logical approach to ontology evolution and apply it to examples in physics, as advances in this field are naturally modelled as cases of ontology evolution. GALILEO, a system based on this approach, is being implemented and tested. Its basic mechanisms for evolution are ontology repair plans. These operate on ontologies formalised and implemented as contexts, which are logical theories that use their own local concepts to describe the domain, thus preventing potential contradictions with other theories to arise. When, though, ontologies are mapped or aligned, they share axioms. This may allow the proof of contradictory facts that affect the robustness of the system. At this stage, the application of an ontology repair plan may resolve the inconsistency, as each plan compiles together a pattern for diagnosis of conflicts between ontologies and transformation rules for effecting a repair. The repair can combine the retraction of axioms, the change of beliefs as well as the deeper modification of the language in which the ontology is represented.
Alternative Conceptions Concerning the Earth's Interior Exhibited by Honduran Students

ABSTRACT Although multiple studies of misconceptions in Earth science have been completed using samples of North American and European students and teachers, little research has been conducted on alternative Earth science conceptions in developing countries. The current study was conducted in 5th- and 6th-grade classrooms in eastern Honduras, Central America. The goal of the study was to gather data documenting Honduran students' conceptions of the Earth's interior. This qualitative study used participant-generated drawings and interviews to access students' conceptions of the Earth's interior. Results suggest that Honduran students, ages 9–14 y, express varying levels of understanding regarding this science concept. Many exhibit alternative conceptions, including nonconcentric layers in the Earth; the presence of physical objects, such as houses, inside the Earth; and the existence of mythical creatures within the Earth. This study provides data relevant to geoscience education in Honduras, has implications for geoscience education in tectonically active regions where Earth science is not a major part of the curriculum, and offers suggestions for teaching abstract Earth science concepts to concrete learners. The study also provides information for educators that teach students who are recent immigrants from Honduras and for those who teach students of limited language and/or reading proficiency.
Gold-Stock Market Relationship: Emerging Markets versus Developed Markets

We perform a comparative study on the gold-stock market relationship in U.S. stock market as a developed market and in Iran stock market as an emerging market. By considering appropriate variables for emerging markets and by providing a more proper methodology, we improve earlier studies. According to our findings, the relationship between stock market returns and gold price returns does not follow any specific regimes and that this relationship changes in short and long term returns. It is necessary to mention that in the present research, we did not con sider this relationship in major structural changes in the economies and instead considered usual economic circumstances that investors are regularly faced with in their investment decisions.
Research and Application of Fire Forecasting Model for Electric Transmission Lines Incorporating Meteorological Data and Human Activities

Recently, there is a rise in frequency of fires which pose a serious threat to the safety operation of electric transmission lines. Several ultrahigh voltage (UHV) electric transmission lines, including Fufeng line, Jinsu line, Longzheng line, and Changnan line, showed many times tripping or bipolar latching caused by fire disasters. Fire disasters have tended to be the biggest threat to the safety operation of electric transmission lines and even can cause power grid collapse in some severe situations. Researchers have made much research on fires forecasting. However, these studies are mainly concentrated on predicting fires based on measured or forecasting meteorological data and do not take into account the effect of human activities. In fact, fire disasters have a very close relationship with human activities. In our research, a fire prediction model is proposed incorporating meteorological data as well as human activities. And this model is applied in Hunan province and Anhui province, which seriously suffer from fire disasters. The results show that the model has good prediction precision and can be a powerful tool for practical application.