Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of heterogeneously catalyzed ester hydrolysis reactions in a fixed-bed chromatographic reactor

Reactive chromatography is based on a combination of chemical reactions and chromatographic separations performed in a single apparatus. In comparison with sequentially connected conventional reactors and separators its performance promises the advantage to improve objectives as productivity, purity and selectivity. However, industrial applications of reactive chromatography are still absent due to technical problems and lack of accurate data and models. In an attempt to contribute to the development and application of this promising technique, in this dissertation several ester hydrolysis reactions performed in fixed-bed chromatographic reactors have been studied theoretically and experimentally. Whether reactive chromatography can be applied successfully for a certain chemical reaction depends on reaction stoichiometries and rates, and on interactions of the species involved with the stationary phases applied. Therefore, theoretical tools are desirable to evaluate feasibility before going into further details. In this work, a new modeling approach consisting out of two steps is proposed for conceptual design of fixed-bed chromatographic reactors. In a first step, an extended equilibrium model is used to study feasibility of joint complete conversion and complete separation. In a second step, a more detailed equilibrium-dispersion model is used to simulate and optimize the performance of fixed-bed chromatographic reactors. In order to verify theoretical predictions, the hydrolysis reactions of methyl formate, ethyl formate, methyl acetate and ethyl acetate were investigated experimentally in fixed-bed chromatographic reactors. These four ester hydrolysis reactions are characterized by different behavior regarding reaction kinetics. An ion exchange resin was used as adsorbent and catalyst. To model the relevant subprocesses, chemical and adsorption equilibria, dispersion coefficients, and other parameters were determined experimentally. In particular, the influence of the temperature on these parameters was quantified. Furthermore, the reaction rate constants were estimated for the four reactions using curve fitting procedures based on comparing simulated and experimentally determined elution vi profiles. Finally, the equilibrium-dispersion model was used to simulate the performance of the fixed-bed chromatographic reactor and a wide parameter range. The results obtained and the modeling approach presented can be used to study other reaction system, other modes of operation of reactive chromatography and other integrated reaction-separation processes.
Linkage between soil organic carbon and the utilization of soil microbial carbon under plastic film mulching in a semi-arid agroecosystem in China

ABSTRACT Studying changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) pools and soil microbial C substrate utilization under plastic mulching in different seasons is of great significance for improving soil fertility and sustainable agricultural development. Based on a 2-year plastic film mulching experiment in northeastern China, we investigated the SOC, labile SOC fractions under three treatments: non-mulching (NM), autumn mulching (AM) and spring mulching (SM). The results showed that SOC decreased with soil depth under the AM and SM treatments compared with the NM treatment. The microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) under the AM treatment increased significantly in the 0–10 cm soil layer, by 31.2% and 27.2% (p < 0.05), respectively. The AM treatment significantly increased the utilization of amino acids and carbohydrate C sources. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that MBC was the main factor influencing microbial metabolic functional diversity and accounted for the largest variation in the 0–10 cm layer. Pearson’s correlation analysis illustrated that MBC was strongly correlated with the utilization of the microbial C substrate. We suggest that AM may be an effective and sustainable management practice for improving soil quality and maintaining microbial functional diversity in semi-arid agroecosystems in this area.
Influence of in Ovo Administration of Some Water-Soluble Vitamins on Hatchability Traits, Growth, Carcass Traits and Blood Chemistry of Japanese Quails

Abstract A total of 450 fertile Japanese quail eggs were used to determine the impacts of in ovo administration of water-soluble vitamins (C, B6 and B12) on the growth performance, carcass traits, hematological and biochemical blood parameters as well as the immune response of Japanese quails. On the 7th day of incubation, the eggs were allocated to five groups: un-injected, 0.1 ml/egg saline, 1 mg/egg vitamin C, 150 µg/egg vitamin B6 and 20 µg/egg vitamin B12. The percentage of early embryonic mortality was increased (P≤0.001) in all treated groups versus the control group. Chicks that hatched from eggs injected with 1 mg/egg vitamin C exhibited a significantly greater (P≤0.05) live body weight (LBW) than those from the control and saline groups. During 0–2 weeks of age, the chicks hatched from eggs injected with vitamins displayed better feed conversion than the positive or negative controls. In ovo injection of vitamins had no significant effect on all carcass traits. In ovo injection with vitamins C, B6 and B12 increased plasma total protein and its fractions compared with the control. Plasma levels of total lipids and cholesterol were decreased in chicks hatched from eggs injected with 1 mg/egg vitamin C, 150 µg/egg vitamin B6 or 20 µg/egg vitamin B12 compared with those hatched from control eggs. Plasma T3 and T4 were increased in chicks hatched from eggs injected with vitamin C, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. The relative weights of the bursa of Fabricius and thymus were significantly (P=0.002 or 0.003) increased in the birds hatched from eggs injected with vitamins compared with those in the control or saline group. Thus, in ovo injection of vitamins C, B6 and B12 improved the blood profile and immune response of Japanese quail.
Host Specificity of Oxyspirura petrowi in Wild Turkey

Abstract The Rolling Plains ecoregion of Texas hosts the highest known prevalence and intensity of the eyeworm Oxyspirura petrowi among Colinus virginianus (Northern Bobwhite) in the US. Meleagris gallopavo (Wild Turkey) and the Northern Bobwhite have a similar diet (i.e., facultative insectivore), overlapping ranges, and phylogenetic relatedness (i.e., Galliformes); thus, we expected Wild Turkeys sympatric with an infected population of wild Northern Bobwhites to also host eyeworms. In 2014, we dissected 104 Wild Turkey and 50 Northern Bobwhite heads from a 27,530-ha area in Roberts County, TX. Only 1 turkey (female) was infected with a single eyeworm. Prevalence, mean abundance (± SE), and mean intensity (± SE) among Northern Bobwhites on the same area was 58%, 7.6 ± 1.8, and 13.1 ± 2.7, respectively. Eyeworm prevalence between Northern Bobwhite males (n = 25, 64%) and females (n = 25, 52%) was not statistically different (P = 0.57). Mean abundance (± SE) was similar between males (8.8 ± 2.6) and females (6.4 ± 2.5; P = 0.53), and mean intensity between males (13.7 ± 3.5) and females (12.4 ± 4.3) did not differ (P = 0.71). Wild Turkeys do not appear to be suitable hosts for O. petrowi.
Acceptability of Drosophila suzukii as prey for common predators occurring in cherries and berries

The invasive cherry vinegar fly, Drosophila suzukii, has been identified in Europe as a destructive fruit pest since its arrival in 2008. In the present laboratory study, three predatory insects (Orius majusculus, Chrysoperla carnea, and Forficula auricularia) naturally occurring on fruit crops in Europe were investigated for their ability to attack and feed on D. suzukii within and outside fruits. The predators were provided with various D. suzukii life stages (eggs, larvae, pupae or adults) exposed or within infested cherries. The anthocorid bug O. majusculus fed on eggs and larvae, but was not able to attack pupae. Larvae of the lacewing C. carnea preyed upon D. suzukii eggs, larvae and pupae and also captured adult flies. The European earwig F. auricularia was the most voracious predator of these three tested species. Although the earwigs were not able to catch adult flies, they readily preyed upon every other developmental stage. Adult O. majusculus or third instar larvae of C. carnea significantly reduced the offspring of D. suzukii from infested cherries, when these contained the egg stage of the pest. None of the predators were able to attack early larval stages inside the cherries. But pupae that protruded from the fruit epicarp or that had pupated outside the fruit were accessible to lacewing larvae and earwigs and significantly reduced by them. Orius bugs, lacewing larvae and earwigs were able, under laboratory conditions, to capture and prey upon various life stages of the invasive pest, if not completely concealed inside the fruit. Our findings suggest that these generalist predators may have some control capacity on infested fruit in cultivated fruit crops and also in non‐crop habitats.
Perfluorinated Compounds: Occurrence of Emerging Food Contaminants in Canned Fish and Seafood Products

Hradkova �P.,�PoustkaJ. ,�Hlouskova �V. ,�Pulkrabova �J.,�Tomaniova �M. ,�Hajslova �J.�(2010):� Per- fluorinated compounds: occurrence of emerging food contaminants in canned fish and seafood products. �CzechJ. �FoodSci. ,�28:�333-342. Thecontaminationlevelsofperfluorooctanoic �acid �(PFOA),�perfluorooctanesulfonate�(PFOS)�andperfluorooctane� sulfonamide �(FOSA),�whichrepresentanimportantsubgroupoftheenvironmentalcontaminantsknownasperfluori - natedcompounds�(PFCs),�wereexaminedin�35�importedcannedfishandseafoodproducts �(tuna, �sardine, �codliver)� obtainedfromtheCzechretailmarketin�2009. �Ananalyticalprocedurewasemployedbasedonafastandsimplified� samplepreparationusingactivatedcharcoalclean-upfollowedbyaLC-MS/MSdeterminativestep. �Thecontentof� PFOS,�whichwasthedominatingpollutant, �rangedfrom �0.7�µg/kgto �12.8�µg/kg, �PFOAlevelswereintherangeof� 1.2�µg/kgto �5.1�µg/kg, �FOSAwasdetectedonlyattracelevelsintwosamples. �SeveralproductsoriginatedintheBaltic� Seawerethemostcontaminatedwithinthesampleset.
Trace gas emission data bases for atmospheric chemistry studies

Global data bases of trace gas emissions to the atmosphere have been compiled for the use in atmospheric chemistry studies. The resolution provided is a 1{degree} latitude by 1{degree} longitude. A series of 3 data bases has been provided. The first is an inventory of emissions of NO{sub x} from fossil fuel combustion, while the second is an inventory of SO{sub 2} emissions from the same anthropogenic source. The third database includes a global inventory of the emissions of NO{sub x} from terrestrial biomass burning and is given seasonally for the globe. The units of emission for the inventories are given as the mass in metric tons of N for the NO{sub x} inventories and metric tons of S for the SO{sub 2} inventory for each 1{degree} {times} 1{degree} grid. The emissions are expected to represent the emissions for the year 1980. The biomass burning source is given for 2 seasons where XXXXjul represents an ascii file containing the cumulated emissions for the months from April to September, and XXXXjan represents October to March. The grid for these data bases, (i,j) arrays, is (360,180), which represents 1 degree (lon,lat) resolution. The Table shows a description of each data base andmore » provides FORTRAN code, documentation, and data format for reading each array. Complete description of the emission inventory data bases can be obtained in the references listed. 5 refs., 1 fig. 1 tab. « less
locBLAST v2.0 - an improved PHP library for embedding standalone NCBI BLAST+ program to an interactive graphical user interface

Background NCBI BLAST is a most popularly used sequence analysis platform in a broad range of applications. The final release of standalone WWW BLAST server (wwwBLAST v2.2.26) of NCBI was officially released on May 10, 2004, and discontinued its support. Due to the popularity and high demand, the BLAST algorithms were refined with rich features and released as online BLAST, standalone BLAST+, BLAST RESTful service, and cloud BLAST server. locBLAST v2.0 is a lightweight PHP library, designed in preference to WWW BLAST server. It masks command-line BLAST+ programs to a rich graphical user interface (GUI). Methods The locBLAST v2.0 library was designed using PHP, CSS, pure JavaScript, and standalone NCBI BLAST+ executables. Results locBLAST v2.0 provides an interactive web interface to input query sequences through the web form and provides a graphical report of the sequence alignment result. The graphical overview, tabular summary, and formatted sequence alignment of locBLAST v2.0 result mimic to the native format of online NCBI BLAST result. It allows users to perform both local and online database search. Availability Freely available at https://github.com/AshokHub/locBLAST
Implementation of social media mining for decision making in product planning based on topic modeling and sentiment analysis

The development of information and communication technology, especially on the social media field, brings a wide change in product planning in company. At this time, a company can identify the opportunity for product planning based on customers’ opinion through Twitter’s postings. This opportunity can be used to increase the competitiveness and defend from the competitors. The main method that is used in this research is social media mining based on topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The topic that is widely discussed by the customers is identified as the importance degree and the result of sentiment analysis is identified as the satisfaction degree. We successfully apply topic modeling with Latent Semantic Analysis and K-Means cluster and sentiment analysis with lexicon dictionary from Hutto and Gilbert. Using McDonald’s 2000 tweets, it can be concluded that “service in the morning” has the highest opportunity degree and it is categorized at under-served thing. It gives us a meaning that “service in the morning” is one of the service which has a great chance at the market.
STUDIES ON THE CELL WALL DIGESTIBILITY IN PIGS FED LEUCAENA (LEUCAENA LEUCOPHALA (LAM.) DE WIT) LEAF MEAL

Six crossbred castrate male pigs weighing on average 55 kg each were randomly allocated to 3 diets according to a duplicate 3×3 Latin square design to study digestion characteristics of cell wall fractions as determined by 0, 10 and 20% sun-dried leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala Lam. de Wit) Leaf Meal (LM) in diets based on sugar cane molasses type B and soybean meal. A significant (p<0.01) decrease in lignin and cell content (1-NDF) digestibility was observed by increasing the level of LM in the diet. There was no treatment effect on digestibility of crude fibre and other detergent fractions of fibre. A significant interdependence was found between faecal fresh material output and WHC (p<0.001, R = 0.896). It could be suggested that a 2 moderate increase in LM up to 20% in the diet, should not determine a marked, deleterious effect on fibrous fraction digestibility as measured at the rectal site of growing pigs.
Psychological distress of first year medical students who underwent two different admission processes during a stressful period

The study of medicine is often regarded by students as a stressful environment particularly during examination period. Studies found a high percentage of medical students experience significant psychological distress during the examination period. This study compared percentage and level of psychological distress between two batches of first year medical students who underwent different selection admission processes during a stressful examination period. A comparative cross-sectional study was done on two batches of first year medical students; one group selected based on academic merit (2008/2009 batch) and the other selected based on academic merit, psychometric tests and interview (2009/2010 batch). The psychological distress was measured by the 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12). The data were collected right after the final examinations. A total of 99 (46.05%) medical students of the 2008/2009 batch and 196 (100%) medical students of the 2009/2010 batch participated. The percentage of medical students who had psychological distress of the 2008/2009 and the 2009/2010 batches were 58.59% and 42.3%, respectively. The mean GHQ-12 score and percentage of psychological distress were significantly different between the two batches (p< 0.01). The older batch had 2.01 times higher risk for developing psychological distress compared with the newer batch (p< 0.01). The newer batch of medical students had better psychological health status and was less likely to develop psychological distress during the stressful period compared with older batch.
Environmental lithium exposure in the north of Chile - Tissue exposure indices

Background: northern Chile has the highest levels of lithium in surface waters in the world which is reflected in very high lithium levels in the plants and animals that depend on these water systems and consequently in the indigenous population. Methods: the lithium tissue burdens in populations from two valleys in the extreme north of Chile have been studied. The bulk of this report is based on analyses of lithium levels in urine, hair, and breast milk in the population of several villages. Data on serum levels, some of which had been previously published, are included for the sake of completeness. Since this paper reports studies by several groups of workers samples were analysed by a variety of methods. These include atomic emission, atomic absorption, other photospectroscopic techniques and mass spectroscopy. Results: in all samples studied the average lithium level (5.3 ppm) was found to be significantly elevated compared to levels reported in the literature and measured in this study for people not exposed to high levels in water and food (0.009-0.228 ppm). Conclusions: the people studied represent a unique longitudinal cohort. The work should provide important insights into the potential neuroprotective effects of lithium also help us set guidelines to assess the risks from high dose environmental exposure.
Assessment of morphological changes of Taleghan river in upstream of Taleghan dam

Morphology of river channels constantly change in response to alterations in hydrological regime and sediment load. Channel changes are driven by natural processes and human interventions. Natural processes (e.g. topographic conditions, hydrological data, and climatic factors) can lead to change in water flow and sediment fluxes and thus changes in channel morphology. In the meantime, human intervention, (direct or indirect), can be crucial for channel adjustments. The role of humans directly and indirectly changes the amount of water and sediment and channel morphology in the rivers (Khaleghi et al. 2015). Dam is one of the most important structures in transmission systems and water resources. Constructing of dam is for flow regime control, agricultural water supply and urban consumption through water storage and energy production. Dam construction disrupt the water and sediment, causes major changes in the river morphology and eventually in the entire drainage basin (Gordon and Meentemeyer, 2006; Takahashi and Nakamura, 2011; Ma et al. 2012; Smith et al. 2016). Effects of dam can be spatially divided into upstream and downstream sections of the dam. There are many researches that have studied the effect of dam construction on downstream of river planform, channel morphology (Kong et al. 2010; Sanyal, 2017; Sustainable Earth Review
Mutations generated by repair of Cas9-induced double strand breaks are predictable from surrounding sequence

The exact DNA mutation produced by cellular repair of a CRISPR/Cas9-generated double strand break determines its phenotypic effect. It is known that the mutational outcomes are not random, and depend on DNA sequence at the targeted location. Here, we present a systematic study of this link. We created a high throughput assay to directly measure the edits generated by over 40,000 guide RNAs, and applied it in a range of genetic backgrounds and for alternative CRISPR/Cas9 reagents. In total, we gathered data for over 1,000,000,000 mutational outcomes in synthetic constructs, which mirror those at endogenous loci. The majority of reproducible mutations are insertions of a single base, short deletions, or long microhomology-mediated deletions. gRNAs have a cell-line dependent preference for particular outcomes, especially favouring single base insertions and microhomology-mediated deletions. We uncover sequence determinants of the produced mutations at individual loci, and use these to derive a predictor of Cas9 editing outcomes with accuracy close to the theoretical maximum. This improved understanding of sequence repair allows better design of editing experiments, and may lead to future therapeutic applications.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Qinghai Tibetan pig

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Qinghai Tibetan pig was first determined in this study. The total length of the mitogenome is 16,720 bp. Indicating the an A + T(60.5%)-rich feature, including 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes. 22 transfer RNA genes and 1 non-coding control region. The NJ phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the phylogenetic relationship between Qinghai Tibetan pig and Yimenghei pig was the closest, and the relationship with Chinese northeas wildboar was farthest.
Terrestrial insects and climate change: adaptive responses in key traits

Understanding and predicting how adaptation will contribute to species' resilience to climate change will be paramount to successfully managing biodiversity for conservation, agriculture, and human health‐related purposes. Making predictions that capture how species will respond to climate change requires an understanding of how key traits and environmental drivers interact to shape fitness in a changing world. Current trait‐based models suggest that low‐ to mid‐latitude populations will be most at risk, although these models focus on upper thermal limits, which may not be the most important trait driving species' distributions and fitness under climate change. In this review, we discuss how different traits (stress, fitness and phenology) might contribute and interact to shape insect responses to climate change. We examine the potential for adaptive genetic and plastic responses in these key traits and show that, although there is evidence of range shifts and trait changes, explicit consideration of what underpins these changes, be that genetic or plastic responses, is largely missing. Despite little empirical evidence for adaptive shifts, incorporating adaptation into models of climate change resilience is essential for predicting how species will respond under climate change. We are making some headway, although more data are needed, especially from taxonomic groups outside of Drosophila, and across diverse geographical regions. Climate change responses are likely to be complex, and such complexity will be difficult to capture in laboratory experiments. Moving towards well designed field experiments would allow us to not only capture this complexity, but also study more diverse species.