Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Compositions of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and Dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in Air and Soil Samples Collected in Ishikawa

Dioxins are present as impurities in agrochemicals applied to the soil. To examine the possibility that dioxins end up in the atmosphere, we compare the homologue composition and some characteristic isomer distributions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in air and soil samples collected at sites in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Tetrachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (TeCDD) was the most abundant PCDD homologue in the air samples, while octachloro dibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) was the most abundant PCDD homologue in the soil samples. However, at several site, the most predominant homologue in the soil sample was not OCDD but TeCDD. The mean ratio of TeCDDs to PCDDs in the air samples was significantly smaller in winter than in other seasons, but no such seasonal variation was observed in the distribution of PCDF homologues. The abundance of PCDF homologues was inversely related to the number of chlorine substitutions in the air samples. The contribution of each toxic isomer (2,3,7,8-chlorine-substituted) to the total toxicity equivalency quantity (TEQ) in the air samples tended to be intermediate between their contributions to the TEQs in the soil and cinder samples. This result suggested that the air samples were influenced by both soil/dust suspension and combustion. In order to clarify the contributions of agrochemicals to dioxins in the air, we focused on the ratios of several characteristic isomers that are indicators of agrochemicals (chloronitrophen: CNP and pentachlorophenol: PCP) to their homologues. Significant decreases in the ratios of the isomers to their homologues in the air samples were observed only in winter, probably as a result of suppression of dust suspension by the snow cover. Therefore, the contribution of combustion to the dioxin concentration in the air was thought to be relatively large in winter.
Potential distribution of methane hydrates in the world's oceans

Estimates of the magnitudes and spatial distribution of potential oceanic methane hydrate reservoirs have been made from pressure-temperature phase relations and a plausible range of thermal gradients, sediment porosities, and pore fillings taken from published sources, based on two major theories of gas hydrate formation (1) in situ bacterial production and (2) pore fluid expulsion models. The implications of these two models on eventual atmospheric methane release, due to global warming, are briefly examined. The calculated range of methane volumes in oceanic gas hydrates is 26.4 to 139.1 x 10{sup 15} m{sup 3}, with the most likely value on the lower end of this range. The results for the bacterial model show a preferential distribution of hydrates at mid- to high latitudes, with an equatorial enhancement in the case of the fluid migration model. The latter model also generates a deeper and thicker hydrate stability zone at most latitudes than does the former. Preliminary results suggest that the hydrate distribution predicted by the fluid migration model may be more consistent with observations. However, this preliminary finding is based on a very limited sample size, and there are high uncertainties in the assumptions. The volume of methane hydrate within the uppermostmore » 1 m of the hydrate stability zone and within 1{degrees}-2{degrees}C of the equilibrium curve, assuming in situ bacterial generation, is 0.93-6.32 x 10{sup 12} m{sup 3}, or 0.0035-0.012% of the maximal estimated hydrate reservoir. Nevertheless this volume, if released uniformly over the next 100 years, is comparable to current CH{sub 4} release rates for several important CH{sub 4} sources. Corresponding CH{sub 4} volumes calculated using the fluid migration model are nearly 2 orders of magnitude lower. 52 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs. « less
The venture capital in the Czech companies: development of number of employees and efficiency of employees

This article summarizes research in which several chosen characteristics of Czech firms financed by venture capital were observed between 1998 and 2011. This paper has two research objectives. The first objective is to evaluate the development of selected characteristics like, for example, the number of employees or the productivity of employees. The second objective is to research the observed characteristics and their dependence on the size of the business enterprise. This research is useful and original because it analyzes a large group of Czech enterprises which use venture capital financing. Quantitative data were evaluated with the help of descriptive statistics and Microsoft Excel. Following conclusions can be drawn from this research. The average number of employees did not grow in the observed time period unlike the productivity of employees. Several other important observations were made from the analysis. For example both small to medium sized businesses and large enterprises recorded a measureable average increase in the productivity of employees. Small businesses recorded an increased average number of employees. Medium sized businesses had decreasing productivity and also a decreasing number of employees. The conclusions of this research can help managers of businesses who would like to use venture capital financing in the near future. This research also provides a valuable feedback to venture capital investors and helps to understand the long-term macroeconomic impacts on enterprises financed by venture capital.
Fictive and actual motion in Estonian: Encoding space

Fictive motion is a phenomenon whereby linguistic elements describing motion are used to depict static situations. As a result, static and dynamic situations may be expressed alike. However, it has been argued that the encoding of fictive motion differs from that of actual motion in several aspects; the most significant difference is said to be related to the encoding of space which in fictive motion sentences is more restricted than in actual motion sentences (Matsumoto 1996a, 1996b; Matlock 2004a; Ruppenhofer 2006). The current corpus-based study has compared Estonian fictive and actual motion sentences containing the verbs viima ‘take, lead’, minema ‘go’, suunduma ‘head’, tousma ‘rise’, poorama ‘turn’, uletama ‘cross’, kulgema ‘run, move forward’, and looklema ‘wind’, and focusing on how these sentences encode space. The results of the study showed that the presence of a locative expression is rather verb-specific, although slightly dependent on the type of construction (i.e., fictive or actual motion construction). If locative expression occurred the main influencer of the choice of spatial relation was the type of the verb: Path verbs incorporating the meaning of direction (i.e., viima ‘take, lead’, minema ‘go’, suunduma ‘head’, tousma ‘rise’, poorama ‘turn’) tended to be used together with elements referring to the direction or goal, whereas manner of motion verbs (i.e., kulgema ‘run, move forward’, looklema ‘wind’) and the verb referring to the trajectory of the motion (i.e., uletama ‘cross’) mostly occurred together with elements expressing the location or trajectory. Given this, the consistent windowing hypothesis is proposed.
The 2003 fire season in Portugal: impacts on air quality

The statistical analysis applied for 2003 show that O3 maximum concentrations are highly correlated to the area burned and number of fires for August ranging from 0.49 to 0.80 and 0.51 to 0.74, respectively, depending on the district. PM10 daily average also presents significant correlation coefficients especially in August. It is clear, from this analysis, that there is a significant correlation between forest fire activity, in Portugal, and air pollutants concentrations in the atmosphere. The application of the air quality modelling system MM5-CHIMERE over continental Portugal domain, with 10x10 km horizontal grid resolution allowed to evaluate the relationship between forest fire activity and air pollutants concentrations in the atmosphere. Forest fire emissions were estimated based on specific southern European emissions factors, on type of vegetation and area burned, and incorporated in the emission input data of the numerical modelling system. Results were compared with the baseline scenario estimates (without forest fire emissions) and evaluated against monitoring data. Model results showed a significant performance improvement when forest fires are taken into account.
THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GREEN TEA EXTRACT USING ESI-MS METHOD

The aim of this paper was the identification of the bioactive compounds in the green tea extract enriched with quercetin. The extraction was performed under reflux for 60 min using absolute ethanol at the solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:18 (m/v). The mass spectrometry method with an electrospray interface was applied and tuned with the quercetin standard. Mass spectra were recorded in negative and positive ionization modes with the ion source voltage of 4.95 kV, the source current of 2.61 μA, the capillary temperature of 275 °C, the capillary voltage of 50 V, the sheath gas pressure of 137 KPa and auxiliary gas pressure of 13.9 KPa. In addition to quercetin, the presence of gallic acid, (-)-gallocatechin, 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, theobromine, 5-O-galloylquinic acid, (+)-catechin, caffeine, epicatechin-3-gallate, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, 4-p-coumaroylquinic acid, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside, quercetin-3-galactoside, kampferol-3-O-glucoside, apigenin glycoside, theaflavin-3,3'-digallate, thafla­vin-3-gallate and the kaempferol-rhamnose-hexose-rhamnose conjugate was confirmed based on fragmentation patterns available in literature.
Effects of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and B-Nine on the growth of Brompton stocks (Matthiola incana)

The effects of five levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and B-Nine (B9) on Brompton stocks (Matthiola incana) grown in peat/sand 1:1 (V.V.) were studied. Nitrogen strongly promoted growth which was further enhanced by high K. Deficiency symptoms occurred at low K whereas there was little demand for P, and it tended to depress the response to N. A foliar spray of B9 strongly reduced height and was temporarily phytotoxic at 5000 and 6000 ppm. The two concentrations offset the response to N particularly at 450 and 600g N/m3 where there was a mild N X B9 negative interaction for foliar dry weight. INTRODUCTION Robinson (11) stated that a "blueprint" for bedding plant production will take a long time to produce although vital progress has been made with problems of nutrition studied at Cleppa Park Research Station, U.K. However, little research has been done to examine the combined influence of nutrition and growth retardants. A study of this nature was carried out by Joiner et a1. (8), who investigated the influence of N, P, and K and ancymidol on the growth of Dieffenbachia. Stocks (Matthiola incana) have long been known for their high K requirements (10) and this was reaffirmed by Cahoon and Crummett (6) using sand and solution cultures. Similar techniques were also used by Semeniuk (12) and Semeniuk and Stewart (13) to study the influence of nutrition on seed production and subsequent germination, and noted a similar high K requirement. Work reported by" Robinson (11) and Dight (7) has emphasised the differing nutrition of bedding plants by examining foliar nutrient levels. Robinson (11) also pointed out that species vary in their response to the various growth regulant chemicals and that any new cultivar released to the grower may require individual testing either before or after release so that an appropriate growth regulant regime is obtained. The use of growth retardants on bedding plants has been fairly limited in New Zealand, but they are widely used on bedding plants overseas, particularly in U.s.A. (9). These chemicals can improve quality by inducing compact darker green foliage and also improve drought resistance and shelf life (4). The objective of the experiment reported here was to evaluate the influence of added N, P, K and B-Nine (B9) on the growth of stocks and to use response surfaces to describe any
On the productivity of the diminutive suffixation in Greek child language

This paper addresses the issue of the productivity of derivational structures, namely diminutives, in the acquisition of Greek as a first language. In order to determine the productivity of diminutive patterns, the rate at which ‘new’ diminutives appear in the speech of a Greek child on a monthly basis (‘rate of additions’) is compared to the respective frequency rates of the diminutive patterns in the same data. The present approach shows how productivity may be determined in the absence of truly innovative uses.
The large-scale shock in the cluster of galaxies Hydra A

We analyzed a deep XMM-Newton observation of the cluster of galaxies Hydra A, focusing on the large-scale shock discovered in Chandra images as a discontinuity in the surface brightness. The shock front can be seen both in the pressure map and in temperature profiles in several sectors. We compared the results of a spherically symmetric hydrodynamic model to surface brightness profiles and temperature jumps across the shock to determine the shock properties. The Mach numbers determined from the temperature jumps are in good agreement with the Mach numbers derived from EPIC/pn surface brightness profiles and previously from Chandra data and are consistent with M ∼ 1.3. In this simple model, the estimated shock age in the different sectors ranges between 130 and 230 Myr and the outburst energy between 1.5 and 3 × 10 61 erg. The shape of the shock seen in the pressure map can be approximated with an ellipse centered ∼70 kpc towards the NE from the cluster center. This is a good simple approximation to the shock shape seen in the Chandra image, although this shape shows additional small deviations from ellipticity. We aimed to develop a better model that can explain the offset between the shock center and the AGN, as well as give a consistent result on the shock age and energy. To this end, we performed 3D hydrodynamical simulations in which the shock is produced by a symmetrical pair of AGN jets launched in a spherical galaxy cluster. As an explanation of the observed offset between the shock center and the AGN, we consider largescale bulk flows in the intracluster medium, which were included in the simulation. The simulation successfully reproduces the size, ellipticity, and average Mach number of the observed shock front. The predicted age of the shock is 160 Myr and the total input energy 3 × 10 61 erg. Both values are within the range determined by the spherically symmetric model. To match the observed 70 kpc offset of the shock ellipse from the cluster center by large-scale coherent motions, these would need to have a high velocity of 670 km s −1 . W e discuss the feasibility of this scenario and offer alternative ways to produce the observed offset and to further improve the simulation.
Computational approaches for identifying somatic intergenic mutations of relevance in cancer

Cancer is a complex genomic disease characterized by accumulation of somatic mutations over the lifetime of a patient. Identification of somatic driver mutations that contribute to tumorigenesis is a major goal of cancer genomics. With the recent advances in the sequencing technologies it became possible to study somatic mutations on the whole-genome scale in multiple cancers. While most of the cancer genomics studies were previously focused on identification of driver mutations affecting exons, several examples of driver events within the non-protein-coding regions of the genome were identified, including the recurrent TERT promoter mutations. Such findings have spurred searches for similar examples of recurrent non-coding mutations using computational cancer genomics. In my PhD thesis, I present several computational approaches aimedto identify somatic driver mutations with a specific focus on intergenic regions of the genome. The first part of this thesis focuses on the somatic mutational patterns along the cancer genome and addresses a fundamental problem of computational identification of recurrently mutated regions – regional mutational heterogeneity. Here I studied the correlation of specific genomic features with background somatic mutation rates and devised a background model that accounts for regional mutational heterogeneity. The second part of this thesis describes three different computational approaches designed to identify somatic driver events of functional relevance in cancer. The first approach integrates somatic mutation calls with gene expression data to identify variants associated with altered mRNA levels. The second approach is designed to predict changes in transcription factor binding sites in presence of recurrent somatic mutations. The third approach uses cross-validation scheme to enable parameter tuning in screens for recurrently somatically mutated regions in cancer genomes in an unbiased genome-wide manner. Using this approach, we identify several known cancer-relevant targets, both exonic (e.g., the TP53, MYC, and SMARCA4 genes) as well as non-coding regulatory regions (e.g., the TERT promoter) and uncover novel candidate regulatory driver regions. Among those, a cluster of recurrent intergenic mutations, occurring in an enhancer element near the FADS2 gene, which encodes a critical enzyme in the biosynthesis of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and has been previously implicated in cancer. Collectively, the computational approaches presented here helped in uncovering novel somatic candidate events of relevance in cancer and can be further used for various applications in cancer genomics.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ESSENTIAL OIL AND EVALUATION OF ACUTE AND SUB-ACUTE TOXICITY OF DOREMA AMMONIACUM D. DON. OLEO-GUM-RESIN IN RATS

Background: Dorema Ammoniacum is a perennial herb which has been used in Persian Traditional Medicine for different indications, including gastrointestinal disorders and sciatica. Despite numerous medicinal uses, there is a lack of toxicological studies on Dorema Ammoniacum; therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate its possible toxic effects as well as the determining chemical composition of its essential oil. Materials and Methods: Acute toxicity study was performed by administration of single increasing geometric doses of oleo-gum-resin solution (1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/kg) to Wistar rats. For sub-acute toxicity study, repeated doses of oleo-gum-resin solution (100, 200 and 500 mg/kg) were administered orally to rats for 4 weeks. At the end of the treatment, histopathological studies, hematological assessments, and biochemical parameters were performed. Results: GC-MS was performed to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil. Acute toxicity results demonstrated no mortality, and the Median Lethal Dose (LD50) was greater than 5000 mg/kg. Sub-acute treatment did not show any significant changes in biochemical and hematological parameters at any doses compared to the control group. Histopathological analysis of the organs revealed varying effects. At the level of the liver, vacuolar degeneration and mild inflammation at 200 and 500 mg/kg doses were observed. At the level of kidney, congestion of glomeruli and a widening of the urinary space at 500mg/kg were observed compared to the control group. The principle components of the essential oil were Cuperene (14.31%) and β-Funebrene (12.74%). Conclusion: The results suggest that the acute administration of the oleo-gum-resin of D. Ammoniacum is not accompanied with signs of toxicity; however, its administration over the long term might associate with renal toxicity and hepatotoxicity.
Resolving the Circumstellar Environment of the Galactic B[e] Supergiant Star MWC 137 from Large to Small Scales

The Galactic object MWC 137 has been suggested to belong to the group of B[e] supergiants. However, with its large-scale optical bipolar ring nebula and high-velocity jet and knots, it is a rather atypical representative of this class. We performed multiwavelength observations spreading from the optical to the radio regimes. Based on optical imaging and long-slit spectroscopic data, we found that the northern parts of the large-scale nebula are predominantly blueshifted, while the southern regions appear mostly redshifted. We developed a geometrical model consisting of two double cones. Although various observational features can be approximated with such a scenario, the observed velocity pattern is more complex. Using near-infrared integral-field unit spectroscopy, we studied the hot molecular gas in the vicinity of the star. The emission from the hot CO gas arises in a small-scale disk revolving around the star on Keplerian orbits. Although the disk itself cannot be spatially resolved, its emission is reflected by the dust arranged in arc-like structures and the clumps surrounding MWC 137 on small scales. In the radio regime, we mapped the cold molecular gas in the outskirts of the optical nebula. We found that large amounts of cool molecular gas and warm dust embrace the optical nebula in the east, south, and west. No cold gas or dust was detected in the north and northwestern regions. Despite the new insights into the nebula kinematics gained from our studies, the real formation scenario of the large-scale nebula remains an open issue.
Explaining the income-distribution puzzle in happiness research: Theory and evidence

The nexus between income and happiness is very much disputed. Many cross-sectional studies see a positive relationship, most longitudinal studies don’t. Starting from the fact that the theoretical basis in happiness research has been comparatively weak, we develop a model that identifies distributional consequences of unemployment with their importance conditional per-capita income as at the heart of the matter. Our theory is backed by empirical evidence on OECD data: in low-income countries, well-being significantly depends on income, in highincome countries on the unemployment-related Gini. Insofar, our findings establish the income-satiation hypothesis of longitudinal studies also in cross-sectional perspective.
2 A jet launch coincident with the 3 C 454 . 3 multi-frequency flaring

Astrophysical jets are ubiquitous: this simple statement has become a commonplace over the last three decades and more as a result of observing campaigns using detectors sensitive from radio to gamma-ray energies. During this epoch, theoretical models of these sources have become more complex, moving from assumptions of isotropy that made analytic calculations possible, to fully anisotropic models of emission from the jets and their interactions with the interstellar and intra-cluster medium. Such calculations are only possible because we have extensive computational resources. In addition, the degree of international cooperation required for observing campaigns of these sorts is remarkable, since the instruments include among others the Very Large Array (VLA), the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and entire constellations of satellite instruments, often working in concert. In this paper, I discuss some relevant observations from these efforts and the theoretical interpretations they have occasioned.