Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED POLYMER-COATED QUARTZ CRYSTAL MICROBALANCE FOR DETECTION OF PARATHION

Organophosphorus compounds (OPs) as important components of insecticides, pesticides, and chemical threat agents (CTA), have become more and more serious threats to the environment. Real-time monitoring of the threats is an urgent demand for environmental safety. The molecular imprinting polymer (MIP) technique is an attractive method for the generation of polymerbased molecular “memory” for a present target or group of target molecules. In this work, we integrate a novel MIP with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to build a simple sensor to selectively monitor OP in water samples in real-time. The MIP system was built up by polymerization of methacryalic acid (MAA) with divinylbenzene (DVB), initiated with 2,2’-azobis(2methylpropionitrile) (AIBN) in presence of target. The polymer was characterized with FT-IR. Using parathion as a representative template, the MIP was coated on QCM by casting a semi-polymerized solution. The sensor could detect parathion in wide range from 290 ppb to 29 ppm. This sensor is stable, easy to prepare which can be reused and has the potential to be applied other analytes, which are threats to the environment.
Uptake, elimination and toxicity of an arsenic-based pesticide in an avian system

Monosodium methanearsonate (MSMA), an arsenic-based pesticide, has been used to control Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) populations throughout British Columbia for the past ten years. Cavity nesting forest birds have been shown to forage and breed in MSMA treated pine stands. This study examined the effects of MSMA using the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) as a model passerine. The objectives were to determine the distribution as well as any sub-lethal toxic effects of this compound in both adults and nestlings. Zebra Finches were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of this pesticide. Adults showed dose-dependent trends in accumulation of arsenic in the blood and specific tissues, and weight loss occurred in adults in the two highest dose groups. Nestlings accumulated more arsenic in tissues than adults, and exhibited a high mortality rate at higher doses, which suggests high sensitivity to this pesticide in early life stages.
Negative refraction of photonic and polaritonic waves in periodic structures

Negative refraction can be achieved in photonic crystals. We briefly summarize recent studies in this field, and show that such effects are also possible in polaritonic and plasmonic structures, such as the dipole crystal. We propose a practical realization of this crystal, a periodic lattice of dielectric spheres. We study its mode structure, and preliminary results demonstrate the negative refraction on a polaritonic band.
The processing of Determiner – Noun agreement and the identification of the gender of Nouns in the early acquisition of Portuguese

The early acquisition of the Portuguese gender system is investigated. It is argued that the acquisition of the gender system is based upon the identification of morpho-phonological information within the closed class of determiners and upon the processing of agreement within the DP. Experimental evidence is provided for young children’s sensibility to morpho-phonological alterations in the class of determiners and for children’s reliance on this sort of information in the identification of the gender of novel nouns. Developmental differences in the effect of a phonology-gender analogy in the processing of gender agreement suggest that the effect of this factor after the age of three is dependent upon the gender system of the language having been identified on the basis of grammatical agreement at an earlier age. A theoretical account is provided in terms of a processing model that incorporates a theory of language in which agreement is characterized as feature sharing.
Centrality Measures Based on Matrix Functions

Network is considered naturally as a wide range of different contexts, such as biological systems, social relationships as well as various technological scenarios. Investigation of the dynamic phenomena taking place in the network, determination of the structure of the network and community and description of the interactions between various elements of the network are the key issues in network analysis. One of the huge network structure challenges is the identification of the node(s) with an outstanding structural position within the network. The popular method for doing this is to calculate a measure of centrality. We examine node centrality measures such as degree, closeness, eigenvector, Katz and subgraph centrality for undirected networks. We show how the Katz centrality can be turned into degree and eigenvector centrality by considering limiting cases. Some existing centrality measures are linked to matrix functions. We extend this idea and examine the centrality measures based on general matrix functions and in particular, the logarithmic, cosine, sine, and hyperbolic functions. We also explore the concept of generalised Katz centrality. Various experiments are conducted for different networks generated by using random graph models. The results show that the logarithmic function in particular has potential as a centrality measure. Similar results were obtained for real-world networks.
APPINITE: A Multi-Modal Interface for Specifying Data Descriptions in Programming by Demonstration Using Natural Language Instructions

A key challenge for generalizing programming-by-demonstration (PBD) scripts is the data description problem - when a user demonstrates performing an action, the system needs to determine features for describing this action and the target object in a way that can reflect the user's intention for the action. However, prior approaches for creating data descriptions in PBD systems have problems with usability, applicability, feasibility, transparency and/or user control. Our APPINITE system introduces a multimodal interface with which users can specify data descriptions verbally using natural language instructions. APPINITE guides users to describe their intentions for the demonstrated actions through mixed-initiative conversations. APPINITE constructs data descriptions for these actions from the natural language instructions. Our evaluation showed that APPINITE is easy-to-use and effective in creating scripts for tasks that would otherwise be difficult to create with prior PBD systems, due to ambiguous data descriptions in demonstrations on GUIs.
New Selenosemicarbazides Derived from Imidazole‐Based Carbohydrazides

Imidazole-based carbohydrazides, i.e., 3-oxidoimidazole-4-carbohydrazides 1 and 2-[(imidazol-2-yl)sulfanyl]acetohydrazides 6, react with aryl isoselenocyanates 4 in MeOH at room temperature to give the corresponding selenosemicarbazides 5 and 7, respectively, in good yields. On heating 7b in DMF in the presence of air to 100°, 1,3,4-oxadiazole 8a was formed via cyclization and formal elimination of H2Se. Product 8a was also obtained after heating of a mixture of 4a and 6b under the same conditions. On the other hand, on heating of a solution of 7c in MeOH at reflux, a cyclization occurred to give the corresponding 1,2,4-triazole-3-selone 9b. Again, the same product was formed when a mixture of 4b and 6b was heated in MeOH. Surprisingly, analogous cyclizations of selenosemicarbazides of type 5 under the same conditions failed, and only decomposition was observed. The structures of 7a, 7d, and 9b have been established by X-ray crystallography.
Oxidative stress and bivalves: a proteomic approach

Abstract Bivalves are of major importance in aquatic ecology, aquaculture, are widely used as sentinel species in environmental toxicology and show remarkable plasticity to molecular oxygen. Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) arising from molecular oxygen can cause oxidative stress and this is also a consequence of exposure to many common environmental pollutants. Indices of oxidative stress have therefore found favor as biomarkers of exposure and effect in environmental toxicology. However, there is a growing body of literature on the use of discovery-led proteomics methods to detect oxidative stress in bivalves. This is because proteins absorb up to 70 % of ROS leading to complication of the proteome. This article explores the background to these developments and assesses the practice and future potential of proteomics in the study of oxidative stress in bivalves. Key words: bivalve; oxidative stress; mussel; clam; ecotoxicology Introduction Molecular oxygen (O 2 ) first accumulated on Earth ~ 2.3 billion years ago due to the appearance of photosynthesis. The redox characteristics of the Earth’s atmosphere fundamentally altered from reducing to strongly oxidizing and living cells, with reducing internal environments, for the first time needed to expend considerable energy to survive the surrounding oxidizing environment. Oxygen is paradoxical in that it is on the one hand essential for the most efficient form of energy metabolism; aerobic metabolism. On the other hand, it is a potential chemical threat because it can lead to formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2007; Winterbourn, 2008). These include species such as H
Conformational study of different surfactants in bentonite and PET nanocomposites

The interlayer swelling and molecular packing of the organic salts in organoclays is important to the formation and design of polymer nanocomposites. The sodium bentonite clay (AN) were modified by the MA, (C16H33N(CH3)3) + , and BP, (C16H33P(C4H9)3) + cations yielding the organoclays ANOMA and ANOBP. Infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction characterization of the modified clays showed that the BP cation induces a larger basal interlayer separation than MA. However, nanocomposite with an intercalated morphology was observed for the poly(ethylene terephthalate) PET/ANOMA hybrid. Conformational Monte Carlo searches based on AM1 (Austin Model 1) and molecular mechanics (MMFF94) methods were performed for the organic MA and BP cations as well as for MP (C16H33P(CH3)3) + , and BA, (C16H33N(C4H9)3) + . MA and BA cations presented a predominant linear or extended (anti) conformation, whereas BP and BA have significant contributions from folded conformations. These molecular modeling results explained the observed spectroscopic, thermal and structural properties of the modified ANOMA and ANOBP clays as well as those of PET/ANOMA and PET/ANOBP hybrids. In addition, a new intercalation model considering these folded conformations was proposed.
Fuzzy Prediction-based Feedback Control of Unknown Chaotic Systems

In this paper, modelling and controlling unknown chaotic systems is considered. The aim of the control is to stabilize the system on fixed point. It is achieved in two steps. First, a Takagi– Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy system with Gaussian fuzzy membership functions is used as identifier. The model parameters are adjusted using the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization algorithm. Second, based on the fuzzy model above, a prediction-based controller is achieved for the stabilization of the system on a fixed point. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for both fuzzy modelling and prediction-based controlling, some simulation results obtained on the logistic equation and the Hénon system are presented.
Modeling Survival Data by Using Cox Regression Model

Survival analysis refers to the general set of statistical methods developed specifically to model the timing of events. A popular regression model for the analysis of survival data is the Cox proportional hazards regression model. The Cox regression model is a semi parametric model, making fewer assumptions than typical parametric methods but more assumptions than those nonparametric methods. The main objective of this paper is to construct Cox proportional hazards regression model for examining the covariate effects on the hazard function and to determine the risk factors affecting the outcome of liver transplantation operation for end-stage liver disease. This article will focus on a review of (a) the Cox model and interpretation of its results, (b) assessment of the validity of the PH assumption, and (c) accommodating non-proportional hazards using covariate stratification. Cox PH model showed that the variables: Recipient age, 〖MELD〗_3 Score, Ln_Creatinine, and GRWR are statistically significant and selected as significant factors for risk of death after liver transplantation operation. Also the scaled Schoenfeld residual displayed non-proportionality for variable Recipient Age and this variable needed to be stratified. And the Cox-Snell residual showed the Cox PH model does not fit these data adequately. So the stratified Cox model could be more appropriate to the current study. The stratified Cox model with interaction and with no interaction were applied and showed that the no-interaction model is acceptable at 0.05 level of significance and the variables〖MELD〗_3 Score, Ln_Creatinine are statistically significant and selected as significant factors for risk of death after liver transplantation operation at 0.05 level of significance.
Atomistic simulations of field assisted evaporation in atom probe tomography

Atom probe tomography (APT) is an extremely powerful technique for determining the three-dimensional structure and chemical composition of a given sample. Although it is designed to provide images of material structure with atomic scale resolution, reconstruction artifacts, well-known to be present in reconstructed images, reduce their accuracy. No existing simulation technique has been able to describe the origin of these artifacts. Here we develop a simulation technique which allows for atomistic simulations of the atom emission process in the presence of high electric fields in APT experiments. Our code combines hybrid concurrent electrodynamics—molecular dynamics and a Monte Carlo approach. We use this technique to demonstrate the atom-level origin of artifacts in APT image reconstructions on examples of inclusions and voids in investigated samples. The results show that even small variations in the surface topology give rise to distortions in the local electric field, limiting the accuracy of conventional APT reconstruction algorithms.
A Study on Liquidity Position of Public Sector Banks in India after Liberalisation

Introduction of reforms in the banking sector has changed the face of Indian banking industry. The globalization of operations and implementation of new technologies have led to increase in resource productivity, increasing level of deposits, credit and profitability. The objective of the study is to know the growth of the performance of Indian banks and to analyses the liquidity position of public sector banks after liberalization. In this study all the public sector banks were selected such as a19 Nationalised banks, 5 SBI Associates and SBI. We have chosen the liquidity ratios to analyse the liquidity position of the public sector banks. The statistical tools also used in this study such as standard deviation, co-efficient of variation, compound annual growth rate and two way ANOVA. Through this study we found that the overall liquidity position of Nationalized banks and SBI Associates are comparatively better than SBI.
Techreport ISI-TR-699 LegoTG: Composable Traffic Generation with a Custom Blueprint

Traffic generation is critically needed in networking research for experimentation, stress-testing and validation. Traffic generation is not just creation and sending of packets, but often includes routing of generated traffic, its modulation in network via drops and delays, and its consumption at the receiver. Current approaches to traffic generation all suffer from two major drawbacks: (1) A fixed traffic blueprint—a fixed set of traffic features and their models, which cannot satisfy a broad range of user needs. (2) A monolithic, large code base, which users find very hard to change. In this paper we explore the problem “how to design a traffic generator that can meet a broad range of needs”. We decompose traffic generation into modular parts, identify a basic set of modules which can satisfy a broad range of needs and realize all these functionalities in our LegoTG framework. We demonstrate the composability, versatility and ease of use of our framework. We further show how this narrow waist of traffic generation can be used to reproduce the functionalities of existing traffic generators, and go well beyond them.
Impact of humidity biases on light precipitation occurrence: observations versus simulations

Abstract. This work uses a network of GPS stations over Europe from which a homogenized integrated water vapor (IWV) dataset has been retrieved, completed with colocated temperature and precipitation measurements over specific stations to (i) estimate the biases of six regional climate models over Europe in terms of humidity; (ii) understand their origins; and (iii) finally assess the impact of these biases on the frequency of occurrence of precipitation. The evaluated simulations have been performed in the framework of HYMEX/Med-CORDEX programs and cover the Mediterranean area and part of Europe at horizontal resolutions of 50 to 12 km. The analysis shows that models tend to overestimate the low values of IWV and the use of the nudging technique reduces the differences between GPS and simulated IWV. Results suggest that physics of models mostly explain the mean biases, while dynamics affects the variability. The land surface–atmosphere exchanges affect the estimation of IWV over most part of Europe, especially in summer. The limitations of the models to represent these processes explain part of their biases in IWV. However, models correctly simulate the dependance between IWV and temperature, and specifically the deviation that this relationship experiences regarding the Clausius–Clapeyron law after a critical value of temperature (Tbreak). The high spatial variability of Tbreak indicates that it has a strong dependence on local processes which drive the local humidity sources. This explains why the maximum values of IWV are not necessarily observed over warmer areas, which are often dry areas. Finally, it is shown over the SIRTA observatory (near Paris) that the frequency of occurrence of light precipitation is strongly conditioned by the biases in IWV and by the precision of the models to reproduce the distribution of IWV as a function of the temperature. The results of the models indicate that a similar dependence occurs in other areas of Europe, especially where precipitation has a predominantly convective character. According to the observations, for each range of temperature, there is a critical value of IWV from which precipitation starts to increase. The critical values and the probability of exceeding them are simulated with a bias that depends on the model. Those models, which generally present light precipitation too often, show lower critical values and higher probability of exceeding them.
Reconstruction of humeral length from measurements of its proximal and distal fragments

The aim of the present study was to estimate the length of humeri from measurements of their proximal and distal fragments. This information is important in archaeological studies and forensic investigations, particularly when fragmented material is examined. Forty humerus of adults individuals, sex-aggregated, of the Departamento de Anatomia/UFRJ collection were selected to analysis (right = 20; left = 20). Maximum length and measures of 12 fragments of the humerus (proximal = 7; distal = 5), named P1-P7 and D1-D5, were obtained by means an osteometrical board and an analogical caliper. Simples and multiple linear regressions (p
Presidential Address: “A Thousand Petty Fortresses”: Administrative Burden in U.S. Immigration Policies and Its Consequences

Contradictory elements in U.S. immigration policy, reflecting a long‐time struggle between inclusionary and exclusionary views, have resulted in federal legislation filled with compromises and tradeoffs that, at state and sub‐state levels, play out in unclear interpretations and uneven, highly discretionary administration and enforcement of immigration law and policy. This research describes a tool of discretionary administration—administrative burden—that is increasingly used in enforcing immigration law and policies at state and sub‐state levels and presents a theoretical frame for more fully investigating and addressing its consequences. The application and implications of administrative burden are explored empirically and qualitatively in a case study analysis of an enforcement‐oriented policy change in Texas that denied access to birth certificates for some citizen‐children born to Mexican immigrants. To better understand the potential consequences of this and related policies, interviews with immigrant parents and longitudinal data from a survey of children of immigrants are analyzed to assess both short‐term and later outcomes of children who are denied economic assistance and other benefits under policies that impose barriers to their integration into society. The study findings point to serious, adverse consequences for citizen children of state and sub‐state immigration policies that create administrative burden and perpetuate racial discrimination, while simultaneously diminishing the transparency, fairness, and effectiveness of public administration.
Overlap between highly suitable habitats and longline gear management areas reveals vulnerable and protected regions for highly migratory sharks

Highly migratory species (e.g. sharks, tunas, turtles, cetaceans) present unique conservation management challenges due to their wide-ranging movements. Consequently, the extent to which management areas protect habitats for highly migratory species is often unknown. Within the southeast region of the USA’s exclusive economic zone, highly migratory sharks are target and/or bycatch species in pelagic and bottom longline fisheries. Here, we developed maximum entropy habitat suitability models for great hammerhead sharks Sphyrna mokarran, tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier, and bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas within the southeast region based on satellite tag (n = 96) and remotely sensed environmental data. Modeled highly suitable habitats were compared to longline gear management areas to determine what proportion of these habitats are protected from, and vulnerable to, longline fisheries. The percentages of highly suitable habitats overlapping with longline management areas varied by species and season (78% warm, 36% cool season for great hammerhead sharks; 48% warm, 79% cool for tiger sharks; and 2% warm, 100% cool for bull sharks). Highly suitable great hammerhead and tiger shark habitats were relatively well protected from pelagic longline fisheries yet vulnerable to bottom longline fisheries. Additionally, both species were vulnerable to pelagic and bottom longline fisheries off southwestern Florida; thus, extending gear restrictions to this area may benefit both species. Bull shark highly suitable habitats were only well protected from longline gear during the cool season. These results demonstrate how habitat suitability modeling can be used to help assess the efficacy of spatial management strategies and inform conservation plans for highly migratory species.