Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of Heavy Metal Content in Water, Sediment and Microalgae from Lake Victoria, East Africa

Lake Victoria, which is the largest fresh water lake in Africa, represents a unique ecosystem that has the largest fresh water fishery in the continent. However, increased anthropogenic activities has increased the potential pollution of the lake especially the heavy metal pollutants which may be toxic to humans and aquatic fauna. There is need therefore for continuous monitoring of pollution levels in the lake. Samples of water, soil sediments and algae were collected in dry, long and short rainy periods of 2008 and analyzed for heavy metal by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. The highest concentration of trace metals were found in sediment samples with Zn having the highest mean concentration values in both Winam (1.019 ppm) and Mwanza gulf (0.889 ppm). The mean concentration of Pb was higher in water samples from Winam gulf (0.823 ppm), while Hg in microalgae samples from Winam gulf had a mean concentration of 0.000148 ppm. The highest concentration of Zn (1.589 ppm) was determined in the sediment samples from Kirumba bay of the Mwanza gulf and the lowest was in sediments from Kishimba bay (0.327 ppm). Levels of trace metals in microalgae were not significant in different sites of the Mwanza Gulf. Like in the Mwanza gulf, levels of Zn was high in sediments from all the sites sampled in Winam Gulf, the highest recorded at Kisat. Pb levels were highest in the water samples from Hippo point, whereas concentration levels of Cd, Cr and Hg were lowest in all the four sites sampled. The maximum biomass of micro- algae occurred at Kisat during the short rain season (November-December) followed by Kamito in the same season.
Mutant ras oncogenes upregulate VEGF/VPF expression: implications for induction and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis.

The growth of solid tumors in vivo beyond 1-2 mm in diameter requires induction and maintenance of an angiogenic response. This can occur through the release of various angiogenic growth factors from tumor cells. One such factor is vascular endothelial growth factor/vascular permeability factor (VEGF/VPF), a secreted and specific mitogen for vascular endothelial cells. We show that one of the most commonly encountered genetic changes detected in human cancer, i.e., expression of mutant ras oncogenes, is associated with marked up-regulation of VEGF/VPF in transformed epithelial cells. Thus, elevation of the levels of both VEGF/VPF mRNA and secreted functional protein were detected in human and rodent tumor cell lines expressing mutant K-ras or H-ras oncogenes, respectively. Genetic disruption of the mutant K-ras allele in human colon carcinoma cells was associated with a reduction in VEGF/VPF activity. Furthermore, pharmacological disruption of mutant RAS protein function in H-ras transformed rat intestinal epithelial cells by treatment with L-739,749 (a protein farnesyltransferase inhibitor) caused a significant suppression of VEGF/VPF. The results suggest that dominantly acting ras oncogenes may contribute to the growth of solid tumors in vivo not only by a direct effect on tumor cell proliferation but also indirectly, i.e., by facilitating tumor angiogenesis. Hence, pharmacologically targeting mutant ras oncogenes could conceivably suppress solid tumor growth in vivo, in part, by inhibiting tumor-induced angiogenesis.
Role of Fat and Calcium in Cancer Causation by Food Mutagens, Heterocyclic Amines

Abstract We investigated the modulation by dietary corn oil and calcium levels of carcinogenesis by heterocyclic amines (HCA), a new class of important carcinogens in the human nutritional environment, since they are formed during cooking. Two approaches involved (i) a chronic bioassay in male and female F344 rats, and (ii) an abbreviated test, the induction of foci of aberrant crypts in the colon in male F344 rats. One typical HCA, 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) was fed at 75 ppm for 12 months to male and female rats that were held three and six months longer, respectively, on control diets. Neoplasms were induced in the Zymbal gland, skin (predominantly in male rats), liver, mammary and preputial glands, colon, and lung. Diets with 23.5% corn oil increased carcinomas in the liver in males, and in the mammary gland in females, compared with a 5% corn oil diet. Males on the low-fat diet had more cancers in the lip, and females had more ear duct cancers, than did rats on the high-fat diet. Another HCA, 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), fed at 400 ppm for nine weeks induced foci of aberrant crypts in the lower intestinal tract of male F344 rats. There were significantly more aberrant crypts on the high-fat than on the low-fat diet. On the low-fat diet, there were fewer aberrant crypts on the higher calcium level. Thus, dietary fat modulates the carcinogenic action of HCA food carcinogens in specific organs of male and female F344 rats. Also, both fat and calcium affected the induction of aberrant crypts in the distal intestinal tract of male F344 rats.
Voltage control with inverter-based distributed generation

This letter proposes a method to use the voltage-source inverters with distributed generation to control the voltage in a distribution network. A droop line is used to prevent hunting between controllers. Analytical expressions are derived for the voltage along a feeder with uniformly distributed load/generation. The proposed algorithm will alleviate the voltage-control problem reported when installing distributed generation.
Asymptotics of randomly stopped sums in the presence of heavy tails

We study conditions under which P{S� > x} ∼ P{M� > x} ∼ EP{�1 > x} as x → ∞, where Sis a sum �1 + . + �� of random sizeand Mis a maximum of partial sums M� = maxn�� Sn. Heren, n = 1, 2, . , are independent identically distributed random variables whose common distribution is assumed to be subexponential. We consider mostly the case whereis independent of the summands; also, in a particular situation, we deal with a stopping time. Also we consider the case where E� > 0 and where the tail ofis comparable with or heavier than that of �, and obtain the asymptotics P{S� > x} ∼ EP{�1 > x} + P{� > x/E�} as x → ∞. This case is of a primary interest in the branching processes. In addition, we obtain new uniform (in all x and n) upper bounds for the ratio P{Sn > x}/P{�1 > x} which substantially improve Kesten's bound in the subclass Sof subexpo-
Initiation of Merger and Acquisition Negotiation with Two-Sided Private Information

In a dynamic model of merger negotiation with two-sided private information two-sided endogenous initiation, this paper investigates (1) what determines the timing of MA (3) why bid premia are different between target-initiated deals and bidder-initiated deals. The key driving force for the results is that the timing of initiation can reveal information about the target's private signal of its stand-alone value, and the bidder's private signal about its valuation for the target's firm. The model predictions are consistent with the empirical evidence that emphasizes the role of private information in deal-initiation.
Cross-Species Conservation of Open-Channel Block by Na Channel β4 Peptides Reveals Structural Features Required for Resurgent Na Current

Voltage-gated Na channels in many neurons, including several in the cerebellum and brainstem, are specialized to allow rapid firing of action potentials. Repetitive firing is facilitated by resurgent Na current, which flows upon repolarization as Na channels recover through open states from block by an endogenous protein. The best candidate blocking protein to date is NaVβ4. The sequence of this protein diverges among species, however, while high-frequency firing is maintained, raising the question of whether the proposed blocking action of the NaVβ4 cytoplasmic tail has been conserved. Here, we find that, despite differences in the NaVβ4 sequence, Purkinje cells isolated from embryonic chick have resurgent currents with kinetics and amplitudes indistinguishable from those in mouse Purkinje cells. Furthermore, synthetic peptides derived from the divergent NaVβ4 cytoplasmic tails from five species have the capacity to induce resurgent current in mouse hippocampal neurons, which lack a functional endogenous blocking protein. These data further support a blocking role for NaVβ4 and also indicate the relative importance of different residues in inducing open-channel block. To investigate the contribution of the few highly conserved residues to open-channel block, we synthesized several mutant peptides in which the identities and relative orientations of a phenylalanine and two lysines were disrupted. These mutant peptides produced currents with vastly different kinetics than did the species-derived peptides, suggesting that these residues are required for an open-channel block that approximates physiological resurgent Na current. Thus, if other blocking proteins exist, they may share these structural elements with the NaVβ4 cytoplasmic tail.
The Effects of Reminder Type and Anticipatory Interval on Prospective Memory

Prospective memory (PM) failures (or failures to remember a future intention) can result in a wide range of negative consequences. The use of reminders has been shown to improve the rate of PM successes. The current study aims to examine the effectiveness of reminders based on their type (picture or text) and their timing. We hypothesize that successful PM performance will be maintained over longer anticipatory intervals when paired with picture reminders rather than with text reminders.
Assessing the scholarly impact of health psychology: a citation analysis of articles published from 1993 to 2003.

OBJECTIVE We conducted a citation analysis to explore the impact of articles published in Health Psychology and determine whether the journal is fulfilling its stated mission. DESIGN Six years of articles (N = 408) representing three editorial tenures from 1993-2003 were selected for analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Articles were coded for several dimensions enabling examination of the relationship of article features to subsequent citations rates. Journals citing articles published in Health Psychology were classified into four categories: (1) psychology, (2) medicine, (3) public health and health policy, and (4) other journals. RESULTS The majority of citations of Health Psychology articles were in psychology journals, followed closely by medical journals. Studies reporting data collected from college students, and discussing the theoretical implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in psychology journals, whereas studies reporting data from clinical populations, and discussing the practice implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in medical journals. Time since publication and page length were both associated with increased citation counts, and review articles were cited more frequently than observational studies. CONCLUSION Articles published in Health Psychology have a wide reach, informing psychology, medicine, public health and health policy. Certain characteristics of articles affect their subsequent pattern of citation.
Distributed Linear-Quadratic Control of Serially Chained Systems: Application to a Water Delivery Canal [Applications of Control]

Networks are prevalent in many human activities such as communication, transport, energy, and water delivery and drainage. Large networks that spread over wide-space areas cross the borders of different administrative regions, or even countries, and are managed by regional decision centers that may have to comply with different legal requirements. With networking comes complexity and the need to coordinate local decisions, which is an issue for which control and optimization can provide significant contributions. The sources of complexity are many, including the heterogeneous nature of some information patterns and the need to perform control over communication networks that may fail or have varying delays. This article does not attempt to address all of these issues. Instead, the attention is concentrated on how to design distributed controllers for plants that can be modeled by the serial interconnection of subsystems.
Soluble-binding proteins for docosahexaenoic acid are present in neural retina.

PURPOSE To determine if soluble binding proteins (BP) for fatty acids (FA), particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), could be identified in the cytosol of rat and bovine retinas under in vitro and in vivo conditions. METHODS In vitro, cytosol fractions from normal bovine and rat retinas were delipidated and incubated with [14C]-DHA with or without a number of competing fatty acids. After crosslinking bound FA to BP, the proteins were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and radioactivity determined in each fraction. For in vivo experiments, rats received [14C]-DHA by gavage. At selected periods after ingestion, retinas were collected and cytosolic fractions were prepared from each. These were crosslinked and subjected to SDS-PAGE, and radioactivity was determined in each fraction. RESULTS In vitro, several peaks of radioactivity (approximately 13, 20, 32, 43-45, 50, 63, and 94-105 kd) were found that exhibited [14C]-DHA binding. Relative specificity of binding was assessed by blocking of the [14C]-DHA binding with unlabeled DHA and by competition experiments with other FAs. After in vivo ingestion of [14C]-DHA, a large peak of radioactivity was observed at 43 kd by 4 hours. At 6 hours, this peak decreased and, after 24 hours, it approached baseline. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate that there is a discrete grouping of proteins in retinal cytosol capable of binding DHA and other FA. Although the identities of these proteins have yet to be determined, the group may include a member of the 12- to 15-kd group of small fatty acid binding proteins (FABP). In particular, a unique 43-kd binding peak could play a major role in the uptake, binding, or both of DHA by the retina in vivo.
‘You Want to Get it Right’: A Regional Queensland School's Experience in Strengthening Parent–school Partnerships

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES THE key findings from a qualitative case study that was conducted in response to one regional Queensland state school's identified need for a customised approach to parent engagement in the early years. Data was collected via six semi-structured focus group interviews with parents (n = 18) of children in the Preparatory year level at the school. A priori analysis of the data revealed three key barriers to parents' engagement with the school: communication, consistency and family commitments. The intention of this study was to capture parents' perspectives and experiences in order to customise and strengthen the school's approach to parent engagement. The key findings and implications presented herein contribute to the body of knowledge on parent engagement practices in early childhood education settings. Moreover, this article emphasises the importance of the development of an individualised approach to parent engagement that is informed by parents.
Histogram spectra for multivariate time-varying volume LOD selection

Level of detail techniques are widely applied to minimize sampling error subject to working set size constraints. Typical large data sets being produced today have many variables sampled across time-varying volumes. Visualization of these multivariate volumes is commonly phrased in terms of conditional expressions such as “show variable A where variable B is between B1 and B2. ” The bounds, B1 and B2, tend to be specified during the interactive portion of the workflow. Thus, to maximize quality over the salient interval, level of detail selection should also be interactive. We introduce the concept of histogram spectra to quickly and compactly quantify the statistical sensitivity of volumes to sampling. Salient interval volumes of one or more variables are used to select which parts of the histogram spectra are important. The level of detail selection problem, over a time-varying, multivariate, multiresolution volume, is then posed as an integer programming problem using the histogram spectra. We propose an efficient solution enabling interactive LOD selection on large, out-of-core volumes and show its efficacy on two real data sets from different problem domains.
An Experiment on Corruption and Gender

There exists evidence in the social science literature that women may be more relationship- oriented, may have higher standards of ethical behavior and may be more concerned with the common good than men are. This would imply that women are more willing to sacri.ce private pro.t for the public good, which would be especially important for political life. A number of papers with field data have found di¤erences in the corrupt activities of males and females, nonetheless they have drawbacks that may be overcome in a lab experiment. The aim of this paper is to see experimentally if women and men, facing the same situation behave in a di¤erent way, as suggested in the . eld-data studies or, on the contrary, they behave in the same way. The results found in the experiment show that women are indeed less corrupt than men.
Overweight and obesity in the mortality rate data: current evidence and research issues.

PURPOSE The relation between indicators of overweight (body mass index (BMI)) and all-cause mortality and factors that potentially affect such a relationship were reviewed. METHODS The literature was reviewed. RESULTS Although there are many reports on the relationship between indicators of overweight (such as BMI) and all-cause mortality, there are no two studies that have been analyzed identically. It is now usually assumed that there is a U- or J-shaped association between BMI and mortality, but there are many issues that remain unsolved until today. These issues include the effects of: adequate control for cigarette smoking; adequate control for (sub)clinical disease at baseline; adequate control for intermediate risk factors; adequate measures for exposure to obesity; age, period, and cohort effects; adequate control for underlying lifestyle factors; adequate control or stratification for ethnicity and socioeconomic status; effects of sample size and duration of follow-up; and reliance on self-reported body weight and height. CONCLUSION The literature is dominated by studies in young adult and middle-aged white inhabitants of North America and Europe. In those populations, it seems well accepted that lowest mortality is in the range of BMI between 18.5 and 25 kg.m(-2). When BMI reached values of 30 kg x m(-2) or more, mortality is substantially elevated by about 50-150%. These results may not be generalizable to other populations, and more studies are needed. All evidence is of category C (observational studies).
Observadores: un rol determinante en el acoso escolar

Objetivo. Examinar el rol de los observadores en el acoso escolar (AE), dada la escasez de estudios realizadosque ilustren de manera especifica su relevancia dentro del fenomeno y las razones asociadas a la adopcionde su rol. Metodo. Se examinan estudios y teorias relevantes en la materia que contribuyen con datos sobreprevalencia, comportamientos asociados, cogniciones, emociones y otros elementos claves que permitenvisualizar areas en las cuales se deben focalizar las intervenciones para prevenir e intervenir en el AE, conenfasis en el rol de los participantes. Se revisaron las bases de datos electronicas ProQuest Psychology Journals,PsycINFO, PSICODOC, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; ademas se utilizaroncomo palabras clave bystanders, bullying, group process, por separado, sin restriccion de campo, sin limitetemporal, en los idiomas ingles y espanol. Tambien, se consultaron portales de internet especializados enel tema como PrevNet, Organizacion Mundial de la Salud (OMS), Kivaprogram.net, Anti-bullying Alliancey Stopbullying.gov. Resultados. Se identificaron y describieron diversos niveles de abordaje del fenomeno,definicion, prevalencia, caracteristicas y algunas explicaciones sobre su causalidad Conclusion. El rol deobservadores, participantes mayoritarios del AE, cobra especial relevancia en quienes con sus comportamientosinstigan, alientan, apoyan y contribuyen con actos intimidatorios o, en su defecto, realizan acciones paradetenerlos.
Dissecting Molecular Steps in Chromatin Domain Activation during Hematopoietic Differentiation

ABSTRACT GATA factors orchestrate hematopoiesis via multistep transcriptional mechanisms, but the interrelationships and importance of individual steps are poorly understood. Using complementation analysis with GATA-1-null cells and mice containing a hypomorphic allele of the chromatin remodeler BRG1, we dissected the pathway from GATA-1 binding to cofactor recruitment, chromatin loop formation, and transcriptional activation. Analysis of GATA-1-mediated activation of the β-globin locus, in which GATA-1 assembles dispersed complexes at the promoters and the distal locus control region (LCR), revealed molecular intermediates, including GATA-1-independent and GATA-1-containing LCR subcomplexes, both defective in promoting loop formation. An additional intermediate consisted of an apparently normal LCR complex and a promoter complex with reduced levels of total RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and Pol II phosphorylated at serine 5 of the carboxy-terminal domain. Reduced BRG1 activity solely compromised Pol II and serine 5-phosphorylated Pol II occupancy at the promoter, phenocopying the LCR-deleted mouse. These studies defined a hierarchical order of GATA-1-triggered events at a complex locus and establish a novel mechanism of long-range gene regulation.
A featureless approach to efficient bathymetric SLAM using distributed particle mapping

This paper presents an approach to simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) suitable for efficient bathymetric mapping that does not require explicit identification, tracking, or association of seafloor features. This is accomplished using a Rao–Blackwellized particle filter, in which each particle maintains a hypothesis of the current vehicle state and a grid‐based, two‐dimensional depth map, efficiently stored by exploiting redundancies between different maps. Distributed particle mapping is employed to remove the computational expense of map copying during the resampling process. The proposed approach to bathymetric SLAM is validated using multibeam sonar data collected by an autonomous underwater vehicle over a small‐timescale mission (2 h) and a remotely operated vehicle over a large‐timescale mission (11 h). The results demonstrate how observations of the seafloor structure improve the estimated trajectory and resulting map when compared to dead reckoning fused with ultrashort‐baseline or long‐baseline observations. The consistency and robustness of this approach to common errors in navigation is also explored. Furthermore, results are compared with a preexisting state‐of‐the art bathymetric SLAM technique, confirming that similar results can be achieved at a fraction of the computation cost. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.