Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anaerobic digestion of biological sludge from the pulp and paper industry

The need for - and use of non-fossile fuels such as biogas have increased due to global warming, oil depletion and stricter environmental regulations. Organic wastes can be anaerobically digested in order to produce biogas, which can be utilized to generate heat or electricity. So far, little attention has been directed towards anaerobic digestion of organic wastes from the forest industry. Due to high sludge management costs and more rigorous environmental legislation, the demand for new and/or improved disposal methodologies has increased. Substrate treatment methods such as enzyme addition and ultrasound are of interest in order to make anaerobic digestion of organic wastes, e.g. biological sludge, economically feasible. The aim of this study is to evaluate if biological sludge from the pulp and paper industry can be used for methane production in anaerobic digestion and to investigate the effects of ultrasound pre-treatment and enzyme treatment. The aim of the study was accomplished by performing four batch experiments, during 67-110 days, and a six months laboratory-scale semi-continuous digestion experiment. Substrates were provided by a chemical and a mechanical paper mill, whereas Kemzymes® from Kemira and ultrasound equipment from Ultra Sonus were used for sludge treatment. The short term average accumulation of methane per added g VS rate increased both when ultrasound pre-treatment and enzyme treatment was applied in batch experiments. The enzyme treatment was considered to have a greater potential in larger scale and was consequently used in the semi-continuous digestion experiment. Positive effects of the treatment were however difficult to prove. Adapting the enzyme treatment to be more specific for the degradation of the sludge is recommended. It is possible that there are inhibitory interactions between ultrasound pre-treatment and enzyme treatment. 75% ultrasound pre-treatment is an alternative to complete pre-treatment and renders equivalent average accumulation of methane per added g VS. Storage of ultrasound pre-treated biological sludge at 4°C for six and 13 days does not affect the average accumulation of methane per added g VS. Enzyme treatment of biological sludge enhanced the average accumulation of methane per added g VS from indigenous material in the inoculum. It is likely that anaerobic digestion of biological sludge from the pulp and paper industry can render a stable biogas production. High viscosity and agitation problems were predominant in the semi-continuous digestion experiment and can be difficult to control in larger scale. The results from the semi-continuous digestion experiment are similar with those obtained from the batch experiments. The methane production rates in this study are lower (biological sludge from chemical pulp process) or higher (mechanical ditto) in comparison to those presented data by Puhakka et al. (1992). Different types of biological sludge were used and might explain the prevailing differences.
Organizational Development Interventions for Innovativeness at Group Level: Some New Understanding

This paper, on the basis of critical review of literature, identifies that there is need for accommodation of recent theoretical developments in framing OD Interventions. The authors note that the existing OD models have been focusing upon individual attributes to bring about change at the group level. Newer theoretical developments and shifting organizational needs should be recognized and assimilated in OD theory. As a step towards fulfilling the above a conceptual model is proposed.
Influence of Serum from Rats with Fulminant Hepatic Failure on Hepatocytes in a Bioartificial Liver System

Fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) is a life-threatening condition marked by many excessively increased unmetabolized toxins and growth factors. Recently developed bioartificial liver (BAL) systems containing hepatocytes can be used to treat patients with FHF. However, the behavior of these hepatocytes on exposure to FHF serum in vitro remains unclear. In the present study, we used FHF rat models and the sera from these rats (i.e., FHF serum) contained elevated inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6), HGF, and TGF-ß1. In addition, 1×10 8 hepatocytes were harvested from the livers of inbred rats and incubated with microcarrier beads. Four hours later, the hepatocyte-coated beads were inoculated into a hollow-fiber module (=BAL system). FHF serum or normal control serum circulated for 6 hours through the BAL system. Expressions of mRNA for albumin, GST A1, CYP 1A2, OTC and c-fos were investigated by RT-PCR, and PCNA staining was performed before and after perfusion. The expressions of albumin, GST A1, and CYP 1A2 mRNAs were markedly decreased, whereas those of OTC and c-fos were modestly decreased. PCNA positive cells were low and showed no difference between FHF and normal serum-exposed hepatocytes. In conclusion, the exposure of hepatocytes to hypercytokinemia, including inflammatory cytokines and positive and negative growth factors, caused a loss in liver specific functions. This environment also failed to facilitate hepatocyte regeneration.
Switching the fiber knob of oncolytic adenoviruses to avoid neutralizing antibodies in human cancer patients

Oncolytic adenoviruses are an attractive strategy for treating cancers resistant to conventional treatments. However, their systemic utility could be limited as a result of the high prevalence of pre‐existing immunity towards the vector. Furthermore, neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) may prevent successful intravenous readministration of the same agent. Previous preclinical reports indicate that the NAb response can be partially overcome by modifying the adenoviral fiber knob. However, to date, this strategy has not been evaluated in human patients.
Single-ended intelligibility prediction of noisy speech based on auditory features

In this work, we present a low-complexity single-ended objective intelligibility measure for noisy speech based on statistics computed from auditory modulation features. The proposed measure is obtained in two steps. First, we compute several statistics of auditory representation of corrupted speech. Next, a support vector regressor (SVR) is used to map these statistics to an overall intelligibility score. The SVR is trained using subjective intelligibility data. The proposed measure shows high performance in predicting intelligibility of speech corrupted with additive noise.
Public expenditure efficiency and the optimal size of government in European union

This paper investigates public expenditure efficiency and its relation to the optimal size of government. It gives an insight into methods developed for estimating efficiency and possible constraints of the analysis. Literature review of related papers covering European Union and OECD countries shows significant differences in efficiency coefficients across countries with most countries having the potential for increased efficiency of public spending. Specifically, there is large space for reduction of government size by raising the efficiency. The literature includes the aggregate expenditure efficiency analysis and efficiency analysis of its main components. More disaggregated analysis of individual public functions seems to be more adequate to capture the efficiency and determine the main drivers of inefficiency and draw policy implications. In that respect, the paper gives an insight into the structure of government expenditure by function across EU countries and its changes over the period 2002-2015. Differences in tradition and priorities in financing public goods and services can be noted between countries. Due to high sensitivity of non-parametric methods to data heterogeneity, this should be taken into account when selecting the sample for the analysis.
Kernel PCA regression for missing data estimation in DNA microarray analysis

The DNA microarray may contain missing expression data. Estimation of missing values is a necessary step in microarray analysis, because data mining procedures require a complete expression as their input. In this paper, we propose a missing data estimation algorithm, named KPCAimpute, based on kernel principal component analysis. We consider a family of heavy-tailed kernel functions, which is a generalization of the famous Gaussian kernel. The performance of the proposed KPCAimpute algorithm is compared with two state-of-the-art linear regression methods, i.e., Bayesian principal component analysis imputation (BPCA) and local least squares imputation (LLSimpute). The KPCAimpute outperforms the LL-Simpute when the missing percentage increases. The performance of the KPCAimpute is similar to that of the BPCA imputation. Therefore, it is an effective and promising algorithm in estimating missing values for DNA microarray profiles.
SENSITIVE AND SPECIFIC LIVER INJURY BIOMARKERS : ELEVATED LIVER DISEASE IN ORGANOCHLORINE TOXICANT EXPOSED

Clair HB, Pinkston C, Brock G, Pavuk M, Falkner KC, Prough RA, Cave M, Birnbaum LS Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Information Sciences, Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40202, USA Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Atlanta, GA Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Louisville, KY 40292, USA; National Cancer Institute, NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Structures of Leishmania major orthologues of macrophage migration inhibitory factor

Leishmania major, an intracellular parasitic protozoon that infects, differentiates and replicates within macrophages, encodes two closely related MIF-like proteins, which have only ~20% amino acid identity with mammalian MIF. Recombinant L. major MIF1 and MIF2 have been expressed and the structures, resolved by X-ray crystallography, show a trimeric ring architecture similar to mammalian MIF but with some structurally distinct features. LmjMIF1, but not LmjMIF2, has tautomerase activity, indicating that the LmjMIFs have evolved potentially different biological roles. This is further demonstrated by the differential life cycle expression of the proteins. LmjMIF2 is found in all life cycle stages whereas LmjMIF1 is found exclusively in amastigotes, the intracellular stage responsible for mammalian disease. The findings are consistent with parasite MIFs modulating or circumventing the host macrophage response and thereby promoting parasite survival, however analysis of the L. braziliensis genome showed that this species lacks intact MIF genes - highlighting that MIF is not a virulence factor in all species of Leishmania. Parasites have adopted many strategies to avoid or subvert their hosts’ immune responses including antigenic variation (1), signalling subversion (2) and immune evasion genes (3). Leishmania parasites are obligate intracellular pathogens and the causative agents of leishmaniases. The form and severity of the disease ranges from relatively mild dermal lesions to often fatal visceral infection depending
Shape discrimination by total curvature, with a view to cancer diagnostics

This paper investigates the use of total curvature for shape discrimination of objects via profiles of their planar sections (not assumed to be star shaped). Methods of estimating total curvature from observation of a finite number of points on the boundary of the object are investigated, including a simple discrete approximation method and various interpolation methods. Total curvature is capable of revealing shape differences on a local scale, as demonstrated by the analysis of two data sets of malignant and normal or benign tumour cell nuclear profiles.
The significance of parasitic infections in terms of clinical disease: a personal view

Throughout the world, infection with parasites is extremely common. Prevalence is highest in the warm countries of the tropics and subtropics, but infection occurs in all climatic zones. The figures usually quoted for the prevalence of specific parasites attain values akin to those used to describe astronomical distances. The World Health Organization (1985) estimated that some 2582 million of the earth's inhabitants live in areas where they risk contracting malaria and that many – in Africa south of the Sahara alone probably 200 million – remain chronically and persistently infected. Estimates for other parasites are similarly impressive; 600 million at risk of infection with schistosomiasis, with some 200 million actually infected; 900 million exposed to lymphatic filarial parasites, with some 90 million currently infected; for onchocerciasis, probably some 40 million cases spread throughout Africa, Central and South America and the Eastern mediterranean. Yet, impressive as these estimates may be, they are dwarfed by those for some intestinal helminths. Recent assessments suggest that 1 person in 4 of the world's population carries Ascaris lumbricoides (Schultz, 1982), while the same proportion is believed to be infected with one or other of the hookworms (Gilman, 1982).
Perspectives in Phycology

Coccolithoviruses are large double-stranded DNA viruses that infect the globally ubiquitous coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi, a marine Haptophyte algae that forms mesoscale blooms. Coccolithoviruses are intrinsically linked to E. huxleyi blooms, providing an essential role in their succession dynamics, often responsible for their demise. The type species of the genus Coccolithovirus is EhV-86 which, along with all other coccolithovirus isolates to date, have been taxonomically assigned to the fringes of the Phycodnaviridae, a family of large DNA viruses that infect algae. Its genome is 407,339 bp and its most notable feature is the presence of a sphingolipid biosynthesis pathway. This and many other features of coccolithovirus genomes provide glimpses to a wider infection strategy that involves unique mechanisms for replication, survival, defence, evolution, dissemination, and communication. A combination of genomic and physiological tools has provided important insights into the infection process of this charismatic virus. The concept of the coccolithovirocell (CLVC) is introduced; the form of infected metabolic life distinct from the uninfected E. huxleyi host. It is argued that the coccolithovirocell is the integral cog that sustains the life of globally omnipresent blooms with Gaian equilibrium.
A framework for constructing complete algorithms based on local search

Backtrack search enhanced by local consistency techniques can be effective at finding solutions for (or proving the infeasibility of) tightly-constrained problems with complex and overlapping constraints. By contrast, local search can be superior at optimizing problems that are loosely constrained, but is weaker on problems with a complex constraint satisfaction element, and cannot prove problem infeasibility. This paper describes local probing which marries the strengths of local search and backtrack search and is capable of finding a solution or proving that none exists. Local probing is a local search extension to an existing hybridization framework, probe backtrack search. Here, a master backtrack search algorithm hybridizes a slave local search algorithm, which solves dynamically created subproblems that are easier to solve than the original problem addressed. We present comparison results on resource constrained scheduling, showing how local probing successfully adds infeasibility proofs to its slave local search algorithm.
INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CYBER LOAFING AND JOB PERFORMANCE IN AYANDEH BANK BRANCHES OF GUILAN , MAZANDARAN AND GOLESTAN PROVINCES , IRAN

Statistical population of the present research consists of the Ayandeh bank employees. The ACHIEVE model (Hersi & Goldsmith 2014) standard questionnaire and a cyber-loafing questionnaire was used to collect data. In order to check the normality of data, the KolmogorovSmirnov test was used. And also the confirmatory factor analysis was used in order to evaluate the questions of the questionnaire, and structural equation modeling was used to investigate the hypothesis of the research. The results indicated that there is a significant relationship between the employees’ attitude to cyberloafing and job performance, the perceived cyberloafing barriers and the job performance and the descriptive norms of cyberloafing and job performance in Ayandeh Bank Branches.
Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders: A fine‐needle aspiration biopsy study

Fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been used with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of both Hodgkin's and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma. However, studies of FNAB of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs) are rare. The clinical course of 593 allograft recipients (cardiac, 288; renal, 250; lung, 50; and heart/lung, 5) was reviewed. Twenty‐six patients developed PTLD with an overall incidence of 4.4%. Of these patients, 12 underwent FNAB. Their age ranged from 33–67 yr (mean, 55 yr). The interval between transplantation and FNAB ranged between 2–14 mo (average, 8.4 mo). The lungs were the most common site aspirated (7 cases), followed by lymph nodes (3 cases) and other extranodal sites (2 cases, liver and paraspinal mass). The cytologic features of these aspirates could be classified into two categories: a polymorphous smear composed of a spectrum of mature and immature lymphocytes with scattered plasma cells and histiocytes; and a monotonous population of large lymphoid cells consistent with malignant lymphoma, large‐cell type. Surgical biopsies were available in 10 (83.3%) cases and confirmed the FNAB diagnosis. In summary, FNAB appears to be a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tool in patients with PTLD. Diagn. Cytopathol. 16:392–395, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relations between sedentary behavior and FITNESSGRAM healthy fitness zone achievement and physical activity.

PURPOSE To investigate the relations between sedentary behaviors and health-related physical fitness and physical activity in middle school boys and girls. METHODS Students (n = 1515) in grades 6-8 completed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey sedentary behavior questions, the FITNESSGRAM physical fitness items, and FITNESSGRAM physical activity self-report questions. RESULTS When students reported ≤ 2 hours per day of sedentary behaviors, their odds of achieving the FITNESSGRAM Healthy Fitness Zone for aerobic capacity, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition increased. Similarly, the odds of achieving physical activity guidelines for children increased when students reported ≤ 2 hours per day of sedentary behaviors. CONCLUSIONS Results illustrate the importance of keeping sedentary behaviors to ≤ 2 hours per day in middle school children, thus increasing the odds that the student will achieve sufficient health-related fitness benefits and be more likely to achieve the national physical activity guidelines.
Methode particulaire multiniveaux pour la dynamique des gaz, application au calcul d'ecoulements multifluides

L'objectif de cette these est d'evaluer la capacite d'une methode particulaire inspiree des methodes Vortex-In-Cell a simuler les ecoulements de la dynamique des gaz, et plus particulierement les ecoulements multifluides. Dans un premier temps nous developpons une methode particules-grille avec remaillage pour les ecoulements compressibles non-visqueux. Le remaillage, conservatif, est realise avec des fonctions d'interpolation d'ordre eleve. Nous analysons theoriquement et testons numeriquement cette methode. Nous mettons notamment en evidence des liens forts entre notre methode et des schemas aux differences finies d'ordre eleve, de type Lax-Wendroff, et nous proposons un nouveau schema d'advection des particules, simple et plus precis. Puis nous implantons une technique multi-niveaux inspiree de l'AMR. Enfin, nous discretisons une technique de type level-set sur les particules afin de simuler l'interface entre fluides. Nous utilisons la technique multi-niveaux pour resoudre plus precisement l'interface et d'ameliorer la conservation des masses partielles.
Prediction of total nitrogen in Gucheng Lake using artificial neural networks combined with factor correlation analysis

Gucheng Lake has been suffering from eutrophication due to increased pollution and nutrient loads discharged into the watershed. Based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) and a 4-year record of water quality data, this study proposes an early-warning model for eutrophication aiming to predict the concentration of total nitrogen (TN) of Gucheng Lake with a lead time of one week. To develop such data-driven models efficiently, a comprehensive sampling strategy is adopted to ensure that most relevant predictors for TN are retained. Factor correlation analysis is then employed to further eliminate noisy predictors. The preferable selecting ranges of correlation coefficient values are proven to be [-1, -0.5] and [0.5, 1]. As a result, 6 input variables are filtered from 75 potential input variables to develop the TN prediction models. The prediction models can achieve high performance. The validation results of TN showed that the correlation coefficient of 0.9915 and the RMSE of 0.0684, which have demonstrated the potential of ANN models to predict TN conditions at Gucheng Lake.
The role of sustainable visual merchandising practices in predicting retail store loyalty

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to understand the role of sustainable visual merchandising practices in predicting retail store loyalty. Stimulus–Organism–Response model framework was used along with extant literature to support the proposed hypotheses. An online survey was administered to collect the data from a convenience sample of students in a large public university in the United States. A total of 737 useable surveys were collected. A variety of statistical analysis was conducted. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Based on standardised path coefficients and significance levels, attitude toward sustainable visual merchandising practices positively influenced both (H1) willingness to buy and (H2) patronage intention. The relationship between willingness to buy and store loyalty (H3) was non-significant. Patronage intention (H4) positively influenced the store loyalty. In total, the hypothesised model explained 60% of variance in store loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Import of colicins across the outer membrane of Escherichia coli involves multiple protein interactions in the periplasm

Several proteins of the Tol/Pal system are required for group A colicin import into Escherichia coli. Colicin A interacts with TolA and TolB via distinct regions of its N‐terminal domain. Both interactions are required for colicin translocation. Using in vivo and in vitro approaches, we show in this study that colicin A also interacts with a third component of the Tol/Pal system required for colicin import, TolR. This interaction is specific to colicins dependent on TolR for their translocation, strongly suggesting a direct involvement of the interaction in the colicin translocation step. TolR is anchored to the inner membrane by a single transmembrane segment and protrudes into the periplasm. The interaction involves part of the periplasmic domain of TolR and a small region of the colicin A N‐terminal domain. This region and the other regions responsible for the interaction with TolA and TolB have been mapped precisely within the colicin A N‐terminal domain and appear to be arranged linearly in the colicin sequence. Multiple contacts with periplasmic‐exposed Tol proteins are therefore a general principle required for group A colicin translocation.