Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detailed space–time variations of the seismic response of the shallow crust to small earthquakes from analysis of dense array data

We compute high-resolution space–time variations of subsurface seismic properties from autocorrelation functions (ACF’s) of noise and local earthquakes, recorded by the Sage Brush Flat dense array deployed around the Clark branch of the San Jacinto fault. The resolved temporal changes are referred to as apparent velocity changes because they reflect both nonlinear response and variations of material properties such as cracking and damage. Apparent velocity changes are estimated at four frequency bands (10–15, 10–20, 15–30 and 20–40 Hz) for two local earthquake data sets. In one analysis, ACF’s from P- and S-wave windows of 31 small events with magnitudes below 3.1 are used to compute the apparent velocity variations with respect to the mean ACF of each phase, and we also use the mean ACF of noise data as reference to estimate the changes. In a further analysis, the temporal evolution of properties is computed using moving time windows in continuous waveform over one-hour long data with noise and earthquake signals. The apparent velocity changes and recovery times are frequency dependent and present a strong spatial variability across the array. The resolved changes are larger and recovery time shorter with data associated with higher frequencies. At frequencies larger than 15 Hz, and using the mean ACF of noise data as a reference, the apparent average velocity changes across the array during the passage of the P and S waves from the small local events are 2.5 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. The apparent velocity changes decrease by one order of magnitude when the earthquake data are used as a reference. The relatively large changes in response to very low ground motion have important implications on nonlinear processes involving degradation and healing of the subsurface material during common earthquake shaking.
Application of Extractive Fermentation on the Recuperation of Exopolysaccharide from Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001L

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) are high molecular weight biomaterials of industrial interest due to their variety of applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, environmental, and food industries. EPS produced by Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001 L has sparked interest due to its bio-adsorbent and wide spectrum antimicrobial properties. However, full exploitation and commercial application of EPS has been restrained due to low yields and high production costs. In the present work, the production and separation of EPS from Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001L was attempted through extractive fermentation in order to increase EPS production while simplifying the recovery process. Extractive fermentation was implemented with a thermoseparating polymer for phase formation (EOPO 970 and EOPO 12,000); culture viability, biomass generation, EPS production, rheological system properties, and phase formation time and temperature were monitored throughout the process. Extractive fermentation of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001L with EOPO 970 resulted in a 42% EPS and 7% biomass recovery on the top phase after 5 to 13-min phase formation time and temperatures between 30 and 40 °C. This is the first report of extractive fermentation application for EPS production by yeast of the genera Rhodotorula, resulting in an interesting strategy for EPS production and recovery, although further optimization is needed.
Extracción de adn plasmidico de cepas de rhizobium leguminosarum

S.e realizo una comparacion simultanea de cuatro metodos para la extraccion de ADN plasmidico. De los resultados experimentales se concluyo que unicamente con la tecnica de Kronstad, en las condiciones ensayadas y con cultivos de cepas de Rhizobium leguminosarum bv Viceae en fase de crecimiento logaritmica temprana, se visualizaron 3 plasmidos para la cepa SEMIA 335 y un plasmido para la cepa B.
Management without morals: Construct development and initial testing of amoral management

What happens when leaders do not respond to the ethical components of business situations? We study this question by examining amoral management, which entails a lack of response from leaders during ethical situations. Our work helps establish amoral management, a leadership style that is thought to be quite common in practice, in the behavioral ethics literature by first validating an empirical measure. Then, we examine an initial nomological network of amoral management and by demonstrating that it negatively affects employees. Drawing on moral conation theory (Hannah et al., 2011a), we argue that amoral management leads to lower levels of moral courage among employees. Unfortunately, with lower levels of moral courage, employees become more susceptible to engaging in unethical behavior. Interestingly, we find that the negative relationship between amoral management and moral courage is exacerbated under the condition of an ethical environment, which therefore also exacerbates employees’ unethical conduct (i.e., a first-stage moderated-mediation model). We provide theoretical contributions and practical implications regarding amoral management as an important yet understudied ethics-based leadership style, as well as make suggestions for future research.
The crystal structure of bis(1,3-dihydroxy-2-methylpropan-2-aminium) carbonate, C9H24N2O7

Abstract C9H24N2O7, monoclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 11.1646(7) Å, b = 6.3264(4) Å, c = 18.6926(9) Å, β = 97.5994(18)°, V = 1308.69(13) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0385, wRref(F2) = 0.1057, T = 200 K.
Optical coherence tomography for the early detection of colorectal dysplasia and cancer: validation in a murine model.

Background There is an urgent need to develop a non-invasive imaging technique for detecting colorectal dysplasia and cancer. Technology for early and real-time microscopic assessments to select the most representative biopsy sites would also be of clinical value. In this study, we explored the sensitivity of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in detecting local lesions to demonstrate its potential for the early detection of colorectal dysplasia and cancer. Methods An azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulfate mouse model of colorectal carcinogenesis was utilized. Mice were imaged by OCT, and colorectal tissue sections were observed with hematoxylin and eosin staining. The results of the parallel analyses were compared to evaluate the performance of OCT in imaging and early screening of colorectal lesions. Results Dysplasia and cancer could be distinguished from normal colon tissues based on the OCT images. However, simple morphological changes observed in the OCT images were not sufficient to distinguish different degrees of dysplasia or distinguish dysplasia from cancerous tissues. The Youden index and diagnostic efficiency of OCT for colorectal dysplasia and cancer were 62.50% and 82.14%, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity were 87.50% and 75.00%, respectively. Further, the positive and negative predictive values were 82.35% and 81.82%, respectively. Conclusions Based on our findings, we predict that OCT is a promising non-invasive imaging technique that can offer excellent positive detection rates and diagnostic accuracy for early colorectal dysplasia and cancer. This technique is expected to be valuable in realizing real-time qualitative analysis and guided targeted biopsy.
Enhanced neprilysin-mediated degradation of hippocampal Aβ42 with a somatostatin peptide that enters the brain

Background: Aggregation of the amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide is one of the main neuropathological events in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neprilysin is the major enzyme degrading Aβ, with its activity enhanced by the neuropeptide somatostatin (SST). SST levels are decreased in the brains of AD patients. The poor delivery of SST over the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and its extremely short half-life of only 3 min limit its therapeutic significance. Methods: We recombinantly fused SST to a BBB transporter binding to the transferrin receptor. Using primary neuronal cultures and neuroblastoma cell lines, the ability of the formed fusion protein to activate neprilysin was studied. SST-scFv8D3 was administered to mice overexpressing the Aβ-precursor protein (AβPP) with the Swedish mutation (APPswe) as a single injection or as a course of three injections over a 72 h period. Levels of neprilysin and Aβ were quantified using an Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Distribution of SST-scFv8D3 in the brain, blood and peripheral organs was studied by radiolabeling with iodine-125. Results: The construct, SST-scFv8D3, exhibited 120 times longer half-life than SST alone, reached the brain in high amounts when injected intravenously and significantly increased the brain concentration of neprilysin in APPswe mice. A significant decrease in the levels of membrane-bound Aβ42 was detected in the hippocampus and the adjacent cortical area after only three injections. Conclusion: With intravenous injections of our BBB permeable SST peptide, we were able to significantly increase the levels neprilysin, an effect that was followed by a significant and selective degradation of membrane-bound Aβ42 in the hippocampus. Being that membrane-bound Aβ triggers neuronal toxicity and the hippocampus is the central brain area in the progression of AD, the study has illuminated a new potential treatment paradigm with a promising safety profile targeting only the disease affected areas.
Dietary Green Seaweed Compromises Overall Feed Conversion Efficiency but not Blood Parameters and Meat Quality and Stability in Broiler Chickens

Using seaweeds as sources of nutrients and beneficial bioactive compounds can promote sustainable production of functional poultry products. This study investigated the physiological and meat quality responses of Cobb 500 broiler chickens to graded levels of green seaweed (Ulva sp.) meal (SWM). Three hundred, two-week-old male chicks (159.3 ± 11.76 g live-weight) were randomly assigned to five diets formulated by diluting a standard broiler diet with SWM at 0 (SW0), 20 (SW20), 25 (SW25), 30 (SW30) and 35 g/kg (SW35). There were neither linear nor quadratic trends (p > 0.05) for overall feed intake, overall growth performance and carcass and meat quality traits. Overall feed conversion efficiency (R2 = 0.192, p = 0.018) and spleen weights (R2 = 0.182; p = 0.020) linearly declined as SWM levels increased. Linear and quadratic responses (p > 0.05) were observed for lymphocytes. There were linear effects for meat pH except on day 7 of storage. Meat lightness (L*) linearly increased whereas meat redness (a*) quadratically responded to SWM levels (day 3 of storage). While an optimum inclusion level could not be established for seaweed based on growth performance, improvements in some meat shelf life indicators were observed in the broilers reared on seaweed-containing diets.
A method for analyzing the problem of determining the maximum common fragments of temporal directed tree, that do not change with time

In this study two actual types of problems are considered and solved: 1) determining the maximum common connected fragment of the T-tree (T-directed tree) which does not change with time; 2) determining all maximum common connected fragments of the T-tree (T-directed tree) which do not change with time. The choice of the primary study of temporal directed trees and trees is justified by the wide range of their practical applications. Effective methods for their solution are proposed. Examples of the solution of the problem for temporal trees and temporal directed trees are given. It is shown that the experimental estimates of the computational complexity of the solution for problems of the temporal directed trees and the temporal trees.
Assessment of Overall Treatment Effect in the Presence of Inconsistent Regional Effects in Multiregional Clinical Trials

Abstract The use of multiregional clinical trials (MRCTs) in clinical developments increased to accelerate patients’ access to new drugs globally. MRCTs inherently assume that the treatment effect is consistent across regions; therefore, we generally estimate the overall treatment effect using a weighted mean of regional estimates with the proportions of enrolled patients as a weight. However, recent MRCTs occasionally encountered an inconsistency in treatment effect among regions. This study was motivated by two actual MRCTs showing the inconsistency of the treatment effects. In these trials, inconsistent treatment effects were observed in a few regions and the estimates in these regions impacted the overall treatment effect estimate. In this study, we propose an exploratory analysis to estimate the overall treatment effect based on robust estimation. The proposed estimator adaptively changes the weights for each region by minimizing the weighted jackknife-based mean squared error of the proposed estimator. We examined the utility of the proposed method through simulation studies. We found that the proposed estimators were less biased and more statistically powerful compared with other ordinary estimators when inconsistent regions existed. We also illustrated estimation of the overall treatment effect by applying the proposed estimators to the two MRCTs.
Exploiting microalgal competition ability to acquire nitrogen and light

Microalgae are ideal phototrophs for many commercial products. Our previous research has leveraged biodiversity concepts to evaluate the effects of competition on dynamics and coexistence of different microalgal species. The originality of the review lies in the envisioning of these state‐of‐the‐art techniques to study a novel issue of how algal species modulate the whole‐cell metabolism and gene expression to yield biomass beyond current limits. Competition is crucial in driving the activity, structure and composition of algal communities which are of central importance to aquatic environment productivity. However, fundamental gaps remain in understanding how algal species compete for light and nitrogen by regulating whole‐cell metabolisms. Moreover, it is unclear how this competitive potential is modulated in algal populations to achieve high biomass production. Despite the principles and applications of competition having been tested theoretically and empirically in many studies, there is still considerable debate and paradoxical observations regarding the key mechanisms that underlie competition for limited nutrients. One reason for the uncertainty is the difficulty in making direct comparisons between species with differing functional traits. Moreover, the lack of available reference genomes for many algal species presents a further hindrance in understanding competitive trait dynamics. The review seeks to improve our understanding of these fundamental problems, which have direct implications in aiding the production of renewable fuels and chemicals via photosynthetic biology. The review also envisions a whole set of omics analysis in the future that would shed light on the poorly defined functions of competition in microalgae.
Supervisor bottom-line mentality and subordinates' unethical pro-organizational behavior

PurposeThe multitude of high-profile corporate scandals has prompted the need for more nuanced understanding of factors within organizations that may influence unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). Based on the social cognitive theory, this study aims to examine the impact of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) on unethical, but pro-organizational conduct by employees through moral disengagement. Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of employee mindfulness in relation of supervisor BLM and moral disengagement.Design/methodology/approachTo test the study model, the authors collected data from 198 employees working in various Pakistani firms. This study uses PROCESS procedures for the analysis.FindingsAnalyses of time-lagged data showed that (1) supervisor BLM can lead to employee UPB through employee moral disengagement and (2) mindfulness moderated this relationship, such that high (versus low) mindfulness attenuates the link between supervisor BLM and moral disengagement.Originality/valueThis study adds to the extant research by examining how and when supervisor BLM leads to employee UPB. This is the first attempt to examine how supervisor BLM and trait mindfulness jointly determine moral disengagement, which drives UPB.
The use of biostimulation and bioaugmentation to remove phenanthrene from soil

Biostimulation and bioaugmentation are commonly employed as technologies to remediate numerous environmental problems. In the last few decades, both technologies have been used to treat polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This paper presents a brief survey of some bioremediation aspects, with particular reference to phenanthrene removal from soil, since this compound is the main model substrate for studies of carcinogenic PAHs. In addition, some cases of studies related are mentioned, emphasising the importance of the pollutant, oxygen concentration and type of microorganisms. The use of plant associated microorganisms for bioaugmentation is also described, emphasising the selection of suitable bacteria or communities obtained from plant rhizosphere, in order to improve phenanthrene bioremediation in soil. [Received: September 11, 2009; Accepted: December 10, 2009]
Genetic structure and diversity of upland rice germplasm using diversity array technology (DArT)-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers

Abstract Investigating genetic structure and diversity is crucial for rice improvement strategies, including mapping quantitative trait loci with the potential for improved productivity and adaptation to the upland ecology. The present study elucidated the population structure and genetic diversity of 176 rice germplasm adapted to the upland ecology using 7063 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from the Diversity Array Technology (DArT)-based sequencing platform (DArTseq). The SNPs were reasonably distributed across the rice genome, ranging from 432 SNPs on chromosome 9 to 989 SNPs on chromosome 1. The minimum minor allele frequency was 0.05, while the average polymorphism information content and heterozygosity were 0.25 and 0.03, respectively. The model-based (Bayesian) population structure analysis identified two major groups for the studied rice germplasm. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that all (100%) of the genetic variance was attributable to differences within the population, and none was attributable to the population structure. The estimates of genetic differentiation (PhiPT = 0.001; P = 0.197) further showed a negligible difference among the population structures. The results indicated a high genetic exchange or gene flow (number of migrants, Nm = 622.65) and a substantial level of diversity (number of private alleles, Pa = 1.52 number of different alleles, Na = 2.67; Shannon's information index, I = 0.084; and percentage of polymorphic loci, %PPL = 55.9%) within the population, representing a valuable resource for rice improvement. The findings in this study provide a critical analysis of the genetic diversity of upland rice germplasm that would be useful for rice yield improvement. We suggested further breeding and genetic analyses.
Benign making of sharp tips for STM and FIM: Pt, Ir, Au, Pd, and Rh

Sharp tips for various modern microscopies, such as field‐ion microscopy (FIM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), can be prepared by electropolishing in solutions which are relatively innocuous for the environment as well as the researcher, compared to the often hazardous solutions still in widespread use. We have made measurements of polishing times as a function of solution and voltage parameters and we report conditions for electropolishing sharp tips of Pt, Ir, Au, Pd, and Rh using relatively benign solutions.
Activated carbon/bentonite/Fe3O4 nanocomposite for treatment of wastewater containing Reactive Red 198

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was the synthesis of activated carbon/bentonite/Fe3O4 nanocomposite for the elimination of Reactive Red 198 (RR198) anionic dye from aqueous media. The physical properties of the nanocomposite were investigated using BET, EDX, Map, SEM, FTIR, VSM, XRD, and DLS analyses. DLS analysis showed that the size of the aforementioned nanocomposite was 70.7 nm. VSM analysis showed that the nanocomposite has a ferromagnetic property. BET analysis indicated that the nanocomposite has a mesoporous structure. The results showed that the highest removal efficiency of MV dye (94.87%) was obtained at pH 8, contact time of 50 min, temperature of 25°C, initial dye concentration of 5 mg/L, and composite dosage of 2 g/L, which indicated a significant sorption efficiency. Also, the equilibrium and kinetic studies showed that the Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model could better describe the sorption process of RR198 by the activated carbon/bentonite/Fe3O4 nanocomposite than other models. Besides, the thermodynamic study indicated that the sorption process was exothermic.
Carbon concentration dependent grain growth of Cu2ZnSnS4thin films

Organic solvents are commonly used in ink precursors of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanocrystals to make thin films for applications such as solar cells. However, the traces of carbon residual left behind by the organic solvents after high-temperature annealing is generally considered to restrict the growth of nanocrystals to form large grains. This work reported the first systematic study on the influence of carbon content of organic solvents on the grain growth of CZTS nanomaterial during high temperature sulfurization annealing. Solvents with carbon atom per molecule varying from 3 to 10 were used to made ink of CZTS nanocrystals for thin film deposition. It has been found that, after high temperature sulfurization annealing, a bilayer structure was formed in the CZTS film using organic solvent containing 3 carbon atoms per solvent molecule based on glycerol and 1,3-propanediol. The top layer consisted of closelypacked large grains and the bottom layer was made of as-synthesized nanoparticles. In contrast, the CZTS film made with the solvent molecule with more carbon atoms including 1,5-pentanediol (5 carbon atoms) and 1,7-heptanediol (7 carbon atoms) consisted of nanoparticles embedded with large crystals. It is believed that the carbon residues left behind by the organic solvents affected the necking of CZTS nanocrystals to form large grains through influencing the surface property of nanocrystals. Furthermore, it has also been observed that the solvent affected the thickness of MoS2 layer which was formed between CZTS and Mo substrate. A thinner MoS2 film (50 nm) was obtained with the slurry using carbon-rich terpineol as solvent whereas the thickest MoS2 (350 nm) was obtained with the film made from 1,3-propanediol based solvent. The evaluation of the photoactivity of the CZTS thin films has demonstrated that a higher photocurrent was generated with the film containing more large grains.
Influence of DNA conformation on the dispersion of SWNTs: single-strand DNA vs. hairpin DNA

Dispersion of CNTs with single-strand (ss) and hairpin (hp) DNA yields suspensions with varying degree of individualization and selectivity towards specific tube types. Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy with dye labelled oligomers is used to investigate structural properties of DNA–SWNT conjugates. hpDNA is found to bind with its loop sideways to the CNT surface.