Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Ash Collected from Different Facilities of a Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator

This study investigated five persistent organic pollutants (polychlorinated and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs/PBDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs/PBDFs), biphenyls (PCBs/PBBs), and diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)) in ash collected from several units (super heater (SH), heat economizer (HE), semi-dryer absorber (SDA), bag-house filter (BF), and fly ash pit (FAP), and bottom ash (BA) discharger) of a large-scale municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI). Data on levels and emission factors of the five target compounds in the different units of the MSWI were first reported. The PCDD/Fs were found in high content in the HE, mainly because of the operating temperature range (250-400℃) which is favorable for PCDD/F formation through de novo synthesis. High concentrations PCBs and PBBs were detected in the BF. The highest concentrations of PBDD/Fs and PBDEs were observed in the BA. A significant correlation existed between content of PCDD/F and PCB in individual ash and corresponding operating temperature, while the content of ash-bound PBDD/Fs and PBDEs chiefly related to feeding wastes that contained brominated flame retardants. The emission of the five pollutants in the MSWI was primarily from fly ash. Further treatment is necessary for ash collected from the HE and BF because the ash had total-PCDD/F content exceeding the regulation limit (1 ng I-TEQ/g) in Taiwan.
Measurement of Soot Surface Growth Kinetics

Surface growth is one of the major steps in the soot formation processes where most of the total mass is formed. Freshly generated soot from an ethylene diffusion flame was sampled and mixed with ethylene in a flow tube at elevated temperatures and using nitrogen as the carrier gas. The changes in the size of the soot particles after hydrocarbon addition were measured using a differential mobility analyzer. These measurements showed a significant mass increase of soot particles as a result of the hydrocarbon addition where the total number density remained the same. Soot surface growth kinetics were obtained from the changes in the size, surface area and volume distributions. The activation energy (Ea) for ethylene was obtained. Pure pyrolysis experiments for ethylene were also performed. The surface growth process yield was found to be higher than the yield of the pyrolysis process.
Do bank bailouts reduce or increase systemic risk? the effects of TARP on financial system stability

Theory suggests that bank bailouts may either reduce or increase systemic risk. This paper is the first to address this issue empirically, analyzing the U.S. Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Difference-in-difference analysis suggests that TARP significantly reduced contributions to systemic risk, particularly for larger and safer banks located in better local economies. This occurred primarily through a capital cushion channel. {{p}} Results are robust to additional tests, including accounting for potential endogeneity and selection bias. Findings yield policy conclusions about the wisdom of bailouts, which banks might be the best targets for future bailouts, and the form these bailouts might take.
Ocean acidification in the Western Pacific: Boron isotopic composition recorded in a tropical massive coral core from Lanyu Islet SE Taiwan

Boron (B) and B isotopic compositions (δ11B) in biogenic carbonates are useful proxies for pH reconstruction in the ocean. However, high-resolution archives are scarce due to associated sampling and analytical difficulty. In this study, a modern long-lived massive coral skeleton (Porites lobata) from Lanyu Islet off southeast Taiwan was drilled and used for high-resolution major/trace element analyses, including trace elements B and δ11B, as well as oxygen and carbon isotopes, to investigate the associated environmental changes during 1991–1997. To avoid complicated biological influence, the top-most tissue layer was excluded in this study. The coralline records show a clear temporal trend in metal/Ca-based sea surface temperatures (SSTs) on annual and monthly timescales. In particular, the Mg/Ca-SSTs, the most sensitive temperature proxy at the site, show a significant warming trend (+0.2°C year−1) during the study period. On the other hand, subtle changes in the annual δ11B record were identified, corresponding to ~0.2 pH unit, which is comparable with other coral records in the Pacific, e.g., the South China Sea (SCS), Guam Island, Flinders, and Arlington Reef, as well as the in-situ seawater pH measurement at Hawaii station. This corresponds to an acidification rate of ~0.25 pH unit 100 year−1, similar to other coralline data, in-situ pH/pCO2 measurement, or model predictions, and emphasizes the importance of ocean acidification due to anthropogenic activities. Combined with the Mg/Ca-SST, the intra-annual data show a clear seasonal cycle with higher pH in winter, consistent with the pCO2 at the oceanic surface. These chemical and isotopic results in corals conclude that marine biogenic carbonates are informative for oceanic pH reconstruction and can provide new insights into the relationships between climate changes and environmental responses on the coast of Taiwan.
Revisiting the Relationship between Income Inequality and Economic Growth

La mayoria de los modelos que exploran la relacion entre la desigualdad en la distribucion del ingreso y el crecimiento economico, postulan la existencia de una correlacion negativa entre las dos que es generada a traves de diferentes mecanismos. Paralelamente a los modelos teoricos, un numero importante de estudios empiricos han tratado de evaluar esta relacion. De este esfuerzo ha surgido un consenso amplio que valida la existencia de dicha relacion negativa. No obstante, estudios recientes basados en el uso de datos de panel han producido el resultado contrario, documentando la presencia de una relacion positiva entre desigualdad y crecimiento. El examen del debate generado a partir de estos resultados, asi como el trabajo empirico adelantado en este estudio, indican que las estimaciones obtenidas en diversos trabajos pueden no ser tan robustas como se creia. En consecuencia, se sugiere que la realizacion de estudios de caso por pais puede ser una mejor via para explorar este tema.
Are There Any Differences in the Neural and Extracellular Matrix Proteins Density Between Children and Adults with Intrinsic Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction

Öz What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? There are lots of studies on the histology of the obstructed segment of UPO patients. Although there are some conflicting results, most of the studies performed to date state that while muscle and neural tissue decrease in UPO, connective tissue and extracellular matrix proteins increase. All these studies have been conducted whether on children or adults. This is the first study that compared the specimens from adult and child population. Our study will help us better understand the progression of ureteropelvic junction obstruction throughout life and create a better understanding on the timing and need of surgery. Are There Any Differences in the Neural and Extracellular Matrix Proteins Density Between Children and Adults with Intrinsic Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction? Doi: 10.4274/jus.1655 Journal of Urological Surgery, 2017;4(4):177-182
The Effect of Light Exposure on the Total Chlorophyll Content, Chl a/b Ratio, and Car/chl Ratio in the Barks of Fraxinus latifolia Seedlings

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of light exposure on the total chlorophyll content, the chl a/b ratio, and the car/chl ratio and thus the shade tolerance of ​Fraxinus latifolia​. Stems of ​Fraxinus latifolia seedlings were applied with aluminum foil for the 0% light exposure treatment, with shade cloth for the 50% light exposure treatment, and left uncovered for the 100% light exposure treatment. Chlorophyll from barks were extracted using 80% acetone and spectrophotometric analysis was carried out. The results revealed that ​in the 8-week samples, the 100% light exposure treatment showed the highest total chlorophyll content, inconsistent with the general trend that chlorophyll content increases under low light condition, but in the 4-week samples, the 50% light exposure treatment showed the highest total chlorophyll content. Consistent with shade characteristic, the chl a/b ratio of the 50% light exposure treatment was significantly lower than that of the 100% light exposure treatment in the 8-week samples. However, the reverse result was observed in the 4-week samples. ​Although ​the car/chl ratio of the 0% light exposure treatment was significantly lower than that of the 50% light exposure treatment in the 8-week samples, stems with 50% light exposure showed a significantly higher car/chl than those with 100% light exposure, inconsistent with shade characteristic. Remarkably, the results obtained challenge the general application of the shade tolerance criteria as ​the status of other environmental factors occurring over different time periods can influence shade tolerance.
NCS-1 en la función neuronal

NCS-1 es una proteina unidora de calcio, que regula el funcionamiento de otras proteinas, con las cuales interactua a nivel molecular. Su expresion es amplia y no limitada a neuronas. Sus efectos incluyen la regulacion de receptores, canales ionicos y enzimas que intervienen en multiples funciones neuronales. NCS-1 regula la actividad del receptor D2 de dopamina y del receptor A2A de adenosina, ambos fundamentales en diversos procesos de comunicacion que involucran control emocional y control de movimientos en varios circuitos. NCS-1 tambien regula la actividad del receptor de IP3, un canal de calcio intracelular fundamental en la regulacion de la homeostasis de este ion, interactua con IP kinasas, las cuales a su vez desencadenan cascadas de senalizacion intracelular y modula la actividad de canales de calcio presinapticos; todos estos efectos redundan en regulacion de la liberacion de neurotransmisores y por ende, de la plasticidad sinaptica, lo cual ha sido probado en diversos modelos experimentales. NCS-1 tambien parece estar involucrada en la regulacion de otros canales ionicos de calcio y de potasio que podrian influir en la homeostasis electrica de las neuronas y en la supervivencia neuronal a traves de la regulacion de vias proapoptoticas. Estos amplios efectos de NCS-1 motivan a profundizar la investigacion en los mecanismos involucrados en la regulacion que ejerce sobre sus proteinas blanco y en nuevos efectos que ayuden a entender el rol de esta proteina en diversos procesos fisiologicos y fisiopatologicos.
Retrospective Analysis of Non-Contact ACL Injury Risk: A Case Series Review of Elite Female Athletes

Background: Literature on ACL injury is limited when assessing for the presence and interaction of multiple risk factors simultaneously. Identifying risk factor interaction may increase the impact of prevention programmes to target ACL injury reduction. The aim of this study was to retrospectively assess ACL injured female athletes to identify which modifi able and non-modifi able risk factors were present at the time of injury. Method: Seventeen female athletes who had sustained a non-contact ACL injury were interviewed retrospectively to assess for the presence of reported risk factors for ACL injury. Result: This retrospective analysis ACL injury cases highlighted a number of factors which were present with high frequency across this group of cases. All had non-contact ACL injury occurring during cutting or landing, which suggests a predisposing defi cit in neuromuscular control. This poor neuromuscular control could be exacerbated by the presence of fatigue identifi ed within the cohort. This poor control could be further infl uenced by the fact a majority of athletes had another signifi cant injury in the 12 weeks prior to ACL injury. The restriction to training could have either decreased fatigue resistance, or potentially changed their movement pattern because of the method of injury management undertaken. Conclusion: This case series provides insight into the interaction of risk factors for ACL injury in sportswomen, with the presence of another injury disrupting training, decreasing the athletes work capacity and fatigue resistance, being compounded perceived or actually elevated levels of fatigue, leading to the potential for abhorrent movement patterns and increased injury risk. Case Report Retrospective Analysis of NonContact ACL Injury Risk: A Case Series Review of Elite Female Athletes Lee Herrington1* and Ros Cooke2 1Senior Lecturer in Sports Rehabilitation, Directorate of Sport, University of Salford, UK 2Lead Physiotherapist, England Netball and English Institute of Sport, UK *Address for Correspondence: Lee Herrington, PhD MCSP, Senior Lecturer in Sports Rehabilitation, Directorate of Sport, University of Salford, UK, Email: l.c. herrington@salford.ac. uk Submitted: 30 December 2016 Approved: 03 February 2017 Published: 06 February 2017 Copyright: 2017 Herrington L, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Online Learning Sum-Product Networks for Language Modeling

Sum-product networks (SPNs) have recently proposed as an remarkable representation due to their dual view as a special deep neural network with clear semantics and a probabilistic graphical model for which inference is always tractable. SPNs have been successfully applied in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. We used the hidden layers of SPNs to model complex dependencies among words and we used SPNs online learning algorithm to improve model learning speed and SPNs structure learning algorithm to improve modeling capabilities. Our empirical comparisons with other previous language models indicate that our online learning SPNs has better performance.
Effects of food and predators on the home-range sizes of Arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii)

We used radiotelemetry to study the effects of food addition and predator reduction on the home-range sizes of adult Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) on large-scale experimental grids in the boreal forest of the southwestern Yukon Territory. Home ranges were 2-7 times smaller on food-supplemented grids than on nonsupplemented grids, regardless of whether large mammalian predators were present. Similarly, core areas (where 50% of activities occur) were 8-11 times smaller on food-supplemented grids. Food availability rather than predator presence primarily determined the sizes of home ranges and core areas of Arctic ground squirrels.
Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Imaging of FS Tauri and Haro 6-5B

We have observed the field of FS Tauri (Haro 6-5) with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. Centered on Haro 6-5B and adjacent to the nebulous binary system of FS Tauri A there is an extended complex of reflection nebulosity that includes a diffuse, hourglass-shaped structure. H6-5B, the source of a bipolar jet, is not directly visible but appears to illuminate a compact, bipolar nebula which we assume to be a protostellar disk similar to HH 30. The bipolar jet appears twisted, which explains the unusually broad width measured in ground-based images. We present the first resolved photometry of the FS Tau A components at visual wavelengths. The fluxes of the fainter, eastern component are well matched by a 3360 K blackbody with an extinction of AV = 8. For the western star, however, any reasonable, reddened blackbody energy distribution underestimates the K-band photometry by over 2 mag. This may indicate errors in the infrared photometry or errors in our visible measurements due to bright reflection nebulosity very close to the star. The binary was separated by 0. ″239 ± 0. ″005 at a position angle of 84° ± 1. °5 on 1996 January 25. There is no nebulosity around FS Tau A at the orientation suggested for a disk based on previous, ground-based polarization measurements.
CantoCore: A new cross-cultural song classification scheme

Classification of organisms and languages has long provided the foundation for studying biological and cultural history, but there is still no accepted scheme for classifying songs cross-culturally. The best candidate, Lomax and Grauer’s “Cantometrics” coding scheme, did not spawn a large following due, in part, to concerns about its reliability. We present here a new classification scheme, called “CantoCore”, that is inspired by Cantometrics but that emphasizes its “core” structural characters rather than the more subjective characters of performance style. Using both schemes to classify the 30 songs from the Cantometrics Consensus Tape, we found that CantoCore appeared to be approximately 80% more reliable than Cantometrics. Nevertheless, Cantometrics still demonstrated significant reliability for all but its instrumental characters. Future multidisciplinary applications of CantoCore and Cantometrics to the cross-cultural study of musical similarity, musical evolution, musical universals, and the relationship between music and culture will provide the true test of each scheme’s value.
Development of a Strategic Knowledge Management Model for Thai Universities

Introduction. Knowledge management (KM) strategy is an operating framework or plan that describes how an organization will effectively operate KM. Most Thai universities have not been able to successfully implemented KM due to a lack of good KM strategic planning. This study aimed at developing a KM strategic model for Thai university management by using Khon Kaen University (KKU) as a case study. The research approach is based on the components of KM strategic development. Method. The mixed-research approaches have been used in this study. Results. KM processes at KKU focused upon sharing knowledge among staff. KKU lacked the ability to storage, organize, capture and codify knowledge. KM was relatively new for most staff, therefore KKU has many initial problems developing a KM program. Most staff members did not understand KM and resistance was obvious in the lack of sharing and resistance to learning. KM processes that should be immediately implemented in order to enhance the effectiveness of KM at KKU are knowledge storage, organization and capture processes. The result proposes that KM strategy for KKU should be a hybrid strategy which focuses on both a personalization strategy and a codification strategy. A personalization strategy should be in the leading role and codification should be in the supporting role. These strategies, however, still need more factors to bring about a successful application; including commitment of the culture, information technology, staff, organization management, leadership, CKO and KM team, KM process, and useful measurements.
Caracterização do sistema calicreína-cinina durante o processo ovulatório de bovinos

Master Course Dissertation Professional Graduation Program in Veterinary Medicine Universidade Federal de Santa Maria CHARACTERIZATION OF KALLIKREIN-KININ SYSTEM DURING THE OVULATION PROCESS IN BOVINE AUTHOR: GUSTAVO FREITAS ILHA ADVISER: JOÃO FRANCISCO COELHO DE OLIVEIRA Defense Place and Date: Santa Maria, February 25 nd , 2011 The kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) has been described as an important mediator of physiologic processes. Kallikreins use kininogen (KNG) as substrate to generate bradykinin, the principal active peptide of the KKS which acts through two types of receptors, the B1R and B2R. The objective of this study was to characterize some components of KKS in different compartments of ovary during the ovulation process in bovine. mRNA expression pattern of KNG, B1R and B2R was assessed in theca and granulosa cells and bradykinin concentration and kallikrein-like activity in follicular fluid of bovine peri-ovulatory follicles. In order to obtain a peri-ovulatory follicle (≥ 12mm), twenty-seven cows were submitted to estrus synchronization protocol and ovariectomized by colpotomy at 0, 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours after a GnRH-analog injection (gonadorelin; 100 μg, IM). Follicular fluid was aspirated for enzymatic assays and granulosa and theca cells were harvested for mRNA analysis. The mRNA expressions in follicular cells were evaluated by real-time RT-PCR and data represented as relative to housekeeping gene cyclophilin. Bradykinin concentration and Kallikrein-like activity was measured in follicular fluid by enzymatic immunoassay and selective substrate cleavage, respectively, and the absorbance measured using a plate reader. KNG mRNA expression was similar for both follicular cell types (P>0.05), while B2R expression in theca cells and B1R expression in theca and granulosa cells showed different profiles during peri-ovulatory period (P<0.05). Bradykinin concentration and kallikrein-like activity in follicular fluid were different (P<0.05) according the time during ovulation process. The results provide an important characterization of the presence and possible regulation of KKS during ovulation in bovine.
Guanxi Networks and Job Mobility in China and Singapore

Despite the differences in labor market contexts in China and Singapore, survey data reveal that in both countries jobs are channeled through strong ties more frequently than through weak ties. Moreover, when job changers and their ultimate helpers are unconnected, they tend to be bridged through intermediaries to whom both are strongly or moderately rather than weakly tied. Finally, helpers' job status has positive impacts on job changers' attained job status. The authors consider guanxi networks of exchange relations common to China and Singapore to account for these findings
Analysing visual strategies of novice and experienced designers by eye tracking application

In engineering design education several studies had been made to understand the differences between how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks. As a central finding it is described that novice designers tend to use a particular pattern of trial and error whereas experienced designers use particular design strategies. One essential part of these design strategies are visual analysing strategies. The identification of such strategies is a challenging research task and conventional research methods like interviews, document analysis and protocol studies are currently reaching their limits regarding the accurateness and validity of measuring data. At this point eye tracking analysis provides the opportunity to decisively improve the research of expertsâ strategies and thus allows a more sophisticated support of novice designer in engineering design education. This paper presents first results of eye tracking experiments that are presently conducted with novice and experienced mechanical engineers to gain additional insights in their visual strategies when analysing design representations (e.g. technical drawings). Based on the results it finally is discussed how identified visual strategies can be trained in design education in order to support the studentsâ understanding of design representations.