Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How many persistent organic pollutants should we expect

Abstract Under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), currently 22 chemicals or groups of chemicals are regulated as POPs. However, various screening exercises performed on large sets of chemicals indicate that the number of substances fulfilling the screening criteria defined in Annex D of the Stockholm Convention might be much higher. Most of these screening studies searched for highly persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals, but did not include the long-range transport potential, which is a key criterion under the Stockholm Convention. We apply the screening criteria for persistence, bioaccumulation and long-range transport potential of the Stockholm Convention to a set of 93 144 organic chemicals. Because no toxicity threshold is defined under the Stockholm Convention, we use the toxicity threshold of REACH, the chemicals regulation of the European Union. For the vast majority of the chemicals, the property data required for the assessment had to be estimated from the chemical structure. Assessment results for the acknowledged POPs and for POP candidates currently under review are discussed. Beyond these well-known substances, we find 510 chemicals that exceed all four critieria and can be considered potential POPs. Ninety eight percent of these chemicals are halogenated; frequent types of chemicals are halogenated aromatic compounds, including polychlorinated diphenylethers, tetrachloro benzyltoluenes, brominated and fluorinated naphthalenes and biphenyls; and highly or fully chlorinated and fluorinated alkanes (cyclic, linear, branched). Non-halogenated substances are highly branched alkanes and nitroaromatic compounds. Ten substances are high-production volume chemicals and 249 are pre-registered in the EU. We used uncertainty ranges of the chemical property data to estimate a lower and upper bound of the number of potential POPs; these bounds are at 190 and 1 200 chemicals. These results imply that several tens of potential POPs may have to be expected for future evaluation under the Stockholm Convention.
Radical trapping and termination in free-radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate

Post-effect measurements of radical concentrations for bulk free-radical polymerization of MMA with AIBN initiated by UV were made. Number-average termination rate constants decrease dramatically in the post-effect period at high conversions in disagreement with the concept of termination by propagation-diffusion that was expected to be dominant. It is found that there exist two radical populations in the reacting mass, free radicals and trapped radicals, which have very different reactivities in both propagation and termination reactions
Effect of conventional and organic production systems on the yield and quality of field tomato cultivars grown in Tunisia.

BACKGROUND: The agricultural production system and cultivation practices are critical factors in determining yield and food nutritional quality. Controversy remains regarding whether or not organic foods have a nutritional advantage when compared with their conventionally produced counterparts. In this study the effect of conventional and organic production systems on yield, physicochemical and nutritional properties of four field tomato cultivars (Perfectpeel, Rio Grande, Hypeel 108 and Firenze) was determined. In the organic system, different fertiliser combination treatments were used. RESULTS: When production system data were combined, marketable yield was not affected by cultivar. When averaged across cultivars, organic yield was about 63% of conventional yield. The production system affected fruit soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity and firmness only in some cultivars. However, no effect was found on lycopene and total phenolics in all cultivars. In the organic system, fertiliser combination treatments affected tomato yield of Rio Grande and fruit quality of Firenze and Hypeel 108. A general trend of higher quality data was obtained by using mixed compost C2 combined with its extract and codahumus 20. CONCLUSION: The production system affects tomato yield and some fruit quality attributes. The effect on fruit quality varies among cultivars, thus highlighting the need to use a range of varieties in this kind of study. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY (PDT): A PHOTOCHEMICAL CONCEPT WITH MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

The development of new drugs (known as photosensitizers) for photodynamic therapy (PDT) requires the comprehension the way of these drugs works in biological medium. PDT is based on a systemic or topical administration of a tumorlocalizing photosensitizers (PS) followed by illumination with visible light of appropriate wavelength. The resulting photodynamic reactions lead to the production of singlet oxygen ( 1 O2) and many other reactive oxygen species (ROS’s) that induced the tumor necrosis or apoptosis. Most of the PS are macrocycles (i.e. Porphyrins, Phthalocyanines, chlorines, etc.), are difficult to administrate and biodistribute in vivo. The main goal of this paper is the developing and elucidating the mechanisms of photo destruction of neoplastic tissue using new PS, evaluating the photophysical, photochemical and photobiological properties of some PS.
Label-free Analytics by Transmission Localized-SPR and its Application to Small Molecules Monitoring in Serum

In the frame of therapeutic drug monitoring and personalized medicine, point-of-care systems (POCs) that can help overcome long waiting times for results and costly procedures of clinical tests are highly desirable. At present, the detection of low-molecular-weight molecules with portable systems remains a challenge. In addition, measurements in serum have always been more complicated with respect to buffer solutions due to the occurrence of non-specific binding. This thesis presents a portable transmission-localized SPR (T-LSPR)-based setup that is intended to work as a POC for the detection of small molecules in serum. As a biorecognition element, a selected DNA aptamer specific to tobramycin (467 Da) has been used to functionalize a gold nanoislands (NIs) fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) covered glass that acts as a biosensor. As a proof of concept, real-time detection in TE buffer was performed by monitoring concentrations down to 0.5 µM and enabling the observation of association and dissociation phases. The extracted parameters match those obtained with a high-end commercial SPR system. Concentrations of tobramycin in undiluted serum down to 10 µM were measured. The interesting effect of the serum is that it masks the association kinetics of the tobramycin to the DNA aptamer. The quantification of the captured tobramycin is calculated at the beginning of the dissociation phase and leads to a linear calibration curve for the concentrations in the clinical range tested. The reason why the binding of tobramycin is hindered by the serum remains under investigation. The T-LSPR system employs low-cost, off-the-shelf components that make it possible to scale down the system to a palm size. The CMOS image sensor, employed as a light detector, forced the choice of the NIs to have resonance in the visible spectrum in order to match the sensitivity of the light detector. Despite the low sensitivity of the NIs FTO-coated glass slides, justified by the irregularity in size and pattern of the NIs and of the FTO substrate, the NIs exhibit extremely high stability in high-ionic solutions, standing continuous regeneration cycles without altering their sensing properties and without denaturation of the DNA aptamer on their surface. An algorithm for the extraction of the plasmon peak location of the resonance was developed. To increase the speed of data elaboration and to allow the real-time display of the results, hue was studied and used as an alternative parameter for plasmonic evaluation.
The Bioavailability and Assimilation of Dietary Zinc in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study examines three possible methods for improving the digestibility and bioavailability of zinc to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mikiss). The first method was to examine the availability of the zinc utilisation from commonly used protein sources; the second was to assess the efficacy of the upstream use of an enzyme treatment of the raw materials; the third was to assess the use of organically complexed mineral supplements as opposed to the inorganic salts widely used at present. The first section indicated that the zinc from the soyabean meal was the most available (49.4%). The zinc digestibilities of the animal based protein used in this current study were 15.1% for LT94 fish meal, 26.6% for the Provimi 66 white fishmeal and 15.8% for poultry meat meal. The zinc in the maize/corn gluten meal was 31.9% digestible and from the NuPro 26.1%. Gram for gram maize gluten meal supplied the least amount of zinc to the fish (3.66 mg per kg). Based on these results the diets for the subsequent supplementation trials were formulated. The liver, eye and caudal fin were identified biomarkers of a severe zinc deficiency. The second part of the study revealed a soybean product, treated by exogenous enzymes, had a higher phosphorus digestibility, (49.0%, vs. 36.6%) and zinc digestibility (30.7% vs. 7.9%) The treatment did not improve the protein digestibility (85%). The third part of the study showed the organic source proved more digestible than the inorganic, 37.4% and 26.9% respectively. The fish fed the organic source maintained a higher level of zinc in both the eye and caudal fin. The liver zinc levels were unaffected by both dietary level and zinc source. Analysis of the liver for a zinc dependant protein showed that under stress conditions only the organic supplemented fish were able to synthesis this protein. The analysis of the mRNA levels coding for this protein indicate the fish on both zinc forms up regulated the production of the mRNA to the same extent when stressed. Finally this study also examined the viability of using a stable isotope to identify different ‘preferences’ for one form of supplementation over the other in different tissues. This method illustrated a tissue dependant difference to how the fish attempted physiologically to compensate for zinc deficiency. The rate of turnover was fastest in the liver, then the caudal fin and then the eye, and also showed that when the diet was more deficient there was an increased ability for the tissues to take up the organic form.
Steady Flow of Blood through a Catheterized Tapered Artery with Stenosis: A Theoretical Model

The paper deals with a steady laminar flow of blood through an annulus, enclosed between an arterial stenosis, developed along a tapering wall and a uniform catheter, co-axial to it. In this work, body fluid blood is assumed to behave like a Newtonian fluid. A velocity slip condition is employed at the catheterized wall with different sizes of stenosis and zero-slip at the catheter boundary is taken. Analytic expressions are obtained for axial velocity,flow rate, wall shear stress and apparent viscosity. Their variations with differentflow parameters are plotted in figures. The behaviour of these flow variables in this constricted annular region has been discussed. It may be worthmentionating that velocity and flow rate will increase in one hand but wall shear stress and apparent viscosity, will be lowered on the other, due to the introduction of an axial slip. The effects of tapering and stenosis are considered. Physiological implications of this theoretical modelling to blood flow situations are also included in brief.
Desempenho e características de carcaça de bovinos jovens alimentados com silagens de grãos úmidos

The objective was to determine differences in the performance of young cattle fed with high moisture corn or high moisture sorghum. The study had two treatments, in which the total diet was composed with high moisture corn (TMU) or high moisture sorghum (TSU). The experiment was carried out in experimental feedlot of Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia/UNESP-Botucatu. Ninety 8-month-old crossbreed steers (Angus x Nelore) with 240 kg body weight were fed during 172 days, divided in two experimental treatments (TMU and TSU). The treatments didn’t affect (P>0,05) the daily weight gain, total weight gain and final weight. Longissimus dorsi area, subcutaneous thickness fat also didn’t have statistical effect by experimental treatments. The analysis of present experiment concludes that the high moisture corn will totally be able to be substituted for high moisture sorghum without altering the performance of young cattle.
Preparation, characterization and release profiles of pH-sensitive chitosan beads

Spherical crosslinked beads using chitosan, glycine and glutaraldehyde were prepared for controlled release formulations. Structural investigation of the beads was made with IR analysis. Morphological study of the beads was carried out by scanning electron microscopy. The swelling behaviour of the beads was monitored as a function of time in solutions of different pH. The release experiments were performed using thiamine hydrochloride (Thi-HCl) as a model drug. These preliminary results suggest the possibility of modifying the formulations to obtain the desired controlled release of drug in an oral sustained delivery system. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry
Removal of heavy metal ions on smectite ion-exchange column

The present work is a continuation of studies on the use of ion-exchanging properties of smectite raw material from Mecinka mine to the recovery of chromium from waste water. In this work the smectite ion-exchange column was used for removal of other heavy metals: Zn (II), Cd (II), Pb (II). The effect of ion exchange Zn (II), Cd (II), Pb (II) from model solutions prepared out of nitrate salts of these metals was examined under dynamic conditions. The efficiency of ion-exchange column with smectite bed was determined by measuring in the column efflux till the moment when the concentration of metals in efflux is equal to concentration in influx. For measurement of concentration of metals the voltamperometric method was used. The ion-exchanging column was determined by stating the following parameters: sorption capacity of exchanger, volume of solution till the moment of column breakthrough (Vmax) and column dynamics, which means the relative concentration of metal ions c/c0 in the efflux as a function of efflux volume. Out of the model waste water containing three heavy metals, the best eliminated is Pb (II) and subsequently Zn (II). The efflux volume classified to the 1st and 2nd category of water cleanness amounts to about 1/3 Vmax. Worse results are observed for ions Cd (II), which have the least ion exchange ability. The obtained results of studies on removal of ions of heavy metals: Zn (II), Cd (II), Pb (II) out of model waste water confirm, similar to the Cr (III) studies, the possibility of application of the raw smectite adsorbent as the column packing within the process of removal of heavy metals.
Estudios Adsorción de Ácido Ferúlico en Quitosán

En este articulo se evalua la factibilidad de utilizar el quitosan como adsorbente para la recuperacion de acido ferulico de soluciones acuosas. El efecto del pH sobre la capacidad de adsorcion fue estudiada, siendo a pH 2 en donde se obtiene la mejor capacidad de adsorcion (80 mg AF/g), ademas se observo una disminucion de la capacidad del quitosan para adsorber acido ferulico conforme se incrementa el pH. En los estudios cineticos, se demostro que el tiempo para alcanzar el equilibrio fue de 60 min independientemente de la concentracion de adsorbente utilizado y el modelo de pseudo- primer orden fue el modelo que mejor se ajusto a los datos experimentales. Estudios de equilibrio de adsorcion fueron realizados a diferentes temperaturas (30-50 oC), la capacidad de adsorcion disminuyo conforme se incrementa la temperatura, el modelo de Langmuir fue ajustado a los datos experimentales y la maxima capacidad de adsorcion (432 mg AF g-1) fue obtenida a 30 oC.
Realization of high-efficiency deep-UV LEDs using transparent p-AlGaN contact layer

We demonstrated high-efficiency deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV-LEDs) by improving light-extraction efficiency (LEE) by using a transparent p-AlGaN contact layer and a highly-reflective p-type electrode. We fabricated DUV-LEDs with emission wavelengths between 265-288 nm using p-AlGaN contact layers with compositional wavelength at around 275 nm. The reflectivity of p-type electrode was increased to be approximately 70% by introducing Ni(1nm)/Al layers. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the 287 nm LED was increased from 2% to 5.5% by replacing conventional p-GaN contact layer by transparent p-AlGaN contact layer. The increase of LEE was estimated to be by approximately more than 1.7 times. The use of transparent p-AlGaN contact layer is considered to be basic and quite important technique in order to obtain high LEE in DUV LEDs. The EQE of DUV-LED would be much increased by optimizing the device structure and by combining with other approaches to improve LEE. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Hydrolysis of Esters and Amides by the Metallo Nucleophile TpCum,MeZn–OH

The molecular zinc hydroxide complex TpCum,MeZnOH [1, TpCum,Me = tris(3-cumenyl-5-methylpyrazolyl)hydroborate] is a powerful nucleophile. It effects stoichiometric hydrolysis of activated esters RCOOX and amides RCONHX in nonaqueous media. The cleavage products are TpCum,MeZnOCOR and HOX or H2NX, resp. Two of them (TpCum,MeZnOCOCH2-CH2OH resulting from propiolactone and TpCum,MeZnOCOCF3 resulting from trifluoroacetamide) were characterized by crystal structure determinations.
Remedying Security Concerns at an Internet Scale

Author(s): Li, Frank | Advisor(s): Paxson, Vern | Abstract: The state of security across the Internet is poor, and it has been so since the advent of the modern Internet. While the research community has made tremendous progress over the years in learning how to design and build secure computer systems, network protocols, and algorithms, we are far from a world where we can truly trust the security of deployed Internet systems. In reality, we may never reach such a world. Security concerns continue to be identified at scale through-out the software ecosystem, with thousands of vulnerabilities discovered each year. Meanwhile, attacks have become ever more frequent and consequential.As Internet systems will continue to be inevitably affected by newly found security concerns, the research community must develop more effective ways to remedy these issues. To that end, in this dissertation, we conduct extensive empirical measurements to understand how remediation occurs in practice for Internet systems, and explore methods for spurring improved remediation behavior. This dissertation provides a treatment of the complete remediation life cycle, investigating the creation, dissemination, and deployment of remedies. We start by focusing on security patches that address vulnerabilities, and analyze at scale their creation process, characteristics of the resulting fixes, and how these impact vulnerability remediation. We then investigate and systematize how administrators of Internet systems deploy software updates which patch vulnerabilities across the many machines they manage on behalf of organizations. Finally, we conduct the first systematic exploration of Internet-scale outreach efforts to disseminate information about security concerns and their remedies to system administrators, with an aim of driving their remediation decisions. Our results show that such outreach campaigns can effectively galvanize positive reactions.Improving remediation, particularly at scale, is challenging, as the problem space exhibits many dimensions beyond traditional computer technical considerations, including human, social, organizational, economic, and policy facets. To make meaningful progress, this work uses a diversity of empirical methods, from software data mining to user studies to Internet-wide network measurements, to systematically collect and evaluate large-scale datasets. Ultimately, this dissertation establishes broad empirical grounding on security remediation in practice today, as well as new approaches for improved remediation at an Internet scale.
Plasma-Catalyst Interactions in Treatment of Gas Phase Contaminants and in Electrical Discharge in Water

Pulsed gas phase corona discharge was studied as a possible new technology for the removal of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from contaminated gases. The combination of pulsed positive streamer corona discharge with a platinum-rhodium catalyst was investigated for removal of toluene, acetonitrile, and nitrogen oxides. The reactors that were used consisted of two parallel disks made from reticulated vitreous carbon, with the downstream disk coated with platinum and rhodium for catalyst experiments. Removal of contaminants was measured with and without plasma over a range of temperatures, and several interesting phenomena were observed which differed between the three species. Results indicate that the catalyst is capable of both reduction of nitrogen oxides and oxidation of hydrocarbons. In addition, the combination of the active catalyst with the plasma discharge was found to either enhance or interrupt catalyst activity depending on which contaminant was considered and the catalyst temperature. High voltage electrical discharges in water are of increasing interest for the degradation of organic compounds and destruction of biological species. Previous work has demonstrated the importance of the formation of hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide by high voltage pulsed electrical discharge in water and the utility of these species for the degradation of a number of organic compounds including phenol, chlorophenol, nitrobenzene, and trichloroethylene and the destruction of various bacteria, yeast, viruses and multicellular organisms. The present study reports measurements of the rates of molecular hydrogen, molecular oxygen, and hydrogen peroxide formation in a pulsed positive needle-plane electrical discharge in water. In experiments for various solution conductivity, applied voltage, and discharge power, the ratio of the molar rate of production of hydrogen : hydrogen peroxide : oxygen was approximately 4:2:1. A global reaction is proposed to add to existing kinetic models for the simulation of reactive
Magnetically-Induced Ferro electricity Unraveled Through Spin-Phonon Coupling

This work aims at studying the role of the spin-phonon coupling in the stabilization of magnetically-induced ferroelectric phases in magnetoelectric materials. To achieve this objective, we have characterize the thermodynamic, dielectric, magnetic, polar and magnetoelectric properties of Gd1−xYxMnO3 system, with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4. The overall set of experimental results enable us to draw the (x, T) phase diagram of this system and to elucidate the e ect of an applied electric eld on the magnetic properties of the compounds. An induced electric polarization was observed in GdMnO3, which is not associated with any kind of cooperative phenomena. For x ≥ 0.1, antiferromagnetic phases are stabilized at low temperatures, and some of them simultaneously exhibit polar properties. Although only the lowest temperature magnetic phase is polar, a magnetoelectric coupling was evidenced for higher temperatures. Moreover, the study of lattice dynamics through Raman spectroscopy reveals the existence of a spin-phonon coupling even in the paramagnetic phase. This result points for the existence of precursor e ects of the low temperature magnetic phases. Clear deviations of the Raman modes renormalized frequency as a function of temperature relatively to the anharmonic classical behavior, is interpreted in the framework of spin-phonon coupling model, in which the balance between competitive ferro and antiferromagnetic interactions is considered. An association between the spin-spin correlation function and the renormalized frequency of the Raman modes is presented.