Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppression of bisphenol A‐induced oxidative stress by taurine promotes neuroprotection and restores altered neurobehavioral response in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been documented as a mediator for a number of health effects, including inflammation, oxidative stress, carcinogenicity, and mood dysfunction. The literature on the role of BPA in inducing altered neurobehavioral response and brain morphology and plausible neuroprotective role of taurine against BPA induced oxidative stress mediated neurotoxicity is limited. Therefore, the present experimental paradigm was set for 21 days to expound the neuroprotective efficacy of taurine against BPA‐induced neurotoxicity in zebrafish (Danio rerio) following waterborne exposure. Neurobehavioral studies were conducted by light–dark preference test (LDPT) and novel tank diving test (NTDT). To validate that the neuroprotective efficacy of taurine against BPA‐induced neurotoxicity is associated with the modulation of the antioxidant defense system, we have conducted biochemical studies in zebrafish brain. Changes in brain morphology leading to neurobehavioral variations following co‐supplementation of BPA and taurine were evaluated by Hoechst staining and cresyl violet staining (CVS) in periventricular gray zone (PGZ) of zebrafish brain. Our findings show that taurine co‐supplementation significantly improved the BPA‐induced altered scototaxis and explorative behavior of zebrafish. Further, BPA‐induced augmented oxidative stress was considerably ameliorated by taurine co‐supplementation. Subsequently, our observation also points toward the neuroprotective role of taurine against BPA‐induced neuronal pyknosis and chromatin condensation in PGZ of zebrafish brain. In a nutshell, the findings of the current study show the neuroprotective efficacy of taurine against BPA‐induced oxidative stress‐mediated neurotoxicity. Elucidation of the underlying signaling mechanism of taurine‐mediated neuroprotection would provide novel strategies for the prevention/treatment of BPA‐persuaded serious neurological consequences.
Perinatal complications in births to low socioeconomic status schizophrenic and depressed women

Pregnancy and birth complications in births to 57 schizophrenic, 28 depressed, and 31 well women were studied. The sample was of low socioeconomic status and predominantly African-American. The study extended earlier work on the perinatal status of infants born to schizophrenic women by including measures of severity of maternal disturbance, mother's age, IQ, and premorbid social competence, and family composition. The results show that maternal competence and the mother's diagnosis of schizophrenia were significant variables in determining the likelihood of less adequate prenatal care and more complicated births. The results indicate the importance of an assessment not only of a disturbed woman's diagnosis but also of her personal background and social competence in determining the likelihood of obstetrical complications.
Do CEO Succession and Succession Planning Affect Stakeholders' Perceptions of Financial Reporting Risk? Evidence from Audit Fees

In this paper, we examine how CEO succession and succession planning affect perceptions of financial reporting risk among stakeholders who are responsible for and oversee firms’ financial reporting (e.g., auditors, management, and audit committees). Management succession introduces uncertainty about firms’ future operations, financial policies, and potential motivation for earnings management, which we predict elevates the perceived risk of financial reporting improprieties. Consistent with this prediction, we find that audit fees are higher for firms with new CEOs. Importantly, however, we note that careful CEO succession planning (i.e., promoting an “heir apparent”) attenuates perceptions of higher risk as evidenced by a lack of an audit pricing adjustment. These results are robust to several alternative specifications and analyses designed to mitigate the concern that the association between audit fees and CEO succession and succession planning is driven by factors leading to the CEO change. We also show that audit fee increases dissipate over time as the new, non-heir CEO stays longer at the firm, reinforcing the inference that audit fees increase in response to the uncertainty surrounding a new CEO. Additionally, we do not find evidence of a deterioration in audit quality with new CEOs, independent of the succession plan.
A general strategy to synthesize high-level N-doped porous carbons via Schiff-base chemistry for supercapacitors

Recently, the synthesis of porous carbon-based materials, especially those with unique geometry, narrow pore size distribution, large surface area and high nitrogen content, has been highly attractive for widespread applications, but remains a great challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a novel strategy for highly efficient synthesis of high-level N-doped microporous carbon spheres (N-MCSs) based on a very simple Schiff-base reaction of 3,3′-diaminobenzidine and p-phthalaldehyde in ethanol solvent without any catalyst or tedious procedure, followed by a common one-step carbonization–activation process. The N-MCSs exhibit a spherical morphology, regular micropores, high surface areas and high nitrogen contents (up to 8.71 at%). N-MCSs used as supercapacitor electrodes deliver high gravimetric capacitance, good rate capability and cycling stability. More importantly, the synthetic approach can be extended to other Schiff-base systems such as p-phthalaldehyde and p-phenylenediamine or ethylenediamine to fabricate porous carbon-based materials with high nitrogen species, tunable morphology and pore structure. The general strategy presented in this study opens up a new window for heteroatom doping, geometry and structure control, and highlights the great potential of well-developed carbon-based materials for extensive applications.
SEMI-FLEXIBLE COMPACT POLYMERS IN A DISORDERED ENVIRONMENT

Hamiltonian cycles with bending rigidity are studied on the first three members of the fractal family obtained by generalization of the modified rectangular (MR) fractal lattice. This model is proposed to describe conformational and thermodynamic properties of a single semi-flexible ring polymer confined in a poor and disordered (e.g. crowded) solvent. Due to the competition between temperature and polymer stiffness, there is a possibility for the phase transition between molten globule and crystal phase of a polymer to occur. The partition function of the model in the thermodynamic limit is obtained and analyzed as a function of polymer stiffness parameter s (Boltzmann weight), which for semi-flexible polymers can take on values over the interval (0,1). Other quantities, such as persistence length, specific heat and entropy, are obtained numerically and presented graphically as functions of stiffness parameter s.
Characterization of moisture in acetylated and propionylated radiata pine using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LFNMR) relaxometry

Abstract Moisture in radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) earlywood (EW), which was acetylated or propionylated to various degrees, was measured by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LFNMR) relaxometry. Spin-spin relaxation times (T2) were determined for fully saturated samples at 22 and −18°C. T2 values for EW lumen water increased with increasing acetylation weight percentage gain (WPG), perhaps caused by the less hydrophilic acetylated wood (AcW) surface. Cell wall water (WCW) and the water in pits and small voids also showed increasing T2 values as a function of WPG but with a weaker tendency. A possible explanation is the counteracting effects of decreased hydrophilicity and reduced moisture content (MC) of these water populations at higher levels of acetylation. The evaluation of propionylation on WCW T2 data was complicated by peak splitting in the relaxation spectrum. Constant T2 values for void water populations at various WPG levels for propionylated samples indicate a modification gradient in the cell wall. Fiber saturation point (FSP) was significantly reduced by both modifications. Slightly higher FSP values for propionylated samples suggest that physical bulking is not the only factor causing moisture exclusion in AcW. But this interpretation is tentative because of the possibility of cell wall damage caused by propionylation.
Biosorption of nickel ions from aqueous solutions by natural and modified peanut husks: equilibrium and kinetics

The toxicity and non‐biodegradation of heavy metals, as well as their tendency to accumulate in the soils, water resources and the living organisms, makes them the significant environmental pollutants. Therefore, the reduction and elimination of heavy metal ions from aqueous systems is very important from the ecological, nutritional and environmental reasons. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the natural peanut husks, an agricultural waste, and their chemically modified form are capable to remove Ni(II) ions from aqueous solutions using batch method and to compare their efficiency. The effects of the mass of the natural peanut husks and the initial pH of the solution were studied to find the optimal conditions for maximal removal of Ni(II) ions. MATLAB/Curve Fitting Toolbox was implemented to determine the adequate adsorption isotherm as well as to optimise the equilibrium state of the investigated systems.
Explainable Person Re-Identification with Attribute-guided Metric Distillation

Despite the great progress of person re-identification (ReID) with the adoption of Convolutional Neural Networks, current ReID models are opaque and only outputs a scalar distance between two persons. There are few methods providing users semantically understandable explanations for why two persons are the same one or not. In this paper, we propose a post-hoc method, named Attribute-guided Metric Distillation (AMD), to explain existing ReID models. This is the first method to explore attributes to answer: 1) what and where the attributes make two persons different, and 2) how much each attribute contributes to the difference. In AMD, we design a pluggable interpreter network for target models to generate quantitative contributions of attributes and visualize accurate attention maps of the most discriminative attributes. To achieve this goal, we propose a metric distillation loss by which the interpreter learns to decompose the distance of two persons into components of attributes with knowledge distilled from the target model. Moreover, we propose an attribute prior loss to make the interpreter generate attribute-guided attention maps and to eliminate biases caused by the imbalanced distribution of attributes. This loss can guide the interpreter to focus on the exclusive and discriminative attributes rather than the large-area but common attributes of two persons. Comprehensive experiments show that the interpreter can generate effective and intuitive explanations for varied models and generalize well under cross-domain settings. As a by-product, the accuracy of target models can be further improved with our interpreter. 1
Optimized process and tool design for gan chemical mechanical planarization

In this paper, we present a systematic approach to the gallium nitride (GaN) chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process through evaluating the effect of crystallographic orientation, slurry chemistry and process variables on the removal rate and surface quality responses. A new CMP process and a complementary tool set-up are introduced to enhance GaN material removal rates. The key process variables are studied to set them at an optimal level, while a new slurry feed methodology is introduced in addition to a new tool set up to enable high material removal rates and acceptable surface quality through close control of the process chemistry. It is shown that the optimized settings can signiﬁcantly improve the material removal rates as compared to the literature ﬁndings while simultaneously enabling a more sustainable process and potential removal selectivity against silica. The by ECS. This an the terms of the Creative any on purpose to prevent any defectivity driven by the dislocation threads originated from the GaN/substrate interface. Both Ga-face and the N-face were available on the bulk substrates. A baseline silica slurry with uniform particle size distribution and 0.1 μ m mean particle size provided by BASF SE, Germany was used for the CMP experiments. Slurry pH was stable at pH 6.42 and it was adjusted by adding HCl and NH 3 as needed. Slurry stability was checked through particles size mea- surements by using static light scattering technique with Coulter LS 13 320 Instrument Universal Liquid Module. Background DI water pH and temperature were adjusted as needed to maintain the slurry conditions during the particle size measurements and evaluate the sta- bility precisely. IC 1000/Suba IV stacked pads were used after aging for 100 hours to accomplish a soft pad/wafer interface and promote removal rates as per our observation in the earlier studies. 22
Exploring annotations for musical pattern discovery gathered with digital annotation tools

The study of inter-annotator agreement in musical pattern annotations has gained increased attention over the past few years. While expert annotations are often taken as the reference for evaluating pattern discovery algorithms, relying on just one reference is not usually sufficient to capture the complex musical relations between patterns. In this paper, we address the potential of digital annotation tools to enable large-scale annotations of musical patterns, by comparing datasets gathered with two recently developed digital tools. We investigate the influence of the tools and different annotator backgrounds on the annotation process by performing inter-annotator agreement analysis and feature-based analysis on the annotated patterns. We discuss implications for further adaptation of annotation tools, and the potential for deriving reference data from such rich annotation datasets for the evaluation of automatic pattern discovery algorithms in the future.
Women Cross Border Traders’ Participation in Tax Rulemaking Processes

abstract The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) mandates States in para 165(n) to establish mechanisms and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs and women workers to contribute to the formulation of policies and programmes being developed by economic ministries and financial institutions. This article investigates the nature of women cross border traders’ participation in tax rulemaking processes in Malawi in relation to Malawi’s obligation under the BPfA. The investigation was important because the majority of women cross border traders are in informal trade mainly due to unfriendly tax rules. The article argues that women’s participation in tax rulemaking would facilitate the incorporation of their trade related gender needs and usher them into formal cross border trade. Women’s participation in tax rulemaking would address the concerns raised by the BPfA which highlighted inequalities in economic structures and policies in all forms of productive activities and urged governments to facilitate women’s access to trade and markets. The article draws from empirical data from a study that was conducted on the nature and challenges of women’s participation in tax rulemaking in Malawi. The research finds that women’s participation in tax rulemaking is almost non-existent. The minimal participation is due to an ambiguous, centralised and oddly structured tax rulemaking process. As such, it is only the bureaucrats and the elite participating who are mostly men. The article proposes a legal restructuring of the tax rulemaking process by adopting a civic republicanism approach to rulemaking. Civic republicanism facilitates the incorporation of informal and locally accepted ways and methods of rulemaking familiar to marginalised groups such as women.
Traumatic Stress as a Treatment Priority: Its Prevalence and Impact on Children’s Mental Health Services

Abstract This study examined the prevalence of traumatic stress in children’s community mental health settings and assessed the impact of traumatic stress on therapy. Data were collected as part of a randomized effectiveness trial examining a modular treatment. Participants included 140 youth (5–15 years). Multilevel regression analyses examined predictors of treatment dropout, client crises, practice delivery, and therapist deviations from treatment plans. Findings indicate that, despite a high prevalence of trauma and the impact of traumatic stress on treatment dropout, trauma is not often perceived by clients as a treatment priority and trauma characteristics do not predict therapist practice delivery.
Social Justice in Kinesiology, Health, and Disability

ABSTRACT The current state of research in kinesiology scholarship is largely void of empirical research that counters deficit thinking from a social justice perspective. The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the social justice agenda in kinesiology, and to suggest directions for the future of social justice research in our fields. First, we offer clarification of social justice and discuss how researchers might challenge dominant (majoritarian) discourses through critical interrogation of oppression and privilege, particularly in the United States (U.S.). We further suggest the utilization of a critical theoretical framework in conducting research and in challenging the prevalent deficit orientation of research engaging historically and contemporarily marginalized U.S. populations (e.g., people of color, women, and individuals with disabilities). Even more importantly, the lens through which the research is viewed must be adjusted to fully grasp the pertinent issues.
Re-Examining Inequalities in Computer Science Participation from a Bourdieusian Sociological Perspective

Concerns about participation in computer science at all levels of education continue to rise, despite the substantial efforts of research, policy, and world-wide education initiatives. In this paper, which is guided by a systematic literature review, we investigate the issue of inequalities in participation by bringing a theoretical lens from the sociology of education, and particularly, Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction. By paying particular attention to Bourdieu’s theorising of capital, habitus, and field, we first establish an alignment between Bourdieu’s theory and what is known about inequalities in computer science (CS) participation; we demonstrate how the factors affecting participation constitute capital forms that individuals possess to leverage within the computer science field, while students’ views and dispositions towards computer science and scientists are rooted in their habitus which influences their successful assimilation in computer science fields. Subsequently, by projecting the issue of inequalities in CS participation to Bourdieu’s sociological theorisations, we explain that because most interventions do not consider the issue holistically and not in formal education settings, the reported benefits do not continue in the long-term which reproduces the problem. Most interventions have indeed contributed significantly to the issue, but they have either focused on developing some aspects of computer science capital or on designing activities that, although inclusive in terms of their content and context, attempt to re-construct students’ habitus to “fit” in the already “pathologized” computer science fields. Therefore, we argue that to contribute significantly to the equity and participation issue in computer science, research and interventions should focus on restructuring the computer science field and the rules of participation, as well as on building holistically students’ computer science capital and habitus within computer science fields.
RAS Mutational Status in Advanced Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Treated With Anti-angiogenics: Preliminary Experience With Liquid Biopsy

Aim: To determinate molecular changes in the downstream epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway using serial liquid biopsies in patients with metastatic colorectal tumors (mCRC) under anti-angiogenic treatment. Patients and Methods: Determination of RAS mutation in primary tissue samples from colorectal tumors was performed in the 23 patients included in the study at diagnosis using quantitative-polymerase chain reaction. Sequential mutations were studied in circulating tumor (ct) DNA obtained from plasma samples. Results: Twenty-three patients with RAS-mutated primary tumors were included. In the first ctDNA determination, 17 of these patients were found to have wild-type RAS status. Remarkably, three out of these 17 wild-type cases changed to RAS-mutated in subsequent ctDNA assays. Conclusion: Serial liquid biopsies in patients with mCRC might be a useful tool for identifying changes in the RAS mutation status in patients who had undergone previous anti-angiogenic therapy. The understanding of these changes might help to better define the landscape of mCRC and be the path to future randomized studies.
Selective inhibition of IL-6 trans-signaling by a miniaturized, optimized chimeric soluble gp130 inhibits TH17 cell expansion

Smaller, more selective molecular traps of IL-6 trans-signaling complexes may treat autoimmunity. Precision blockade of inflammatory IL-6 The cytokine IL-6 performs critical functions in various tissue types but is implicated in autoimmune disease. Therefore, precisely targeting the pathway by which IL-6 induces inflammatory immune cell activation could leave other signaling pathways and functions of IL-6 intact. Currently, such targeted molecules lack sufficient selectivity. Heise et al. developed a chimeric molecule that bound to and “trapped” a critical IL-6 trans-signaling protein complex and that was smaller, had greater selectivity for the IL-6 complex over a similar IL-11 complex, and more effectively inhibited the IL-6–induced inflammatory activation of cultured T cells. These findings may lead to improved therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease. The cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) signals through three mechanisms called classic signaling, trans-signaling, and trans-presentation. IL-6 trans-signaling is distinctly mediated through a soluble form of its transmembrane receptor IL-6R (sIL-6R) and the coreceptor gp130 and is implicated in multiple autoimmune diseases. Although a soluble form of gp130 (sgp130) inhibits only IL-6 trans-signaling, it also blocks an analogous trans-signaling mechanism of IL-11 and its soluble receptor sIL-11R. Here, we report miniaturized chimeric soluble gp130 variants that efficiently trap IL-6:sIL-6R but not IL-11:sIL-11R complexes. We designed a novel IL-6 trans-signaling trap by fusing a miniaturized sgp130 variant to an IL-6:sIL-6R complex–binding nanobody and the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G (IgG). This trap, called cs-130Fc, exhibited improved inhibition of as well as increased selectivity for IL-6 trans-signaling compared to the conventional fusion protein sgp130Fc. We introduced affinity-enhancing mutations in cs-130Fc and sgp130Fc that further improved selectivity toward IL-6 trans-signaling. Moreover, cs-130Fc efficiently inhibited the expansion of T helper 17 (TH17) cells in cultures of mouse CD4+ T cells treated with IL-6:sIL-6R. Thus, these variants may provide or lead to the development of more precisely targeted therapeutics for inflammatory disorders associated with IL-6 trans-signaling.