cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Developing and validating a flexible unstructured ocean model with adjoint capability for flow under ice shelf cavities using the Firedrake finite element framework
Creators: name: Scott, William
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2023

description: Accurate modelling of basal melting beneath ice shelves is key to reducing the uncertainty in forecasts of ice shelf stability and, thus, the polar contribution to sea level rise. Numerical ocean models are important tools to investigate these critical and remote regions. The relative inflexibility of structured grid models means, however, that they can struggle to resolve these processes in realistic cavity geometries. We present a new nonhydrostatic unstructured mesh model for flow under ice shelves built using the Firedrake finite element framework. Verification tests based on a novel Method of Manufactured Solutions (MMS) test, including melting, shows that the model discretisation is sound and second order accurate. This test may have wider applicability as a rigorous code verification procedure for the ice-ocean modelling community. In detailed testing our results are shown to compare favorably, in terms of accuracy and robustness, against those obtained with the popular MITgcm model for a series of benchmarks of increasing complexity and different meshing techniques, culminating with a full 3D ice shelf cavity domain using the community standard ISOMIP+ \emph{Ocean0} test case. We build on existing work to show how spurious numerical mixing dictates the sensitivity of the melt rate parameterisation to grid resolution. A key motivation behind using Firedrake is the availability of an automatically generated adjoint model. Preliminary adjoint sensitivity calculations are promising and point to the ability to address important questions on ocean influence on ice shelf vulnerability in the future. Finally, we apply the forward model to investigate the dynamics of ocean flow in the presence of complicated basal features. We extend the literature, previously confined to 2D, to consider the importance of crevasse orientation and rotational effects for a suite of 3D experiments.
Hybrid territory
Creators: name: Hanrahan, David
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: An important but often overlooked aspect to Rutgers Gardens is the work of plant scientists in shaping visitor experience. Research on plant hybrid science offers a lens to define Rutgers Gardens’ sense of place. This is most apparent in the ways plant scientists have shaped the physical form of the Rutgers University landscape, as well as the how their work at Rutgers Gardens is distributed beyond the botanical garden. In this thesis, I organize my investigation of Rutgers Gardens as a display and botanical garden chronologically around three major periods of plant hybridization research: the foundational era, the ornamental dogwood era and the contemporary hazelnut hybrid research era. A mixed methods approach of archival research, interviews, and mapping and diagramming is used to construct a historical narrative of plant hybridization within the realm of Rutgers Gardens. This research indicates that initially, plant hybrid scientists played a critical, if not the sole, role in shaping the public botanic display at Rutgers Gardens. Over time, though, plant hybrid scientists’ role diminished. Furthermore, plant hybridization is an ideal lens through which to study the history of Rutgers Gardens, as well as the history of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and the College of Agriculture, now Rutgers University’s Cook Campus and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Trends of plant hybridization research parallel trends of agricultural diversification, suburbanization and edible and sustainable agricultural practices in New Jersey. Lastly, a tension between public access and private research and economic botany exists at Rutgers Gardens. This tension should be maintained in order to sustain Rutgers Gardens’ sense of place as a hybrid territory of scientific research, economic botany, display and design.
Insights into the enhanced photocatalytic and antioxidant properties of novel biogenically synthesised β-In2S3 quantum dots
Creators: name: Mishra, Soumya Ranjan
name: Gadore, Vishal
name: Ghotekar, Suresh
name: Ahmaruzzaman, Md.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
Cell Biology
Biotechnology
Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: In the field of nanoscience and nanobiotechnology, the use of plant extracts in synthesising metal sulphide nanoparticles has lately come to light as an intriguing issue with several benefits over traditional physicochemical methods. Herein, bio-mediated novel β-In2S3 quantum dots were fabricated using Camellia sinensis var. assamica (tea) leaf extract as a stabilising and capping agent through a facile solvothermal technique to evaluate the photocatalytic and antioxidant characteristics. The prepared green β-In2S3 quantum dots (g-β-In2S3), having a bandgap of 2.0 eV, were employed for the degradation of three major categories of dyes Xanthane (Rhodamine B), Triphenylmethane (Malachite Green), and Azo (Biebrich Scarlet). It also showed excellent antioxidant properties compared to standard ascorbic acid and pure chemically synthesised β-In2S3. The g-β-In2S3 quantum dots were characterised for their crystal structure, morphology, surface functional groups, charge recombination delay, and chemical composition using XRD, PL, FTIR, UV-DRS, SEM, TEM, and XPS analyses. The fabricated material showed high crystallinity of 77.17%, a particle size of 6.97 nm, and spherical morphology. The greenly synthesised β-In2S3 displayed enhanced photocatalytic performance, indicating that bio-synthesis can be a superb method to create flexible and environmentally friendly goods. About 75.28 ± 1.69%, 72.31 ± 1.43%, and 62.21 ± 1.14% for Rhodamine B, Malachite Green, and Biebrich Scarlet could be degraded within 60 min of visible light irradiation via β-In2S3/H2O2 system. The kinetics and the mechanism of the degradation of dyes by g-β-In2S3 are also discussed. This work highlighted the potential of g-β-In2S3 quantum dots for enhanced visible light, advanced oxidation process-assisted degradation of dyes, and outstanding antioxidant properties.
Picromerus nigridens
Creators: name: Laterza, Ilaria
name: Tamburini, Giovanni
name: Panzarino, Onofrio
name: Loverre, Pamela
name: Mastronardi, Maria Grazia
name: Dioli, Paride
name: Lillo, Enrico De
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Pentatomidae
Picromerus
Picromerus nigridens

description: Picromerus nigridens (Fabricius, 1803)
Material examined (n=1): loc. LG 25.VI.2020.
Distribution: Widespread in Europe (Albania, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey (European part)) and North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia).
description: Published as part of Laterza, Ilaria, Tamburini, Giovanni, Panzarino, Onofrio, Loverre, Pamela, Mastronardi, Maria Grazia, Dioli, Paride & Lillo, Enrico De, 2022, The first annotated checklist of Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) fauna of Alta Murgia National Park (Apulia region, Southern Italy), pp. 401-420 in Zootaxa 5219 (5) on page 407, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5219.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7431348
Regulation of synaptic transmission by cytoplasmic ATM
Creators: name: Han, Yu Ray
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a devastating childhood disorder caused by mutation of the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated gene (ATM) which encodes a member of the PI3 kinase family.  In most cells, ATM is localized in the nucleus and is involved in DNA damage repair.  In neurons, however, a substantial fraction of ATM is cytoplasmic, and the function of this cytoplasmic pool is poorly understood and not well studied.    Since likely binding partners of ATM include the molecules synapsin-I and VAMP2, we examined the possibility that cytoplasmic ATM is a regulator of synaptic plasticity.  FM4-64 dye tracing experiment showed a deficit of spontaneous vesicle releasing in ATM deficient cells.  Hippocampal slice recordings revealed that Shaffer collateral long-term potentiation (LTP) in homozygous Atmtm1Awb mice was significantly reduced comparing to wild-type controls.  In Atmtm1Awb mutant mice, ATM protein is still made, but is a novel, catalytically less active, splice mutant product.  By comparison in Atmtm1Bal mutant mice in which the protein is not made, short-term plasticity such as synaptic fatigue and paired-pulse facilitation were compromised, whereas LTP was less affected.    Binding studies show that cytoplasmic ATM serves as a scaffold that brings together ATR, synapsin-I and VAMP2.  This observation suggests that cytoplasmic ATM in the Atmtm1Awb mice may be acting to disable the complex, whereas the simple absence of ATM is less disruptive.  The next stage of this work will focus on understanding the mechanism of how cytoplasmic ATM is involved in synaptic function.
title: Protocol Title: Assessing the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Perinatal Substance Use: A Scoping Review Protocol
Creators: name: Emery, Bethany
name: Shuman, Clayton
name: Stoddard, Sarah
Publisher: name: University of Michigan
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: adverse childhood experiences
subject: substance use
subject: substance use disorder
subject: perinatal
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Health Sciences

description: A scoping review protocol
description: The proposed scoping review will answer the research question, “What is the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and substance use in pregnancy?” In addition, the review of the literature will aim to: 1. Describe the extent to which ACEs may influence substance use during pregnancy. 2. Describe maternal (e.g. length of stay, caesarean rate, pain management), neonatal (e.g. APGAR scores, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit admission, birthweight, neonatal abstinence syndrome [NAS] diagnosis) and/or birth outcomes (e.g. stillbirth rate, birth traumas such as prolonged labor or shoulder dystocia) of maternal patients with a history of ACEs and substance use. 3. Describe maternal perceptions and experiences of healthcare services during pregnancy.
Ceratitis
Creators: name: El-Hawagry, Magdi S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tephritidae
Ceratitis

description: Subgenus CERATITIS —Nominotypical subgenus
Ceratitis (Ceratitis) capitata (Wiedemann, 1824)
Tephritis capitata Wiedemann, 1824: 55. Unspecified type. India (mare indico [probably Is. in Indian Ocean]) (ZMUC). Ceratitis citriperda MacLeay, 1829: 482. Syntypes. Azores (St. Michael [São Miguel]) (MMS).
Ceratitis hispanica Breme, 1842: 188. Syntypes?. Spain (Malaga: environs of Malaga) (IMZ?).
Pardalaspis asparagi Bezzi, 1924a: 480. Holotype. South Africa (Cape: East London) (SANC).
Ceratitis citripeda Efflatoun, 1924a: 47. Misspelling of citriperda MacLeay.
Distribution. AF: tropical Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion. AU: w. Australia, Hawaii. NT: Neotropics. PA: s. Europe, Middle East, North Africa (introduced).
Egyptian localities. Widespread throughout the country, particularly: Coastal Strip: Dekheila, Ramleh. Eastern Desert: Gebel Asfar. Fayoum: Al-zawya, El-Bassyonia, Kom Oshim, Tamia. Lower Nile Valey and Delta: Abu Rawash, Cairo, Damietta, Giza, Kafr Hakim, Kerdassa, Mansouriya, Mazghouna, Shubramant, Simbellaween. Sinai: El-Arish, Wadi El-Lega. Western Desert: Dakhla Oasisi & Kharga Oasis, Nubaria, Wadi El-Natroun. Upper Nile Valley: Assiout, Luxor.
Host plants. A wide range of host plants, including: Apple (Malus pumila Miller), apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.), cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. cantalupo Ser.), citrus (Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L.), eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), fig (Ficus carica L.), grapes (Vitis vinifera L.), guava (Psidium guajava L.), mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco), mango (Mangifera indica L.), orange (Citrus x sinensis (L.) Osbeck), papaya (Carica papaya L.), peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch), squash (Cucurbita sp.), sour orange (Citrus aurantium L.), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Sources: Hendrichs & Hendrichs (1990); Amro & Abd El-Galil (2008); Amin & Saafan (2013); El-Fattah & Darwish (2016).
Dates of collection. Throughout the year, however the higher appearance was in spring and automn.
description: Published as part of El-Hawagry, Magdi S., 2017, Catalogue of Egyptian Tephritoidea (Diptera: Schizophora: Acalyptratae), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4299 (2) on pages 159-160, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4299.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/843233
The VINE Climate Smart Agrifood Innovation Program
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Maintaining a competitive, profitable, and sustainable agriculture and food (agrifood) industry, addressing climate change, and securing the nation’s food supply while ensuring economic opportunity in rural and urban communities are among the biggest societal challenges of our time. In response to these grand challenges, the State of California has adopted climate-smart policies and programs that support the transition to climate-smart agrifood, providing funding for the implementation of practices or purchase of new climate-smart technologies by farmers and ranchers.

 In alignment with the State’s goals and in collaboration with state agencies, UC ANR will expand agrifood technology development and translation programming to support climate-smart innovation and entrepreneurship activities that directly lead to climate change preparedness, resilience, or mitigation outcomes.

 Over the two-year period, the following activities will be conducted:
 1. Provide matchmaking, mentoring, talent identification, finance connections, and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and startups from University of California campuses, across California, or around the globe that have climate solutions in the agrifood sector, with an emphasis on including and serving diverse founders representing underserved communities.
 2. Provide technical assistance for testing, trialing, and demonstration of agrifood technology products or services to support commercial expansion.
 3. Support the rapid commercialization and scaling of climate-smart science-based technology solutions to industry-driven needs in California, focused on food-producing regions that are underserved, disinvested, limited resourced, and have experienced economic challenges resulting from climate and pandemic impacts.

 As a result, this program will further California’s progress towards realizing climate action priorities, leading to new business and economic, growth in BIPOC representation throughout the industry, incentivized climate resilience across the industry, and unprecedented new climate-smart technologies commercialized.
Social caching and vehicular social networks
Creators: name: Han, Lu
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Recent years have witnessed an explosive growth of the Online Social Networks (OSNs), which serve as a fertile ground for research such as, examining individual and group behaviors, identifying information dissemination patterns, and building unconventional OSNs. This dissertation explores the design and implementation of two emerging OSNs, a distributed social network (DOSN) and a vehicular social network (VSN), both from theoretical and practical perspectives, with the goal of improving the performance and functionality of the systems.     Distributed OSNs have been proposed as an alternative to centralized OSNs. DOSNs neither have central repository of all user data, nor they impose control regarding how the data will be accessed, hence, enable users to keep control of their private data. One of the critical challenges in building DOSNs is  the performance of the distributed social update dissemination. To address this, we propose Social Caches, nodes that cache updates of their friends in order to reduce the number of peer-to-peer network connections. We formulate social cache selection as an instance of the Neighbor-Dominating Set Problem, and propose a set of approximation, regression and heuristic social cache selection algorithms to solve it. Performance evaluation based on real social traffic data and five well-known social graphs shows that the proposed social caching mechanism can reduce P2P network connections by an order of magnitude.    In the second part of the dissertation, we introduce a new class of online social networks called Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs), which connect drivers, commuters in particular, sharing the same road at the same time. As a first application over VSNs, we developed RoadSpeak, a scalable mobile Multiparty Voice Communication (MVC) system that allows drivers to communicate over automatically moderated chat groups based upon their interest. Each VSN chat group is regulated by a profile consisting of the triplet {time, location, interests}. Evaluation using benchmarks, field trials and simulations proves the feasibility of RoadSpeak, and demonstrates that it can support substantially larger groups of users compared with traditional MVC systems.
Evaluating tire/pavement noise utilizing the on-board sound intensity method
Creators: name: Haas, Edwin
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Mitigating transportation noise is a major concern for Departments of Transportation (DOT) nationwide.  From a responsibility standpoint, once a noise source leaves the boundary of the property, the noise control falls under the jurisdiction of the DOT.  In the past, mitigation by the DOT was typically accomplished by erecting a sound barrier. If there was more noise or louder noise, a larger wall was used. As construction of these walls is prohibitively expensive, DOTs are increasingly interested in mitigating noise from the source.  In order to investigate noise being produced at the source, the on-board sound intensity method was utilized to investigate quiet pavements.  The method revealed the acoustical properties of both conventional pavements and quiet pavements.  This research also led to the investigation of the effects of vehicle speed, effects of temperature and effects of different consumer tires and the role each plays in the generation of noise at the tire pavement interface.
Transforming UC Health systems to reduce impact of climate on vulnerable populations
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Climate change has led to new challenges to health of vulnerable populations in California and the United States. The University of California (UC) including its health system are committed to monitoring the impact of their operations on the environment. This commitment has been formally documented in the UC sustainability policy. Hospitals and health systems are some of the most energy and resource intensive sectors. UC Health has substantial opportunities to better understand the intensity and utilization of resources for its operations and potential impact on the vulnerable populations in the communities the respective systems serve. The goal of this proposal is to develop the capacity for UC Health to determine the impact of its operations more rapidly on greenhouse gas emissions and the populations it serves. The objectives of the project are to create dynamic sustainability data reporting for UC Health, reduce direct GHG emissions by transitioning to a portable system for nitrous oxide, and develop climate resilience best practice tool kits. Outreach workshops and other activities will be done to engage stakeholders. The project work will be published on World Wide Web along with workshops and other strategies to disseminate the results. Results of the project are expected to assist health systems in determining climate impact on vulnerable populations.
Towards a networked public sphere
Creators: name: Halpern, Daniel
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: This dissertation studies the affordances of Social Network Sites (SNSs) that appear to amplify the participatory effects of news information and political talk on civic engagement. It also advances a theoretical model that might account for these amplifying effects. More particularly, due to SNSs’ underlying properties that make the structure of political discussion more translucent, and that motivate media information seeking by contacts’ notifications, I argue that this participatory dynamic has a positive effect on collective efficacy ( a personal-psychological mediator traditionally associated with civic engagement). Drawing on the O-S-R-O-R (orientations-stimulus-reasoning-orientations-response) model of communication effects and following a network perspective, I suggest that the ways SNSs facilitate access to news information and promote political discussion through integration of peer generated information, affect how people engage with others and process information. This, in turn, affects the traditional mediation of news consumption and political discussion on civic engagement. To test the relationships between the variables identified in the proposed model, I rely on data collected from a survey of college students (N = 808). Results indicate that whereas political discussion originated in SNSs has a stronger effect on civic participation compared to face-to-face and Email conversation, collective efficacy partially mediates the association between interpersonal discussion and civic engagement. Concerning structural features in which political discussion occurs, it was found that network heterogeneity and discussion among weak ties moderate positively the effects on civic engagement. Further, the positive effect of news consumption and political discussion on civic engagement was found even in non-active information seekers and those exposed serendipitously to information.   To test in an experimental setting whether participation in SNSs, in the form of discussion about civic-related issues, has an impact on political collective efficacy, 151 students participated commenting on Facebook and YouTube accounts of the White House and other federal agencies during a two-week interval. The experiment confirmed that discussion in social media served as a catalyst for collective efficacy. This positive relationship was found to be stronger in Facebook than in YouTube, supporting the view that the formation of a networked public sphere is strongly affected by the type of audiences (contacts) in users’ networks.
The Transformative Impact of Business Intelligence on Unemployment Insurance: Enhancing Decision-Making and Operational Efficiency through a Mixed-Methods Approach
Creators: name: SAYEM, MD
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 460201
subject: Artificial life and complex adaptive systems

description: The study investigates the transformative role of Business Intelligence (BI) in enhancing decision-making (DM) and operational efficiency (OE) within Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems. Employing a mixed-methods approach, it integrates quantitative analyses of survey data and qualitative insights from interviews to assess BI's impact. Results reveal that BI significantly improves DM processes, with OE amplifying these benefits, thus optimizing UI outcomes. This research underscores the strategic value of BI as a tool for improving public sector efficiency and service delivery, while advocating for further exploration of its broader applications across different domains.
Synthetic conception
Creators: name: Gurtler, Bridget E.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: The dissertation examines the development of assisted reproduction in American medicine and culture between the first reported use of artificial insemination in the late eighteenth century and the birth of the modern cryobanking industry at the end of the twentieth century.  It focuses on artificial insemination, the first “assisted reproductive” technology, in a wide range of historical contexts—eighteenth century gynecological practices, nineteenth century clinics, early twentieth century eugenics movements, post World War II veterans hospitals, and the first fertility clinics to offer cryopreservation services in the late twentieth century.  Tracing the evolution of technology in such varied medical and social arenas reveals that its research and practice expanded in moments of moral, sexual, and family panic – in the wake of wars, demographic upheaval, and national uncertainty.  It also establishes that concerns about marriage, hereditary health, patient privacy, and the connection between social and biological relatedness were concerns for actors across eras as they intervened in reproductive sex as was the perception that medical science offered new technological solutions to infertility.   Finally, in contrast to contemporary scholarly arguments that privilege in vitro fertilization and the birth control pill the project shows that by transferring intimate acts of conception into physician’s offices artificial insemination made critical contributions to the medicalization and consumerization of reproduction.      Using the history of artificial insemination as a lens this project speaks to scholarship on reproduction by offering an analysis of how gender, race, and sexuality influenced the growth of a medical market in fertility and the ability to regulate it.  Following the gendered politics of science and reproduction as they manifest in this unique, albeit low-tech, technology this dissertation contributes to the history of reproductive science by tracing the developing contours of the scientific study of sperm.  Doing so not only enables the insertion of men’s reproductive bodies into the history of reproduction and its technologies but also provides a window into the collaborations between industrial chemistry, experimental biology, and reproductive medicine as they sought to safely freeze, store, and thaw human and animal sperm.  Finally, the dissertation provides critical insights into the changing understandings and technological transformations of modern families.  Analyzing controversies over AI in popular, bio-medical, and political spheres demonstrates that the control of conception was an important locus by which authorities and individuals understood what made a family, while also revealing the remarkable fluidity of the concept of “family” throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Bactrocera Macquart
Creators: name: El-Hawagry, Magdi S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tephritidae
Bactrocera

description: Genus BACTROCERA Macquart
Bactrocera Macquart, 1835b: 452. Type species: Bactrocera longicornis Macquart, 1835b, monotypy.
Bactrocera Guerin-Meneville, 1838: 300. Type species: Bactrocera longicornis Guerin-Meneville, 1838 (= Bactrocera longicornis Macquart, 1835b), monotypy.
Dasyneura Saunders, 1842: 60 (as genus). Nomen oblitum. Type species: Dasyneura zonata Saunders, 1842, monotypy.
Strumeta Walker, 1856: 33 (as genus). Type species: Dacus conformis Walker, 1856 (= Bactrocera umbrosus Fabricius, 1805), monotypy.
Chaetodacus Bezzi, 1913: 93 (as genus). Type species: Musca ferruginea Fabricius, 1794 (= Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel, 1912)), original designation.
Dacus (Marquesadacus) Malloch, 1932: 145. Type species: Chaetodacus perfuscus Aubertin, 1929, monotypy.
description: Published as part of El-Hawagry, Magdi S., 2017, Catalogue of Egyptian Tephritoidea (Diptera: Schizophora: Acalyptratae), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4299 (2) on page 160, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4299.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/843233
Adsorption of crystal violet dye from wastewater on Phyllanthus emblica fruit (PEF) powder: kinetic and thermodynamic
Creators: name: Urooj, Hira
name: Javed, Tariq
name: Taj, Muhammad Babar
name: Haider, Muhammad Nouman
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Virology

description: This research focused on removal of cationic crystal violet dye using Phyllanthus emblica fruit (PEF) powder (as an adsorbent) from wastewater. Operational parameters such as solution pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, dye concentration, as well as temperature were optimised. Results showed that maximum amount of dye, i.e. 84%, has been adsorbed at optimised condition employing particles of mesh sizes 510 µm, at 12 pH, adsorbent dose of 0.4 g, with contact time of 30 min, having dye concentration of 20 ppm at 20°C temperature. Characterisation of adsorbent was done by FTIR and SEM techniques which confirmed the involvement of carboxylic as well as hydroxyl functional groups in dye adsorption, and heterogeneous, highly porous surface (which were occupied after dye adsorption) of adsorbent which favours dye adsorption. Concentration and contact time data of study was applied to various isotherms and kinetic models respectively and investigation of the best fitted model of was carried out. It was found that Freundlich isotherm model (with R2 = 0.986) and pseudo-second-order kinetic model (with R2 = 0.986) was best fitted to experimental data. Thermodynamic study revealed value of ΔG varied from −29.495 to-33.610 kJmol−1 and ΔH was 6.175 kJmol−1 confirming that the process was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Applicability of current procedure with tap water showed 74% results, and regeneration showed that nearly 79% of dye was desorbed, indicating the effectiveness of Phyllanthus emblica fruit (PEF) powder for adsorptive removal of crystal violet dye from wastewater.
Bactrocera (Bactrocera) zonata
Creators: name: El-Hawagry, Magdi S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tephritidae
Bactrocera
Bactrocera zonata

description: Bactrocera (Bactrocera) zonata (Saunders, 1842)
Dasyneura zonatus Saunders, 1842: 61. Unspecified type. Central India (UMO?).
Bactrocera maculigera Doleschall, 1858: 122. Unspecified type. Indonesia (Maluku: Amboina) (ZMHB). Also, possible syntypes in NHMW (Froggatt, 1909: 94).
Rivellia persicae Bigot, 1890: 192. Syntypes. India (Bihar: Chota Nagpur, Ranchi) (ZSI?). Also, possible syntypes in UMO.
Dacus ferrugineus var. mangiferae Cotes, 1893: 17. Lectotype. India (Bihar: Tirhoot) (ZSI?). Lectotype designated by Drew & Hancock 1994: 20.
Distribution. AF: Mauritius (introduced), Reunion. AU: Australia. NE: USA (California). OR: Bangladesh, India,
Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam. PA: Middle East (Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia).
Egyptian localities. Widespread throughout the country, particularly: Coastal Strip: Agamy and Sabahia, near
Alexandria. Eastern Desert: Ismailiya, Port Said. Fayoum: Al-zawya, El-Bassyonia, Kom Oshim, Tamia. Sinai:
Arish (on peach), Qantara. Lower Nile Valley and Delta: Dakahliya, Giza, Qalubiya, Sharqiya. Western Desert:
Dakhla Oasisi & Kharga Oasis, Nubaria. Upper Nile Valley: Aswan.
Host plants. Apple (Malus pumila Miller), apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.), cantaloupe (Cucumis
melo var. cantalupo Ser.), citrus (Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), date palm trees
(Phoenix dactylifera L.), eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), fig (Ficus carica L.), guava (Psidium guajava L.),
mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco), marrow (Cucurbita pepo L.), mango (Mangifera indica L.), orange (Citrus x
sinensis (L.) Osbeck), peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch), plum (Prunus armeniaca L.), potato (Solanum
tuberosum L.), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Sources: El-Minshawy et al. (1999); El-Sabah et al. (2004);
El-Samea & Fetoh (2006); Amro & Abd El-Galil (2008); Amin & Saafan (2013); Ghanim (2013); Abd El-Fattah &
Darwish (2016).
Dates of collection. Throughout the year (Delrio & Cocco, 2012).
description: Published as part of El-Hawagry, Magdi S., 2017, Catalogue of Egyptian Tephritoidea (Diptera: Schizophora: Acalyptratae), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4299 (2) on page 160, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4299.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/843233
Assessment of some bottled natural mineral waters and spring waters in Algeria using multivariate statistical analysis, hydrogeochemical approaches and water quality index (WQI)
Creators: name: Bouteldjaoui, Fatah
name: Taupin, Jean-Denis
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences

description: In Algeria, the consumption of mineral waters has grown enormously, indicating that these waters have safe quality for drinking use. The objectives of the present study are to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of 43 bottled mineral waters and to identify the main hydrogeochemical processes governing water chemistry using a combination of geochemical techniques and multivariate statistical approaches. The results revealed that the abundance order of cations and anions (mg/L) are Ca2+> Na+> Mg2+> K+, HCO3−> SO42−> Cl−> NO3−. In addition, the comparison between the obtained results and World Health Organization (WHO) standards showed that the analysed physicochemical parameters (pH, Na+, Cl−, SO42−, NO3−) are within the acceptable limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking except TDS, Ca 2+, Mg2+, K+, HCO3−, which exceed the WHO permissible limits in few water samples. Hydrogeochemical types in the study area were Ca2+-HCO3−, Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3−, Ca-Mg2+-SO42—Cl-, Na+-HCO3− and Na+-Cl−types, with a low mineral and intermediate mineral contents based on Van der Aa’s classiﬁcation. The Gibbs plot specifies that almost all samples (93%) fall in water–rock interaction dominance. The major hydrogeochemical processes acting are dissolution of carbonate minerals, ion-exchange mechanisms and silicate weathering. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to hydrochemical data of mineral water samples. The results suggest that hydrochemistry in the region is affected not only by geogenic processes but also is impacted by anthropogenic activities. The comparative evaluation of the different water quality indices (WQI) shows that there is a difference between indices values for the same water sample, which may be attributed to the weighting methods, aggregation methods, and the limits of classes used in the calculation of each index. The results from this study can provide the basis for local decision-makers to develop suitable water management strategies and protection against any pollution risk.
Fate and transport of polychlorinated biphenyls in the air, water, and sewers of the Delaware River Basin
Creators: name: Guo, Jia
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Passive air samplers were deployed at 45 sites across the Delaware River Basin to evaluate the spatial distribution of atmospheric polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This study revealed strong spatial gradients in ΣPCB concentrations, a significant urban fractionation effect, and a distinct congener pattern arising from the area around Swarthmore, PA. Five factors were resolved by positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis with three of them being interpreted as volatilized or weathered Aroclors. The other two factors were strongly correlated to the congener profiles observed at the Swarthmore site on a building roof and an urban site near rail yards, respectively. These findings suggest that volatilization of Aroclors from building materials and spray on rail yards could represent significant sources of ambient atmospheric PCB concentrations.    In the passive air sampling, the concentrations of a non-Aroclor congener, PCB 11, were detected with small spatial variation in the airshed of the Delaware River Basin. PCB 11 was measured from non-detect to &9 ng g-1 in consumer products containing pigments and dyes. The leaching potential of PCB 11 from these materials was confirmed by experimental tests. The inputs of PCB 11 to the Delaware River Basin were estimated between 0.025 and 42 kg y-1, while the outflows were between 8.4 and 260 kg y-1. These mass flows indicate that PCB 11 is present in pigments at levels close to or even exceeding the federal limits and/or that the degradation of these pigments releases PCB 11 into the basin.     Reductive dechlorination of PCBs was investigated in anaerobic microcosms of sewer sediments amended with Aroclor 1260 under methanogenic conditions. Spatial heterogeneity of the sediments resulted in differences in the extent of dechlorination activity. The most active microcosm showed dechlorination evidence after 35 days of incubation with significant accumulation of documented dechlorination products and molar dechlorination product ratio (MDPR). Total chlorines per biphenyl decreased by up to 10% with short or no lag time. This suggests that rapid dechlorination is at least possible to account for the dechlorination products comprising 10~30% of the total PCBs, which were found in many of the sewer systems in the Delaware River Basin.
Changing fate
Creators: name: Guarino, Alyx
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Tissue and organ transplantations have historically been limited to allogenic donor grafts. Allografts can restore some degree of functionality to the transplant site, but they are a less-than-optimal substitute for patient-derived materials, as they require patient immunosuppression. The ideal clinical approach is to replace damaged tissue and organs with grafts grown directly from cells harvested from the patient. The induction of pluripotency in fibroblasts was one of the first experiments to show that cell fate could be reprogrammed, to a pluripotent state, by overexpressing four transcription factors – Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and Nanog. Later research by other groups discovered that cells could also be directly reprogrammed into other cell types, without going through a pluripotent intermediate step. Direct cell reprogramming presents a method to generate a source of patient-specific graft tissues and organs. In this thesis, I aim to provide a molecular mechanistic model for direct cell reprogramming. Evidence suggests a model in which pioneer molecules make a cell competent for reprogramming by gaining a foothold at key promoter sites, thereby making the binding site accessible to epigenetic modification by chromatin remodeling complexes.
Spatial-temporal variability and probabilistic health risk assessment of fluoride from lentic ecosystem, Türkiye
Creators: name: Tokatlı, Cem
name: Onur, Şirin Güner
name: Dindar, Mediha Büyükgöze
name: Malafaia, Guilherme
name: Islam, Abu Reza Md Towfiqul
name: Muhammad, Said
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer

description: Thrace Region is a part of the Marmara Region of Türkiye. There are many natural and artificial stagnant water habitats in the region that are used for irrigation and drinking water supply. This study is intended to determine the spatial-temporal variability and probabilistic health risk of fluoride exposure in the water of stagnant water bodies in the Thrace region. A total of 33 stagnant water bodies were selected, and water samples were collected during the dry and wet seasons of 2021–2022. The fluoride levels were measured using a spectrophotometric method (wavelength is 588 nm). The fluoride accumulations varied from 0.16–0.64 mg/L for the natural lakes, 0.04–0.74 mg/L for the reservoirs, and 0.01–0.53 mg/L for the artificial ponds. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggested a level of fluoride in drinking water of 0.5 to 1.5 mg/L. The study area had a fluoride deficiency of less than 0.5 mg/L in natural water bodies during the wet season (87.87%) and the dry season (93.93%), which might be a potential threat to dental health. Estimation Daily Intake (EDI) and Hazard Quotient (HQ) widely used health risk assessment methods were applied to the data in the current research to describe the non-carcinogenic risk of fluoride. All the calculated hazard quotient (HQ) values, both in the dry and wet seasons and in all age groups, were recorded as below 1. Both teenagers and children living in the central part of the study area are at higher risk than infants and adults. To evaluate model uncertainty, Monte Carlo simulations were employed. The outcome of the sensitivity analysis revealed that the major risks to the health of the inhabitants are the high content of fluoride and their daily intake of water.
Increased sensitivity to ozone-induced injury and altered pulmonary mechanics in mice with chronic lung inflammation. effects of aging
Creators: name: Groves, Angela M.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: Ozone is a ubiquitous urban air pollutant known to damage the lung.  Injury is a result of both direct interaction of ozone and its oxidative products with proteins and lipids in the epithelial lining fluid of the lung and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) and inflammatory mediators by infiltrating inflammatory cells.  Surfactant protein-D (SP-D) is a pulmonary collectin that down-regulates macrophage activation.  In these studies we analyzed the effects of progressive pulmonary macrophage inflammation and emphysema associated with aging in mice lacking SP-D on the persistence of ozone-induced injury, macrophage activation, and altered functioning of the lung.  We hypothesized that loss of SP-D results in increased sensitivity to ozone.  Young (8 wk), middle age (2& wk), and elderly (80 wk) wild type (WT) and SPD-/- mice were exposed to air or ozone (0.8 ppm, 3 h).  Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) and tissue were collected &2 h later.  Loss of SP-D resulted in increased sensitivity to inhaled ozone at 8 wk and 2& wk of age as observed by increased BAL protein, nitrogen oxides and chemotactic activity.  Increased numbers of enlarged, vacuolated macrophages were also present.  Aging was associated with increased macrophage numbers, alveolar wall rupture and increases in BAL protein, as well as Type II hyperplasia and expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen.  Heme oxygenase-1+ macrophages together with classically (iNOS+) and alternatively (mannose receptor+, YM-1+, or galectin-3+) activated macrophages also increased in aging SP-D-/- mice.  In contrast, while increases in MR+, Ym1+, and galectin-3+ macrophages were observed in WT mice following ozone exposure, no changes were observed in SP-D-/- mice.  In both WT and SP-D-/- mice, aging was associated with reduced lung stiffness.  Ozone exposure caused alterations in tissue mechanics in WT mice, and both airway and tissue mechanics in SP-D-/- mice.  Loss of SP-D led to increased sensitivity to ozone up to 2& wk of age, however at 80 wk, this was overwhelmed by the larger effects of age-related increases in baseline inflammation and lung injury.  Understanding how these responses are regulated could improve disease prognosis in those exposed to air pollutants.
The story of soy
Creators: name: Greenstein, Jordan Stephanie
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: The following chapters use soy as a lens through which to analyze the current status of agricultural systems in the United States and India and the subsequent effects on women in the field.  The fact that this foreign crop (in both countries) has become a principle component in international agriculture and trade highlights the ways in which food processes throughout the world have shifted.  It also demonstrates women’s changing responsibilities.  Notably, India’s shift in focus to agricultural industrial processing, exportation, and casual labor has undermined women’s more traditional roles as cultivators.  Combined with alarming nutrition and hunger statistics for women in the regions that grow the most soy, the consequences of the crop’s cultivation in India go far beyond economics.  In the United States, the effects of soy are not as easily investigated.  Soy serves as more of a representation of what industrialized agriculture can become and the unique part the United States plays in international food production.  Women’s roles in crop cultivation differ in the United States and in India.  As such, the consequences of soy will inevitably develop in different ways.
A research summary 1) RNA binding proteins, 2) Selective constraint on copy number variation in human PIWI-interacting RNA loci
Creators: name: Gould, David William
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2013

description: The overall aim of my research dealt with the understanding of regulatory elements in various systems (most important, in humans) through two research projects 1) a study of RNA Binding Proteins in S. cerevisiae and 2) a study of piRNA in humans.  My first project involved the study of RNA Binding Proteins – thought to play a role in post-transcriptional translation in mammals. The algorithms miReduce and PhyloGibbs were used towards the prediction of binding sites for these proteins in S. cerevisiae. The putative binding sites found with the algorithms miReduce and PhyloGibbs warrant more extensive analysis, but further work needs to be done to determine the importance of secondary structure conservation inherent in many functional RNAs.  The second project examined the nature of piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA). piRNA are small noncoding RNA that are found in animals thought to act as regulatory elements in the germ-line. This study in particular considers possible forces of selection on piRNA through the analysis of their copy number variation in humans. Three human populations were included in the data used: Europeans, Yorubans, and Chinese/Japanese. Results from our methods support a hypothesis of negative selection on piRNA; they were presented in a publication co-authored by Dr. Kevin Chen and myself [11].