jimnoneill/paper-to-field-training huggingface dataset:
Pilot study on the treatment of coking wastewater with a three-stage upflow hydrolytic acidification sludge bioreactor

This study employed three-stage upflow hydrolytic acidification sludge bioreactor+A2O activated sludge process to treat coking wastewater, focusing on the reactor’s impact on the efficiency of organic matter removal and the mitigation of influent water fluctuations. The effects of the pilot biochemical system on the treatment of coking wastewater and the distribution of microorganisms in the reactors were compared with the existing system. The pilot results revealed that an average COD removal rate of 57.72% for the three-stage upflow reactor, with a maximum removal rate of 66.67% and fluctuation level at 29.85% of influent fluctuations were achieved. After reaching design-loading, the entire pilot system exhibited an average COD removal rate of 91.38%, with peak of 95.73%, and an ammonia removal rate of 97.20%. Characteristic pollutant analysis indicated that removal rates for cyanides and sulfides were 81.53% and 92.07%, respectively. High-throughput sequencing of microorganisms showed a more diverse microbial population in the pilot reactor, particularly in the enrichment of microorganisms for specific pollutant removal. The pilot process of three-stage upflow hydrolytic acidification sludge bioreator+A2O activated sludge treatment resulted in a shorter retention time, which provided a new process direction for coking wastewater.

Topic: Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Nigericin Boosts Anti-Tumor Immune Response via Inducing Pyroptosis in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Although immune checkpoint inhibitors improved the clinical outcomes of advanced triple negative breast cancer (TBNC) patients, the response rate remains relatively low. Nigericin is an antibiotic derived from Streptomyces hydrophobicus. We found that nigericin caused cell death in TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 by inducing concurrent pyroptosis and apoptosis. As nigericin facilitated cellular potassium efflux, we discovered that it caused mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to mitochondrial ROS production, as well as activation of Caspase-1/GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis and Caspase-3-mediated apoptosis in TNBC cells. Notably, nigericin-induced pyroptosis could amplify the anti-tumor immune response by enhancing the infiltration and anti-tumor effect of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Moreover, nigericin showed a synergistic therapeutic effect when combined with anti-PD-1 antibody in TNBC treatment. Our study reveals that nigericin may be a promising anti-tumor agent, especially in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced TNBC treatment.

Topic: Inflammasome and immune disorders
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Roamers versus biters: a rhetorical examination of the differences between Woodbury and the Prison Group in<i>The Walking Dead</i>comics

The Walking Dead has been a primary contributor to the resurgence of zombie narratives in the twenty-first century, and that, in part, has been due to the series’ verisimilitude afforded to the characters through the story’s narrative and writing. To that end, the current research employs rhetorical analysis to explore the opposing worldviews of the series’ protagonist, Rick Grimes (and his fellow survivors), with the perspective of the town of Woodbury and their leader, the Governor. The analysis reveals that Rick’s group views zombies akin to wild and feral animals, while the Governor views them as combatants engaged in battle.

Topic: Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Fusion of satellite images of different spatial resolution: Assessing the quality of resulting images

Methods have been proposed to produce multispectral images with enhanced spatial resolution using one or more images of the same scene of better spatial resolution. Assuming that the main concern of the user is the quality of the transformation of the multispectral content when increasing the spatial resolution, this paper defines the properties of such enhanced multispectral images. It then proposes both a formal approach and some criteria to provide a quantitative assessment of the spectral quality of these products. Five sets of criteria are defined. They measure the performance of a method to synthesize the radiometry in a single spectral band as well as the multispectral information when increasing the spatial resolution. The influence of the type of landscape present in the scene upon the assessment of the quality is underlined, as well as its dependence with scale. The whole approach is illustrated by the case of a SPOT image and three different standard methods to enhance the spatial resolution.

Topic: Advanced Image Fusion Techniques
Subfield: Media Technology
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Fabrication of ZnO Thin Film through Chemical Preparations

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a compound that has unique physical and chemical properties. It has a direct band gap at 3.4 eV (without dopant), a high bonding energy (60 meV), and a high thermal and mechanical stability at room temperature. Thus, ZnO thin film can be suitably applied in many fields, and it also has many functions such as UV light emitters, hydrophobic coating, transparent thin film in electronic devices, piezoelectric material, transducers, gas-sensing, and a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer in thin film solar cells. ZnO thin film could be prepared by many chemical preparations such as chemical bat deposition (CBD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sol–gel spin coating, doctor blade, printing deposition, and electrochemical deposition (ED). This chemical process is a low-cost, simple, and easy preparation process to be adjusted or doped by other elements.

Topic: ZnO doping and properties
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Temporal and spatial variation in the distribution of epineustonic competent larvae of Concholepas concholepas along the central coast of Chile

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 229:95-104 (2002) - doi:10.3354/meps229095 Temporal and spatial variation in the distribution of epineustonic competent larvae of Concholepas concholepas along the central coast of Chile Elie Poulin, Alvaro T. Palma*, Germán Leiva, Eduardo Hernández, Pilar Martínez, Sergio A. Navarrete**, Juan C. Castilla Departamento de Ecología, Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Las Cruces and Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Casilla 114-D, Santiago CP 6513677, Chile *Present address: Departamento de Ecología Costera, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción Paicavi 3000, Casilla 297, Concepción CP 4073978, Chile **Corresponding author. E-mail: snavarre@bio.puc.cl ABSTRACT: The abundance of competent epineustonic larvae of the gastropod Concholepas concholepas (Gastropoda: Muricidae) in nearshore waters at 2 sites along the central coast of Chile was examined through monthly plankton tows from July 1999 to June 2000. Larvae were found in plankton collections from July 1999 to February 2000 with maximum abundance in September and October. Settlement in artificial collectors deployed onshore on the lower intertidal zone showed the same unimodal pattern with a settlement peak during October and November. Variation in larval distribution among sampling dates was related to the occurrence of north-south winds. We found that C. concholepas larvae were more abundant closer to shore after moderate southerly wind periods than on calm days, probably because of the shoreward advection of the upper sea surface layer. While sampling during a strong coastal upwelling event (produced by strong southwesterly winds), C. concholepas larvae were only found in the upwelled waters between the front and the coast. This unusual pattern contrasts with what would be expected for typical epineustonic larvae, suggesting the existence of a mechanism of transport or retention by which C. concholepas larvae stay near coastal settling areas, thus avoiding offshore dispersion. KEY WORDS: Concholepas concholepas · Larval distribution · Settlement · Upwelling · Wind speed Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 229. Online publication date: March 20, 2002 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.

Topic: Marine Biology and Ecology Research
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Synthesis of Drimane-8α,11-diol Using Terpene Cyclase from <i>Bacillus Megaterium</i>

Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of drimane-8α,11-diol from farnesol derivatives using a terpene cyclase from Bacillus megaterium was achieved. Farnesol was not suitable for enzymatic transformation. On the other hand, farnesol derivatives in which the hydroxy group is protected with a conventional protecting group underwent cyclization to give the corresponding drimane-8α,11-diol derivatives. One of the cyclized products was transformed into 1 under mild conditions. Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of drimane derivatives from farnesol derivatives was achieved. Among farnesol derivatves, MOM protected farnesol was found to be a superior substrate to other farnesol derivatives. The resulting drimane derivative was easily converted to the target natural product in one step.

Topic: Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Analysis of a Database of Materials for HIV Prevention Program Evaluation

Program evaluation technology transfer is the transfer of information on program evaluation from research to practitioners. There have been anecdotal reports of a lack of technology transfer materials related to HIV prevention program evaluation, especially materials usable by persons without extensive training in evaluation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed available program evaluation materials relevant to HIV prevention and developed a database of those materials. Materials were classified according to appropriate audience, level of evaluation expertise required, steps in the evaluation process addressed, and other criteria. The database was queried to determine the number of materials available for various combinations of search criteria. These queries revealed that for certain audiences and steps in the evaluation process there are few materials, especially usable by individuals without evaluation experience. The conclusion is that for certain areas of program evaluation, and for certain audiences, more evaluation technology transfer materials are needed.

Topic: Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Maximizing Confidence and Coverage for a Nonparametric Upper Tolerance Limit for a Fixed Number of Samples

A nonparametric upper tolerance limit (UTL) bounds a specified percentage of the population distribution with specified confidence. The most common UTL is based on the largest order statistic (the maximum) where the number of samples required for a given confidence and coverage is easily derived for an infinitely large population. This relationship can be used to determine the number of samples prior to sampling to achieve a given confidence and coverage. However, often statisticians are given a data set and asked to calculate a UTL for the number of samples provided. Since the number of samples usually cannot be increased to increase confidence or coverage for the UTL, the maximum confidence and coverage for the given number of samples is desired. This paper derives the maximum confidence and coverage for a fixed number of samples. This relationship is demonstrated both graphically and in tabular form. The maximum confidence and coverage are calculated for several sample sizes using results from the maximization. This paper is for intermediate SAS ® users of Base SAS ® who understand statistical intervals.

Topic: SAS software applications and methods
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Progenitor model of cosmic ray knee

Primary energy spectrum of cosmic rays exhibits a knee at about $3$ PeV where a change in the spectral index occurs. Despite many efforts the origin of such a feature of the spectrum is not satisfactorily solved yet. Here it is proposed that the steepening of the spectrum beyond the knee may be a consequence of mass distribution of progenitor of cosmic ray source. The proposed speculative model can account all the major observed features about cosmic rays without invoking any fine tuning to match flux or spectra at any energy point. The prediction of the proposed model regarding primary composition scenario beyond the knee is quite different from most of the prevailing models of the knee and thereby can be discriminated from precise experimental measurement of the primary composition.

Topic: Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Principal component analysis on chemical abundances spaces

In preparation for the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) chemical tagging survey of about a million Galactic FGK stars, we estimate the number of independent dimensions of the space defined by the stellar chemical element abundances [X/Fe]. This leads to a way to study the origin of elements from observed chemical abundances using principal component analysis. We explore abundances in several environments, including solar neighbourhood thin/thick disc stars, halo metal-poor stars, globular clusters, open clusters, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. By studying solar-neighbourhood stars, we confirm the universality of the r-process that tends to produce [neutron-capture elements/Fe] in a constant ratio. We find that, especially at low metallicity, the production of r-process elements is likely to be associated with the production of alpha-elements. This may support the core-collapse supernovae as the r-process site. We also verify the overabundances of light s-process elements at low metallicity, and find that the relative contribution decreases at higher metallicity, which suggests that this lighter elements primary process may be associated with massive stars. We also verify the contribution from the s-process in low-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars at high metallicity. Our analysis reveals two types of core-collapse supernovae: one produces mainly alpha-elements, the other produces both alpha-elements and Fe-peak elements with a large enhancement of heavy Fe-peak elements which may be the contribution from hypernovae. Excluding light elements that may be subject to internal mixing, K and Cu, we find that the [X/Fe] chemical abundance space in the solar neighbourhood has about six independent dimensions both at low metallicity (-3.5 less than or similar to [Fe/H] less than or similar to -2) and high metallicity ([Fe/H] greater than or similar to -1). However the dimensions come from very different origins in these two cases. The extra contribution from low-mass AGB stars at high metallicity compensates the dimension loss due to the homogenization of the core-collapse supernovae ejecta. Including the extra dimensions from [Fe/H], K, Cu and the light elements, the number of independent dimensions of the [X/Fe]+[Fe/H] chemical space in the solar neighbourhood for HERMES is about eight to nine. Comparing fainter galaxies and the solar neighbourhood, we find that the chemical space for fainter galaxies such as Fornax and the Large Magellanic Cloud has a higher dimensionality. This is consistent with the slower star formation history of fainter galaxies. We find that open clusters have more chemical space dimensions than the nearby metal-rich field stars. This suggests that a survey of stars in a larger Galactic volume than the solar neighbourhood may show about one more dimension in its chemical abundance space.

Topic: Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Leveraging a large language model to predict protein phase transition: A physical, multiscale, and interpretable approach

Protein phase transitions (PPTs) from the soluble state to a dense liquid phase (forming droplets via liquid–liquid phase separation) or to solid aggregates (such as amyloids) play key roles in pathological processes associated with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Several computational frameworks are capable of separately predicting the formation of droplets or amyloid aggregates based on protein sequences, yet none have tackled the prediction of both within a unified framework. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have exhibited great success in protein structure prediction; however, they have not yet been used for PPTs. Here, we fine-tune a LLM for predicting PPTs and demonstrate its usage in evaluating how sequence variants affect PPTs, an operation useful for protein design. In addition, we show its superior performance compared to suitable classical benchmarks. Due to the “black-box” nature of the LLM, we also employ a classical random forest model along with biophysical features to facilitate interpretation. Finally, focusing on Alzheimer’s disease-related proteins, we demonstrate that greater aggregation is associated with reduced gene expression in Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting a natural defense mechanism.

Topic: RNA Research and Splicing
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Antigen-specific immune responses through 24 months in the STAND trial: A randomized phase 2 study evaluating optimal sequencing of sipuleucel-T (sip-T) and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in biochemically-recurrent prostate cancer (BRPC).

171 Background: Sip-T is an autologous cellular immunotherapy targeting prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), approved for treatment of asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. STAND evaluates sequencing of sip-T and ADT in men with BRPC at high risk of metastases. Here we report interim assessments of cellular and humoral responses through 24 mos. Methods: Men (n=68)were randomized 1:1 to sip-T followed by ADT (2 wks after 3rd infusion; Arm 1) or ADT (3-mo lead-in) followed by sip-T (Arm 2). Product parameters (total nucleated cell [TNC] count, antigen presenting cell [APC] count, APC activation) were determined with each product manufacture. Cellular and humoral immune responses were analyzed through 24 mos with a repeated measures statistical model. Results: Sample size ranged 8–28 for cellular responses and 34–64 for humoral responses. PA2024 ELISPOT count increased vs baseline at most timepoints (p&lt;0.05) and was lower in Arm 2 vs Arm 1 (p=0.015). PA2024 antigen-specific T-cell proliferation increased from baseline at all timepoints (p≤0.001) and was lower in Arm 2 vs Arm 1 (p&lt;0.001). PA2024 antibody titers were similar between treatment arms (p=0.976). PA2024 antibody titer was significantly higher at the 3rd sip-T infusion visit and remained elevated at 24 mos (23 times higher on average vs baseline; p&lt;0.001). A similar antibody titer profile was reported for PAP but of lesser magnitude. The number of immune responders (post-baseline antibody titer ≥25,600) was similar at any timepoint between arms (Arm 1: 30/34, 88.1%; Arm 2: 32/34, 94.1%; p=0.673). Higher cumulative TNC and baseline hemoglobin positively correlated with maximum PA2024 antibody titer response (p&lt;0.05). Conclusions: Sip-T induced a robust immune response sustained to 24 mos in men with BRPC. Cellular response appeared to differ according to treatment sequence; humoral response was similar between treatment arms. Given its consistent association with the humoral response, cumulative TNC count may be a potential biomarker of response to sip-T. Clinical trial information: NCT01431391.

Topic: Prostate Cancer Treatment and Research
Subfield: Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Impact of the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 pandemic in cancer diagnosis in the first and second waves in one of the most affected cancer areas in the city of Madrid (Spain)

Supplementary Table 1. Number and kind of successive visits in our center during the two first waves of COVID-19. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Topic: COVID-19 and healthcare impacts
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
The Sources of Microfinance Capital and its Effects on Farmers access to Credit in Ghana

Farmers in Ghana face difficulties in accessing microfinance credit, and as a result, there is low accessibility to microfinance credit. This study explores the effects of sources of microfinance capital on farmers' access to credit. A total of 2734 individual household members were used in the final analysis to establish the relationship between the sources of microfinance capital and farmers' access to microfinance credit. The participants include clients of selected microfinance institutions and non-client households. Logistic regression models were employed for data analyses. The study has shown that microfinance capital's source significantly influences farmers' access to credit. The analysis further revealed that land ownership, gender, and literacy strongly correlate with farmers' access to credit. The study has also established that savings account, microfinance membership, and geographical location significantly influence the credit providers' decision-making process to grant a loan to the customer. Our findings suggest that microfinance institutions have not been able to perform their business effectively because of capitalization. Sensitization programs are needed to enable microfinance institutions to configure innovative financing methods to improve capitalization. There is a need to improve the sources of funds and capital mobilization to maximize their financial performance and increase farmers' access to credit. Education to farmers to understand credit providers' requirements can also increase farmers' access to microfinance credit.

Topic: Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Domain: Social Sciences