Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal influences on carbohydrate metabolism in the CAM bromeliad Aechmea 'Maya': consequences for carbohydrate partitioning and growth.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Photosynthetic plasticity in response to a range of environmental factors that include [CO(2)], water availability, light intensity and temperature, is ubiquitous among plants with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). The present study examined how seasonal changes in light availability, as experienced by greenhouse CAM crops in northern latitude regions, influence diel carboxylation patterns and impact on carbon gain and seasonal accumulation of biomass. METHODS In the CAM bromeliad Aechmea 'Maya' integrated measurements of leaf gas exchange, diel metabolite dynamics (e.g. malate, soluble sugars and starch) and biomass accumulation were made four times a year, i.e. in winter, spring, summer and autumn. KEY RESULTS During the brighter seasons (spring and summer) daytime Phases II and IV were dominated by C(4) carboxylation, whilst the higher diurnal uptake in the autumn and winter was characterized by equal contributions of both Rubisco and PEPC. As a consequence, net CO(2) uptake showed a significant depression at the end of the day in the darker months when supplementary illumination was turned off. Remarkable seasonal consistency was found in the amount of storage reserves available for nocturnal carboxylation, a consequence of predominantly daytime export of carbohydrate in spring and summer whilst nocturnal export was the major sink for carbohydrate in autumn and winter. CONCLUSIONS Throughout the different seasons Aechmea 'Maya' showed considerable plasticity in the timing and magnitude of C(3) and C(4) carboxylation processes over the diel cycle. Under low PPFD (i.e. winter and autumn) it appears that there was a constraint on the amount of carbohydrate exported during the day in order to maintain a consistent pool of transient carbohydrate reserves. This gave remarkable seasonal consistency in the amount of storage reserves available at night, thereby optimizing biomass gain throughout the year. The data have important practical consequences for horticultural productivity of CAM plants and suggest a scenario for reconciling carbohydrate partitioning between competing sinks of nocturnal acidification and export for growth.
Reviewing Clinical Psychology Training in the Post-Apartheid Period: Have We Made Any Progress?

The recruitment and training of clinical psychologists remain important challenges for South African psychology in the post-apartheid period. Specifically, the challenges are to address issues of equity and redress, develop relevant policy, curricula and practices, and to produce graduates who are able and willing to work in the context of diversity and disadvantage. In this article we selectively review the progress made in responding to these challenges. Our conclusion is one of concern, since clinical psychology's track record in terms of training leaves much to be desired. While there is a greater degree of engagement with issues of equity and access, training still remains racially skewed and redress is largely confined to simply providing institutional access. Furthermore, the ‘silences' and paucity of attempts at transforming recruitment and selection processes, policy, curricula and training practices are of even greater concern. We argue that while there are constraints to transforming training in terms of the tensions and contradictions between mainstream professional training requirements, social conditions and ‘relevant’ discourses and practices, a far more substantive engagement with, and commitment to the fundamental issues are required. This review concludes with the assertion that clinical psychology is rapidly running out of time to remedy its deficiencies and maintain its respectability as a helping profession for the entire nation. Some tentative suggestions are offered for the way forward.
Occurrence of Phytophthora clandestina races across rainfall zones in south-west Western Australia

Cultivars of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum), Meteora and Denmark, sown in high rainfall zones in Western Australia were unique in their sensitivity to races of Phytophthora clandestina. The majority and most diverse of P. clandestina races occurred in the 700–1000 mm rainfall zone. Race 173 occurred across all rainfall zones ≥300 mm and race 177 in all zones ≥400 mm. Cultivar Denmark was highly resistant to races 001, 101, 141, 151 and 143, and moderately resistant to race 121, whereas cv. Meteora was highly resistant to race 151, moderately to highly resistant to races 001 and 101 and moderately resistant to races 121, 141 and 143. These differences are important in relation to the selection and breeding of cultivars for specific regions of Western Australia where particular races occur.
The Effect of Innovation Types on the Performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis

Innovativeness has been touted as one of the fundamental instruments of growth strategies to enter new markets, to increase the existing market share and to provide the company with a competitive edge. Despite this acknowledgement, there is lack of research into how innovation contributes to the performance of small and medium sized enterprises. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of innovation on organisational performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. The research design used was survey research design whilst the research approach was quantitative research approach. Simple random sampling technique was used to collect data from 243 owners/owner managers of SMEs in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis through self-administered questionnaires. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses postulated. The study revealed that all four different types of innovation significantly influence organisational performance positively, except the product innovation/organisational performance relationship, which was positive but not significant. The results also suggest that innovation accounted for more than fifty one percent of the variation in organisational performance. It was, therefore, recommended that managers of SMEs pay critical attention to the implementation of innovation activities in their firms due to its positive impact of performance. Keywords: Innovation, organisational performance, small and medium-sized enterprises
Story Structure Recall in Hearing-Impaired, Learning-Disabled and Nondisabled Children

This study examined the ability of hearing-impaired students to make use of story grammars in organizing self-generated and retold stories. Eleven primary (n = 5) and intermediate (n = 6) level students enrolled in total communication public day classes participated. Children were presented with four stories, with and without pictures, and were asked to make up a story or to listen to and retell a story to friends. Story transcripts were analyzed for correct descriptions of events and for correct story structures. Results indicated that hearing-impaired students do make use of story grammars in organizing retellings and in constructing stories. Pictures enhanced recall. Students with deaf parents performed as well as did nondisabled children in previous studies. Retelling abilities were linked to both chronological age and linguistic abilities.
Dynamic Causes of the Relation Between Area and Age of the Ocean Floor

Old Plates and the Sea Estimates for the area and age of the ocean floor are at odds with assumptions for mantle convection, which imply that an older sea floor—rather than a new one—would be preferentially subducted over time. Previous efforts to explain these relationships have been based on geologic evidence and simple models. Coltice et al. (p. 335) created numerical three-dimensional convection models representing more realistic physical boundaries, including a spherical Earth, the existence of continents and supercontinents over time, and realistic rheologies. A combination of continents and plate-like behavior of the ocean floor sufficed to produce the observed relationship between plate area and plate age, which explains why some old oceanic crust still remains. Numerical simulations show that the presence of continents influences the area of old sea floor. The distribution of seafloor ages determines fundamental characteristics of Earth such as sea level, ocean chemistry, tectonic forces, and heat loss from the mantle. The present-day distribution suggests that subduction affects lithosphere of all ages, but this is at odds with the theory of thermal convection that predicts that subduction should happen once a critical age has been reached. We used spherical models of mantle convection to show that plate-like behavior and continents cause the seafloor area-age distribution to be representative of present-day Earth. The distribution varies in time with the creation and destruction of new plate boundaries. Our simulations suggest that the ocean floor production rate previously reached peaks that were twice the present-day value.
5′ ins/del and 3′ VNTR polymorphisms in the apolipoprotein B gene in relation to lipids and coronary artery disease

Abstract Background: Studies that considered apolipoprotein B (APOB) gene polymorphisms as risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) have reported conflicting results. We sought to analyze the association between 5′ ins/del and 3′ VNTR polymorphisms of APOB, lipid parameters and CAD risk. Methods: We recruited 251 patients with CAD, documented by coronary angiography, and 94 controls. Genotyping was performed by PCR. Lipids and apolipoproteins were measured. Results: 5′ ins/del (ins/ins, ins/del, del/del) and 3′ VNTR (LL, SS, LS) polymorphism frequencies were significantly (p<0.05) different between controls and CAD patients. LL and del/del were significantly associated with higher levels of apolipoprotein B (apoB), total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and apoB/apoA-I ratio (p<0.05) and with increased risk of CAD. The odds ratio for significant coronary stenosis associated with del/del was 3.2 (95% CI 1.6–36.42) (p=0.032) and with LL was 2.2 (95% CI 1.1–5.1) (p=0.042). Conclusions: The two polymorphisms exert an impact on lipid levels and contribute to the susceptibility to the development of CAD. Clin Chem Lab Med 2008;46:329–34.
Reproducing the assembly of massive galaxies within the hierarchical cosmogony

In order to gain insight into the physical mechanisms leading to the formation of stars and their assembly in galaxies, we compare the predictions of the MOdel for the Rise of GAlaxies aNd Active nuclei (MORGANA) to the properties of K- and 850-μm-selected galaxies (such as number counts, redshift distributions and luminosity functions) by combining MORGANA with the spectrophotometric model GRASIL. We find that it is possible to reproduce the K- and 850-μm-band data sets at the same time and with a standard Salpeter initial mass function, and ascribe this success to our improved modelling of cooling in DM haloes. We then predict that massively star-forming discs are common at z ∼ 2 and dominate the star formation rate, but most of them merge with other galaxies within ∼100 Myr. Our preferred model produces an overabundance of bright galaxies at z < 1; this overabundance might be connected to the build-up of the diffuse stellar component in galaxy clusters, as suggested by Monaco et al., but a naive implementation of the mechanism suggested in that paper does not produce a sufficient slowdown of the evolution of these objects. Moreover, our model overpredicts the number of
Characterization of bipolar transistors for cryogenic temperature sensors in standard CMOS

This paper presents the cryogenic characterization of the bipolar substrate PNPs that are typically employed as sensing elements in CMOS integrated temperature sensors. PNPs realized in a standard 160-nm CMOS technology were characterized over the temperature range from 7 K to 294 K. Although PNP non-idealities, such as finite current gain and parasitic base resistance, deteriorate at lower temperature, device operation similar to room temperature is observed down to 70 K, while operation at lower temperatures is limited by carrier freeze-out in the base region and limited current gain. These results demonstrate the feasibility of temperature sensors in standard CMOS at cryogenic temperature.
Millennials’ work values: differences across the school to work transition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether work values vary across different life and career stages in a sample of Millennials. Design/methodology/approach – The sample for this study was comprised of 906 Canadian Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994). Findings – Pre-career and working Millennials varied in terms of the importance they placed on five work values – interesting work, achievement, good co-workers, doing work that helped people and salary – although these differences were small in magnitude. This suggests that Millennials’ work values are relatively stable as they grow older and gain work experience. Research limitations/implications – A large body of research citing generational differences relies upon cross-sectional studies which compares different generations of individuals at different life stages, thus making it impossible to disentangle whether the differences are a result of generational or life-cycle effects. The findings that the importance of work values shift.
How to Improve Teaching Practices

Purpose: Although it is expected that building schoolwide capacity for teacher learning will improve teaching practices, there is little systematic evidence to support this claim. This study aimed to examine the relative impact of transformational leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivational factors, and teacher learning on teaching practices. Research Design: Data were collected from a survey of 502 teachers from 32 elementary schools in the Netherlands. A structural model was tested on the within-school covariance matrix and a chi-square test taking into account nonindependence of observations. Findings: Results suggest that teachers’ engagement in professional learning activities, in particular experimenting and reflection, is a powerful predictor for teaching practices. Teachers’ sense of self-efficacy appeared to be the most important motivational factor for explaining teacher learning and teaching practices. Motivational factors also mediate the effects of school organizational conditions and leadership practices on teacher learning and teaching practices. Finally, transformational leadership practices stimulate teachers’ professional learning and motivation and improve school organizational conditions. Conclusions: For school leaders, to foster teacher learning and improve teaching practices a combination of transformational leadership behaviors is required. Further research is needed to examine the relative effects of transformational leadership dimensions on school organizational conditions, teacher motivation, and professional learning in schools. Finally, conditions for school improvement were examined at one point in time. Longitudinal studies to school improvement are required to model changes in schools’ capacities and growth and their subsequent effects on teaching practices.
Decision-to-delivery interval in pregnant women with intrapartum non-reassuring fetal heart rate patterns.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES It has been proposed that delivery should be accomplished within 30 minutes after diagnosis of fetal distress. The objective of this study was to determine the decision-to-delivery interval (DDI) in emergency caesarean delivery for non-reassuring fetal heart rate (FHR). METHODS A total of 272 term, singleton pregnant women who underwent an emergency caesarean section for non-reassuring FHR were included. Patient characteristics and clinical data were reviewed. The timing of the decision-to-delivery process was reviewed. RESULTS The mean age was 28.7 years; the mean gestational age at delivery was 38.4 weeks; and 93.7% were in FHR category 2. The decision for emergency caesarean delivery was made during normal office hours in 31.6%. Median time for decision-to-operating room, decision-to-incision and decision-to-delivery was 42.3, 48.5 and 56 minutes, respectively. Only 6.6% of women had a DDI of <30 minutes, whereas 30.5% had a DDI of >75 minutes. Significantly shorter intervals were observed for every endpoint among patients in FHR category 3, and they were significantly more likely to deliver within 30 minutes than were those in FHR category 2 (41.2% vs. 4.3%, P < 0.001). Similar results were observed for cases that occurred during normal and after hours. Neonatal outcomes were comparable among different DDI categories. CONCLUSION Only 6.6% of women with non-reassuring FHR achieved the 30-minute goal for caesarean delivery (median 56 minutes). Better performance was observed among patients in FHR category 3 regardless of diagnosis time, with 41.2% of these patients having a DDI of <30 minutes.
Efficient FPGA Implementation of Low-Complexity Systolic Karatsuba Multiplier Over $GF(2^{m})$ Based on NIST Polynomials

Systolic implementation of Karatsuba algo- rithm (KA)-based digit-serial multiplier over <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$GF(2^{m})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> on field- programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms has many attractive features, such as efficient tradeoff in area-time complexity and high-throughput rate. But on the other side, it suffers from high register-complexity, which leads to increase in area and power consumption. In this paper, we present an algorithm and architecture for efficient FPGA implementation of KA-based digit-serial systolic multiplier over <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$GF(2^{m})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommended polynomials. A number of efficient techniques have been explored and used to realize efficient implementation of these multipliers. First, we propose a novel KA-based approach, where the computational complexity is significantly reduced compared with the existing one. Second, we propose efficient register minimization techniques, such as redundant register removal, two-stage pipelining, and register sharing to reduce the register complexity of the proposed structure. Third, we adopt an efficient FPGA-specific digit-parallel implementation strategy to optimize the area-time–power complexities of the proposed structure on FPGA platforms. The results obtained from FPGA synthesis indicate that the proposed multiplier (for field based on NIST trinomial <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$GF(2^{233})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) has significantly lower area–time–power complexities than the existing designs, e.g., the proposed structure could achieve 65.7% and 73.6% reduction on area-delay product and power-delay product over the best of existing KA-based systolic structures, respectively.
Epidemiologic profile of acquired syphilis diagnosed and notified at a maternal-child university hospital

Objective: To characterize the epidemiologic profile of users with acquired syphilis. Method: This was an exploratory and descriptive study of quantitative approach, through secondary data collected in investigation forms/syphilis notification in women assisted in a Maternal-Child University Hospital in Santa Cruz-RN in 2012. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under report number 772.884. Results: 67% of mothers reported they had only attended elementary school, 33% were single, 42% had undergone less than six prenatal consultations, 58% of them had performed previous treatment of syphilis, but only 25% of their partners had joined and performed it. Conclusion: This study shows progress regarding diagnosis of syphilis during prenatal care, but it evidences the non-accomplishment of treatment by pregnant women before delivery, as well as by their partners. Therefore, innovative strategies are needed aiming at an early and proper treatment of pregnant women and their partners.
Optimal advertising model in a dynamic marketing with competing brands

We consider a marketing channel consisting of one retailer and two independent and competing manufacturers. One distinctive feature of this paper is that each brand's goodwill evolves according to a modified Nerlove-Arrow dynamics, in such a way that the advertising effort of one brand hurts the competitor's goodwill stock. We obtain the feedback advertising equilibrium policies for the retailer and manufacturers in explicit form for a linear demand formulation and assess the impact of the margin profit and intensity of brand competition on these strategies in different settings. Then the results between the Stackelberg model and cooperative model are compared. Numerical examples show the paths for the evolution of the demand function and for the profits of channel members through the computation of the goodwill state variable trajectory and reveal that the brand competition coefficient has different effects on strategies.
The Incredible Shrinking State

The effects of economies of scale in government, trade openness, preference heterogeneity, and regime type are used to explain why the average size of states within the international system nearly doubled between 1816 and 1876 and then contracted over the 20th century. No one variable appears to explain the trend fully. Results suggest that the rise in territorial size during the 19th century is the product of a growing number of federal democracies, which tend to be large, and that the decline in average size during the 20th century is the result of a growing number of unitary democracies, which tend to be small. Increasing economies of scale in the 19th century may have led to the rise of large federal democracies, whereas economic liberalism may have allowed unitary democracies to prosper in the 20th century.
High prevalence of testicular cancer in azoospermic men without spermatogenesis.

BACKGROUND An increased risk of testicular cancer in men with infertility and poor semen quality has been reported. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of testicular nodules and cancer in azoospermic subjects with different spermatogenetic patterns. METHODS A total of 1443 consecutive infertile men were investigated, out of which 145 (10.0%) were found to be azoospermic. By using clinical examination and testicular ultrasound, 11 out of the 145 patients showed testicular nodules (2.8-26 mm). To obtain spermatozoa for assisted reproduction, 97 subjects required testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and biopsy, including the 11 patients with nodules. They were divided into two groups according to biopsy results: Group A (n = 38) with complete Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS) and Group B (n = 59) with varying spermatogenetic patterns. Ten nodules were found in Group A and one in Group B. RESULTS In azoospermic men, the overall prevalence of nodules was 7.5%. In complete SCOS, the prevalence of nodules and cancer was 10/38 (26.3%) and 4/38 (10.5%), respectively. Amongst the cancers, one embryonal carcinoma, one seminoma and two in-situ carcinomas were found. CONCLUSION The prevalence of testicular nodules and cancer in azoospermic men with complete SCOS is very high. In these subjects, the role of clinical evaluation, ultrasound and biopsy should be emphasized.