Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survey of Canadian Animal-Based Researchers' Views on the Three Rs: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement

The ‘Three Rs’ tenet (replacement, reduction, refinement) is a widely accepted cornerstone of Canadian and international policies on animal-based science. The Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) initiated this web-based survey to obtain greater understanding of ‘principal investigators’ and ‘other researchers’ (i.e. graduate students, post-doctoral researchers etc.) views on the Three Rs, and to identify obstacles and opportunities for continued implementation of the Three Rs in Canada. Responses from 414 participants indicate that researchers currently do not view the goal of replacement as achievable. Researchers prefer to use enough animals to ensure quality data is obtained rather than using the minimum and potentially waste those animals if a problem occurs during the study. Many feel that they already reduce animal numbers as much as possible and have concerns that further reduction may compromise research. Most participants were ambivalent about re-use, but expressed concern that the practice could compromise experimental outcomes. In considering refinement, many researchers feel there are situations where animals should not receive pain relieving drugs because it may compromise scientific outcomes, although there was strong support for the Three Rs strategy of conducting animal welfare-related pilot studies, which were viewed as useful for both animal welfare and experimental design. Participants were not opposed to being offered “assistance” to implement the Three Rs, so long as the input is provided in a collegial manner, and from individuals who are perceived as experts. It may be useful for animal use policymakers to consider what steps are needed to make replacement a more feasible goal. In addition, initiatives that offer researchers greater practical and logistical support with Three Rs implementation may be useful. Encouragement and financial support for Three Rs initiatives may result in valuable contributions to Three Rs knowledge and improve welfare for animals used in science.
Self-directed learning and career decision-making

This article explores the relationships between self-directed learning and aspects of career decision-making. First-year students in access programmes at a South African university participated in the study. Having entered higher education via an alternative route, it was expected that these students would find it difficult to make career decisions. Students who measure high on self-directed learning find it easier to make career decisions. The results indicate that self-directed learning has significant correlations with career decision self-efficacy, career decision certainty and indecision. Multiple regression analyses showed that self-directed learning explained approximately 4% of the variance in career decision certainty besides what is explained by career decision self-efficacy. Selfgerigte leer en loopbaanbesluitneming Die artikel ondersoek die verbande tussen selfgerigte leer en aspekte van loop-baanbesluitneming. Eerstejaarstudente in toelatingsprogramme aan 'n Suid-Afrikaanse universiteit het aan die studie deelgeneem. Aangesien hierdie studente alternatiewe toegang tot hoeronderwys verkry het, sou 'n mens kon verwag dat hulle probleme met loopbaanbesluitneming sou ervaar. Selfgerigte leerders vind dit makliker om loopbaanbesluite te maak. Die resultate dui aan dat selfgerigte leer beduidende korrelasies met self-effektiwiteit, sekerheid en besluiteloosheid rakende loopbaanbesluite het. Meervoudige regressie-ontledings het aangetoon dat selfgerigte leer ongeveer 4% van die variansie in sekerheid rakende loopbaanbesluite verklaar, bo en behalwe dit wat deur self-effektiwiteit verklaar is.
A Study in Accountability of Clubhouses in Japan, UK, and Italy

Many International Clubhouses are dependent on the state financially; this can potentially undermine their accountability to International Clubhouse Standards, and ultimately to members. Dependence on government funding can compromise Clubhouse autonomy and staff can end up elevating financial and regulatory accountability over member accountability. In order to shed light on how dependence on government affects accountability to members, Clubhouse affiliates in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy were investigated in a 2-year project funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This study found out that reactions to accountability in Clubhouses vary according to the different kinds of staff. In the United Kingdom and Italy, where staff feel aligned with members (sympathetic staff), staff felt more of a conflict with government standards but also felt less of a need to institutionalize accountability to members. In contrast, it was found that in Japan—where staff had a professional orientation and were more concerned with the community or society at large—staff did not feel a conflict with government standards but they also elevated accountability to the community rather than accountability to members. *This research was supported by a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Exponential time response in analogue and Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes

The mean avalanche current impulse response in an avalanche photodiode exhibits an initial transient and then grows or decays, above or below breakdown, at exponential rates which depend only on the probability distributions of the electron and hole ionization events. The process continues while the electric field profile remains unchanged by the applied bias or the evolving space charge. Below breakdown the distribution in the avalanche duration also exhibits an initial transient and then decays exponentially at the same rate as the mean current. Below breakdown the standard deviation in current decays exponentially at one half of the rate of the mean current, while above breakdown it grows exponentially at the same rate as the mean. Consequently the jitter in a Geiger mode avalanche photodiode becomes independent of time after the initial transients have decayed away. This behavior is quite general and independent of the electric field profile or of the presence of heterojunctions in the multiplication region. Using simple models for carrier transport we find the predicted enhancement in the velocity to ionization of those carriers which ionise shortly after their ballistic dead space significantly speeds up the avalanche dynamics in short devices.
BPR and ERP: realising a vision of process with IT

This article analyses enterprise resource planning (ERP) as a tool for realising business process reengineering (BPR) in manufacturing. It combines theories from organisational sociology and management with technology‐analysis. Change is viewed as involving choice and coalition building. The case studies cover 30 implementations of ERP with different types of change. Two cases of the variant labelled “BPR followed by ERP” are focused on. The change proceeds as a co‐operation between enterprises, consultants and IT‐suppliers. In the first case, a superficial management change programme of BPR and ERP emerges into a more elaborate change program, which was then relatively successfully realised. The other case is a multi‐front exercise for the management coalition. The BPR strategy was poorly supported, and restated the long term split between manufacturing and sales. The two cases exhibit different experiences, but they underpin that process integration cannot be taken for granted when implementing BPR and ERP.
Expression of androgen receptor mRNA in zebra finch song system: Developmental regulation by estrogen

By using improved methods for in situ hybridization to detect expression of androgen receptor (AR) mRNA, the distribution of expression was mapped in the adult male zebra finch brain. In the neural song circuit, robust expression was found in area X of the lobus parolfactorius (LPO) as well as in other song regions previously reported. Expression was also found in many areas of the hypothalamus and dorsal thalamic nuclei, nucleus intercollicularis and ventricular areas of the midbrain, cerebellar Purkinje and granule cells, the hyperstriatum, medial neostriatum, medial LPO, and archistriatum. In juvenile males, AR mRNA expression was first detected in nucleus high vocal center (HVC) at posthatch day 9 (P9), in area X at P9–P11, and in the region of the robust nucleus (RA) in the medial archistriatum by P7. Estrogen treatment of hatchling females caused an increase in the expression of AR mRNA in HVC and area X by P11, whereas treatment of hatchling males with the aromatase inhibitor fadrozole decreased the expression of AR mRNA at P11. The present results indicate that masculine development of AR expression begins in area X and HVC before they are thought to be synaptically connected, suggesting that different song nuclei initiate sexual differentiation independently of transsynaptic masculinizing influences. The present results suggest that estrogen is necessary for full masculine AR expression in the song system and that the estrogenic regulation of AR contributes to subsequent differential actions of androgen in male and female song nuclei. J. Comp. Neurol. 469:535–547, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Size-dependent melting of Bi nanoparticles

Nanocalorimetry was used to investigate the melting of Bi nanoparticles. The particles were formed by evaporating Bi onto a silicon nitride substrate, which was then heated. The particles self-assemble into truncated spherical particles. Below 5-nm average film thickness, mean particle sizes increased linearly with deposition thickness but increased rapidly for 10-nm-thick films. As expected, small particles were found to exhibit size-dependent melting temperatures less than the bulk melting temperature (e.g., ΔT=67K for a 3-nm radius particle). The measured melting temperatures for particles below ∼7nm in radius, however, were ∼50K above the value predicted by the homogeneous melting model. We discuss this discrepancy in terms of a possible size-dependent crystal structure change and the superheating of the solid phase.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the PRDX3 and RPS19 and Risk of HPV Persistence and Cervical Precancer/Cancer

Background Host genetic factors might affect the risk of progression from infection with carcinogenic human papillomavirus (HPV), the etiologic agent for cervical cancer, to persistent HPV infection, and hence to cervical precancer and cancer. Methodology/Principal Findings We assessed 18,310 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 1113 genes in 416 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (CIN3)/cancer cases, 356 women with persistent carcinogenic HPV infection (median persistence of 25 months) and 425 randomly selected women (non-cases and non-HPV persistent) from the 10,049 women from the Guanacaste, Costa Rica HPV natural history cohort. For gene and SNP associations, we computed age-adjusted odds ratio and p-trend. Three comparisons were made: 1) association with CIN3/cancer (compared CIN3/cancer cases to random controls), 2) association with persistence (compared HPV persistence to random controls), and 3) progression (compared CIN3/cancers with HPV-persistent group). Regions statistically significantly associated with CIN3/cancer included genes for peroxiredoxin 3 PRDX3, and ribosomal protein S19 RPS19. The single most significant SNPs from each gene associated with CIN3/cancer were PRDX3 rs7082598 (P trend<0.0001), and RPS19 rs2305809 (P trend=0.0007), respectively. Both SNPs were also associated with progression. Conclusions/Significance These data suggest involvement of two genes, RSP19 and PRDX3, or other SNPs in linkage disequilibrium, with cervical cancer risk. Further investigation showed that they may be involved in both the persistence and progression transition stages. Our results require replication but, if true, suggest a role for ribosomal dysfunction, mitochondrial processes, and/or oxidative stress, or other unknown function of these genes in cervical carcinogenesis.
Self-localization from images with small overlap

With the recent success of visual features from deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) in visual robot self-localization, it has become important and practical to address more general self-localization scenarios. In this paper, we address the scenario of self-localization from images with small overlap. We explicitly introduce a localization difficulty index as a decreasing function of view overlap between query and relevant database images and investigate performance versus difficulty for challenging cross-view self-localization tasks. We then reformulate the self-localization as a scalable bag-of-visual-features (BoVF) scene retrieval and present an efficient solution called PCA-NBNN, aiming to facilitate fast and yet discriminative correspondence between partially overlapping images. The proposed approach adopts recent findings in discriminativity preserving encoding of DCNN features using principal component analysis (PCA) and cross-domain scene matching using naive Bayes nearest neighbor distance metric (NBNN). We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed PCA-NBNN framework frequently achieves comparable results to previous DCNN features and that the BoVF model is significantly more efficient. We further address an important alternative scenario of “self-localization from images with NO overlap” and report the result.
Growing by Leaps and Inches: Creative Destruction, Real Cost Reduction, and Inching Up

Most firms achieve perfective progress, incrementally improving commodities or productivity. But technological progress is concentrated in a few firms achieving metamorphic progress: forming or transforming industries with technological breakthroughs (e.g., biotechnology, lasers, semiconductors, nanotechnology). Unless congruent with incumbents' science and technology base, metamorphic progress promotes entry. Scientific breakthroughs embodied in discovering scientists, protected by natural excludability, and transferred by learning-by-doing-with at the bench generally drive metamorphic progress. Embodied knowledge is rivalrous and leads to entry and industry dominance by star-scientist-linked firms. Incorporating this scientific-entrepreneurial process is essential to improving - if not transforming - endogenous growth models.
Costume: a new feature for automatic video content indexing

This paper deals with the introduction of costume as a new feature for automatic video content indexing. We present in this paper an application of person recognition using costumes, in order to show the relevance of costume for indexation. The recognition is carried out by extracting the costume of all the persons who appear in the video. Then, their reappearance in subsequent frames is performed by searching the reappearance of their costume. The human presence is detected by searching faces, and then a feature for costume is extracted according to the scale and the location of each face. The Bhattacharyya coefficient, which is a coefficient derived from the Bayes error, is used to compare the color distribution of the various costumes. Finally, some results of people recognition are presented, as well as different axes for further research.
A phase 1, open-label safety and immunogenicity study of an AS03-adjuvanted trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in children aged 6 to 35 months

Background: There is a need for better vaccines and vaccine strategies to reduce the burden of influenza in very young children. Methods: This phase 1, open-label study assessed the reactogenicity, safety, and immunogenicity of an inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) containing low doses of hemagglutinin antigen (7.5 µg each strain), adjuvanted with a tocopherol-based oil-in-water emulsion Adjuvant System (AS03). Influenza vaccine-naïve children aged 6–35 months were sequentially enrolled to receive TIV-AS03D (1.48 mg tocopherol) or TIV-AS03C (2.97 mg tocopherol), then a 6-month booster of conventional TIV. The primary endpoint was the incidence of fever (axillary temperature >38 °C) for 7 days post-vaccination. Immune responses were assessed by hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) assay. Results: Forty children were sequentially enrolled into the TIV-AS03D or the TIV-AS03C group. Fever >38.0 °C was reported in 5/20 (25.0%) and 7/20 (35.0%) children after the first and second doses of TIV-AS03D, respectively, and in 7/20 (35.0%) children after 1 dose of TIV-AS03C; the latter fulfilled the holding rule for safety, and the second dose of TIV-AS03C was cancelled. HI immune responses exceeded adult European licensure criteria for the immunogenicity, and all children had HI antibody titers ≥ 1:40 after 1 dose of TIV booster against booster strains. Conclusions: One dose of primary vaccine containing a low dose of antigen and AS03 may be a possible influenza vaccination strategy for young children. The relatively high frequency of fever warrants further investigation, although the generalizability of the findings are uncertain given that many of the children had antibody evidence suggesting recent infection with A(H1N1)pdm09.
Dietary Patterns, Nutrient Intake, and Sociodemographic Characteristics in HIV-Infected Tanzanian Pregnant Women

Routinely collected dietary intakes were available for 925 HIV-infected pregnant women participating in a longitudinal clinical trial of vitamin supplementation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Information on sociodemographic and economic characteristics was recorded. Dietary macronutrient intakes were computed and analyzed using the Tanzania Food Composition Tables. Women's age, parity, education level, and economic independence were positively related to diet intake. Women younger than 25 years were at highest risk of inadequate food and nutrient intake. By World Health Organization recommendations, almost two-thirds of the participants were energy deficient, and nearly half were protein deficient.
The appropriate dose of angiotensin‐converting‐enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. The higher, the better?

Heart failure is a major public issue, and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is one of the common etiologies of heart failure. DCM is generally progressive, and some patients with DCM need heart transplant despite optimal medical and mechanical therapy. Current guidelines recommend inhibitors of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system, namely angiotensin‐converting‐enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist as well as beta‐blockers for the medical treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, including DCM. Furthermore, because they have beneficial effects on the outcome of heart failure in a dose‐related fashion, they should be titrated to the target dose. In clinical practice, the underuse and under‐dose of these agents matter; however, the efficacy and safety of supramaximal dose of ACE inhibitor or ARB have never been investigated in the patients with DCM. In this issue of ESC Heart Failure, it is demonstrated that benazepril or valsartan at supramaximal dose improved left ventricular function and reduced cardiovascular events compared with each drug at low dose, respectively. In this editorial, the current evidence concerning the use of ACE inhibitor or ARB in patients with HF and future prospective will be discussed.
Gene Ontology and KEGG Enrichment Analyses of Genes Related to Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Identifying disease genes is one of the most important topics in biomedicine and may facilitate studies on the mechanisms underlying disease. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a serious eye disease; it typically affects older adults and results in a loss of vision due to retina damage. In this study, we attempt to develop an effective method for distinguishing AMD-related genes. Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses of known AMD-related genes were performed, and a classification system was established. In detail, each gene was encoded into a vector by extracting enrichment scores of the gene set, including it and its direct neighbors in STRING, and gene ontology terms or KEGG pathways. Then certain feature-selection methods, including minimum redundancy maximum relevance and incremental feature selection, were adopted to extract key features for the classification system. As a result, 720 GO terms and 11 KEGG pathways were deemed the most important factors for predicting AMD-related genes.
Relationship between environment and growth for Mopan children in Belize

The growth status (stature, weight, body mass index, arm circumference, estimated arm muscle and fat) of Mopan Maya children, ages 9–14 years, from San Antonio, Toledo, Belize, is evaluated with two objectives: (1) to identify associations between growth and factors in the household and local environment that coexist with poverty, and (2) to consider growth in relation to the distribution of national resources. One‐way analyses of variance indicate significant differences among z‐scores for indication of growth status by age, although the direction of the differences is not consistent. T‐tests indicate boys exhibit significantly lower z‐scores for weight, arm circumference and estimated arm muscle, but significantly higher z‐scores for estimated arm fat than girls. Although girls suffer preschool malnutrition at twice the rate than boys, the differences may indicate later female buffering for some aspects of growth. T‐tests, correlations and regression analyses indicate the importance of household socio‐economic and demographic factors for growth. Although the equations that best explain the six growth measures are not identical, they indicate the significance of SES, birth order, home environment and gender in explaining variation in the growth of San Antonio children. At the population level, growth faltering is apparent among San Antonio children compared to U.S. reference data, most likely resulting from chronic mild to moderate undernutrition. Low levels of infrastructure in Toledo District and poor access to resources for Mopan Maya in San Antonio probably contribute to the less than optimal growth status. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Using policy gradient reinforcement learning on autonomous robot controllers

Robot programmers can often quickly program a robot to approximately execute a task under specific environment conditions. However, achieving robust performance under more general conditions is significantly more difficult. We propose a framework that starts with an existing control system and uses reinforcement feedback from the environment to autonomously improve the controller's performance. We use the policy gradient reinforcement learning (PGRL) framework, which estimates a gradient (in controller space) of improved reward, allowing the controller parameters to be incrementally updated to autonomously achieve locally optimal performance. Our approach is experimentally verified on a Cye robot executing a room entry and observation task, showing significant reduction in task execution time and robustness with respect to un-modelled changes in the environment.
FLT3 Inhibitor-Associated Neutrophilic Dermatoses.

observed treatment,adermatologistevaluatedthepatientaspartofstan-dard of care. The University of Pennsylvania Institutional Re-viewBoardapprovedtheclinicaltrialsevaluating FLT3 inhibi-torsforAML.Thepatientswereseenaspartofstandardofcare evaluationofskinandnotaspartoftheirstudyprotocol.These patients provided written informed consent to participate in the FLT3 inhibitor clinical trial; dermatologic evaluation was separate from that trial.