Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Faecal Microbiota of Cats with Insulin-Treated Diabetes Mellitus

Microorganisms within the gastrointestinal tract significantly influence metabolic processes within their mammalian host, and recently several groups have sought to characterise the gastrointestinal microbiota of individuals affected by metabolic disease. Differences in the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota have been reported in mouse models of type 2 diabetes mellitus, as well as in human patients. Diabetes mellitus in cats has many similarities to type 2 diabetes in humans. No studies of the gastrointestinal microbiota of diabetic cats have been previously published. The objectives of this study were to compare the composition of the faecal microbiota of diabetic and non-diabetic cats, and secondarily to determine if host signalment and dietary factors influence the composition of the faecal microbiota in cats. Faecal samples were collected from insulin-treated diabetic and non-diabetic cats, and Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and quantitative PCR were performed on each sample. ANOSIM based on the unweighted UniFrac distance metric identified no difference in the composition of the faecal microbiota between diabetic and non-diabetic cats, and no significant differences in the proportions of dominant bacteria by phylum, class, order, family or genus as determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing were identified between diabetic and non-diabetic cats. qPCR identified a decrease in Faecalibacterium spp. in cats aged over ten years. Cat breed or gender, dietary carbohydrate, protein or fat content, and dietary formulation (wet versus dry food) did not affect the composition of the faecal microbiota. In conclusion, the composition of the faecal microbiota was not altered by the presence of diabetes mellitus in cats. Additional studies that compare the functional products of the microbiota in diabetic and non-diabetic cats are warranted to further investigate the potential impact of the gastrointestinal microbiota on metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus in cats.
Artmaking in School and its Impact on Student Wellbeing

V TABLE OF CONTENTS . VI LIST OF TABLES . VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 BACKGROUND: THE PUSH TO IMPROVE STUDENT WELLBEING . 1 RATIONAL: ART AND WELLBEING IN EDUCATION . 3 METHODOLOGY . 3 SITE AND RESPONDENTS . 4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 6 THE PROBLEM WITH WELLBEING IN OUR NATION AND IN OUR SCHOOLS . 6 HOW TO IMPROVE OUR WELLBEING . 7 SCHOOL BASED WELLBEING PROGRAMS . 9 A QUALITY KEY LEARNING AREA ART IN EDUCATION . 11 HOW CAN ART BENEFIT WELLBEING? 11 ART AND WELLBEING IN EDUCATION . 16 CONCLUSION . 16 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY . 18 INTRODUCTION . 18 QUALITATIVE PARADIGM. 18 CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE STUDY . 20 PARTICIPANTS . 22 REFLECTIVE JOURNAL . 22 CHOICE OF RESEARCH QUESTION . 22 SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS . 23 CODING/TOOLS OF GROUNDED THEORY . 25 MEMBER CHECKING . 25
On the nature of clumps in debris disks

The azimuthal substructure observed in some debris disks, as exemplified by e Eridani, is usually attributed to resonances with embedded planets. In a standard scenario, the Poynting-Robertson force, possibly enhanced by the stellar wind drag, is responsible for the delivery of dust from outer regions of the disk to locations of external mean-motion planetary resonances; the captured particles then create characteristic "clumps". Alternatively, it has been suggested that the observed features in systems like e Eri may stem from populations of planetesimals that have been captured in resonances with the planet, such as Plutinos and Trojans in the solar system. A large fraction of dust produced by these bodies would stay locked in the same resonance, creating the dusty clumps. To investigate both scenarios and their applicability limits for a wide range of stars, planets, disk densities, and planetesimal families we construct simple analytic models for both scenarios. In particular, we show that the first scenario works for disks with the pole-on optical depths below about ∼10 -4 -10 -5 . Above this optical depth level, the first scenario will generate a narrow resonant ring with a hardly visible azimuthal structure, rather than clumps. It is slightly more efficient for more luminous/massive stars, more massive planets, and planets with smaller orbital radii, but all these dependencies are weak. The efficiency of the second scenario is proportional to the mass of the resonant planetesimal family, as example, a family with a total mass of ∼0.01 to 0.1 Earth masses could be sufficient to account for the clumps of e Eridani. The brightness of the clumps produced by the second scenario increases with the decreasing luminosity of the star, increasing planetary mass, and decreasing orbital radius of the planet. All these dependencies are much stronger than in the first scenario. Models of the second scenario are quantitatively more uncertain than those of the first one, because they are very sensitive to poorly known properties of the collisional grinding process.
Involvement of Dopamine D2 Receptors in Addictive-Like Behaviour for Acetaldehyde

Acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of ethanol, is active in the central nervous system, where it exerts motivational properties. Acetaldehyde is able to induce drinking behaviour in operant-conflict paradigms that resemble the core features of the addictive phenotype: drug-intake acquisition and maintenance, drug-seeking, relapse and drug use despite negative consequences. Since acetaldehyde directly stimulates dopamine neuronal firing in the mesolimbic system, the aim of this study was the investigation of dopamine D2-receptors' role in the onset of the operant drinking behaviour for acetaldehyde in different functional stages, by the administration of two different D2-receptor agonists, quinpirole and ropinirole. Our results show that acetaldehyde was able to induce and maintain a drug-taking behaviour, displaying an escalation during training, and a reinstatement behaviour after 1-week forced abstinence. Acetaldehyde operant drinking behaviour involved D2-receptor signalling: in particular, quinpirole administration at 0.03 mg/kg, induced a significant decrease in the number of lever presses both in extinction and in relapse. Ropinirole, administered at 0.03 mg/kg during extinction, did not produce any modification but, when administered during abstinence, induced a strong decrease in acetaldehyde intake in the following relapse session. Taken together, our data suggest that acetaldehyde exerts its own motivational properties, involving the dopaminergic transmission: indeed, activation of pre-synaptic D2-receptors by quinpirole, during extinction and relapse, negatively affects operant behaviour for acetaldehyde, likely decreasing acetaldehyde-induced dopamine release. The activation of post-synaptic D2-receptors by ropinirole, during abstinence, decreases the motivation to the consecutive reinstatement of acetaldehyde drinking behaviour, likely counteracting the reduction in the dopaminergic tone typical of withdrawal. These data further strengthen the evidence that acetaldehyde may play a crucial role as mediator of ethanol's central effects.
Effect of Interferon- (cid:103) and Glucose on Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I and Class II Expression by Pancreatic (cid:98) - and Non- (cid:98) -Cells*

Surface major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II expression by pancreatic islet cells is considered a local initiator or regulator of immune processes that can lead to diabetes. Locally released cytokines, in particular interferon- (cid:103) , are known to stimulate MHC antigen expression by islet cells. The present study quantifies MHC expression in cultured pancreatic (cid:98) - and non- (cid:98) -cells from both ratandhumanorgans.Interferon- (cid:103) increasedMHCclassIexpression in endocrine (cid:98) - and non- (cid:98) -cells as well as in pancreatic ductal cells. The cytokine induced a 6-fold increase in the MHC class I messenger ribonucleic acid levels in pancreatic (cid:98) -cells; this effect was 2-fold amplified in the presence of elevated glucose levels (20 mmol/L in-stead of 6 mmol/L). No MHC class II expression was observed in endocrine (cid:98) - or non- (cid:98) -cells; human, but not rat, ductal cells exhibited MHC class II expression that increased in the presence of interferon- (cid:103) . These data indicate that the increase in (cid:98) -cell MHC class I ex- pression described in the pancreata of diabetic patients may result from stimulated transcription after exposure to locally released in- terferon- (cid:103) and/or to a hyperglycemic state. The association of human islets with ductal cells in which MHC class II expression is stimulated by interferon- (cid:103) makes
Verifying feature-based model templates against well-formedness OCL constraints

Feature-based model templates have been recently proposed as a approach for modeling software product lines. Unfortunately, templates are notoriously prone to errors that may go unnoticed for long time. This is because such an error is usually exhibited for some configurations only, and testing all configurations is typically not feasible in practice. In this paper, we present an automated verification procedure for ensuring that no ill-structured template instance will be generated from a correct configuration. We present the formal underpinnings of our proposed approach, analyze its complexity, and demonstrate its practical feasibility through a prototype implementation.
Breeding Pond Selection and Movement Patterns by Eastern Spadefoot Toads (Scaphiopus holbrookii) in Relation to Weather and Edaphic Conditions

Abstract Eastern Spadefoot Toads (Scaphiopus holbrookii) require fish-free, isolated, ephemeral ponds for breeding but otherwise inhabit surrounding uplands, commonly xeric longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and wiregrass (Aristida beyrichiana) ecosystem. Fire suppression in the Florida sandhills has the potential to alter upland and pond suitability through increased hardwood densities and resultant higher transpiration. In this paper, we explore breeding and metamorphic emigration movements in relation to weather, hydrological conditions of ponds, and surrounding upland matrices. We use nine years of data from continuous monitoring with drift fences and pitfall traps at eight ephemeral ponds in two upland matrices: regularly burned, savanna-like sandhills (N = 4), and hardwood-invaded sandhills (N = 4). Neither adult nor metamorph captures differed between ponds within the two upland matrices, suggesting that they are tolerant of upland heterogeneity created by fire frequency. Explosive breeding occurred during nine periods and in all seasons; adults were captured rarely otherwise. At the landscape-level, an interaction between rainfall and maximum change in barometric pressure were the top significant predictors of explosive breeding. At the pond-level, rainfall and the change in pond depth during the month prior to breeding were the top significant predictors of adult captures. Metamorphic emigrations occurred following transformation and usually were complete within a week regardless of rainfall levels. Movement by adults and metamorphs was directional, but mean directions of adult emigrations and immigrations did not always correspond. Our results suggest that spadefoot toads are highly adapted to breeding conditions and upland habitat heterogeneity created by weather patterns and fire frequency in Florida sandhills.
Brain Structure in Older Adult Siblings

Considerable variability exists in patterns of brain aging within and across individuals. Quantifying familial contributions to brain structure in late life may help us understand this variability. We estimated heritability of gray and white matter volumes and cortical thickness in a sample of older adult full siblings (2-4 individuals per pedigree; N = 75). Estimation of heritability was based on computation of intraclass correlations. Heritability estimates were higher for total cortical thickness compared to volumes. There was no evidence of overall laterality in heritability estimates, or differences between primary sensory and association regions. There was a tendency for lower estimates of heritability in the frontal lobe relative to other lobes, but greater estimates for amygdala and hippocampus relative to parahippocampus and for caudate relative to putamen and globus pallidus. Strong heritability was observed across callosal regions. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of heritability of brain structure in older adults.
The Effect of Personality, Self Efficacy and Job Satisfaction on Organizational Citizenship Behavior of Vocational High Schools Teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of personality, self efficacy and job satisfaction on the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of teachers in Vocational High Schools of Region Two in North Jakarta. The research used the survey method and simple random sampling technique. The analysis and interpretation of the data indicates that personality has a direct positive effect on job satisfaction, self-efficacy has a direct positive effect on job satisfaction, personality has a direct positive effect on the OCB, self-efficacy has a direct postive effect on the OCB, and job satisfaction has a direct postive effect on the OCB. Keywords—organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), personality, self-efficacy, job satisfaction
Oral health status of older people in residential homes in Saudi Arabia

The aim of the study was to de-termine the oral health status and treatment needs of elderly residents of residential homes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Among 129 elderly residents, 83 (51 males, and 32 females) of them were interviewed and clini-cally examined according to WHO criteria by two calibrated dentists. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 72 ± 8.5. Male subjects had a higher smoking rate than females. Among elderly subjects below 74 years old, 20.8% had a functional dentition (> or = 20), while only 6.7% for those aged greater or equal to 75 years (p = 0.0004). Mean number of the sound teeth in all subjects was 6.7 ± 8.5. The mean number of DMFT was 18.6 ± 12.6. The missing component was the highest (16 ± 13) for both genders. The mean number of decayed roots was 2.75 ± 3.95 in males and 0.63 ± 1.96 in females. Overall, males had more sound and decayed teeth and less filled and missed teeth than females. There was no significant difference between males and females in periodontal problems except the calculus scores. The majority of subjects in need for tooth extraction were male subjects. With no gender difference 63% were in need for restorations, 40% needed upper and lower full dentures. Need for partial dentures was 38% upper and 48% lower. Conclusion: The oral health of the institutionalized elderly population in Saudi Arabia is generally poor and their treatment needs are high.
Genome-Wide Identification and Evolutionary and Expression Analyses of MYB-Related Genes in Land Plants

MYB proteins constitute one of the largest transcription factor families in plants. Recent evidence revealed that MYB-related genes play crucial roles in plants. However, compared with the R2R3-MYB type, little is known about the complex evolutionary history of MYB-related proteins in plants. Here, we present a genome-wide analysis of MYB-related proteins from 16 species of ﬂowering plants, moss, Selaginella, and algae. We identified many MYB-related proteins in angiosperms, but few in algae. Phylogenetic analysis classified MYB-related proteins into five distinct subgroups, a result supported by highly conserved intron patterns, consensus motifs, and protein domain architecture. Phylogenetic and functional analyses revealed that the Circadian Clock Associated 1-like/R-R and Telomeric DNA-binding protein-like subgroups are >1 billion yrs old, whereas the I-box-binding factor-like and CAPRICE-like subgroups appear to be newly derived in angiosperms. We further demonstrated that the MYB-like domain has evolved under strong purifying selection, indicating the conservation of MYB-related proteins. Expression analysis revealed that the MYB-related gene family has a wide expression profile in maize and soybean development and plays important roles in development and stress responses. We hypothesize that MYB-related proteins initially diversified through three major expansions and domain shuffling, but remained relatively conserved throughout the subsequent plant evolution.
Persim 3D: Context-Driven Simulation and Modeling of Human Activities in Smart Spaces

Automated understanding and recognition of human activities and behaviors in a smart space (e.g., smart house) is of paramount importance to many critical human-centered applications. Recognized activities are the input to the pervasive computer (the smart space) which intelligently interacts with the users to maintain the application's goal be it assistance, safety, child-development, entertainment or other goals. Research in this area is fascinating but severely lacks adequate validation which often relies on datasets that contain sensory data representing the activities. Availing adequate datasets that can be used in a large variety of spaces, for different user groups, and aiming at different goals is very challenging. This is due to the prohibitive cost and the human capital needed to instrument physical spaces and to recruit human subjects to perform the activities and generate data. Simulation of human activities in smart spaces has therefore emerged as an alternative approach to bridge this deficit. Traditional event-driven approaches have been proposed. However, the complexity of human activity simulation was proved to be challenging to these initial simulation efforts. In this paper, we present Persim 3D-an alternative context-driven approach to simulating human activities capable of supporting complex activity scenarios. We present the context-activity-action nexus and show how our approach combines modeling and visualization of actions with context and activity simulation. We present the Persim 3D architecture and algorithms, and describe a detailed validation study of our approach to verify the accuracy and realism of the simulation output (datasets and visualizations) and the scalability of the human effort in using Persim 3D to simulate complex scenarios. We show positive and promising results that validate our approach.
Front-End Innovation at AlliedSignal and Alcoa

OVERVIEW:Heightened expectations for growth from internal technology suggest a requirement to improve the productivity of the “fuzzy front-end” of the innovation process. Its description as an organizational process should mesh with that of product development, as characterized by “stage-gate” concurrent engineering. With this in mind, a “Front-End Innovation Process” (FEIP) was established, first at AlliedSignal and later at Alcoa. Both processes were designed to meet business objectives and be able to drive “game-changing,” technology-based, breakthrough opportunities. Both were based on a “fast-failure” model, derived from lean manufacturing thinking. Based on the experience at Alcoa and AlliedSignal, it is concluded that the integration of customer needs, future market directions, and technology evolution, with a formal idea generation process like FEIP, is achievable and increasingly necessary.
The simplicial neural cell and its mixed-signal circuit implementation: an efficient neural-network architecture for intelligent signal processing in portable multimedia applications

This paper introduces a novel neural architecture which is capable of similar performance to any of the "classic" neural paradigms while having a very simple and efficient mixed-signal implementation which makes it a valuable candidate for intelligent signal processing in portable multimedia applications. The architecture and its realization circuit are described and the functional capabilities of the novel neural architecture called a simplicial neural cell are demonstrated for both regression and classification problems including nonlinear image filtering.
Improved prognosis of infants mechanically ventilated for hyaline membrane disease

The results of mechanical ventilation for severe hyaline membrane disease (HMD), and the changes in technique which took place, during the 6-year period 1967-72 are described. A pilot study of the effect of hydrocortisone among the most severely affected infants showed no benefit. After the introduction at the beginning of 1970 of a regimen for ventilating the infants at low peak airway pressures, slow respiratory frequencies, and high inspiration: expiration ratios, there was a sudden increase in survival rate which was largely accounted for by a reduction in the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Evidence is presented that in infants with HMD mechanical factors are more important than oxygen toxicity in the pathogenesis of this condition.
Adoption of a New Maize and Production Efficiency in Western Kenya

Declining yields of maize as a result of Striga infestation has necessitated a new technology known as Imazapyr-resistant maize (IRM) to contain the problem. As a result, research and development initiatives with substantial participation of the private sector to transfer this new technology to farmers have been made in western Kenya. This study therefore assesses the adoption of IRM variety and efficiency levels of farmers in western Kenya. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 600 households from Nyanza and Western provinces for this study. Tobit model and stochastic production frontier analysis were the analytical methods. Results show that age, education, maize production gap, risk, contact with extension agents, lack of seeds, membership in social group, effective pathway for IRM dissemination and compatibility of the technology are the variables that were found to be significant (P<0.05) in shaping the decisions of households on whether to adopt or not. The study reveals that the mean technical efficiency of maize production of sampled farmers is 70% indicating some inefficiencies of maize production in western Kenya. Also, adoption of IRM significantly increased frontier maize output (P<0.01); household size decreased inefficiency along with farm size. It was recommended that efforts to increase adoption of IRM for enhanced farm efficiency should focus on farmers’ education, farming experience and access to information and farm basic inputs.
The Moderating Effect of Organizational Culture on the Relationship between Bullying and Machiavellianism

Workplace bullying is unwanted and unwarranted and has negative consequences for the victim, his colleagues and the whole organization. With the present study, we aim to clarify the interactive effects of workplace bullying from the victims’ perception and organizational culture on the teachers ‘Machiavellianism which is a personality syndrome aiming the realization of one’s own profits with every possible means. The sample consisted of 103 teachers working in different schools in Gaziantep, Turkey. Data was analyzed by the hierarchical multiple linear regression method at SPSS 22 and ModGraph-I was used at moderating tests. The results showed that being bullied was not a significant predictor of Machiavellianism. However, organizational culture significantly and positively predicted Machiavellianism, and the main effect of being bullied on Machiavellianism was qualified by the interaction: “higher Machiavellianism was associated with higher workplace bullying under conditions of higher organizational culture. ” Organizational culture operated as an exacerbation under conditions of workplace bullying.