Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rebamipide Delivered by Brushite Cement Enhances Osteoblast and Macrophage Proliferation

Many of the bioactive agents capable of stimulating osseous regeneration, such as bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) or prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), are limited by rapid degradation, a short bioactive half-life at the target site in vivo, or are prohibitively expensive to obtain in large quantities. Rebamipide, an amino acid modified hydroxylquinoline, can alter the expression of key mediators of bone anabolism, cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX-2), BMP-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in diverse cell types such as mucosal and endothelial cells or chondrocytes. The present study investigates whether Rebamipide enhances proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts when delivered from brushite cement. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) quenching ability of Rebampide was tested in macrophages as a measure of bioactivity following drug release incubation times, up to 14 days. Rebamipide release from brushite occurrs via non-fickian diffusion, with a rapid linear release of 9.70% ±0.37% of drug per day for the first 5 days, and an average of 0.5%-1% per day thereafter for 30 days. Rebamipide slows the initial and final cement setting time by up to 3 and 1 minute, respectively, but does not significantly reduce the mechanical strength below 4% (weight percentage). Pre-osteoblast proliferation increases by 24% upon exposure to 0.4uM Rebamipide, and by up to 73% when Rebamipide is delivered via brushite cement. Low doses of Rebamipide do not adversely affect peak alkaline phosphatase activity in differentiating pre-osteoblasts. Rebamipide weakly stimulates proliferation in macrophages at low concentrations (118 ±7.4% at 1uM), and quenches ROS by 40-60%. This is the first investigation of Rebamipide in osteoblasts.
Predictive and Feedback Performance Errors Are Signaled in the Simple Spike Discharge of Individual Purkinje Cells

The cerebellum has been implicated in processing motor errors required for on-line control of movement and motor learning. The dominant view is that Purkinje cell complex spike discharge signals motor errors. This study investigated whether errors are encoded in the simple spike discharge of Purkinje cells in monkeys trained to manually track a pseudorandomly moving target. Four task error signals were evaluated based on cursor movement relative to target movement. Linear regression analyses based on firing residuals ensured that the modulation with a specific error parameter was independent of the other error parameters and kinematics. The results demonstrate that simple spike firing in lobules IV–VI is significantly correlated with position, distance, and directional errors. Independent of the error signals, the same Purkinje cells encode kinematics. The strongest error modulation occurs at feedback timing. However, in 72% of cells at least one of the R2 temporal profiles resulting from regressing firing with individual errors exhibit two peak R2 values. For these bimodal profiles, the first peak is at a negative τ (lead) and a second peak at a positive τ (lag), implying that Purkinje cells encode both prediction and feedback about an error. For the majority of the bimodal profiles, the signs of the regression coefficients or preferred directions reverse at the times of the peaks. The sign reversal results in opposing simple spike modulation for the predictive and feedback components. Dual error representations may provide the signals needed to generate sensory prediction errors used to update a forward internal model.
Implementation issues affecting the performance of carrier signal injection based sensorless controlled AC drives

This paper assesses and analyzes the practical implementation issues affecting the performance of carrier signal injection based sensorless control methods for AC drives. Included in this assessment and analysis are the following topics: selection of the carrier signal frequency and magnitude; the nonlinear behavior of pulse-width modulation and power electronics; and the signal processing required for the estimation, including analog filtering, sampling and analog-to-digital conversion. Variations in the characteristics and behavior of the saliency used for the estimation as a function of the machine's design and operating point are also addressed. The influence that each of these topics has on the robustness and accuracy of the estimate is discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn on how the negative effects can be minimized and the performance of the estimation improved.
Perception and Adoption of Change Management in Information Institutions: A Study from Croatia

Abstract This paper explores the way in which professional staff employed in information institutions perceive changes and different aspects of change management. The research focuses on Croatian libraries, museums and archives, as public and non-profit organizations. The influence of five background variables (institution, gender, age, level of education, and position) was examined in the analysis. The results show that professionals are only partially satisfied with the changes in their institutions. The type of institution they work in, and the position in the management structure proved to be strong predictors of differences in satisfaction ratings. Factor analysis has revealed three factors: change management mechanisms, impact of change on users and local community, and importance and necessity of change. These factors represent the underlying constructs of the professional staff’s perceptions of change and change management. With respect to the background variables, employees generally have similar attitudes toward the latent factors. They are aware that change is important and that well managed changes improve effectiveness and efficiency. However, from their responses, it is clear that change management is not performed properly. Based on the extracted factors, the survey subjects are classified into four clusters. The study highlights some critical areas of change management in information institutions. Since theory and practice of change management in such organizations have been largely disregarded, the paper contributes to a better understanding of these issues.
Haptic Effects of Surgical Teleoperator Flexibility

Minimally invasive surgery systems typically involve thin and cable-driven surgical instruments. This introduces link and joint flexibility in the slave robot of a master—slave teleoperation system, reducing the effective stiffness of the slave and the transparency of teleoperation. In this paper, we analyze transparency under slave link and joint flexibility (tool flexibility). We also evaluate the added benefits of using extra sensors at the tip of the flexible robot. It is shown that tip velocity (or position) feedback improves free-space position tracking performance in the presence of robot flexibility. Also, when the interaction forces with an environment are measured by a force sensor and fed back to the user’s hand, tip velocity feedback improves hard-contact force tracking performance. During a hard contact task, tip velocity feedback can also eliminate the transmission of robot flexibility to the user’s hand.
Testing the causal relationships between procedural justice, trust and organiza tional citizenship behavior

This study examines the impact of procedural justice on employees'trust in their organization and on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). The research reported here portrays the aths which link OCB to procedural justice, while employees'trust in their organizations acts as a mediating variable. The results indicate a significant and positive influence of procedural justice as a determinant of emplyees'trust in their organization and subsequently on OCB. The findings based on a four step regression analysis support the suggested model. Both theoretical and mangerial implicationsare discussed
Teaching HRM in contemporary hospitality management: a case study drawing on HR analytics and big data analysis

ABSTRACT In this article, we discuss how hospitality students can leverage new technology and new HRM metrics from a combination of a traditional format case study and innovative data spreadsheets. We offer a teaching case study that combines the strategic dimensions of HRM with practice-driven data analysis anchored in HR analytics and HR big data mining. We argue that this combination helps identify, develop, and promote appropriate managerial skills among students.
Effects of Healthy Aging on the Regional Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Glucose Assessed with Statistical Parametric Mapping

The aging process is thought to result in changes in synaptic activity reflecting both functional and structural cell derangement. However, previous PET reports on age-related changes in resting brain glucose utilization (CMRglc) have been discrepant, presumably because of methodological as well as subject screening differences. In contrast to other studies, which used a region of interest approach, the objective of the present work was to determine, by means of the SPM software, the changes in regional CMRglc as a function of age in 24 optimally healthy, unmedicated volunteers of ages from 20 to 67 years. Global CMRglc showed a significant decline with age (approximately 6% per decade, P < 0.05), which concerned all the voxels studied save for most of the occipital cortex and part of the cerebellum. The most significant effects (P < 0.001) concerned the association neocortex in perisylvian temporoparietal and anterior temporal areas, the insula, the inferior and posterior-lateral frontal regions, the anterior cingulate cortex, the head of caudate nucleus, and the anterior thalamus, in a bilateral and essentially symmetrical fashion. The high posterior parietal cortex was not sampled in this study. This distribution of changes in CMRglc with age may differ from that seen in Alzheimer' disease, where the earliest metabolic reduction has been shown to affect the posterior cingulate cortex.
New Algebraic Criteria for Synchronization Stability of Chaotic Memristive Neural Networks With Time-Varying Delays

In this brief, we consider the exponential synchronization of chaotic memristive neural networks with time-varying delays using the Lyapunov functional method and inequality technique. The dynamic analysis here employs the theory of differential equations with discontinuous right-hand side as introduced by Filippov. The designing laws in the synchronization of neural networks are proposed via state or output coupling. In addition, the new proposed algebraic criteria are very easy to verify, and they also enrich and improve the earlier publications. Finally, an example is given to show the effectiveness of the obtained results.
English as a Lingua Franca: Reflections on ELF-Related Issues by Pre-Service English Language Teachers in Turkey.

The leading position of English as a global language has evidently been continuing for several decades. This pivotal role has inevitably been influencing the agenda of English language teaching and teacher education in most domains of the profession. Although English as a lingua franca (ELF) implications and practices on teaching and teacher education are increasingly researched, they still remain a fairly untrodden territory. For this very aim, this study endeavored to shed lights on the role of teacher education programs through exploration of pre-service language teachers’ perceptions on ELF related issues through a questionnaire and interviews. The findings revealed that although a large number of participants accepted the realities of ELF, however, they stated that their perspectives and teaching practices were largely shaped by inner circle native norms of English. The study has significant implications for teacher education programs involving language instructors, students, curriculum designers and material developers.
Changing missions? How the strategic plans of research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America balance competing identities

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the assumption that public research-intensive universities are conforming to external pressures and demands in similar ways. By analyzing the strategic plans of public research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America, we identify variations in how public and private dimensions of higher education are balanced. The study includes 19 North American and Northern European universities and finds that North American universities loosely couple strategic objectives addressing separate stakeholders linked to their public and private missions. Northern European universities tend to organize their strategic priorities more tightly within a narrative of ‘research excellence. ’ The findings suggest the nature of change in contemporary higher education and the blurring boundaries between public and private missions.
The Antidepressant Drug Tianeptine Blocks Working Memory Errors: Pharmacological and Endocrine Manipulations of Stress-Induced Amnesia in Rats

vii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Hippocampus, Neuronal Atrophy and Memory 1 Stress, Corticosterone and Synaptic Plasticity 4 Current Stress and Working Memory Research 6 Tianeptine, Serotonin, NMDA and Memory 8 The Beta-Adrenergic System and Propranolol 9 Adrenalectomy and Memory 12 Current Experiments 16 Chapter Two: Experiment One: Tianeptine Blocks Stress-Induced Memory Errors on the Criterion-Based Multi-Day RAWM Working Memory 18 Task Method 18 Rats and Handling 18 Drug 19 Stress 19 Statistical Procedures 20 Results : Within Trials Analysis 20 Results: Retention Trials Analysis 21 Results: Plasma CORT Analysis for RAWM Criterion Testing 23 Chapter Three: Experiment Two: Tianeptine does not block Stress-Induced Memory Errors When Given After the Stressor on the Multi-day RAWM Task 24 Method 24 Rats and Handling 24 Drug 25 Stress 25 Statistical Procedures 26 Results: Within trials Analysis 26 Results: Retention Trial Analysis 27 Chapter Four: Experiment Three: Tianeptine Blocks Stress-Induced Memory Errors on the Novel One-Day Learning (ODL) Task 29 Method 29 Rats and Handling 29 Drug 30 ii Statistical Procedures 30 Results: Within Trials Analysis 30 Results: Retention Trials Analysis 32 Results: Plasma CORT Analysis for One-Day Learning Paradigm 33 Chapter Five: Experiment Four: Propranolol Does Not Block Stress-Induced Memory Errors on the One-Day Learning Task 35 Method 35 Rats and Handling 35 Drug 36 Statistical Procedures 36 Results: Within Trials Analysis: 5 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 37 Results: Retention Trial Analysis: 5 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 38 Results: Within Trials Analysis: 10 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 39 Results: Retention Trial Analysis: 10 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 41 Independent T-Test Analysis Between 5 and 10 mg/kg Propranolol Doses 41 Results: Plasma CORT Analysis for 5 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 41 Results: Plasma CORT Analysis for 10 mg/kg Propranolol Dose 41 Results: Independent T-Test Between Stress Groups 42 Chapter Six: Experiment Five: Adrenalectomy, Stress and Memory: Effects of Adrenal Steroids on Stress-Induced Memory Changes 44 Method 44 Rats and Handling Procedure 44 Adrenalectomy (ADX) Procedures 44 Corticosterone and Sodium Replacement Procedures 45 Behavioral Testing Regime 46 Blood Sampling and Preparation 46 Statistical Procedures 47 Results: Within Blocks Analysis 47 Results: Retention Trial Analysis 48 Results: Blood/CORT Analysis for ADX Experiments 50 Chapter Seven: Discussion Tianeptine Blocks Stress-Induced Memory Errors 52 Serotonergic Mechanism of Tianeptine Action 52 NMDA Receptor Mediated Mechanism of Tianeptine Action 53 Testing the Anti-Anxiety Properties of Tianeptine 54 Stress and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Pre-Clinical Applications of Tianeptine 56 Involvement of Corticosterone in the Formation and Blockade Of Stress Effects 57 The Role of Adrenal Hormones on Stress and Memory 60 Summary and Conclusions 61
AN AERODYNAMIC DESIGN TECHNIQUE FOR OPTIMIZING FAN BLADE SPACING

Aerodynamic shape optimization involves designing the most efficient shapes of bodies that move through fluids. An optimization algorithm perturbs the shape of an airfoil until it finds the shape which best exhibits a given design objective. For an inverse design technique, this objective is a prescribed aerodynamic distribution, usually the surface pressure distribution. Liebeck pressure distributions [1], for example, have been demonstrated to generate airfoils with high lift to drag ratios.
Off-resonant transient birefringence in liquids

Off‐resonant transient birefringence measurements are analyzed using a reduced equation of motion for the ground state density matrix, which is expanded using an effective Hamiltonian. Assuming that the pump field is weak, we express the polarization relevant for the birefringence signal in terms of a convolution of the tensorial polarizability response function with the external fields. The homodyne‐detected birefringence signal is directly compared with the coherent Raman signal. The relationship between off‐resonant birefringence and spontaneous Raman experiments is discussed. By expanding the polarizability in powers of the nuclear coordinates and applying the Brownian oscillator model to the coordinate response function, we separate the birefringence signal into intra‐ and intermolecular coordinate response functions. Off‐resonant transient birefringences of acetonitrile, chloroform, dimethylsulfoxide, and a series of alcohols were measured. The data are transformed to the frequency domain by using a.
MiRNA-Related SNPs and Risk of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma and Barrett’s Esophagus: Post Genome-Wide Association Analysis in the BEACON Consortium

Incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) has increased substantially in recent decades. Multiple risk factors have been identified for EA and its precursor, Barrett’s esophagus (BE), such as reflux, European ancestry, male sex, obesity, and tobacco smoking, and several germline genetic variants were recently associated with disease risk. Using data from the Barrett’s and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Consortium (BEACON) genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 2,515 EA cases, 3,295 BE cases, and 3,207 controls, we examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that potentially affect the biogenesis or biological activity of microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs implicated in post-transcriptional gene regulation, and deregulated in many cancers, including EA. Polymorphisms in three classes of genes were examined for association with risk of EA or BE: miRNA biogenesis genes (157 SNPs, 21 genes); miRNA gene loci (234 SNPs, 210 genes); and miRNA-targeted mRNAs (177 SNPs, 158 genes). Nominal associations (P<0.05) of 29 SNPs with EA risk, and 25 SNPs with BE risk, were observed. None remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons (FDR q>0.50), and we did not find evidence for interactions between variants analyzed and two risk factors for EA/BE (smoking and obesity). This analysis provides the most extensive assessment to date of miRNA-related SNPs in relation to risk of EA and BE. While common genetic variants within components of the miRNA biogenesis core pathway appear unlikely to modulate susceptibility to EA or BE, further studies may be warranted to examine potential associations between unassessed variants in miRNA genes and targets with disease risk.
Prediction of Gastric Cancer Development by Serum Pepsinogen Test and Helicobacter pylori Seropositivity in Eastern Asians: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background To identify high-risk groups for gastric cancer in presumptively healthy populations, several studies have investigated the predictive ability of the pepsinogen test, H. Pylori antibodies, and a risk-prediction model based on these two tests. To investigate whether these tests accurately predict gastric cancer development, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods PubMed and other electronic databases were searched for cohort studies published in English or Japanese from January 1985 through December 2013. Six reviewers identified eligible studies, and at least two investigators extracted data on population and study-design characteristics, quality items, and outcomes of interest. Meta-analyses were performed on non-overlapping studies. Results Nine prospective cohorts from Eastern Asia reported in 12 publications, including 33,741 asymptomatic middle-aged participants of gastric cancer screening, were eligible. For discriminating between asymptomatic adults at high and low risk of gastric cancer, the pepsinogen test (summary hazard ratio [HR], 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7–4.7; I2 = 0%) and H. pylori antibodies (summary HR, 3.2; 95% CI, 2.0–5.2; I2 = 0%) were statistically significant predictors as standalone tests. Although the risk-prediction model was in general moderately accurate in separating asymptomatic adults into four risk groups (summary c-statistic, 0.71; 95% CI: 0.68–0.73; I2 = 7%), calibration seemed to be poor. The study validity was generally limited. Conclusions The serum pepsinogen test, H. pylori antibodies, and the four-risk-group model for predicting gastric cancer development seem to have the potential to stratify middle-aged presumptively healthy adults. Future research needs to focus on comparative studies to evaluate the impact of screening programs adopting these tests. Also, validation, preferably with model updating, is necessary to see whether the current model performance is transferable to different populations.
Insula and inferior frontal triangularis activations distinguish between conditioned brain responses using emotional sounds for basic BCI communication

In order to enable communication through a brain-computer interface (BCI), it is necessary to discriminate between distinct brain responses. As a first step, we probed the possibility to discriminate between affirmative (“yes”) and negative (“no”) responses using a semantic classical conditioning paradigm, within an fMRI setting. Subjects were presented with congruent and incongruent word-pairs as conditioned stimuli (CS), respectively eliciting affirmative and negative responses. Incongruent word-pairs were associated to an unpleasant unconditioned stimulus (scream, US1) and congruent word-pairs were associated to a pleasant unconditioned stimulus (baby-laughter, US2), in order to elicit emotional conditioned responses (CR). The aim was to discriminate between affirmative and negative responses, enabled by their association with the positive and negative affective stimuli. In the late acquisition phase, when the US were not present anymore, there was a strong significant differential activation for incongruent and congruent word-pairs in a cluster comprising the left insula and the inferior frontal triangularis. This association was not found in the habituation phase. These results suggest that the difference in affirmative and negative brain responses was established as an effect of conditioning, allowing to further investigate the possibility of using this paradigm for a binary choice BCI.
Shapley Effects for Global Sensitivity Analysis: Theory and Computation

Variance-based global sensitivity analysis decomposes the variance of the output of a computer model, resulting from uncertainty about the model's inputs, into variance components associated with each input's contribution. The two most common variance-based sensitivity measures, the first-order effects and the total effects, may fail to sum to the total variance. They are often used together in sensitivity analysis, because neither of them adequately deals with interactions in the way the inputs affect the output. Therefore Owen proposed an alternative sensitivity measure, based on the concept of the Shapley value in game theory, and showed it always sums to the correct total variance if inputs are independent. We analyze Owen's measure, which we call the Shapley effect, in the case of dependent inputs. We show empirically how the first-order and total effects, even when used together, may fail to appropriately measure how sensitive the output is to uncertainty in the inputs when there is probabilistic de.