Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nursing Students’ Attitudes toward the Nursing Profession in western Turkey and Affecting Factors

Objective: The study was aimed at investigating nursing students’ attitudes towards nursing profession, and factors affecting their attitudes. Material and Methods:The study was carried out with 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th year nursing students of a health college in Turkey between May 21, 2012 and June 22, 2012. The population of the study included 292 students attending the health college. Because some students were absent from school at the time the study was conducted, some did not want to participate in the study, or some did not fill in the questionnaires completely, the study was conducted with 251 students. The participation rate was 86%. Nursing Students’ Identification Form and Attitude Scale toward Nursing Profession (ASNP) were used as data collection tools in the study. Results: The mean age of the participants was 21.54 ± 1.72. Of them, 66.5% chose nursing of their own free will, 72.5% were satisfied with the nursing department, 53.8% considered the school's education satisfactory and 57.4% considered that the school administration and staff made satisfactory effort to gain students the sense of the profession. The mean score the participants obtained from the ASNP was 158.43. There was no statistically significant difference between their mean ASNP scores with regard to their age (kW = 0.710, P = 0.701). However, there were statistically significant differences between their mean ASNP scores with regard to their gender (t = 2.161, P = 0.032), year at school (t = 6.613, P = 0.001), whether they have chosen nursing of their own free will (t=6.613, P=0.001) and whether they were satisfied with the nursing department (10.629, P = 0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that nursing students had positive attitudes towards nursing. Of the participants who were female, who chose nursing of their own free will, who were satisfied with nursing, who considered the education given by the school as satisfactory and who considered that the school administration and staff made satisfactory effort to gain students the sense of the profession displayed more favorable attitudes towards nursing.
The portable gas chromatograph OralChroma™: a method of choice to detect oral and extra-oral halitosis

It is now generally accepted that the volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulfide are the main contributors to halitosis when of oropharyngeal origin. Gas chromatography using a specific sulfur detector is the most appropriate method to detect halitosis of different origin (intra-oral and extra-oral halitosis) and should be considered as the gold standard. However, a gas chromatograph is an expensive apparatus and needs trained personnel. The less specific Halimeter is the most used apparatus in halitosis research. In this study a newly developed portable gas chromatograph, the OralChroma™ (Abilit Corporation, Japan), was evaluated for use in the field of halitosis. The results show that the OralChroma is a very sensitive apparatus for measuring VSCs. Just like standard gas chromatography, it can perfectly differentiate between intra-oral and extra-oral blood-borne halitosis, while the Halimeter can only detect intra-oral halitosis. The hardware of the OralChroma meets all the needs for becoming the apparatus of choice in the field of halitosis. However, the software needs a major revision. Sometimes, the concentrations given for the different VSCs are completely incorrect due to a wrong assignment of the place of the VSCs in the chromatogram.
Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells reduce immune reaction in a mouse model of allergic rhinitis.

OBJECT To determine the potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for immunomodulatory mechanism in mice model of allergic rhinitis (AR). METHODS BMSCs were isolated and the surface markers and stemness were analyzed. The effect of BMSCs was evaluated in BALB/c mice that were randomly divided into three groups (control group, ovalbumin (OVA) group, OVA+BMSCs group). BMSCs were administered intravenously to OVA sensitized mice on days 1, 7, 14 and 21, and subsequent OVA challenge was conducted daily from days 22 to 35. Several parameters of allergic inflammation were assessed. RESULTS Mesenchymal stem cells can be successfully isolated from bone marrow of mice. Intravenous injection of BMSCs significantly reduced allergic symptoms, eosinophil infiltration, OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE), T-helper 2 (Th2) cytokine profile (interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13) and regulatory cytokines (IL-10). In addition, level of Th1 (IFN-γ) was significantly increased. CONCLUSION Administration of BMSCs effectively reduced allergic symptoms and inflammatory parameters in the mice model of AR. BMSCs treatment is potentially an alternative therapeutic modality in AR.
The role of mast cells in wound healing

Mast cells are predominantly found in the vicinity of connective tissue vessels of skin and mucosa. The main immunological functions of mast cells are in IgE‐mediated reactions and in helminth infestations. Mast cells respond to tissue injury by releasing inflammatory mediators and have been implicated in diseases of excessive fibrosis of the dermis such as scleroderma. Current evidence suggests that mast cells exert its role during inflammation and cellular proliferation. Animal models have shown that by stabilising mast cells at the early stages of wound healing, wound contraction is reduced. Mast cells are an ideal candidate to play a pivotal role in wound healing due to its location, substances released and clinical associations.
Institutions, Markets and Economic Co‐ordination: Linking Development Policy to Theory and Praxis

This article explores policy applications of ‘new institutional economics’ theory in relation to markets and economic development. It argues for application of an analytical framework which instead of looking at institutions primarily in terms of their contributions to making competitive markets work better, sees such markets as one form of institution fulfilling exchange and co-ordination functions in an economy. A key element in this is recognition of the importance of processes of change in non-standard market arrangements in economic development, and there are strong theoretical, practical and historical grounds for more consistent policy in this area.
Lymphoblastoid Cell lines: a Continuous in Vitro Source of Cells to Study Carcinogen Sensitivity and DNA Repair

Obtaining a continuous source of normal cells or DNA from a single individual has always been a rate limiting step in biomedical research. Availability of Lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) as a surrogate for isolated or cryopreserved peripheral blood lymphocytes has substantially accelerated the process of biological investigations. LCLs can be established by in vitro infection of resting B cells from peripheral blood with Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) resulting in a continuous source, bearing negligible genetic and phenotypic alterations. Being a spontaneous replicating source, LCLs fulfil the requirement of constant supply of starting material for variety of assays, sparing the need of re-sampling. There is a reason to believe that LCLs are in close resemblance with the parent lymphocytes based on the ample supporting observations from a variety of studies showing significant level of correlation at molecular and functional level. LCLs, which carry the complete set of germ line genetic material, have been instrumental in general as a source of biomolecules and a system to carry out various immunological and epidemiological studies. Furthermore, in recent times their utility for analysing the whole human genome has extensively been documented. This proves the usefulness of LCLs in various genetic and functional studies. There are a few contradictory reports that have questioned the employment of LCLs as parent surrogate. Regardless of some inherent limitations LCLs are increasingly being considered as an important resource for genetic and functional research.
Is there evidence that barrier membranes prevent bone resorption in autologous bone grafts during the healing period? A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION Autologous bone is considered the "reference standard" for bone-grafting procedures. A barrier membrane covering an autologous bone graft (guided bone regeneration [GBR]) is expected to prevent graft resorption. Good clinical results have been reported for GBR, although potential complications and relatively high costs have been implicated as disadvantages. However, most studies on the subject have been uncontrolled. PURPOSE The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the available evidence that barrier membranes prevent bone resorption in autologous onlay bone grafts. The primary outcome measure was bone resorption. RESULTS The search yielded 182 articles. Two observers independently appraised 32 relevant studies methodologically, yielding 14 controlled studies. The articles included human and animal experiments with heterogenous objectives and outcome variables. Although most authors concluded that they had found evidence for the protective effect of barrier membrane on bone resorption in bone grafts, this systematic review reveals that the available evidence is too weak to support this. Most included studies were animal experiments; thus, extrapolation to the human situation is difficult. Most studies also had a small number of test sites, and sample size justification was generally not reported. Furthermore, ambiguity and lack of significance were found in many studies, along with additional limitations such as implantation site, nonsuitable designs, and varying outcome measures. CONCLUSION Based on a systematic review of the literature, further evidence is needed to determine whether barrier membranes prevent bone resorption in autologous onlay bone grafts.
Stable Competitive Dynamics Emerge from Multispike Interactions in a Stochastic Model of Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

Abstract In earlier work we presented a stochastic model of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) in which STDP emerges only at the level of temporal or spatial synaptic ensembles. We derived the two-spike interaction function from this model and showed that it exhibits an STDP-like form. Here, we extend this work by examining the general n-spike interaction functions that may be derived from the model. A comparison between the two-spike interaction function and the higher-order interaction functions reveals profound differences. In particular, we show that the two-spike interaction function cannot support stable, competitive synaptic plasticity, such as that seen during neuronal development, without including modifications designed specifically to stabilize its behavior. In contrast, we show that all the higher-order interaction functions exhibit a fixed-point structure consistent with the presence of competitive synaptic dynamics. This difference originates in the unification of our proposed “switch” mechanism for synaptic plasticity, coupling synaptic depression and synaptic potentiation processes together. While three or more spikes are required to probe this coupling, two spikes can never do so. We conclude that this coupling is critical to the presence of competitive dynamics and that multispike interactions are therefore vital to understanding synaptic competition.
Logic Programs with Ordered Disjunction

Logic programs with ordered disjunction (LPODs) contain a new connective which allows representing alternative, ranked options for problem solutions in the heads of rules: A×B intuitively means that if possible A, but if A is not possible, then at least B. The semantics of logic programs with ordered disjunction is based on a preference relation on answer sets. We show how LPODs can be implemented using answer set solvers for normal programs. The implementation is based on a generator, which produces candidate answer sets and a tester which checks whether a given candidate is maximally preferred and produces a better candidate if it is not. We also discuss the complexity of reasoning tasks based on LPODs and possible applications.
Improving Nonmetric Sex Classification for Hispanic Individuals

Current techniques used by forensic anthropologists for the identification of unknown human skeletal remains have largely been created using U.S. Black and White samples. When applied to Hispanics, these techniques perform poorly and can lead to misclassifications; consequently, there is an imperative need for population‐specific standards for Hispanics. This research examines the classification accuracies obtained by the original Walker (Am J Phys Anthropol, 136, 2008) and Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012) methods for nonmetric sex estimation and provides recalibrated regression equations specifically for Hispanics. Ordinal data were collected for five skull and three pelvic traits from a sample of 54 modern Hispanic individuals. Recalibration of the Klales et al. equation improved accuracy (90.3% vs. 94.1%), while recalibration of the Walker method equation decreased accuracy (81.5% vs. 74.1%), but greatly improved sex bias (22.2% vs. −7.4%), thereby making the recalibrated equations more appropriate for use with Hispanics.
Revitalization of Service Quality to Gain Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

This study examines the relationships between hotel service quality failure, customer perceived value, revitalization of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in the hotel industry. A quantitative technique was used to collect data in this study. A number of findings were gathered through the survey of 105 hotel guests in Penang, Malaysia. The findings indicate that hotel revitalization of service quality had positive effects on customer loyalty, while perceived value and customer satisfaction were two significant variables that mediated the relationships between hotel service quality and customer loyalty. It was also found that hotel service quality had no profound and direct effects, but indirect positive effects on customer satisfaction. The recommendations for future research were also discussed in this study.
Identification of target antigens of antiendothelial cell antibodies in healthy individuals: A proteomic approach

In order to identify target antigens of anti‐endothelial cell (anti‐EC) antibodies (AECA) in healthy individuals, we have used a proteomic approach combining 2‐DE and immunoblotting. Whole cell protein extracts obtained from human umbilical vein EC (HUVEC) cultures were used as a source of antigens. Serum IgG from 12 healthy blood donors were tested at a concentration of 200 μg/mL. Targeted spots were identified by MS. The HUVEC proteome was composed of 884 protein spots. Among these, 61 ± 25.8 (mean ± SD) spots were recognized by serum IgG from healthy individuals, with marked differences from one individual to another. Among these spots, 11 were recognized by serum IgG from all healthy individuals tested. These spots corresponded to six different proteins with several spots corresponding to different isoforms of the same protein. Target antigens were: cytoskeletal proteins (β‐actin, α‐tubulin, and vimentin); glycolytic enzymes (glucose‐3‐phosphate‐deshydrogenase and α‐enolase); and prolyl‐4‐hydroxylase β subunit, a member of the disulfide isomerase family. This study shows that the repertoire of IgG AECA is heterogeneous among healthy individuals. IgG from all of the healthy individuals tested recognized a restricted set of highly conserved ubiquitous proteins playing key roles in cell biology and maintenance of homeostasis.
Robust Design of a Class of Time-Delay Iterative Learning Control Systems With Initial Shifts

This paper is mainly devoted to the iterative learning control (ILC) design for time-delay systems (TDS) in the presence of initial shifts, especially when the system parameters are subject to polytopic-type uncertainties. The ILC laws using a pure error term and/or an initial rectifying action to address the initial shifts are considered, and the two-dimensional (2-D) system theory is employed to develop necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of ILC. For the monotonic convergence of ILC, sufficient conditions are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) based on the bounded real lemma (BRL). It is shown that adding the pure error term in the D-type learning law helps to meet certain LMIs to achieve a monotonically convergent ILC law. Specifically, this property is first investigated for linear time-invariant systems (LTIS), which is then discussed for the possible extension to TDS. Two numerical examples are included to illustrate the main results.
Evaluation of an Automated Procedure for Detecting Frequency-Following Responses in American and Chinese Neonates

To date, observations of the scalp-recorded frequency-following response (FFR) to voice pitch have depended on subjective interpretation of the experimenter. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an automated procedure for detecting the presence of a response. Twenty American (9 boys, 1–3 days) and 20 Chinese (10 boys, 1–3 days) neonates were recruited. A Chinese monosyllable that mimicked the English vowel /i/ with a rising pitch (117–166 Hz) was used as the stimulus. Three objective indices (Frequency Error, Tracking Accuracy, and Pitch Strength) were computed from the recorded brain waves and the test results were compared with human judgments to calculate the sensitivity and specificity values. Results demonstrated that the automated procedure produced sensitivity values between 53–90% and specificity values between 80–100%, and could be used to assess the presence of an FFR for neonates who were born in a tonal or non-tonal language environment.
Elastic security zones for NoC-based 3D-MPSoCs

3D-MPSoCs integrate cores of several vendors and support different applications on a single die, providing large performance and cost reduction. 3D-technology presents many security challenges and offers new opportunities to implement protection countermeasures. 3D-NoCs can be explored to assist the overall security of the system. In this work, we propose a 3D-NoC hardware architecture able to protect the 3D-MPSoCs against software attacks. Dynamic firewalls create elastic security zones by wrapping a set of components according to a trust policy, guaranteeing the protection and efficient execution of all applications. We compare our approach with several 3D-protection proposals and we show that our mechanism performs a fast detection of attacks, decreases the cost of security in terms of power and provides a high level of security.
Ant Homing Ability Is Not Diminished When Traveling Backwards

Ants are known to be capable of homing to their nest after displacement to a novel location. This is widely assumed to involve some form of retinotopic matching between their current view and previously experienced views. One simple algorithm proposed to explain this behavior is continuous retinotopic alignment, in which the ant constantly adjusts its heading by rotating to minimize the pixel-wise difference of its current view from all views stored while facing the nest. However, ants with large prey items will often drag them home while facing backwards. We tested whether displaced ants (Myrmecia croslandi) dragging prey could still home despite experiencing an inverted view of their surroundings under these conditions. Ants moving backwards with food took similarly direct paths to the nest as ants moving forward without food, demonstrating that continuous retinotopic alignment is not a critical component of homing. It is possible that ants use initial or intermittent retinotopic alignment, coupled with some other direction stabilizing cue that they can utilize when moving backward. However, though most ants dragging prey would occasionally look toward the nest, we observed that their heading direction was not noticeably improved afterwards. We assume ants must use comparison of current and stored images for corrections of their path, but suggest they are either able to chose the appropriate visual memory for comparison using an additional mechanism; or can make such comparisons without retinotopic alignment.
QoS-Guaranteed User Scheduling and Pilot Assignment for Large-Scale MIMO-OFDM Systems

The combination of the large-scale multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmissions is a promising candidate for future wireless communication systems. We investigate a quality of service (QoS) guaranteed user-scheduling algorithm for large-scale MIMO-OFDM systems, where pilots are assigned to served users. In general, a wireless channel concentrates its energy on a specific region in the angle and delay domains. We suggest to reuse pilots based on this channel property in a macrocellular environment, thus reducing pilot overhead significantly. In the presence of contamination caused by the pilot reuse, we analyze the asymptotic behavior and design an interference cancelation (IC) precoder. For both the simple matched filter (MF) precoder and the sophisticated IC precoder, we derive achievable rates under pilot contamination, which are metrics for QoS. Further, according to the analysis under a special case, the number of QoS-guaranteed users proves to be maximized when an equispaced property in the angle domain is satisfied. The theoretical result facilitates a low-complexity user-scheduling algorithm. Numerical results confirm our analysis and proposed pilot scheme, and they show that the proposed scheduling algorithm can select out the maximum served users with guaranteed QoS.
Measuring financial contagion in the stock markets using a copula approach

The US financial crisis has underlined the fact that markets tend to be more dependent during the crisis than they are during the pre-crisis periods. This situation is usually referred to as contagion, a notion which has recently attracted the attention of several researchers working on finance due to its dramatic effects. Indeed, in our study, we use the copula theory to analyse the financial contagion between stock markets of four developed countries (USA, UK, France and Germany). The market indexes used are S&P 500 (USA), FTSE 100 (UK), CAC 40 (France) and DAX 30 (Germany) covering the period from 1 January 2004 to 27 August 2010. This paper finds evidence of a changing dependence during the turmoil periods. Hence, the existence of financial contagion.
Recreation Demand Models with Taste Differences Over People

We estimate random-parameter logit models of anglers' choices of fishing sites. The models generalize logit by allowing coefficients to vary randomly over anglers rather than being fixed. The models do not exhibit the restrictive "independence from irrelevant alternatives property" of logit and can represent any substitution pattern. Estimation explicitly accounts for the fact that the variation in coefficients over anglers induces correlation in unobserved utility over trips by the same angler. Willingness to pay for improved fish stock and the value to anglers of specific sites are calculated from the models and compared with the estimates obtained from a standard logit model.