Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for the Use of Isoflurane as a Replacement for Chloral Hydrate Anesthesia in Experimental Stroke: An Ethical Issue

Since an ethical issue has been raised regarding the use of the well-known anesthetic agent chloral hydrate, owing to its mutagenic and carcinogenic effects in animals, attention of neuroscientists has turned to finding out an alternative agent able to meet not only potency, safety, and analgesic efficacy, but also reduced neuroprotective effect for stroke research. The aim of this study was to compare the potential of chloral hydrate and isoflurane for both modulating the action of the experimental neuroprotectant MK801 and exerting analgesia. After middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats, no difference was observed in 24 h survival rate, success of ischemia, or infarct volume reduction between both anesthetics. However, isoflurane exerted a more pronounced analgesic effect than chloral hydrate as evidenced by formalin test 3 hours after anesthesia onset, thus encouraging the use of isoflurane in experimental stroke models.
Northern California Redwood Forests provide important seasonal habitat for migrant bats

Bats are known to roost in redwood forests year-round, but their activities outside the summer season are poorly understood. To improve understanding of the use of redwoods by resident and migrant bats, we conducted 74 mist net surveys between February 2008 and October 2010. Captures were dominated by Yuma myotis (M. yumanensis) in the summer and silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) in the winter. During November-February, silverhaired bats, accounted for 78 percent of 23 captures and male:female sex ratio was (9:9). By contrast, during June-August, silver-haired bats accounted for 13.8 percent of 269 captures and sex ratios were highly male skewed (34:3). In combination with other regional information, this indicates that female silver-haired bats migrate to redwood forests. To infer summer locations of bats captured in redwood forests, we analyzed stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in their fur. Despite spatial segregation between male and female silver-haired bats during presumed molt period, we did not find differences between the sexes in range of isotope values in their fur. Nor were their values different from Yuma myotis. Our findings highlight some of the challenges in using stable istotope analysis to infer migratory pathways in bats.
Effect of prenatal stress on expression of glutathione system in neonatal rat brain.

AIM Prenatal stress is known to adversely affect the fetal brain development and also neuronal loss. The mechanism(s) associated with prenatal stress induced developmental neurotoxicity remains obscure. Few studies point to the glutathione (GSH) antioxidant system which is an important molecular target for this toxicant. Hence the present study investigates the effect of prenatal stress on glutathione system in neonatal rat brain. MATERIAL AND METHODS Three to four months old pregnant Wistar rats were subjected to restraint stress during early or late gestational period. The offspring were sacrificed on 40th day and their brain homogenate was subjected to antioxidant studies. The serum corticosterone and adrenal ascorbic acid levels were also estimated from offspring. RESULTS The prenatal stress has resulted in an increase in the serum corticosterone and reduced adrenal ascorbic acid levels in neonatal pups. Prenatal stress during early or late gestation life showed reduced glutathione, glutathione reductase (GSSG-Rd) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in offspring brain homogenate. CONCLUSION These data suggest that stress during early or late gestation period affect glutathione system in developing neonatal rat brain, which is associated with elevated serum corticosterone and reduced adrenal ascorbic acid levels.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.net Special Issues Involving Periprosthetic Infection in Immunodeficiency Patients

Chronic systemic illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease (CKD), liver cirrhosis, neoplasia, etc. have been clearly associated with high rates of SWI. However, the exact mechanisms underlying these observations are still under investigation. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing problem in our society. Many of these patients will require an arthroplasty and it appears that the prosthetic infection risk for these types of patients is much higher than in the normal population. The risk of complications due to infection seems to be lower in patients with kidney transplants than in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Both prophylaxis and treatment of infection in patients with CKD should be carried out with a strict monitoring of potentially nephrotoxic antibiotics. The literature on the prognosis and risk of infection in patients with haematopoietic stem cell transplant is scarce and occasionally contradictory. The optimal time for the surgery should be determined by taking into account the immunological state of the patient and should be avoided, as much as possible, during the first year after the HSCT. Child's classification system is the most widely used method of stratifying the surgical risk for patients with cirrhosis; the infection appeared to be associated in a statistically significant way with advanced age and a Child B pre-operative classification. The prevention of prosthetic joint infections in HIV-infected patients should not be significantly different from the prevention for any other patient. Those patients that receive adequate antiretroviral treatment and periodic laboratory control show infection rates and periprosthetic complications that are similar to those for patients not affected by HIV. Therefore, the patient's level of immunodeficiency is the most important prognostic factor for prosthetic infection. The particular immunological condition of these patients can lead to infections due to particular microorganisms that immunocompetent patients do not have to deal with. Of all possibilities, because of their frequency and difficulty to treat, infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus and fungus are highlighted.
Centralized Botnet Detection by Traffic Aggregation

Botnets with the centralized architecture provide a simple, low-latency, anonymous and efficient real-time communication platform for the botnet controllers. To our knowledge, most of the latest detected large-scale botnets are based on the centralized structure with HTTP or customized protocols. Therefore, centralized botnets detection helps greatly improve control of unwanted traffic. The main contribution of this study is the development of a common detection mechanism aiming at the centralized botnets. In this work we investigate the intrinsic characteristics based on the distributed yet bursting property of the centralized botnets. Our study shows that there exist great similarity and synchronization among the behaviors and the command and control (C&C) traffic of the bots, because the bots are controlled to operate according to the programmed schedule. Firstly we can determine if the groups of flows are suspectable by performing evaluation on the payload similarity and sequence correlation. Further, we will monitor and keep tracking with the collective and simultaneous behaviors of the suspicious groups of hosts. As is shown by conducting experiments, the proposed method can detect and hold back the centralized botnets effectively before they seriously influence the normal operation on the wide-scale network.
EFL TEACHERSâ€™ REFLECTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO EFL STUDENTS OF RURAL AREAS

Theoretical and empirical grounds suggest that the discussions on the practices of teaching English in rural area are limited in numbers. Ergo the voices, challenges, and recommendations echoed by EFL teachers of rural areas remain unexplored. This study is thus to shed light on the voices, challenges, and recommendations of EFL rural teachers in teaching EFL to students of rural areas. This study used qualitative research method with multiple case study design. The participants were two EFL service teachers teaching English in Pegunungan Bintang in Papua and Talaud Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The data collection techniques were teaching reflection writing journal and phone and WhatsApp call semi-structured interview. This study extended our knowledge that teacher-centered learning was not always perceived to be a left-behind and invaluable teaching approach. This study revealed that teacher-centered learning, which the teachers became the sources of knowledge, was an appropriate teaching approach to teach English to students of rural areas. Moreover, this study found that lack of facilities and learning recourses as well as studentsâ€™ low motivation and proficiency in English language were main challenges faced by EFL teachers in rural areas. Therefore, shared-recommendations were given by the participants to English teacher candidates taking career to be English teachers in rural areas. First, English teacher candidates should have or build strong and good characters. Meaning, they have to be discipline, creative, innovative, patient, firm and adaptable. These characters are non-negotiable for other English teacher candidates teaching English in any region as well. Second, English teacher candidates should take into account studentsâ€™ competency and social condition of learning to make students succeed in target language. Third, they had better use teacher talk and caretaker speech to explain English teaching materials or topics to the students.
Analysis of trapping and streaming in an ultrasoundactuated multi-well microplate for single-cell studies

The dynamics of the acoustic streaming and the acoustic positioning performance in an ultrasound-actuated multiwell microplate are investigated by two different ultrasonic frequency actuation schemes: Frequency-modulation and single- frequency actuation. Our results show a significant decrease in size of the field of view when using frequencymodulation compared to single-frequency actuation, which can be used for improving the scanning time for 3D highresolution confocal microscopy by almost one order of magnitude. Furthermore, in the ultrasound-actuated multi-well microplate the high-voltage acoustic streaming show a complex time and temperature dependence and could gain stability by the use of temperature control.
University-Community Engagement in Nigeria: Evidence from Selected Universities

The imperative of knowledge based and inclusive development is making universities to realign their teaching and research missions to embrace community engagement. Using case studies of three universities in Nigeria, this paper examines how different types of Universities in Nigeria carry out community engagement and the nature of the benefits that accrues from the engagement. It also analyses the existing university policy framework with respect to university community engagement with a view to identifying the effectiveness of these policies in engendering university-community engagement in Nigeria. The findings revealed that the emerging policy to support community engagement at the universities does not provide for adequate framework to engender an effective university-community engagement. Besides, the reward systems of the universities do not support community engagement as a valid form of scholarship. Most of the university engagements are formal engagements with little or no link to immediate local communities. There is the need for a policy re-orientation that first integrates the principles of infusion model as a framework of the university community engagement policy. Secondly, the university community engagement policy must reward and recognize community engagement as a valid kind of scholarship among academics. This is a sine qua non in increasing university contributions to the development of their immediate communities.
A Comparison of Alternative Asymptotic Frameworks to Analyse a Structural Change in a Linear Time Trend

This paper considers various asymptotic approximations to the finite sample distribution of the estimate of the break date in a simple one-break model for a linear trend function that exhibits a change in slope, with or without a concurrent change in intercept. The noise component is either stationary or has an autoregressive unit root. Our main focus is on comparing the so-called "bounded-trend" and "unbounded-trend" asymptotic frameworks. Not surprisingly, the "bounded-trend" asymptotic framework is of little use when the noise component is integrated. When the noise component is stationary, we obtain the following results. If the intercept does not change and is not allowed to change in the estimation, both frameworks yield the same approximation. However, when the intercept is allowed to change, whether or not it actually changes in the data, the "bounded-trend" asymptotic framework completely misses important features of the finite sample distribution of the estimate of the break date, especially the pronounced bimodality that was uncovered by Perron and Zhu (2005) and shown to be well captured using the "unbounded-trend" asymptotic framework. Simulation experiments confirm our theoretical findings, which expose the drawbacks of using the " bounded-trend" asymptotic framework in the context of structural change models. Copyright Royal Economic Society 2006
Corporate social responsibility and the cost of equity capital

Wahrend der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte habensogenannte „Sustainable and Responsible Investment― Finanzprodukte ein bemerkenswertes Wachstum erlebt. Zunehmend mehr Lander haben Gesetze erlassen, um Firmen zu verpflichten, auch nicht-finanzielle Leistungsindikatoren offenzulegen. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob Kapitalmarkte soziale Verantwortung von Unternehmen („Corporate Social Responsibility―) belohnen. Diese Belohnung kann in Form von geringeren Kapitalkosten, insbesondere von Eigenkapitalkosten, erfolgen. Diese Magisterarbeit soll einen Beitrag leisten zur Erforschung der Vor- und Nachteile von Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),und eine mogliche Verbindung zwischen CSR und finanzieller Leistungsfahigkeit untersuchen. Zunachst gibt es einen Uberblick uber die externen Finanzierungsmoglichkeiten eines Unternehmens und dessen Kapitalkosten. Es folgt die Definition von CSR, einschlieslich einer Diskussion uber die Verantwortung eines Unternehmens gegenuber seinen Kapitaleignern („Shareholders―) und Interessensgruppen („Stakeholders―), sowie einer Gegenuberstellung von Kosten und Nutzen. Des Weiteren wird eine umfangreiche Sammlung von themenbezogenen Studien betreffend CSR und Finanzleistung vorgestellt. Es folgt die empirische Studie mit einer Stichprobe von deutschen Unternehmen, welche einen moglichen negativen oder positiven Einfluss von besseren CSR-Ratings auf „Equity-Beta― bzw. Liquiditat untersucht.Insgesamt sind vier lineare Regressionsanalysen und eine Varianzanalyse durchgefuhrt worden. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen eine statistisch signifikante und negative Korrelation zwischen CSR-Ratings und Equity-Beta, selbst wenn Firmengrose, Liquiditat, Verschuldungsgrad sowie Industrieeffekte als Kontrollvariablen berucksichtigt werden. Da der Regressionskoeffizient allerdings nicht signifikant ist, wenn die Kontrollvariablen einbezogen werden, scheinen CSR-Ratings keine beeinflussende Wirkung auf Equity-Beta zu haben. Dasselbe Ergebnis zeigt sich fur die gruppierten CSR-Ratings. Zusatzlich wird ein moglicher Zusammenhang zwischen CSR-Ratings und Liquiditat untersucht. Ahnlich der Ergebnisse zu Equity-Beta, suggerieren die Resultate auch hier, dass CSR-Ratings keine Einflussgrose fur die Liquiditat von Aktien darstellen.
CDC: An Energy-Efficient Contact Discovery Scheme for Pocket Switched Networks

In this paper, we address the energy-efficient contact discovery issue in Pocket Switched Networks (PSNs), in which the nodes' mobility pattern shows strong social property. In a PSN, although the end-to-end connection may be disconnected most of the time for a given source-destination pair, several nodes periodically gather at certain hot spots and form well connected clusters. Based on such mobility pattern, cooperation among nodes is utilized in our contact discovery design. The nodes that have already joined a cluster collaboratively wake up to discover new contacts. With local synchronization, the nodes can be operated in sleep mode more frequently, leading to high energy efficiency. Both the theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our cooperative duty cycling (CDC) greatly reduces the energy consumption while achieving comparable data delivery performance.
Predicting Protein Solvent Accessibility with Sequence , Evolutionary Information and Context-based Features

Solvent-accessible surface areas of residues in proteins are key factors in protein folding. Predicting solvent accessibility from protein sequences is significant for modeling the structural and functional characteristics of many proteins. In this work, we introduce an approach of enhancing solvent accessibility prediction accuracy. We derive pseudo-potentials, by considering high-orderinter-residue interactions, according to the amino acid environment around protein residues from large number of protein samples. These context-dependent pseudo-potentials are integrated as scores to estimate the favorability of a residue in solvent accessibility state. The context-based scores are then incorporated as features together with other sequence and evolutionary information to train 2stage neural networks for solvent accessibility prediction. Our computational results have shown that the context-based scores are effective features to enhance the prediction accuracies of protein solvent accessibility. The 7-fold cross validated Q2 accuracy reached 80.76% when context-based scores are incorporated in the training process of the solvent accessibility predictor. Index Terms — Solvent accessibility, Context-based scores, Pseudo-potentials, Neural Networks
Capillary Transit Time Heterogeneity Is Associated with Modified Rankin Scale Score at Discharge in Patients with Bilateral High Grade Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis

Background and Purpose Perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) is inherently unreliable in patients with severe perfusion abnormalities. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of a novel index of microvascular flow-patterns, so-called capillary transit time heterogeneity (CTH) to that of the commonly used delay parameter Tmax in patients with bilateral high grade internal carotid artery stenosis (ICAS). Methods Consecutive patients with bilateral ICAS ≥ 70%NASCET who underwent PWI were retrospectively examined. Maps of CTH and Tmax were analyzed with a volumetric approach using several thresholds. Predictors of favorable outcome (modified Rankin scale at discharge 0–2) were identified using univariate and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results Eighteen patients were included. CTH ≥ 30s differentiated best between patients with favorable and unfavorable outcome when both hemispheres were taken into account (sensitivity 83%, specificity 73%, area under the curve [AUC] 0.833 [confidence interval (CI) 0.635; 1.000]; p = 0.027). The best discrimination using Tmax was achieved with a threshold of ≥ 4s (sensitivity 83%, specificity 64%, AUC 0.803 [CI 0.585;1.000]; p = 0.044). The highest AUC was found for left sided volume with CTH ≥ 15s (sensitivity 83%, specificity 91%, AUC 0.924 [CI 0.791;1.000]; p = 0.005). Conclusion The study suggests that CTH is superior to Tmax in discriminating ICAS patients with favorable from non-favorable outcome. This finding may reflect the simultaneous involvement of large vessels and microvessels in ICAS and underscore the need to diagnose and manage both aspects of the disease.
Efficient algorithms for extracting biological key pathways with global constraints

The integrated analysis of data of different types and with various interdependencies is one of the major challenges in computational biology. Recently, we developed KeyPathwayMiner, a method that combines biological networks modeled as graphs with disease-specific genetic expression data gained from a set of cases (patients, cell lines, tissues, etc.). We aimed for finding all maximal connected sub-graphs where all nodes but $K$ are expressed in all cases but at most $L$, i.e. key pathways. Thereby, we combined biological networks with OMICS data, instead of analyzing these data sets in isolation. Here we present an alternative approach that avoids a certain bias towards hub nodes: We now aim for extracting all maximal connected sub-networks where all but at most $K$ nodes are expressed in all cases but in total (! ) at most $L$, i.e. accumulated over all cases and all nodes in a solution. We call this strategy GLONE (global node exceptions); the previous problem we call INES (individual node exceptions). Since finding GLONE-components is computationally hard, we developed an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm and implemented it with the KeyPathwayMiner Cytoscape framework as an alternative to the INES algorithms. KeyPathwayMiner 3.0 now offers both the INES and the GLONE algorithms. It is available as plugin from Cytoscape and online at http://keypathwayminer.mpi-inf.mpg. de.
An assessment of the level of emotional intelligence attributes of undergraduate built environment students in developing countries

Built environment students graduate with good technical skills but often lack the rudiments of management and leadership skills. Other challenges they face, among others, include interpersonal skills, emotional skills, self-awareness and impulse control. This article presents a case study assessing the emotional intelligence (EI) attributes of built environment students. EI questionnaires (Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i)) were distributed to fourth-year undergraduates studying construction-related courses at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. A total of 182 questionnaires were completed and retrieved from the fourth-year students. Analytical tools included descriptive statistics, mean score ranking, regression and correlation. Construction technology management students had the highest EI value, followed by civil engineering students, quantity surveying and construction economics students and lastly architecture students. There was no significant difference in the overall EQ-i scores of the students. Furthermore, there is insignificant correlation between the built environment programmes and the EI level of the students. The results illustrate that the EI level of the students is not statistically dependent on the programmes undertaken. From regression analysis, age is a significant predictor of EI. This study presents a methodology for assessing the EI levels of built environment students in developing countries and adds to the body of knowledge. The work concludes with directions for future research.
Assessment of Patient Satisfaction on Nursing Care Provided By Nursing Student in Black Lion Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2015

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES, SCHOOL OF ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES, DEPARTMENT OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREE OF MASTER IN CHILD HEALTH NURSING.
Homo Economicus and Homo Stramineus

The model of Homo economicus has often been criticized as unrealistic. In particular, it has been found lacking for allegedly assuming that people are selfish, an assumption which is contradicted by both introspection and empirical evidence. The aim of this paper is to show that never in the history of the economic discipline has selfishness constituted the core of the Homo economicus model. In fact, the standard economic model of behaviour which has been used by economists for more than a hundred years is reticent about the motives of behaviour. Critics thus do not criticize Homo economicus but a straw man - Homo stramineus. Three possible reasons for confusing Homo economicus with Homo stramineus are identified: malicious intent, ignorance and an attempt to avoid the tautological model of behaviour.