Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Varicocele-Induced Infertility in Animal Models

Varicocele is characterized by abnormal tortuosity and dilation of the veins of the pampiniform plexus within the spermatic cord. Although several reports show the mechanisms by which the varicocele exerts its infertility impact, the exact pathophysiology for varicocele-induced inflammation and its relationship with testicular endocrine disruption remain largely unknown. This review article will update previous findings by discussing the pathophysiology of long term-induced varicocele in rats. Testicular endocrine disruption in experimentally-induced varicocele, new findings related to biochemical alterations in germinal epithelium, and sperm cells apoptosis are highlighted. Recent observations show that varicocele down-regulates first and second maturation divisions, results in Leydig and Sertoli cell inflammation, and increases immune cell infiltration in the testes of the rat as an animal model. Ultimately, previous findings of our laboratory have revealed that varicocele decreased sperm motility, viability and severe DNA damage. Damage in sperm significantly lowers the animal’s fertility potential. Varicocele not only exerts its pathologic impact by lowering the testicular antioxidant capacity but it also down-regulates first and second maturation divisions by exerting biochemical alterations such as reducing the intracytoplasmic carbohydrate ratio in germinal epithelium.
Personality and online news commenting behaviours: uncovering the characteristics of those below the line

Commenting on the news is one of the most common forms of participation in news use and one of the most prevalent forms of citizen engagement online. However, very little research has focused on the characteristics of those who contribute to news websites and how this influences their commenting behaviour. Drawing on the Big Five Inventory of personality traits, this exploratory study examines how personality impacts upon the frequency of commenting and motivations for commenting on news websites. Overall, we find that less agreeable and more open to new experiences individuals commented more. Those individuals who demonstrate high levels of neuroticism were more likely to comment on stories which impacted them emotionally. Those who were disagreeable were more likely to comment on a story when they disagreed with the journalist. Those with lower levels of conscientiousness were more likely to comment if they disagreed with other commenters. Finally, disorganised and disagreeable individuals were more likely to comment to see the reaction of other commenters.
Minimal Energy Transfer of Solid Material Between Planetary Systems

The exchange of meteorites among the terrestrial planets of our Solar System is a well established phenomenon that has triggered discussion of lithopanspermia within the Solar System. Similarly, could solid material be transferred across planetary systems? To address this question, we explore the dynamics of the transfer of small bodies between planetary systems. In particular, we examine a dynamical process that yields very low escape velocities using nearly parabolic trajectories, and the reverse process that allows for low velocity capture. These processes are chaotic and provide a mechanism for minimal energy transfer that yield an increased transfer probability compared to that of previously studied mechanisms that have invoked hyperbolic trajectories. We estimate the transfer probability in a stellar cluster as a function of stellar mass and cluster size. We find that significant amounts of solid material could potentially have been transferred from the early Solar System to our nearest neighbor stars. While this low velocity mechanism improves the odds for interstellar lithopanspermia, the exchange of biologically active materials across stellar systems depends greatly upon the highly uncertain viability of organisms over the timescales for transfer, typically millions of years.
Linkages between childhood emotional abuse and marital satisfaction : The mediating role of empathic accuracy for hostile emotions

Research linking childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and adult marital satisfaction has focused on individuals without sufficient attention to couple processes. Less attention has also been paid to the effects of CEA on the ability to read other’s emotions, and how this may be related to satisfaction in intimate relationships. In this study, 156 couples reported on histories of CEA, marital satisfaction and empathic accuracy of their partners’ positive and hostile emotions during discussion of conflicts in their relationships. Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling was used to examine links between CEA and marital satisfaction, with empathic accuracy as a potential mediator. Both men’s and women’s CEA histories were linked not only with their own lower marital satisfaction but also with their partners’ lower satisfaction. Empathic accuracy for hostile emotions mediated the link between women’s CEA and their satisfaction and their partners’ satisfaction in the relationship. Findings suggest that a history of CEA is associated with difficulties with empathic accuracy, and that empathic inaccuracy in part mediates the association between CEA and adult marital dissatisfaction. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Why resilient workers perform better: The roles of job satisfaction and work engagement

ABSTRACT Previous studies have confirmed correlations between resilience and job performance, but surprisingly little is known about the nature of this relationship. This study sheds light on the roles of two important positive dimensions of work-related well-being: job satisfaction and work engagement. Data were collected from 360 Czech workers in helping professions using an online survey. Levels of resilience and perceived job performance were indeed positively associated. Using structural equation modeling, the best-fitting model showed partial mediation by work engagement; conversely, job satisfaction was not found to be a mediator of this relationship. Additionally, the finding that job performance is related more strongly to work engagement than to job satisfaction contributes to the debate about the concurrent validity of job attitudes.
Studying heart rate variability from ballistocardiography acquired by force platform: Comparison with conventional ECG

Ballistocardiography (BCG), measuring the heart beat-induced mass movements of the body generated by forces associated to heart contraction, has been recently reconsidered as a useful non-invasive technique to characterize cardiac performance, potentially offering a simple, efficient and affordable solution for e-health monitoring. Our aim was to extract heart rate variability indices from BCG signal (B-HRV), and to evaluate their correlation with ECG-derived (E-HRV) ones, both in time and frequency domains.
Multisectoral Growth and National Innovation Systems

Terje Lensberg and other participants of the NOPEC conference on "Innovations, Policy and Society" (Oslo, December 1997) are gratefully acknowledged. 2 Because of their emphasis on bounded rationality and on technology as a very special kind of good, many economists dealing with the economics of technical change and the broader field of evolutionary economics tend to apply a form of theorising that de-emphasise formal abstraction and the related modelling criteria of rigour, consistency and robustness (see e.g. Dosi et al. 1988, Freeman and Soete 1997). Instead they emphasise relevance for description and policy-making in relation to the real world. The term used by Nelson and Winter (1982, 46) for this style of research is "appreciative theorising". attempt to avoid formal modelling per se. For them it is often the only way of theorising about important economic phenomena, given the gap between these phenomena and the scope of available formal modelling tools. There is, however, an inherent contradiction in ambitious appreciative theorising: it tries with rather simple and informal means to capture phenomena that are more complex that the ones treated by mainstream modelling tools. This is especially obvious in the recent studies on hyper-complex phenomena like national innovation systems and technology systems. Such studies started with e.g. papers Now we see many national studies, intensified descriptive work by international organisations as well as collective works edited by e. In relation to this new wave of innovation systems studies there is a need of a new type of model which is on the one hand open to the issues confronted by appreciative-style researchers and on the other hand able to capture systematically the core interdependencies of an economic system with heterogeneous firms engaged in exploring and exploiting an expanding set of economic activities. The paper outlines a type of model which is designed for this purpose. To begin with it is, however, useful to consider the debate on appreciative theorising. Appreciative theorising is good for exploring a new problem area and for establishing a preliminary agenda for empirical and conceptual research. But in a certain sense 3 appreciative theorising is too flexible when confronted with the huge number of ways of reducing the complex phenomenon of an innovation system into a manageable form: it does not constrain each researcher from choosing an idiosyncratic specification. This problem becomes obvious if a research area like that of innovation systems grows both in terms …
Enhancing security of Android & IOS by implementing need-based security (NBS)

The most popular Smartphone platforms i.e. Android and iOS are equipped with the built-in security features to safeguard their end users. Android, being an Open Source Mobile Operating System, has some security vulnerabilities. Such limitations are also present in iOS which is a proprietary platform with some open source components. In this paper we will compare in detail the security features of Android and iOS, with the intent to integrate the need based security (NBS) model in Android which selectively grants permission to access resources on a Smartphone at run time. This paper proposes the implementation of a reverse engineering process which restricts an app's permissions and provides a need based mechanism to access resources. The repackaged app with need based security will run on all devices that were supported by the original application.
Memristor-based approximated computation

The cessation of Moore's Law has limited further improvements in power efficiency. In recent years, the physical realization of the memristor has demonstrated a promising solution to ultra-integrated hardware realization of neural networks, which can be leveraged for better performance and power efficiency gains. In this work, we introduce a power efficient framework for approximated computations by taking advantage of the memristor-based multilayer neural networks. A programmable memristor approximated computation unit (Memristor ACU) is introduced first to accelerate approximated computation and a memristor-based approximated computation framework with scalability is proposed on top of the Memristor ACU. We also introduce a parameter configuration algorithm of the Memristor ACU and a feedback state tuning circuit to program the Memristor ACU effectively. Our simulation results show that the maximum error of the Memristor ACU for 6 common complex functions is only 1.87% while the state tuning circuit can achieve 12-bit precision. The implementation of HMAX model atop our proposed memristor-based approximated computation framework demonstrates 22× power efficiency improvements than its pure digital implementation counterpart.
Financial accessibility and user fee reforms for maternal healthcare in five sub-Saharan countries: a quasi-experimental analysis

Objectives Evidence on whether removing fees benefits the poorest is patchy and weak. The aim of this paper is to measure the impact of user fee reforms on the probability of giving birth in an institution or undergoing a caesarean section (CS) in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Cameroon and Nigeria for the poorest strata of the population. Setting Women's experience of user fees in 5 African countries. Primary and secondary outcome measures Using quasi-experimental regression analysis we tested the impact of user fee reforms on facilities’ births and CS differentiated by wealth, education and residence in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Mapping of the literature followed by key informant interviews are used to verify details of reform implementation and to confirm and support our countries’ choice. Participants We analysed data from consecutive surveys in 5 countries: 2 case countries that experienced reforms (Ghana and Burkina Faso) by contrast with 3 that did not experience reforms (Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria). Results User fee reforms are associated with a significant percentage of the increase in access to facility births (27 percentage points) and to a much lesser extent to CS (0.7 percentage points). Poor (but not the poorest), and non-educated women, and those in rural areas benefitted the most from the reforms. User fees reforms have had a higher impact in Burkina Faso compared with Ghana. Conclusions Findings show a clear positive impact on access when user fees are removed, but limited evidence for improved availability of CS for those most in need. More women from rural areas and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds give birth in health facilities after fee reform. Speed and quality of implementation might be the key reason behind the differences between the 2 case countries. This calls for more research into the impact of reforms on quality of care.
Flexible body dynamics of the goldfish C-start: implications for reticulospinal command mechanisms

As a model for learning how reticulospinal networks coordinate movement, we have analyzed the function of the Mauthner (M-) neurons in the escape response of the goldfish. We used water displacements of 3–6 micron to elicit C-start escape responses. These responses consist of 2 fundamental movements that grade into each other: Stage 1 lasts 15–40 msec and rotates the body 30 degrees-100 degrees about the center of mass; stage 2 is an axial acceleration that moves the center of mass 2– 6 cm. Combined, the 2 stages result in trajectory turns ranging from 15 degrees to 135 degrees. Thus, these data show that M-initiated C-starts are not fixed movement patterns. The durations of stage 1 body muscle EMGs were correlated with turn angles achieved during stage 1. Since variable stage 1 EMGs are not seen when the M-cell is triggered by itself, other circuits, independent of the M-cell, must control the extent of the initial turn, and consequently escape trajectory. Furthermore, turning angles of stages 1 and 2 were correlated, allowing escape trajectory to be predicted, on average, 26 msec after movement started. This suggests that the commands for escape trajectory should be organized by the end of stage 1. In concert with this, the time of onset of the stage 2 EMG preceded the stage 2 onset by a range with a mean of 28.4 msec, typically putting the stage 2 command at the beginning of stage 1 movement. Thus, stage 2 initiation does not require motion-dependent feedback. Our findings indicate that the Mauthner cell initiates the first of a series of motor commands that establish the initial left-right decision of the escape sequence from the side of the stimulus, whereas parallel circuits simultaneously organize the command controlling the escape angle.
School performance and hospital admissions due to self-inflicted injury: a Swedish national cohort study.

BACKGROUND Self-inflicted injury in youth has increased in many Western countries during recent decades. Education is the most influential societal determinant of living conditions in young people after early childhood. This study tested the hypothesis that school performance predicts self-inflicted injury. METHODS A national cohort of 447 929 children born during 1973-77 was followed prospectively in the National Patient Discharge Register from the end of their ninth and last year of compulsory school until 2001. Multivariate Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to test hypotheses regarding grades in ninth grade as predictors of hospital admission due to self-inflicted injury. RESULTS The risk of hospital admission because of self-inflicted injury increased steeply in a step-wise manner with decreasing grade point average. Hazard ratios were 6.2 (95% confidence interval 5.5-7.0) in those with the lowest level of grade point average compared with the highest. The risks were similar for women and men. Adjustment for potential socio-economic confounders in a multivariate proportional hazards regression analysis attenuated this strong gradient only marginally. CONCLUSION School performance is a strong factor for predicting future mental ill-health as expressed by self-inflicted injury.
Modeling of inertial particle flow and entry gas flow in micro-channels

MODELING OF INERTIAL PARTICLE FLOW AND ENTRY GAS FLOW IN MICRO-CHANNELS Reza RASOOLI M.S. in Mechanical Engineering Supervisor: Barbaros Çetin January, 2017 Microfluidics is integration of micro-fabrication techniques together with the knowledge of flow behavior at micro scale to design and achieve particle manipulation, separation, sorting and etc. which is important for biomedical and biological applications. In this regard, analytical and numerical analysis and modeling play an important substantial role and serve as a basis for further and better understanding of basic and fundamental concepts and create a more transparent picture for an optimized design with desired properties. In the present thesis, behavior of both liquid type and gas type working fluid have been studied. For the liquid flow, finite Reynolds number flow regimes which is also known as inertial microfluidics has been considered. Inertial microfluidics have exhibited promising and rigorous abilities in size based particle separation due to existence of inertial lift force and secondary flow (for curved channels). For the gas flow, governing equations of an incompressible and isothermal flow have been analytically solved using a linearization technique proposed in the literature for the hydrodynamic entrance region due to its importance for excess pressure drop and heat transfer. For this purpose, simulation of particle focusing using Lagrangian particle tracking method has been carried out for both straight and spiral micro-channel. For simulation authentication, experimental investigation have also performed and compared with the simulation upshots.
SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS AFFECTING PREGNANCY OUTCOME AMONG THE OGU SPEAKING PEOPLE OF BADAGRY AREA OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA.

Pregnancy outcomes rank among the most pressing reproductive health challenges all over the world. Globally, an annual estimate of 600,000 women of reproductive age (aged 15-49) died of pregnancy related causes, with 99 percent coming from the developing world with Nigeria accounting for well over 10 percent of this figure. This study is an exploratory one. It therefore focuses on socio-cultural factors affecting pregnancy outcome among the Ogu speaking people of Badagry area of Lagos State, Nigeria. Triangulation method was used for data collection. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select 120 respondents. Chi-square technique was used to test the hypothesis for the study. In spite of modernisation, the culture of the people of Ogu Community still play dominant role in shaping their reproductive behaviour. Hence, the study found positive relationship between socio-cultural factors and pregnancy outcome among Ogu speaking people of Badagry of Lagos State, Nigeria.
Linking leadership practices to performance of the US federal agencies

PurposeThe mechanism by which leadership influences organizational performance has largely been unexplained. This study intends to fill this gap. This study identified the six specific leadership practices: promoting inter-unit collaboration, managing diversity, providing performance feedback, ensuring goal directedness, developing employees, and resource provision. This study also identified a number of generic functions of leadership, that is, promoting cooperation, clarifying employees’ roles, and improving skills in organization. Then the mediating effects of the three generic functions were tested in order to link the specific leadership practices to organizational performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was used for analyzing the data from the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to investigate the mediating model.FindingsThe effects of the six specific leadership practices on organizational performance were mediated by the three generic leadership functions.Originality/valueThe result of this study delineated the linking paths between leadership practices and organizational performance which has largely remained as a black box. Moreover, since the specific leadership practices are categorized by the generic functions that are instrumental for organizational performance, it provides theoretical and empirical grounds for managerial prescriptions for improving organizational performance.
Gis 1 and Rph 1 , candidate histone demethylases in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

SUMMARY Post-translational histone methylation plays a particularly important role in a wide range of biological processes including transcriptional regulation, cell differentiation, heterochromatin formation, X-chromosome inactivation and genomic imprinting. Histone methylation was thought to be a permanent epigenetic mark until recently, when a number of studies have demonstrated that it is dynamically regulated by histone demethylases. The major family of histone demethylases is comprised of JmjC (Jumonji C) domain-containing proteins. Gis1 and Rph1, two out of five JmjC domain-containing proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are thus predicted to be histone demethylases. In this investigation, these proteins were fused to GST (Glutathione S-transferase), expressed in bacteria, and isolated by GST purification. Demethylation assays of purified GST-fusion proteins using core histones and histone peptides containing certain methylations were carried out, and then changes in methylation were monitored with Western blots and mass spectrometry. The results suggest that Rph1 is a H3K9me3, H3K36me3 and H3K36me2 specific demethylase, while Gis1 appeared to have no function in reversing histone methylation.
Seasonal and Regional Characteristics of U.S. Streamflow Trends in the United States from 1940 to 1999

J. R. Mather (1981) observed that runoff (streamflow) constitutes a significant phase of the hydrologic cycle. He also noted that it takes at least 15-25 years of systematic observations to characterize statistically the spatial and temporal patterns in streamflow. With this in mind, a recent assessment of temporal trends in streamflow (Lins and Slack, 1999) is updated to encompass the 60-year period 1940-1999, using data from 435 climate-sensitive stream-gauging stations and expanded to include regional and seasonal characteristics. The previously documented pattern of increasing discharge in the low to moderate range of flows is corroborated, with this pattern being most pronounced in the central two-thirds of the U.S. and to a lesser extent in the eastern coastal regions and in the Great Basin. Relatively few trends are observed in the annual maximum flow. No systematic shift in the timing of the annual minimum, median, or maximum flow is detected in any region on a monthly time scale. The observed increases in low to moderate streamflows, typical of the warm and transitional seasons, are consistent with documented trends in warm and transition season precipitation, and indicate that natural U.S. surface water supply has increased without a concomitant increase in flooding.