Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zingiber officinale Protective Effects on Gentamicin's Toxicity on Sperm in Rats

Background: Ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale R., family: Zingiberaceae) is used medicinally and as a culinary spice and has anti-oxidant and cell-protective effects in animals and humans body. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of Ginger rhizome toxicity of Gentamicin on sperm parameters in male rats. Methods: Forty Wistar male rat (n=40) were allocated into four groups, control (n=10) and test groups (n=30), that subdivided into groups of 3 that received ginger rhizome powder (100 mg/kg/day), gentamicin group that received, 5 mg/kg/day and ginger group that received, 5 mg/kg/day gentamicin additionally, for 30 consequence day. Animals were kept in standard conditions. In thirty day the testes tissue of Rats in whole groups were collected. Results: Ginger administration caused a marked increase in the testosterone concentrations of the rats even in spite of receiving 5 mg/kg/day gentamicin in compared with the control and gentamicin treated groups. Conclusion: Ginger rhizome is able to overcome reproductive toxicity of gentamicin and induces spermatogenesis probably mainly through the elevation of testosterone levels.
An Evaluation of the Differences between Big City and Small Town Special Education Services for Students with Low Incidence Disabilities in Kentucky

Researchers have suggested that educational programming for students with low incidence disabilities in rural settings may be limited. In the current study, researchers surveyed special education teachers across Kentucky and collected demographic data on two exemplar districts. Results indicated that differences existed between urban and rural districts on several variables but that some rural communities in Kentucky were able to overcome barriers to the provision of educational programming for students with low incidence disabilities prevalent in other parts of rural America.
Alterations in Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid Norepinephrine and Angiotensin II During the Development of Renal Hypertension in Conscious Dogs

The levels of norepinephrine (NE), epinephrine (E), and angiotensin II immunoreactiv– ity (AIIlr) in plasma and in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured in eight conscious dogs before and during a 28-day period in the development of two-kidney, one clip (2K1C) hypertension produced by a two-step procedure. The early phase (< 7 days) of hypertension following partial constriction of the renal artery was accompanied by tachycardia and increases in concentrations of NE and AII, r in both plasma and CSF; E did not change. One week later blood pressure remained elevated (107 ± 2 after vs 88 ± 2 mm Hg before clipping, p<0.05), but other variables returned to control values. Occlusion of the partially constricted renal artery caused severe hypertension that was initially associated with a transient decrease in levels of NE in both plasma and CSF and a sustained rise in plasma and CSF concentrations of AIIlr that persisted for as long as 2 weeks after the second operation. None of these effects was seen in nine sham-operated dogs. Since activation of the renal pressor system is associated with time-related changes in the concentrations of NE and AH in both plasma and CSF, these observations indicate early involvement of both sympathetic and renin-angiotensin systems in the pathogenesis of renovascular hypertension.
Propagation of linear surface air temperature trends into the terrestrial subsurface

[1] Previous studies have tested the long-term coupling between air and terrestrial subsurface temperatures working under the assumption that linear trends in surface air temperature should be equal to those measured at depth within the subsurface. A one-dimensional model of heat conduction is used to show that surface trends are attenuated as a function of depth within conductive media on time scales of decades to centuries, therefore invalidating the above assumption given practical observational constraints. The model is forced with synthetic linear temperature trends as the time-varying upper boundary condition; synthetic trends are either noise free or include additions of Gaussian noise at the annual time scale. It is shown that over a 1000 year period, propagating surface trends are progressively damped with depth in both noise-free and noise-added scenarios. Over shorter intervals, the relationship between surface and subsurface trends is more variable and is strongly impacted by annual variability (i.e., noise). Using output from the FOR1 millennial simulation of the GKSS ECHO-G General Circulation Model as a more realistic surface forcing function for the conductive model, it is again demonstrated that surface trends are damped as a function of depth within the subsurface. Observational air and subsurface temperature data collected over 100 years in Armagh, Ireland, and 29 years in Fargo, North Dakota, are also analyzed and shown to have subsurface temperature trends that are not equal to the surface trend. While these conductive effects are correctly accounted for in inversions of borehole temperature profiles in paleoclimatic studies, they have not been considered in studies seeking to evaluate the long-term coupling between air and subsurface temperatures by comparing trends in their measured time series. The presented results suggest that these effects must be considered and that a demonstrated trend equivalency in air and subsurface temperatures is inconclusive regarding their long-term tracking.
Advanced Modeling of a Synchronous Generator Under Line-Switching and Load-Rejection Tests for Isolated Grid Applications

This paper deals with an efficient method behind the analysis of a saturated synchronous generator (SG) under line-switching and load-rejection tests for islanded networks. This novel approach is based on a SG and ( P,V,Q) load-equivalent combined state-space model. Full and partial load-rejection tests and line-switching tests are explored. The k -factor cross-saturation theory of SG is applied to account for the saturation phenomenon in the proposed model. The paper also attempts to point out the duality between line-switching and load-rejection tests. As the best alternative to the load-rejection test, the line-switching test is simple and more suitable, providing easy steady-state conditions (zero armature currents and rotor angle). Consequently, there is no need for rotor angle positioning when performing the test. Comparisons between simulation results and actual data obtained from a four-pole 1.5-kVA, 208-V, 60-Hz laboratory machine show the effectiveness of the proposed SG stator decrement tests analysis framework.
Single-Unit Activity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex during Immediate and Delayed Extinction of Fear in Rats

Delivering extinction trials minutes after fear conditioning yields only a short-term fear suppression that fully recovers the following day. Because extinction has been reported to increase CS-evoked spike firing and spontaneous bursting in the infralimbic (IL) division of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), we explored the possibility that this immediate extinction deficit is related to altered mPFC function. Single-units were simultaneously recorded in rats from neurons in IL and the prelimbic (PrL) division of the mPFC during an extinction session conducted 10 minutes (immediate) or 24 hours (delayed) after auditory fear conditioning. In contrast to previous reports, IL neurons exhibited CS-evoked responses early in extinction training in both immediate and delayed conditions and these responses decreased in magnitude over the course of extinction training. During the retention test, CS-evoked firing in IL was significantly greater in animals that failed to acquire extinction. Spontaneous bursting during the extinction and test sessions was also different in the immediate and delayed groups. There were no group differences in PrL activity during extinction or retention testing. Alterations in both spontaneous and CS-evoked neuronal activity in the IL may contribute to the immediate extinction deficit.
Pluralism and Liberal Neutrality

From value pluralism to liberalism, George Crowder liberal legitimacy, reasonable disagreement and justice, Simon Caney neutrality and recognition, Anna Elisabetta Galeotti consensus, neutrality and compromise, Richard Bellamy and Martin Hollis multiculturalism, secularism and the state, Tariq Modood imposing liberal principles, Andrew Mason pluralism within the limits of reason alone? Habermas and the discursive negotiation of consensus, Samantha Ashenden identity and multicultural politics, John Arthur the ideal of cultural patrimony, Timothy O'Hagan.
A scalable lock manager for multicores

Modern implementations of DBMS software are intended to take advantage of high core counts that are becoming common in high-end servers. However, we have observed that several database platforms, including MySQL, Shore-MT, and a commercial system, exhibit throughput collapse as load increases, even for a workload with little or no logical contention for locks. Our analysis of MySQL identifies latch contention within the lock manager as the bottleneck responsible for this collapse. We design a lock manager with reduced latching, implement it in MySQL, and show that it avoids the collapse and generally improves performance. Our efficient implementation of a lock manager is enabled by a staged allocation and de-allocation of locks. Locks are pre-allocated in bulk, so that the lock manager only has to perform simple list-manipulation operations during the acquire and release phases of a transaction. De-allocation of the lock data-structures is also performed in bulk, which enables the use of fast implementations of lock acquisition and release, as well as concurrent deadlock checking.
Decisional Conflict in Parents Considering Bone-Anchored Hearing Devices in Children With Unilateral Aural Atresia

Objective: The benefits of bone-anchored hearing devices (BAHD) in children with unilateral aural atresia are controversial. We sought to determine whether there is parental decisional conflict surrounding elective placement of BAHD for this indication. Methods: Caregivers of pediatric patients with unilateral aural atresia and normal contralateral ear undergoing percutaneous BAHD consultation were enrolled. All consultations were carried out by one pediatric otolaryngologist in a consistent manner. After consultation, the participants completed a demographics form and the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS) questionnaire. Results: Twenty-three caregivers of 15 male (65.2%) and 8 female (34.8%) children (mean age 5.65 years) participated. The overall median DCS score was 15.63 (standard error = 4.21). Significant decisional conflict (DCS score ≥ 25) was found in 10 participants (43.5%). The median DCS score in the group choosing surgery was 5.47, and it was 23.44 in those who did not choose surgery (Mann–Whitney U = 39, Z = −1.391, P = .164). The median DCS score for mothers and fathers was 25 and 3.91, respectively. Conclusion: Many parents experienced significant decisional conflict when considering percutaneous BAHD surgery in children with unilateral aural atresia in our study population. Future research should explore the impact of decisional conflict on health outcomes.
Oxygen abundances in nearby stars - Clues to the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk

The abundances of iron and oxygen are homogeneously determined in a sample of 523 nearby (d 5500 K and [Fe/H] −0.3, we find no obvious indication of a sudden decrease (i.e., a “knee”) in the [O/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] pattern of thick-disk stars that would connect the thick and thin disk trends at a high metallicity. We conclude that Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) did not contribute significantly to the chemical enrichment of the thick disk. In the −0.8 < [Fe/H] < +0.3 range, thin-disk stars show decreasing [O/Fe] ratios from about 0.4 to 0.0 that require a SN Ia contribution. The implications of these results for studies of the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk are discussed.
Adjudication of fibromyalgia syndrome: Challenges in the medicolegal arena

The medicolegal challenges surrounding fibromyalgia (FM) arise from the subjectivity of symptoms, causal attribution and reported symptoms sufficiently severe to cause disablement. In the present article, the authors have endeavoured to provide clarification of some current issues by referencing the current literature, including the 2012 Canadian Fibromyalgia Guidelines. While FM is accepted as a valid condition, its diagnosis is vulnerable to misuse due to the subjectivity of symptoms. Without a defining cause, a physical or psychological event may be alleged to trigger FM, but adjudication of causation must be prudent. Although some individuals may experience severe symptoms, the prevalent societal concept of disablement due to FM must be tempered with the knowledge that working contributes to psychosocial wellbeing. Evidence provided in the present report may assist the courts in reaching decisions concerning FM.
Attention and executive function in children with and without single-suture craniosynostosis

Children with single-suture craniosynostosis (SSC) have higher rates of learning disabilities and related neurocognitive problems than unaffected peers. Executive function (EF) and attention are thought to be areas of particular vulnerability, though studies to date have been limited by small sample sizes and a lack of control groups. We evaluated 179 school-aged children with SSC (cases) and 183 unaffected controls at an average age of 7 years using clinician-administered and parent and teacher report measures of EF and attention. Among children with SSC, we examined differences as a function of suture location (sagittal, metopic, unicoronal, or lambdoid) and age of corrective surgery. We used linear regression analyses, adjusted for potential confounders, to compare the two groups on all outcome measures. Cases scored lower than controls on most measures, though the magnitude of these differences was small and most were statistically insignificant. The largest relative deficit was on a measure of inhibitory control. Results changed little in sensitivity analyses adjusting for potential attrition bias and for the effects of developmental and academic interventions. Among cases, there were few differences in relation to the location of suture fusion or timing of surgery. Overall, we found limited evidence of broad deficits in EF or attention in children with SSC relative to unaffected controls. Neurocognitive development for children with SSC appears to be variable, across affected children and outcomes assessed. Further research is needed to understand the potential sources of this variability.
Temporal Construal in Advertising

In two experiments, we study how the temporal orientation of consumers (i.e., future-oriented or present-oriented), temporal construal (distant future, near future), and product attribute importance (primary, secondary) influence advertisement evaluations. Data suggest that future-oriented consumers react most favorably to ads that feature a product to be released in the distant future and that highlight primary product attributes. In contrast, present-oriented consumers prefer near-future ads that highlight secondary product attributes. Study 2 shows that consumer attitudes are mediated by perceptions of attribute diagnosticity (i.e., the perceived usefulness of the attribute information). Together, these experiments shed light on how individual differences, such as temporal orientation, offer valuable insights into temporal construal effects in advertising.
Learning Styles, Subject Matter, and Effectiveness in Undergraduate Distance Education

Are potential relationships among students’ learning styles and effectiveness in online education moderated by subject matter for undergraduate students at a private higher education institution? This causal relationship correlational study evaluated the effects of subject matter as a moderating variable between students learning styles and effectiveness of distance education (DE). Students in online English courses and online math courses at a private university located in the southeastern United States completed the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument and an end of course satisfaction survey. Tests for homogeneity determined that the two comparison groups (English and math) were comparable since only one out of 11 variables analyzed had a statistically significant difference. Eight null hypotheses were evaluated for each of the four dimensions of the ILS and achievement or satisfaction. The null hypotheses were retained for seven of the eight null hypotheses. Subject matter did not appear to be a moderating variable for these seven relationships. However, the eighth null hypothesis was rejected. The correlation between the ILS measure of sequential/global learning style and student satisfaction for students completing an English course differed significantly from that of students completing a math course. There was a high correlation in the English group between the sequential/global dimension of the ILS and course satisfaction. DE course designers of English courses should take extra precautions to present material in logical or sequential steps.
The role of teachers' self-efficacy in increasing children's physical activity

It is well documented that elementary school children do not participate in recommended amounts of physical activity, and that elementary physical education programs generally are unable to insure that children engage in appropriate amounts of activity. One solution to this dilemma is to increase childrens activity levels through collaborative efforts such as whole school programs involving the classroom teachers. If this approach is to be successful, it is important to investigate ways that elementary classroom teachers can be actively involved in school level programs that will ultimately increase childrens physical activity levels. Elementary classroom teachers are often responsible for at least a portion of the instructional requirements in physical education, but tend to view this responsibility negatively. Self-efficacy is a powerful theoretical approach for determining and improving a persons participatory behavior and their perseverance in the face of obstacles. This study investigates self-efficacy as a framework to facilitate the involvement of classroom teachers in whole school physical activity programs. The purpose was to investigate how teachers self-efficacy influences their participatory behavior. This was an experimental design involving 148 classroom teachers and their classes from 11 elementary schools (six experimental, six control). Instruments were employed to assess and explain teachers self-efficacy strength and sources, teachers participation, and students participation in a nine-week physical activity intervention. Statistical analyses of the quantitative data confirmed support for (a) self-efficacy theorys predictive aspects of teachers participatory behavior in innovative physical activity programs, (b) a causal relationship between the level of teachers participation and their subsequent self-efficacy, (c) emerging theories of self-efficacys malleability. The themes that emerged from the analyses of the qualitative data reflected the belief that (a) environmental influence on teachers capability beliefs, though still prominent, decreases after actual participation in a program, (b) during participation, teachers shift importance away from more abstract factors to more concrete factors, (c) teachers with enhanced efficacy are more able to negotiate environmental barriers, confirming a central tenet of self-efficacy theory and explaining the findings of the quantitative part of this research project.
Facilitating Transformative Learning: A Framework for Practice.

This paper explores some of the challenges that are involved in facilitating transformative learning. It presents a framework for practice that considers transformative learning from the perspective of the facilitator. These ideas were developed through a doctoral study in which adult educators were interviewed about their experiences in facilitating transformative learning. The framework comprises four components: confirming and interrupting current frames of reference, working with triggers for transformative learning, acknowledging a time of retreat or dormancy, and developing the new perspective. Using the four components of this framework for practice, I outline a series of questions for reflection. Through detailed reflection on aspects of program design and the interactions in the learning group, we can further our knowledge about the transformative aspects of our programs.
Multiple Sequence Alignments in Linguistics

In this study we apply and evaluate an iterative pairwise alignment program for producing multiple sequence alignments, ALPHAMALIG (Alonso et al., 2004), using as material the phonetic transcriptions of words used in Bulgarian dialectological research. To evaluate the quality of the multiple alignment, we propose two new methods based on comparing each column in the obtained alignments with the corresponding column in a set of gold standard alignments. Our results show that the alignments produced by ALPHAMALIG correspond well with the gold standard alignments, making this algorithm suitable for the automatic generation of multiple string alignments. Multiple string alignment is particularly interesting for historical reconstruction based on sound correspondences.
Gravitational lensing in modified Newtonian dynamics

Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is an alternative theory of gravity that aims to explain large-scale dynamics without recourse to any form of dark matter. However, the theory is incomplete, lacking a relativistic counterpart, and so makes no definite predictions about gravitational lensing. The most obvious form that MONDian lensing might take is that photons experience twice the deflection of massive particles moving at the speed of light, as in general relativity (GR). In such a theory there is no general thin-lens approximation (although one can be made for spherically symmetric deflectors), but the three-dimensional acceleration of photons is in the same direction as the relativistic acceleration would be. In regimes where the deflector can reasonably be approximated as a single point-mass (specifically low-optical depth microlensing and weak galaxy–galaxy lensing), this naive formulation is consistent with observations. Forthcoming galaxy–galaxy lensing data and the possibility of cosmological microlensing have the potential to distinguish unambiguously between GR and MOND. Some tests can also be performed with extended deflectors, for example by using surface brightness measurements of lens galaxies to model quasar lenses, although the breakdown of the thin-lens approximation allows an extra degree of freedom. None the less, it seems unlikely that simple ellipsoidal galaxies can satisfy both constraints. Furthermore, the low-density universe implied by MOND must be completely dominated by the cosmological constant (to fit microwave background observations), and such models are at odds with the low frequency of quasar lenses. These conflicts might be resolved by a fully consistent relativistic extension to MOND; the alternative is that MOND is not an accurate description of the Universe.