Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Community Based Participatory Research Approach to Create a Diabetes Prevention Documentary for Māori

Type 2 diabetes is almost three times more prevalent in the indigenous people of New Zealand (Māori) than non-Māori. Despite the high rate of diabetes there is a low level of diabetes knowledge and awareness in the Māori community. Several studies of Māori health identify a need for new health communication approaches to diabetes prevention in order to reduce the gap between Māori and non-Māori disease rates. Several problems can be identified with existing health promotion and education materials about type 2 diabetes for Māori. There is a gap in the literature reporting on what constitutes a culturally appropriate research process for health communication with Māori. A second problem is a difficulty ascertaining how and if health behaviour theory was selected when designing health promotion materials for type 2 diabetes with Māori. There is a need to make explicit the research process and employment of theory in the design of health promotion materials. In addition, little is known about how Māori understand or experience type 2 diabetes, or the social and cultural meaning given to the disease. These are significant gaps because a tenet of effective health communication is the need to engage with and understand how cultural, social, environmental and historical factors influence health behaviours. The research objective was to ascertain how Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in combination with indigenous principles and behavioural theory could be employed to create a culturally appropriate resource for Christchurch adult Māori at risk for type 2 diabetes. This study describes the rationale for and process of working in partnership with an indigenous population to develop a health communication resource that reflects Māori beliefs and cultural practices. Principles of CBPR were applied to a qualitative research design employing community engagement and partnership, key informant interviews and hui (focus groups) to inform the messaging of a diabetes prevention documentary. In order to decolonise the research process, Walters et al.’s (2009) “indigenist” research principles were incorporated into the research design and evaluation.
Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor α Activators Improve Insulin Sensitivity and Reduce Adiposity*

Fibrates and glitazones are two classes of drugs currently used in the treatment of dyslipidemia and insulin resistance (IR), respectively. Whereas glitazones are insulin sensitizers acting via activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ subtype, fibrates exert their lipid-lowering activity via PPARα. To determine whether PPARα activators also improve insulin sensitivity, we measured the capacity of three PPARα-selective agonists, fenofibrate, ciprofibrate, and the new compound GW9578, in two rodent models of high fat diet-induced (C57BL/6 mice) or genetic (obese Zucker rats) IR. At doses yielding serum concentrations shown to activate selectively PPARα, these compounds markedly lowered hyperinsulinemia and, when present, hyperglycemia in both animal models. This effect relied on the improvement of insulin action on glucose utilization, as indicated by a lower insulin peak in response to intraperitoneal glucose in ciprofibrate-treated IR obese Zucker rats. In addition, fenofibrate treatment prevented high fat diet-induced increase of body weight and adipose tissue mass without influencing caloric intake. The specificity for PPARα activationin vivo was demonstrated by marked alterations in the expression of PPARα target genes, whereas PPARγ target gene mRNA levels did not change in treated animals. These results indicate that compounds with a selective PPARα activation profile reduce insulin resistance without having adverse effects on body weight and adipose tissue mass in animal models of IR.
Synthesis of precision waveforms using a SINIS Josephson junction array

A synthesizer of precision ac waveforms based on a binary superconductor insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor (SINIS) Josephson junction array has been developed. The array segments are individually biased using a high-speed bias source which gives a switching time of approximately 250 ns between voltage steps. The accuracy limitations of the system due to limited risetime and bandwidth are discussed. Comparisons between the synthesizer and a planar multijunction thermal converter (PMJTC) indicate that it is possible to synthesize sine waves with known rms value having an accuracy in the range of 1 part in 10/sup 7/.
Crystal Structure of Mouse CD1d Bound to the Self Ligand Phosphatidylcholine: A Molecular Basis for NKT Cell Activation12

NKT cells are immunoregulatory lymphocytes whose activation is triggered by the recognition of lipid Ags in the context of the CD1d molecules by the TCR. In this study we present the crystal structure to 2.8 Å of mouse CD1d bound to phosphatidylcholine. The interactions between the ligand acyl chains and the CD1d molecule define the structural and chemical requirements for the binding of lipid Ags to CD1d. The orientation of the polar headgroup toward the C terminus of the α1 helix provides a rationale for the structural basis for the observed Vα chain bias in invariant NKT cells. The contribution of the ligand to the protein surface suggests a likely mode of recognition of lipid Ags by the NKT cell TCR.
A preliminary investigation of the effect of force variation for myoelectric control of hand prosthesis

The myoelectric control of prostheses has been an important area of research for the past 40 years. Significant advances have been achieved with Pattern Recognition (PR) systems regarding the number of movements to be classified with high accuracy. However, practical robustness still needs further research. This paper focuses on investigating the effect of the change in force levels by transradial amputee persons on the performance of PR systems. Two below-elbow amputee persons participated in the study. Three levels of forces (low, medium, and high) were recorded for different hand grips with the help of visual feedback from the Electromyography (EMG) signals. Results showed that changing the force level degraded the performance of the myoelectric control system by up to 60% with 12 EMG channels for 4 hand grips and a rest position. We investigated different EMG feature sets in combination with a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier. The performance was slightly better with Time Domain (TD) features compared to Auto Regression (AR) coefficients and Root Mean Square (RMS) features. Finally, the error of the classification was considerably reduced to approximately 17% when the PR system was trained with all force levels.
Bridging the gap between learning management systems and learning object repositories: exploiting learning context information

The paper explores the capabilities of a metadata framework based on learning technologies to make learning management systems (LMS) interoperate with learning object repositories (LOR), so that the LOR can obtain information from the LMS context that facilitates the retrieval of existing and insertion of new documents. The study distinguishes two uses cases (indexation of a SCORM compliant document and insertion of an arbitrary document) and identifies several ways to generate automatically IEEE-LOM metadata starting from the LMS context. The framework will be deployed in two real learning projects, with two different LMS. Even if the produced metadata seems to describe the learning resources well, users involved in these projects will provide a variety of feedback to enhance the quality and relevance of automatically generated metadata.
Serum trace elements in Zairian mothers and their newborns.

OBJECTIVES Pregnant women in developing countries might be at risk of trace element deficiencies. These deficiencies could have deleterious effects on fetus. Therefore, serum trace elements were determined at delivery in Zairian mothers and their newborns. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Maternity ward of Kinshasa University Hospital (Zaire). SUBJECTS 166 pregnant women admitted for delivery and their newborns. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Zinc, copper and selenium were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Haematocrit, lymphocyte count, transferrin, ferritin and anthropometric indices (birth weight, length, head and arm circumferences; mother weight) were also evaluated. RESULTS Serum selenium concentrations were high [mothers: 0.76-1.56 mumol/l (60-124 micrograms/l), newborns: 0.45-1.21 mumol/l (36-96 micrograms/l)]; zinc concentrations were low [mothers: 3.9-11.9 mumol/l (253-773 micrograms/l), newborns: 5.8-17.4 mumol/l (378-1130 micrograms/l)] and copper concentrations were in the range of previous works [mothers: 16.2-49.0 mumol/l (1020-3088 micrograms/l), newborns: 0.7-14.3 mumol/l (44-900 micrograms/l)]. Mother serum indices, age, weight and parity had little influence on newborn serum trace elements. In umbilical serum, copper was correlated to selenium (r = 0.340, P < 0.01); selenium (r = 0.310, P < 0.001) and copper (r = 0.404, P < 0.001) were correlated to transferrin. Newborn selenium (r = 0.310, P < 0.001) and copper (r = 0.257, P < 0.01) concentrations were related to head circumference. Newborn selenium concentration varied according to birth weight [< 2500 g: 0.58-0.86 mumol/l (45-67 micrograms/l); > 2500 g: 0.48-1.20 mumol/l (37-94 micrograms/l). Umbilical serum copper concentration was related to birth length (r = 0.197, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that: (1) copper and selenium status at delivery in Zairian mothers are similar to those in developed countries, whereas zinc status is poor; (2) trace element and nutritional status in the mother and fetus are independent.
Edible nuts and metabolic health

Purpose of review This review summarizes evidence for metabolic health benefits of tree nuts and groundnuts (peanuts). While a role for nuts in the dietary management of LDL-cholesterol is well established, it is evident that regular consumption of nuts may also help to counteract other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. Recent findings Nuts are not only energy dense foods, they are rich sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and other bioactive nutrients with important metabolic effects. Contrary to expectations, epidemiological studies indicate that regular consumption of nuts is unlikely to contribute to obesity or increased risk of diabetes. In fact, it may help to regulate body weight by suppressing appetite and fat absorption. Nut consumption counteracts dyslipidemia and has the capacity to improve circulatory function through the actions of multiple constituents (arginine, polyphenols) on endothelial mechanisms. Summary Nuts are densely packaged nutrients with wide-ranging cardiovascular and metabolic benefits, which can be readily incorporated in healthy diets. Their potential role in counteracting obesity and the metabolic syndrome warrants further investigation.
Identification of CCDC62‐2 as a novel cancer/testis antigen and its immunogenicity

Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are expressed in normal germ line tissues and various cancers. They are considered promising target molecules for immunotherapy for patients with various cancers. To identify CT antigens, we performed serological identification of antigens by recombinant expression cloning. The humoral immune response of cancer patients against a newly defined antigen was analyzed. A testicular cDNA library was immunoscreened with serum obtained from a gastric adenocarcinoma patient whose primary cancer had regressed once and most liver metastasies had disappeared transiently. We isolated 55 positive cDNA clones comprising 23 different genes. They included 4 genes with testis‐specific expression profiles in the Unigene database, including coiled‐coil domain containing 62 (CCDC62). RT‐PCR analysis showed that the expression of 2 splice variants of CCDC62 was restricted to the testis in normal adult tissues. In malignant tissues, CCDC62 variant 2 (CCDC62‐2) was aberrantly expressed in a variety of cancers, including stomach cancer. A serological survey of 191 cancer patients with a range of different cancers by ELISA revealed antibodies to CCDC62‐2 in 13 patients, including stomach cancer. None of the 41 healthy donor serum samples were reactive in the same test. The serum reaction against CCDC62‐2 was confirmed by western blot. CCDC62‐2 is a CT antigen that is immunogenic in cancer patients. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
VEGF, VEGFR‐1, VEGFR‐2, microvessel density and endothelial cell proliferation in tumours of the ovary

VEGF is an angiogenic factor with potent endothelial cell (EC) proliferative actions. Our aim was to investigate whether expression of VEGF and its receptors and EC proliferation differ between ovarian tumour types and regions of the vasculature. VEGF, VEGFR‐1, VEGFR‐2 and EC proliferation were examined immuno‐histochemically, and in situ hybridisation (ISH) studies of VEGF mRNA expression were performed and assessed in regions of high (HVD) and average (AVD) vessel density. VEGF immunostaining was significantly stronger in HVD regions of malignant compared with borderline serous tumours. VEGF immunostaining did not differ between tumour types; however, the percentage of VEGFR‐1‐ and VEGFR‐2‐positive vessels was significantly lower in mucinous tumours. No differences were observed between HVD and AVD regions. VEGF ISH signal was observed in 2/7 borderline mucinous tumours, 8/14 malignant serous tumours and 5/13 benign tumours. The EC proliferation index was significantly lower in the HVD regions of serous relative to benign tumours. A negative correlation between VEGFR‐1 immunostaining and microvessel density was observed in benign and serous tumours. However, EC proliferation index and VEGFR‐1 positivity were positively correlated in benign tumours. Our results suggest that VEGF may play a role in the control of angiogenesis in serous and benign tumours but it does not appear to contribute to the previously reported higher microvessel density in mucinous tumours or to influence heterogeneity of microvessel density in ovarian tumours. Int. J. Cancer (Pred. Oncol.) 84:101–108, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The equilibrium relationship between public and total employment. The importance of endogenous non-labour income

This paper analyses the general equilibrium relationship between increases in tax financed public employment and total employment, emphasizing one income effect: Reallocating employment from the private to the public sector reduces non-labour income in the form of profits distributed to workers, since there are no profits in public sectors. This may cause a positive general equilibrium relationship between total employment and tax financed public employment, even if the uncompensated wage elasticity of labour supply is positive. Such a positive relationship is consistent with the stylized facts in generous welfare states such as Norway and Sweden. Precise conditions for a positive general equilibrium relationship are derived within the simplest possible model. It is also shown that if such a positive relationship exists, it will be stronger the higher is public employment. This mechanism turns out to be crucial when explaining the employment effect of an increase in tax financed public employment generated by a realistic CGE model of the Norwegian economy.
Follicular dendritic cells in the alternative antigen transport pathway: microenvironment, cellular events, age and retrovirus related alterations.

Follicular dendritic cells (FDC) are located in lymphoid follicles of secondary lymphoid tissues and play a pivotal role in the initiation and maintenance of the secondary antibody response. FDC are an integral part of the microenvironment of the follicle and function as members of the 'alternative antigen transport pathway. ' This pathway consisting of the antigen transport cell-FDC-ICCOSOME-B cell axis, leads to the formation of germinal centers where antibody-forming cell and memory B cell development are initiated through interaction of FDC-retained antigen, B cells and T helper cells. Evidence suggests that these interactions are down-regulated through antibody feedback, or as needed, reactivated with the utilization of FDC-retained antigen for the maintenance of antibody levels. Age- and retrovirus-related FDC defects seriously compromise the capacity of this pathway to maintain immunity.
Neuropsychiatric Syndromes in Dementia

Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to identify neuropsychiatric subsyndromes of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory in a large sample of outpatients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: Cross-sectional data of 2,354 patients with AD from 12 centres from the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium were collected. Principal component analysis was used for factor analysis. Results: The results showed the presence of 4 neuropsychiatric subsyndromes: hyperactivity, psychosis, affective symptoms and apathy. The subsyndrome apathy was the most common, occurring in almost 65% of the patients. Conclusion: This large study has provided additional robust evidence for the existence of neuropsychiatric subsyndromes in AD.
Effect of different sowing dates on growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars under mid hill situation of West Bengal

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi 2008-09 and 2009-2010 at the Regional Research Station (Hill Zone) of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalimpong (1250 m amsl), to elucidate the ef- fect of different sowing dates and cultivars on yield of wheat ( Triticum aestivum (L.) emend Fiori & Paol. ). The experiment was conducted in split plot design with 3 replications with treatments comprising five dates of sowing viz. Nov. 1, Nov. 15, Nov. 30, Dec. 15 and Dec. 30 in main plots and 6 different wheat cultivar viz. HS 473, HPW 236, VL 875, HS 365, VL 832, PBW 343 and SKW 196 in sub-plots. Sowing on Novem- ber 15, significantly influenced most yield attributes and was at par with November 30 sowing, but signifi- cantly superior to later sowings. The highest grain yield was obtained with November 15 sowing (2.79 and 2.49 t/ha), which was at par with November 30, and November 1 sowings in first year and in second year this was statistically similar with all date of sowing except extreme late sown condition. Sowing in mid November gave 14.9 and 26.2% more grain yield over December 30 sowing. Amongst the cultivars, HS 473 was found to be best and gave significantly more grain yield than HS 365 (2.93 and 2.74 t/ha) and was at par with VL 875 (2.86 and 2.50 t/ha) and PBW 343 (2.89 and 2.61 t/ha). More biomass production was recorded with early November 15 sowing, which was at par with November 30 sowing. Within the cultivars, maximum biomass production was recorded with HS 473 (7.78 and 7.28 t/ha) and was statisti- cally at par with VL 875, SKW 196 and PBW 343. Uptake of NPK was most with PBW 343, which was at par with HS 473. Maximum net return ( 24,926 and 23,192/ha, respectively) recorded with No- vember 15 sowing, followed by November 30 sowing. This treatment also recorded higher B: C ratio (2.11 and 2.03, respectively). Amongst cultivars, maximum net return ( 26,986 and 24,368/ha) and B: C ratio (2.21 and 2.08) was recorded with cultivar HS 473 followed by PBW 343 and SKW 196.
A Comparative Study of Islamic Banking Practices

This paper examines the practices of Islamic banks from eleven Muslim countries. The selected areas include the usage of Sharia principles and the uses and sources of funds. Disparity exists especially in areas such as number of Sharia principles employed and its usage in banking activities. There are also differences in the sources and uses of funds among the sample banks. In the case of the sources of funds, the differences are due to the types of accounts available and Sharia principles adopted by banks in delivering those services. For the usage of funds, all banks tend to concentrate in mark-up financing activities. Variations also appear in the area of sectoral financing. These differences are largely influenced by the economic development of the country in which the Islamic bank operates.
Relationship between human resource management practices, ethical climates and organizational performance, the missing link

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of human resource management (HRM) practices, (recruitment and selection) and organizational performance (OP) through mediation role of ethical climates (ECs) in Nigerian educational agencies.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative data were collected from 181 educational agencies represented by director of administration; SmartPLS-SEM was used in testing the relationship, as well as testing the mediating effect of ECs.FindingsThe results revealed strong support for the mediating role of ECs on the relationship between HRM practice (recruitment and selection) and OP.Research limitations/implicationsPolicy makers and executives in educational agencies need to consider making appropriate decision in terms of effectively adopt and implement performance-based HRM practices that can encourage and create ethical behavior of employees’ and within organization. Through the adoption and utilization of these practices, educational agencies can enhance OP.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between HRM and OP by clarifying a pathway between these variables. This study also generalizes consistent findings on the HRM practices and OP relationship to a different discipline and context, i.e. educational agencies.Originality/valueThis study adds to the domain of resource-based view by incorporating EC as a mediator between HRM practices and OP.
Estimation of the Seismic Moment Rate from an Incomplete Seismicity Catalog, in the Context of the InSight Mission to Mars

We evaluate methods to estimate the global seismic moment rate of a planet from the k >= 1 largest events observed during a limited and possibly short-time span, as can be expected, for example, for lander missions to Mars. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated with a temporary broadband seismometer that was recording in the Mojave desert, California, for 86 days in 2014, and by application to the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) catalog, subsets thereof, and a catalog of stable continental regions seismicity. From the largest event observed at Goldstone alone (M-w approximate to 7.9), we estimate the Earth's global moment rate to be 1.03 x 10(22) N . m/yr, whereas an estimation based on the 10 strongest events yields a rate of 5.79 x 10(21) N . m/yr. Summation of 42 yr of Global CMT solutions results in an average of 7.61 x 10(21) N . m/yr. In general, a 2 yr interval of Global CMT solutions is sufficient to estimate the Earth's annual moment rate to within a factor of 5 or better. A series of numerical experiments with more than 560 million synthetic catalogs based on the tapered Gutenberg-Richter distribution shows that the estimation is rather insensitive against an unknown slope of the distribution, and that bias and variance of the estimator depend on the ratio between moment rate and corner moment of the size frequency distribution. Moment rates of published Mars models differ by a factor of 1000 or more. Tests with simulated catalogs show that it will be possible to reject some of these models with data returned by NASA's InSight mission after two years of nominal mission life time.