Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of exogenous calcium on the growth and physiological traits of garlic seedlings under cadmium stress.

In this study, the alleviation effect of exogenous calcium (Ca) against cadmium (Cd) toxicity to growth, photosynthetic characteristics, antioxidant properties, and absorption of nutrients was explored in nutrient solution-cultured garlic seedlings. The results indicated that Cd significantly inhibited the growth of garlic seedlings as well as reduced the chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr), and stomatal conductance (Gs) of the garlic leaves. Cd also induced a peroxidation of garlic leaf cells due to an increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content; Cd also reduced the activities of the superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) in the garlic leaves. Additionally, Cd inhibited the absorption of nutrient elements (N, P, K, Ca, and Mg) but increased the Cd accumulation in garlic. Different concentrations of exogenous Ca alleviated the Cd toxicity. The morphological indexes (plant height, pseudostem diameter, pseudostem length and plant fresh weight) increased at low concentrations but decreased at high concentrations of exogenous Ca. From among the various exogenous Ca concentrations, the most effective dosage was either 2 or 3 mmol/L. The chlorophyll content and photosynthetic parameters (Pn, Tr, and Gs) of the leaves showed a similar tendency to the morphological indexes and were greatest when the exogenous Ca was 2 or 3 mmol/L. Moreover, exogenous Ca enhanced the SOD, POD and CAT activities and reduced the MDA content in the leaves, improved nutrient uptake, and reduced Cd accumulation, 2 or 3 mmol/L exogenous Ca was determined the most effective dose.
Induction of lactation in dry dairy dattle.

Abstract Lactation was successfully induced in 14 of 15 non-pregnant cows treated for 7 days with twice daily subcutaneous injections of 15 mg oestradiol-17β and 37.5 mg progesterone. The successfully induced cows were first machine-milked about 8 days after the end of treatment and, although they milked for as long as their naturally calving identical twins, produced significantly less milk, fat and lactose. Augmenting the basic regimen with Opticortenol or thyrotrophin-releasing hormone produced no advantage. Plasma and milk hormone analyses were conducted and used to study the onset of lactogenesis and possible meat and milk residues. Ten of the 15 treated cows showed frequent oestrous activity and 4 became lame. Pregnancy rates after an 8-week insemination period were 69% and 93% for treated and control cows, respectively. It is concluded that the technique is unlikely to gain wide acceptance in the form used here.
Can Budgetary Slack Still Prevail Within New Zealand's New Public Management'

The New Zealand (NZ) Government began its public sector reforms in 1984. The purposes of the reforms were to build a more open public sector, a plainer and clearer way of reporting, emphasising accountability and transparency (Wallace, 1993). A central focus of the reforms was to change the accounting culture by adopting accrual accounting and a 3-year budgeting and planning management cycle within Government Ministries. By investigating whether or not budgetary slack is used as a risk management strategy in NZ's new public management (NPM) control setting, this study examines how successful the reforms are, more that 20 years after their inception. Budgetary slack is the excess requirements for resources or understatement of productive capability. Slack allows a budget to be easily achieved and gives a false perception of managers' performance, defeating the basic purpose of budgets. As little research has been conducted on this phenomenon in NZ's NPM, this study was undertaken. Using budgetary slack and earnings management literature, an empirical model is developed to examine whether the potential for budgetary slack exists in NZ Government Ministries. The five Ministries of: Health, Education, Transport, Justice, and Building & Housing, were chosen for this study. They provide a mix of sizes and are very topical for some specific reasons within the political arena. Results of this study will be of interest to the Government, public sector managers, taxpayers, other stakeholders, and academics.
Study of Relationship between Capital Intensity and Corporate Governance Practices of Firms Listed in Indian Stock Exchange: A Sectoral Analysis

This is an attempt to understand the role of capital intensity in corporate governance and disclosure practices of firms. Accordingly, this research studies the corporate governance and disclosure practices of firms listed in Indian stock market. The study has taken nine sectors into consideration – Auto, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Health Care, Oil & Gas, Metal, and Power along with IT. These sectors are segregated into high capital intensity and low capital intensity sectors. Prior research found that capital intensity of firms is negatively correlated with governance and disclosure practices. This study aims to establish a relationship, if any, between capital intensity of firms and their corporate governance practices in Indian context. After thorough empirical research, the paper explains why Indian scenario is different from intangible assets-dominated economy such as United States.
Follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma grades 3A and 3B have a similar outcome and appear incurable with anthracycline-based therapy.

BACKGROUND The revised World Health Organization (WHO) classification maintains a histological grading system (grades 1-3) for follicular lymphoma (FL) and subdivides grade 3 into 3A (FL3A) and 3B (FL3B) subtypes. Optimal therapy of FL grade 3 and its potential curability with anthracycline-based chemotherapy remain uncertain. PATIENTS AND METHODS We carried out a retrospective population-based analysis evaluating the clinical characteristics and outcome of FL3A and FL3B as strictly defined by WHO diagnostic criteria. Using the BC Cancer Agency Lymphoid Cancer Database, 161 patients with FL grade 3 were identified and, following detailed pathology review, composed of 139 with FL3A and 22 with FL3B. RESULTS Patients with FL3B had a higher overall International Prognostic Index (IPI) score than FL3A patients (P = 0.03), though no significant difference in individual IPI risk factor frequencies was noted. More patients with FL3B received front-line anthracycline-containing chemotherapy (82% versus 36%, P ≤ 0.001). With median follow-up of 45 months, no difference in disease-specific survival (P = 0.74) or overall survival (OS) (P = 0.87) was found between FL3A and FL3B and no survival curve plateau was observed. Analysis limited to FL3A patients showed no OS advantage with front-line anthracycline use (P = 0.33). CONCLUSION Using strict diagnostic criteria, there appears to be no difference in outcome between patients with FL3A and FL3B and no evidence of curability with anthracycline-based therapy.
Zidovudine Azido-Reductase in Human Liver Microsomes: Activation by Ethacrynic Acid, Dipyridamole, and Indomethacin and Inhibition by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Protease Inhibitors

ABSTRACT AZT (zidovudine, 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine), although metabolized primarily to AZT-glucuronide, is also metabolized to 3′-amino-3′-deoxythmidine (AMT) by reduction of the azide to an amine. The formation of the myelotoxic metabolite AMT has not been well characterized, but inhibition of AMT formation would be of therapeutic benefit. The aim of this study was to identify compounds that inhibit AMT formation. Using human liver microsomes under anaerobic conditions and [2-14C]AZT, Km values of AZT azido-reductase, estimated by radio-thin-layer chromatography, were 2.2 to 3.5 mM (n = 3). Oxygen completely inhibited this NADPH-dependent reduction. Thirteen of the 28 compounds tested inhibited the formation of AMT. In addition to the CYP3A4 inhibitors ketoconazole, fluconazole, indinavir, ritonavir, and saquinavir, metyrapone strongly inhibited AMT formation. An unexpected finding was the more-than-twofold increase in AMT formation in the presence of ethacrynic acid, dipyridamole, or indomethacin. Such activation of toxic metabolite formation would impair drug therapy.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS S 253 In Vivo Proton MR Spectroscopy of the Breast 1

In vivo proton magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy (hydrogen 1 spectroscopy) provides useful information about the pathology of breast lesions by the measurement of diagnostic chemicals visible on the MR timescale. Spectroscopic measurements may be obtained following contrast-enhanced MR imaging by applying a point-resolved spatially localized spectroscopy sequence. The observation of resonances at discrete spectral frequencies allows an accurate diagnosis. In spectra obtained in vivo in malignant breast cancers, an observed resonance at 3.23 ppm is consistent with phosphocholine. In spectra from benign breast lesions and some normal breast tissue in lactating mothers and in some nonlactating healthy women, a recorded resonance at 3.28 ppm is thought to originate from glycerophosphocholine, taurine, or myoinositol. The success of in vivo spectroscopy depends on the appropriate pre-acquisition setup, acquisition protocol, and postprocessing techniques for achieving high spectral resolution and a signalto-noise ratio sufficient to separate the resonances of the important biomarkers. When implemented correctly, the method is diagnostically accurate and robust. RSNA, 2007
Pressure-induced structural phase transitions in solid xenon.

Pressure-induced structural phase transitions have been observed in solid xenon by high-pressure x-ray diffraction methods up to 137 GPa (1.37 Mbar). The face-centered-cubic structure is unstable above 14 GPa and transforms to an intermediate, close-packed phase. Above 75 GPa a further transition takes place to the hexagonal-close-packed structure which remains stable to at least 137 GPa. At this pressure, where V = 10.5 +- 0.2 cm/sup 3//mol (V/V/sub 01/ = 0.30), there is no evidence for band-gap closure.
Scalp Defect Repair: A Comparative Analysis of Different Surgical Techniques

AbstractScalp defects often arise in multimorbid patients. This study aimed at establishing an algorithm of defect repair with particular focus on new regenerative options.All patients, who consulted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Plastic Surgery, University Jena between April 2005 and March 2010 were reviewed. Different reconstructive options were compared with regard to duration of hospital stay as well as rate of reoperations needed to achieve full closure.Sixty-eight patients were identified. Local flaps were more effective than skin grafts (P = 0.038) and microvascular free flaps (P = 0.037) in case of skin-galea-periosteal-defects. However, no differences were found between skin grafting in combination with wound bed preconditioning using a dermal regeneration template and microvascular free flap transfer.Scalp defects should be repaired based on careful evaluation of defect anatomy as well as patient’s general health. Application of dermal regeneration templates allows for an increase of the indication spectrum of free skin grafts.
Appearance invariance in convolutional networks with neighborhood similarity

We present a neighborhood similarity layer (NSL) which induces appearance invariance in a network when used in conjunction with convolutional layers. We are motivated by the observation that, even though convolutional networks have low generalization error, their generalization capability does not extend to samples which are not represented by the training data. For instance, while novel appearances of learned concepts pose no problem for the human visual system, feedforward convolutional networks are generally not successful in such situations. Motivated by the Gestalt principle of grouping with respect to similarity, the proposed NSL transforms its input feature map using the feature vectors at each pixel as a frame of reference, i.e. center of attention, for its surrounding neighborhood. This transformation is spatially varying, hence not a convolution. It is differentiable; therefore, networks including the proposed layer can be trained in an end-to-end manner. We analyze the invariance of NSL to significant changes in appearance that are not represented in the training data. We also demonstrate its advantages for digit recognition, semantic labeling and cell detection problems.
A Fourier series based expression deformation model for 3D face recognition

This paper presents a Fourier series based expression deformation model for 3D face recognition. Given a set of training 3D face scans with sufficient facial expressions, these face scans are first preprocessed and represented as a series of Fourier series coefficients. Then, the shape residues between the non-neutral and neutral face scans of the same subject are calculated. These residues are supposed to contain the expression deformation patterns and PCA is applied to learn these patterns. The eigenvector with top eigenvalue in the generated lower dimensional subspace of PCA is then used to build the expression deformation model. Experimental results show the feasibility and merits of the proposed expression deformation model in the recognition scenario.
Forecasting Convective Initiation by Monitoring the Evolution of Moving Cumulus in Daytime GOES Imagery

As the resolution (in both space and time) of atmospheric observing systems increase, so does our ability to monitor and forecast aspects of mesoscale weather phenomena. One aspect that has gained increased interest is the short-term prediction of rainfall events, especially those that evolve on mesotime scales (minutes to ~3 hours), which certainly include thunderstorm convection. Because thunderstorms are accompanied by rapidly changing weather on spatial and temporal scales important to travelers, energy providers and aviation interests, and produce weather hazards and phenomena that often adversely impact professionals ranging from farmers to pilots, there is a critical need to accurately predict thunderstorm development, evolution, and movement. Hazards related to thunderstorms (lightning, hail, strong winds and wind shear) cost the aviation industry many millions of dollars annually in lost time, fuel and efficiency through delayed, cancelled and rerouted flights, as well as accidents (Mecikalski et al. 2002; Murray 2002). Therefore, increased skill in forecasting thunderstorm initiation and evolution would be beneficial to a wide variety of interests. The premises guiding this work are: 1) the CI process is well observed by satellite as small cumulus clouds grow to the cumulonimbus scale, and 2) that processing geostationary satellite data in near real-time is an optimal means of evaluating the rapidly evolving CI process. The purpose of this study then is to evaluate, in near real-time satellite imagery, the visible (VIS) and infrared (IR) signals of CI toward the development of a CI nowcasting (0-1 hour forecasting) algorithm. In particular, processing daytime geostationary satellite imagery from the GOES-12 instrument is done to identify cumulus clouds for which CI is likely to occur in the near future. The outcome is an evaluation of how sequences of VIS and IR data from GOES-12 can be used to predict CI up to 45 mins prior to its occurrence during daylight hours. The data used are 1 km VIS and 4-8 km IR imagery at 15-min frequencies. As VIS and IR data are processed, approximately 16 (14 IR) pieces of information become available for use in describing the character, growth, and evolution of convective clouds,
Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of sustainable operations

A clear understanding of the issues surrounding climate change, global warming, air and water pollution, ozone depletion, deforestation, the loss of biodiversity and global poverty is essential for every manager in the hospitality industry. Present and future hospitality executives need to know how sustainable management systems can be integrated into their businesses while maintaining and hopefully improving the bottom line. Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry explores innovative ways to tackle the ever increasing costs of energy and water as well as the moral, ethical, social and political arguments for taking action. This book uses case studies throughout to explore the following key issues:*How can hospitality properties and equipment be designed to use less resources? *What are the benefits of using more sustainable food and beverage sources? *How can environmental impacts be reduced and profitability increased? *How can properties integrate sustainability management systems and stay one step ahead of the competition? *How can the reputation of a hospitality operation be improved to attract investment by incorporating responsible marketing and corporate social responsibility policies?
48P. User-Generated Content and Perceived Control: A Pilot Study of Empowering Consumer Decision Making

There is growing interest in understanding of how User-Generated Content (UGC) empowers online consumer behavior. In this paper, we explore the relationships between Consumer Empowerment and Perceived Control (mediated by Self-Efficacy) over the decision making process using UGC. The results of this study reveal that Perceived Control has an influence on intention to use UGC. The findings also suggest that Consumer Empowerment has the capacity to influence Perceived Control, both directly (primarily via Content Empowerment), and indirectly (via Social Empowerment and Process Empowerment, mediated by SelfEfficacy, which in turn influences Perceived Control).
2 TOWARD A THEORY OF COMMUNITY-BASED ENTERPRISE

Theoretical models that separate social, political and environmental factors from the economics dimensions of entrepreneurship cannot account for the failed experiences in business development among very poor populations. In this article, we develop the concept of Community-Based Enterprise (CBE) and argue that it provides a potential strategy for sustainable local development. We maintain that in this emerging form of entrepreneurship, typically rooted in community culture, natural and social capital are integral and inseparable from economic considerations, transforming the community into an entrepreneur and an enterprise. Drawing on interdisciplinary and multilevel approaches, we propose a theoretical model of the determinants, characteristics, and consequences of CBEs.
Evaluation and treatment of childhood obesity.

The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States has risen dramatically in the past several decades. Although 25 to 30 percent of children are affected, this condition is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Hormonal and genetic factors are rarely the cause of childhood obesity; unnecessary diagnostic evaluations can be avoided with a careful history and physical examination. Because obese children may suffer life-long physical and emotional consequences, it is imperative to discuss prevention with parents during well-child examinations. All obese children should be screened for cardiac risk factors, as well as for possible orthopedic, dermatologic and psychiatric sequelae. Treatment should be initiated when the trend in increasing weight obviously surpasses the trend in increasing height. Treatment plans should include reasonable weight-loss goals, dietary and physical activity management, behavior modification and family involvement, which may include weight loss in the parents. Anorexiant medications are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in pediatric populations.
IPO Waves and Hot Markets in the UK

This paper examines the cyclical nature of IPO activity in the UK. The results indicate a lead-lag relationship between IPO initial returns and volume. IPO volume is sensitive to recent changes in market conditions. There is evidence of industry concentration in hot markets, and fi rms raise more equity during these periods. Overall, IPO waves in the UK share similar characteristics with those in the US. The findings are consistent with rational explanations of IPO waves. However, explanations based on investor sentiment and market timing cannot be ruled out, since there is a strong positive relationship between IPO volume and the market's price-to-book ratio.
How much blood is needed?

Demographic changes in developed countries as their populations age lead to a steady increase in the consumption of standard blood components. Complex therapeutic procedures like haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cardiovascular surgery and solid organ transplantation are options for an increasing proportion of older patients nowadays. This trend is likely to continue in coming years. On the other hand, novel aspects in transplant regimens, therapies for malignant diseases, surgical procedures and perioperative patient management have led to a moderate decrease in blood product consumption per individual procedure. The ageing of populations in developed countries, intra‐society changes in the attitude towards blood donation as an important altruistic behaviour and the overall alterations in our societies will lead to a decline in regular blood donations over the next decades in many developed countries. Artificial blood substitutes or in vitro stem cell‐derived blood components might also become alternatives in the future. However, such substitutes are still in early stages of development and will therefore probably not alleviate this problem within the next few years. Taken together, a declining donation rate and an increase in the consumption of blood components require novel approaches on both sides of the blood supply chain. Different blood donor groups require specific approaches and, for example, inactive or deferred donors must be re‐activated. Optimal use of blood components requires even more attention.
European Government Bond Dynamics and Stability Policies: Taming Contagion Risks

From 2004 to 2015, the market perception of the sovereign risks of the euro area government bonds experienced several different phases, reflected in a clear time structure of the correlation matrix between the yield changes. “Core” and “peripheral” bonds cluster in a bloc-like structure, but the correlations between the blocs are time-dependent and even become negative in periods of stress. Using noise-filtered partial correlation influences, this time dependency can be evaluated and visualized using network graphs. Our results support the view that market-implied spillover risks have decreased since the European rescue and stability mechanisms came into force in 2011. EFSF bond issues have been trading as part of the “core” bloc since 2011. In 2015, spillover risks reappeared during the Eurogroup’s negotiations with Greece, although the periphery yields did not show risk spreads that were as large as those in 2012.