Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rates of formation and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid in bovine hypovitaminosis A.

Abstract Ventriculocisternal perfusion (VCP) was used to determine the rates of bulk absorption (inulin clearance, C In ) and formation ( V ˙ f ) of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in nine hypovitaminotic A and ten vitamin A adequate calves. The average intraventricular CSF pressures were 374 and 54mm of synthetic CSF for the deficient and adequate calves, respectively, with corresponding plasma vitamin A concentrations of 5 and 29μg/100ml. Regressions of C In and V ˙ f , both in g/min, on perfusion pressure (−100, 0, or +200mm of synthetic CSF relative to the initially determined CSF pressure), X, were, respectively, for the deficient and adequate calves : C In = 0.258 + 0.00062 X and C In = 0.318 + 0.00111 X (SD = 0.038) ; V ˙ f = 0.312 − 0.00016 X and V ˙ f = 0.328 − 0.00030 X \( SD = 0.034 \) . The magnitude of the response to the induced VCP pressures was significantly less for C In in the deficient calves; whereas, for V f , differences were not significant. Thus, absorption of CSF is impaired in hypovitaminotic A calves.
Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part II: Metaheuristics

This paper surveys the research on the metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). The VRPTW can be described as the problem of designing least cost routes from one depot to a set of geographically scattered points. The routes must be designed in such a way that each point is visited only once by exactly one vehicle within a given time interval; all routes start and end at the depot, and the total demands of all points on one particular route must not exceed the capacity of the vehicle. Metaheuristics are general solution procedures that explore the solution space to identify good solutions and often embed some of the standard route construction and improvement heuristics described in the first part of this article. In addition to describing basic features of each method, experimental results for Solomon's benchmark test problems are presented and analyzed.
Fair value accounting by listed South African companies in the non-financial sector

This study uses a content analysis of 82 listed South African companies’ annual reports to determine the extent to which South African listed companies in the non-financial sector choose optional fair value accounting (FVA). The study found that almost all companies disclosed historical cost as their primary measurement basis, disclosed FVA for financial instruments as the exception to the historical cost basis, and generally did not choose the fair value option in areas where International Financial Reporting Standards offer a free choice of whether or not to apply FVA. More specifically, most companies did not choose optional FVA for property, plant and equipment and did not choose optional FVA for intangible assets. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the non-property investment companies did not choose optional FVA for investment properties in contrast to the property-investment companies where nearly all adopted optional FVA to account for their investment properties. Ninety-six percent (96%) of companies did not account for investments in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures at fair value in their separate financial statements. The study therefore concludes that companies generally do not adopt optional FVA where there is a choice of whether to do so or not.
Electron Confinement, Orbital Ordering, and Orbital Moments in d 0 -d 1 Oxide Heterostructures

The (SrTiO3)m/(SrVO3)n d 0 d 1 multilayer system is studied with first principles methods through the observed insulator-to-metal transition with increasing thickness of the SrVO3 layer. When correlation effects with reasonable magnitude are included, crystal field splittings from the structural relaxations together with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) determines the behavior of the elec- tronic and magnetic structures. These confined slabs of SrVO3 prefer Qorb=(�;�) orbital ordering ofz = 0 andz = 1 (jz = 1 ) orbitals within the plane, accompanied by Qspin=(0,0) spin order (ferromagnetic alignment). The result is a SOC-driven ferromagnetic Mott insulator. The orbital moment of 0.75 �B strongly compensates the spin moment on thez = 1 sublattice. The insulator-metal transition for n = 1 ! 5 (occurring between n=4 and n=5) is reproduced. Unlike in the isoelectronic d 0 d 1 TiO2/VO2 (rutile structure) system and in spite of some similarities in orbital ordering, no semi-Dirac point (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 166803 (2009)) is encountered, but the insulator-to-metal transition occurs through a different type of unusual phase. For n=5 this system is very near (or at) a unique semimetallic state in which the Fermi energy is topologically determined and the Fermi surface consists of identical electron and hole Fermi circles centered at k=0. The dispersion consists of what can be regarded as a continuum of radially-directed Dirac points, forming a "Dirac circle".
A Giardia duodenalis gene encoding a protein with multiple repeats of a toxin homologue

SUMMARY A gene, CRP136, from the intestinal protozoan parasite Giardia duodenalis, expressed at a high level in a metronidazole-resistant line, encodes a 136 kDa protein with 23 copies of a 40 amino acid repeat. The protein is cysteine-rich and has the typical membrane-spanning region and CXXC amino acid motifs of a family of Giardia cysteine-rich surface proteins (CRSPs). The repeat unit in CRP136, shares 57% homology with the gene encoding the precursor of the sarafotoxins, a group of snake toxins from the burrowing adder known to cause symptoms similar to those of humans acutely infected with Giardia. The sarafotoxins are low molecular weight sulphydryl cross-linked peptides which are proteolytically cleaved from a precursor polyprotein. CRP136 has homology over the entire length of the sarafotoxin precursor, and the repeats are of the same length. Thus CRP136 represents the first evidence for a potential Giardia toxin. The genomic copy number of CRP136 appears to be the same in both the parent and drug-resistant lines and expression of this gene, and at least one other, is associated with a conserved partial duplication, but not amplification, of one chromosome.
Increased C4d and Bb immunoreactivity and decreased MBL immunoreactivity characterise first-time pathologic first-trimester miscarriage: a case-control study

Abstract The role of the complement system in first-time pathologic first-trimester miscarriage was investigated. In this case-control study, tissue samples of 126 women with pathologic miscarriage and termination of normal pregnancies were assessed. The pathologic pregnancy group consisted of 40 women with missed miscarriage, 13 women with incomplete miscarriage and 10 women with a blighted ovum. The control group consisted of 63 normal-appearing pregnancies. Immunoreactivity for C4d, Bb and MBL was evaluated in the deciduas and villous trophoblasts separately using a semi-quantitative histological scoring system (H-score). C4d and Bb H-scores were higher and MBL H-score was reduced in the deciduas and villous tissues from pathologic miscarriage compared to termination of pregnancies (p = .003 and p = .001; p = .011 and p < .001; p < .001 and p < .001, respectively). C4d and Bb activities were increased and MBL activity was decreased in human first-time pathologic first-trimester miscarriage. We suggest that three complement pathways may play a role in human first-time pathologic first-trimester miscarriage. Impact statement Previous studies focussed on complement proteins related to a single complement pathway in cases often associated with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) or recurrent miscarriage. In APS-related cases, the classical pathway is activated. In antibody-dependent and in antibody-independent mouse models of foetal loss, classical and alternative pathways are activated, respectively. Lectin pathway deficiency has been reported in some recurrent miscarriage. The complement pathway or pathways, which have a role in human pathologic miscarriage was the starting point of this study. There has been no study done till now reporting the role of the three complement pathways in human pathologic miscarriage. In this study, we found increased classical and alternative complement pathway activities and decreased lectin pathway activity in tissues from first-time pathologic human miscarriage.
Do Audit Committee and Characteristics of Board of Directors Influence Earnings Management?

Earnings management has attracted much attention in this globalized economic environment due to large accounting scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. National governments and other market-regulation institutions are taking measures to restrain earnings management in order to ensure the reliability and transparency of financial reporting. This study explores whether audit committees and boards of directors influence earnings management using the literary review method. The findings show that both discretionary accruals and abnormal accruals are mostly used as dependent variables to detect earnings manipulation estimated by the Jones and Modified Jones Models. For the most part, evidence from previous literatures indicates that the more independent the members of the audit committee and board, the higher the quality of earnings in financial reporting. However, some opposite findings exist.
Thin films flowing down inverted substrates: Three dimensional flow

We study contact line induced instabilities for a thin film of fluid under destabilizing gravitational force in three-dimensional setting. In the previous work [T. -S. Lin and L. Kondic, Phys. Fluids 22, 052105 (2010)], we considered two-dimensional flow, finding formation of surface waves whose properties within the implemented longwave model depend on a single parameter, D = (3Ca)1/3 cot α, where Ca is the capillary number and α is the inclination angle. In the present work we consider fully 3D setting and discuss the influence of the additional dimension on stability properties of the flow. In particular, we concentrate on the coupling between the surface instabilities and the transverse (fingering) instabilities of the film front. We furthermore consider these instabilities in the setting where fluid viscosity varies in the transverse direction. It is found that the flow pattern strongly depends on the inclination angle and the viscosity gradient. C © 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi. org/10.1063/1.3682001]
Sports Recreation in Tourist Context: Alentejo Coasts Resorts Case Study

The new sporting era in which we are living has new forms, new contexts and values, and a growing demand for evasion, wellbeing and health, and new experiences. In this leisure environment, favorable to sports practice, there has been an increase in the number of resorts in Portugal offering a range of sport services to its customers in accordance with their wishes. In this context, the main goal of this research is centered on the general characterization of the sports animation services offered by resorts in the Alentejo Coast. A qualitative research approach was used, in which content analysis was the chosen data analysis method; a semi-structured interview was the tool for data collection. The results show that the services of sporting activities in resorts located in this region are still underdeveloped. The majority of such resorts has a small amount of services, equipment and human resources. The search for these services is meager, despite their gratuitousness nature. In spite of the reduced offer of the sports animation services, the resorts’ managers state that in a recent future there won’t be new investments in the area, since the offer now satisfies the actual level of demand.
Learning in hardware: architecture and implementation of an FPGA-based rough set machine

The "Learning Hardware" approach proposed here involves creating a computational network based on feedback from the environment (for instance, positive and negative examples from the trainer), and realizing this network in an array of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). We advocate the approaches based on a "strong AI criterion"; for instance, the computational networks can be built based on Sum-of-Products logic minimization, functional logic decomposition, or Decision Tree construction. Here we propose the constructive induction approach to Learning Hardware based on Rough Sets Theory (RST). This approach allows the use of logical analysis to develop efficient hardware-realizable algorithms, and is contrasted with the popular Evolvable Hardware (EHW) approach in which learning/evolution is based on the genetic algorithm only. The RST algorithms have a natural high parallelism and high possible speed-ups. Using a fast prototyping tool, the DEC-PERLE-1 board based on an array of Xilinx FPGAs, we are developing a virtual SIMD processor that accelerates the learning (design) of optimized multi-valued logic nets.
Essays on the Industrial Organization of Food Retailing

This thesis consists of two empirical studies of the industrial organization of food retailing. Chapter 1 investigates consumer behavior in response to changes in variety in grocery store offerings. Using a rich panel dataset of consumer purchases from one national retailer, we measure the effects of changes in product variety on sales of ice cream, where the assortment changes were gradually introduced to stores. We use a difference in differences approach to measure treatment effects against trends in stores prior to treatment. Our results show an adjustment to product variety causes consumers to alter their purchasing behavior, at least in the subsequent eight weeks of the change. When the rearrangement consisted of adding additional products, consumers purchased more on average in the immediate term, but sales increases mitigated over time, with smaller magnitude increases in variety experiencing sales reductions in later weeks. Product groups treated with reduced variety experienced decreased sales both in the immediate and longer term. We find that extending and reducing assortment have asymmetric effects, with a marginal change to increased variety boosting sales less than a marginal change in decreased variety. Larger magnitude reductions perform poorly in the short run, but actually perform better than both smaller variety reductions and small variety increases in later weeks. In Chapter 2, I investigate the following question: do firms respond to quality disclosure by nearby competitors? This paper utilizes exogenous variation provided by Los Angeles County's introduction of restaurant hygiene grade cards to explore inter-firm responses in markets for differentiated goods. Under this program, a subset of cities adopted mandatory grade card posting, requiring restaurants to disclose hygiene. This study demonstrates that restaurants under a voluntary hygiene disclosure policy improved hygiene more when located closer to restaurants in mandatory disclosure areas. The proximity effect implies that mandatory disclosure policies influenced restaurant hygiene in nearby voluntary disclosure areas, thus providing direct evidence that quality-disclosure regulations affect non-targeted firms.
Dyadic Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence in Early Marriage.

OBJECTIVE Research examining dyadic patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) often focuses on static conceptions based on whether either the husband or wife has exhibited any violence. This study examined the dyadic patterns of IPV empirically and traced how these groups change over time. METHOD Couples (N=634) were assessed with respect to IPV and relationship satisfaction at the time of marriage, and at their first and second anniversaries. Cluster analysis was conducted on Total Aggression, Differential Aggression, and the Aggression Ratio prior to marriage for couples with any violence. RESULTS This analysis revealed 5 clusters; Very High-Husband to Wife, (High:H>W); Very High-Wife to Husband (High-W>H); Low to Moderate, Husband to Wife (Low:H>W); Low to Moderate, Wife to Husband (Low-W>H); Low to Moderate, Both Aggressive (Low:H=W). The majority (57%) of the aggressive couples were classified in the gender asymmetric groups. Most asymmetric clusters became symmetric over time, but the High:H>W cluster became more asymmetric. By the 2nd anniversary, all clusters were characterized by higher injuries experienced by wives than by husbands. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that a considerable amount of IPV that is typically classified as "bidirectional" is gender asymmetric and that these asymmetric patterns tend to converge into more symmetric patterns over time.
CD34 expression by murine hematopoietic stem cells mobilized by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

Controversy has existed about CD34 expression by hematopoietic stem cells. We recently reported that CD34 expression reflects the activation state of stem cells by using a murine transplantation model. It has been generally held that mobilized blood stem cells express CD34.However, it has also been reported that mobilized stem cells and progenitors are in G0/G1 phases of the cell cycle. To address the state of CD34 expression by the mobilized stem cells, we again used the mouse transplantation model. We prepared CD34(-) and CD34(+) populations of nucleated blood cells from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-treated Ly-5.1 mice and assayed each population for long-term engrafting cells in lethally irradiated Ly-5.2 mice. The majority of the stem cells were in the CD34(+) population. The CD34 expression by mobilized stem cells was reversible because re-transplantation of Ly-5.1 CD34(-) marrow cells harvested from the Ly-5.2 recipients of CD34(+)-mobilized stem cells 8 months posttransplantation revealed long-term engraftment. These results may support the use of total CD34(+) cells in mobilized blood as a predictor for engraftment and CD34 selection for enrichment of human stem cells. (Blood. 2000;96:1989-1993)
Pictorial and verbal category-ratio scales for effort estimation in children.

BACKGROUND Research on the diverse aspects of exercise performance in childhood in the past 20 years has included an increase in the study of perceived exertion. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare children's ratings of effort perception by means of the Borg Category-Ratio Perceived Exertion (CR-10) Scale and a pictorial version of the Children's Effort Rating Table (Pictorial-CERT) scale, and to assess the long-term repeatability of the two scales. METHODS Fifty healthy children (25 girls and 25 boys; initially aged 10.4 +/- 0.5 years) participated in three incremental treadmill tests until volitional exhaustion or a maximal gradient of 22% at 5.4 km/h was attained. The first two tests (T1 and T2) were at an interval of 1 month. The third test (T3) took place 3 years later and utilized exactly the same protocol. RESULTS Perceived exertion correlated significantly with measures of exercise intensity - minute ventilation, heart rate and oxygen uptake for the whole group. The range of correlations for all tests was significantly higher for the Pictorial-CERT (r = 0.62-0.88 and r = 0.59-0.71 for the Pictorial-CERT and CR-10 respectively). Intraclass correlation coefficients between T1 and T2 were significantly higher for the Pictorial-CERT in comparison with the CR-10 (0.77 vs. 0.54, respectively; z = -2.07; P = 0.038). CONCLUSION The Pictorial-CERT is more appropriate for use with children of this age range and appears to be more reproducible than the Borg CR-10 Scale. Concurrent and construct validity evidence promotes the use of the Pictorial-CERT by junior children.
Co-Existence of NB-IoT and Radar in Shared Spectrum: An Experimental Study

The 3GPP Release-13 has introduced a narrowband system, namely Narrowband Internet of Things (NB- IoT), to provide low-power, wide-area cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things. NB-IoT uses a design similar to Long Term Evolution (LTE), but it makes essential modifications for reducing the device complexity. NB-IoT is optimized for machine type communications, and it aims to increase coverage, reduce overhead and reduce power consumption while increasing capacity. In this paper, we present our testbed- based experimental study on the operation of NB- IoT systems in the presence of pulsed radar signals. We leverage results from our experiments in providing a comprehensive analysis on the impact of coverage and capacity of a NB-IoT base- station when it shares an uplink channel with S- band pulsed radars. Our results indicate that the NB-IoT cell coverage is affected in the presence of radar interference.
Oncoprotein-mediated signalling cascade stimulates c-Jun activity by phosphorylation of serines 63 and 73

In resting cells, c-Jun is phosphorylated on five sites. Three of these sites reside next to its DNA binding domain and negatively regulate DNA binding. In response to expression of oncogenic Ha-Ras, phosphorylation of these sites decreases, while phosphorylation of two other sites within c-Jun's activation domain is greatly enhanced. Phosphorylation of these residues, serines 63 and 73, stimulates the transactivation function of c-Jun and is required for oncogenic cooperation with Ha-Ras. We now show that the same changes in c-Jun phosphorylation are elicited by a variety of transforming oncoproteins with distinct biochemical activities. These oncoproteins, v-Sis, v-Src, Ha-Ras, and Raf-1, participate in a signal transduction pathway that leads to increased phosphorylation of serines 63 and 73 on c-Jun. While oncogenic Ha-Ras is a constitutive stimulator of c-Jun activity and phosphorylation, the normal c-Ha-Ras protein is a serum-dependent modulator of c-Jun's activity. c-Jun is therefore a downstream target for a phosphorylation cascade involved in cell proliferation and transformation.
Factors Influencing the Intention to Purchase Real Estate in Saudi Arabia

Factors affecting the real estate market are of great importance worldwide. This study will investigate the factors influencing Saudis to purchase real estate. The study examine the effect of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control on the intention to purchase real estate. Taking into account that location as a moderator, a total of 450 questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Jeddah. Based on 322 questionnaires collected, the results show that there is a positive significant relationship between Attitude, and Subjective Norm toward the intention to purchase real estate, while the Perceived Behavior Control has not. Location was found to have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between attitude and the customers' intention to purchase real estate among Saudis.
Social enterprise: Applicability of the competitor identification framework

Since government funding has significantly decreased, and the number of non-profit organisations has increased, it is inevitable that social enterprises will face greater competition which may threaten their social mission and sustainability. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was, firstly, to explore whether social enterprises understand that they face competition and, secondly, whether the model for competitor identification, developed by Chen (1996), is applicable to social enterprises. This research used a multi-stage, random, purposive sampling technique to target social enterprises that had been operational for a minimum of 5 years. It resulted in 24 key informants from Australian social enterprises and 3 intermediaries being interviewed.