Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VIABILIDADE DE PÓLEN DE MILHO EM DIFERENTES PERÍODOS DE ARMAZENAMENTO EM BAIXA TEMPERATURA

O armazenamento de graos de polen se justifica em programas de melhoramento de milho, devido a nao coincidencia do florescimento das linhagens e/ou cultivares a serem cruzadas. Por essa razao, tem sido procuradas tecnicas que possam armazenar os graos de polen sem que esses percam a eficiencia. O objetivo do trabalho foi verificar a viabilidade do polen armazenado, por meio de testes in vivo e in vitro . Graos de polen de quatro cultivares de milho foram armazenados em freezer por 2, 4, 8, 14 e 15 dias. A viabilidade dos mesmos foi verificada pela determinacao da producao de sementes por espigas e por meio de testes de coloracao e germinacao dos graos de polen em meio de cultura. A porcentagem de germinacao dos graos de polen in vitro e a producao de sementes, independente do tempo de armazenamento, foi, em media, 13%. No teste de coloracao, todas as cultivares analisadas apresentaram viabilidade acima de 95%, independente da taxa de germinacao in vitro e producao de sementes por espigas. O armazenamento de polen de milho e um procedimento viavel, porem ha necessidade de adequacao das tecnicas de armazenamento e dos testes para a determinacao da viabilidade dos mesmos.
Defective genetic control of sodium-pump density in manic depressive psychosis

Synopsis The ability of lymphocytes from manic-depressive and normal subjects to produce new pump sites in response to increased cell sodium was compared in a series of experiments. Ethacrynate or different potassium concentrations were used to increase cell sodium concentration. The lymphocytes of manic depressives had a significantly reduced ability to produce new pump sites. It is suggested that this may be the genetic defect underlying manic depressive psychosis.
Robust skin detection using multi-spectral illumination

In computer vision, many applications could greatly benefit from multi-spectral image data. Our aim is to illustrate the effectiveness of multi-spectral analysis obtained from a simple and cost-effective system. While the proposed approach is broadly applicable, in this paper we focus on the specific case of skin detection. To obtain the multi-spectral data, we have assembled a system using multiple LEDs with different spectra to illuminate the scene and a conventional RGB camera to acquire images. A methodology is proposed to avoid strict requirements on the experimental environment, by adopting a simple training procedure which is tuned for the detection of human skin. Next a specific feature set is defined and a corresponding normalization method is designed to improve the robustness to changes in skin color and incident light, issues not addressed by available prior art. Finally, we use supervised learning to train our skin detector. We demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of our skin detector through extensive benchmarking. The proposed methodology enables a superior performance of skin detection compared to relevant alternative proposals.
Specific language impairment: effect on later language development: a literature review.

BACKGROUND Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are at considerable risk for later language development. However there has not been a good literature review to provide understanding and to get information relative to parental counseling and decision making for further management. OBJECTIVE To summarize the literature review on SLI and effect on later language development. MATERIAL AND METHOD Longitudinal studies were systematically explored to seek evidence- based information to confirm the lasting effect of SLI in later language development. RESULTS Natural history data indicated that approximately 50% of children with specific expressive language delay spontaneously remitted or outgrew it at age 5-8. However, long-term follow-up studies showed their language problems emerged later at age 15. The rest of the children's (50%), language impairment persisted and had a high risk for SLI later. CONCLUSION The results suggest that active intervention should be performed as soon as possible for children with persisting SLI.
Time in Residential Care and Participation in Alcoholics Anonymous as Predictors of Continued Sobriety

This follow-up study located 158 of 274 residents served over five years in Rockdale House, a residential community program in Conyers, Georgia. Hypothesized predictors of successful outcome were continued participation in Alcoholics Anonymous after discharge and number of days in residence. Responses by ex-residents showed a significant relationship between time in residence and participation in AA for those reporting continued sobriety.
Risk of Permanent Medical Impairment (RPMI) in Car Crashes Correlated to Age and Gender

Objective: As fatalities from car crashes decrease, focus on medical impairment following car crashes becomes more essential. This study assessed the risk of permanent medical impairment based on car occupant injuries. The aim was to study whether the risk of permanent medical impairment differs depending on age and gender. Methods: In total, 36,744 injured occupants in car crashes that occurred between 1995 and 2010 were included. All initial injuries (n = 61,440) were classified according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2005. If a car occupant still had residual symptoms 3 years after a crash, the case was classed as a permanent medical impairment. In total, 5,144 injuries led to permanent medical impairment. The data were divided into different groups according to age and gender as well as levels of permanent impairment. The risk of permanent medical impairment was established for different body regions and injury severity levels, according to the AIS. Results: The cervical spine was the body region that had the highest number of diagnoses, and occupants who sustained injuries to the upper and lower extremities had the highest risk of medical impairment for both genders. Females aged 60 and above had a higher risk of permanent medical impairment from fractures in the extremities compared to males in the same age group and younger females. Females aged 44 or younger had a higher risk of permanent medical impairment from whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) than males in the same age group. Minor and moderate injuries (AIS 1–2) had a higher risk of permanent medical impairment among older car occupants compared to younger ones. Conclusions: Differences in long-term outcome were dependent on both gender and age. Differences between age groups were generally greater than between genders. The vast majority of permanent medical impairments resulted from diagnoses with a low risk of fatality. The results emphasize the impact of age and gender in long-term consequences from car crashes. They could be used when designing safety technology in cars as well as to improve health care by contributing to better allocation of rehabilitation resources following trauma.
Temperature-Induced Changes in Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone Sensitivity in Carp Melanotropes

This study investigates whether thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) and N-acetyl β-endorphin (NAc β-END), or the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine (T3) are involved in the physiological response to temperature changes in the poikilotherm common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Carps were either subjected to a rapid cold exposure or acclimated over time to three different temperatures. Acute cold exposure did not influence blood plasma α-MSH concentrations. Acclimation to 15, 22 or 29°C led to a temperature-dependent increase of both α-MSH and NAc β-END plasma concentrations. Moreover, the in vitro sensitivity to TRH of melanotrope cells (that synthesise these peptides) also correlated positively with ambient temperature. Increased TRH activation stimulated processing of the precursor of α-MSH and NAc β-END, resulting in increased release of both peptides and storage of a surplus of NAc β-END within melanotropes. Plasma T4 levels were highest in carps acclimated to the intermediate temperature tested, and correlated strongly with hypothalamic TRH content. Plasma T3 levels were unaffected by ambient water temperature. We conclude that ambient water temperature influences the sensitivity of melanotrope cells to TRH in carps. This effect, however, is not due to acute temperature change, but evolves during the acclimation process of carps to a new temperature.
PENGARUH GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, MAQASHID SHARIA, DAN PROFITABILITAS TERHADAP NILAI PERUSAHAAN (Studi Empiris Pada Bank Umum Syariah di Indonesia Periode 2012-2017)

ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the effect of Good Corporate Governance, Maqashid Sharia, and Profitability to Economic Value Added at Indonesian Islamic Commercial Banks registered in the Financial Services Authority (OJK) for the 2012-2017 period, with purposive sampling technique for islamic commercial banks in 2012-2017 and using multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that the Good Corporate Governance (GCG) has a significant positive effect on Economic Value Added (EVA). Maqashid Sharia (MSI) has no effect on Economic Value Added (EVA). Profitability (ROA) has no effect on Economic Value Added (EVA). Keywords : Good Corporate Governance, Maqashid Sharia, Profitability, Economic Value Added
Understanding peak avoidance commuting by subway: an empirical study in Beijing

ABSTRACT Congestion is a major problem for peak-hour commuters in the Beijing subway system, as it leads to long queuing times and overcrowded vehicles. This paper explores to what extent peak travel can be reduced by providing incentives for peak avoidance. In a stated preference study, travellers’ responses to two financial and two non-financial incentives were measured, and factors increasing or limiting the response were identified. Our results suggest that all four incentives can be reasonably effective tools and the financial incentives seem to have a slightly stronger effect than the services and credit-for-gifts-based scenarios. Ordered logit models indicate that various factors influence people’s receptiveness of incentives for peak avoidance which relate to the ease of change or presence of alternatives and receptiveness to incentives. Both theoretical and policy implications are concluded that the proposed factors and incentive system can help solving the subway congestion in Beijing.
Bi-objective optimization of a blood supply chain network with reliability of blood centers

This paper presents a multi-periodic, multi-echelon blood supply chain network consisting of blood donors, mobile collection units, local blood centers, main blood centers and demand points in which the local and main blood centers are subject to random failure in dispatching blood products to demand points. The problem has two objectives including minimization of the total chain costs and maximization of the reliability of the local and main blood centers by maximizing the average total number of blood products dispatched to demand points. The problem is first formulated as a mixed-integer linear mathematical model. Then, to solve the problem, three multi-objective decision-making (MODM) methods including Elastic Bounded Objective Method, Modified augmented e-constraint method and LP-metric method are employed for the solution. Thirty different examples are solved to assess the performance of the solution methods and their results are compared statistically. Using ELECTRE method, the best solution method is selected. At the end, to determine the effect of the change in the main parameters of the problem on the objective functions values, sensitivity analysis is performed.
A Tiered Approach to Systemic Toxicity Testing for Agricultural Chemical Safety Assessment

Aproposal has been developed by the Agricultural Chemical Safety Assessment (ACSA) Technical Committee of the ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) for an improved approach to assessing the safety of crop protection chemicals. The goal is to ensure that studies are scientifically appropriate and necessary without being redundant, and that tests emphasize toxicological endpoints and exposure durations that are relevant for risk assessment. The ACSA Systemic Toxicity Task Force proposes an approach to systemic toxicity testing as one part of the overall assessment of a compound's potential to cause adverse effects on health. The approach is designed to provide more relevant data for deriving reference doses for shorter time periods of human exposure, and includes fewer studies for deriving longer term reference doses—that is, neither a 12-month dog study nor a mouse carcinogenicity study is recommended. All available data, including toxicokinetics and metabolism data and life stages information, are taken into account. The proposed tiered testing approach has the potential to provide new risk assessment information for shorter human exposure durations while reducing the number of animals used and without compromising the sensitivity of the determination of longer term reference doses.
Brain signatures of artificial language processing: Evidence challenging the critical period hypothesis

Adult second language learning seems to be more difficult and less efficient than first language acquisition during childhood. By using event-related brain potentials, we show that adults who learned a miniature artificial language display a similar real-time pattern of brain activation when processing this language as native speakers do when processing natural languages. Participants trained in the artificial language showed two event-related brain potential components taken to reflect early automatic and late controlled syntactic processes, whereas untrained participants did not. This result challenges the common view that late second language learners process language in a principally different way from native speakers. Our findings demonstrate that a small system of grammatical rules can be syntactically instantiated by the adult speaker in a way that strongly resembles native-speaker sentence processing.
Implementing NVQs in small and medium enterprises : the experiences of candidates, assessors and managers in small residential care homes in the independent sector

The research study examines the implementation of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) within small and medium enterprises. NVQs have been in existence for ten years yet they continue to receive criticism from academic circles and implementation by employers has been slow. The small residential care sector was selected because it has many characteristics in common with small businesses in general: the sector has grown because of recent care legislation; it is dependent on larger local authorities for client referrals; it employs mainly women on a part-time basis; and it lacks a traditional training pathway for unqualified staff. Using a qualitative, case study approach, seven workplaces were visited over the period of a year. Candidates, assessors and managers were interviewed regularly to assess their feelings and progress and to determine the factors which affected their experiences of NVQ implementation. Four main areas were explored using a theme analysis framework - progress, progression, standardisation and financial issues. The findings indicated that implementation in small workplaces was problematic for all involved. Unless a training culture was already in existence, insufficient resources were provided to support and facilitate progress both physically and emotionally. Consequently, assessors and candidates involved with NVQs were quite negative about their experiences which reduced the value placed on the qualification by the participants and their managers. Despite being a 'national' qualification, the growing deregulation in both care and training has resulted in market place competition which has had consequences for the standardisation and costs of training programmes. The voluntaristic nature of employer investment in training, and the lack of care legislation to make training an obligatory aspect of home registration, has resulted in a low uptake of NVQs in small businesses because of the costs involved in assessment time.
State-dependent male mating tactics in the grey seal: the importance of body size

The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of body size and body composition as determinants of conditional mating tactics exhibited in male grey seals. We combined behavioral observations with measures of energy expenditure and success on 42 known-age individuals during the breeding seasons of 1997--2001 at Sable Island, Canada. Males with a large body mass arrived at the breeding grounds with more body fat and body energy and catabolized less body protein than smaller males. Males consumed 1.9 ± 0.2 MJ day-super- - 1, and those with a smaller percentage of body fat had higher rates of food energy intake. The amount of body energy on arrival was positively correlated with the duration of the breeding period. Males that exhibited the primary mating tactic of consortship were heavier, had absolutely more body fat and body energy, and sustained breeding longer than those males that did not exhibit the primary tactic. Amongst all males, body mass showed a quadratic relationship with the number of female consorts mated and the estimated number of pups sired. Thus, intermediate-sized males mated with the most consorts and achieved the highest success. Intermediate body size may be optimal during breeding due to greater agility in male combat. Body size was an important determinant of mating tactics used by male grey seals. A large body size provided an energetic advantage of greater endurance while an intermediate body size may provide greater competitive ability in acquiring consortships. Copyright 2005.
Correcting Soft Errors Online in Fast Fourier Transform

While many algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT) schemes have been proposed to detect soft errors offline in the fast Fourier transform (FFT) after computation finishes, none of the existing ABFT schemes detect soft errors online before the computation finishes. This paper presents an online ABFT scheme for FFT so that soft errors can be detected online and the corrupted computation can be terminated in a much more timely manner. We also extend our scheme to tolerate both arithmetic errors and memory errors, develop strategies to reduce its fault tolerance overhead and improve its numerical stability and fault coverage, and finally incorporate it into the widely used FFTW library - one of the today’s fastest FFT software implementations. Experimental results demonstrate that: (1) the proposed online ABFT scheme introduces much lower overhead than the existing offline ABFT schemes; (2) it detects errors in a much more timely manner; and (3) it also has higher numerical stability and better fault coverage.
The effect of demographic and clinical factors on the relationship between BMI and PSA levels

Studies have reported lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in men with a higher body mass index (BMI). Additional factors such as diabetes mellitus, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and certain medications may also affect PSA levels and confound the PSA–BMI association. In this study we evaluated the potential confounding effect of these factors on the obesity–PSA relationship and evaluated the association between these factors and PSA level.
Glass-forming liquids and the glass transition: The energy landscape approach to dynamics and thermodynamics

Most liquids, under suitable conditions, are capable of transforming into glass, which is a microscopically disordered, solid form of matter. Glass formation occurs in the laboratory because the viscosity of the liquid becomes very high, causing the liquid to fall out of equilibrium on experimental time scales. Whether a true thermodynamic transition underlies the laboratory transformation is among the questions that remains to be answered. Another major theme of research activity is directed towards understanding the microscopic mechanisms leading to the dramatic growth of viscosity of liquids at low temperatures. Significant progress has recently been made by focusing attention on quantitative aspects of the energy landscape of glass-forming liquids. An outline of the approach is presented here, along with applications of the approach to studying thermodynamic and dynamic phenomena that take place when a liquid is cooled towards the glass transition, including: (i) The onset of slow dynamics; (ii) The crossover in dynamics to a regime of 'activated dynamics'; (iii) The relationship between fragility (which quantifies the rapidity of change of dynamics as the glass transition is approached) and quantifiable features of the energy landscape; and (iv) The relationship between the ultimate boundaries of the liquid state, the liquid-gas spinodal (at which liquid becomes thermodynamically unstable) and the glass transition line (at which liquid transforms into an amorphous solid).
Effects of Ranolazine on Carbohydrate Metabolism in the Isolated Perfused Rat Liver

The action mechanism of ranolazine, an antiangina drug, could be at least partly metabolic, including inhibition of fatty acid oxidation and stimulation of glucose utilization in the heart. The purpose of the present work was to investigate if ranolazine affects hepatic carbohydrate metabolism. For this purpose, the hemoglobin-free isolated perfused rat liver was used as the experimental system. Ranolazine increased glycolysis and glycogenolysis and decreased gluconeogenesis. These effects were accompanied by an inhibition of oxygen consumption. The drug also changed the redox state of the NAD+-NADH couple. For the cytosol, increased NADH/NAD+ ratios were observed both under glycolytic conditions as well as under gluconeogenic conditions. For the mitochondria, increased NADH/NAD+ ratios were found in the present work in the absence of exogenous fatty acids in contrast with the previous observation of a decreasing effect when the liver was actively oxidizing exogenous oleate. It seems likely that ranolazine inhibits gluconeogenesis and increases glycolysis in consequence of its inhibitory actions on energy metabolism and fatty acid oxidation and by deviating reducing equivalents in favour of its own biotransformation. This is in line with the earlier postulates that ranolazine diminishes fatty acid oxidation, shifting the energy source from fatty acids to glucose.
Selectable System for Monitoring the Instability of CTG/CAG Triplet Repeats in Mammalian Cells

ABSTRACT Despite substantial progress in understanding the mechanism by which expanded CTG/CAG trinucleotide repeats cause neurodegenerative diseases, little is known about the basis for repeat instability itself. By taking advantage of a novel phenomenon, we have developed a selectable assay to detect contractions of CTG/CAG triplets. When inserted into an intron in the APRT gene or the HPRT minigene, long tracts of CTG/CAG repeats (more than about 33 repeat units) are efficiently incorporated into mRNA as a new exon, thereby rendering the encoded protein nonfunctional, whereas short repeat tracts do not affect the phenotype. Therefore, contractions of long repeats can be monitored in large cell populations, by selecting for HPRT+ or APRT+ clones. Using this selectable system, we determined the frequency of spontaneous contractions and showed that treatments with DNA-damaging agents stimulate repeat contractions. The selectable system that we have developed provides a versatile tool for the analysis of CTG/CAG repeat instability in mammalian cells. We also discuss how the effect of long CTG/CAG repeat tracts on splicing may contribute to the progression of polyglutamine diseases.