Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vitro comparative effect of Cd2+, Ni2+, and Co2+ on mouse postblastocyst development.

Postblastocyst development of mouse preembryos was studied in vitro in order to determine direct effect of Cd2+, Ni2+, and Co2+ ions on embryogenesis during the peri-implantation stage. Uterine horns were flushed on Day 4 of pregnancy and expanded blastocysts were cultured for 4 days in the presence of micromolar Cd2+ (1.1-26.4), Ni2+ (0. 1-500) or Co2+ (1-200). Area of trophoblast outgrowth was measured and used as a quantitative toxicological endpoint. Hatching, attachment, outgrowth, and formation of inner cells mass were also registered. Significant adverse effect on the development stages were observed at 2.2 microM (Cd2+), at 10 microM (Ni2+), and at 100 microM (Co2+). Cd2+ and Co2+ decreased the area of trophoblast markedly at concentrations of 1.1 and 10 microM, respectively. Ni2+ exposure resulted in a slight increase at 10 microM followed by a marked reduction in the trophoblast area at 250 microM. Reduced proliferative ability of trophoblast cells may point to compromised invasiveness of the embryo. The lowest Cd2+ concentration (1.1 microM=0.25 microg/ml) significantly deteriorating trophoblast development was found to be lower than Cd levels ranging up to 0.512 microg/g, reported in clinical ovarian samples of occupationally nonexposed women. The morphological alteration and loss of cellular contacts in blastocysts induced by exposure to Cd2+, Ni2+, or Co2+ may adversely influence adhesion and recognition events and may disturb aggregation of mononuclear trophoblastic cells to multinucleated cells in the course of peri-implantation in vivo as well.
Trends in the Evaluation of Lipid Peroxidation Processes

Oxidative stress occurs as a result of imbalance between the antioxidant and prooxidant systems acting at certain points in metabolic processes, in favor of the last. The oxidative stress, defined by H Sies following extensive research performed between 1981 and 1993, is the outcome of intense generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are not counteracted by endogenous antioxidant molecules [Sies, 1985]. Current knowledge links many types of pathologies to oxidative damage; among them, most cited are atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative disorders, cancers, rheumatic diseases, autoimmune disorders, etc. Figure 1, sometimes referred to as “oxidative stress wheel”, presents the most important diseases in which oxidative stress is involved resulting in biochemical lessions
The influence of business process management and some other CSFs on successful ERP implementation

Purpose – Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become imperative for companies in order to be competitive in a turbulent and highly competitive business environment. Unfortunately, the success rate of ERP implementations is very low, which was cited in many researches and a majority of authors have reported up to 90 percent failure rate. Therefore, new empirical studies are more than necessary to validate companies' contributions to the increase of the success rate of ERP implementation, which was the primary reason for this investigation. The main goal of this paper is to stress the impact of business process management (BPM) and some other critical success factors (CSFs) on successful ERP implementations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper details an empirical investigation combined with a confirmatory approach using structural equation modeling.Findings – The hypotheses confirm the impact of top management support, change management, and BPM on successful ERP implementation. These factor.
The Facebook Effect in University Classrooms : A Study of Attitudes and Sense of Community Using an Independent Measures Control Group Design

Facebook is one type of social networking media that is growing in prominence in the lives of university students, including their higher education courses. Using an independent measures static group comparison research design, this study analyzes the questionnaire responses of 586 university level students. The responses of students exposed to Facebook-enhanced business courses were compared with those in non-Facebook-enhanced courses. It was found that students in the Facebook-enhanced courses reported having more favorable attitudes toward the social media and a slight increase in their sense of classroom community compared to students in non-Facebook-enhanced courses. Implications for teaching are discussed.
Program Analysis and Specialization for the C Programming Language

Software engineers are faced with a dilemma. They want to write general and wellstructured programs that are flexible and easy to maintain. On the other hand, generality has a price: efficiency. A specialized program solving a particular problem is often significantly faster than a general program. However, the development of specialized software is time-consuming, and is likely to exceed the production of today’s programmers. New techniques are required to solve this so-called software crisis. Partial evaluation is a program specialization technique that reconciles the benefits of generality with efficiency. This thesis presents an automatic partial evaluator for the Ansi C programming language. The content of this thesis is analysis and transformation of C programs. We develop several analyses that support the transformation of a program into its generating extension. A generating extension is a program that produces specialized programs when executed on parts of the input. The thesis contains the following main results. • We develop a generating-extension transformation, and describe specialization of the various parts of C, including pointers and structures. • We develop constraint-based inter-procedural pointer and binding-time analysis. Both analyses are specified via non-standard type inference systems, and implemented by constraint solving. • We develop a side-effect and an in-use analysis. These analyses are developed in the classical monotone data-flow analysis framework. Some intriguing similarities with constraint-based analysis are observed. • We investigate separate and incremental program analysis and transformation. Realistic programs are structured into modules, which break down inter-procedural analyses that need global information about functions. • We prove that partial evaluation at most can accomplish linear speedup, and develop an automatic speedup analysis. • We study the stronger transformation technique driving, and initiate the development of generating super-extensions. The developments in this thesis are supported by an implementation. Throughout the chapters we present empirical results.
C-REACTIVE PROTEIN PREDICTS PROGRESSION OF PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL DISEASE IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES : A 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP STUDY C-REAKTIVNI PROTEIN

Background: Previous studies have indicated that high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a risk factor for the peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in diabetes. This study aimed to evaluate the possible predictive significance of hsCRP for the development and progression of PAD in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: The study included 80 patients previously diagnosed with T2D, aged 45–70 years, divided into group A (T2D patients with PAD; n=38) and group B (T2D patients without PAD; n=42). After five years, all the patients were re-examined and divided into subgroups depending on de novo development of PAD or progression of previously diagnosed PAD. Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) measurement was used for PAD diagnosis and hs-CRP was determined by nephelometry. Results: We found significantly higher hs-CRP levels in group A compared to group B, but only at baseline. Among the patients in group A, those with later progression of PAD (subgroup A1) had the highest levels of hs-CRP at baseline, although not significantly different from those in subgroup A2 (non-progressors). In contrast, hs-CRP level was significantly higher in subgroup B1 (progressors) in comparison to subgroup B2 (non-progressors) at both the first and secKratak sadr`aj
Geochemistry of Flood Waters from the Tar River, North Carolina Associated with Hurricane Matthew

Hurricane Matthew caused flooding in Eastern North Carolina that was categorized as a one in 500-year frequency event. Matthew was the second such event in less than 20 years, following Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The frequency of intense storms is projected to increase for many coastal areas, including North Carolina, because of climate change. The goal of this study was to gain a better insight into the geochemistry of flood waters associated with major flood events. Water samples (n = 22) from the Tar River in Greenville, North Carolina were collected over a two-week period after Matthew moved across the state. Results show that total Kjeldahl nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon, phosphate, and Escherichia coli concentrations and exports were significantly (p < 0.05) higher when the river was above flood stage relative to below. Isotopic analyses of δ15N and δ18O in NO3 in flood waters suggest that wastewater, possibly from sanitary sewer and confined animal feeding operation overflows, was the major source of nitrate associated with flood waters. Regulatory efforts to reduce nutrient loading to coastal waters may be complicated by contributions associated with intense storm events, given that such storms are becoming more frequent.
Alternative RNA products from the Ultrabithorax domain of the bithorax complex.

The homeotic gene, Ultrabithorax (Ubx) is involved in specifying the identities of several segments in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. The structures of over 60 independent Ubx cDNAs have been examined. There are two major species of transcripts, 3.2 and 4.3 kb in length, which are produced by alternate sites of polyadenylation. Differential splicing gives rise to at least five variant Ubx proteins. The variant forms share common 5′ and 3′ exons but differ in their small internal ‘micro’ exons. Additional variation is generated by two separate splice donor sites at the end of the common 5′ exon, situated 27 bp apart. Northern hybridization and S1 nuclease protection studies of RNA from various developmental stages and tissue types reveal that the alternate splicing and the choice of polyadenylation site are each differentially regulated in both a temporal and a tissue specific manner. Additional transcripts were found just downstream of the Ubx transcription unit, which may be products of the lethal left of bithorax gene (llb).
Running Head: DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTION OF COLLEGE PERFORMANCE Differential Prediction of College Performance between Gender

Researchers in the past have found discrepancies in the prediction of college grade point average (GPA) between genders with the use of standardized tests such as the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). These differences were studied to determine if the potential differences could be attributed to differential course selection across gender. Subjects were selected from 1995 and 1996 graduating seniors at two large Tennessee universities. Johnson-Neyman (P. Johnson and J. Neyman, 1936) analyses and classical hypothesis testing procedures with the dummy-coding General Linear Model were performed for the total sample of 3,428 females and 3,068 males and for each of the five selected majors. Differences in the prediction of college GPA using ACT-Composite scores (ACT-C) across gender were found for the total group. However, these differences were essentially eliminated when course selection was controlled by analyzing data within majors. Findings support the position that differential prediction of college GPA across gender using ACT-C scores is an artifact of differential course selection. (Contains 5 tables and 29 references.) (Author/SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Differential Prediction 1 Running Head: DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTION OF COLLEGE PERFORMANCE Differential Prediction of College Performance between Gender Timothy K. Patton Middle Tennessee State University 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
The Gametic Synapse: RNA Transfer to the Bovine Oocyte1

ABSTRACT Even after several decades of quiescent storage in the ovary, the female germ cell is capable of reinitiating transcription to build the reserves that are essential to support early embryonic development. In the current model of mammalian oogenesis, there exists bilateral communication between the gamete and the surrounding cells that is limited to paracrine signaling and direct transfer of small molecules via gap junctions existing at the end of the somatic cells' projections that are in contact with the oolemma. The purpose of this work was to explore the role of cumulus cell projections as a means of conductance of large molecules, including RNA, to the mammalian oocyte. By studying nascent RNA with confocal and transmission electron microscopy in combination with transcript detection, we show that the somatic cells surrounding the fully grown bovine oocyte contribute to the maternal reserves by actively transferring large cargo, including mRNA and long noncoding RNA. This occurrence was further demonstrated by the reconstruction of cumulus-oocyte complexes with transfected cumulus cells transferring a synthetic transcript. We propose selective transfer of transcripts occurs, the delivery of which is supported by a remarkable synapselike vesicular trafficking connection between the cumulus cells and the gamete. This unexpected exogenous contribution to the maternal stores offers a new perspective on the determinants of female fertility.
Adaptive blind separation of convolutive mixtures

The convolutive mixture separation problem is addressed. As soon as there are more sensors than sources, it can be solved using almost only the second order statistics of the observed signal, through a three-step method: first a linear prediction leads to the extraction of a multidimensional normalized innovation process of the observed signal, second the scalar innovation processes of the source signals are obtained thanks to an instantaneous mixture separation and third the contributions of each source in the mixture are recovered by filtering the innovation processes by the inverse of the prediction filter. A decomposed and normalized lattice synthesis filter is introduced. It solves the problem of singularity, and as it is stable for any choice of its parameters, this filter can be adaptively computed. Simulation results confirm this property.
Anxiety and poor social support are independently associated with adverse outcomes in patients with mild heart failure.

BACKGROUND The impact of psychosocial states, such as depression or anxiety, and social support on the outcomes of stable outpatients with mild heart failure (HF) has not been evaluated in the "real world" clinical practice. METHODS AND RESULTS In the present study, 139 patients with a prior history of admission for HF provided the baseline demographic, clinical, socio-environmental, and psychosocial information. Cardiac death or re-admission because of worsening of HF was monitored during the follow-up period of 1 year. The prevalence of depression and anxiety were 37% and 37%, respectively, in HF patients. Depression was independently associated with male (sbeta=-0.36, P=0.01), social ties (sbeta=0.22, P=0.04) and low social support (sbeta=-0.39, P<0.01). Anxiety was associated with alcohol drinking (sbeta=0.22, P=0.04), brain natriuretic peptide > or =200 pg/dl (sbeta=0.35, P<0.01), and low social support (sbeta=-0.28, P=0.01). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with anxiety (log-lank test; P<0.01) and lower scores of social support (P<0.01) had a higher rate of HF-related re-admission. CONCLUSIONS Anxiety and low social support were independently associated with HF-related re-admission, which indicates the need for their inclusion in the assessment and management of HF.
Transfers and Transformations: Remittances, Foreign Aid, and Growth

For many developing countries, international transfers are now a significant source of income. These transfers include official development aid, private charitable donations, and personal remittances. This paper uses dynamic one-sector and multi-sector models to isolate conditions under which transfers could promote growth and structural transformation. Although transfers bring welfare benefits, the effects on investment and growth are modest under isoelastic utility; where investment is profitable, it would be undertaken even in the absence of transfers. Larger effects on growth and sectoral structure emerge when preferences take the Stone-Geary form, since then low investment can co-exist with high returns to investment.
Quantum Field Theory of Geometry 1

Several speakers at this conference have emphasized the conceptual difficulties of quantum gravity (see particularly [1, 2, 3]). As they pointed out, when we bring in gravity, some of the basic premises of quantum field theory have to undergo radical changes: we must learn to do physics in absence of a background space-time geometry. This immediately leads to a host of technical difficulties as well. For, the familiar mathematical methods of quantum field theory are deeply rooted in the availability of a fixed space-time metric, which, furthermore is generally taken to be flat. The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate how these conceptual and technical difficulties can be overcome. For concreteness, we will use a specific non-perturbative approach and, furthermore, limit ourselves to just one set of issues: Exploration of the nature of quantum geometry. Nonetheless, the final results have a certain degree of robustness and the constructions involved provide concrete examples of ways in which one can analyze genuine field theories, with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, in absence of a background metric. As we will see, the underlying diffeomorphism invariance is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, since there is so little background structure, concrete calculations are harder and one is forced to invent new regularization methods. On the other hand, when one does succeed, the final form of results is often remarkably simple since the requirement of diffeomorphism invariance tends to restrict the answers severely. The final results are often unexpected and qualitatively different from the familiar ones from standard quantum field theories. Let us begin with a brief discussion of the issue on which we wish to focus. In his celebrated inaugural address, Riemann suggested [4] that geometry of space may be more than just a fiducial, mathematical entity serving as a passive stage for physical phenomena, and may in fact have direct physical meaning in its own
Role of Gender in Community Forest Management: The Case of Humbo District Community Based Forest Management Project, Wolaita Zone, Snnpr, Ethioipia

Over the last few decades Community-based forest management has become increasingly popular in many developing countries including Ethiopia in response to the continued depletion of forest resources due to the non-participatory and inequitable property right arrangements in the traditional forest management systems. However, empirical evidences on aspects of gender roles specially, women's participation in the new approach is scarce. The current study was conducted at Humbo community forest management project in Wolita zone of Southern Ethiopia with the aim to investigate the role and implications of gender for sustainable forest management in context of CFM. Accordingly, three out of seven CFM co- operatives were purposively selected for the study. This was followed by a stratified random sampling of 150 households (113 male and 37 female) based on gender. Important research data were collected through household survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The data analysis was carried out by using descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. Results of the study showed that the participation of female headed household particularly in higher level decision making and forest protection activities was very low compared to the males. In contrast, results on division of labor among household members revealed that females were the primary collectors of NTFPs mainly for household consumption. Analysis of major demographic and socio economic variables influencing participation in CFM activities showed that gender (being male), wealth (richer), age (older) and education (literate) user group members have higher access to participate at decision making level. The study revealed that gender differences along with other socio economic disparities do affect the participation of households in forest management activities and decision making. While the heavily forest dependent poorer and female headed households are merely involved in labor and time consuming forestry activities such as planting and NTFPs collection, the richer and male-headed households have taken most of the decision making posts. The study suggests that improving the participation and role of female headed households in higher level forest management activities of the project should be given consideration. Keywords : Community Forestry, Forest based product, Division of Labor, Gender
Periodic limb movements in syringomyelia and syringobulbia

Twenty‐six patients with syringomyelia were studied with polysomnography to determine the frequency of periodic limb movements (PLM) and its relationship to the presence of a Chiari anomaly, the severity of corticospinal tract involvement, and localization of the syrinx. Sixteen patients showed PLM in stages I and II of non‐REM sleep and three PLM also while awake. There were no statistically significant differences in overall disability, corticospinal signs, presence of an associated Chiari anomaly, and disease duration between patients with and without PLM, although there was a trend for patients with PLM to have more severe disease. There was preservation of the lumbosacral enlargement of the spinal cord by the syrinx in all patients with PLM. The latency delay between lower and upper limb muscles was suggestive of conduction along propriospinal pathways. Syringomyelia may lead to an abnormal state of spinal hyperexcitability favoring the appearance of PLM. Detailed magnetic resonance image studies of patients with different localizations of the syrinx cavities may help to determine which tracts are involved in the production of PLM.