Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic and environmental effects upon reproductive performance of Holstein crossbreds in the Sudan.

Data from a herd near Khartoum for 1955 to 1977 were evaluated. Climate was semidesert with most rainfall (151 of 165 mm) in July through September. Mean maximum daily temperatures ranged from 30.7 (January) to 41.1 degrees C (May); mean minima were 14.6 degrees C (January) and 26.9 degrees C (June). Original base population (1907) was Butana with additions of Butana, Dairy Shorthorn, Ayrshire, Guernsey, and Holstein. Breed groups and % Holstein were 1, 0 to 25%; 2, 26 to 49%; 3, 50%; 4, 51 to 71%. Numbers and mean performance were gestation length, 2474, 279 d; services per conception, 2403, 2.07; calving interval, 4004, 441 d; days open, 3204, 165 d. Calving intervals (1689) were shorter for Group 3 -25 to -31 d as were postpartum days open (-27 to -31 d), and number of services per conception was lower (.21 to .37). These animals were Holstein by Butana crossbreds, so their superior performance could reflect effects of heterosis. Gestation lengths were affected by month of parturition (January greater than June, 5.6 d), which also affected services per conception (March greater than August, .75 services). Over time, not gestation length but services per conception, calving interval, and days open increased. Repeatabilities and heritabilities for these measures were . 14 and . 07; . 07 and 0; . 10 and 0; . 07 and 0. Phenotypic correlation between days open and calving interval was . 99 and with gestation length was -. 12. Other phenotypic correlations ranged from -. 01 to -. 04. Heritability of age at first parturition (888) was . 31. Estimates were similar to those from temperate dairy areas.
Role of Shopping Values and Web Atmospherics in E-Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention

ABSTRACT Expected to touch US$55 billion in 2016, the e-commerce market in India presents an unprecedented growth opportunity for retailers. Existing studies have identified factors influencing shoppers’ online behaviour pertaining to the developed economies. Hence, it becomes pertinent to validate these antecedents for the economies like India. The article addresses this gap by examining the role of shopping values and web atmospherics, on e-satisfaction of Indian shoppers. Using multiple regression analysis, it also examines the influence of e-satisfaction on repurchase intention. The findings suggest that effectiveness of information content has the most significant impact on e-satisfaction. Web entertainment, utilitarian values and web informativeness are the other influencing factors. Contrary to the earlier studies, this study didn’t find any influence of hedonic shopping values on shoppers’ satisfaction. Also, e-satisfaction was found to have a positive influence on repurchase intention of e-shoppers. The article suggests select strategies that can be adopted by e-retailers.
Mortality and suicide among Danish women with cosmetic breast implants.

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic studies indicate that women with cosmetic breast implants have a significantly increased risk of suicide. Our objectives were to examine mortality among Danish women who underwent cosmetic breast implant surgery and to evaluate the baseline prevalence of psychopathological disorders as measured by admission to a psychiatric hospital among women seeking cosmetic surgery. METHODS Cohort study of 2761 women who underwent cosmetic breast implant surgery at private clinics of plastic surgery or public hospitals, 7071 women who underwent breast reduction surgery at public hospitals, and 1736 women who attended private clinics for cosmetic surgery other than breast implantation, between 1973 and 1995. Causes of death through 1999 were identified through the Danish Mortality Files. Information on admission to psychiatric hospitals prior to cosmetic surgery was obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register. RESULTS Women with cosmetic breast implants had significantly elevated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for death overall (SMR, 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-1.7), nonmalignant lung disease (3.4; 95% CI, 1.4-6.9), and suicide (SMR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.7-5.2). Women who underwent breast reduction exhibited low SMRs for death overall (0.7; 95% CI, 0.7-0.8) and several specific causes, including breast cancer (0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.6), whereas death from suicide was moderately above expectation (SMR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0-2.5). The prevalence of psychiatric admission prior to cosmetic surgery was higher among women who underwent cosmetic breast implant surgery (8.0%; 95% CI, 7.0%-9.0%) than among women who underwent breast reduction (4.7%; 95% CI, 4.2%-5.2%) or other cosmetic procedures (5.5%; 95% CI, 4.5%-6.7%). When compared with all control groups, women with cosmetic implants had an odds ratio for prior psychiatric admission of 1.7 (95% CI, 1.4-2.0). CONCLUSIONS Danish women with cosmetic breast implants experienced higher overall mortality compared with women in the general population owing in part to a 3-fold increase in suicide. Women with breast reduction had a low total and cause-specific mortality but a moderate excess risk of suicide. For the first time, to our knowledge, we found evidence of an increased prevalence of mental illness as measured by admission to a psychiatric hospital prior to implant surgery among women receiving cosmetic breast implants. Studies are needed to clarify the underlying reasons for the consistently reported 2- to 3-fold excess of suicide among women with cosmetic breast implants.
Theta oscillations reflect conflict processing in the perception of the McGurk illusion

The McGurk illusion is one of the most famous illustrations of cross‐modal integration in human perception. It has been often used as a proxy of audiovisual (AV) integration and to infer the properties of the integration process in natural (congruent) AV conditions. Nonetheless, a blatant difference between McGurk stimuli and natural, congruent, AV speech is the conflict between the auditory and the visual information in the former. Here, we hypothesized that McGurk stimuli (and any AV incongruency) engage brain responses similar to those found in more general cases of perceptual conflict (e.g., Stroop), and propose that the McGurk illusion arises as a result of the resolution of such conflict. We used electroencephalography to measure variations in the power of theta, a well‐known marker of the brain response to conflict. The results showed that perception of AV McGurk stimuli, just like AV incongruence in general, induces an increase in activity in the theta band. This response was similar to that evoked by Stroop stimuli, as measured in the same participants. This finding suggests that the McGurk illusion is mediated by general‐purpose conflict mechanisms, and calls for caution in generalizing findings obtained using the McGurk illusion, to the general case of multisensory integration.
Rotary versus reciprocating shaping files in bacterial elimination from long oval canals

A comparison of the abilities of rotary versus reciprocating files to eliminate viable Enterococcus faecalis populations from the long oval root canals of extracted human teeth. Fifty teeth were contaminated and randomly distributed into two groups (n = 25 each): BT-RaCe group and WaveOne group. Two microbial samples were obtained from each tooth before (S1) and after (S2) instrumentation. The CFUs from the S1 and S2 measurements were calculated and compared between the groups. Both groups showed significantly fewer CFUs in the S2 samples (P < 0.001). In the S2 intragroup comparison, BT-RaCe resulted in significantly fewer CFUs than WaveOne (P = 0.010). In the direct comparison between the rotary multiple file shaping system and the reciprocating single-file system, the multiple file system was more efficient at reducing the microbiological load of viable E. faecalis from long oval root canals.
Inhibition of human pathogenic fungi by ethnobotanically selected plant extracts

Summary In this study, 36 extracts derived from 29 plant species selected using an ethnobotanical approach were tested for antifungal activity against a taxonomically diverse group of 13 human pathogenic fungi. We compared the inhibitory characteristics of these plant extracts with those of the commonly used antifungals, amphotericin B and ketoconazole, and the plant‐derived antifungal, berberine. Several plant extracts, notably those from Zingiber officinale (ginger) and Juglans cinerea (butternut), had pronounced antifungal activity against a wide variety of fungi, including strains that were highly resistant to amphotericin B and ketoconazole. Further exploration of Z. officinale as an antifungal is warranted as this species is generally regarded as safe for human consumption.
Development of a thin-film thermocouple matrix for in-situ temperature measurement in a lithium ion pouch cell

As cooling systems in battery systems lead to a falsified temperature measurement when surface based temperature monitoring techniques are applied, the development of a sensor for in-situ temperature monitoring is crucial. The authors present therefore different restrictions that need to be considered when designing such a sensor. First prototypes are developed as a proof of concept of using a common potential for a thermocouple matrix that will later provide a space resolved temperature monitoring in a cell. The influence of the sensor on the cell and vice versa is investigated and improvements for further design steps are elaborated.
Guanxi’s Changing Nature: A Chinese Born Global’s Experience

ABSTRACT This article aims to show that using guanxi initially fostered a Chinese born global’s internationalization but later, restricted its decision-making freedom and resulted in the firm’s partial deinternationalization. It concludes that because of guanxi’s reciprocal nature, owners and managers should use it with caution: they should not only focus on what (knowledge, financing, contacts) they can gain but also consider what (time, services, financial resources) they are expected to contribute and what (reputation, some customers, access to financing) they can lose if their partners decide to break the guanxi as a result of of receiving less than they expected.
One Strike and You're Out: The Effects of the Master Lever on Senators' Positions

This paper accounts for the effects of the master lever (ML), aka the straight-ticket voting option, on elected US senators from 1960 till 2012. The ML, still present in some states, allows voters to select a specific party for all elections listed on a ballot, as opposed to filling out each office individually. Introducing it leads to an increase in the number of partisan votes, and thus changes the groups of voters targeted by parties and shifts the positions of senatorial candidates. Theoretically, we examine this change in tradeoffs by building a model of pre-election competition. Empirically, we use a triple-difference estimator to account for selection into treatment and find that, controlling for party trends, the ML has led to a right-wing shift of senatorial positions; an effect that is larger for the Republican party. We use the theory to explain how the political climate, as observed in the data, has implied the specific result.
Using the information value method in a geographic information system and remote sensing for malaria mapping: a case study from India.

BACKGROUND This paper explores the scope of malaria-susceptibility modelling to predict malaria occurrence in an area. OBJECTIVE An attempt has been made in Varanasi district, India, to evaluate the status of malaria disease and to develop a model by which malaria-prone zones could be predicted using five classes of relative malaria susceptibility, i.e.very low, low, moderate, high and very high categories. The information value (Info Val) method was used to assess malaria occurrence and various time-were used as the independent variables. A geographical information system (GIS) is employed to investigate associations between such variables and distribution of different mosquitoes responsible for malaria transmission. Accurate prediction of risk depends on a number of variables, such as land use, NDVI, climatic factors, population, distance to health centres, ponds, streams and roads etc., all of which have an influence on malaria transmission or reporting. Climatic factors, particularly rainfall, temperature and relative humidity, are known to have a major influence on the biology of mosquitoes. To produce a malaria-susceptibility map using this method, weightings are calculated for various classes in each group. The groups are then superimposed to prepare a Malaria Susceptibility Index (MSI) map. RESULTS We found that 3.87% of the malaria cases were found in areas with a low malaria-susceptibility level predicted from the model, whereas 39.86% and 26.29% of malaria cases were found in predicted high and very high susceptibility level areas, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Malaria susceptibility modelled using a GIS may have a role in predicting the risks of malaria and enable public health interventions to be better targeted.
Can I Interrupt You? Understanding and Minimizing the Negative Effects of Brief Interruptions on Audit Judgment Quality

Interruptions are an inescapable characteristic of auditors' socially driven work environment, and the continuing growth of digital technologies implies that interruptions will increase. We investigate the effect of brief, but expected, interruptions on audit judgment quality, and whether giving auditors notice of the timing of the impending interruption minimizes negative effects arising from interruptions. Employing an experimental on-line setting, we find that auditors' performance deteriorates when they are briefly interrupted during the completion of an audit task. Our results highlight that this is partly explained by poorer recall of information encountered prior to the interruption. We find that notifying auditors in advance when the expected interruption will occur reduces the extent to which memory and judgment quality is negatively affected. Our results have important implications for audit firms in their attempts to deal with environments increasingly characterized by interruptions.
Efficient nanoparticle mediated sustained RNA interference in human primary endothelial cells

Endothelium forms an important target for drug and/or gene therapy since endothelial cells play critical roles in angiogenesis and vascular functions and are associated with various pathophysiological conditions. RNA mediated gene silencing presents a new therapeutic approach to overcome many such diseases, but the major challenge of such an approach is to ensure minimal toxicity and effective transfection efficiency of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to primary endothelial cells. In the present study, we formulated shAnnexin A2 loaded poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles which produced intracellular small interfering RNA (siRNA) against Annexin A2 and brought about the downregulation of Annexin A2. The per cent encapsulation of the plasmid within the nanoparticle was found to be 57.65%. We compared our nanoparticle based transfections with Lipofectamine mediated transfection, and our studies show that nanoparticle based transfection efficiency is very high (∼97%) and is more sustained compared to conventional Lipofectamine mediated transfections in primary retinal microvascular endothelial cells and human cancer cell lines. Our findings also show that the shAnnexin A2 loaded PLGA nanoparticles had minimal toxicity with almost 95% of cells being viable 24 h post-transfection while Lipofectamine based transfections resulted in only 30% viable cells. Therefore, PLGA nanoparticle based transfection may be used for efficient siRNA transfection to human primary endothelial and cancer cells. This may serve as a potential adjuvant treatment option for diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and age related macular degeneration besides various cancers.
Factors affecting the likelihood that people with intellectual disabilities will gain employment

The study aimed to identify factors that may affect the likelihood that people with intellectual disabilities will find employment through a supported employment agency. A retrospective analysis of the files of the last 200 individuals to use such an agency was carried out. Variables were identified that may influence outcome, such as demographic factors, job preferences and identified support needs. A specific rating of staff assessed client motivation was developed from written comments made by staff. Staff assessed motivation after two weeks on the scheme was found to be the only significant predictor of employment outcome. Motivation levels decreased for all groups of participants while at the agency, irrespective of work outcome. This study highlights that a greater emphasis on motivation within employment agencies may increase the chances of people with intellectual disability finding work.
Activated stat-3 in melanoma.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have demonstrated that the Src-Stat pathway may play an important role in melanoma. We examined the expression of phosphorylated Stat-3 (pStat-3), activated Stat-1 (pStat-1) and interferon alpha receptor subunit 1(IFNAR-1) in human melanocytic neoplasms. METHODS Compound nevi (6), dysplastic nevi (4), congenital nevi (2), primary melanoma (14), and sentinel lymph node metastasis (40) were examined. Specimens were evaluated for phospho-Stat-1 (pStat-1), phospho-Stat-3 (pStat-3), and IFNAR-1 by immunohistochemistry. Staining was scored from 1 to 3 based on a composite score that took into account both the percentage of tumor cells staining and the intensity of stained cells. RESULTS Normal melanocytes or benign nevi expressed little pStat-1, pStat-3, or IFNAR-1. In primary cutaneous melanoma, 6 of 14 skin biopsies showed activated Stat-3. However, in melanoma metastatic to regional lymph nodes, 16 of 26 had activated Stat-3 but only 6 of 23 had activated Stat-1. Melanoma tumors had high levels of either pStat-3 or pStat-1 but not both. All melanoma specimens but not benign melanocytes had cytoplasmic IFNAR-1 staining. An increase in Stat-3 activity was seen in melanoma but not in benign nevi or skin melanocytes. There appeared to be an inverse correlation between the levels of pStat-3 and pStat-1 in a given specimen. CONCLUSIONS The relationship between activated Stat-3 and biological behavior of melanocytic lesions observed in this study warrants further exploration.
The influence of high contrast acuity and normalised low contrast acuity upon self‐reported situation avoidance and driving crashes

The aim of this study was to determine the cues used to signal avoidance of difficult driving situations and to test the hypothesis that drivers with relatively poor high contrast visual acuity (HCVA) have fewer crashes than drivers with relatively poor normalised low contrast visual acuity (NLCVA). This is because those with poorer HCVA are well aware of their difficulties and avoid dangerous driving situations while those poorer NLCVA are often unaware of the extent of their problem. Age, self‐reported situation avoidance and HCVA were collected during a practice based study of 690 drivers. Screening was also carried out on 7254 drivers at various venues, mainly motorway sites, throughout the UK. Age, self‐reported situation avoidance and prior crash involvement were recorded and Titmus vision screeners were used to measure HCVA and NLCVA. Situation avoidance increased in reduced visibility conditions and was influenced by age and HCVA. Only half of the drivers used visual cues to signal situation avoidance and most of these drivers used high rather than low contrast cues. A statistical model designed to remove confounding interrelationships between variables showed, for drivers that did not report situation avoidance, that crash involvement decreased for drivers with below average HCVA and increased for those with below average NLCVA. These relationships accounted for less than 1% of the crash variance, so the hypothesis was not strongly supported.
Does exchange rate risk matter for asset pricing? Working paper series--10-01

Following Adler and Dumas (1983), it is a common practice in the exchange rate literature to use the contemporaneous exchange rate change as the relevant risk factor. However, if exchange rate fluctuations affect cash flows of firms as Stulz (1984), among others, suggest and future not current cash flows matter for asset pricing, we should focus on future not contemporaneous exchange rate changes. Furthermore, if as Starks and Wei (2005) suggest exchange rate fluctuations can push a firm into financial distress, the exchange rate risk is a distress factor and should behave like the value factor in the three-factor model and carry a positive risk premium. We test these conjectures in this paper and find supporting evidence in the post Plaza-Accord period.
Angiotensin Type 1a Receptors in the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus Protect against Diet-Induced Obesity

Obesity is associated with increased levels of angiotensin-II (Ang-II), which activates angiotensin type 1a receptors (AT1a) to influence cardiovascular function and energy homeostasis. To test the hypothesis that specific AT1a within the brain control these processes, we used the Cre/lox system to delete AT1a from the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) of mice. PVN AT1a deletion did not affect body mass or adiposity when mice were maintained on standard chow. However, maintenance on a high-fat diet revealed a gene by environment interaction whereby mice lacking AT1a in the PVN had increased food intake and decreased energy expenditure that augmented body mass and adiposity relative to controls. Despite this increased adiposity, PVN AT1a deletion reduced systolic blood pressure, suggesting that this receptor population mediates the positive correlation between adiposity and blood pressure. Gene expression studies revealed that PVN AT1a deletion decreased hypothalamic expression of corticotrophin-releasing hormone and oxytocin, neuropeptides known to control food intake and sympathetic nervous system activity. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings confirmed that PVN AT1a deletion eliminates responsiveness of PVN parvocellular neurons to Ang-II, and suggest that Ang-II responsiveness is increased in obese wild-type mice. Central inflammation is associated with metabolic and cardiovascular disorders and PVN AT1a deletion reduced indices of hypothalamic inflammation. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that PVN AT1a regulate energy balance during environmental challenges that promote metabolic and cardiovascular pathologies. The implication is that the elevated Ang-II that accompanies obesity serves as a negative feedback signal that activates PVN neurons to alleviate weight gain.