Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Sex and Estrous Cycle on Nicotine withdrawal Syndrome in the Rat

Introduction: Severity of withdrawal syndrome in women during smoking cessation has reportedly been influenced by menstrual phase. There are few studies of female rats with their four-day estrous cycle. Methods: Histological examination determined the precise estrous phase at time of testing. The subjects were 14 qualifying female rats and 8 male rats, all five to six months old. Slides of vaginal fluid were examined for estrous phaseidentifying cell types. Nicotine withdrawal was evaluated at either the proestrus phase (n=7), a follicular portion of the cycle, and the metestrus phase (n=7) a luteal portion. Rats were continuously infused with 9 mg/kg/day s.c. nicotine bitartrate. On the seventh day, each subject was challenged with 1 mg/kg of the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, a dose that precipitates a vigorous withdrawal syndrome only in nicotine-dependent rats. Subjects were observed over 30 min. on a standard checklist of somatically expressed withdrawal behaviors. Results: Male rats displayed 26.00 ± 3.64 withdrawal signs (M ± SEM), while female rats in proestrus exhibited a similar 28.86 ± 3.39 signs. Female rats in metestrus displayed 41.57 ± 5.38 signs. One-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference among groups, p=0.039. Post hoc comparisons revealed significant differences between metestrus and proestrus females, p=0.049 and between metestrus females and males, p=0.016, but not between proestrus females and males. Conclusions: The results are consistent with reports of menstrual phase influence on withdrawal severity in smoking cessation, providing a laboratory model for studying this issue and its potential treatment. Implications: In the large literature on nicotine withdrawal in the rat, there are relatively few studies on female rats and hardly any on the effects of the estrous cycle on physical dependence and withdrawal. The results are consistent with reports on the menstrual cycle affecting withdrawal severity in women undergoing smoking cessation, supporting the translational relevance of the rat nicotine dependence model. The methods utilized here expand the ability of rat physical dependence models to compare the sexes and the estrous phases in nicotine physical dependence and withdrawal.
Ownership Structure and Corporate Governance: What Does the Data Reveal About Saudi Listed Firms?

In this paper we examine the ownership structure of 169 firms listed on the Saudi Arabian stock market from 2008 to 2014. The analysis uses the testing methodology described by Demsetz and Lehn (1985) to examine the effects of firm and market instability on Saudi ownership structure and additionally, the effect of systematic regulation that imposes constraints on the behavior of the selected listed firms. We find evidence, for the majority of the ownership structures considered, in favor of the view that firm size, regulation and instability affects ownership structure. The results suggest that the size variable has a positive effect on ownership concentration. Our analysis also shows that instability had some effect on ownership concentration and structure when using the non-linear specification, particularly when using firm specific instability, albeit the effect was stronger when the instability measure was accounting profit returns. Lastly, there is evidence that government-owned firms were mostly affected by regulation while diffused owned firms were affected most by instability than non-government owned firms.
SURFACE CHARACTERIZATION OF SINGLE AND MIXED MINERAL SYSTEMS USING SEDIMENTATION POTENTIAL

An integrated device has been developed to measure sedimentation potential, conductivity and pH simultaneously of particulate systems. Maxwell’s model was used to calculate volume fraction of solid from the conductivity data. In this approach, all system variables are known and zeta potential can be calculated from Smoluchowski’s equation. The technique is validated by comparing zeta potential vs. pH for alumina and silica suspensions with electrophoresis measurements. The technique was extended to mixed alumina/silica systems. Sufficient column height along with size difference between the two minerals allowed gravity fractionation during settling. Sedimentation potential measured over time identified the transition from one mineral to the next. Using XRD analysis the results supported the correlation between surface charge and sample composition. This is a step towards characterizing surface charge of mixed systems of interest in mineral processing.
The effect of identity and personality on cultural intelligence among a group of young South Africans

Orientation: Cultural intelligence is as a construct new to academia and has gained increasing attention, however research on identity, personality and CQ within the South African context are still very limited. Young Afrikaans-speaking South Africans differ in his or her ability to adapt across cultures and to interact across cultural different interactions and situations; therefore the importance to identify which identity and personality characteristics contributes to CQ. Research purpose: The general objective of this research is to determine the relationship between Identity, Personality and Cultural Intelligence among young South Africans. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative research design was used in this study. This study was cross-sectional in nature. For the purpose of this study, a sample of young South African University students (N = 252) were used. The Erickson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI), Multi-Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM), the SAPI-questionnaire and the Four Factor Model of Cultural Intelligence Scale were applied as the measuring instruments. Main findings: Religious identity and ethnic identity has a relationship to cognitive CQ. Softheartedness and conscientiousness has a relationship to behavioural CQ. Also, Soft-heartedness, facilitating, extroversion and religious identity has a relationship to motivational CQ. Softheartedness and conscientiousness has a relationship to behavioural CQ. Practical/Managerial implications: Organisations within South Africa will gain a better understanding of CQ, and the benefits of having Cultural Intelligent workforce as a strengthsbased approach. Cultural Intelligent employees will enable the organisation to adjust working with co-workers from another culture, transfer knowledge of one culture to another, completing overseas assignments, not feeling threatened when interacting with co-workers and clients, crosscultural decision making, leadership in multicultural environments and managing international careers.
Implementing Full and Partial Work Sanctions

This study examines the implementation of work sanctions in Texas, a state that switched from partial to full benefit sanctions. A qualitative research design is used consisting of 255 individual case studies obtained from administrative fair hearing data under Texas's full and partial sanction regimes. Recipients' explanations for not complying with the work rules and how workers assessed these explanations and whether sanctions were appropriate are examined. This study found that recipients' reasons for not complying with work rules were similar for both full and partial sanctions. The primary reasons for their noncompliance were family obstacles and situational challenges or lack of notice. Workers responses under both regimes were also very similar, with workers using their discretion to apply sanctions punitively. Workers focused on the paper-processing tasks of sanctioning rather than the larger goal of encouraging self-sufficiency, with workers failing to distinguish between procedural and substantive violations of the work rules.
Effect of organic crop rotations on long-term development of the weed seedbank

Changes in the weed seedbank were monitored between 1991 and 1998 in two experiments that were established to compare organic crop rotations at two sites in NE Scotland. Two rotations, replicated twice at each site, were compared and all courses of both rotations were present every year. There were relatively minor changes in weed species diversity over time, but major changes in seedbank abundance. Weed seed numbers were relatively low in rotations with a high proportion of grass/clover ley. Differences in level of seedbank across the rotation were relatively predictable at Tulloch but much less so at Woodside where factors such as the effect of the grass/clover ley seemed to play a lesser role. Other factors, such as weather and its influence on the effectiveness of weed control operations, and higher populations of ground-living arthropods, may be affecting the Woodside seedbanks.
Domestic Wastewater for Forage Cultivation in Cerrado Soil

Fertigation of agricultural crops that are not directly used in human food, with domestic wastewater is a viable alternative for the sustainable use of water resources. The development of agricultural practices that provide high productivity with the sustainability of agroecosystems has been a great challenge. Thus, our aims were to use of domestic wastewater in the planting of Brachiaria brizantha cv Marandu, as an alternative for animal feed production in Cerrado soils, and to study the physical-chemical and microbiological impacts of the fertigation. These impacts were evaluated, respectively, by physical-chemical indicators content and diversity of nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the DGGE profile. The NPK contents of the wastewater were used to determine the five fertigation managements (M1 to M5). M1 and M2 managements had no wastewater and M3 to M5 contained 20, 40 and 60% of NPK from the wastewater. The managements in a completely randomized design with 20 plots and 4 replicates were distributed. Soil samplings prior to fertigation and at the end of the experiment were performed. Leaf biomass productivity was determined in three different grass cuts. After fertigation, changes in physical-chemical indicators and in the viable microbial cells counts were observed. The NPK of wastewater increased the abundance of NFBs and AMFs. Leaf biomass productivity per hectare was directly proportional to NPK concentration. In addition, wastewater did not alter the nutritional composition of Marandu grass. Therefore, the fertigation with domestic wastewater showed to be a viable and promising alternative for reuse of this water in Cerrado soil for animal feed production.
A more precise chronology of earthquakes produced by the San Andreas fault in southern California

Improved methods of radiocarbon analysis have enabled us to date more precisely the earthquake ruptures of the San Andreas fault that are recorded in the sediments at Pallett Creek. Previous dates of these events had 95% confidence errors of 50–100 calendar years. New error limits are less than 23 calendar years for all but two of the dated events. This greater precision is due to larger sample size, longer counting time, lower background noise levels, more precise conversion of radiocarbon ages to calendric dates, and better stratigraphic constraints and statistical techniques. The new date ranges, with one exception, fall within the broader ranges estimated previously, but our estimate of the average interval between the latest 10 episodes of faulting is now about 132 years. Variability about the mean interval is much greater than was suspected previously. Five of the nine intervals are shorter than a century; three of the remaining four intervals are about two to three centuries long. Despite the wide range of these intervals, a pattern in the occurrence of large earthquakes at Pallett Creek is apparent in the new data. The past 10 earthquakes occur in four clusters, each of which consists of two or three events. Earthquakes within the clusters are separated by periods of several decades, but the clusters are separated by dormant periods of two to three centuries. This pattern may reflect important mechanical aspects of the fault's behavior. If this pattern continues into the future, the current period of dormancy will probably be greater than two centuries. This would mean that the section of the fault represented by the Pallett Creek site is currently in the middle of one of its longer periods of repose between clusters, and sections of the fault farther to the southeast are much more likely to produce the next great earthquake in California. The greater precision of dates now available for large earthquakes recorded at the Pallett Creek site enables speculative correlation of events between paleoseismic sites along the southern half of the San Andreas fault. A history of great earthquakes with overlapping rupture zones along the Mojave section of the fault remains one of the more attractive possibilities.
Factors responsible for differences in uptake of integrated soil fertility management practices amongst smallholders in western Kenya

To address soil fertility depletion and the attendant low agricultural productivity in western Kenya, many attempts have been made to develop and popularize integrated soil nutrient management (INM) practices. Adoption of INM practices appears to be an appropriate strategy for restoring soil fertility, yet patterns of adoption and factors influencing the adoption process are not clearly understood.This paper evaluated adoption patterns of INM components and investigated factors that determine the adoption patterns. Data were collected from a random sample of 331 households in western Kenya using a questionnaire and analysed by descriptive statistics and binary logit model. Results show that animal manure was the most widely applied soil management practice. About 25% of the households applied combinations of organic and inorganic inputs. Determinants of the adoption of INM practices varied by the INM practices surveyed. However,education level of household head, livestock units and the district where the farm is located had statistically significant positive effects on integrated use of organic and inorganic inputs, whilst land per capita had a significant negative effect. Targeting different INM components to the farmers and areas with suitable characteristics is recommended to spur adoption of INM practices. Key words: Adoption, soil fertility, integrated soil fertility management.
PROFILE OF CLINICAL EMERGENCIES IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF A TEACHING HOSPITAL CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO PERFIL DAS EMERGÊNCIAS CLÍNICAS NO PRONTO-ATENDIMENTO DE UM

This study aimed to: investigate the demographic characteristics of patients seen in the emergency department of a teaching hospital; identify the most common clinical emergencies; and identify the ultimate destination of these patients (medical discharge, hospitalization or death). This retrospective, cross-sectional, quantitative study. Data were collected from patients’ electronic medical records. Inclusion criteria were: adult patients 18 years or older, with a diagnosis of clinical emergency, seen in the period from January 2009 through May 2010. There was a predominance of: females (56.33%), of white ethnicity (86.95%), and mean age 48.74 ± 7.8 years. The most prevalent age group was 18-29 years. Most of the patients (99.65%) declared themselves to be active workers. 60.23% were married. The most frequent neurologic diseases found were: headache (29.03%); stroke (26.09%); and upper back pain (10.25%) and cardiological diseases were: precordial pain (38.98%), heart failure (25.79%), hypertension (12.29%) and cardiac arrhythmia (8.67%). The ultimate destinations of patients seen in the emergency department were: medical discharge (55.8%) and hospitalization (43.26%). Among those patients who had been hospitalized, medical discharge was the most common outcome (87.99%), followed by death (11.47%). Further research is necessary in order to better understand the various aspects involved in the operation of an emergency department unit and to develop an institutional profile that encompasses other approaches, such as a better and more efficient health care delivery by health professionals.
Diet of the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis in lime- stone habitats of Nonggang, China

To enhance our understanding of dietary adaptations in macaques we studied the diet of the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis in limestone seasonal rain forests at Nonggang Nature Reserve, China from September 2005 to August 2006. Our results show that although macaques fed on many plant species, 85.2% of the diet came from only 12 species, of which a bamboo species, Indocalamus calcicolus contributed to 62% of the diet. Young leaves were staple food items (74.1% of the diet) for Assamese macaques at Nonggang, and constituted the bulk of monthly diets almost year-round, ranging from 44.9% (July) to 92.9% (May). Young parts of Indocalamus calcicolus unexpanded leaves contributed to a large proportion of the young leaf diet in most months. Fruit accounted for only 17.4% of the diet, with a peak of consumption in July. We suggest that this highly folivorous diet may be related to the long lean season of fruit availability in limestone habitats as well as the utilization of cliffs of low fruit availability.
Towards Smaller Family Size in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey: Overall Change over Time or Socio-economic Compositional Effect?

The whole region of the South and East Mediterranean exhibits a profound fertility transition with marked differences in the pace of fertility declines among the countries. The authors choose three representative countries: Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Determinants of the propensity towards smaller family size are investigated as scrutinizing the development in the pattern of third births, which represents the critical step in the transitional process for these countries. The authors are particularly interested in verifying whether the decline of higher-order births is significantly driven by an overall societal change over time or by compositional change over different socio-economic segments of the female population. Evidence is found that overall societal changes have mainly driven the decline in large family size, though, to a much lesser extent, compositional changes are important too.
Sclerotial Development of Grifola umbellata

Abstract Sclerotial development of Grifola umbellata (Pers. : Fr.) Donk was investigated through microscopic examinations. The sclerotium of G. umbellata was bumpy and rugged, multi-branched, and dark-brown to black in color. The sclerotial development of G. umbellata was categorized into three stages such as sclerotial initial, development and maturation. Sclerotium development was initiated as the white fungal mass. The superficial part of white sclerotium changed into gray, light brown and then black as its development proceeded further. As a distinctive characteristic of this fungus, a large number of crystals were observed in the medulla layer of sclerotium during its maturation. For development of new sclerotium, G. umbellata formed a white sclerotial primordium on the matured sclerotium. Development of sclerotium in G. umbellata was intimately associated with rhizomorphs of Armillariella mellea and the developing sclerotia were often penetrated by rhizomorphs of A. mellea into medulla layer.
GALOIS AND BIGALOIS OBJECTS OVER MONOMIAL NON-SEMISIMPLE HOPF ALGEBRAS

We describe the Hopf–Galois extensions of the base field and the biGalois groups of non-semisimple monomial Hopf algebras. The main feature of our description is the use of modified versions of the second cohomology group of the grouplike elements. Our computations generalize the previous ones of Masuoka and Schauenburg for the Taft algebras.
Coopetition and Internationalization of a Company - the Case of Firms in the Wielkopolska Voivodeship

Cooperation and competition as organizational relationships or interactions between two or more organizations have been traditionally perceived as opposites. Behaviour of enterprises has been changing and one can notice that more and more organizations are involved in these two types of relations simultaneously. This paradoxical phenomenon is named as coopetition. The paper focuses on coopetition and internationalization of a company. Coopetition is a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted phenomenon. In this study, the author attempts to identify the interdependencies between the intensity of coopetition and internationalization of a company. On the basis of literature review the author highlights the theoretical background of the concept of coopetition and conceptualizes the term of coopetition. There are proposed three indicators which can be used in order to assess the intensity of coopetition. The theoretical part of the paper is accompanied by the presentation of the results of empirical research which was conducted among fifty two manufacturing and construction companies involved at least in export as an internationalization strategy and located in Wielkopolska. It is located in the western part of Poland and belongs to the best economically prosperous regions in Poland.
The immune enhancer, thymoquinone, and the hope of utilizing the immune system of Aedes caspius against disease agents

Insects have developed an efficient defence system against microorganisms, which involves both humoral and cellular mechanisms. Recent studies on insect defence system are aimed at utilizing it in the battle against mosquito-borne diseases. However, mounting immune responses of insects has proved to impose fitness costs. The current study was conducted to test the costs of enhancing the immune responses of Aedes caspius by oral administration of thymoquinone, the active ingredient of the black seed oil, Nigella sativa L. (Ranunculaceae). The obtained results showed an effective humoral activity against Micrococcus luteus (NCTC 2665, Sigma-Aldrich, UK) and Bacillus cereus when mosquitoes were injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Bacillus thuringiensis or B. cereus. However, this activity showed no effect against B. thuringiensis. Furthermore, oral administration of thymoquinone enhanced the humoral activity against B. cereus but not against B. thuringiensis. On the other hand, thymoquinone-enhanced immunity imposed reproductive costs in terms of higher percentages of follicular apoptosis and resorption. This observation has been confirmed by the semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, which showed a relatively higher expression of selected caspases genes, namely: CASP 18, CASP 19 and CASP 20, but not CASP 21, transcripts in immune enhanced mosquitoes compared to non-enhanced ones. Based on these results, this study suggests that enhancing the humoral activity by thymoquinone proved to be costly in terms of triggering follicular apoptosis and resorption. Thus, as part of the scenario of immunity-reproduction conflict, it was concluded that the impact of immune stimulation and/or enhancement on the vector reproduction constitutes a limiting factor to the utilization of thymoquinone in the immuno-control strategy against mosquito-borne diseases.
Surprising Comparative Properties of Monetary Models: Results from a New Model Database

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the comparative properties of empirically estimated monetary models of the U.S. economy using a new database of models designed for such investigations. We focus on three representative models due to Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Evans (2005), Smets and Wouters (2007), and Taylor (1993a). Although these models differ in terms of structure, estimation method, sample period, and data vintage, we find surprisingly similar economic impacts of unanticipated changes in the federal funds rate. However, optimized monetary policy rules differ across models and lack robustness. Model averaging offers an effective strategy for improving the robustness of policy rules.