Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AN INVESTIGATION OF MISCONCEPTION OF FEMALES’ PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS COMPETITIONS IN A TRADITIONALIST SOCIETY OF PAKISTAN

This study has been undertaken to explore the misconceptions of female participation in sports competitions that normally exist in various traditionalist segments of Muslim society in Pakistan. The experiences revealed there has been a great influence of religion and effectual impact of sociocultural conditions prevalent in various sections of the people living in rural and urban areas of the country. Most of the conservative religious scholars discouraged women’s participation in sports and physical activities in open playfields, though not popular among most of the female population, and declining athletes of both genders to compete in mixed gatherings, with reasonable consideration that both sexes may not mix up actually to disgrace their nobility and selfrespect. The study articulated most of the prevalent misconceptions were based on false beliefs that conveyed a negative message in encouraging women’s sports competitions in the country; female contenders acquainted with the benefits of physical activities for sound health and in reshaping their bodies in fine shape that enhanced their perception for sports competitions, persuade moderate government officials related to sports organizations to realize productive measures to raise maximum number of female participation in sports at national and international competitions.
Intestinal Distribution and Intraluminal Localization of Orally Administered Clostridium butyricum in Rats

Clostridium butyricum has been used as a probiotic in animals and humans for years, however, its fate in the intestine has not been clarified yet. We investigated the intestinal fate of C. butyricum using a selective medium and a monoclonal antibody after orally administering C. butyricum spores to rats. The number of C. butyricum, both viable and dead cells, in the intestinal contents were counted by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) at various times after a single oral administration. The total viable number of C. butyricum was counted using a selective medium, and viable resting spores were selectively detected by treating the samples with ethanol. To investigate the intraluminal localization of the C. butyricum cells, frozen intestinal tracts were imprinted onto slides and stained with immunogold‐silver. Total viable spores exceeded the number of viable resting spores by more than 10‐fold from the proximal to middle of the small intestine 30 min after administration. Vegetative cells of C. butyricum were first detected in the distal small intestine after 2 hr, and vegetative growth was observed from the cecum to the colon 5 hr after administration. Dead vegetative cells were detected 9 hr after administration, and C. butyricum cells were not detected in the intestine after 3 days. The C. butyricum cells in the intestinal imprints were stained specifically by immunogold‐silver staining, and proliferative cells were observed in the cecum after 3 hr. These results suggest that the administered C. butyricum germinated in the upper small intestine, grew mainly from the distal small intestine to the colon and were excreted from the rat intestine within 3 days.
Maintaining the Common Pool: Voluntary Water Conservation in Response to Increasing Scarcity

Studies of voluntary conservation response to changing information about an environmental problem have traditionally been synonymous with studies of information campaign effectiveness. As such, they have not been able to capture the response to actual changes in the environment. This paper takes a novel approach to identifying voluntary conservation by studying the impact of changing storage levels on urban water usage in the context of a prolonged drought and a highly ‘water aware’ community. Our results suggest that voluntary conservation increases substantially when water is scarce and the public value of the savings is greatest. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of environmental information campaigns in general, and urban water demand management in particular.
The Impact of the Right Ventricular Lead Position on Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Introduction: Left ventricular (LV) lead placement to the latest contracting area (concordant LV lead) is associated with better response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) compared to a discordant LV lead. However, the effect of the right ventricular (RV) lead site on CRT response is unclear. We investigated the relationship of the RV and LV lead positions on CRT response.
Endophytic Fungi from Dragon's Blood Specimens: Isolation, Identification, Phylogenetic Diversity and Bioactivity

Endophytic fungi from Dragon's blood specimens of different locations of China were characterized taxonomically and investigated concerning their antimicrobial and antitumor activity against six pathogenic microbes and five tumor cells. A total of 49 endophytic fungi were obtained from Dragon's blood materials of Dracaena spp. , 18 taxa were represented by 43 (87.8%) isolates and only six (12.2%) isolates were unknown. Twenty (40.8%) of the isolates displayed antimicrobial activity against at least one pathogenic microorganism. Three isolates YNDC07, BJDC06 and BJDC09 displayed significant antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigates, respectively. The results of antitumor activity by the MTT assay revealed that 26.5%, 69.4%, 48.9%, 6.1% and 42.9% of isolate fermentation broths displayed growth inhibition on HepG2 cells, SKVO3 cells, MCF7 cells, HL‐60 cells and 293‐T cells, respectively. HNDC09 and HNDC10 showed very strong antitumor activity against MCF7 and 293‐T, respectively. The results showed that endophytic fungi in Dragon's blood samples were valuable in screening antitumor and antimicrobial bioactivity agents. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Monte Carlo Studies of a Proton Computed Tomography System

Proton therapy is a precise forms of radiation therapy that makes use of high energy proton compared to the conventional, more commonly used and less precise x-ray and electron beams. On the other hand, to fully exploit the proton therapy advantages, very accurate quality controls of the treatments are required. These are mainly related to the dose calculations and treatment planning. Actually dose calculations are routinely performed on the basis of X-ray computed tomography while a big improvement could be obtained with the direct use of protons as the imaging system. In this work we report the results of Monte Carlo simulations for the study of an imaging system based on the use of high energy protons: the proton computed tomography (pCT). The main limitation of the pCT and the current adopted technical solutions, based on the use of the most likely path (MLP) approximation are illustrated. Simulation results are compared with experimental data obtained with a first prototype of pCT system tested with 200 MeV proton beams available at the Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) (CA).
Bone SPECT imaging of patients with internal derangement of temporomandibular joint before and after splint therapy.

OBJECTIVE Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) patients with disc displacement without reduction have a misaligned disc-condyle structural relation. As the condition becomes chronic, painful osteoarthritic changes may occur. For these patients, splint therapy may help to position the condyle to a more structurally compatible and functional position and to decrease the loading force of articular surfaces. The aim of this study was (1). to evaluate osseous reactions and pain relief in patients with disc displacement without reduction after splint therapy and (2). to use single photon emission tomography (SPECT) bone imaging to compare the results with the opposite joint of the patient. STUDY DESIGN Twelve patients, who presented with pain involving the TMJ and limited mouth opening and were confirmed by soft tissue imaging as having disc displacement without reduction, were included in the study. Each patient underwent bone SPECT imaging, after which semiquantitative evaluation of transaxial images was conducted. The ratios of affected TMJ to nonaffected TMJ, affected TMJ to occipital bone, and nonaffected TMJ to occipital bone were calculated. After 6 months of splint therapy, bone SPECT examinations were repeated. RESULTS Before splint therapy, the ratios of affected TMJ to nonaffected TMJ and of affected TMJ to occipital bone were found to be significantly higher than the ratios after splint therapy (P < 0.005). CONCLUSION Six-month splint therapy has a positive effect on the osseous reaction and pain related to internal derangements of TMJs.
Surveillance for Mycobacterium bovis transmission from domestic cattle to wild ruminants in a Mexican wildlife-livestock interface area.

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle and wild ruminants (WRs) in a wildlife-livestock interface area (WLIA) of the Mexican highland plateau. ANIMALS 24,400 cattle from 793 herds (including 17,351 commercially slaughtered cattle) and 142 WRs (110 white-tailed deer [Odocoileus virginianus], 20 red deer [Cervus elaphus], and 12 North American elk [Cervus canadensis]) harvested via controlled hunting. PROCEDURES Cattle were serially tested for M bovis infection via caudal fold tuberculin and comparative cervical tuberculin tests during field surveillance. Carcasses of cattle and WRs were inspected for gross lesions; samples suggestive of tuberculosis were analyzed via histologic evaluation and mycobacterial culture (HMC). A PCR assay to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex organisms was performed to confirm positive results of HMC. RESULTS WRs had inflammatory lesions in lungs and lymph nodes, although HMC results did not indicate M bovis infection. Eight cattle had positive results for both tuberculin tests, and 31 had positive results for HMC of grossly detected lesions; all were from 7 herds, and ≥ 1 cow in each herd had positive PCR assay results. These 7 herds were depopulated; adjacent herds and herds related via commerce were quarantined. Calculated true prevalence of M bovis infection was 0.86% (95% confidence interval, 0.24% to 1.49%) in cattle; M bovis was not detected in any WRs. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE M bovis infection was present in cattle. Although transmission to WRs in this WLIA was not detected, diagnosis and prevention activities should be implemented and consolidated to prevent potential M bovis transmission between cattle and WRs.
Progress towards validating the NMDA receptor hypofunction hypothesis of schizophrenia.

This article describes recent progress towards validation of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction hypothesis of schizophrenia in preclinical models. Schizophrenia, a complex disease characterized by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms, affects 1% of the world population and requires lifelong, daily maintenance therapy. For the last several decades, thinking in this field has been dominated by the hypothesis that hyperfunction of dopamine pathways played a key role in schizophrenia. However, the therapeutic agents developed from this hypothesis have a slow onset of action and tend to improve only the positive symptoms of the disease. The NMDA receptor antagonist PCP has been shown to induce the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia in healthy patients and cause a resurgence of symptoms in stable patients. These observations led to the NMDA receptor hypofunction hypothesis as an alternative theory for the underlying cause of schizophrenia. According to this hypothesis, any agent that can potentiate NMDA receptor currents has the potential to ameliorate the symptoms of schizophrenia. To date, NMDA receptor currents can be modulated by either direct action on modulatory sites on the NMDA receptor (i.e., the glycine co-agonist binding site) or indirectly by activation of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) known to potentiate NMDA receptor function (i.e., mGluR5). This review will discuss the NMDA receptor hypofunction hypothesis, the NMDA receptor as an emerging target for the development of novel antipsychotic agents and progress towards in vivo target validation with GlyT1 inhibitors and mGluR5 positive allosteric modulators. Other potential targets for modulating NMDA receptor currents (polyamine sites, muscarinic receptors, etc.) will also be addressed briefly.
Design and verification of flexible interface for multicore system using PCIe IO virtualization

When complex system designs with complex specifications, where more than one address and data need to process simultaneously, than various protocols are used to process. There are various serial and parallel protocols are significant to used. But, now a day, AMBA AXI protocols are generally used for the interface. In this research work we present a flexible module with generic interfaces. Our implementation is based on AXI-4.0 and PCI Express protocols, which are the highspeed and high-performance protocols. We implement the Inter connect between host processor and PCI endpoint. Also, we implement how the packet is to be transfer in terms of address and data between host and device. We describe the interface module, which connected to various processors and high speed modules like DMA.
Consequences of changes in vegetation and snow cover for climate feedbacks in Alaska and northwest Canada

Changes in vegetation and snow cover may lead to feedbacks to climate through changes in surface albedo and energy fluxes between the land and atmosphere. In addition to these biogeophysical feedbacks, biogeochemical feedbacks associated with changes in carbon (C) storage in the vegetation and soils may also influence climate. Here, using a transient biogeographic model (ALFRESCO) and an ecosystem model (DOS-TEM), we quantified the biogeophysical feedbacks due to changes in vegetation and snow cover across continuous permafrost to non-permafrost ecosystems in Alaska and northwest Canada. We also computed the changes in carbon storage in this region to provide a general assessment of the direction of the biogeochemical feedback. We considered four ecoregions, or Landscape Conservations Cooperatives (LCCs; including the Arctic, North Pacific, Western Alaska, and Northwest Boreal). We examined the 90 year period from 2010 to 2099 using one future emission scenario (A1B), under outputs from two general circulation models (MPI-ECHAM5 and CCCMA-CGCM3.1). We found that changes in snow cover duration, including both the timing of snowmelt in the spring and snow return in the fall, provided the dominant positive biogeophysical feedback to climate across all LCCs, and was greater for the ECHAM (+3.1 W m−2 decade−1 regionally) compared to the CCCMA (+1.3 W m−2 decade−1 regionally) scenario due to an increase in loss of snow cover in the ECHAM scenario. The greatest overall negative feedback to climate from changes in vegetation cover was due to fire in spruce forests in the Northwest Boreal LCC and fire in shrub tundra in the Western LCC (−0.2 to −0.3 W m−2 decade−1). With the larger positive feedbacks associated with reductions in snow cover compared to the smaller negative feedbacks associated with shifts in vegetation, the feedback to climate warming was positive (total feedback of +2.7 W m−2 decade regionally in the ECHAM scenario compared to +0.76 W m−2 decade regionally in the CCCMA scenario). Overall, increases in C storage in the vegetation and soils across the study region would act as a negative feedback to climate. By exploring these feedbacks to climate, we can reach a more integrated understanding of the manner in which climate change may impact interactions between high-latitude ecosystems and the global climate system.
An image representation scheme by hybrid compressive sensing

Compressive sensing based image compression is a new paradigm shift in image representation and coding. The existing CS based image compression schemes are based on sparsity of the signals in transform domain. In this paper multiscale DWT is applied for sparse representation of the image. Instead of directly taking the measurements on sparse representation, statistical properties of low and high frequency subbands are studied. Based on the statistical properties of high and low band coefficients, a hybrid encoding scheme is proposed to encode low and high frequency subbands differently. At the decoder side, the combined bit stream is separated, and by fully exploiting the intra and inter scale correlation of multiscale DWT, different recovery algorithms are developed for low frequency and high frequency sub bands.
Maintaining the spirit of excitement in growing companies

One of the most critical issues facing managers of high tech companies is how to retain the spirit of excitement and energy as the company grows. Interviews with managers of these companies reflected the view that the spirit of excitement and energy which is so palatable in smaller software companies, somehow dissipates in a seemingly inevitable way as the company increases in size. (The notion that "something happens" when a company gets "too big" is a common one.) The question arising from this for managers is how that spirit of excitement or high level of motivation is created in the first place, and how it can be retained. In this commentary, some preliminary findings concerning the excitement levels in different size high tech companies are presented.The findings are based on the questionnaire results of 339 people from 11 high tech software companies; 7 "small" companies with less than 50 employees, 3 "medium" sized companies with between 150-250 employees and 1 "large" company with over 2, 000 employees in total.The average response rate for all companies was 55%. For the small companies it was much higher, at 68%, but in the large company it was 51%. The average age of the sample was 28 years, average years in present company was 2.5 years, 80 were women with 259 men. Most (96%) have at least a Bachelors degree so they represent a highly educated sample.
Complete or partial circadian re-entrainment improves performance, alertness, and mood during night-shift work.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To assess performance, alertness, and mood during the night shift and subsequent daytime sleep in relation to the degree of re-alignment (re-entrainment) of circadian rhythms with a night-work, day-sleep schedule. DESIGN Subjects spent 5 consecutive night shifts (11:00 pm-7:00 am) in the lab and slept at home in darkened bedrooms (8:30 am-3:30 pm). Subjects were categorized by the degree of re-entrainment attained after the 5 night shifts. Completely re-entrained: temperature minimum in the second half of daytime sleep; partially re-entrained: temperature minimum in the first half of daytime sleep; not re-entrained: temperature minimum did not delay enough to reach daytime sleep. SETTING See above. PARTICIPANTS Young healthy adults (n = 67) who were not shift workers. INTERVENTIONS Included bright light during the night shifts, sunglasses worn outside, a fixed dark daytime sleep episode, and melatonin. The effects of various combinations of these interventions on circadian re-entrainment were previously reported. Here we report how the degree of re-entrainment affected daytime sleep and measures collected during the night shift. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Salivary melatonin was collected every 30 minutes in dim light (<20 lux) before and after the night shifts to determine the dim light melatonin onset, and the temperature minimum was estimated by adding a constant (7 hours) to the dim light melatonin onset. Subjects kept sleep logs, which were verified by actigraphy. The Neurobehavioral Assessment Battery was completed several times during each night shift. Baseline sleep schedules and circadian phase differed among the 3 re-entrainment groups, with later times resulting in more re-entrainment. The Neurobehavioral Assessment Battery showed that performance, sleepiness, and mood were better in the groups that re-entrained compared to the group that did not re-entrain, but there were no significant differences between the partial and complete re-entrainment groups. Subjects slept almost all of the allotted 7 hours during the day, and duration did not significantly differ among the re-entrainment groups. CONCLUSIONS In young people, complete re-entrainment to the night-shift day-sleep schedule is not necessary to produce substantial benefits in neurobehavioral measures; partial re-entrainment (delaying the temperature minimum into the beginning of daytime sleep) is sufficient. The group that did not re-entrain shows that a reasonable amount of daytime sleep is not enough to produce good neurobehavioral performance during the night shift. Therefore, some re-alignment of circadian rhythms is recommended.
Disentangling the Effects of Water Stress on Carbon Acquisition, Vegetative Growth, and Fruit Quality of Peach Trees by Means of the QualiTree Model

Climate change projections predict warmer and drier conditions. In general, moderate to severe water stress reduce plant vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis. However, vegetative and reproductive growths show different sensitivities to water deficit. In fruit trees, water restrictions may have serious implications not only on tree growth and yield, but also on fruit quality, which might be improved. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to understand the complex interrelations among the physiological processes involved in within-tree carbon acquisition and allocation, water uptake and transpiration, organ growth, and fruit composition when affected by water stress. This can be studied using process-based models of plant functioning, which allow assessing the sensitivity of various physiological processes to water deficit and their relative impact on vegetative growth and fruit quality. In the current study, an existing fruit-tree model (QualiTree) was adapted for describing the water stress effects on peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) vegetative growth, fruit size and composition. First, an energy balance calculation at the fruit-bearing shoot level and a water transfer formalization within the plant were integrated into the model. Next, a reduction function of vegetative growth according to tree water status was added to QualiTree. Then, the model was parameterized and calibrated for a late-maturing peach cultivar (“Elberta”) under semi-arid conditions, and for three different irrigation practices. Simulated vegetative and fruit growth variability over time was consistent with observed data. Sugar concentrations in fruit flesh were well simulated. Finally, QualiTree allowed for determining the relative importance of photosynthesis and vegetative growth reduction on carbon acquisition, plant growth and fruit quality under water constrains. According to simulations, water deficit impacted vegetative growth first through a direct effect on its sink strength, and; secondly, through an indirect reducing effect on photosynthesis. Fruit composition was moderately affected by water stress. The enhancements performed in the model broadened its predictive capabilities and proved that QualiTree allows for a better understanding of the water stress effects on fruit-tree functioning and might be useful for designing innovative horticultural practices in a changing climate scenario.