Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered apoptosis/autophagy and epigenetic modifications cause the impaired postimplantation octaploid embryonic development in mice

ABSTRACT Polyploids are pervasive in plants and have large impacts on crop breeding, but natural polyploids are rare in animals. Mouse diploid embryos can be induced to become tetraploid by blastomere fusion at the 2-cell stage and tetraploid embryos can develop to the blastocyst stage in vitro. However, there is little information regarding mouse octaploid embryonic development and precise mechanisms contributing to octaploid embryonic developmental limitations are unknown. To investigate the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying octaploid embryonic development, we generated mouse octaploid embryos and evaluated the in vitro/in vivo developmental potential. Here we show that octaploid embryos can develop to the blastocyst stage in vitro, but all fetus impaired immediately after implantation. Our results indicate that cell lineage specification of octaploid embryo was disorganized. Furthermore, these octaploid embryos showed increased apoptosis as well as alterations in epigenetic modifications when compared with diploid embryos. Thus, our cumulative data provide cues for why mouse octaploid embryonic development is limited and its failed postimplantation development.
The traditional treatment of AIDS in Uganda: benefits and problems. Key issues and debates: traditional healers.

Many Ugandans turn to the traditional healing system for help in dealing with the psychosocial stress associated with HIV infection as well as for herbal treatments. Use of traditional healers for this purpose is encouraged by social and cultural beliefs that posit AIDS is a result of witchcraft or a curse from God. It is believed that if a sick person does not obtain treatment and dies, his spirit will cause further disease. Of concern is a tendency for people with AIDS to travel from one part of the country to another, seeking a cure from spiritualists, pure herbalists, and visionaries. Moreover, the intensified emergence of cults in response to the AIDS crisis creates potential for serious exploitation and further spread of the AIDS virus. Not only do these groups drain a family's financial resources, some practice unsafe practices such as intergroup sex or contact with unscreened blood. The estimated 6000-120,000 traditional healers in Uganda have the potential to provide a structure through which AIDS-related psychosocial problems are managed ("psychohealing"). Steps should be taken to understand the conditions that facilitate the emergence of healers purporting to be able to cure AIDS, the type of clients attracted to these services, and the costs and benefits of traditional medicine, with the ultimate goal of involving traditional healers in ongoing AIDS information, education, and counseling programs.
China's Bilateral Currency Swap Lines

We study the determinants of China’s bilateral local currency swap lines that were established since the recent global finance crisis. It is found that economic factors, political considerations, and institutional characteristics including trade intensity, economic size, strategic partnership, free trade agreement, corruption, and stability affect the decision of signing a swap line agreement. Once a swap line agreement decision is made, the size of the swap line is then mainly affected by trade intensity, economic size, and the presence of a free trade agreement. The results are quite robust with respect to the choices of the Heckman two-stage framework or the proportional hazard model. The gravity effect captured by distances between China and its counterparts, if present, is mainly observed during the early part of the sample period under consideration.
Steady‐state level of kit ligand mRNA in goat ovaries and the role of kit ligand in preantral follicle survival and growth in vitro

The aims of this study were to investigate steady‐state level of Kit Ligand (KL) mRNA and its effects on in vitro survival and growth of caprine preantral follicles. RT‐PCR was used to analyze caprine steady‐state level of KL mRNA in primordial, primary, and secondary follicles, and in small (1–3 mm) and large (3–6 mm) antral follicles. Furthermore, ovarian fragments were cultured for 1 or 7 days in Minimal Essential Medium (MEM+) supplemented with KL (0, 1, 10, 50, 100, or 200 ng/ml). Noncultured (control) and cultured fragments were processed for histology and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). RT‐PCR demonstrated an increase in steady‐state level of KL mRNA during the transition from primary to secondary follicles. Small antral follicles had higher steady‐state levels of KL mRNA in granulosa and theca cells than large follicles. After 7 days, only 50 ng/ml of KL had maintained the percentage of normal follicles similar to control. After 1 day, all KL concentrations reduced the percentage of primordial follicles and increased the percentage of growing follicles. KL at 10, 50, 100, or 200 ng/ml increased primary follicles, compared to MEM+ after 7 days. An increase in oocyte and follicular diameter was observed at 50 ng/ml of KL. TEM confirmed ultrastructural integrity of follicles after 7 days at 50 ng/ml of KL. In conclusion, the KL mRNAs were detected in all follicular categories. Furthermore, 50 ng/ml of KL maintained the integrity of caprine preantral follicle cultured for 7 days and stimulated primordial follicle activation and follicle growth. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 77: 231–240, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Balanced Workplace Flexibility: Avoiding the Traps

This article identifies three types of traps that can emerge when implementing workplace flexibility—altered work-life dynamics, reduced fairness perceptions, and weakened organizational culture—and provides core lessons for managers seeking a balanced flexibility approach. First managers must become flex savvy to understand the variation that exists in flexibility practices to align implementation with the workforce and organizational context. Second, implementing flexibility must not be treated as an accommodation but as a broader systemic organizational change empowering individuals and teams. The article provides a Work-smart case to highlight how to avoid traps and implement balanced workplace flexibility across multiple stakeholder interests.
The Wealth of Private Firm Owners Following Reverse Mergers

I compare the wealth of private firm owners that exit their firms through reverse mergers (RMs) to the wealth that could have been obtained in initial public offerings (IPOs), sellouts, or by remaining private. Private firm owners that use the RM exit mechanism have significantly less post-exit wealth than the wealth that could have been obtained in an IPO. This result is driven by differences in the pre-exit characteristics of firms that choose a RM compared to an IPO (a selection effect), not by use of the RM exit mechanism itself (a treatment effect). The gap between post-exit wealth and the wealth that could have been obtained in an IPO disappears for owners of RM firms whose pre-exit characteristics are sufficiently similar to propensity-score matched IPO firms. The post-exit wealth of RM firm owners is approximately the same as the wealth that could have been obtained in a sellout. The median change in private firm owner wealth as a result of the RM is positive when pre-exit private firm values are inferred from valuations in private–private takeovers. However, the median change in wealth is negative when pre-exit private firm values are obtained from valuations provided in fairness opinions. These conflicting findings appear to be driven by upwardly biased fairness opinion valuations.
Combined endpoints: can we use them?

Analysing specific non‐fatal events in isolation may lead to spurious conclusions about efficacy unless the events considered are combined with all‐cause mortality. The use of combined endpoints has therefore become widespread, at least in cardiovascular disease trials. Combining all‐cause mortality with selected non‐fatal events is useful because event‐free survival, an important criterion in therapy evaluation, is addressed in this manner. In many clinical trials, symptoms, signs or paraclinical measures (for example, blood pressure, exercise duration, quality of life scores) are used as endpoints. If the patient died before the endpoint was measured, or it was otherwise not possible to perform follow‐up assessments as planned, the effect of treatment on these endpoints may be distorted if the patients concerned are ignored in the analysis. Examples are given of how distortion can be avoided by including all patients randomized in an analysis that uses a ranked combined endpoint based both on clinical events and on paraclinical measures. A distinction is made between a pseudo intention‐to‐treat analysis that disregards study medication status at the time of endpoint assessment but is confined to patients with data, and a true intention‐to‐treat analysis that takes into account all patients randomized based on a ranked combined endpoint. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The effect of CYP2C19 genotypes on the pharmacokinetics of warfarin enantiomers

The aim of this study was to elucidate the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin enantiomers in relation to cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) genotypes.Fourteen subjects, of whom seven were homozygous extensive metabolizers (hmEMs) and seven were poor metabolizers (PMs) for CYP2C19, were enrolled. After a single oral 10 mg dose of racemic warfarin, the plasma concentrations of the warfarin enantiomers and prothrombin time expressed as international normalized ratio (PT‐INR) were measured over the course of 120 h.The mean plasma concentrations and elimination half‐life of (R)‐warfarin of all the subjects were about 2‐fold greater than those of (S)‐warfarin. Additionally, the area under the plasma concentration–time curve from zero to infinity (AUC0–∞) and the elimination half‐life of (R)‐warfarin in PMs were significantly greater than those in hmEMs (P = 0·0005 and P = 0·0101 respectively). The S/R ratios of AUC of warfarin enantiomers were 0·51 in hmEMs and 0·37 in PMs (P = 0·0052). Whereas no difference was found in all pharmacokinetic parameters of (S)‐warfarin in hmEMs compared with PMs. No significant difference in PT‐INR, used as a measure of anticoagulant effect, was found between the hmEMs and PMs.These results show that CYP2C19 activity is important in the pharmacokinetics of (R)‐warfarin. However, when warfarin is administered as a racemate, this difference is not translated into any significant effect in the pharmacodynamics of warfarin.
A novel biodegradable stent applicable for use in congenital heart disease: Bench testing and feasibility results in a rabbit model

A novel double opposed helical (DH) biodegradable stent was designed and fabricated for CHD applications. The primary objective was to evaluate the feasibility of DH stent delivery and deployment in rabbit external iliac arteries (EIA). Secondary objectives were to assess stent patency, thrombosis and inflammation at 1‐week and 1‐month follow‐up.
An Empirical Study on Users' Online Payment Behavior of Tourism Website

Nowadays, users' demands for tourism consumption continue to upgrade, more and more consumers complete the reservation of air tickets and hotels through online payment. Referring to previous researches, this paper established the users' online payment behavior intention model based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and put forward corresponding hypotheses. Then we adopt correlation analysis to investigate the factors affecting users' satisfaction and continuance intention of purchasing tourism products and services via online payment, which include perceived security, performance expectancy, convenient conditions, trust and so on. Then we further determine the extent to which each factor plays a role by multiple linear regression analysis.
Causal Relationship between Construction Production and GDP in Turkey

This study empirically investigates the causal relationship between construction production and GDP for Turkey during 2005Q1-2013Q4 period. Because it is found that, there is no cointegration which means there is no long run relationship between variables, VAR Granger Causality Method is used to test the causality in short run. The findings reveal that, the causality runs from GDP to Building Production and Building Production to Non-Building Production (i.e. bidirectional relationship). Findings of this paper suggest that, because there is no long run relationship between Construction Production (Building and Non-Building) and GDP and also in short run the causality runs from GDP to Construction Production, the growth strategy based on mainly Construction Sector growth is not a good idea for Turkey.
Chapter 3 Biostratigraphic age review of New Zealand's Permian–Triassic central terranes

Abstract This contribution considers the fossil content of the three Eastern Province ‘central’ terranes discussed within this Memoir, namely the Brook Street Terrane, the Dun Mountain–Maitai Terrane and the Murihiku Terrane, and reviews the evidence and/or arguments for the current interpretation of their age ranges as determined from fossils. It also briefly considers the Permian–Triassic record of the Western Province. There has been limited new palaeontological discovery in the past few decades but there has been significant new taxonomic and biostratigraphic analysis of New Zealand Permian faunas in light of new research in eastern Australia. This enables refinement of age correlations and greater confidence in the age significance of the New Zealand Permian record.
Improving web survey quality: Potentials and constraints of propensity score adjustments

The chapter aims to explore and evaluate in more detail the efficiency of the propensity score adjustment (PSA) and the power of webographic (i.e. behavioral and attitudinal) variables in adjusting biases arising from non‐randomized sample selection. In this context, it is to be considered that evidence for the applicability of PSA in the field of surveys in the scientific community is very limited. The empirical application is based on the Dutch sample of the WageIndicator Survey for 2009 ‐ a multi‐country, continuous volunteer web survey devoted to the collection of labor‐related variables. In the analysis, the target variable is the monthly gross wage. The sample is compared with a probability‐based web sample from the LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences) which is also used as a reference survey in the PSA application. The findings indicate that with the availability of an accurate probability‐based reference survey the application of PSA can help reducing biases in volunteer samples. With respect to the inclusion of webographic variables, at least for the target variable wages, the computed propensity weights did not lead to the expected improvements. This was also due to the fact that those propensity weights which effectively reduced the bias between the samples showed a much higher variability impacting on the validity of estimates. Nevertheless, and considering the advantages of volunteer web surveys (like reduced costs, flexibility, worldwide coverage, etc.) and their more and more extensive use, it is important to be aware of how far can weights improve the representativeness of nonprobability panels. The presented adjustment approaches seem to offer improvements with respect to bias correction which also allow for better generalizations of estimates from volunteer samples.
Maximal Aerobic Capacity of Canadian Schoolchildren: Prediction Based on Age-Related Oxygen Cost of Running

Timed distance runs were administered to a random sample of 2,683 schoolchildren aged 7--16 years. Oxygen uptake was then measured during level treadmill running over a range of submaximal speeds in a randomly selected subsample of 134 children with approximately equal representation according to age and sex. The VO2--running speed relationship was found to be related to age with the younger children having a greater VO2 per kg body weight than the older children when running at the same absolute speed. Based on the relationship found between measured VO2max and VO2max predicted according to field test performance, corrected for age-related differences in running efficiency, VO2max was predicted for all 2,683 children. When expressed per kg of body weight, VO2max was highest in girls at age 11 (approximately 44 ml/kg) and in boys at age 14 (approximately 54 ml/kg); however, differences among ages were nonsignificant. At all ages VO2max for the boys was significantly higher than that for the girls. At all ages, values were higher than those previously reported for Canadian schoolchildren.
Ambulatory urodynamic monitoring: Are we wasting our time?

Summary In this study, we review the contribution of ambulatory urodynamic studies (AUM) to the diagnosis and management of symptomatic women. We found that ambulatory urodynamics had particular value in establishing the amount, timing and mechanism of incontinence during near normal patient activity. In 77% symptomatic women with normal cystometry, AUM diagnosed the cause of incontinence and provided clear added value. We conclude that in our 12-year study, AUM is a valuable and effective second-line investigation for diagnosing the cause of incontinence in difficult cases.
Impacts of Gender-Based Violence and Harassment on Graduate Student Academic Functioning

x Chapter One: Introduction . 1 Theoretical Approach . 1 Background . 3 Gaps in the Literature . 6 Statement of the Problem . 6 Present Study . 7 Study Significance . 7 Purpose Statement . 7 Research Questions . 8 Methodological Overview . 9 Definition of Key Terms . 9 Conclusion . 11 Chapter Two: Literature Review . 13 Theoretical Framework . 13 Critical Theories in Adult Learning . 14
A 5.6MB/s 64Gb 4b/Cell NAND Flash memory in 43nm CMOS

Today NAND Flash memory is used for data and code storage in digital cameras, USB devices, cell phones, camcorders, and solid-state disk drives. Figure 13.6. 1 shows the memory-density trend since 2003. To satisfy the market demand for lower cost per bit and higher density nonvolatile memory, in addition to technology scaling, 2b/cell MLC technology was introduced. Recently, MLC NAND flash memories with more than 2b/cell [1,2] have been reported.
Preservation of structural brain network hubs is associated with less severe post-stroke aphasia.

PURPOSE Post-stroke aphasia is typically associated with ischemic damage to cortical areas or with loss of connectivity among spared brain regions. It remains unclear whether the participation of spared brain regions as networks hubs affects the severity of aphasia. METHODS We evaluated language performance and magnetic resonance imaging from 44 participants with chronic aphasia post-stroke. The individual structural brain connectomes were constructed from diffusion tensor. Hub regions were defined in accordance with the rich club classification and studied in relation with language performance. RESULTS Number of remaining left hemisphere rich club nodes was associated with aphasia, including comprehension, repetition and naming sub-scores. Importantly, among participants with relative preservation of regions of interest for language, aphasia severity was lessened if the region was not only spared, but also participated in the remaining network as a rich club node: Brodmann area (BA) 44/45 - repetition (p = 0.009), BA 39 - repetition (p = 0.045) and naming (p < 0.01), BA 37 - fluency (p < 0.001), comprehension (p = 0.025), repetition (p < 0.001) and naming (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Disruption of language network structural hubs is directly associated with aphasia severity after stroke.
Pregnancy-Associated Violent Deaths

This literature review examines intimate partner violence in relation to pregnancy-associated femicide and suicide. Empirical publications were eligible for review if they included information on intimate partner violence and examined females who were pregnant/postpartum and who were victims of femicide/attempted femicide and/or suicide/attempted suicide. Nine publications met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Results suggest that intimate partners perpetrate one- to two-thirds of the pregnancy-associated femicides in the United States and that pregnant women make up 5% of urban intimate partner femicides. Intimate partner abuse during pregnancy appears to be a risk factor for severe intimate partner violence, including attempted/completed femicide. So little information exists concerning intimate partner violence in pregnancy-associated suicides that it is impossible to draw conclusions regarding this topic; however, a hospital-based study suggests that intimate partner violence may be a risk factor for attempting suicide while pregnant. More research is needed concerning intimate partner pregnancy-associated femicide and suicide so that evidenced-based preventive/therapeutic interventions may be developed.
Structural Damage Identification based on Mode Shape Transformations and Supervised Learning

3 ANOTĀCIJA . 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 5 NOMENCLATURE AND ABBREVIATIONS . 9 INTRODUCTION . 10 Motivation and scope. 10 Aims of the thesis . 11 Tasks of the thesis. 11 Scientific novelty . 11 Practical significance of the thesis . 12 Methodology of the research . 12 Applicability limitations of the developed methods . 13 The arguments for defence of the thesis . 13 Structure of the thesis . 14 1. TRENDS IN STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ASSESSMENT . 15 1.1. Failure modes in polymeric composite structures and pre-stressed concrete sleepers . 15 1.2. Structural Health Monitoring. 18 1.2.1. Active SHM . 21 1.2.2. Passive SHM . 22 1.3. Vibration-based damage identification . 25 1.3. 1. Modal methods . 26 1.3. 2. Continuous wavelet transform . 29 1.4. Supervised learning using extraction of damage-sensitive features . 33 1.4. 1. Classification algorithms k-nearest neighbours . 35 1.4. 2. Classification algorithms – Linear discriminant . 36 1.4. 3. Classification algorithms – Decision trees . 37 1.4. 4. Data partitioning . 38 1.4. 5. Performance optimization and evaluation . 39 2. DAMAGE LOCALIZATION ALGORITHMS. 41 2.1 Continuous spatial wavelet transform . 41 2.2 Thresholded variance of normalized wavelet scalogram . 45 2.3. Mode shape curvature square . 46 2.4. Data classification . 48 PART I – MODE SHAPE TRANSFORMATIONS . 50 3. DAMAGE LOCALIZATION IN 1-D STRUCTURES . 51
Selectivity of Macaque MT/V5 Neurons for Surface Orientation in Depth Specified by Motion

Area MT/V5 in the macaque brain is one of the major cortical regions involved in the analysis of retinal image motion. The majority of the neurons in this cortical area have non‐uniform antagonistic surrounds as components of their receptive field complexes. Theoretical studies indicate that such asymmetrical surrounds should enable neurons to extract orientation in depth from motion. Here we show that nearly half of the MT/V5 neurons encode the tilt component of the orientation in depth of a plane specified by motion. Furthermore, we show that such selectivity for depth from motion depends on the presence of an asymmetrical surround and on the speed tuning of those asymmetrical surround influences.