Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic relationship and maturity state of the allorecognition system affect contact reactions in juvenile Seriatopora corals

Adult stony corals are characterized by a well-developed allorecognition system. In most cases, genetically identical coral grafts fuse, whereas genetically different grafts (allografts and xenografts) show various histoincompatible responses. Very little is known, however, about the allorecognition system in juvenile corals. We studied contact reactions of juvenile pairs in 2 sclerac- tinian coral species: Seriatopora caliendrum and S. hystrix (0 to 59 d after settlement). Juvenile colo- nies were experimentally grafted in combination groups of various genetic distances: sibling allo- grafts of S. hystrix (4 pairs), non sibling allografts of S. caliendrum (12 pairs), non sibling allografts of S. hystrix (16 pairs) and xenografts of the 2 species (26 pairs). Three tissue contact reactions were detected in all of the genetic combination groups: nonfusion, fusion and incompatible fusion. The transition in contact reaction patterns was recorded over a 1 yr period. Contact reactions and their duration were largely consistent among pair replicates of each combination and within each of the 4 genetic combination groups. We suggest that in juvenile Seriatopora corals, the genetic combination of each graft is a primary determinant of the contact reaction and its endurance. Maturity state of the allorecognition system, affects both onset and duration of the fusion and incompatible fusion reac- tions in the juvenile corals. Onset of the fusion reaction was observed only when grafted colonies were younger than 4 mo. Throughout the experimental period, most fusion reactions transformed into histoincompatible reactions or disconnection and virtually none of the allografts or xenografts main- tained stable chimeras. We suggest that as the alloimmune system matures, incompatible fusion reac- tions eventually transform into nonfusion or disconnection via tissue necrosis of the contact zone.
The Relationship Between Schizotypy, Creativity, & Behavioral Inhibition

iv Review of the Literature.1 Method . 12 Results.18 Discussion.22 References.30 Appendix A:. 44 Appendix B:. 46 Appendix C: . 48 Appendix D:. 50 Appendix E:. 56 Appendix F:. 61
An Analytical Technique for Solving Nonlinear Oscillators of the Motion of a Rigid Rod Rocking Bock and Tapered Beams

In this paper, a new analytical approach has been presented for solving strongly nonlinear oscillator problems. Iteration perturbation method leads us to high accurate solution. Two different high nonlinear examples are also presented to show the application and accuracy of the presented method. The results are compared with analytical methods and with the numerical solution using Runge-Kutta method in different figures. It has been shown that the iteration perturbation approach doesn't need any small perturbation and is accurate for nonlinear oscillator equations.
Forecasting Realized (Co)Variances with a Block Structure Wishart Autoregressive Model

In modelling and forecasting volatility, two main trade-offs emerge: mathematical tractability versus economic interpretation and accuracy versus speed. The authors attempt to reconcile, at least partially, both trade-offs. The former trade-off is crucial for many financial applications, including portfolio and risk management. The speed/accuracy trade-off is becoming more and more relevant in an environment of large portfolios, prolonged periods of high volatility (as in the current financial crisis), and the burgeoning phenomenon of algorithmic trading in which computer-based trading rules are automatically implemented. The increased availability of high-frequency data provides new tools for forecasting variances and covariances between assets. However, there is scant literature on forecasting more than one realised volatility. Following Gourieroux, Jasiak and Sufana (Journal of Econometrics, forthcoming), the authors propose a methodology to model and forecast realised covariances without any restriction on the parameters while maintaining economic interpretability. An empirical application based on variance forecasting and risk evaluation of a portfolio of two US treasury bills and two exchange rates is presented. The authors compare their model with several alternative specifications proposed in the literature. Empirical findings suggest that the model can be efficiently used in large portfolios.
Effect of sporadic destratification, seasonal overturn, and artificial mixing on CH 4 emissions from a subtropical hydroelectric reservoir

Abstract. Inland waters in general and freshwater reservoirs specifically are recognized as a source of CH4 into the atmosphere. Although the diffusion at the air–water interface is the most studied pathway, its spatial and temporal variations are poorly documented. We measured temperature and O2 and CH4 concentrations every 2 weeks for 3.5 years at nine stations in a subtropical monomictic reservoir which was flooded in 2008 (Nam Theun 2 Reservoir, Lao PDR). Based on these results, we quantified CH4 storage in the water column and diffusive fluxes from June 2009 to December 2012. We compared diffusive emissions with ebullition from Deshmukh et al. (2014) and aerobic methane oxidation and downstream emissions from Deshmukh et al. (2016). In this monomictic reservoir, the seasonal variations of CH4 concentration and storage were highly dependent on the thermal stratification. Hypolimnic CH4 concentration and CH4 storage reached their maximum in the warm dry season (WD) when the reservoir was stratified. Concentration and storage decreased during the warm wet (WW) season and reached its minimum after the reservoir overturned in the cool dry (CD) season. The sharp decreases in CH4 storage were concomitant with extreme diffusive fluxes (up to 200 mmol m−2 d−1). These sporadic emissions occurred mostly in the inflow region in the WW season and during overturn in the CD season in the area of the reservoir that has the highest CH4 storage. Although they corresponded to less than 10 % of the observations, these extreme CH4 emissions (> 5 mmol m−2 d−1) contributed up to 50 % of total annual emissions by diffusion. During the transition between the WD and WW seasons, a new emission hotspot was identified upstream of the water intake where diffusive fluxes peaked at 600 mmol m−2 d−1 in 2010 down to 200 mmol m−2 d−1 in 2012. The hotspot was attributed to the mixing induced by the water intakes (artificial mixing). Emissions from this area contributed 15–25 % to total annual emissions, although they occur in a surface area representative of less than 1 % of the total reservoir surface. We highly recommend measurements of diffusive fluxes around water intakes in order to evaluate whether such results can be generalized.
Results of the application of tropospheric corrections from different troposphere models for precise GPS rapid static positioning

In many surveying applications, determination of accurate heights is of significant interest. The delay caused by the neutral atmosphere is one of the main factors limiting the accuracy of GPS positioning and affecting mainly the height coordinate component rather than horizontal ones. Estimation of the zenith total delay is a commonly used technique for accounting for the tropospheric delay in static positioning. However, in the rapid static positioning mode the estimation of the zenith total delay may fail, since for its reliable estimation longer observing sessions are required. In this paper, several troposphere modeling techniques were applied and tested with three processing scenarios: a single baseline solution with various height differences and a multi-baseline solution. In specific, we introduced external zenith total delays obtained from Modified Hopfield troposphere model with standard atmosphere parameters, UNB3m model, COAMPS numerical weather prediction model and zenith total delays interpolated from a reference network solution. The best results were obtained when tropospheric delays derived from the reference network were applied.
Brand Equity and Business Performance in Family and Non-Family Mexican Small Business

Brand equity is a topic that has been analyzed and discussed recently by scholars and researchers in the field of marketing. It is also considered as one of the most successful business strategies which allows enterprises, especially small ones, not only to survive in a highly globalized and competitive market bust also to attain a significant increase in their level of business performance. Moreover, the equity of the brand has commonly been studied from the perspective of big enterprises so there are few investigations focused in the analysis of these variables in small companies. This is why the objective of this empirical research is the analysis and discussion of the effects of equity of brand in business performance in small enterprises from a country with an emerging economy, as it is the case of Mexico. The results obtained show that equity brand in products and services of small enterprises have a positive, significant effect in the level of business performance.
Entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, barriers of access to finance and small business performance: a proposed conceptual framework

Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) have sparked a heated debate among researchers since last decade. Recognizing the significant contribution of SMEs included small business in enhancing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), entrepreneurial development, export performance, poverty alleviation, employment opportunity, equal distribution of income, domestic savings, income distribution and tax revenues to local economy as well as country, etc. numerous support programmes emphasize on the development of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) since EO at the organization level is a behavioural construct that has been successfully measured and has been positively correlated in improving performance. Some prior studies, however, contend that the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance may be more complex than a simple main effect. Based on Resource Based-View (RBV) Theory, the firm must have valuable resources and capabilities as a source of sustainable for competitive advantages. Access to finance can be considered as crucial source needed by small businesses to help them set up and expand their operations, develop new products and invest in new staff or production facilities. This study provides a proposed conceptual framework for the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and small business performance. This study also attempts to connect the mediating role of barriers of access to finance and moderating role of firm size in the relationship between EO and small business performance. The conceptual model is founded in a synthesized understanding of these three main construct by supporting from previous literature. A study of this nature is vitally-important to highlight the stakeholder such as government, private bodies, NGOs, policy maker and small entrepreneurs on the important of EO and accessibility to finance on performance of small business sector.
All You Need is Cable TV?

Abstract Robert Jensen and Emily Oster find that arrival of cable TV in rural India reduces women's tolerance of spousal violence, son preference and fertility, and increases women's autonomy, and school enrolment. These results are mostly replicated using their data and code. However, cable TV does not affect uneducated women. Theoretically informed index construction reduces the tolerance of violence effect, and weakens that on autonomy. We have statistical power concerns, and find errors and questionable assumptions in school enrolment constructions. Using our data constructions, effects sizes and significance are weakened. These results suggest that pure, statistical and scientific replication have merit.
Time-Varying Behavior of Stock Prices, Volatility Dynamics and Beta Risk in Industry Sector Indices of the Shanghai Stock Exchange

This paper examines time-varying stock price and volatility dynamics of constituent industry sector indices in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It finds that market beta risk is priced in the time-series movements of stock prices and responds positively to rises in non-diversifiable risk. The asset pricing implication here is that investors demand a higher required rate of return during rises in aggregate stock market volatility. Finally, this paper identifies which industries exhibit the highest degree of volatility persistence and how this impacts their respective beta estimates. It shows time-dependence in beta risk for all the sector indices and, finally, in contrast to studies which examine developed markets, there is no statistical evidence of volatility asymmetry in these industries. This suggests that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news exert an equal impact on the conditional variance process on Chinese stock prices.
Development of a 3D in-vitro model for Alzheimer’s disease: Behavioral investigation of SH-SY5Y cells in brain-mimicking matrices

Worldwide over 50 million people are suffering from Dementia and 60-70% of these cases are believed to be liked to Alzheies disease AD (1). Studies show that people suffering from repeated or severe head trauma (2), such as professional oes, ad people ith Dos sdoe(3, 4) ae oe poe to deelop Alzheies disease later in life. One common feature in these medical cases is an altered extracellular matrix in the brain due to either trauma or genetic factors. Understanding the mechanisms behind AD have has proven a challenge to the scientific community due to the lack of a functional disease model for AD. So far, the full AD progression has yet to be adequately modelled in a controlled setting, such as an in vitro or in vivo model, even though at least one promising candidate has been reported by Choi et al. utilizing 3D-cell culturing system that displays increased levels of both intracellular phosphorylated-tau proteins and extracellular amyloid β plaques compared to a 2D control (5). In this work a bare bones tuneable brain 3D-cell model protocol is presented and evaluated using three different cell lines of differentiated SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. The most promising conditions in the matrix show neuron-like cells that exhibit comparable morphology to those presented by previous models but in a more controlled and well defined environment. The model makes promising use of hyaluronic acid in a 3D-matrix seeded with differentiated cells. Studies performed in the new model hints towards an ultimately cytotoxic interaction between Aβ and ECM components, which encourages further investigations of neuron/ECM/Aβ interactions in AD
Gender Differences in Attitudes Towards Competition: Evidence from the Italian Scientific Qualification

We exploit a natural experiment based on the Italian promotion system for associate and full professor positions to investigate gender differences in the willingness to enter competition. Using data on about 42,000 professors and controlling for productivity and a number of individual and field characteristics, we find that females have a lower probability of applying for competition of about 4 percentage points. The determinants of this gap seem to be gender differences in risk-aversion and self-confidence and women’s fear of discrimination: the lower tendency to enter competition is especially relevant for women in the lower tail of the distribution of scientific productivity and in fields in which productivity is not easily measurable; furthermore, women are less likely to apply for promotion in fields in which promotions of females in the past were rare.
CYLINDROSPERMOPSIS RACIBORSKII (CYANOBACTERIA) INVASION AT MID‐LATITUDES: SELECTION, WIDE PHYSIOLOGICAL TOLERANCE, ORGLOBALWARMING? 1

The tropical bloom‐forming cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Woloszynska) Seenaya et Subba Raju is causing increasing concern because of its potential toxicity and invasive behavior at mid‐latitudes. This species has recently been identified in several temperate areas and was first reported in France in 1994, but the mechanisms underlying this acclimation process remain to be elucidated. We performed a range of laboratory experiments in an attempt to identify the physiological characteristics that could account for this behavior. We investigated the three following hypotheses: 1) clones of C. raciborskii adapted to temperate climate have been selected as it advanced north, 2) C. raciborskii has high physiological tolerance that allows it to prosper in a wide range of conditions, and 3) changes inclimate (global warming) have favored the development of C. raciborskii in mid‐latitudes. Ten strains of C. raciborskii from Australia n=1), Brazil (2), France (2), Germany (1), Hungary (1), Mexico (1), and Senegal (2) were cultured at different temperatures and light intensities. The in vitro growth parameters (μ and Topt) were the same for the tropical and temperate strains. All 10 strains displayed positive net growth in a wide range of temperatures (from 20 to 35°C) and light intensities (from 30 to 400 μmol photons·m−2·s−1), with maximum growth rates at around 30°C and 80 μmol photons·m−2·s−1. This suggests that the colonization of mid‐latitudes by C. raciborskii may result from a combination of its ability to tolerate a rather wide range of climatic conditions and the global warming phenomenon, which provides this species with better environmental conditions for its growth.
Effect of thermal treatment on the chemical composition and minerals of wild lupin seeds

El consumo de lupinos silvestres se limita por la presencia de alcaloides, sin embargo se pueden reducir con un tratamiento termico adecuado. El objetivo de esta investigacion fue determinar el efecto termico sobre la composicion quimica y de minerales de lupinos. En Lupinus mexicanus se observo una reduccion en proteinas y grasas de 34,76 a 33,11 g/100 g y de 6,10 a 5,41 g/100 g respectivamente, un incremento de cenizas y fi bra dietaria de 3,84 a 4,53 y de 20,9 a 28,48 g/100 g. La semilla cruda de L. mexicanus revelo el mas alto contenido de Ca (3252,6 mg/kg), Lupinus elegans en Mg con 2656,4 mg/kg, mientras que Lupinus rotundifl orus fue de Fe (82,8 mg/kg) y Lupinus exaltatus en Cu (184,4 mg/kg). Todas las especies mostraron similar contenido de Zn de 73,3 (L. montanus) to 89,6 mg/kg (L. exaltatus). En todas las especies disminuyo el Cu, principalmente en L. elegans con una perdida del 76,71 %
Effects of Four New Brominated Flame Retardants on Hepatic Messenger RNA Expression, In Vitro Toxicity and In Ovo Toxicity in the Domestic Chicken (Gallus gallus)

ii Resume iv Table of contents vii List of tables ix List of figures x List of abbreviations xii Publication plan xii Acknowledgments xiv Statement of contributions xiv Chapter 1 – General introduction 1 1.1. Thesis overview 1 1.2. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) 4 1.2. 1. Sources of BFRs 5 1.2. 2. Chemical characteristics 7 1.2. 3. BFR toxicity in birds 7 1.2. 4. Biological effects of BFR exposure 10 1.2. 4.1. Xenobiotic metabolism 11 1.2. 4.2. Thyroid hormone metabolism 14 1.2. 4.3. Lipid regulation and metabolism 15 1.3. BFR alternatives – environmental occurrences and current toxicological data 16 1.3. 1. Hexachlorocyclopentadienyldibromocyclooctane (HCDBCO) 17 1.3. 2. Bis(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophtalate (BEHTBP) 18 1.3. 3. Bis(tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) 19 1.3. 4. Decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE) 20 1.4. Thesis rationale and hypotheses 21 1.4.1 Species selected 22 1.4.2 Cell culture 23 1.4.3 Egg injection studies 23 Chapter 2 – The effects of HCDBCO, BEHTBP, BTBPE and DBDPE on mRNA expression in primary cultures of chicken embryonic hepatocytes 24 2.
Inculcation of science process skills in a science classroom

Teachers play an important role for teaching science process skills in class through planning and arranging learning activities and teaching how to reach scientific information. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the teaching aproaches used in the teaching and learning process of a science class are able to provide the opportunity to inculcate science process skills and to identify which science process skills were inculcated (if any) during the lesson without actually planning to teach science process skills. This is a qualitative case study in two Smart Schools in Malaysia. 24 students aged 14 years old and two science teachers were the sample of this study This study revealed that the process of teaching and learning science that uses various teaching approaches in one science lessons has additional advantages in terms of providing opportunities for the inculcation of science process skills. It also managed to provide the students with the opportunity to learn independently in acquiring some of the skills. The use of various teaching approaches is in juxtaposition to each other. Science teaching and learning process is a dynamic process, where the movement from one teaching approach to another occur and not necessarily always occur in an orderly sequence. Hence, the use of various teaching approaches in a single lesson can create more opportunities for inculcation and acquisition of science process skills in the classroom.
Domestication of cattle: Two or three events?

Cattle have been invaluable for the transition of human society from nomadic hunter‐gatherers to sedentary farming communities throughout much of Europe, Asia and Africa since the earliest domestication of cattle more than 10,000 years ago. Although current understanding of relationships among ancestral populations remains limited, domestication of cattle is thought to have occurred on two or three occasions, giving rise to the taurine (Bos taurus) and indicine (Bos indicus) species that share the aurochs (Bos primigenius) as common ancestor ~250,000 years ago. Indicine and taurine cattle were domesticated in the Indus Valley and Fertile Crescent, respectively; however, an additional domestication event for taurine in the Western Desert of Egypt has also been proposed. We analysed medium density Illumina Bovine SNP array (~54,000 loci) data across 3,196 individuals, representing 180 taurine and indicine populations to investigate population structure within and between populations, and domestication and demographic dynamics using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). Comparative analyses between scenarios modelling two and three domestication events consistently favour a model with only two episodes and suggest that the additional genetic variation component usually detected in African taurine cattle may be explained by hybridization with local aurochs in Africa after the domestication of taurine cattle in the Fertile Crescent. African indicine cattle exhibit high levels of shared genetic variation with Asian indicine cattle due to their recent divergence and with African taurine cattle through relatively recent gene flow. Scenarios with unidirectional or bidirectional migratory events between European taurine and Asian indicine cattle are also plausible, although further studies are needed to disentangle the complex human‐mediated dispersion patterns of domestic cattle. This study therefore helps to clarify the effect of past demographic history on the genetic variation of modern cattle, providing a basis for further analyses exploring alternative migratory routes for early domestic populations.