Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TREM2 Limits Progression of Deficits and Spreading of Tau Pathology in Mice

Background. Amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau form pathogenic lesions in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains. As ΑD clinically progresses, tau pathology propagates in a very distinct pattern between connected brain areas. The molecular mechanisms underlying this tau pathology spread remain largely unknown. Genome-wide association studies have identified polymorphisms in triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 ( TREM2 ) as genetic risk factors for AD and regulators of Aβ pathology-dependent tau propagation. Whether TREM2 contributes to neuron-to-neuron spreading of pathological tau remains unknown.Methods. Here, we crossed Trem2- deficient mice with P301S tau transgenic TAU58 mice and subjected the mice to behavioral testing and assessed neuropathology. Microglial activation states were determined using cytometry by of flight (CyTOF) and quantitative PCR. Tau spreading was assessed in vivo using tracing of focal tau expression.Results. Trem2 depletion significantly aggravated tau-induced early-onset motor and behavioural deficits. Neuropathologically, Trem2 reduction increased the number of hyperphosphorylated tau lesions in young TAU58 brains and reduced disease-associated microglia. Direct assessment of inter-neuronal spread of tau in vivo revealed significantly enhanced propagation of tau in the absence of Trem2 , suggesting that microglial TREM2 limits the progression of tau pathology in disease.Conclusion. Taken together, our data suggests that reduced TREM2 function accelerates the onset and progression of functional deficits and tau neuropathology in tau transgenic mice, which is - at least in part - due to increased tau spreading. Therefore, reduced TREM2 function may contribute to early AD by augmenting tau toxicity and its inter-neuronal propagation.
Nitric Oxide Donor Administration For improvement of Uterine Blood Flow in Unexplained Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss is still a challenging obstetric condition. It linked to impaired uterine blood, and vasodilators seem to prevent recurrent pregnancy loss. The aim of the work: The current study aimed to compare between investigate the Doppler uterine artery indices in females with recurrent pregnancy loss [unexplained]. It also aimed to study the effect of intravaginal isosorbide mononitrate, on the pattern of uterine blood flow. Materials and Methods: This observational, nested case control study had been completed at Al-Azhar University Hospitals. Two groups of females [each 50 females] were studied. The control group [females with no previous pregnancy loss and have a viable child or more]. The study group [females with history of unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss]. Vaginal color Doppler ultrasound was done to assess pulsation and resistance indices of uterine arteries in the mid-luteal phase of the cycle. Then, 20 mg of isosorbide mononitrate was applied vaginally and measurement of the vascular indices were registered after two hours again. Both groups were compared and the effect of isosorbide mononitrate on the uterine artery vascular indices the study group was documented. Results: Higher uterine artery resistance and pulsation indices are noticed in females with recurrent pregnancy. A significant reduction in these indices was found after vaginal application of Isosorbide mononitrate. Both groups were comparable regarding patient demographics. Doppler indices were significantly lower in control than study group. The endometrial thickness was negatively correlated with right RI and left PI (r = -0.328, -0.342, p = 0.039 and 0.031, respectively). Conclusion: Poor uterine perfusion is associated with spontaneous abortion. The vaginal application of isosorbide mononitrate, nitric oxide donor could be an effective treatment for the correction of uterine vasculature in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss.
Microbial Quality of Pork Meat Marketed in Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal

This study aims to access the microbial quality of the pork meat marketed in Dharan sub-metropolitan city of Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to October of 2019 among 7 established meat shop that sells pork meat in Dharan. Meat and swab samples from the hand of the butchers, chopping board, and knife were collected from all meat shop in triplicate manner. The average TPC in pork meat, chopping board, knives and butchers’ hand of seven meat shop was found to be 181×105 cfu/g, 287×102, 49×102 and 274×102 cfu/cm2 respectively. The average total coliform in meat samples and swabs of the butchers hand, chopping board, knives were 176×101 cfu/cm2, 918×101 cfu/g and 133×101, 106×101 and respectively. All meat samples were found E. coli and S. aureus positive with four out of seven meat samples were detected salmonella positive, whereas six among seven samples were found positive with Shigella. From the data obtained it is inferred that the hygienic and sanitary conditions are not satisfactory to assure meat safety in Dharan.
Reconstruction of the Electron Diffusion Region With Inertia and Compressibility Effects

A method based on electron magnetohydrodynamics (EMHD) for the reconstruction of steady, two‐dimensional plasma and magnetic field structures from data taken by a single spacecraft, first developed by Sonnerup et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja022430, is extended to accommodate inhomogeneity of the electron density and temperature, electron inertia effects, and guide magnetic field in and around the electron diffusion region (EDR), the central part of the magnetic reconnection region. The new method assumes that the electron density and temperature are constant along, but may vary across, the magnetic field lines. We present two models for the reconstruction of electron streamlines, one of which is not constrained by any specific formula for the electron pressure tensor term in the generalized Ohm's law that is responsible for electron unmagnetization in the EDR, and the other is a modification of the original model to include the inertia and compressibility effects. Benchmark tests using data from fully kinetic simulations show that our new method is applicable to both antiparallel and guide‐field (component) reconnection, and the electron velocity field can be better reconstructed by including the inertia effects. The new EMHD reconstruction technique has been applied to an EDR of magnetotail reconnection encountered by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft on 11 July 2017, reported by Torbert et al. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat2998 and reconstructed with the original inertia‐less version by Hasegawa et al. (2019), https://doi.org/10.1029/2018ja026051, which demonstrates that the new method better performs in recovering the electric field and electron streamlines than the original version.
The intersection of race and party: voter perceptions and candidate selection in U.S. Senate elections

ABSTRACT Previous literature suggests that Democratic candidates of color receive less support than white Democrats on Election Day. It has been suggested that this reduced support is due to voters’ ideological perceptions of people of color being more liberal than whites, which translates into perceptions of candidates. However, these studies are frequently limited to white voters’ perceptions of Democratic candidates of color, and the full relationship linking race/ethnicity, to ideological placement, to vote choice has rarely been tested. In the current study, we examine how both the race/ethnicity and party affiliation of Senate candidates shape perceptions of their ideology and vote choice among people of all race and ethnicities. Using the 2006–2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we find support for our hypothesis that Black Democrats are generally perceived as more liberal than white Democrats. These perceptions have real consequences, resulting in fewer votes. Conversely, Black Republican candidates are perceived to be just as conservative—and Hispanic Republicans even more conservative—than white Republican candidates. Findings suggest that the link between race/ethnicity, perceptions of ideology, and electoral success vary according to the race/ethnicity and party of candidates.
Characteristics of Enhanced Heatwaves over Tanzania and Scenario Projection in the 21st Century

Extreme hot temperature is dangerous to the bioeconomy, and would worsen with time. Ambient heatwaves accompanied by unusual droughts are major threats to poverty eradication in Tanzania. Due to sparsity of observation data and proper heatwave detection metrics, there has been a paucity of knowledge about heatwave events in Tanzania. In this study, the Heatwave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId) was adopted to quantitatively analyze heatwave characteristics throughout Tanzania at mid-21st century (2041–2070) and end of 21st century (2071–2100), relative to the reference period (1983–2012) using the CHIRTS-daily quasi-global high-resolution temperature dataset and climate simulations from a multi-modal ensemble of median scenarios (RCP4.5, from CORDEX-Africa). The results showed that moderate to super-extreme heatwaves occurred in Tanzania between 1983 and 2012, particularly in 1999, when ultra-extreme heatwaves (HWMId > 32) occurred in the Lake Victoria basin. It is projected that by mid-21st century, the upper category of HWMId would be hotter and longer, and would occur routinely in Tanzania. The spatial extent of all of the HWMId categories is projected to range from 34% to 73% by the end of the 21st century with a duration of 8 to 35 days, compared to 1 to 5 days during the reference period. These findings will contribute to increasing public awareness of the need for adaptation.
How Do Human Resource Management Practices Affect Innovation of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises in a Transition Economy?

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are one of the engines for inclusive economic growth. Yet little is known about the contribution of human resource management (HRM) practices to the success of SMEs. This study empirically examines how HRM practices determine different categories of innovation of SMEs in the context of a transition economy. Using a longitudinal dataset and applying the instrumental variable methodology to correct for endogeneity problems, our study uncovers that HRM practices positively affect the quality of employed human and physical capital assets of SMEs. More importantly, we find that that HRM practices significantly contribute to the launch of new products and improvement of existing products. In addition, we also find that the adoption of HRM practices facilitate labour productivity and value added. Taken together, these findings highlight that HRM practices are a strategic resource for innovation and development of SMEs in transition economies by rewarding them with higher-quality capital assets. JEL: L25, O15, O31
Mathematical physics e-module: A study of students' perception based on gender

Student’s perception is the student's assessment of something or information. The objective of this study was to discover how students' general perceptions and gender differences in electronic modules of mathematical physics. The research type is survey-based research with quantitative approach. The research population consists of physics education students from Universitas Jambi with the sample of 80 students from class A and class B. The data analysis techniques used in the study are descriptive statistics analysis and inferential data analysis using t-tests. The results showed that, overall, students have a positive perception with a Sig. (2-tailed) value of 0.011 < 0.005, which means that there is a significant difference in students’ perception. The perception of class A students with gender differences has a Sig. (2-tailed) value of 0.003, while the grade B students have a Sig. (2 tailed) values of 0.020 and 0.013. This means that class A and classs B students have a discernible difference of perception. Student’s perception may be used as a determining factor in the choice of learning materials. This research can be used as a guideline for the development of student perception assessment in the electronic module of Mathematical Physics in the future. The update of this study aims to compare students' perceptions of the overall online module of mathematics and gender differences.
Influence of Amino Acids on the Mobility of Iodide in Hydrocalumite

In the cement system, hydrocalumite is a candidate adsorbent for low-level 129I anionic species. However, the stability of hydrocalumite after immobilizing I− is unclear when they are exposed to pedosphere characterized by organic substances derived from living organisms. In the present work, five amino acids were selected as simplified models of natural organic substances under alkaline conditions. L-cysteine (H2Cys) and L-aspartic acid (H2Asp) accelerated the release of I− from I-hydrocalumite through ion-exchange. Ion-exchange of Cys2− with I− in I-hydrocalumite was faster than Asp2−, and the interlayer spacing (d003) of Cys-hydrocalumite was smaller than that of Asp-hydrocalumite. DFT simulations not only supported the above results but also predicted that there was a positive correlation between the formation energies and interlayer spacings of amino acids intercalated hydrocalumite, depending on the configurations. Moreover, in the DFT predictions, the interaction between amino acids and metallic hydroxide layers was responsible for the formation of hydrogen bonds and Ca-O chemical bonds between the -COO− groups and [Ca2Al(OH)6]+. The other three amino acids did not show intercalation through ion-exchange. The stability of I-hydrocalumite is influenced differently by coexisting amino acids, depending on the ionic sizes, charge numbers, and hydrophilicity, which cause the second contamination.
Understanding the Bereavement Process: Voices of Bereaved Parents

Analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 bereaved parents and 11 service providers revealed a more holistic conceptualization of the bereavement process for parents who have lost a child. Holistic “states” included: “helplessness prior to the death,” “fog,” “turmoil,” “transition,” “new beginnings,” and “stability. ” Findings showed that loss and restorative processes are characteristic of more than one state, the bereavement narrative starts prior to the death, there is often a downturn after the bereaved parent seemingly is doing better, and the process never ends but may include a continuing bond with the deceased and reoccurring moments of extreme grief. Recommendations for direct practice, program development, and future research are presented.
A lower estimate for weak-type Fourier multipliers

Asmar et al. [Note on norm convergence in the space of weak type multipliers. J Operator Theory. 1998;39(1):139–149] proved that the space of weak-type Fourier multipliers acting from into is continuously embedded into . We obtain a sharper result in the setting of abstract Lorentz spaces with built upon a Banach function space X on . We consider a source space and a target space in the class of admissible spaces . Let denote the space of Fourier multipliers acting from to . We show that if the space X satisfies the weak doubling property, then the space is continuously embedded into for every . This implies that is a quasi-Banach space for all choices of source and target spaces .
Beyond Heyneman & Loxley: the relative importance of families and schools for learning outcomes in francophone Africa

ABSTRACT Data from sub-Saharan Africa show that many students leave school without the skills they need. To address this issue, it is important to understand what factors influence learning. According to the Heyneman and Loxley effect established in 1983, in low income countries school quality influences how much students learn more than those students’ backgrounds. Recent research suggests that this influential conclusion no longer holds, without discounting the possibility that this trend could still be observed in very-low income countries. The present work investigates this possibility by using the PASEC dataset, which includes ten countries in West- and Central Africa. Improving on Heyneman and Loxley’s methodology by using general dominance analysis, this article finds no support for the ‘Heyneman-Loxley Effect’. Both school resource and student background account for around half of the explained variance in learning. This suggests that both family- and school-related factors are important sources of inequality of opportunity in low-income contexts.
Assessing uncertainty for classified mixed model prediction

Classified mixed model prediction (CMMP) is a new method that has embedded the traditional mixed model prediction (MMP) with a modern flavour. The basic idea is to first identify a class among the training data that matches the potential class corresponding to the new observations, whose associated mixed effect is of interest for prediction. Once such a matching is established, the MMP method can be utilized to make more accurate prediction that takes into account the subject-level differences. In this paper, we consider estimation of the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) of CMMP. A recently proposed Sumca method is implemented. Sumca combines analytic and Monte-Carlo approaches, leading to a second-order unbiased estimator of the MSPE. The performance of Sumca is investigated via simulation studies and comparisons are made with alternative methods. The simulation study shows that a brute-force bootstrap method performs almost as well as Sumca, while a naive approach and a Prasad-Rao estimator at the matched index are significantly inferior to Sumca. A real-data application is considered. Remarks and recommendation are offered.
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown in Banks and Financial Institutions’ Stock Performance: Evidence from Nepal

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on daily stock returns of banks and financial institutions (BFI) in Nepal. Employing the panel data regression models, this study examines the effect of daily COVID-19 positive cases to the stock returns – during pre-lockdown, lockdown, and after-lockdown period – of 74 listed firms in Nepal from 2 May 2019 to 25 April 2021. The empirical results confirm that there was no significant impact of daily increased number of COVID-19 positive cases to the stock returns of BFIs in Nepal throughout the entire study period. Furthermore, this study inquires the influence of pandemic period to the individual class of the BFIs sector in NEPSE[1]. It discloses that the commercial banks, development banks and microfinance companies’ stock returns were adversely impacted during the pre-lockdown and lockdown period. However, after-lockdown period had significantly rebounded the overall BFIs stock returns in Nepal with the highest returns earned by microfinance companies and lowest return by commercial banks. [1] Nepal Stock Exchange Limited
Study on the Electrical, Structural, Chemical and Optical Properties of PVD Ta(N) Films Deposited with Different N2 Flow Rates

By reactive DC magnetron sputtering from a pure Ta target onto silicon substrates, Ta(N) films were prepared with different N2 flow rates of 0, 12, 17, 25, 38, and 58 sccm. The effects of N2 flow rate on the electrical properties, crystal structure, elemental composition, and optical properties of Ta(N) were studied. These properties were characterized by the four-probe method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Results show that the deposition rate decreases with an increase of N2 flows. Furthermore, as resistivity increases, the crystal size decreases, the crystal structure transitions from β-Ta to TaN(111), and finally becomes the N-rich phase Ta3N5(130, 040). Studying the optical properties, it is found that there are differences in the refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) of Ta(N) with different thicknesses and different N2 flow rates, depending on the crystal size and crystal phase structure.
Growth performance, sex ratio, feed utilization, and survival of Oreochromis hybrids

ABSTRACT An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of hybrids from a diallel 3 × 3 crossing of Oreochromis karongae, O. shiranus, and O. mossambicus. Fingerlings of 3.47 ± 0.04 g were stocked at 5 fish m−2 in nine treatments replicated twice. Final weights were significantly different (P < 0.05) among treatments whereby hybrids from female O. karongae and male O. mossambicus registered higher values (48.48 ± 0.58 g) than other crosses. Hybrids from female O. karongae significantly (P < 0.05) performed well in terms of AFCR as they registered lower values (<2). The proportion of males varied between 65% and 90% in hybrids; survival ranged from 62.5% to 100%. Heterosis in hybrids from crosses with female O. karongae ranged from10.72 to 33.25. The results suggest that hybrids from crosses with female O. karongae may be suitable candidates for commercial fish farming as they have superiority of the most productive performance traits.
Perceived Competence and Intrinsic Motivation in Mathematics: Exploring Latent Profiles

This study aims to use a person-centred approach to identify possible student motivational profiles in mathematics. These profiles are made up of various combinations of two motivational variables: perceived competence and intrinsic motivation. Once the profiles are identified, we examine the differences between them in negative emotions and mathematics performance. Our sample comprised 863 students (50.2% boys, 49.8% girls) aged between 9 and 13 years old. The results indicated three motivational profiles. One group of students with moderately high perceived competence and intrinsic motivation who demonstrated the best performance and the lowest levels of negative feelings about themselves. A second group was defined by moderately low levels of perceived competence and intrinsic motivation. The third group was characterized by very low perceived competence and low intrinsic motivation and demonstrated the worst performance in mathematics and the highest levels of anxiety and negative emotions towards mathematics.
Optimizing Lake Surface Water Temperature Simulations Over Large Lakes in China With FLake Model

Lake surface water temperature (LSWT) is sensitive to climate change; however, simulated LSWT and its response to climate change remain uncertain. In this study, FLake, a one‐dimensional freshwater lake model, is optimized to simulate the LSWTs of 94 large lakes with surface areas greater than 100 km2 in China. While most of these lakes are seasonally ice‐covered over the Tibetan Plateau, FLake with default parameters significantly underestimated LSWT in spring and winter and slightly overestimated LSWT in summer and autumn in seasonally ice‐covered lakes. We performed sensitivity experiments and calibration in the trial lake (Qinghai Lake). Then, parameter calibrations of three lake‐specific properties (albedo, lake mean depth and light extinction coefficient) were performed in all the studied lakes. The optimized FLake substantially improved the simulations of seasonal and interannual variations in LSWT. The root mean square error decreased from 3.64 ± 1.54°C to 1.97 ± 0.72°C, and the mean bias of 96% of the lakes decreased to less than 1°C. Our study showed that the optimized FLake can reproduce the temporal variations in LSWT across China with optimized parameters, providing the possibility to simulate and project the response of LSWT to rapid climate change.