Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrauterine transplantation of autologous menstrual blood stem cells in the treatment of refractory intrauterine adhesion: a prospective cohort study

Background: The loss of endometrial stem cells has been associated with intrauterine adhesion caused by miscarriage, repeated improper intrauterine operation or infection. Cell-based therapies are promising in regenerative medicine. However, the effects of menstrual blood stem cells (MenSCs) therapy on impaired endometrium need to be explored and validated. This study evaluates the effects of intrauterine transplantation of MenSCs on endometrial thickness and pregnancy outcomes in patients with refractory intrauterine adhesion. Methods: This study included a group of infertile women (n=12, age 22-40 years), with refractory intrauterine adhesion (Grade III – IV). Autologous MenSCs isolated from the women’ menstrual blood were expanded in vitro and transplanted into their uteruses, followed by hormone replacement therapy. Transvaginal ultrasound examination was performed to assess the endometrial thickness. Transabdominal ultrasound was conducted to detect pregnancy outcome. Results: Autologous MenSCs were successfully isolated and expanded from menstrual blood and transplanted into the uterus of each patient. A significant improvement of the endometrial thickness was observed (from 3.9±0.9 mm pre-treatment to 7.5±0.6 mm post-treatment (P<0.001)). No adverse reaction was observed. The duration of menstruation was increased (from 2.4±0.7 days pre-treatment to 5.3±0.6 days post-treatment (P<0.001)). Five out of 12 patients achieved clinical pregnancy. Conclusions: Intrauterine transplantation of autologous MenSCs results in regeneration of endometrium, a prolongation of menstrual duration and an increase rate of pregnancy in patients with refractory intrauterine adhesion.
The nutrigenomic metabolite L‑carnitine directly modulates the activity and expression of nuclear receptors in adipocytes, liver and muscle cells

Background: L‑carnitine is an indispensable metabolite in eukaryotic cells, which facilitates transport of long‑chain fatty acids into the mitochondrial matrix for subsequent β-oxidation and helps to safeguard the acetyl-CoA level. Additionally, L‑carnitine has been proven to exert a nutrigenomic effect, modulating the expression of numerous target genes. However, the diverging time-dependent effects of short-term and extended L‑carnitine supplementation have not been investigated in more detail yet, especially in the interplay of adipocytes, liver and muscle cells. A cell culture model with conditions of L‑carnitine deficiency and supplementation for these cell types was established to investigate the effects of L‑carnitine on key nuclear receptors and their pathways. Results: L‑carnitine deficiency as well as L‑carnitine supplementation to hepatocytes modulated protein activity of multiple nuclear receptor pathways (RAR, RXR, VDR, PPAR, HNF4, ER, LXR). On the transcriptional level, short‑term L‑carnitine supplementation initially exerted an inhibitory effect on the steady state mRNA levels of PPAR‑α, PPAR‑δ, PPAR-γ, RAR‑β , LXR‑α and RXR‑α in adipocytes, liver and muscle cells. However, extended L‑carnitine supplementation for 24 and 48 hours led to a significant upregulation of PPAR‑α and PPAR‑δ , being key regulators of lipid catabolism, thereby promoting lipolysis and β-oxidation. In addition, significant differences in transcriptional modulation were found between adipocytes, liver and muscle cells. Extended L‑carnitine administration to hepatocytes also modulated mRNA expression levels of nuclear receptor target genes CYP2R1 , ALDH1A1 , HSD11B2 , OGT and HMGCR. Conclusions: These findings show a clear nutrigenomic effect of L‑carnitine on the protein activity and expression levels of selected nuclear receptors in different tissues, promoting lipolytic gene expression as well as decreasing transcription of adipogenic and insulin-resistance linked genes. Therefore L‑carnitine supplementation obviously is a promising strategy supporting established antihyperlipidemic therapies.
The Induction Machine Handbook

Induction Machines in the Industry. Topology and Operation of Induction Machines Materials and Losses. Windings and their mmfs. No-Load Field Distribution. Equivalent Circuit Parameters. Steady-State Performance Calculations. On-Load Saturation and Frequency Effects on Circuit Parameters. Skewing and Inter-Bar Rotor Currents. Space Harmonics in Airgap Field. Core and Winding Fundamental and Harmonic Losses. Thermal Modeling. Space Phasor Models for Transients and Variable-Speed Operation. Design Specifications. Preoptimization Design Methods and Case Studies. Design Optimization Methods. Design Optimization Case Studies for Constant Frequency Operation. Design Optimization Case Studies for Variable Frequency Variable Speed Operation. Design of Induction Generators. Design of High-Speed Induction Motors Linear Induction Motors. Ultra-High Frequency Effects of Power Electronics Tests on Induction Machines. Induction Motor Monitoring. Single-Phase Induction Motors.
HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing Uptake and Associated Factors among Sexually Active Men in Ethiopia: Evidence from the 2016 EDHS Using Multilevel Modeling

Background HIV counselling affirms that people exercise their right to known their HIV status and open the gateway to care, treatment, and support for a person in need. Existing evidence shows that its counselling and testing uptake among sexually active males in Ethiopia is too low and hence this study aims to determine the status of uptake and identify its determinants. Method Data on 12, 688 sexually active men was extracted from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel logistic regression was fitted to identify the factors associated with the uptake. Result This study depicted that the overall voluntary counseling and testing of HIV uptake among sexually active men in Ethiopia was 45.69%; 95% CI [43.08%, 48.33%]. Results showed that about 13% of the variation in the likelihood of being tested for HIV was due to the variation among the regions. Moreover, age, religion, education, occupational, marital status, HIV knowledge, health insurance, wealth status, risky sexual behavior, discussion about family planning with health workers, owning of mobile, frequency of watching television and listening to the radio were significant factors. Conclusion Voluntary counseling and testing uptake among sexually active men in Ethiopia is low and varies across the regions. The level of HIV knowledge, having risky sexual behavior, health insurance, and media were some of the significant factors. Therefore, giving due consideration to these factors worth boosting voluntary HIV counseling and testing uptake, which is an integral component of the strategies to efficiently prevent and control the disease.
Review of UK skid resistance policy

The skid resistance policy for UK trunk roads has been reviewed after fifteen years of operation. As a result, a revision to the policy is being implemented in 2004, which is described in this paper. A key part of the review has been a re-examination of the link between skid resistance and accidents. This confirmed the importance of skid resistance but also the site specific nature of the effect. As a result the advice on determining Investigatory Levels of skid resistance has been strengthened to promote better engineering judgement of skid resistance requirements and more robust investigation of sites where the skid resistance measurements are found to be below the Investigatory Level. The review has also resulted in changes to the survey strategy, use of slippery road warning signs and on-going monitoring of the effectiveness of the policy.
An investigation into factors influencing the production and degradation of microcystins.

Microcystins (MCYST) potently inhibit protein phosphatases and these cyclic heptapeptides are powerful hepatotoxins. They are known to be secondary metabolites produced by several species of cyanobacteria. The release of these peptides into water supplies poses a considerable threat to both humans and animal both as acute or prolonged exposure. The function and regulation of these peptides has yet to be elucidated as most results are inconclusive. This thesis examines MCYST levels in cultures of Microcystis aeruginosa grown under various growth conditions, by determining changes in intracellular MCYST in relation to biomass, cell number, chlorophyll a, protein and extracellular levels. Increasing inorganic carbon through the addition of sodium bicarbonate, strongly affected MCYST levels as concentration increased MCYSTs decreased. Both the intra and extracellular data confirmed that a decrease in production had occurred, not cellular excretion. Additional investigations also confirmed the reductions were not linked to elevated sodium ions. However, growth of M. aeruginosa in media sparged with 5% CO2 enriched air did not lead to reduced microcystin levels, therefore implying that MCYST levels are only reduced by bicarbonate levels. The persistence of these secondary metabolites in the environment is a major concern as potable water guidelines become more stringent. Identifying and understanding natural degradation processes which could be developed or used to predict degradation rates is essential, studies identified that rates of degradation for different MCYST variants are affected by the microbial diversity of the water body. However, prior exposure to multiple toxins increases a microbial populations ability to degrade complex compounds like MCYST and nodularin. This thesis also highlights the need for developing an advance treatment approach, TiO2 photocatalysis has relatively recently been explored for industrial application of water management although the cost of using UV is prohibitive. Therefore work developing new and novel catalysts which have equal or better activity for degrading compounds while using only visible light as the activation energy and not UV is essential. This study identified a few novel visible light catalysts the best of which (KSH Burg) rival the degradation potential of the UV photocatalyst Degaussa P25 under UV light.
Pathology of Fowl Typhoid and Molecular Detection of its Pathogen

Salmonellae are important group of pathogens responsible for human and animal diseases. The present study was undertaken with the aim to study pathology of fowl typhoid caused by Salmonella entarica subsp. enteric serovar Gallinarum and to identify Salmonella serovars by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based molecular method isolated from commercial layer, broiler and sonali chickens of Gazipur district, Bangladesh. A total of 150 cloacal, intestinal and liver swab samples were collected in sterie nutrient and tetrathionate broth from apparently healthy, sick and dead chicken the necropsy. Organ samples were collected in 10% buffered neutral formalin. The collected tissues were fixed, processed, sectioned, stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and examined at low and high power microscopic fields. Grossly, the liver appeared larger and hemorrhagic with focal necrosis. Catarrhal inflammation on intestinal mucosa was seen. The ova were deformed, discolored and cystic. Microscopically, focal necroses with the infiltration of mononuclear cells were seen with congestion of the central vein. Spleen showed severe depletion of lymphoid cells in white pulp along with reticuloendothelial cell hyperplasia. The section of ovary showed deformed ova with hemorrhages. Samples were subjected to various cultural, biochemical, and molecular examinations and the prevalence was identified 28% cases. Isolated bacteria appeared gram (-)ve, and arranged in short chain. PCR was performed targeting invA gene of Salmonella Gallinarum and amplified 184-bp fragment of the isolates confirmed specific infectivity. Ann. Bangladesh Agric. (2019) 23(2) : 49-60
Public R&D Investment in Economic Crises

We study the cyclicality of public R&D in 28 OECD countries (1995 – 2017). While procyclical on average, public R&D reacts asymmetrically over different phases of the business cycle and becomes acyclical during recessions. It is also heterogeneous across countries: Innovation leaders and followers behave countercyclically during recessions while moderate innovators behave procyclically. Furthermore, the share of public R&D allocated to the business sector is countercyclical, but the thematic composition remains stable. These results, not driven by countries’ financial constraints, imply that countries behind the innovation frontier might strengthen their resilience to economic crises by adopting countercyclical R&D strategies.
Designing and evaluating a behaviour change intervention that introduces modification of time perceptions as a solution to promote sustainable behaviours

This research presents the design and evaluation of an intervention that introduces modification of time perceptions as one of the solutions to promote sustainable behaviours. It is demonstrated in this thesis that unnecessary energy use is often caused by temporal tensions, defined as the relation between actions to be performed and available time. This research proposes that it is possible to deliberately reduce temporal tensions, and this can motivate people to behave more sustainably. Persuasive technology and human-computer interaction provided the tools needed to manipulate time perceptions and therefore bring about changes in the specific behaviours that result in unnecessary energy usage. Previous studies indicate that behaviours play an important role in energy consumption. From the different domains of energy use that could be examined, cooking was chosen to be the platform where the studies on behaviour change and energy use would take place. How behaviours influence energy use motivated the design of empirical studies to understand behaviours related to domestic energy use and identify what are the determinants of these behaviours. Each determinant was related to a strategy to be included on a behaviour change intervention. A wider survey was developed to understand students acceptance of a set of proposed energy saving techniques, and resulted in a vast volume of information about user preferences and intentions to perform the suggested energy saving behaviours for cooking. It emerged that participants rushed into the cooking tasks without much deliberation, consequently not following preparation procedures and thus using more energy. Information gathered during the first studies also showed that participants behaviours were partially motivated by the need to speed up the cooking process in order to reduce boredom when they were waiting for the food to cook, consequently resulting in extra energy usage. The knowledge gathered from the preceding steps and a literature review informed the design of strategies to modify the non-sustainable behaviours and promote energy saving. A user-centred design process involving an idea generation session and scenario analysis was used to provide a set of strategies to be embedded in an intervention, containing the specific methods to tackle the correspondent determinants of behaviours. The specific needs of the cooking activity indicated that an electronic intervention was an adequate platform to be implemented and tested. Two high resolution working prototypes of the electronic interventions were developed as mobile phone applications. The final study comprised the evaluation of the proposed interventions in improving aspects of the cooking activity, the acceptance of the interventions and effectiveness in promoting energy saving.
Board Independence and Company Performance in East Africa

The research is self-financed by the author Abstract Purpose : The main aim of this study was to examine influence of board independence on financial performance of listed companies in the East African Community (EAC) by examining the influence of board independence on performance of EAC’s listed companies and compare the influence of board independence on company’s financial performance before and after the operationalisation of the EAC- Common Market in 2010 to make recommendations on how board independence can enhance of hinder a company’s financial performance Design/Methodology/Approach : We adopted a positivist paradigm in a quantitative analysis using non-probability sampling to select forty-two EAC listed companies. We developed hypothesises basing on secondary data from databases (DataStream, Eikon, Mint Global Bureau Van Dijk) and company’s annual reports. SPSS was used to carry out regression diagnostic test and generate descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression results. Findings and Recommendation: Our findings indicated that to some extent board independence had a statistically significant influence on company financial performance measured by RoA, RoE, TbQ but not PeR. Secondly; we also discovered some negligible changes in board independence for most listed companies for the period before and after operationalisation of the EAC - Common Market. Based on our inconclusive statistical results and the extant literature review, we recommend that EAC listed companies adopt a code of best practice that emphasises an increase in board independence.
Effects of gender on protein requirements and the somatotropic axis in feedlot cattle

Two trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of gender on optimal CP concentrations (TRIAL 1) and gender and anabolic implants on the somatotropic axis in feedlot cattle (TRIAL 2). More specifically, the objective of TRIAL 1 was to examine the effects of 3 dietary CP concentrations on performance, carcass characteristics, and serum urea nitrogen (SUN) in finishing steers and heifers and the objective of TRIAL 2 was to evaluate the effects of ovariectomy (OVX) and implantantation (200 mg of trenbolone acetate and 28 mg of estradiol benzoate; Synovex-Plus) on performance, serum urea nitrogen (SUN), serum IGF-1, and mRNA expression of hepatic IGF-1, GH receptor, and E receptor-α as well as pituitary GH, E receptor-α and GHRH receptor in feedlot heifers. TRIAL 1 results indicated that ADG was optimized when both steers and heifers were fed 12.5% CP and G:F was optimized for steers fed 12.5% CP but heifer G:F was optimal at 14.0% CP. Feeding diets containing 11.0% CP appears to cause a protein deficiency in both steers and heifers. TRIAL 2 data indicated that gender had no influence on performance or SUN in feedlot heifers. Serum IGF-1 is increased more in OVX heifers than intact heifers due to a greater response to implantation from the OVX heifers. However, the reason for the extra increase in serum IGF-1 is not clear, although trends in gene expression analysis suggest the possibility that the increased serum IGF-1 may be controlled outside of the somatotropic axis. Further research is warranted to examine the effects of OVX and anabolic implants on the somatotropic axis.
Driver Distraction and Hands-Free Texting While Driving

Distracted driving has become a source of growing concern among governments, road safety researchers and the public in the past decade. This is due, in part, to concern that distracted driving contributes to increased crash risk, and, in part because of the link that has been established between at least some types of distractions and increased crash risk. In particular, research clearly demonstrates that texting while driving is an unsafe behavior because texting is a significant source of distraction. This behavior is especially problematic for teen drivers who are more often attracted to and more readily adopt new communication technologies. The increased relative risk of teen and young drivers being involved in a distraction-related collision can be attributed to behavior and attitudes among this age group. The crash risk associated with hands-free texting while driving is not as well understood because in-car voice-to-text technology is relatively new, and few studies investigating this specific issue have been completed to date. What is known, however, supports the contention that hands-free texting while driving poses significant distraction, and consequently, unacceptable crash risk. To put this traffic safety issue and public health concern into perspective, this paper draws upon existing research in order to share insight into key facets of distracted driving and the implications for texting while driving behavior among young drivers.
Updating the PECAS Modeling Framework to Include Energy Use Data for Buildings

This study investigates the consumption of electricity and natural gas for building operations for several categories of residential and non-residential buildings. The study updates the Production Exchange Consumption Allocation System (PECAS) land use modeling framework to include energy components. An energy database was assembled to study energy consumption in buildings. The authors conducted statistical analysis of utility data and estimated linear regression models to predict energy consumption in buildings. Results are validated using data from independent sources, including the California Residential Appliance Saturation Study (RASS) and the Commercial End-Use Survey (CEUS). Results are used to update PECAS and form part of the baseline study to estimate energy and greenhouse gas balances in an urban metabolism framework for the analysis of the environmental impacts of complex urban regions. The results also allow the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for residential and commercial building operations to be estimated through the application to the total residential and commercial building inventory in the region. These results are then useful for the evaluation of possible energy savings in buildings.
On the Actual Risk of Bystander Intervention: A Statistical Study Based on Naturally Occurring Violent Emergencies

Objectives: Bystander studies have rarely considered the victimization risk associated with intervention into violent, dangerous emergencies. To address this gap, we aim to identify factors that influence bystanders’ risk of being physically victimized. Methods: We observed bystander behavior from video surveillance footage of naturally occurring violence in night-time economy settings, and data was analyzed with a logistic regression model. Results: Data shows that approximately one out of six interventions results in some type of victimization, typically with a relatively low degree of severity. The bystander’s social group membership, the setting of the emergency, and the bystander’s intervention type are estimated as risk factors for victimization. Conclusions: Previous research suggests that a bystander’s social group membership with victims promotes intervention behavior. Our results expand the role of social group membership as being a factor that also influences whether the intervening bystander is victimized.