Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of β-catenin mRNA and protein levels in human villous cytotrophoblasts undergoing aggregation and fusion in vitro : correlation with E-cadherin expression

The placenta plays a key role in supporting fetal growth (Aplin, 1991). This transient organ is the site of transfer of respiratory gases, nutrients and waste products between the fetal and maternal systems; it serves as a barrier against blood-borne pathogens and the maternal immune system; and it fulfills an endocrine role by secreting hormones, growth factors and other bioactive substances required for the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. The majority of these placental functions are performed by the syncytial trophoblast, the outer multinucleated cellular layer of the chorionic villous, which is formed by the terminal differentiation and fusion of the underlying mononucleate cytotrophoblasts (Richart, 1961; Kliman et al., 1986). To date, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these developmental processes remain poorly characterized. Villous cytotrophoblasts isolated from the human term placenta mimic many of the cellular events associated with the formation and organization of the human placenta in vivo (Kliman et al., 1986). For example, freshly isolated mononucleate cytotrophoblasts aggregate and establish extensive interactions with one another through the formation of desmosomes, adherens and gap junctions (Babalola et al., 1990; Douglas and King, 1990; Cronier et al., 1994). The resulting cellular aggregates promote the terminal differentiation and fusion of the mononucleate cytotrophoblasts into multinucleated syncytium. These morphogenetic events are believed to be mediated, at least in part, by the regulated expression of members of the cadherin gene superfamily of calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) in these primary cell cultures. Two cadherin subtypes, E-cadherin (E-cad) and cadherin-11 (cad-11), are differentially expressed during the terminal differentiation of human cytotrophoblasts in vitro (MacCalman et al., 1996). In particular, E-cad mRNA concentrations and protein expression are high in freshly isolated villous cytotrophoblasts and decrease as aggregates are formed and the cells begin to undergo differentiation and fusion to form Journal of Reproduction and Fertility (2000) 119, 59–68
First and second order Central Limit Theorems for the recursive computation of the invariant distribution of a Feller process

This paper studies the convergence of empirical measures of a stochastic approximation toward the invariant distribution of a Feller process. In particular, we provide a general and abstract approach to establish Central Limit Theorems (CLT) with given rate . Moreover, considering weighted empirical measures of a weak order two stochastic approximation, we show its second order convergence while the CLT for standard empirical measures has order one. We also propose various applications: First order CLT for the approximation of Markov Brownian diffusion stationary regimes with Euler scheme (where we recover existing results from literature) and second order CLT for the approximation of Brownian diffusion stationary regimes using Talay scheme (1990) of weak order two.
Terrestrial diatoms as tracers in catchment hydrology: a review

Diatoms are remarkable organisms. They are present in almost all habitats containing water (e.g., lakes, streams, soils, bark) and rank among the most common algal groups in both freshwaters and marine ecosystems. The ubiquitous character of aquatic diatoms has triggered countless applications as environmental tracers for studies in water quality, paleoclimate reconstruction and sediment tracing. However, diatoms also occur in the terrestrial environment. It is this plethora of diatom life‐forms that has recently triggered interest in their use as tracers of hydrological processes. The use of diatoms in catchment hydrology has been very limited. Part of the reason is that until recently, the taxonomy and ecology of terrestrial diatom assemblages were largely unknown. However, in the past decade, much work has been done to quantify terrestrial diatom reservoir size, dynamics, and potential depletion following precipitation events. Therefore, such terrestrial diatoms now hold promise for use in catchment hydrology—for tracing runoff flow sources and pathways across a wide range of spatial scales. Here we review the literature on terrestrial diatoms and describe the various sampling protocols that have been designed and tested for specific applications in hydrological processes research. We review and summarize the work on terrestrial diatom reservoir characterization, transport mechanisms and pathways to show how such diatom‐based tracer work might be possible at the catchment scale for rainfall‐runoff studies. Finally, we present a vision for future work that might take advantage of terrestrial diatoms in catchment hydrology and discuss the main challenges going forward. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1241. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1241
Collaborative Writing in Individuals, Pairs, and Small Groups: A Classroom-based Study

Collaborative writing is increasingly gaining popularity in EFL writing classes, as it is widely believed to have positive effects on the overall quality of the written texts and nature of the writing process (Fernández Dobao, 2012). Nonetheless, the majority of the prior studies were restricted to be in laboratory settings. Moreover, many of the studies only focused on the comparison of individual-pair differences or individual-group differences in the produced texts. Not much evidence is available regarding the comparison of texts composed by individuals, pairs, and groups. The present study was aimed to fill in the gaps. Two intact classes of first-year EFL undergraduates (n=71, mean age=18.47) were asked to write an argumentative essay in an English writing class. Instructions on the writing topic (included grammar reviews) were provided by the teacher prior to the task. Eight of the students worked individually. The rest of the students were randomly arranged to work in pairs or groups of 3-4 people (12 pairs ,12 groups). Quantitative and qualitative evaluations were performed on the produced written texts. According to the results, the students who worked individually spent significantly less time on the task, and produced significantly more words than the pairs and groups. Such differences were not observed between the pairs and groups. The pairand group-written texts had significantly less errors than the works composed by individuals, despite that higher percentage of error free clause/clause was found in individually written texts. The differences of complexity among the texts written by individuals, pairs, and groups were found to be statistically significant (from the highest to the lowest: group>pair>individual). Moreover, the texts composed by groups received significantly higher global evaluation scores than individualand pair-written works (from the highest to the lowest: group>pair>individual). Keywords—collaborative writing; individual; pair; group; L2
Efficiency of Integrated Nutrient Management to Improve Soil Health Growth Parameters and Yield Attributes of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Var:Bpt-5204

The green revolution had gradually turned into a „greedy revolution‟ as evident in the indiscriminate use of inorganic inputs to attain higher productivity (Swaminathan, 2002). Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a tillering plant belongs to the family Gramineae Chromosome no. of rice is 2n=24. Rice production in India is an important part of the national economy. India is the world‟s 2nd largest producer after china accounting for 22% of the world‟s rice production.
A risk analysis methodology for the use of crowd models during the Covid-19 pandemic

Pandemics such as Covid-19 have posed a set of questions concerning safe space usage given the risk of virus transmission in confined and open spaces. In this context, this report presents a risk analysis methodology for the use of crowd modelling tools as an aid to assess safety in confined and open spaces. Crowd models can be used to investigate people movement in the built environment, thus they have a great potential for the performance of proximity analysis. The report presented here addresses first the psychological and physical aspects linked to physical distancing (also called social distancing). Given the limited current knowledge on human behaviour and space usage during pandemics, the changes needed in crowd modelling tools to appropriately represent people movement are listed. This includes issues associated with modifications of the fundamental relationships between the key people movement variables (speed/flow vs density), and issues linked with interactions between pedestrians (e.g. collision avoidance, queuing mechanisms, route choice). Suggestions for new crowd modelling outputs are provided in order to enhance their use during pandemics. In addition, practical solutions concerning space usage are presented in light of the assessment of human safety through a risk evaluation based on proximity analysis and/or exposure assessment. This is deemed to help identifying design and management solutions to decrease the risk of virus transmission.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community antibiotic prescribing in Scotland

Abstract Background Following concerns about increased antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic, trends in community antibiotic prescriptions in Scotland were evaluated. Methods The primary care prescription electronic messaging system used in GP practices with NHS contracts provided near real-time data analysis of national data. The main outcome measures were the weekly number of prescriptions for antibiotics generated by prescribers in GP practices in 2020 compared with 2019. Results At end of Week 12 2020 (22 March), after a sharp increase, the number of prescriptions commonly used for respiratory infections was 44% higher than the corresponding week in 2019. The number of prescriptions for respiratory antibiotics reduced through April and May 2020, with 34% fewer prescriptions issued by end of Week 22 (31 May) than in the corresponding week in 2019. Reductions were pronounced in all age groups but particularly apparent for prescriptions for children aged 0–4 years. These data were compared with weekly prescriptions for a selection of non-respiratory antibiotics and no difference was seen between 2020 and 2019. Conclusions Trends in antibiotic prescription data show that after an initial surge, and following ‘lockdown’ in Scotland, the total number of prescriptions for antibiotics commonly used for respiratory infections fell. We believe this is the first published national evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on community use of antibiotics. Further analysis of national data is planned to provide a greater understanding of the reasons behind these trends.
Effects of Herbicide against Yield Attributes and Yield in Transplanted Rice

In India rice crop occupies 44.0 million ha, and production of 110.15 million tonnes with productivity 2.55 tonnes ha. The rice plays a very vital role in the national food security. In India, rice is grown under three major ecosystem: rainfed uplands (16%), rainfed lowlands (39%) and irrigated lands (45%) with a productivity of 0.87, 1.55, and 2.24 tonnes ha respectively. In Chhattisgarh during Kharif season rice is mainly grown under rainfed ecosystem and it is completely dependent on monsoon. Rice occupies an area of 3.68 million ha of total 5.9 million ha cultivated area with productivity of 2.02 International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 10 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Characterizing semantic memory loss: Towards the location of language breakdown

Patients suffering from various types of dementia usually present an impaired performance with specific categories like animals, furniture, etc. This impairment is known as category-specific semantic deficit and can provide us with vital information as to how the conceptual-semantic knowledge is stored and organized in the brain. Until date, no theoretical model has been able to appropriately account for the unsystematic and varied patterns of categoryspecific semantic deficits found so far. Moreover, there seems to be no correlation between the type of brain damage and the pattern of memory loss, nor can the latter be accounted for by any of the so far proposed models of conceptual knowledge representation and storage in the brain. Our purpose is to adapt and provide a theoretical model that builds on FunGramKB ontology and helps understand and properly interpret the available empirical data. The advantage that comes from the use of this complex theoretical model is that it will allow us to pinpoint the break of the conceptual chain, providing a more accurate measure of the location of the semantic memory loss.
Isolating the gain in the nitrogen molecular cation

The nitrogen molecular cation is a promising gain medium for the air laser, which could be a powerful tool for remote sensing applications. After nearly a decade of international scientific effort, there are still questions about the gain mechanisms. This thesis explores gain in the nitrogen molecular ion using an experimental configuration that isolates the generation of gain from uncontrolled effects. We use a narrow nitrogen gas jet in vacuum to minimize propagation distance and a probe pulse to measure gain. We first test the role of inelastic scattering during electron recollision as a mechanism to populate the excited state, and we find that it has a small contribution. Then, we measure gain dynamics by varying the probe delay. We measure shortand long-term gain in different conditions. The long-term gain is consistent with the decay of population inversion due to collisions between electrons and ions in the plasma. The decay is modulated due to rotational wave packets in the states of the ion. Rotational coherence decays on the same timescale as the gain due to the incoherent mixing of states. We then introduce an additional non-ionizing pulse that interacts with the ion after ionization. The additional pulse changes the experiment to pump-probe spectroscopy on the ion itself. It can manipulate the rotational wave packets. It can also halt or redirect the emission following the probe pulse by coupling the ground lasing state with a middle state. In both cases, it controls the characteristics of gain and emission at a distance. These interactions highlight the role of the middle state, which is an essential ingredient for gain. Short-term gain appears at low pump intensity when the pump or control pulses overlap the probe pulse. It is consistent with wave mixing due to Raman gain in a V -system.
PROGRESS IN DIRECT IRRADIANCE MODELING AND VALIDATION

The intrinsic performance of two categories of models that can be used to predict direct normal irradiance (DNI) for solar concentration applications is analyzed here. A first group consists of five broadband radiative models that can predict DNI under clear skies from atmospheric data. Highquality datasets from four sites in widely different climates are used, including precise aerosol and water vapor measurements by sunphotometers. Based on various tests, superior performance is achieved with the REST2, METSTAT and Ineichen models. A second group involves 18 separation methods frequently used to extract DNI from global irradiance. Various effects are discussed, such as cloudiness and ground albedo. Although the literature abounds in such methods, none is found satisfactory overall, due to inconsistent results, in addition to high random errors and frequent bias, particularly under conditions of high ground albedo due to snow. Nevertheless, four separation methods appear to perform correctly under clear skies.
Exploring the influence of the teacher: Social participation on Twitter and academic perception

Analyzing the influence of social media on the learning process is no longer a novel idea; however, due to its importance for students and consequently for teachers, research continues to explore the pedagogical potential of social media. The main objective of the present study was to analyze the influence of teacher roles (guide or facilitator) on students’ social participation in Twitter and their perceived academic experience. The sample consisted of 525 future teachers, all of the Master’s degree students at Spain’s National Distance Education University (UNED). We used a mixed triangulation design, a theoretical model, quantitative methods (descriptive analysis and contrast of means) and qualitative methods (content analysis following the principles of grounded theory). Our results showed that the teacher’s role as a facilitator exerted a more positive influence on how students assessed their experience and on their participation on Twitter than the role as a guide. We conclude that the use of social media sites in education offers a motivating and satisfying framework that is not provided by other more traditional means such as forums, and that a role that facilitates independent learning is a better strategy when using social media in the classroom.El análisis de la influencia de las redes sociales en el proceso de aprendizaje ya no es una novedad. Sin embargo, debido a su importancia para el alumnado y en consecuencia para el profesorado, la literatura científica sigue prestando atención al potencial pedagógico de las redes sociales. El objetivo principal de esta investigación fue analizar la influencia del rol del profesorado (guía y facilitador) sobre la participación social en Twitter y la experiencia académica percibida de los estudiantes. La muestra estuvo formada por 525 futuros profesores, estudiantes de posgrado en la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. Se utilizó un diseño mixto de triangulación, un modelo teórico, una parte cuantitativa (análisis descriptivo y contraste sobre medias) y otra cualitativa (análisis de contenido, siguiendo los principios de la teoría fundamentada). Los resultados mostraron que el rol facilitador del profesor influye positivamente en la valoración de la experiencia por parte de los estudiantes y en la participación en Twitter, en mayor medida que el rol guía. Por un lado, se concluye que el uso de las redes sociales, en el ámbito educativo, proporciona un marco motivacional y de satisfacción que no lo aportan otros medios más tradicionales, como los foros, y, por otro, que un rol que facilita un proceso de aprendizaje independiente es mejor estrategia cuando hablamos de redes sociales en el aula.
Modeling river flows with heavy tails

Recent advances in time series analysis provide alternative models for river flows in which the innovations have heavy tails, so that some of the moments do not exist. The probability of large fluctuations is much larger than for standard models. We survey some recent theoretical developments for heavy tail time series models and illustrate their practical application to river flow data from the Salt River near Roosevelt, Arizona. We also include some simple diagnostics that the practitioner can use to identify when the methods of this paper may be useful.
Thermal conductivity of a Brown Earth soil as affected by biochars derived at different temperatures: Experiment and prediction with the Campbell model

*Corresponding author e-mail: zhbw2001@sina.com **This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51766008 (2018-2021), 21467013 (2015-2018), and 21167007 (2012-2015)). A b s t r a c t. Thermal conductivity is a significant heat transfer property of soil. However, the influence of biochar on this property is not well known. In this research, the influence of corn straw biochars prepared at 300, 500 and 700C on the thermal conductivity of a Brown Earth (Hapli-Udic Cambisol, FAO) soil and its prediction using a Campbell model was examined. The outcomes revealed that the bulk densities of the soil markedly decreased with increases in the biochar amendment rates of 1, 3, and 5% in linear patterns. The reduction in bulk density was mainly attributed to an increase in soil porosity and organic carbon content. With increasing volumetric water contents (10, 20, 30 and 40%), the thermal conductivity of the soils significantly increased, whereas those of soils with biochar amendment were obviously less than that of the CK and the differences increased with the biochar application rates. The pyrolysis temperature of biochar exhibited a negligible effect on the bulk density and thermal conductivity of soils at large. Combining the linear reduction of bulk density with the biochar amendment rate into the Campbell model, well-fitting results for the variation inthermal conductivity versus volumetric water content were obtained and accurate values could be predicted. K e y w o r d s: biochar, bulk density, thermal conductivity, Brown Earth soil, Campbell model
Interaction between political instability and investment

The aim of this paper is to identify the effect of political instability on investment and economic growth. By using a dynamic balanced panel data model applied on annual data from 11 countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period of 2000 to 2009. The political instability’ effect on the contribution of investment to economic growth has been the subject of a second empirical study within the framework of this research paper. The main outcomes drawn by these two empirical tests prove that there is no effect of political instability on investment and economic growth and a negative interaction between political instability and investment.
Affine images of isotropic measures

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given in order for a Borel measure on the Euclidean sphere to have an affine image that is isotropic. A sharp reverse affine isoperimetric inequality for Borel measures on the sphere is presented. This leads to sharp reverse affine isoperimetric inequalities for convex bodies. © 2015, International Press of Boston, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Moderating Effect of Knowledge Transfer on Satisfaction-Performance Relationship

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of satisfaction, with its basic antecedents of trust and conflict, on firm performance and to test the moderating effect of dyadic knowledge transfer on the satisfaction and performance relationship. A survey was applied to 193 participants working in medium and small-sized firms, operating in an Organized Industrial Region in Ankara- Turkey. Since measurement items were adapted from different studies, CFA was conducted to test discriminant and convergent validity and the hypothesized paths were tested using LISREL 8.3. The findings reveal that conflict and trust explain 76% of the satisfaction; and satisfaction itself explains 44% of the firm performance. As expected, both trust and conflict are proved to be the two indicators of satisfaction. Besides, we found significantly positive effect of satisfaction on firm performance. According to hierarchical moderated regression analysis results, conducted to test moderating effect of knowledge transfer for the whole sample, the interaction of satisfaction and dyadic knowledge transfer imposed negative, insignificant effect on firm performance, hence, hypothesis (H4) is not supported. Further analysis was conducted by dichotomizing the sample according to knowledge transfer, and research model was tested for each group. The effect of satisfaction on firm performance is found to be significant only when the dyadic knowledge transfer between firms is low, while the effect of is still insignificant when the level of knowledge transfer is high, providing a partial support for H4.