Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrastructural Changes in Hepatocytes and Chemopreventive Effects of Short-Term Administration of Curcuma longa L. against Oxidative Stress-Induced Toxicity: Improvement Mechanisms of Liver Detoxification

The rhizomes of Curcuma longa L. (CL) have been widely used in herbal medicines worldwide. It has been shown to possess prophylactic effects against oxidative stress. However, there is a paucity of information regarding the protective role of CL against oxidative stress in the absence of toxic agents. The aim of the study was to elucidate the antioxidative stress pharmacodynamics of CL. Eighteen 12-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats weighing about 300 ± 25 gm were divided equally into six groups. Four of the groups were supplemented with CL at 100 mg/kg b.w. /day orally (P.O.) and labeled as 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th day groups. The PCx (positive control) group was given distilled water orally, and the NCx (negative control) group rats were provided with food and water ad libitum. Blood samples were collected, and rats were sacrificed on days 1, 3, 5, and 6 (2 h) posttreatment. The blood was used for oxidative stress enzyme analysis (SOD, GSH-Px, and MDA) and liver (ALT) and kidney (creatinine) function assay, and the liver was dissected for histology. The results revealed that CL exhibited an antioxidative stress effect in the liver and kidneys as indicated by the low levels of ALT and creatinine. In response to antioxidant enzymes, especially that of the 3rd-day treatment group, an increase in SOD and GSH-Px indirectly caused an alleviation of oxidative stress, leading to a much lower level of MDA. It was concluded that treatment with CL at 100 mg/kg b.w. /per day for three consecutive days demonstrated the highest efficacy in abating oxidative stress in rats.
Macular thickness and peripapillary nerve fiber layer thickness in children with anisometropic and strabismic amblyopia- A comparative study

To study and compare the macular thickness and peripapillary nerve fibre layer thickness in children with anisometropic amblyopia with those having strabismic amblyopia. A prospective nonrandomised case series study was carried out. In all 50 children between the ages of 5 and 16 were selected. The anisometropic amblyopia group had 38 children (24 boys and 14 girls) and the strabismic amblyopia group had 12 children (7 boys and 5 girls) In both the groups the peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness and macular thickness was measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT) The RNFL thickness and macular layer thickness of the amblyopic eye was measured and compared to the normal eye of the same subject which served as a control. It was found that the macular thickness of the amblyopic eye was greater than that in the normal eye in the anisometropic amblyopia group, 247.8947+/34.3926 in amblyopic eye versus 222.2386+/-31.1919 in the normal eye a p value = 0.00106. The RNFL thickness too was greater in the amblyopic eye when compared to the normal eye in this group 113.4060 +/-34.8319 versus 109.4494 +/29.0185, p value = 0.5922 thus not reaching statistical significance. In the strabismic amblyopia group however it was found that though the macular thickness was increased in the amblyopic eye it did not reach statistical significance, mean macular thickness (in microns) 233.75 +/31.5224 in amblyopic eye versus 223.00+/31.4266 in normal eye a p value = 0.4118. and surprisingly the RNFL layer thickness was actually lesser than that in normal eyes in this group, 116.86 +/48.2924 versus 117.7089 +/37.2872 in normal eyes. P value = 0.9261. Thus this study found that macular thickness was raised in both anisometropic as well as strabismic amblyopia but RNFL thickness was not.
Assessment of Himawari-8 AMV data in the ECMWF system

This report evaluates Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) from Himawari-8 in the ECMWF system and compares the results to findings for its predecessor, Multifunction Transport Satellite 2 (MTSAT-2). Himawari-8, carries a more advanced imaging instrument and a new method has been developed for the AMV derivation. AMVs from the new satellite were first analysed using first guess departure statistics, followed by assimilation trials. The quality of Himawari-8 data exceeds that of MTSAT-2 and even prior to any screening it is comparable to MTSAT-2 data that has passed through the strict quality control applied for assimilation. Many more AMVs are available due to changes both in the instrument and algorithm with significant changes found in the geographical and height distribution. A large number are also assigned heights at unusually high pressures, most likely a result of surface contamination of the cloud top radiance, however there were no obvious detrimental effects. The assimilation of Himawari-8 AMVs gives positive impacts on the forecast vector wind fields exceeding the effects of MTSAT-2, especially at low levels and in the tropics. There are also significant improvements in the fit of conventional wind observations (around 1% reduction in error in the tropics). The final channel selection is similar to the configuration for MTSAT-2 AMVs, and in particular makes use of data from only one of the three available water vapour channels, but still increases the global total number of AMVs assimilated by around 40% compared to MTSAT-2. Further refinements were attempted with the addition of remaining water vapour channels and the removal of the near surface AMVs, but these modifications showed no clear benefits. Himawari-8 AMVs have been assimilated at ECMWF since 15th March 2016.
Two-year results of double row repair for medium sized rotator cuff tear in elderly patients

Background: Rotator cuff tears are treated surgically when conservative treatment methods fail. Since osteoporosis is common and the cuff is degenerative in nature, it may be a challenge to treat the tears surgically in the elderly. The objective of this study was to evaluate the results rotator cuff repair with double row two anchors (one medial and one lateral) for middle sized tears in patients over 65years old.Methods: 18 patients who are over 65years old treated arthroscopically for medium sized rotator cuff tear were included in the study. Inclusion criteria were patients with MR findings and physical findings consistent with medium sized (1-3cm) rotator cuff tears, patients with follow up period of at least 2years. All of the patients were repaired using (two anchors, one medially and one laterally placed) double row technique arthroscopically. The patients were evaluated with constant Murley score and ASES scores. All these measurements (both ROM and functional tests) were performed preoperatively and at postoperative third sixth months, first year and after second year.Results: Mean age of the patients was 69.3 (±2.6). The mean follows up period was 34months (±4.1) Preoperative mean forward flexion and external rotation were 127.3±25. 3º and 48.9±14. 6º respectively. The preoperative mean internal rotation was 9.1±6. 9º. Preoperative mean ASES score was 59.1º (±9.6) and mean constant score was 53. 7º (±11.2). At the last follow up mean forward flexion was 158. 3º (±17.9), external rotation was 63. 2º (±11.4) and internal rotation was 9. 3º (±7.3). Mean ASES score and constant score of the patients were 84.3 (±9.1) and 77.3 (±10.8) in the last follow up.Conclusions: It is possible to obtain good results in medium sized rotator cuff tears in patients over 65years old particularly if fatty degeneration over grade II has not prevailed.
Stakeholders’ Satisfaction and Performance of Insurance Firms in Nigeria

This study examines how support for the interest of three key stakeholders – customers, employees and government affects the performance of firms in the insurance industry. The study is operationalized using claims expenses as measure for customer satisfaction, wage per employee to measure employee satisfaction, tax payment to measure support for government interest, and net premium income as measure of firm performance. The study performed multivariate regression analysis to test whether stakeholders’ satisfaction affects firm performance, using audited financial statement data of quoted 26 insurance firms from 2012 to 2016. Results indicate that customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction are significantly associated with firm performance, while support for government interests is not statistically associated with firm performance. Management of insurance firms should uphold support for employee and customer interests, while regulatory authorities should strengthen mechanisms for prompt validation and settlement of insurance claims.
Environmental context and the spatial experience of ageing in the place of origin: the case of Granada

La investigación analiza los problemas de envejecer en el espacio habitado (vivienda y barrio) para los adultos mayores en la ciudad de Granada (España). La metodología se basa en el análisis de bases de datos, encuestas a las personas ancianas y un sistema de información geográfi ca a escala de distrito, barrio y sección urbana. Los resultados indican que la habitabilidad del contexto ambiental para el adulto mayor en la ciudad está determinada por la experiencia espacial, que relaciona los factores socioeconómicos (ingresos, condiciones de la vivienda, equipamientos) y los factores de subjetividad espacial (proximidad a familiares y vecinos, sentido del lugar, arraigo). Las conclusiones advierten del empeoramiento de los problemas socioespaciales de los adultos mayores ante la falta de planeación gerontológica en las ciudades.
Encouraging Behavioral Diversity in Evolutionary Robotics: An Empirical Study

Evolutionary robotics (ER) aims at automatically designing robots or controllers of robots without having to describe their inner workings. To reach this goal, ER researchers primarily employ phenotypes that can lead to an infinite number of robot behaviors and fitness functions that only reward the achievement of the task—and not how to achieve it. These choices make ER particularly prone to premature convergence. To tackle this problem, several papers recently proposed to explicitly encourage the diversity of the robot behaviors, rather than the diversity of the genotypes as in classic evolutionary optimization. Such an approach avoids the need to compute distances between structures and the pitfalls of the noninjectivity of the phenotype/behavior relation; however, it also introduces new questions: how to compare behavior? should this comparison be task specific? and what is the best way to encourage diversity in this context? In this paper, we review the main published approaches to behavioral diversity and benchmark them in a common framework. We compare each approach on three different tasks and two different genotypes. The results show that fostering behavioral diversity substantially improves the evolutionary process in the investigated experiments, regardless of genotype or task. Among the benchmarked approaches, multi-objective methods were the most efficient and the generic, Hamming-based, behavioral distance was at least as efficient as task specific behavioral metrics.
Cell Movements: From Molecules to Motility

1. Cell Swimming 2. Migration of Cells over Surfaces 3. Cell Behavior 4. The Cytoskeleton 5. Actin Filaments 6. Actin and Membranes 7. Myosin 8. Firoblast Locomotion 9. The Molecular Basis of Muscle Contraction 10. Muscle Development 11. Microtubules 12. Organelle Transport 13. Mitosis 14. Cilia 15. Centrioles and Basal Bodies 16. Bacterial Movements 17. Intermediate Filaments 18. Cell Mechanics 19. Cell Shape 20. Cell Movements and Embyogenesis
Career Decision Self-Efficacy as a Mediator to Bridging the Effect of Social Support on Career Adaptability (Study in Individuals With Special Needs)

The present study examines the mediation effect of career decision selfefficacy on bridging the association between social support and career adaptability in individuals with special needs. Measurements of career adaptability, career decision selfefficacy and social support were by conducted using the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) [4], Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy–Short Form (CDSE-SF) [21] and the verbal persuasion and vicarious experience dimensions of the Career Exploration and Decision Learning Experience (CEDLE) scales [6]. The study involved 210 individuals with special needs including visual impairment, hearing impairment and physical disability. Statistical analysis was performed via a multiple regression with mediation role tests analyzed using the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes [35]. The results demonstrated that career decision self-efficacy sucessfully mediate the relationship between social support from family, friends, and teachers in developing career adaptability. The study concludes that family, friends, and teachers have a significant role in developing the confidence of individuals with special needs to determine which career path they will take. This also influences their ability to adapt to changes in the working environment.
Towards recommendation with user action sequences

Across the web and mobile applications, recommender systems are relied upon to surface the right items to users at the right time. This implies user preferences are usually dynamic in real-world recommender systems, and a user’s historical action records are not equally important when predicting her/his future preferences. Most existing recommendation algorithms, including both shallow and deep approaches, usually treat all user’s historical actions equally, which may have lost order information between actions. In this thesis, we study the problem of modeling user action sequences for recommendation (a.k.a sequential recommendation). Motivated by the distinct challenges when modeling user sequences, we focus on building sequential recommendation models to capture various types of dependencies (sequential patterns). In particular, the dependencies can be in different forms. Also, they can either from the local part or the long-tail of user sequences. Though usually neglected in existing approaches, these dependencies are informative for accurate prediction of user preference. In our first work, we discover the dependencies in real user sequences can have two different forms: point-level and union-level. We propose a unified model to jointly capture both forms of sequential patterns. In our next work, we analyze the property of dependency from different temporal ranges of long user sequences. Based on our observation, we propose a neural mixture model as a tailored solution to deal with dependencies from all temporal ranges. Finally, inference efficiency is critical for each model since recommendation is an online service. It is particularly important for sequential recommendation as user’s sequence frequently changes and inference is needed with the new sequence. We provide a knowledge transfer framework to satisfy the efficiency requirement for recommendation models. We show this framework can be used to learn a compact recommendation model with better inference efficiency but with the similar efficacy of a large model. Our proposed solution can be also used for other ranking problems.
An empirical assessment using Belgian firm-level data on productivity and labour costs

Over the past 3 decades, industrial restructuring (IR) has become a structural feature of the economic landscape in Europe and elsewhere, with a quasi-permanent re-orientation of activities towards more value adding activities, and a relentless quest for productivity gains. Many economists argue that the recent financial crisis will act as a strong catalyst of IR over the coming years. The purpose of this paper is to draw the attention of decision makers on the fact that this will take place in a context synonymous with ageing workforces. So far, this phenomenon has received little attention. Many studies have looked at the consequences of ageing population, in terms of higher dependency rates and rising social security costs. Another strain of the literature has examined the retirement behaviour of older individuals and its determinants (e.g the role pre-retirement benefits). But that literature primarily covers the supply side of the old-age labour market. The consequences of an ageing workforce from the point of view of firms, forming the demand side of the labour market, has been overlooked, singularly in Belgium. In our work we ask whether employers in Belgium are a priori willing to employ (more) older workers. We posit that their willingness is driven by the ratio of older workers‟ productivity to their cost to employers (ie. the relative labour cost per unit of output). Our main results indicate a negative impact of larger shares of older men on the productivity-labour cost ratio. An increment of 10%-points of their share causes a 0.17 to 0.69% contraction of that ratio. The equivalent handicap with older women is even larger, ranging from 1.3 to 2.0%. Ceteris paribus, ageing workforces could thus hinder IR.  This paper draws heavily on Vandenberghe, V. (2011a). Funding for this research was provided by the Belgian Federal Government SPP Politique scientifique, programme "Société et Avenir", The Consequences of an Ageing Workforce on the Productivity of the Belgian Economy, research contract TA/10/031A. We would like to thank the participants of the Ageing Workforces workshop held in Louvain-laNeuve in Sept. 2010 for their comments and suggestions, and also Tim, Goesaert (KULeuven) who acted as a discussant of this paper when preparing this Conference.  Economics Department, IRES, Economics School of Louvain (ESL), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), 3 place Montesquieu, B-1348 Belgium email : vincent.vandenberghe@uclouvain.be.
Thermodynamic and thermoelastic properties of wurtzite-ZnS by density functional theory

Abstract In the present paper, we provide a detailed theoretical investigation on fundamental thermodynamic, thermomechanical, and electronic properties of wurtzite ZnS between 0–20 GPa and 0–2000 K, obtained by ab initio density functional theory and the B3LYP functional. Several properties, such as phonon dispersion relations, elastic and piezoelectric constants, and thermodynamic and thermoelastic behaviors were calculated and reported. The analysis of the data via volume-integrated third-order Birch-Murnaghan fitting resulted in K0 = 72.17(4) GPa, K′ = 3.87(1), and V0 = 85.781(1) Å3 at T = 0 K. The Born criteria for the mechanical stability of the mineral phase showed that wurtzite is unstable above about 19 GPa in static conditions. We calculated a direct bandgap for wz-ZnS of 4.86 eV at zero compression, which became an indirect one by increasing pressure above 17 GPa. The results are in good agreement with the experimental and theoretical ones reported in the literature, and further extend the knowledge of an important zinc sulfide phase, for both geological and industrial applications.
Seroprevalence of Chikungunya Virus in Febrile Patients in the Kenyan Coast

Fever is one of the main complaints in patients seen at the Coast Provincial General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Chikungunya virus is a cause of some of those fevers, but published data is scanty.This was a hospital based cross sectional study conducted in patients presenting with fevers of unknown origins. We tested for CHIKV antibodies using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and confirmed using Focus Reduction Neutralization Test (FRNT). Prevalence rates were determined using proportions and rates. Odds ratio was used to measure the association between CHIKV seropositivity and associated risk factors. Of the 488 eligible participants who were recruited for this study, 269 (54.7%) were males, 213 (46.3%) were female while 6 (1.2%) did not indicate their gender. A total of 90 (18.4%) participants had been vaccinated against yellow fever . The overall seroprevalence of CHIKV was 9.84% (48). Age, gender, yellow fever vaccination status, sub-county, occupation and clinical manifestations were not associated with seropositivity. At high temperatures CHIKV seropositivity peaked to 11.11% in 2014 and in 20.75% in 2015.Chikungunya is an important cause of fever in the Kenyan coast with a seroprevalence of 9.84%. There is a need to maintain constant epidemiological and entomological surveillance. Seroprevalence can be predicted using temperature and rainfall patterns. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 20-05-2019 Date of acceptance: 05-06-2019 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPACT OF NON-TARIFF MEASURES ON SMEs IN TUNISIA

This paper analyses the overall effect of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) on firms in Tunisia, with a particular attention paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It draws a precise view of NTMs effects on firms’ imports as well as on firms’ productivity, costs and profits. We use firm-level data to take into account firm heterogeneity whose importance has been highlighted in recent literature. Results show a positive impact of NTMs on imports, productivity, labor costs and profitability. They highlight thus a trade-creation effect of NTMs as well as an enhanced learning by importing effect with NTMs. When splitting the global sample into small, medium and large firms, results exhibit a weaker trade-creation effect for SMEs and a greater learning by importing effect for large firms. An extended analysis, separating importing and exporting firms from those solely importing, suggests that two-ways traders benefit most from positive effects of NTMs. However, estimates controlling for offshore firms show a trade-diversion effect for those firms.
The Role of LCAT in Atherosclerosis

Lecithin–cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) is one of the major modulators of plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and plays a central role in the reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) process. Clinically, partial LCAT deficiency is common in a number of chronic disorders at risk for coronary heart diseases (CHD) but the role of LCAT in atherosclerosis remains controversial. Patients with monogenic causes of complete LCAT deficiency appear not to be prone to premature CHD. On the other hand, recent studies on patients with monogenic-based partial LCAT deficiency suggest they may be at increased atherogenic risk. Animal models with transgenic overexpression of the LCAT genes showed variable degrees of antiatherogenic properties except in one transgenic mouse model. LCAT knockout mouse models from different laboratories showed conflicting findings in their predisposition to aortic atherosclerosis. On the other hand, a number of studies using the LCAT knockout mice revealed significant impact of LCAT deficiency on not only lipoprotein metabolism but also in systemic oxidative stress, intrahepatic lipid, and glucose metabolism, each of which may individually modulate atherogenesis. Much remain to be learned with respect to the impact of LCAT deficiency on various proatherogenic pathways to better delineate its pathophysiologic link to atherosclerosis. This is of particular significance in patients suffering from common atherosclerosis-prone disorders that are known to be associated with partial LCAT deficiency, including diabetes and renal insufficiencies.