Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of hypoxic and hyperoxic incubation on the reactivity of the chicken embryo (Gallus gallus) ductus arteriosi in response to catecholamines and oxygen

Development in chronic hypoxia has been shown to have a significant negative impact on the developing cardiovascular system. The developing chicken embryo has two ductus arteriosi (DA) that shunt blood away from the lungs to the systemic circuit and constrict during hatching in response to an increase in arterial partial pressure of O2. The goal of this study was to determine the influence of O2 levels during incubation on the vascular reactivity of the O2‐sensitive DA using the chicken as a novel model system. In addition, we measured blood gas and air cell O2 during these developmental stages. Chicken embryos were incubated in hypoxia (15% O2), normoxia (21% O2) or hyperoxia (30% O2) and examined on incubation days 16 and 18 and as internally pipped and externally pipped embryos. The vasoreactivity of the DA was measured in response to an increase in O2 and during stepwise increases in noradrenaline (NA) and phenylephrine (PE). The DA from embryos incubated in hypoxic conditions contracted in response to O2 at a later hatching stage than the DA from embryos incubated in normoxic or hyperoxic conditions. The DA from day 18 embryos incubated in hypoxic conditions had a significantly weaker contractile response to NA and PE when compared with the DA from embryos incubated in normoxic or hyperoxic conditions. Blood gas and air cell O2 were lowest for embryos incubated in hypoxic conditions and highest for embryos incubated in hyperoxic conditions. Incubation in hypoxia significantly delays the maturation of DA, while incubation in hyperoxia accelerates development.
Time-Delay Reservoir Computers and High-Speed Information Processing Capacity

The aim of this presentation is to show how various ideas coming from the nonlinear stability theory of functional differential systems, stochastic modeling, and machine learning, can be put together in order to create an approximating model that explains the working mechanisms behind a certain type of reservoir computers. Reservoir computing is a recently introduced brain-inspired machine learning paradigm capable of excellent performances in the processing of empirical data. We focus on time-delay based reservoir computers that have been physically implemented using optical and electronic systems and have shown unprecedented data processing rates. Reservoir computing is well-known for the ease of the associated training scheme but also for the problematic sensitivity of its performance to architecture parameters. The reservoir design problem is addressed, which remains the biggest challenge in the applicability of this information processing scheme. Our results use the information available regarding the optimal reservoir working regimes in order to construct a functional link between the reservoir parameters and its performance. This function is used to explore various properties of the device and to choose the optimal reservoir architecture, thus replacing the tedious and time consuming parameter scannings used so far in the literature.
The effects of the high school curriculum on school dropout

ABSTRACT High school dropouts and their lower employment prospects are a major concern for developed countries. This article answers the question whether the high school curriculum has the potential to affect students’ dropout decision. Focusing on the curriculum is also motivated by the manifold curriculum reforms or reform initiatives worldwide. Using a quasi-experimental evaluation design, we identify the effects of a curriculum reform on students’ probability to drop out of high school in the short run, i.e. for the first three cohorts graduating under the new curriculum requirements. The reform increased the curriculum requirements in high school, for instance, by reducing the freedom of choice in course selection. The results show that high school dropout rates increased for males and females alike.
Expressions of P53 and CD68 in mouse liver with Schistosoma mansoni infection and the protective role of silymarin

Schistosomiasis is one of the major human parasitic diseases in many developing countries and is one of the causes of morbidity and mortality in the human population. The present work has been planned to study the histopathological and immunohistochemical expression of P53 and CD68 in mouse liver tissues experimentally infected with Schistosoma mansoni, in addition to the ameliorating role of silymarin. A total of 50 adult male mice were divided into 5 groups (10 animals each). Groups 1 and 2 were the control and silymarin groups, respectively, while group 3 was the infected group in which the mice were infected with S. mansoni live cercariae for 6 weeks. Groups 4 and 5 were the cotreated and posttreated groups, respectively, in which mice were infected with cercariae of S. mansoni and treated with silymarin during and after Schistosoma infection, respectively. The major histopathological lesions were variable numbers of perioval granulomas, diffuse infiltration of inflammatory cells, mainly eosinophils and small mononuclear cells, and fibrosis of portal areas and interlobular septa. Treatment with silymarin led to a significant reduction in granuloma area in all treated infected mice compared with nontreated infected mice. Immunohistochemical observations of the liver tissues showed a significant increase in the apoptotic proteins P53 and CD68 after the infection with the cercariae of Schistosoma, compared with the control group. The expression of the cytoplasmic P53 and CD68 was very low in the control liver sections. A significant decrease in the expression of the cytoplasmic P53 and CD68 was observed after silymarin treatment.
Therapeutic options for patients with angioedema due to C1-inhibitor deficiencies: from pathophysiology to the clinic

Deficiencies in the inhibitor of the first component of human complement (C1-INH) are clinically associated with both hereditary angioedema (HAE) and acquired angioedema (AAE). The reduction in C1-INH function leads to the activation of the classical complement pathway and consequent complement consumption, as well as to the activation of the contact system and the generation of bradykinin, the vasoactive peptide that increases vascular permeability and causes angioedema. The clinical features of C1-INH deficiencies are the same in both forms of angioedema, and include subcutaneous non-pruritic swelling, the involvement of the upper respiratory tract, and abdominal pain due to partial obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract; however, AAE patients have no family history of angioedema and are characterised by the late onset of symptoms. The aim of therapy is to prevent or reverse angioedema. Advances in our understanding of the complex effects of C1-INH deficiency at molecular level have led to new targeted approaches to the treatment of HAE and AAE. Three new treatments have recently become available: a kallikrein inhibitor that prevents bradykinin release, an antagonist of bradykinin receptors that blocks bradykinin action, and a recombinant human C1-INH molecule produced in transgenic rabbits that replaces the deficient protein. These new drugs have expanded the armamentarium of treatments for angioedema due to C1-INH deficiency, which was previously limited to attenuated androgen, antifibrinolytic drugs, and C1-INH plasma concentrate.
Thymidine uptake and utilization in Escherichia coli: a new gene controlling nucleoside transport

A commonly used strain of Escherichia coli K-12 was shown to be deficient in the transport of a number of nucleosides, including thymidine. Thymidine incorporation was unaffected. Strain AB2497 exhibited a strikingly lower thymidine pulse-label incorporation at low (less than 1 mug/ml) thymidine concentrations than do many other strains. The deficiency appeared to be due to mutation in a single gene. This gene, which we designated nup (for nucleoside uptake), is located at 10 to 13 min on the E. coli linkage map. In nup+ strains, the transport of a given nucleoside was relatively insensitive to large excesses of other nucleosides but was competitively inhibited by the same nucleoside. Mutants deficient inthymidine kinase are deficient in thymidine uptake but normal in deoxyadenosine uptake. A two-step model for nucleoside transport is presented in which the first step, utilizing the nup gene product, is a nonspecific translocation of nucleoside to the interior of the cell. In the second step, the individual nucleosides are modified by cellular enzymes (e.g., nucleosides kinases) facilitate accumulation.
A cost aware adaptive multiple table join evaluation in MapReduce

Nowadays, MapReduce has become an effective tool for large scale data analysis. It is naturally designed for group-by aggregation tasks rather than join operator which is common in real analysis works. The existing join methods in MapReduce may earn different performances in different cases, which makes how to choose a good join plan from a join list difficult. The current static optimization can't generate an efficient evaluation plan for a given join list. In this paper, we will introduce some custom join technologies and then propose an adaptive join plan generator for multiple join depending on both rule-based model and cost-based model considering the intermediate data.
Evaluation of respiratory parameters in rats and rabbits exposed to methyl iodide

Laboratory animals exposed to methyl iodide (MeI) have previously demonstrated lesions of the olfactory epithelium that were associated with local metabolism in the nasal tissues. Interactions of MeI in the nasal passage may, therefore, alter systemic toxicokinetics. The current study used unrestrained plethysmographs to determine the MeI effect on the breathing frequency and minute volume (MV) in rats and rabbits. Groups of 4 rats each were exposed to 0, 25, or 100 ppm and groups of 4 rabbits each were exposed to 0 and 20 ppm MeI for 6 h. Breathing frequency and MV were measured and recorded during the exposure. Blood samples were collected for inorganic serum iodide and the globin adduct S-methylcysteine (SMC) as biomarkers of systemic kinetics immediately following exposure. No significant reductions in breathing frequency were observed for either rats or rabbits. Significant changes in minute volume were demonstrated by both rats and rabbits; however, the changes observed in rats were not concentration dependent. The MeI-induced changes in MV resulted in significant differences in the total volume of test substance atmosphere inhaled over the 6-h period. Rats demonstrated a concentration-dependent increase in both inorganic serum iodide and SMC. Rabbits exposed to 20 ppm MeI demonstrated a significant increase of inorganic serum iodide; SMC was also increased but was not statistically significant. The results of this study are consistent with previous kinetic studies with MeI, and the data presented here can be integrated into a computational fluid dynamics physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for both rats and rabbits.
The Extreme Risk Spillover Effect between International and Domestic Oil Markets

This paper adopts GARCH model with GED distribution to estimate the conditional VaR in both upside and downside directions at the confidence level of 90% and 95%,and then utilizes the Granger causality in risk to uncover the extreme risk spillover effect between WTI and Daqing oil markets,the daily data of oil price in two markets ranging from May 2000 to May 2005.Our findings indicate there exists unilateral risk spillover effect from international to domestic in both extreme upside risk and downside risk,which means the history of extreme risk of international market will be helpful to predict the extreme risk in domestic market.Taking stock market as benchmark,this paper investigates the difficulty and countermeasures in risk management of oil market.
A tailored, supportive care intervention using systematic assessment designed for people with inoperable lung cancer: a randomised controlled trial

People with inoperable lung cancer experience higher levels of distress, more unmet needs and symptoms than other cancer patients. There is an urgent need to test innovative approaches to improve psychosocial and symptom outcomes in this group. This study tested the hypothesis that a tailored, multidisciplinary supportive care programme based on systematic needs assessment would reduce perceived unmet needs and distress and improve quality of life.
Baseline predictors of cognitive decline in patients with cerebral small vessel disease.

INTRODUCTION Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a common cause of cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate predictors of cognitive decline in patients with SVD who initially presented with first-ever small subcortical stroke of lacunar type but had normal cognitive status. METHODS A total of 294 patients with SVD were evaluated 3-5 years after initial presentation. We analyzed baseline demographic data, vascular risk factors, functional status expressed as score on modified Rankin Scale, total number of lacunar infarcts, and severity of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on magnetic resonance imaging with Age-Related White Matter Changes scale total score (tARWMC) and Fazekas scale periventricular and deep subcortical scores. RESULTS At follow-up, vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) on any type was detected in 188 (63.9%) of SVD patients, with 65 (22.1%) meeting criteria for vascular dementia and 123 (41.8%) presenting with cognitive impairment not dementia. Patients with VCI were older (64.4 ± 10.3 in VCI versus 58.6 ± 10.5 years in non-VCI; p < 0.0001) at the time of initial clinical presentation and more frequently male (57.9% VCI versus 46.2% non-VCI; p = 0.052). No difference was noted in frequency of vascular risk factors in VCI versus non-VCI cases. Multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted by age and gender identified overall severity of WMH (tARWMC HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.01-2.00; p0.043) and total number of lacunar infarcts (HR 3.06, 95% CI 1.71-5.50, p < 0.001) as independent predictors of cognitive decline. CONCLUSION In patients with SVD, independent predictors of VCI were baseline severity of WMH and total number of lacunar infarcts.
The Impact of Working Capital Management on Firms Financial Performance: Evidence from Pakistan

The purpose of this study was to empirically explore the impact of working capital management (WCM) on firms performance of chosen manufacturing firms listed in Karachi stock exchange (KSE). The quantitative research methods, correlation matrix and multiple regressions, secondary data and purposive sampling have been worked out. Arandom sample of 50 listed non-financial companies on Pakistani Stock Market was selected for the period ranging from year 2005 to 2014. The WCM has been used as an independent variable, i.e., inventory turnover (ITO), cash conversion cycle (CCC), average collection period (ACP), and average payment period (APP). The firm performance (FP) has been used as dependent variable, i.e., return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and earning per share (EPS). The results of multiple regression articulated that the APP, ITO and CCC have negative and significant impact on ROA but ACP has positive and significant impact on ROA. While APP has negative significant impact on ROE. The ITO has negative significant impact on EPS while ACP has positive and statistically significant impact on. The study results advocated that the FP of selected firms is influenced by WCM. By validating the findings with previous researchers, this endeavor will contribute to the literature. It will be beneficial to the academic, social and practical deportment. The study findings endowed with deeper insights into WCM practices and present recommendations that in turn bring improvements in the FP of the targeted firms.
Internationalizing-Innovation Profiles and High-Technology Exports: Does Lone Genius Matter?

Innovation-performance research, when conducted at the firm level, neglects the role of innovation that is created without firm involvement. In this article, the authors test Schumpeter's lone-genius hypothesis: “Change in economic life always starts with the actions of a forceful individual. ” To do so, the authors introduce country-level internationalizing-innovation profile (IIP), which characterizes a country's innovation resources, and internationalizing-innovation experience (IIE), which characterizes a country's level of patenting activity into the United States. Using fixed-effects panel data analysis for 50 countries from 1990 through 2010, the authors demonstrate that a country's IIP moderated by IIE influences high-technology exports. The findings suggest that lone genius does have an impact, depending on the phase of a country's IIE development. The implications of these findings for theory, public policy, and international marketing managers are discussed.
Frequency-Reconfigurable Antenna Using Metasurface

A frequency-reconfigurable antenna designed using metasurface (MS) to operate at around 5 GHz is proposed and studied. The frequency-reconfigurable metasurfaced (FRMS) antenna is composed of a simple circular patch antenna and a circular MS with the same diameter of 40 mm (0.67 λ) and implemented using planar technology. The MS is placed directly atop the patch antenna, making the FRMS antenna very compact and low profile with a thickness of only 3.048 mm (0.05 λ). The MS consists of rectangular-loop unit cells placed periodically in the vertical and horizontal directions. Simulation results show that the operating frequency of the antenna can be tuned by physically rotating the MS around the center with respect to the patch antenna. The MS placed atop the patch antenna behaves like a dielectric substrate and rotating the MS changes the equivalent relative permittivity of the substrate and hence the operating frequency of the FRMS antenna. Measured results show that the antenna has a tuning range from 4.76 to 5.51 GHz, a fractional tuning range of 14.6%, radiation efficiency and a realized peak gain of more than 80% and 5 dBi, respectively, across the tuning range.
A Meta-Analysis on the Price Elasticity of Energy Demand

Price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of energy policies or of other events with influence on the prices of energy goods. Since the 1970s a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long-term price elasticity estimates for different countries by using several models, data and estimation techniques. Yet the literature offers a rather wide range of estimates for the price elasticities of demand for energy. This paper quantitatively summarizes the recent, but still sizeable, empirical evidence on this matter to facilitate a sounder economic assessment of energy price changes. It does so by using meta-analysis to identify the main factors affecting the elasticity results, both short and long term, for energy in general as well as for specific products: electricity, natural gas, gasoline, diesel and heating oil.
Self-Efficacy and Enjoyment of Middle School Children Performing the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (Pacer)

Self-efficacy and enjoyment were examined among 34 middle school children (M age = 12.5 yr.) performing the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER). Exercise self-efficacy (running) and physical activity enjoyment were measured after viewing a video illustrating the PACER, and subsequently following a PACER test. Significantly greater pre- than post-exercise self-efficacy was reported; enjoyment scores did not differ. Ratings of self-efficacy were higher before exercise than after, but enjoyment scores were not significantly different. A significant correlation was found between post-exercise self-efficacy and enjoyment, but not between pre-exercise self-efficacy and enjoyment. Although positive correlations were found between PACER laps and pre-/post-exercise self-efficacy, correlations with ratings of enjoyment were not significant. Exercise self-efficacy was associated with children's beliefs about the task-specific PACER aerobic exercise; however, exercise enjoyment was stable. Children's self-efficacy and enjoyment beliefs should be considered when developing interventional strategies to promote aerobic exercise participation.
Improvements to the Descriptor of SIFT by BOF Approaches

The efficacy and efficiency of SIFT have made it a state-of-art feature descriptor. It has been widely used in many computer vision applications such as image classification. A large number of methods, e.g. PCA-SIFT, have been contributed to further improve its performance focusing on different components of it. Differing from those previous works, we broach a new scheme to improve the performance of SIFT's descriptor in this paper. We first establish the connection between SIFT and bag of features (BOF) model in descriptor construction. Based on this connection, we then introduce approaches of BOF, e.g. the preservation of spatial information (we adopt spatial pyramid matching as an example to achieve this goal), into SIFT to enhance its robustness. Experimental results in scene matching and image classification show that the BOF-driven SIFT effectively and consistently outperforms the original SIFT.
Secondary hyperalgesia is mediated by heat‐insensitive A‐fibre nociceptors

It is believed that secondary hyperalgesia (the increased sensitivity to mechanical nociceptive stimuli that develops after cutaneous tissue injury in the surrounding uninjured skin) is mediated by a subclass of nociceptors: the slowly adapting A‐fibre mechano‐heat nociceptors (AMH‐type I). Here we tested this hypothesis. By using intense long‐lasting heat stimuli, which are known to activate these slowly adapting AMH‐type I nociceptors, we show that the perceived intensity elicited by these stimuli is not increased in the area of secondary hyperalgesia. Moreover, we show that during an A‐fibre nerve conduction block the perception elicited by the long‐lasting heat stimuli is significantly reduced in a time window that matches the response profile of the AMH‐type I nociceptors. AMH‐type I nociceptors contribute to the perception of sustained heat, but they do not mediate secondary hyperalgesia. Therefore, we propose that secondary hyperalgesia is mediated by high threshold mechanoreceptors.
Development of the Protective Behavioral Strategies Survey.

OBJECTIVE Heavy alcohol use among college students represents a public health problem on American college campuses. A promising area for combating this problem is identifying protective behavioral strategies that may reduce consumption and its resulting negative consequences among students who do choose to use alcohol. The purpose of this study was to develop and conduct initial psychometric analyses on a new scale, which we named the Protective Behavioral Strategies Survey. METHOD Data were collected on 437 undergraduate students, who volunteered to participate in the study, at a large, public university in the northeast region of the United States. RESULTS Results from an exploratory factor analysis yielded three theoretically meaningful factors that we labeled Limiting/Stopping Drinking, Manner of Drinking and Serious Harm Reduction. The three factors were, as a group, significantly associated with both alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, but the strongest unique relationship existed between Manner of Drinking and the outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS Protective behavioral strategies seem to be a measurable construct that are related to alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, and thus may be a useful component of intervention and prevention programs with college students.