Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haematological assessment of occupational exposure to lead handlers in Enugu urban, Enugu State, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE To determine blood levels of lead and its effects on haematological parameters among occupational lead handlers in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. In developing countries, rapid industrialisation has lead to an alarming demand for lead. Furthermore, the burden of lead toxicity is greatly underestimated. Hence, the need to assess the unavoidable toxic effects of lead as done in this study. METHODS Blood lead levels were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) in eighty one (81) male subjects from three manufacturing companies, all located in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria. Thirty (30) staff of the industries not directly involved in lead handling served as control group I, while twenty (20) apparently healthy individuals from within the same locality not involved in lead handling served as control group II. Haematological values, blood lead levels and blood pressure (BP) were established using standard procedures. Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software was used to analyze the results. P value of < 0.05 was taken as significant. RESULTS Mean blood levels were 7.00 +/- 0.07 microg/dl in test subjects; 3.00 +/- 0.19 microg/dl in control group I and 2.00 +/- 0.04 microg/dl in the control group II. There were significant statistical differences (p < 0.05 for each) in haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), reticulocyte, total white blood cell (WBC), monocyte, autohaemolysis without glucose, and systolic and diastolic pressure between subjects and control group I. There were also significant differences (p < 0.05 for each) in the mean levels of Hb, PCV, reticulocyte, eosinophil, monocytes and systolic and diastolic pressures between the test subjects and control group II. There were however, no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) in the means of other parameters. Basophilic stipplings were not observed in the red cells of those directly exposed to lead. CONCLUSIONS It is suggested, therefore, that comprehensive and preventive measures towards exposure to lead in work places, and routine haemotological investigations be included in the bio-monitoring of the health status of lead workers.
Acetylation of Dna2 Endonuclease/Helicase and Flap Endonuclease 1 by p300 Promotes DNA Stability by Creating Long Flap Intermediates*

Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) and Dna2 endonuclease/helicase (Dna2) sequentially coordinate their nuclease activities for efficient resolution of flap structures that are created during the maturation of Okazaki fragments and repair of DNA damage. Acetylation of FEN1 by p300 inhibits its endonuclease activity, impairing flap cleavage, a seemingly undesirable effect. We now show that p300 also acetylates Dna2, stimulating its 5′–3′ endonuclease, the 5′–3′ helicase, and DNA-dependent ATPase activities. Furthermore, acetylated Dna2 binds its DNA substrates with higher affinity. Differential regulation of the activities of the two endonucleases by p300 indicates a mechanism in which the acetylase promotes formation of longer flaps in the cell at the same time as ensuring correct processing. Intentional formation of longer flaps mediated by p300 in an active chromatin environment would increase the resynthesis patch size, providing increased opportunity for incorrect nucleotide removal during DNA replication and damaged nucleotide removal during DNA repair. For example, altering the ratio between short and long flap Okazaki fragment processing would be a mechanism for better correction of the error-prone synthesis catalyzed by DNA polymerase α.
Reprogramming of telomerase by expression of mutant telomerase RNA template in human cells leads to altered telomeres that correlate with reduced cell viability

Telomerase synthesizes telomeric DNA by copying the template sequence of its own RNA component. In Tetrahymena thermophila and yeast (G. Yu, J. D. Bradley, L. D. Attardi, and E. H. Blackburn, Nature 344:126-131, 1990; M. McEachern and E. H. Blackburn, Nature 376:403-409, 1995), mutations in the template domain of this RNA result in synthesis of mutant telomeres and in impaired cell growth and survival. We have investigated whether mutant telomerase affects the proliferative potential and viability of immortal human cells. Plasmids encoding mutant or wild-type template RNAs (hTRs) of human telomerase and the neomycin resistance gene were transfected into human cells to generate stable transformants. Expression of mutant hTR resulted in the appearance of mutant telomerase activity and in the synthesis of mutant telomeres. Transformed cells were not visibly affected in their growth and viability when grown as mass populations. However, a reduction in plating efficiency and growth rate and an increase in the number of senescent cells were detected in populations with mutant telomeres by colony-forming assays. These results suggest that the presence of mutant telomerase, even if coexpressed with the wild-type enzyme, can be deleterious to cells, likely as a result of the impaired function of hybrid telomeres.
Plasticity in mesophyll volume fraction modulates light-acclimation in needle photosynthesis in two pines.

Acclimation potential of needle photosynthetic capacity varies greatly among pine species, but the underlying chemical, anatomical and morphological controls are not entirely understood. We investigated the light-dependent variation in needle characteristics in individuals of Pinus patula Schlect. & Cham. , which has 19-31-cm long pendulous needles, and individuals of P. radiata D. Don. , which has shorter (8-17-cm-long) stiffer needles. Needle nitrogen and carbon contents, mesophyll and structural tissue volume fractions, needle dry mass per unit total area (M(A)) and its components, volume to total area ratio (V/A(T)) and needle density (D = M(A)/(V/A(T))), and maximum carboxylase activity of Rubisco (V(cmax)) and capacity of photosynthetic electron transport (J(max)) were investigated in relation to seasonal mean integrated irradiance (Q(int)). Increases in Q(int) from canopy bottom to top resulted in proportional increases in both needle thickness and width such that needle total to projected surface area ratio, characterizing the efficiency of light interception, was independent of Q(int). Increased light availability also led to larger M(A) and nitrogen content per unit area (N(A)). Light-dependent modifications in M(A) resulted from increases in both V/A(T) and D, whereas N(A) changed because of increases in both M(A) and mass-based nitrogen content (N(M)) (N(A) = N(M)M(A)). Overall, the volume fraction of mesophyll cells increased with increasing irradiance and V/A(T) as the fraction of hypodermis and epidermis decreased with increasing needle thickness. Increases in M(A) and N(A) resulted in enhanced J(max) and V(cmax) per unit area in both species, but mass-based photosynthetic capacity increased only in P. patula. In addition, J(max) and V(cmax) showed greater plasticity in response to light in P. patula. Species differences in mesophyll volume fraction explained most of the variation in mass-based needle photosynthetic capacity between species, demonstrating that differences in plastic adjustments in mass-based photosynthetic activities among these representative individuals were mainly associated with contrasting investments in mesophyll cells. Greater area-based photosynthetic plasticity in P. patula relative to P. radiata was associated with larger increases in M(A) and mesophyll volume fraction with increasing irradiance. These data collectively demonstrate that light-dependent increases in mass-based nitrogen contents and photosynthetic activities were associated with an increased mesophyll volume fraction in needles at higher irradiances. They also emphasize the importance of light-dependent anatomical modifications in determining needle photosynthetic capacity.
Cointegration and stationarity analysis of Japanese speculative land and stock markets: 1982-1993

ii There was a remarkable downturn in the stock and land markets of Japan at the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990. This thesis examines speculative stock and land market indices, explores relationships between these indices, and determines if the downturn had any affect on such relationships. The two sets of data used are measures of the Japanese speculative stock market (the Nikkei and Topix, Tokyo Stock Exchange market indices) and measures of the Japanese speculative land market (golf course membership price indices for the country as a whole, the eastern part of Japan, the western part of Japan, and Tokyo). Preliminary analysis of the data suggests the existence of three similarities: first, between the two stock market indices; second, amongst the four golf course membership price indices; and, third, between the set of stock market indices and the set of golf course membership price indices. The graphs of the data, the effects of transformations, the lack of outliers, the lack of seasonality, and the distributions of the data are remarkably alike. However, a more technical look at the data supports the opposing point of view. ARIMA modelling shows there exists surprisingly little structural similarity either within or between the two sets of data (i.e., the speculative stock and land market indices). In addition, cointegration test results provide little evidence of the expected relationship between these data sets. iii When accounting for the effect of the downturn on the data, evidence of linear relationships does exist. Cointegration tests using data before the downturn provide evidence of linear relationships between the two data sets (particularly between the stock market indices and the country composite index for golf course membership prices). However, examination of data from after the downturn shows that the downturn seems to have changed the data in such a way as to remove these previously existing linear relationships between the two sets of indices. Cointegration tests show no linear relationships appear to exist within either data set before the downturn (i.e., between the two stock market indices or between any pairwise combination of the four golf course membership price indices), but there is evidence of some such relationships after the downturn. The conclusion of this paper is that the downturn actually changed the relationships within each set of data (i.e., between different measures of the speculative stock market and between different measures of the speculative land market) and between the two sets of data (i.e., the relationship between the Japanese stock and land markets). TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES x ACKNOWLEDGEMENT xii CHAPTER
A randomized comparison of the effects of aspirin and clopidogrel on thrombotic risk factors and C‐reactive protein following myocardial infarction: the CADET trial

Summary. A randomized, double‐blind multicenter trial—the Clopidogrel and Aspirin: Determination of the Effects on Thrombogenicity (CADET) trial—was carried out to compare the effects of clopidogrel vs. aspirin on thrombotic variables and C‐reactive protein (CRP), over a 6‐month period of treatment, in patients with an acute myocardial infarction within the previous 3–7 days, who were not scheduled for major surgery including coronary artery bypass grafting. Patients (n = 184) were randomly allocated to aspirin (75 mg day−1) or clopidogrel (75 mg day−1). Blood samples were taken at baseline and then at clinic visits at 1, 3 and 6 months. By 1 month, clottable and immunonephelometric fibrinogen, D‐dimer, von Willebrand factor, factor VIII and CRP were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced from baseline values in both treatment groups; as well as tissue plasminogen activator antigen in the aspirin group only. At 6 months, there were no differences between treatment groups (P > 0.05) for any of the variables, whether or not potential confounding variables were adjusted for. Similarly, there were no differences between treatments in the difference between baseline and final values for any of the variables. Aspirin and clopidogrel were thus found to have similar effects on thrombotic variables and CRP in this patient population.
THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF PREGNANT TWIN STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the lived experiences of pregnant twin students in a certain public secondary school in Davao City, Philippines. Using purposive sampling technique, the study focused on the two informants who are identical twins and both in 10th Grade. In-depth interview, observations, and field notes were utilized in analysis of data. Narratives were carefully transcribed, translated, and underwent thematic analysis to generate essential themes. Results disclosed that pregnant twin students experienced the use of contraceptives, physical and emotional distress, anxiety about the future, shame and humiliation, changes and prohibitions, the use of contraceptives, love and support of significant others. Also, pregnant students tried to cope with the situation by means of apathy, tenacity and turning to support systems. Along with the realizations of pregnant twins, the study underscored that regrets and remorse are always in the end, early pregnancy is a momentary setback, teenage girls should know better about life, love and sex, and that love and acceptance prevail in the end. The study encouraged future researchers to conduct teenage pregnancy among twin students in secondary schools where the participants may be escalated into bigger number to generate substantive patterns, similarities, and differences.
Promoting Parent-Child Sexual Health Dialogue with an Intergenerational Game: Parent and Youth Perspectives.

OBJECTIVES Sexual health discussions between parents and their preadolescent youth can delay sexual debut and increase condom and contraceptive use. However, parents frequently report being uncomfortable talking with their youth about sex, often reporting a lack of self-efficacy and skills to inform and motivate responsible decision making by youth. Intergenerational games may support parent-youth sexual health communication. The purpose of this study was to explore parent and youth perspectives on a proposed intergenerational game designed to increase effective parent-youth sexual health communication and skills training. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eight focus groups were conducted: four with parents (n=20) and four with their 11-14-year-old youth (n=19), to identify similarities and differences in perspectives on gaming context, delivery channel, content, and design (components, features, and function) that might facilitate dyadic sexual health communication. RESULTS Participants concurred that a sex education game could improve communication while being responsive to family time constraints. They affirmed the demand for an immersive story-based educational adventure game using mobile platforms and flexible communication modalities. Emergent themes informed the development of a features inventory (including educational and gaming strategies, communication components, channel, and setting) and upper-level program flow to guide future game development. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the potential of a game to be a viable medium to bring a shared dyadic sexual health educational experience to parents and youth that could engage them in a motivationally appealing way to meaningfully impact their sexual health communication and youth sexual risk behaviors.
Next Day Stock Market Forecasting: An Application of ANN and ARIMA

Data mining techniques are gaining an important place in finance as the size of the data is increasing exponentially with every passing day and the accuracy with which the data should be analyzed is very important. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop two models, one using three-layer feed-forward back propagation Artificial Neural Network (ANN 4-4-1) and the other using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA 1, 1, 1) for forecasting the future index value of Sensex (BSE 30). Simulations have been done using prices of daily open, high, low and close of Sensex. These are chosen as input data values and output is the forecasted closing price of Sensex for next day. Convergence and performance of models have been evaluated on the basis of the simulation results.
Light Environment and Leaf Characteristics Affect Distribution of Corythuca arcuata (Hemiptera: Tingidae)

ARSTRACT Insect herbivore abundances on host plants are influenced by both plant traits and the physical environment in which that plant grows. This study examined the role of the physical light environment and foliage characteristics in determining abundance of the lacebug Corythuca arcuata Say (Hemiptera: Tingidae) on Quercus alba L. I censused adult C. arcuata across a growing season, quantified leaf characteristics, and measured canopy cover over understory branches of mature Q. alba. Using an information-theoretic approach, a priori hypotheses of the relationship between light, plant traits, and C. arcuata abundance was evaluated. Abundance was best predicted by light environment and carbon content. Adult C. arcuata prefer trees growing under an open canopy and trees with low carbon content; abundance also positively correlated with leaf water content. Although carbon and water did not vary with light in this study, low carbon and high water content are often associated with shadier conditions, suggesting that C. arcuata faces a trade-off between preferences for physical habitat conditions and host plant characteristics.
Effects of imitation on language attitudes associated with regional and standard accents of British English

This study investigated whether and how imitation of sentences spoken in Liverpool English (LE) and Standard Southern British English (SSBE), affected attitudes related to these accents. LE has low prestige and low social attractiveness, while SSBE has high prestige and high attractiveness. A previous study showed that imitation positively affects social attractiveness, but not prestige, for an accent with low attractiveness and low prestige. It is unclear how imitation affects attitudes for accents with high attractiveness and high prestige. For both accents, participants repeated or imitated sentences. They gave prestige and attractiveness ratings for either accent at three points: before the experiment (baseline, before participants had heard the accent) and after each repeat/imitation session. A positive effect of imitation on attractiveness was found for LE, but not for SSBE. Also, an effect of audio exposure is reported: ratings were less stereotypical after listening to sentences spoken in the accent.
Size reduction of a double-ridged horn antenna for a bistatic radar-based breast imaging system

A physically small - sized double-ridged horn antenna is presented for use as an array element in the Subsurface Radar (SR) system. The miniaturization is achieved by loading the antenna with a very high-permittivity material and also by reducing the flare length in the horn section. The effects of size reduction on the reflection and transmission response of the antenna are studied.
The role of marine reserves in the replenishment of a locally impacted population of anemonefish on the Great Barrier Reef

The development of parentage analysis to track the dispersal of juvenile offspring has given us unprecedented insight into the population dynamics of coral reef fishes. These tools now have the potential to inform fisheries management and species conservation, particularly for small fragmented populations under threat from exploitation and disturbance. In this study, we resolve patterns of larval dispersal for a population of the anemonefish Amphiprion melanopus in the Keppel Islands (southern Great Barrier Reef). Habitat loss and fishing appear to have impacted this population and a network of no‐take marine reserves currently protects 75% of the potential breeders. Using parentage analysis, we estimate that 21% of recruitment in the island group was generated locally and that breeding adults living in reserves were responsible for 79% (31 of 39) of these of locally produced juveniles. Overall, the network of reserves was fully connected via larval dispersal; however, one reserve was identified as a critical source of larvae for the island group. The population in the Keppel Islands also appears to be well‐connected to other source populations at least 60 km away, given that 79% (145 of 184) of the juveniles sampled remained unassigned in the parentage analysis. We estimated the effective size of the A. melanopus metapopulation to be 745 (582–993 95% CI) and recommend continued monitoring of its genetic status. Maintaining connectivity with populations beyond the Keppel Islands and recovery of local recruitment habitat, potentially through active restoration of host anemone populations, will be important for its long‐term persistence.
Determining New Oil Market Predictors Under Model Uncertainty

It has recently been suggested that speculation is now playing an important role in daily price movements of global oil prices. This raises the question: what are important drivers of price changes given this new 'speculative' regime? We identify new factors of the oil market related to speculation by fitting Subset Vector Autoregression models with Exogenous variable (SVARX) and rank them by importance. Further, to account for model uncertainty and to obtain robust parameter estimation in this exploratory study, we apply a bootstrap model selection procedure.
Large-Scale User Behavior Characterization of Online Video Service in Cellular Network

Online video service has become prevalent in recent years. A better understanding of the user behavior of such service is crucial for allocating the network resources and adjusting the service design. While there are some measurement studies on the non-mobile video services in fixed network, the usage of video service in mobile network is yet to be explored. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the user behavior characteristics of a leading comprehensive online video service, namely Youku, in cellular network. This paper is based on a large-scale data set containing over 17 billion traffic traces, collected from a major cellular network in Northeastern China. We analyze the user behavior from three key aspects: data consumption, service usage, and mobility. We provide an insight into how the mobile video service is utilized by users (especially the heavy users), by measuring the user intensities and various representative behavior features in each analysis aspect, such as active time, replay rate, video category, access location, and residence time. We reveal the patterns of different user behaviors, and discuss the implications for practical application. The findings of this paper can provide direct help for network operators and service providers to improve the network performance and user experience.