Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of proteomic profiling of mouse embryonic stem cells derived from fertilized, parthenogenetic and androgenetic blastocysts

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of preimplantation embryos. ESCs exhibit true pluripotency, i.e., the ability to differentiate into cells of all three germ layers in the developing embryo. We used 2-DE MALDI-TOF/TOF to identify differentially expressed proteins among three types of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) derived from ferti-lized, parthenogenetic, and androgenetic (fESC, pESC and aESC, respectively) blastocysts. We detected more than 800 proteins on silver- stained gels of whole protein extracts from each type of ESC. Of these, 52 differentially expressed proteins were identified by the MALDI–TOF/TOF analyzer, including 32 (fESCs vs. pESCs), 28 (fESCs vs. aESCs) and 17 (pESCs vs. aESCs) prominent proteins with significantly higher or lower expression relative to the comparison cells. Among the 32 proteins from fESCs, 12 were significantly increased in expression and 20 were reduced in expression in fESCs com-pared with pESCs. Similarly, 10 of 28 and 8 of 17 proteins were more highly expressed in fESCs and pESCs compared with aESCs, respectively. In contrast, 18 of 28 and 9 of 17 proteins were reduced in expression in fESCs and pESCs compared with aESCs, respectively. Of the eight protein candidates in fESCs, four were in-creased and four were decreased in expression relative to both pESCs and aESCs in the 2-DE analysis. Differential expression of these pro-teins were confirmed by mRNA expression analysis using real time RT-PCR. For three pro-teins, ANXA5, CLIC1 and SRM, Western blot analysis corroborated the expression patterns indicated by the 2-DE results. ANXA5 and CLIC1 were increased in expression and SRM was de-creased in expression in fESCs compared with both pESCs and aESCs. The differentially ex-pressed proteins identified in the present study warrant further investigation towards the goal of their potential application in ESC therapy.
Profit Efficiency and Waste Management in Poultry Farming: The Case of Egba Division, Ogun State, Nigeria

The study examined the profit efficiency and poultry waste management in Egba division of Ogun State, Nigeria. A sample of seventy-two (72) poultry farmers was randomly selected from the study area through structured questionnaires. The data analysis was based on complete responses from a cross - sectional survey of the respondents. The data were analyzed using frequency distribution and frontier profit function. Results showed that poultry production was dominated by males (84.7%) and majority (73.6%) was below 50 years of age. About 98.6% of the poultry farmers had minimum of primary education while 86.1% had less than 10 years of farming experience. 70.9% of the household had up to 6 members in their family while 29.1% had between 7-12 members. Statistics shows that 93.1% of the respondents collected their poultry waste manually using shovel and spade. Majority (76.39%) of the farmers did not treat their farm waste before or after disposal thereby polluting their environment. The poultry 'waste' was not considered useful by 63.9% of the farmers. However, the mean level of efficiency for poultry production in the area is 68.44 indicating that there is opportunity to still increase profit by 31.6% if technical, allocative and scale efficiencies are improved upon. Meanwhile, age, experience and sex significantly contributed to inefficiency in poultry farming in the area. It is therefore suggested that livestock farmers should be trained through workshops, conferences and extension services on the conversion and utilization of livestock waste or manure e.g. into organic fertilizers which can easily be made available to the numerous small scale crop farmers to augment the scarce and very expensive inorganic fertilizer. Effective monitoring services should be operated by government to sensitize poultry farmers to reduce environmental pollution and incidence of disease outbreak. Government should reduce import duties on poultry drugs so as to enhance increased production and profitability.
Delta RAID to Enhance Recovery and Small-Write Performance of RAID Storages

This paper proposes a novel Delta redundant array of independent disks (RAID) technique that enhances small-write performance, resists disk failures of up to 75% in the RAID architecture. In order to generate parity data, three partial strips within a horizontal strip are used. To generate one parity element, Delta RAID requires access from two data disks, one parity disk. Delta RAID provides a fast recovery algorithm to correct various disk failures. Delta RAID also employs additional buffer caching replacement (BCR), which reduces the number of read, write operations by both merging small chunks into a larger chunk with buffer size, splitting a big chunk into many smaller chunks with buffer size. Compared to traditional GRID RAID(SPC, STAR), GRID RAID(SPC, EO),, GRID RAID(STAR, STAR), Delta RAID improves average small-write performance by 233%, 224%,, 176%, respectively, improves read performance by 289%, 268%,, 176%, respectively.
Characterization and expansion of baboon CD4+CD25+ Treg cells for potential use in a non‐human primate xenotransplantation model

Abstract: Background: It is well established that CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells can modulate allogeneic immune responses. Xenotransplantation, proposed as a means to address the critical shortage of human organs, may also benefit from similar approaches to avert rejection. Baboons are a preferred preclinical animal model for xenogeneic organ transplantation experiments, and the characterization of baboon Treg cells will be beneficial to future tolerance studies in this animal model.
Dissipation in nanocrystalline-diamond nanomechanical resonators

We have measured the dissipation and frequency of nanocrystalline-diamond nanomechanical resonators with resonant frequencies between 13.7 MHz and 157.3 MHz, over a temperature range of 1.4–274 K. Using both magnetomotive network analysis and a time-domain ring-down technique, we have found the dissipation in this material to have a temperature dependence roughly following T0.2, with Q−1≈10−4 at low temperatures. The frequency dependence of a large dissipation feature at ∼35–55 K is consistent with thermal activation over a 0.02 eV barrier with an attempt frequency of 10 GHz.
Microsatellite DNA markers for the Chinese wood frog (Rana chensinensis) and tests for their cross‐utility in 15 ranid frog species

We developed 22 microsatellite markers for the Chinese wood frog (Rana chensinensis) to study the impact of landscape features on its population structure. Thirty‐four individuals from one breeding site were examined and 14 loci were polymorphic. The number of alleles, expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity varied from two to 14, from 0.0833 to 0.9118, and from 0.1376 to 0.8667, respectively. Cross‐species amplification was tested for 15 ranid frog species. The Plateau brown frog, Rana kukunoris (n = 23), was successfully amplified at 18 loci, and 15 were polymorphic with number of alleles varying from two to 18. Ten other species were also amplified at a limited number of loci.
Tissue-specific levels of human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase correlate with methylation of specific sites at the 3' end of the gene.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is a ubiquitous enzyme that supplies the cell with NADPH required for a variety of reductive reactions and biosynthetic processes. Therefore, the gene G6PD, located in mammals on the X chromosome, that specifies G6PD can be regarded as a typical housekeeping gene. We have investigated the expression of human G6PD in eight different fetal and adult tissues by determining the level of enzyme activity, the level of G6PD mRNA, and the methylation pattern of the 3' end of the gene, for which we have nucleic acid probes. By combining sequence information with results of Southern blot analysis of DNA samples digested with the methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme Hpa II, we have identified five specific sites that are unmethylated in all tissues examined, a number of sites that are uniformly methylated, and a number of sites that are sometimes methylated. A subset of Hpa II sites, designated on our restriction map as H37-H55, exhibit positive correlation between degree of methylation, level of mRNA, and level of G6PD activity. A comparison of these methylation patterns with those we previously have observed in the G6PD gene on the inactive X chromosome [Toniolo, D. , D'Urso, M. , Martini, G. , Persico, M.G. , Tufano, V. , Battistuzzi, G. & Luzzatto, L. (1984) EMBO J. 3, 1987-1995] indicates that different sites are associated with X-inactivation and with the regulation of G6PD on the active X chromosome. We conclude that this housekeeping gene is subject to tissue-specific transcriptional regulation, which in turn correlates with methylation of specific sites located at and near the 3' end of the gene.
Trust-aware Peer Assessment using Multi-armed Bandit Algorithms

Massive Open Online Coursers (MOOCs) offer a convenient way for people to access quality courses via the internet. However, the problem of grading open-ended assignments at such a large scale still remains challenging. Although peer assessment have been proposed to handle the large-scale grading problem in MOOCs, existing methods still suffer several limitations: (1) most current peer assessment research ignore the importance of how to allocate the assessment tasks among peers, (2) existing approaches for peer grading learn the complete ranking in an offline manner, (3) theoretical analysis for trust-aware peer grading is missing. In this work, we consider the case that we have prior knowledge about all students' reliability. We formulate the problem of peer assessment as a sequential noisy ranking aggregation problem. We derive a trust-aware allocation scheme for peer assessment to maximize the probability of constructing a correct ranking of assignments with a budget constraint.Moreover, we also derive an upper bound for the probability of prediction error on the inferred ranking of assignments. Furthermore, we propose the Trust-aware Ranking-based Multi-armed Bandit Algorithms to sequentially allocate the assessment tasks to the students based on the derived allocation scheme and learn an accurate peer grading result by taking students' reliability into consideration.
Silicon Carbide Detectors for in vivo Dosimetry

Semiconductor detectors for in vivo dosimetry have served in recent years as an important part of quality assurance for radiotherapy. Silicon carbide (SiC) can represent a better semiconductor with respect to the more popular silicon (Si) thanks to its physical characteristics such as wide bandgap, high electron saturation velocity, lower effective atomic number, and high radiation resistance to X and gamma rays. In this article we present an investigation aimed at characterizing 4H-SiC epitaxial Schottky diodes as in vivo dosimeters. The electrical characterization at room temperature showed ultra low leakage current densities as low as 0.1 pA/cm 2 at 100 V bias with negligible dependence on temperature. The SiC diode was tested as radiotherapy dosimeter using 6 MV photon beams from a linear accelerator in a typical clinical setting. Collected charge as a function of exposed radiation dose were measured and compared to three standard commercially available silicon dosimeters. A sensitivity of 23 nC/Gy with linearity errors within ±0.5% and time stability of 0.6% were achieved. No negligible effects on the diode I-V characteristics after irradiation were observed.
Conceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Nature of Managerial Capture

Furnishes a narrative reflecting an in‐depth examination of managerial conceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Irish context. The narrative locates itself within the debate surrounding the extent to which corporate management may capture social accountants’ efforts to promote a broad society‐centred conception of CSR. Three key findings emerge from the narrative. First, there is evidence of a tendency for managers to interpret CSR in a constricted fashion consistent with corporate goals of shareholder wealth maximisation. Second, pockets of robust resistance to and defences of this narrow conception do, however, also emerge in the narrative. Third, the complexity of conceiving of a clear meaning for CSR, particularly for those exposed to the structural pressures encountered by these managers, is apparent. This is evident in the initial, somewhat contradictory, nature of many of the conceptions analysed. Reflects on these findings and considers their broad implications for social accountants’ attempts to promote greater society centred corporate accountability in Ireland.
Quantitative Determination of Cd and Pb in Tissues and Organs of Chickens Raised in El-Jabel Alakhder Region—Libya

This study was carried out to determine the concentration of Cd, and Pb in the tissues of thigh, breast, liver, heart, gizzard, neck and skin of chicken. All samples were collected in the summer of 2004 from three different commercial farms of chickens production located in different areas of EL-Jabal Alakhder region at Libya country (Gernada, EL-Abrak and Sousa). For comparison, the metals were also determined in the same tissues of the chickens which produced in the national station of poultry production at EL-Akhoria city. The metals in the chickens feed and in water for both drinking and cleaning inside the slaughter house were also determined. The results revealed that the highest concentrations of Cd were found in neck, liver and heart while the neck and skin tissues contained the highest level of Pb. However, the tissues of thigh and breast flesh had the lowest level of metals. The levels of Cd in the different tissues ranged from 0.008 to 0.227 ppm and from 0.093 to 2.391 ppm for Pb. The results revealed that the levels of Cd in neck from all farms, liver from both EL-Akhoria and Gernada farms. Levels of Pb in the neck and skin from all farms were exceeding the permitted limits according to some European regulations. The results also indicate that the high concentrations of Cd in some tissues were due to the effect of high levels of these metals in the feed of birds. However the drinking and cleaning water had no effects on the level of the metals in the different tissues.
Customer knowledge management and the strategies of social software

Purpose – Social software emerges as an important and effective tool for customer knowledge management (CKM). However, the supporting role of social software in CKM is not well understood. This paper aims to bridge the gap by studying the implementation of social software to effectively manage customer knowledge assets.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analytically models and investigates the optimal level of social software for a firm who maximizes its transactional benefits through managing a consumer knowledge system. The system consists of a customer knowledge base and social software that dynamically affects the customer knowledge base through customers' interactions.Findings – The paper shows that the optimal level of social software can be obtained under certain conditions and how the level changes with the initial index of customer knowledge base, transactional benefits, and the positive and negative effects of the social software. In addition, it provides guidelines to implement social soft.
Link prediction via Supervised Dynamic Network Formation

The link prediction is a classical problem for computer science and many other research fields. Existing link prediction methods mainly apply the link patterns for the network in order to predict future possible links. However, in a network generated by the human interaction, the links may not only relate to the observed datasets, but also are affected by the decisions of human. That is to say, this kind of networks are affected by the game processes between all the related individuals. This paper proposes a model based on the dynamic network formation to mimic the game processes, and uses this model to deal with the link prediction problem. Moreover, we theoretically demonstrate the relationship between the parameters and the limit status of our model. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed model does better link prediction on the networks generated by human interaction than the traditional methods. Further more, this model gives a good prediction for the future possible links in a continuous time period.
A 0.8 V Supply- and Temperature-Insensitive Capacitance-to-Digital Converter in 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$  CMOS

A low-voltage, low-power, capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) that is insensitive to supply and temperature variations is presented in this paper. The CDC comprises two matched RC oscillators and a counter-based programmable digital converter. The transfer function of the proposed CDC is a scaled ratio of the capacitors having equal drift coefficients, making it insensitive to supply as well as temperature variations. Worst case temperature-dependent drift of ±153.4 ppm/°C is measured between -40 and +120 °C while worst case supply-dependent drift of ±1.12% is measured between 0.8 and 1.2 V over full-scale capacitance range. The proposed CDC achieves 2.05 fF resolution, consuming 23 μA from a 0.8 V supply, at a full-scale range of 3.36 pF. The CDC, realized in 0.18-μm CMOS process, has an active area of 0.102 mm2 and offers a scalable resolution within a range of 2-13 b.
Effect of glycyrrhizic acid on rhein renal penetration: a microdialysis study in rats

Abstract 1. Rhein (RH), a primary active component isolated from rhubarb, is effective in protecting against the progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN) progression. Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), an active constituent of liquorice, is also considered to be a protective agent against DN. Here, we evaluated the effect of GA on the renal penetration of RH in rats. 2. Plasma and renal pharmacokinetics were profiled to estimate kidney penetration. After rats were anesthetized, the carotid artery was used for blood collection and a microdialysis probe was inserted into the kidney cortex to collect dialysate samples. 3. When co-administered with GA, the Vss and CL values of RH in plasma increased by 25% and 34%, respectively. The Cmax in kidney dialysates significantly increased 1.3-fold (p < 0.05). There was no change in AUC0–∞ in kidney dialysates, but a significant decrease (2 × fold) in the plasma was observed. The AUC0–∞kidney/AUC0–∞plasma ratio of RH, representing kidney penetration, increased by 1.4-fold in the group pre-treated with GA compared to the RH alone group. 4. These results demonstrate that GA increases the renal penetration of RH efficiently and may exert a synergistic effect, although the molecular mechanism of interaction requires further investigation.
Pro‐apoptotic protein kinase Cδ is associated with intranuclear inclusions in a transgenic model of Huntington's disease

In order to investigate any effect of truncated mutant huntingtin (tNhtt) aggregation on protein kinase C (PKC) signaling in Huntington's disease (HD), we studied a possible association of PKC isoforms with the aggregates using cellular and transgenic models of HD. In this report we describe an association of mutant tNhtt with at least three PKC isoforms (α, δ, ζ), as revealed by co‐immunoprecipitation assays and immunocytochemistry in a cellular model of HD (Neuro2a cells expressing tNhtt‐150Q‐EGFP), as well as a specific association of PKCδ with intranuclear aggregates in a transgenic model (R6/2 mice). Immunoblot analysis of isolated nuclear fractions shows an elevation of nuclear PKCδ in transgenic brain tissue. The observed elevation has a strong similarity with the apoptotic translocation of PKCδ detected in experiments with the mouse neuroblastoma Neuro2a cells. Using a Neuro2a cell line expressing tNhtt with the nuclear localization signal, we demonstrate the association of PKCδ with intranuclear aggregates and present evidence that accumulation of PKCδ in cell nuclei does not depend on mutant htt nuclear translocation. Our results suggest that the association of PKCδ with intranuclear htt‐aggregates may affect its apoptotic function in a transgenic model of HD.
BIACORE J: a new platform for routine biomolecular interaction analysis †

SPR biosensor technology continues to evolve. The recently released platform from Biacore AB (Uppsala, Sweden), BIACORE J, is designed for the routine analysis of biomolecular interactions. Using an antibody–protein A and a ligand–receptor system, we demonstrate the utility of BIACORE J in determining active concentration and binding affinities. The results from these studies illustrate the high sensitivity of the instrument and its ability to generate reproducible binding responses. The BIACORE J is easy to operate and useful in diverse applications, making SPR technology widely accessible as a research tool. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Determining the maximum power transfer condition for Ultrasonic Power Transfer system

Ultrasonic Power Transfer technology is beneficial to transmit power through the metal conductor, and does not produce electromagnetic radiation. As the maximum power transfer condition is still unknown at present, we propose a method to accurately determine maximum power transfer condition. By using electro-mechanical equivalent principle, we establish system overall model of ultrasonic power transfer system. On the basis, we build up system transmitter, receiver and propagation models and analyzed in detail. Eventually the system resonant frequency and optimal load for maximum power transmission is obtained. The results show the maximum power transfer condition is corresponding to the load matching point. The good agreement is reached between the theoretical and experimental results. This method is greatly useful for finding the load matching point to maximize output power of ultrasonic power transfer system.
Predator recognition and anti-predatory behaviour in a recent aquatic invader, the killer shrimp (Dikerogammarus villosus)

The killer shrimp (Dikerogammarus villosus) is one of the most recent, but also most damaging, aquatic invasive species in Europe, but information on how the species responds to novel predation pressures in recently invaded areas is very limited. We employed an open test arena to examine predator recognition and anti-predatory behaviour in killer shrimp exposed to either blank water or water conditioned with fish kairomones to simulate a predator threat. Within five years after their introduction, killer shrimp spent much more time hiding in the presence of fish kairomones than when they were exposed to blank water. However, no significant difference was found in aggregation behaviour, and killer shrimp were strongly attracted to the scent of conspecifics regardless of predator threat. Given the strong selective pressures that fish predators can exert on native and invasive gammarids, our findings highlight the need to consider prey-predator interactions to better predict the dispersal and likely impact of killer shrimp into invaded ecosystems.