Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism Ketamine Effects on Local Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism in the Rat

The effects of an anesthetic dose (100 mg/kg) of ketamine, a phencyclidine derivative, on local rates of cerebral glucose utilization (LCGU) and CBF (LCBF) have been investigated by the quantitative [14Cl2-deoxy­ glucose and [l4Cliodoantipyrine techniques in the unpar­ alyzed, spontaneously breathing rat. In ketamine-in­ jected animals, LCGU was significantly increased in some limbic structures and decreased in inferior colli­ culus, vestibular, and cerebellar nuclei. The degree and spatial distribution of drug-induced changes was similar for local blood flow rates, LCBF being increased in limbic regions and decreased in the inferior colliculus. Al-In recent years the effects of ketamine, a phen­ cyclidine derivative, on metabolic activity levels within the CNS have been investigated by several shown to induce a marked heterogeneity in the pat­ tern of local cerebral glucose utilization (LCGU) values in the rat brain, functional activity dis­ playing a significant increase in most limbic struc­ tures, being unchanged in other areas, and showing a reduction in some subcortical sensory relay sta­ tions (Crosby et aI., 1982; Oguchi et aI., 1982). Se­ miquantitative studies performed at higher doses 806 though PaC02 values were higher in anesthetized animals, the pattern of LCBF/LCGU ratios was not significantly affected by ketamine in the 36 brain regions examined in this study. So, at least in the rat and at the anesthetic level studied here, a net vasodilatory in vivo effect was not observed. These results support the hypothesis that CBF changes induced by the drug in animals and man are primarily related to the metabolic effects exerted by ke­ tamine on cerebral structures. Key Words: Ketamine­ Local cerebral blood flow-Local cerebral glucose utili­ zation. effects in the cerebral cortex (Hammer and Her­ kenham, 1983) and hippocampus (Lund et aI., 1981), probably related at least in part to the activa­ tion of phencyclidine receptors (Quirion et aI., 1981; Hammer et aI., 1982). Altogether these data confirm and extend previous observations showing an increase in CMR02 induced by the drug (Dawson et aI., 1971). been found to be increased as well by anesthetic doses of ketamine in both animals and humans. Considerable debate exists, however, as to mecha­ nisms responsible for the observed increase in CBF. In this regard, a direct vasodilatory effect on cere­ been advanced as possible explanations. Because data obtained by studies on global CBF or CMR or large brain areas fail to take into ac­ count the regional heterogeneity in the circulatory
A WEB-BASED MODEL FOR INSPECTION INCONSISTENCIES RESOLUTION: A NEW APPROACH WITH TWO CASE STUDIES

This research is aimed at introducing an enhanced inspection model known as Improved Software Inspection Model (ISIM) by making some enhancements to overcome or reduce the weaknesses identified in Formal model. ISIM includes a method of selecting suitable inspectors based on their expertise and work experience; provide a database that stores information on potentials; has a database that stores the possible causes of each of the defects stored in the defect database; and incorporates a few enhancements in the inspection process. To facilitate the selection of suitable inspectors and the inspection process, an inspection tool was developed using PHP with MySQL as database management system. To determine whether the use of ISIM can improve the inspection process, the quality of the process was evaluated using paired T-test which compares the differences between Formal and ISIM models, in terms of the number of defects detected, inspection time, and the productivity of the inspectors. Two case studies were conducted in two companies and inspections were carried out on two software development projects to collect the data needed for the statistical test. The statistical test results show that at ii = 0.05, the mean values of the number of defects are detected; the inspection time; and the productivity of the inspectors when using Formal and ISIM are 19.78 and 28.13; 220.97 minutes and 213.69 minutes; and 0.0891 and 0.1328, respectively. This shows that there are significant improvements in the number of defects detected (i.e. difference = 8.35; 42.21%), and productivity of the inspectors (i.e. difference = 0.0437; 49.05%). However, there is only a slight improvement in the inspection time. It can be concluded that ISIM together with its tool improve the quality of inspection process in the two case studies.
Economic Spillovers from the Euro Area to the CESEE Region via the Financial Channel: A GVAR Approach

In this paper we examine the spillovers of a shock to real output in the euro area to Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) and its subregions Central Europe, Southeastern Europe, Russia, and the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). To this effect, we apply a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model and go beyond existing work by examining the relative importance of the financial channel compared with the trade channel. Moreover, we assume that shocks spill over from the euro area to the CESEE region via the financial channel whereas financial spillovers within CESEE are negligible (except for spillovers between Russia and the other CESEE countries, which we do capture). Our results are as follows: We find spillovers transmitted via the trade channel to be larger than spillovers via the financial channel for Southeastern Europe, but smaller for Russia and the other CIS countries. For Central Europe, the two channels have a broadly similar impact. When we assess the relative importance of the two channels based on how well they explain historical movements in the data we see that spillovers via the two channels have indeed been of equal importance for Central Europe. However, the financial channel has traditionally dominated the trade channel in Southeastern Europe, whereas the trade channel has traditionally played a stronger role for the CIS region. Overall spillovers reflecting both transmission channels are comparatively more moderate for Central Europe and Russia, while they are a bit larger for Southeastern Europe and considerably higher for the CIS region excluding Russia: The long-run effect of a +1% euro area output shock ranges from 0.3% in Central Europe and Russia to 0.7% in the other CIS countries.
Treadmill Intervention Attenuates the Cafeteria Diet-Induced Impairment of Stress-Coping Strategies in Young Adult Female Rats

The current prevalence of diet-induced overweight and obesity in adolescents and adults is continuously growing. Although the detrimental biochemical and metabolic consequences of obesity are widely studied, its impact on stress-coping behavior and its interaction with specific exercise doses (in terms of intensity, duration and frequency) need further investigation. To this aim, we fed adolescent rats either an obesogenic diet (cafeteria diet, CAF) or standard chow (ST). Each group was subdivided into four subgroups according to the type of treadmill intervention as follows: a sedentary group receiving no manipulation; a control group exposed to a stationary treadmill; a low-intensity treadmill group trained at 12 m/min; and a higher intensity treadmill group trained at 17 m/min. Both the diet and treadmill interventions started at weaning and lasted for 8 weeks. Subjects were tested for anxiety-like behavior in the open field test and for coping strategies in the two-way active avoidance paradigm at week 7 and were sacrificed at week 8 for biometric and metabolic characterization. CAF feeding increased the weight gain, relative retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (RWAT %), and plasma levels of glucose, insulin, triglycerides and leptin and decreased the insulin sensitivity. Treadmill intervention partially reversed the RWAT% and triglyceride alterations; at higher intensity, it decreased the leptin levels of CAF-fed animals. CAF feeding decreased the motor activity and impaired the performance in a two-way active avoidance assessment. Treadmill intervention reduced defecation in the shuttle box, suggesting diminished anxiety. CAF feeding combined with treadmill training at 17 m/min increased the time spent in the center of the open field and more importantly, partially reversed the two-way active avoidance deficit. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that at doses that decreased anxiety-like behavior, treadmill exercise partially improved the coping strategy in terms of active avoidance behavior in the CAF-fed animals. This effect was not observed at lower doses of treadmill training.
Problem-Solving and Partnership: A Study of the Role of Neighbourhood Action Groups in Neighbourhood Policing

This thesis looks at the implementation of neighbourhood policing by studying two case study neighbourhoods within the Thames Valley Police. The study focusses on the Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) which exists in each neighbourhood. It comprises police, partner organizations (such as the local council, schools, businesses etc.) and some residents. The group puts the problem-solving role of the neighbourhood policing agenda into practice. The NAG attempts to take on board local concerns and prioritize the resolution or amelioration of these problems in their neighbourhood. In so doing the group must navigate a set of concepts which are riven with subjectivity and open to wide-ranging interpretation. The thesis looked at one NAG (Neighbourhood B) from before its initial implementation up until it established itself and began working on its priority problems. The research also observed a more established NAG (Neighbourhood A) which had been working on its priority problems for some time. In this way it was possible to follow the process in its entirety, including the consultation process, the formation of the NAG, initial problem-solving approaches and the problems faced by the group as it grapples with longer term problems. In looking at the NAG the thesis uses a 'nodal governance of security' approach. This locates the NAG as one 'node' linked into a larger network of security providers and governors. The group, in bringing together a selection of interested parties to work on the provision of security to a neighbourhood. Using this 'nodal governance' analysis, the thesis sets out a number of recurring difficulties which the NAGs face when trying to operate as a group of partner organizations. It further used the approach to look at how difficult the problem-solving process is for NAGs operating as 'nodes'. NAGs are still in their infancy, but it is clear that there are many problems, as well as much potential, ahead for them in implementing the neighbourhood policing agenda.
Regulated Expression of Lentivirus-Mediated GDNF in Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Its Neuroprotection on Dopaminergic Cells In Vitro

Gene regulation remains one of the major challenges for gene therapy in clinical trials. In the present study, we first generated a binary tetracycline-on (Tet-On) system based on two lentivirus vectors, one expressing both human glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (hGDNF) and humanized recombinant green fluorescent protein (hrGFP) genes under second-generation tetracycline response element (TRE), and the other expressing the advanced reverse tetracycline-controlled transactivator - rtTA2S-M2 under a human minimal cytomegalovirus immediate early (CMV-IE) promoter. This system allows simultaneous expression of hGDNF and hrGFP genes in the presence of doxycycline (Dox). Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were transduced with the binary Tet-On lentivirus vectors and characterized in vitro in the presence (On) or absence (Off) of Dox. The expression of hGDNF and hrGFP transgenes in transduced hMSCs was tightly regulated as determined by flow cytometry (FCM), GDNF enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). There was a dose-dependent regulation for hrGFP transgene expression. The levels of hGDNF protein in culture medium were correlated with the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) units of hrGFP. The levels of transgene background expression were very low in the absence of Dox. The treatment of the conditioned medium from cultures of transduced hMSCs in the presence of Dox protected SH-SY5Y cells against 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) toxicity as determined by cell viability using 3, [4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The treatment of the conditioned medium was also found to improve the survival of dopaminergic (DA) neurons of ventral mesencephalic (VM) tissue in serum-free culture conditions as assessed by cell body area, the number of neurites and dendrite branching points, and proportion of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive (IR) cells. Our inducible lentivirus-mediated hGDNF gene delivery system may provide useful tools for basic research on gene therapy for chronic neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD).
An image zooming technique based on the relative color difference of pixels

In this paper, a new interpolation algorithm for magnifying images based on the relative color difference of pixels (RCD) is presented, with its basic principle and implementation method being discussed in detail. Its comparison with the nearest neighbor interpolator and the bilinear interpolator, in terms of some objective evaluation criteria, are also given. The simulation result indicates that our method combines strong points of the other two algorithms.
The Effects of Collaborative Grouping on Student Engagement in Middle School Students

This action research project investigated the impact of collaborative grouping on students’ engagement in three middle level STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) classrooms. Research was conducted in two rural and one urban setting. Four data collection tools were used: A semantic rating scale (student questionnaire), teacher observations, student interviews, and teacher journaling. Data was categorized into three domains of student engagement: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. Teamwork strategies were overtly taught to students before the study with additional instruction during the observation process as needed. While quantitative evidence implied a slight decrease in preference for collaborative learning by student’s self-report, qualitative data showed positive results across the implementation. Research findings support the finding that collaborative grouping has a positive impact on student learning and fosters socialemotional skills beneficial for overall functioning in today’s environment. Our findings suggest that middle-level classrooms benefit from incorporating collaborative learning activities when preceded by intentional group formation, instruction on how to participate effectively as a member of a collaborative team, and supplemented by re-teaching of group skills or re-grouping, as indicated by evidence of student engagement.
Submillimetre observations of z > 6 quasars

We report on submillimetre (submm) observations of three high-redshift quasars (z > 6) made using the SCUBA camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Only one of the sample was detected (>10σ significance) at 850 µm ‐ SDSS J1148+5251 (z = 6.43). It was also detected at 450 µ m( >3σ significance), one of the few quasars at z > 4 for which this has been the case. In combination with existing millimetric data, the 850- and 450-µm detections allow us to place limits on the temperature of the submm-emitting dust. The dust temperature is of no trivial importance given the high redshift of the source, since a cold temperature would signify a large mass of dust to be synthesized in the little time available (as an extreme upper limit in only 0.9 Gyr since z =∞ ). We find, however, that the combined millimetre and submm data for the source cannot simply be characterized using the single-temperature greybody fit that has been used at lower redshifts. We discuss the results of the observing and modelling, and speculate as to the origin of the deviations.
WTO accession and the labor market : estimations for Russia

The paper investigates potential impact of Russia’s WTO accession on the labor market by estimating various labor market elasticities with respect to trade liberalization in Russia in the 90-ies. In particular, the influence of tariff reduction on demand for labor is estimated, intersectoral employment flows in recent years and their determinants are studied, as well as determinants of sectoral wage premiums and of wage differentials between skilled and unskilled labor. The estimated elasticities of labor demand and wages show to be of very moderate size implying that one need not expect a dramatic influence of Russia’s WTO accession on the labor market provided the size of the shock is comparable to the one of the increased country openness during the 90-ies.
Frame differencing with post-processing techniques for moving object detection in outdoor environment

Background subtraction is a process of separating moving foreground objects from the non-moving background. This technique must adapt to the illumination, motion and the geometry background changes such as shadow, reflections, and etc. In this paper, one of the traditional background subtraction techniques which is frame differencing (FD) is conducted to detect the moving object in outdoor environment. The result of moving object detection using FD is not perfect that enable this research to experimental two existing post-processing techniques which are adaptive threshold and shadow detection in HSV color space for outdoor environment. Experimental result showed that FD with post-processing techniques are able to detect good moving object in outdoor environment with no shadow based on accuracy improvement data.
Low profile microstrip fed printed antenna for portable RF energy harvesting system

This work presents, a printed wideband microstrip antenna that can be used for portable RF energy harvesting applications. The antenna is designed, simulated and validated using 3D electromagnetic HFSS simulator. The targeted frequency band of operations are from 0.825 GHz to 1.05 GHz for catering GSM/3G wireless applications. Following the antenna design in the HFSS software, the structure has been fabricated on low cost substrate FR4 and the structure performance is analyzed experimentally. The achieved wideband, omni directional patterns with constant gain monopole antenna can be suitable for all portable system applications.
UniAD

Instead of constructing complex declarative queries, many users prefer to write their programs using procedural code embedded with simple queries. Since many users are not expert programmers or the programs are written in a rush, these programs usually exhibit poor performance in practice and it is a challenge to automatically and efficiently optimize these programs. In this article, we present UniAD, which stands for Unified execution for Ad hoc Data processing, a system designed to simplify the programming of data processing tasks and provide efficient execution for user programs. We provide the background of program semantics and propose a novel intermediate representation, called Unified Intermediate Representation (UniIR), which utilizes a simple and expressive mechanism HOQ to describe the operations performed in programs. By combining both procedural and declarative logics with the proposed intermediate representation, we can perform various optimizations across the boundary between procedural and declarative code. We propose a transformation-based optimizer to automatically optimize programs and implement the UniAD system. The extensive experimental results on various benchmarks demonstrate that our techniques can significantly improve the performance of a wide range of data processing programs.
Application of β-Resorcylic Acid as Potential Antimicrobial Feed Additive to Reduce Campylobacter Colonization in Broiler Chickens

Campylobacter is one of the major foodborne pathogens that result in severe gastroenteritis in humans, primarily through consumption of contaminated poultry products. Chickens are the reservoir host of Campylobacter, where the pathogen colonizes the ceca, thereby leading to contamination of carcass during slaughter. A reduction in cecal colonization by Campylobacter would directly translate into reduced product contamination and risk of human infections. With increasing consumer demand for antibiotic free chickens, significant research is being conducted to discover natural, safe and economical antimicrobials that can effectively control Campylobacter colonization in birds. This study investigated the efficacy of in-feed supplementation of a phytophenolic compound, β-resorcylic acid (BR) for reducing Campylobacter colonization in broiler chickens. In two separate, replicate trials, day-old-chicks (Cobb500; n = 10 birds/treatment) were fed with BR (0, 0.25, 0.5, or 1%) in feed for a period of 14 days (n = 40/trial). Birds were challenged with a four-strain mixture of Campylobacter jejuni (∼106 CFU/ml; 250 μl/bird) on day 7 and cecal samples were collected on day 14 for enumerating surviving Campylobacter in cecal contents. In addition, the effect of BR on the critical colonization factors of Campylobacter (motility, epithelial cell attachment) was studied using phenotypic assay, cell culture, and real-time quantitative PCR. Supplementation of BR in poultry feed for 14 days at 0.5 and 1% reduced Campylobacter populations in cecal contents by ∼2.5 and 1.7 Log CFU/g, respectively (P < 0.05). No significant differences in feed intake and body weight gain were observed between control and treatment birds fed the compound (P > 0.05). Follow up mechanistic analysis revealed that sub-inhibitory concentration of BR significantly reduced Campylobacter motility, attachment to and invasion of Caco-2 cells. In addition, the expression of C. jejuni genes coding for motility (motA, motB, fliA) and attachment (jlpA, ciaB) was down-regulated as compared to controls (P < 0.05). These results suggest that BR could potentially be used as a feed additive to reduce Campylobacter colonization in broilers.
A general trimming approach to robust Cluster Analysis

We introduce a new method for performing clustering with the aim of fitting clusters with different scatters and weights. It is designed by allowing to handle a proportion $\alpha$ of contaminating data to guarantee the robustness of the method. As a characteristic feature, restrictions on the ratio between the maximum and the minimum eigenvalues of the groups scatter matrices are introduced. This makes the problem to be well defined and guarantees the consistency of the sample solutions to the population ones. The method covers a wide range of clustering approaches depending on the strength of the chosen restrictions. Our proposal includes an algorithm for approximately solving the sample problem.