Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Regulation of the μ Opioid Receptor: Role of the Endogenous Opioid Agents

It is well known that genotypic differences can account for the subject-specific responses to opiate administration. In this regard, the basal activity of the endogenous system (either at the receptor or ligand level) can modulate the effects of exogenous agonists as morphine and vice versa. The µ opioid receptor from zebrafish, dre-oprm1, binds endogenous peptides and morphine with similar affinities. Morphine administration during development altered the expression of the endogenous opioid propeptides proenkephalins and proopiomelanocortin. Treatment with opioid peptides (Met-enkephalin (Met-ENK), Met-enkephalin-Gly-Tyr (MEGY) and β-endorphin (β-END)) modulated dre-oprm1 expression during development. Knocking down the dre-oprm1 gene significantly modified the mRNA expression of the penk and pomc genes, thus indicating that oprm1 is involved in shaping penk and pomc expression. In addition, the absence of a functional oprm1 clearly disrupted the embryonic development, since proliferation was disorganized in the central nervous system of oprm1-morphant embryos: mitotic cells were found widespread through the optic tectum and were not restricted to the proliferative areas of the mid- and hindbrain. Transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining revealed that the number of apoptotic cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of morphants was clearly increased at 24-h postfertilization. These findings clarify the role of the endogenous opioid system in CNS development. Our results will also help unravel the complex feedback loops that modulate opioid activity and that may be involved in establishing a coordinated expression of both receptors and endogenous ligands. Further knowledge of the complex interactions between the opioid system and analgesic drugs will provide insights that may be relevant for analgesic therapy.
Labour Mobility and Returns to Education

LABOUR MOBILITY AND RETURNS TO EDUCATION Jiayuan Teng Advisors: Dr. Miana Plesca, Dr. Louise Grogan University of Guelph, 2015 This dissertation applies statistical methods to understand labour market issues in China and Canada. The first chapter uses an instrumental variable method to identify the causal effect of migrant networks on the probability of rural-urban labour migration in China. It uncovers a substantial heterogeneity in migrant network effects by gender, age groups, and between people with and without migration experience. Evidence shows that migrant networks affect migration decisions through increasing job tenure and improving work environments of migrants. The second and third chapters answer research questions related to gender wage gap and returns to postgraduate education in Canada. Using a broader set of occupational characteristics than previous studies, the second chapter adopts a quantile decomposition method to reveal that women with different educational levels experience the gender gap for different reasons. DOT-skills used in previous studies are important in explaining the gender gap for most workers in Canada, but not for high-school dropouts and for the top 10% of wage earners among the university-educated workers. For the latter, men working in more competitive jobs and taking more managerial responsibilities are the explanations underlying Canada’s “glass-ceiling” phenomenon. By applying imputation techniques in a novel way, this chapter quantitatively demonstrates that correcting for selection into work makes little difference in estimating the gender gap for individuals with post-secondary education. For individuals without post-secondary education, the use of observed characteristics is sufficient to capture the selection rule. The third chapter documents up-to-date evidence on the decline in returns to postgraduate education relative to four-year university degrees from 1995 to 2010. The return has declined in all major fields of study except engineering and computer science in which workers with postgraduate education have experienced a substantial gain over the same period of time. By focusing on the supply side of the labour market, this paper provides an explanation for the decline in returns to postgraduate education by exploring changes over time in the occupational composition of workers with postgraduate education.
Psychological Distress as a Predictor of CHD Events in Men: The Effect of Persistence and Components of Risk

Objective: This paper examines the role of psychological distress in the etiology of coronary heart disease (CHD), with particular reference to the persistence of distress symptoms, the contribution that undetected CHD at baseline makes to the observed associations and to the effect of separate components of psychological distress. Method: 5449 men in an occupational cohort (79% of the total), with at least two prior measurements of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30), were followed for CHD events (including CHD death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), and angina) for (mean) 6.8 years. Psychological distress was measured using the GHQ-30, and general/anxiety, depression and sleep subscales were created based on a principal components analysis. Results: Psychological distress increased the risk of CHD events, with the risk highest in men with recent onset of distress. Age-adjusted hazard ratios were 1.48 (1.03–2.13) for persistent and 1.77 (1.13–2.78) for new distress. Angina events accounted for much of the observed associations. This increased risk was independent of conventional CHD risk factors, markers of underlying CHD, or measures of reporting bias, and it was related to anxiety items and sleep disturbance rather than depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Psychological distress increases the risk of a future diagnosis of angina in men. This risk is not accounted for by the presence of underlying CHD. These results highlight the importance of identifying both the role of underlying atherosclerosis in the pathway linking distress to heart disease and the timing of action of the components of psychological distress. CHD = coronary heart disease; GHQ-30 = 30-item General Health Questionnaire; MI = myocardial infarction; BMI = body mass index; ECG = electrocardiogram; MC = Minnesota code.
Immobilization of chitinase on charcoal improves ability of enzyme to hydrolyze chitin

Chitin, a homopolymer of β (1,4)-linked N-acetylglucosamine, is one of the most abundant, easily obtained, and renewable natural biopolymers, second only to cellulose [Jeuniaux]. Chitin is considered the second most plentiful organic resource on the earth next to cellulose and is present in marine invertebrates, insects, fungi, and yeasts. Chitin and its derivatives have high economic value owing to their versatile biological activities and agrochemical applications [2]. It is now well known that the activities of those enzymes can be, in general, stabilized under a wide range of environmental conditions such as the pH and temperature although the actual activities of enzymes are usually reduced after having been immobilized on particles [3,4]. Chen and Chang (1994) purified chitinase from Serratia marcescens and immobilized by covalent binding to a polymer ABSTRACT
Cardiac myxomas: short- and long-term follow-up.

BACKGROUND Cardiac myxomas are the most frequently encountered benign intracardiac tumors, that, if left untreated, are inexorably progressive and potentially fatal. Patients with cardiac myxoma can be treated only by surgical removal. This study summarizes our experience over 22 years with these tumors. METHODS Fifty seven patients (M/F: 14/43, age: 57.9 +/- 14.6 years) with cardiac myxomas underwent surgical resection at our institution. There were 82.4% left atrial myxomas, 14.0% right atrial myxomas, 3.6% biatrial myxomas. The duration of symptoms prior to surgery ranged from 6 to 1,373 days (median 96 days). The surgical approach comprised complete wide excision. The diagnostic methods, incidence of thromboembolic complications, valve degeneration, surgical repair techniques, recurrence and re-operation were reviewed and the Kaplan-Meier survival curve was calculated. RESULTS There were no in-hospital deaths. Hospital stay amounted to a mean of 13.7 +/- 6.9 days. Late follow-up was available for 54 (94.7%) patients for a median 7.5 years after surgery (23 days to 21.4 years). Fifty two patients are alive, while five patients had died after a mean interval of 6.3 years. Cause of death was cardiac in 40% of the patients (n = 2) and non-cardiac in the other 60% (n = 3). CONCLUSIONS Surgical excision of cardiac myxoma carries a low operative risk and gives excellent short-term and long-term results. Surgical excision of the tumor appears to be curative, with few recurrences at long-term follow-up. After diagnosis, surgery should be performed urgently, in order to prevent complications such as embolic events or obstruction of the mitral orifice. Follow-up examination, including echocardiography, should be performed regularly.
Automatic reactive power and voltage control for regional power grid based on SVM

In this paper, the traditional reactive power and voltage control problem is regarded as a multi-class classification problem, and a novel approach based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is proposed. According to the approach, the power grid operating status is classified according to the power factor and voltage at each substation and the corresponding control strategy is selected to control the capacitors and transformer taps. A naive progressive learning strategy is also presented to make sure the classifier can keep learning in the operation process. The approach is suitable for online operation. The decision results are robust and coordination operation between the substations can be achieved. A simple radial system containing three substations is used for case study. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Rating Prediction Based on TripAdvisor Reviews

Rating is becoming increasingly important for customers, which helps them obtain useful information of products more easily and more efficiently. Normally, a customer rates products from different aspects and then makes an overall rating. According to this human thinking process, we are curious about how ratings in different aspects would influence the final overall ratings. Therefore, we make two different prediction models: 1. Use review context to predict overall rates predictions. 2. Use review context to predict rates in different aspects(cleanliness, location, rooms, service, sleep quality and value) and then use these ratings to predict the overall ratings. By comparing MSE of two models, we found out that the first model is more accurate than the second one. Keywords—linear model, rating predictions
A Survey of Audio MIR Systems, Symbolic MIR Systems and a Music Definition Language Demo-System

Music Recognition System has becoming popular these days. They are based on either audio or symbolic method, which compares the user's query with the existing music database. The investigation has shown that the audio-based method system is good for storing sound waves. However, the limitation is to illustrate the content of the music. The symbolic-based method system doing well in representing the content of the music, including recognize similar patterns, but limitation in creating the music, e.g., Electronic Music. We also carried some detailed tests based on the previous Neural Network systems, with Music Definition Language (MDL) and Music Manipulation Language (MML). Furthermore, we have tested our previous classification system with new melody query, to see how it can handle with external music pieces, which beyond the self-testing from a self-organising-map. The conclusion is that our system can classify variation type, including key variations, expansion and reduction, which is better than those existing Music Information Retrieval (MIR) systems.
Histotripsy produced by hundreds of microsecond focused ultrasound pulses in gels and tissue ex vivo

A two-stage treatment was performed to explore the feasibility of generating histotripsy using hundred-microsecond pulses. A single-element 1.06-MHz transducer was used at 8 MPa peak negative pressure with shockwaves. Stage 1 was performed to accelerate the rupture of local tissue structure by boiling bubbles. The pulse group had 500-μs/400-μs pulse duration (PD) and 100-Hz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) with 4.9%/3.9% duty cycle (DC). Stage 2 involved the mechanical homogenization of the lesion by inertial cavitation. Several locations in the lesion axial direction were treated simultaneously by the bubble clusters induced by multiple reflection of shocks. The pulse group had 500-μs/400-μs PD with 100-Hz PRF and 200-μs PD with 200-Hz PRF with 1%/0.88% DC. Experiments were conducted on polyacrylamide phantoms with bovine serum albumin and on rabbit liver tissues ex vivo. Final lesions had a cylindrical shape with smooth borders and total homogenate inside. These results demonstrated that hundred-microsecond pulses enabled controllable histotripsy with a lower acoustic pressure.
Demand For Water in the Murray Valley, New South Wales: An Application of Linear Programming

The move to decentralize and develop the inner areas of New South Wales in the first half of the century resulted in the development of several irrigation regions along the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers. Water was supplied to these regions at a low price, resulting in overuse of water and consequently environmental degradation. The increasing emphasis on the user-pays principle in the 1980s and an increase in concern as to the environmental damage in the region has resulted in a review of attitudes by the water supplying authorities. The provision of subsidized water is no longer considered desirable and proposals have been put forward to increase the price of water. in this paper, the results of a study to estimate the responsiveness of water demand to price in the Murray Valley are presented. The results indicate that a policy of cost recovery may result in a short term economic loss to the region, depending on the regime of prevailing commodity prices.
Low cost Dynamic Switching Technique for Improving the Power in Partially Shaded Photo Voltaic Array

Shading of PV panel is inevitable, this greatly reduces the power generated from the PV module. In the proposed idea, switches connecting the PV modules changes the connections periodically. As the connecting pattern of the PV module changes the shading is cornered and thus the power is enhanced . Using this idea we can go for any size of the PV module. Results are obtained with different shading environment of PV module and it is proved that the dynamic switching technic is superior that the existing types.
Sequence-dependent Internalization of Aggregating Peptides*

Background: Prionoid propagation requires cell internalization of aggregated polypeptides. Results: Aggregates of different sequence are internalized through different endocytic pathways. Only phagocytosed aggregates (>1 μm) elicit an HSF1-dependent proteostatic response. Conclusion: Proteostatic response upon aggregate internalization differs markedly depending on the sequence. Significance: The characterization of mechanisms of cell penetration is fundamental for the understanding of aggregate transmission in disease. Recently, a number of aggregation disease polypeptides have been shown to spread from cell to cell, thereby displaying prionoid behavior. Studying aggregate internalization, however, is often hampered by the complex kinetics of the aggregation process, resulting in the concomitant uptake of aggregates of different sizes by competing mechanisms, which makes it difficult to isolate pathway-specific responses to aggregates. We designed synthetic aggregating peptides bearing different aggregation propensities with the aim of producing modes of uptake that are sufficiently distinct to differentially analyze the cellular response to internalization. We found that small acidic aggregates (≤500 nm in diameter) were taken up by nonspecific endocytosis as part of the fluid phase and traveled through the endosomal compartment to lysosomes. By contrast, bigger basic aggregates (>1 μm) were taken up through a mechanism dependent on cytoskeletal reorganization and membrane remodeling with the morphological hallmarks of phagocytosis. Importantly, the properties of these aggregates determined not only the mechanism of internalization but also the involvement of the proteostatic machinery (the assembly of interconnected networks that control the biogenesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation of proteins) in the process; whereas the internalization of small acidic aggregates is HSF1-independent, the uptake of larger basic aggregates was HSF1-dependent, requiring Hsp70. Our results show that the biophysical properties of aggregates determine both their mechanism of internalization and proteostatic response. It remains to be seen whether these differences in cellular response contribute to the particular role of specific aggregated proteins in disease.
Context Effects in a Double-Weak Theory of Speech Perception

The present study provides an elaboration of the “double-weak” theory of speech perception proposed by Nearey (1990, 1991). In this framework, the objects of speech perception (and production) are viewed as neither primarily auditory nor primarily gestural; rather, they are abstract, symbolic elements lawfully constrained to map onto relatively simple (but not entirely transparent) patterns in both domains. Speech cannot be understood unless both articulation and acoustics are considered: Many production strategies appear to be directed at achieving acoustically-oriented goals, yet most context effects in speech perception seem to be motivated by the consequences of gestural overlap. The double-weak framework suggests that speech perception and speech production are less-than-perfect inverses of each other. Despite long-term accommodation of each for the demands of the other, real-time production and perception may operate as autonomous subsystems. A family of perceptual models is discussed that provides varying degrees of approximation to “ideal solutions” (in the sense of minimizing error rate) to classifying production data exhibiting contextual interactions. Members of this family that provide substantial, yet incomplete, compensation for the consequences of gestural overlap appear to be adequate to account for the results of many speech perception experiments. Such partial perceptual compensation allows, in principle, for the kind of imperfect “error correction” discussed by Ohala (1981, 1990) in conjunction with hypo-and hypercorrec-tion phenomena.
Trade-off between Performance and Security for Supersingular Isogeny-Based Cryptosystems

Cryptosystems based on isogenies between supersingular elliptic curves are considered promising candidates for a post-quantum era. Their security is based on the intractability of the Computational Supersingular Isogeny Problem (CSSIP) and of the Decisional Supersingular Product Problem (DSSPP). For this reason, there have been many important breakthroughs in supersingular isogeny cryptography in recent years. The purpose of our work is to provide a complexity analysis of the trade-off between performance and security for supersingular isogeny-based cryptosystems (SSI) in comparison with Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) and Integer Factorization Problem (IFP). We show how the complexities increase for the attack algorithms when the key lengths become longer. As SSI achieves small key sizes at practical security levels, it is a strong potential quantum-resistant cryptosystem.
Tocotrienol improves the quality of impaired mouse embryos induced by corticosterone

Tocotrienol (TCT), a component of vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant proven to inhibit oxidative damage caused by various prooxidant agents. Corticosterone (CORT) on the other hand, is a known prooxidant that has been shown to impair the quality of embryos and retard the development of preimplantation embryos. This study aims to determine the effect of TCT supplementation on the quality and in vitro development of embryos in CORT-treated mouse. Five to six weeks old female mice were subjected to a daily administration of either intraperitoneal (ip) injection of corn oil, or 10 mg kg−1 body weight (BW) of CORT. They were also given oral gavage of either corn oil or TCT-rich fraction palm oil for 7 consecutive days. Group 1 (negative control) received ip injection and oral administration of corn oil, Group 2 (positive control) received ip injection of CORT and oral administration of corn oil whereas Groups 3, 4 and 5 received CORT and TCT at doses of 60, 90 and 120 mg kg−1 BW, respectively. Female mice were superovulated with PMSG and hCG then cohabited overnight with the fertile male mice. On Day 7, animals were sacrificed, fallopian tubes were excised and embryos were flushed out. The quality of embryos was categorized into normal and abnormal embryos and the in vitro development of normal embryos was compared between all five groups. Results showed that the number of abnormal embryos in Group 2 (CORT) and Group 3 were significantly higher compared to Group 1. Conversely, in Groups 4 and 5, the number of abnormal embryos was reduced to control. On the other hand, the number of embryos that reached hatched blastocyst stage was significantly lower in Group 2 (CORT) as compared to control. However, the embryos in Groups 3, 4 and 5 were successively developed into hatched stage. Tocotrienol is therefore, found to be beneficial in reducing the deleterious effect of CORT on the quality and development of embryos in vitro.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS BASED ON USER ACTIVITIES FEEDBACK

This research is devoted to the problems of searching information in knowledge management system of some company using keywords and categories list. Authors analyzed different approaches to data storage in management systems and several existing KM systems were considered. The necessity of knowledge presenting in simple and understandable form was mentioned, but also the structuring system requirements and self-learning ability was underscored. Authors suggested using request history with categories and keywords analytics to realize the system ability to change keywords (and categories) weight coefficients. It allows the system to be self-learning using user activity results. Associative rules search task was implemented as well. This analysis makes it possible to find keywords bonds inside user requests content, and helps to increase the time of requested knowledge extracting. Besides, the analysis of the user requests statistics helps to determine individuals, who are in charge for filling the system with new materials, which can be helpful for motivational goals.
Passivation of Thin Channel Zinc Tin Oxide TFTs Using Al2O3 Deposited by O3-Based Atomic Layer Deposition

Here, we fabricate solution processed zinc tin oxide bottom gate top contact thin film transistors (TFTs) with active layer thickness down to 6 nm by varying the solution molarity and number of layers. As-fabricated devices show hysteresis as large as 12.65 V. The hysteresis is then studied under vacuum to understand the important role of the back channel in electrical performance. After vacuum treatment, the hysteresis measured under vacuum was reduced to −0.05 V. Alumina deposited on the back channel using atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used for passivation. The TFTs passivated with an H<sub>2</sub>O-based ALD process show conductive behavior after passivation while an O<sub>3</sub>-based ALD process results in a negative threshold voltage shift dependent on the thickness of the active layer. O<sub>3</sub>-based passivated devices show good stability with a field effect mobility of 8.3 cm<sup>2</sup>V<sup>−1</sup>s<sup>−1</sup>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 5.5 V, and hysteresis of 0.85 V.