Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alteration in Neonatal Nutrition Causes Perturbations in Hypothalamic Neural Circuits Controlling Reproductive Function

It is increasingly accepted that alterations of the early life environment may have lasting impacts on physiological functions. In particular, epidemiological and animal studies have indicated that changes in growth and nutrition during childhood and adolescence can impair reproductive function. However, the precise biological mechanisms that underlie these programming effects of neonatal nutrition on reproduction are still poorly understood. Here, we used a mouse model of divergent litter size to investigate the effects of early postnatal overnutrition and undernutrition on the maturation of hypothalamic circuits involved in reproductive function. Neonatally undernourished females display attenuated postnatal growth associated with delayed puberty and defective development of axonal projections from the arcuate nucleus to the preoptic region. These alterations persist into adulthood and specifically affect the organization of neural projections containing kisspeptin, a key neuropeptide involved in pubertal activation and fertility. Neonatal overfeeding also perturbs the development of neural projections from the arcuate nucleus to the preoptic region, but it does not result in alterations in kisspeptin projections. These studies indicate that alterations in the early nutritional environment cause lasting and deleterious effects on the organization of neural circuits involved in the control of reproduction, and that these changes are associated with lifelong functional perturbations.
Corporate Social Responsibility in a Competitive Business Environment

Abstract Using a representative sample of more than 5,000 Vietnamese enterprises, we explore the firm-level productivity effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The data enables us to create 12 quantitative CSR measures, which can be grouped into two broader categories related to management and community-based CSR initiatives. We find a positive relationship between adoption of CSR initiatives and firm efficiency, and reveal that the impact is stronger for firms in non-competitive industries. Moreover, we show that local community focused CSR initiatives drive the aggregate effect. This suggests that socially responsible actions by firms are likely to pay-off when stakeholder engagement has a localised focus. We provide evidence of reciprocity by showing that employees accept a lower share of additionally generated value-added (controlling for productivity differences) in exchange for working in a company that signals ‘good’ corporate values.
Applications of system dynamics modelling to support health policy.

INTRODUCTION The value of systems science modelling methods in the health sector is increasingly being recognised. Of particular promise is the potential of these methods to improve operational aspects of healthcare capacity and delivery, analyse policy options for health system reform and guide investments to address complex public health problems. Because it lends itself to a participatory approach, system dynamics modelling has been a particularly appealing method that aims to align stakeholder understanding of the underlying causes of a problem and achieve consensus for action. The aim of this review is to determine the effectiveness of system dynamics modelling for health policy, and explore the range and nature of its application. METHOD A systematic search was conducted to identify articles published up to April 2015 from the PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Embase, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar databases. The grey literature was also searched. Papers eligible for inclusion were those that described applications of system dynamics modelling to support health policy at any level of government. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Six papers were identified, comprising eight case studies of the application of system dynamics modelling to support health policy. No analytic studies were found that examined the effectiveness of this type of modelling. Only three examples engaged multidisciplinary stakeholders in collective model building. Stakeholder participation in model building reportedly facilitated development of a common 'mental map' of the health problem, resulting in consensus about optimal policy strategy and garnering support for collaborative action. The paucity of relevant papers indicates that, although the volume of descriptive literature advocating the value of system dynamics modelling is considerable, its practical application to inform health policy making is yet to be routinely applied and rigorously evaluated. CONCLUSION Advances in software are allowing the participatory model building approach to be extended to more sophisticated multimethod modelling that provides policy makers with more powerful tools to support the design of targeted, effective and equitable policy responses for complex health problems. Building capacity and investing in communication to promote these modelling methods, as well as documenting and evaluating their applications, will be vital to supporting uptake by policy makers.
Evaluation of Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detecting Coliform Bacteria in Drinking Water Sources

Background: Coliform bacteria are used as indicator organisms for detecting fecal pollution in water. Traditional methods including microbial culture tests in lactose-containing media and enzyme-based tests for the detection of β-galactosidase; however, these methods are time-consuming and less specific. The aim of this study was to evaluate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detecting coliform. Materials and Methods: Totally, 100 of water samples from Isfahan drinking water source were collected. Coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli were detected in drinking water using LacZ and LamB genes in PCR method performed in comparison with biochemical tests for all samples. Results: Using phenotyping, 80 coliform isolates were found. The results of the biochemical tests illustrated 78.7% coliform bacteria and 21.2% E. coli. PCR results for LacZ and LamB genes were 67.5% and 17.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The PCR method was shown to be an effective, sensitive, and rapid method for detecting coliform and E. coli in drinking water from the Isfahan drinking water sources.
Open-mouthed and Wide-eyed: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Curiosity

The second incident involved an important birthday of a good friend that I had to miss due to an out-of-town speaking engagement. I felt bad about it and offered to take my friend and his wife out for a nice dinner upon my return. And indeed I did so. When dinner was over and the bill came, my friend made a gesture to split the payment but I declined, reminding him that it was my treat. I gave the waiter my credit card and within a minute or two excused myself to go to the restroom. As I was walking back to join my guests, I noticed that the waiter had placed the bill, along with the credit card, in a folder on the table; my
Preoperative Embolization of Intracranial Meningiomas: Efficacy, Technical Considerations, and Complications

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Preoperative embolization for intracranial meningiomas offers potential advantages for safer and more effective surgery. However, this treatment strategy has not been examined in a large comparative series. The purpose of this study was to review our experience using preoperative embolization to understand the efficacy, technical considerations and complications of this technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of patients undergoing intracranial meningioma resection at our institution (March 2001 to December 2012). Comparisons were made between embolized and nonembolized patients, including patient and tumor characteristics, embolization method, operative blood loss, complications, and extent of resection. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors predictive of operative blood loss and extent of resection. RESULTS: Preoperatively, 224 patients were referred for embolization, of which 177 received embolization. No complications were seen in 97.1%. There were no significant differences in operative duration, extent of resection, or complications. Estimated blood loss was higher in the embolized group (410 versus 315 mL, P = .0074), but history of embolization was not a predictor of blood loss in multivariate analysis. Independent predictors of blood loss included decreasing degree of tumor embolization (P = .037), skull base location (P = .005), and male sex (P = .034). Embolization was not an independent predictor of gross total resection. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative embolization is a safe option for selected meningiomas. In our series, embolization did not alter the operative duration, complications, or degree of resection, but the degree of embolization was an independent predictor of decreased operative blood loss.
Nested Retrotransposons in the Intergenic Regions of the Maize Genome

The relative organization of genes and repetitive DNAs in complex eukaryotic genomes is not well understood. Diagnostic sequencing indicated that a 280-kilobase region containing the maize Adh1-F and u22 genes is composed primarily of retrotransposons inserted within each other. Ten retroelement families were discovered, with reiteration frequencies ranging from 10 to 30,000 copies per haploid genome. These retrotransposons accounted for more than 60 percent of the Adh1-F region and at least 50 percent of the nuclear DNA of maize. These elements were largely intact and are dispersed throughout the gene-containing regions of the maize genome.
Real-time Text Analytics Pipeline Using Open-source Big Data Tools

Real-time text processing systems are required in many domains to quickly identify patterns, trends, sentiments, and insights. Nowadays, social networks, e-commerce stores, blogs, scientific experiments, and server logs are main sources generating huge text data. However, to process huge text data in real time requires building a data processing pipeline. The main challenge in building such pipeline is to minimize latency to process high-throughput data. In this paper, we explain and evaluate our proposed real-time text processing pipeline using open-source big data tools which minimize the latency to process data streams. Our proposed data processing pipeline is based on Apache Kafka for data ingestion, Apache Spark for in-memory data processing, Apache Cassandra for storing processed results, and D3 JavaScript library for visualization. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed pipeline under varying deployment scenarios to perform sentiment analysis using Twitter dataset. Our experimental evaluations show less than a minute latency to process $466,700$ Tweets in $10.7$ minutes when three virtual machines allocated to the proposed pipeline.
Improving the firm's environmental conduct: a source of competitive advantage?

It has recently been argued that growing societal pressures for better environmental conduct could induce environmental innovation, thereby entailing lower costs due to increased value and/or more efficient resource allocation. This has led to the claim that improved environmental conduct may lead to strategic advantage and, thus, economic gains at the firm level. In view of the great importance of this claim, the purpose of the present article was to apply resource-based insights in order to develop this reasoning further and provide an empirical test of three hypotheses related to the claim. Our empirical test filled a gap in previous research and offered evidence in support of this claim as well as support for two related hypotheses developed on the basis of the resource-based view.
Multi-application multi-step mapping method for many-core Network-on-Chips

Massive parallel computing performed on many-core Network-on-Chips (NoCs) is the future of the computing. One feasible approach to implement parallel computing is to deploy multiple applications on the NoC simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a multi-application mapping method starting with the application mapping which finds a region on the NoC for each application and then task mapping which maps all tasks of the application into each region. In the application mapping step, several strategies based on the maximal empty rectangle (MER) technique are introduced for finding an optimal region for each application. In the task mapping step, a tree-model based algorithm is used with the purpose of reducing the communication latency and energy consumption. The experiment results show that the proposed method can achieve considerable reduction of network latency and energy consumption (up to 18%) for a given set of applications.
Ownership - Monitoring or Expropriation: Evidence from Divested European Firms

We examine the impact of large owners in a sample of divestitures spanning 13 European countries. We develop and test a theoretical model that helps us delineate expectations whether the impact of the largest owner is beneficial through constraining managerial self-serving behavior or detrimental through ownership expropriation. Our findings indicate that when the largest owner’s ratio of cash flow rights in the divested unit relative to cash flow rights in the parent is higher, the impact is beneficial on the divested unit performance. Monitoring by other large owners and debtholders also affects the expropriation opportunities for the largest owner, and thus the performance of the divested unit. In addition to contributing to the debate on large owners impact on firm performance, our study contributes to the divestiture literature by addressing the gap of research on divested units.
Corporate Governance and Dividend Pay-Date Evidence from the French Stock Market

The aim of this paper is to identify the influence of ownership on the dividend pay-date for a panel of French firms from 2004 to 2009 by using the ACD hazard model (Autoregressive Conditional Duration). Our results indicate that large shareholders influence the fixing of the dividend pay-date of French companies. We find that there is no significant correlation between duality of manager as chairman and president of the board and dividend pay- date.
An efficient hierarchical router for large 3D NoCs

3-Dimensional Networks-on-Chip (3D NoC) are emerging as a promising solution to handle efficiently interconnects' complexity in 3D System-on-Chip (SoC). This paper presents a new router that enables gains in terms of throughput and latency compared to classic 3D mesh the in case of large NoCs. The proposed router is hierarchical since it is composed of 2 totally decoupled modules: one for inter-layer communication and one for intra-layer communication. Throughput and latency evaluation is performed using a SystemC-TLM NoC simulator. Synthesis and extrapolation results show that the hierarchical router is competitive with the classic 3D mesh in terms of area and power. Simulations' results show that the proposed hierarchical router can outperform the 3D mesh by more than 30% in terms of throughput and latency in the case of transpose traffic.
Swimming with Captive Dolphins: Current Debates and Post-experience

ABSTRACT Dolphins have widespread contemporaryappeal and anthropomorphic socialrepresentations of dolphins have fuelled agrowing desire in tourist populations toseek interaction with them. This paper isconcerned with the staged performance ofswim-with-dolphin interaction programmesin aquaria. Qualitative interviews withtourists who have swum with captivedolphins identiﬁed their immediaterecollections and stressed the grace, size andpower of dolphins, but also a belief that theexperience was too staged, too short and tooexpensive. Post-purchase dissonancefocused on concerns with the size ofenclosures and about captivity, too manytricks, limited interpretation and unfulﬁlledexpectations of a quality interaction.Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted December 2006 Keywords: swimming with dolphins; touristrecollections; post-purchase dissonance.HUMAN FASCINATION WITH DOLPHINS C etaceans, particularly dolphins, consis-tently produce a strong positive emo-tional reaction in many people (DeMaresand Krycka, 1998; Bulbeck, 2005). Indeed,Nollman (1987, p. 55) claims that ‘
Approaching The Asian Elephant: Understanding Business-To-Business Relationships In India

India is one of today’s most important emerging economies, and as its market becomes more significant for multinational companies, it becomes more imperative that foreign firms identify those factors that contribute to successful negotiations. This study proposes and empirically tests a framework that measures the impact of “social formalities” and “power distance” on business relationships in India. The model shows that power distance sets the stage for negations, and the respect for social formalities sets a tone of mutual reference and understanding that will facilitate the establishment of a foundation for long-term business relations.
Dentine Hypersensitivity: A Review

Dentine hypersensitivity (DHS) is a wide spread painful dental problem that is characterized by short sharp pain arising from exposed dentin in response to several different stimuli. This accepted definition, indicates the need to consider a differential diagnosis to rule out other causes of dental pain before the diagnosis of dentin hypersensitivity is made. The management strategy of this dental problem required a good understanding of the complexity of the condition and the variety of the treatment options. The aim of this review is to inform practitioners about dentin hypersensitivity, to provide a brief overview of the diagnosis, etiology and clinical management of dentin hypersensitivity. We have used PubMed to find relevant literature published up to date. We used combinations of key words like hypersensitivity, dentine, desensitize and dental pain.
Functional Analysis of the High Affinity, Na+-dependent Glutamate Transporter GLAST-1 by Site-directed Mutagenesis (*)

The reuptake of excitatory amino acids, such as glutamate, terminates excitatory signals and prevents the persistence of excitotoxic levels of glutamate in the synaptic cleft. The L-glutamate/L-aspartate transporter (GLAST-1) is the first member of the recently discovered glutamate transporter family, which includes GLT-1 and EAAC1. The neutral amino acid carrier ASCT1 is structurally closely related to this new family of membrane proteins. Transmembrane transport of neutral amino acids is expected to differ in its binding site from that of the acidic excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate. Three positively charged amino acid residues, Arg-122, Arg-280, Arg-479, and one polar Tyr-405 are conserved in all glutamate transporters. They are replaced by apolar amino acid residues in the ASCT1 sequence. We exchanged these residues in the GLAST-1-specific cDNA by site-directed mutagenesis. cRNAs of these mutants were expressed in the Xenopus oocyte system. The functional characterization of the mutants R122I and R280V and the double mutant R122I,R280V revealed that the mutations have no influence on the intrinsic properties and kinetics of glutamate transport but alter the Km-values for L-aspartate and the competitive inhibitor D,L-threo-3-hydroxy aspartate. Substitutions of Tyr-405 by Phe (Y405F) and Arg-479 (R479T) by Thr completely inactivate the glutamate transporter. Immunoprecipitations of [35S]methionine-labeled transporter molecules indicate similar expression levels of wild-type and mutant transporters. Immunostaining of oocyte sections clearly proves the correct targeting to and integration of the mutant GLAST-1 proteins in the plasma membrane. Our results suggest the pivotal function of the hydroxy group of the highly conserved Tyr-405 and the positively charged Arg-479 in the binding of the negatively charged acidic neurotransmitter glutamate.
Self-Concept in Lebanese and Arab-American Pre-Adolescents

The present study assessed self-concepts of 102 (35 boys, 67 girls) Arab-American pre-adolescents (M age = 11.9 yr., SD = .8) and compared scores with those of 105 (43 boys, 62 girls) Arab national students (M age = 12.3 yr., SD = .7) in Lebanon. The Arab-American students scored significantly higher than the group of Arab students in Lebanon on 6 of 8 subscales of Marsh's Self-description Questionnaire–I, suggesting overall higher self-concept on subscales for physical ability, physical appearance, peer relations, reading, general school, and general self-concept. The results are consistent with expectations associating biculturalism with high self-concept.
Value Chain Developmentfor Decent Work : A guide for development practitioners,government and private sectorinitiatives

This guide addresses the underlying causes of failures in the performance of market systems, rather than looking at symptoms in individual chains. Value Chain Analysis and Development practitioners need to understand the nature of relationships between businesses in the chain and other relevant market players; they need to understand the role of specific market functions and (formal and informal) rules that govern the value chain; and be able to identify incentives and capacities of market players. This guide addresses Value Chain development from a market development perspective with a unique focus on how to achieve Decent Work. The essential question is thus: how can we achieve competitiveness while creating new jobs and income opportunities for men and women and promoting better working standards in value chains?
Fast Kinetics of Taxol Binding to Microtubules

The kinetics of Taxol association to and dissociation from stabilized microtubules has been measured by competition with the reference fluorescent derivative Flutax-1 (Dı́az, J. F., Strobe, R., Engelborghs, Y., Souto, A. A., and Andreu, J. M. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 26265–26276). The association rate constant at 37 °C isk + = (3.6 ± 0.1) × 106 m −1 s−1. The reaction profile is similar to that of the first step of Flutax-1 binding, which probably corresponds to the binding of the Taxol moiety. The rate constant of the initial binding of Flutax-1 is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the solution, which is compatible with a diffusion-controlled reaction. Microtubule-associated proteins bound to the microtubule outer surface slow down the binding of Flutax-1 and Flutax-2 10-fold. The binding site is fully accessible to Flutax-2 in native cytoskeletons of PtK2 cells; the observed kinetic rates of Flutax-2 microtubule staining and de-staining are similar to the reaction rates with microtubule associated proteins-containing microtubules. The kinetic data prove that taxoids bind directly from the bulk solution to an exposed microtubule site. Several hypotheses have been analyzed to potentially reconcile these data with the location of a Taxol-binding site at the model microtubule lumen, including dynamic opening of the microtubule wall and transport from an initial Taxol-binding site at the microtubule pores.