Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Motility, Morphology, Acrosome Integrity, Membrane Integrity and Fertilizing Ability of Frozen-Thawed Buffalo Sperm Separated by a Percoll ® Gradient or Puresperm ®

The aim of this study was to evaluate sperm quality following separation and selection using a silane-coated silica colloid method (PureSperm ® ) or Percoll ® . Frozen/thawed sperm from buffalo bulls (n=5) were assigned to two groups. The first group was separated using a Percoll ® discontinuous gradient (45 and 90%) and the second group by a single layer of PureSperm ® . Sperm motility, concentration, morphology, acrosome integrity and membrane integrity were evaluated and compared before and after sperm separation. Ability of sperm to fertilize was tested by hyaluronan binding assay (HBA) score. Sperm motility and morphology improved (P < 0.001) after the separation process with no differences between methods. The Percoll ® gradient increased the mean (± SEM) percentage of sperm recovered (8.27±0.79) compared to PureSperm ® (5.25 ± 1.41; P = 0.007). However, membrane integrity (61.4 ± 1.3 vs. 56.8 ± 1.3) and acrosome integrity (59.8 ± 1.4 vs. 55.3 ± 0.6) were higher following selection using PureSperm ® than Percoll ® (P = 0.03). The HBA score was higher when semen was selected by PureSperm ® than by Percoll ® (49.5 ± 1.6 vs. 40.0 ± 1.1; P = 0.02). We conclude that PureSperm ® separation resulted in lower sperm recovery than by Percoll ® but was more effective
Amino-acids and peptides. (part)XV. Syntheses of four tetrapeptides containing tyrosine and glycine residues.

Four tetrapeptides, Tyr-Gly-Gly-Tyr, Tyr-Gly-Tyr-Gly, Gly-Tyr-Gly-Tyr, and Gly-Tyr-Tyr-Gly, together with intermediate dipeptides, have been synthesised using the o-nitrophenylthio-group for N-protection and NN′-dicyclohexylcarbodi-imide–2,4,5-trichlorophenol for coupling reactions.
Olfactory Receptor Gene is a Possible MHC-linked Gene

Background: Type 1 diabetes is one of the fastest growing non-communicable diseases worldwide. A single nucleotide polymorphism in the Olfactory Receptor family 14, subfamily J, and member 1 gene in the neighborhood of human leukocyte antigen-F has been shown to be significantly associated with type 1 diabetes. Methods: In order to confirm the latter finding, we studied the olfactory receptor gene in a casecontrol study comprising of 984 cases and 576 controls of European Caucasoid origin. Case and control subjects were genotyped for OR14 gene adjacent to HLA-F region, major histocompatibility complex-X, gene using Taqman SNP genotyping, Applied Biosystems. Results: The current results showed that the OR14-CC genotype is most significantly associated with the disease, p=0.001, and Odds Ratio=0.43. Furthermore, the -AC genotype showed a higher difference among cases than controls, p=0.02, and Odds Ratio=1.28. The OR14 gene did not show any substantial gender specificity association. Conclusion: These findings confirm our previous study, which showed a significant correlation between the OR14 gene and type 1 diabetes. The extension of such studies in this particular region is highly recommended. Different factors, including pathologic variables and co-morbidities, can help to recognize the pathophysiology of olfactory dysfunction with regard to OR14 gene variation in diabetic patients.
Crude extract of Centella asiatica and products derived from its glycosides as oral antifertility agents.

Crude extract of Centalla asiatica and products derived from its gly cosides were assessed for their antifertility properties in albino mice. The derivatives were isothankuniside (IK) and BK compound (methyl-5-hydroxy-36-diketo-23 (or 24)-nor-urs-12-ene-28-oate). Treatm ent for 21 days resulted in 75% sterile matings with BK compound and 72.5% sterile matings with IK. Treatment with the crude extract at various dilutions resulted in 50-60% sterile matings. The mode of action of the compounds has yet to be explained.
Compact harmonic suppression branch-line coupler using signal-interference technique

A novel application of signal-interference technique to branch-line coupler design is proposed for miniaturization and wideband harmonic passband suppression. The coupler's second, third and fourth harmonic passband responses are attenuated due to a pole at each of these harmonics. Design equations and graphs are provided using lossless transmission line model. A prototype coupler, having a compact (λg/6)2 area, that is 44.4% of the (λg/4)2 conventional coupler area, is fabricated in microstrip form for validation purposes. The input matching, isolation, amplitude and phase balance bandwidths of the proposed coupler are comparable to those of the conventional coupler.
Gene Expression during Spermatogenesis a

Spermatogenesis represents a continuum of cellular differentiation in which diploid testicular cells transform in an ordered sequence into haploid spermatozoa. Following the initial phase of spermatogonial proliferation, dramatic morphological changes occur as the germ cells undergo meiosis and spermiogenesis. Although the primary spermatocyte increases markedly in size during meiotic prophase, the time of chromosome pairing and genetic recombination, the structural changes occurring in the differentiating male gametes are especially pronounced during spermiogenesis, the last phase of the spermatogenic cycle. During spermiogenesis, the highly polarized spermatozoon develops from the round spermatid. Major changes in both nuclear and cytoplasmic structures continue throughout spermiogenesis despite the fact that in mammals such as the mouse, RNA synthesis has terminated early in spermiogenesis. The changes in composition and compaction state of the chromatin, the species-specific shaping of the sperm nucleus, and the formation of a tail and specialized energy system represent three extreme examples of cellular morphological change in eukaryotic cells. I propose to focus my discussion in this chapter on nuclear and cytoplasmic structural proteins essential for sperm formation and function. Data will be presented on the properties and regulatory mechanisms for the predominant class of nuclear protein found in the mammalian spermatozoon, the protamines. Evidence will also be presented demonstrating the existence of a novel form of mammalian testicular a tubulin.
Enrichment of ontology by exploiting collaborative tagging systems: A contextual semantic approach

The scale of the social web has integrated users in order to organize shared resources. Users freely associate keywords (tags) to resources. This collection of tags creates a folksonomy. Folksonomy is a collaborative tagging system, which has grown popular with its simplicity of free tagging. However, it rises up a number of issues such as ambiguous and redundant tags. So as to achieve an optimal organized web contents, it's important to challenge the effectiveness of folksonomy to enrich ontology. Indeed, this article represents a folks-Ontology semantic enrichment approach based on a contextual mapping between tags and concepts of the ontology. Thus, the act of tagging resources can improve to make relevant recommendations. The analysis of the reconciliation between conceptual ontology models with folksonomy leads us to establish new challenges for our future research to enhance recommender systems.
Design and Development of a Tool for Analyzing the Effect of Refactoring on Maintainability

The most important issue during software development phase is software quality. There are many methods to improve the quality. One of the methods widely used in literature is refactoring. It basically focuses on improving the quality of a software by changing its internal behavior. The objective of this paper is to develop an automated refactoring tool and then analyze the way in which different refactoring methods affect maintainability. We have also compared the prototype of a tool with other existing tools of refactoring. This, in turn, will assist the developer in determining that whether to apply a certain refactoring method to improve a desirable quality attribute. A refactoring tool possesses the ability to analyze each module of a project independently, in terms of applying refactoring and comment cleaning for a complete project. The proposed prototype of a tool can be potentially used by researchers, academicians and software professionals who are working on the projects related to refactoring and will help them in analyzing their projects module individually. The benefits of the designed tool include the benefits of high performance, platform independent and open source.
Future Orientation and Life Expectations of Adolescents and Young Adults with Thalassemia Major a

Abstract: Until recently, Thalassemia Major was considered a fatal disease and patients did not usually live into adulthood. Advances in the medical management of the disease have greatly increased the life expectancy of these patients. The present study aims to evaluate the future orientation and other aspects of psychosocial functioning of thalassemics compared to healthy controls. Thirty patients and 33 healthy subjects of similar age, ethnicity, education, and geographic area were compared on measures of future expectations, perceived social support, life orientation, health locus of control and hopelessness. Results show no significant differences between thalassemics and controls on all measures except for higher levels of internal health locus of control among the patient group. Results and implications of perceptions of thalassemics' future orientation relevant to patient care are discussed.
Stroke patients and their partner's perceptions of survivor functioning

Background: Research into stroke survivors and their partners have shown that the partner frequently rates the stroke survivor as less capable than the survivors rate themselves through self-report questionnaires or qualitative interviews; however, no research to date has used cognitive tasks as a method for in vestigation. This paper aims to investigate if the stroke survivor or the partner rate the stroke survivor as worse across all cognitive domains. Material/ Methods:This research aimed to observe the incongruence of stroke survivors and their spouse’s perception of survivor functioning by rating their confidence on Picture Memory, Verbal Memory, Digit Span, Luria’s Three Step Test, NART and Raven’s Matrices. Participants, and to compare these score to see if either could predict the actual score. Results: Showed that neither the stroke survivor nor the partner consistently rated functioning as worse, but there was a significant difference between the dyad. Further, the stroke survivor and the partner’s confidence had no relationship with raw scores. A thematic analysis was also conducted and themes emerged from the data. These were “Confidence,” “Insight into Ability,” and “Post-Stroke Changes. ”Conclusions:These themes were shown to interlink with the scores provided in the qualitative analysis, and implied that low self-efficacy may be crucial in post stroke recovery. Limitations and implications are discussed in full.
Acceleration of a Computational Simulation Application for Radiofrequency Ablation Procedure Using GPU

Computational simulation is a technique used in several research areas. In the medicine area, the RAFEM program (Radiofrequency Ablation Finite Element Method) was developed, which is used to simulate the RFA (RadioFrequency Ablation) process, that is a medical procedure to treat hepatic cancer. This program presents a high computational time to perform a simulation, taking up to 20 hours for a simulation while the RFA procedure itself lasts from four to six minutes. Some efforts have already been carried out to obtain a better performance for the program [2], however, none of them considered the use of GPUs for acceleration of the application, which is something quite studied for finite element method programs as reported in the work of [3]. The aim of this work is to propose a parallelization approach to explore ways to obtain better performance for the application through the use of GPUs using the CUDA parallel programming interface. Thus CUDA kernels were developed to parallelize the assembly step on the program, which is one of its most costly steps. In the assembly stage of the matrix of each element of the finite element mesh there are no race conditions, however, the same is not true for the grouping of these matrices into a single matrix, the global matrix. This matrix represents the problem as a system of linear equations that models the behavior of the characteristics to be simulated. To perform the assembly of this matrix the technique of graph colouring was used, thus avoiding the race conditions generated by neighboring elements that write in a same position of the matrix. The computational environment used for experiments consists of two Intel Xeon E5-2650 processors and two Nvidia GPUs: one Tesla C2075 and one Quadro M5000. This approach was applied in the parallel version of the application assembly step, improving performance up to 17 times against the sequential code.
Evidence of peripheral hearing asymmetry in humans: clinical implications.

Auditory system hemispheric asymmetry in language processing is well-established, and there are many indications of lateralization as of the peripheral auditory system i.e., as of the cochlea. The left ear is more susceptible to noise damage; tinnitus is more predominant there, while spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) are more often found in the right ear. The present study addressed the following two questions: Does this right-ear SOAE prevalence exist as early as preterm birth? Is there any functional asymmetry in the medial olivo-cochlear (MOC) efferent system, known to modulate outer hair cell contractions? The study involved 483 preterm neonates (gestional age: 24-37 weeks) and 70 right-handed adults (age: 18-31 years). In each ear, SOAEs and evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs) were recorded and analysed, and, for the adults, functional MOC system assessment was made. Results showed SOAEs and EOAE amplitude to be right-predominant and in adults a right MOC functional predominance. These results indicate peripheral auditory system lateralisation, and an early origin thereof. The MOC system being thought to play a protective role, its physiological lateralisation may be relevant to the left prevalence of tinnitus and of auditory fatigue.
A measurement plane to monitor and manage QoS in optical access networks

In this work we report experimental tests on the performance of FTTX accesses using the mPlane measurement plane, including lab and field environments and above all we point out the role of such measurement plane in Software Defined Network architectures. For such an aim we show an experimental procedure based on a central unit (orchestrator) that automatically manages GbE links in a regional network driven by the network performance analysis carried out by such mPlane measurement plane using active and passive probes.
A directly Representable Variety has a discrete First-Order Law

Using simple counting arguments, the Feferman-Vaught techniques and selected results from universal algebra, we show that for any directly representable variety V there is a positive integer k such that for any first-order sentence ϕ the proportion of members of V of size at most x which satisfy ϕ tends to a limit belonging to as x goes to infinity. Furthermore there is a first-order statement for which the limit is . V has a 0–1 law (i.e., k=1) iff the finite members factor uniquely into directly indecomposables.
The stoichiometry of the electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter pNBC1 in mouse pancreatic duct cells is 2 HCO3−:1 Na+

1 The electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter pNBC1 is believed to play a major role in the secretion of bicarbonate by pancreatic duct cells, by transporting bicarbonate into the cell across the basolateral membrane. Thermodynamics predict that this function can be achieved only if the reversal potential of the cotransporter is negative to the cell's membrane potential, or equivalently that the HCO3−:Na+ stoichiometry is not larger then 2:1. However, there are no data available on either the reversal potential or the HCO3−:Na+ stoichiometry of pNBC1 in pancreatic cells. 2 We studied pNBC1 function in mouse pancreatic duct cells. RT‐PCR analysis of total RNA revealed that these cells contain the message for pNBC1, but not for kNBC1, NBC2 or NBC3. 3 To measure cotransporter activity, mouse pancreatic duct cells were grown to confluence on a porous substrate, mounted in an Ussing chamber, and the apical plasma membrane permeabilized with amphotericin B. Ion flux through pNBC1 was achieved by applying Na+ concentration gradients across the basolateral plasma membrane. The current through the cotransporter was isolated as the difference current due to the reversible inhibitor dinitrostilbene disulfonate (DNDS). 4 Current‐voltage relationships for the cotransporter, measured at three different Na+ concentration gradients, were linear over a range of about 100 mV. The reversal potential data, obtained from these current‐voltage relationships, all corresponded to a 2 HCO3−:1 Na+ stoichiometry. 5 The data indicate that pNBC1 is functionally expressed in mouse pancreatic duct cells. The cotransporter operates with a 2 HCO3−:1 Na+ stoichiometry in these cells, and mediates the transport of bicarbonate into the cell across the basolateral membrane.
Influence of Seasonal Environmental Variables on the Distribution of Presumptive Fecal Coliforms around an Antarctic Research Station

ABSTRACT Factors affecting fecal microorganism survival and distribution in the Antarctic marine environment include solar radiation, water salinity, temperature, sea ice conditions, and fecal input by humans and local wildlife populations. This study assessed the influence of these factors on the distribution of presumptive fecal coliforms around Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer and winter of February 1999 to September 1999. Each factor had a different degree of influence depending on the time of year. In summer (February), although the station population was high, presumptive fecal coliform concentrations were low, probably due to the biologically damaging effects of solar radiation. However, summer algal blooms reduced penetration of solar radiation into the water column. By early winter (April), fecal coliform concentrations were high, due to increased fecal input by migrant wildlife, while solar radiation doses were low. By late winter (September), fecal coliform concentrations were high near the station sewage outfall, as sea ice formation limited solar radiation penetration into the sea and prevented wind-driven water circulation near the outfall. During this study, environmental factors masked the effect of station population numbers on sewage plume size. If sewage production increases throughout the Antarctic, environmental factors may become less significant and effective sewage waste management will become increasingly important. These findings highlight the need for year-round monitoring of fecal coliform distribution in Antarctic waters near research stations to produce realistic evaluations of sewage pollution persistence and dispersal.
Global research trends on membrane biological reactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment and reuse from 1982 to 2013: A bibliometric analysis

Purpose Membrane biological reactor (MBR) is recognized as an efficient and steady wastewater treatment process. The purpose of this study is to reveal the research trends of scientific outputs on MBR for the past 32 years. Design/methodology/approach A method of bibliometric analysis was performed, based on the online version of the Science Citation Index Expanded, Web of Science, from 1982 to 2013. In total, 5,305 articles related to MBR were evaluated. A new method named “word cluster analysis” was also used for further analysis. Findings Results showed a rising trend of publications in this research field. English was the main language used in these articles. Journal of membrane science published the most articles, proving to be one of the most authoritative journals. China and Dalian University of Technology were the most productive country and institute, respectively. Except for “membrane bioreactor” and “MBR”, “membrane fouling” was the most cited keyword, indicating the research hotspot nowadays and future. Originality/value This study serves as an alternative and innovative way of revealing the research trends in MBR research.
Air flow around magnetic-head-slider suspension and its effect on slider flying-height fluctuation

Flow around a Watrous-type suspension was measured using a hot-wire anemometer. Although three kinds of flow cells having characteristic frequencies are detected along the suspension span, no resonance of the suspension vibration with flow excitation having specific frequencies is observed in a uniform flow. In a rotating flow, no peak frequency component is observed, probably due to high-level upstream disturbance. Changes in the flow pattern and/or vibration of the suspension with changes in the distance between a flat plate and the flange edges of the suspension, changes in disk speed, and changes in distance between the disk and the suspension are investigated experimentally. The results suggest that not a periodic excitation but an irregular one due to separations, especially at the upper leading edge and the lower trailing edge, has a significant effect on the vibration. This is confirmed by reduction in flying-height fluctuation due to flow excitation of an aerofoil section suspension whose trailing edge is made as thin as possible and where the upper leading-edge separation reattaches before the trailing edge. >
Lightweight Anomaly Detection for Wireless Sensor Networks

Anomaly detection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is critical to ensure the quality of senor data, secure monitoring, and reliable detection of interesting and critical events. The main challenge of anomaly detection algorithm in WSNs is identifying anomalies with high accuracy while consuming minimal resource of the network. In this paper two lightweight anomaly detection algorithms LADS and LADQA are proposed for WSNs. Both algorithms utilize the one-class quarter-sphere support vector machine (QSSVM) and convert the linear optimization problem of QSSVM to a sort problem for the reduced computational complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms can keep the lower computational complexity without reducing the accuracy for anomaly detection, compared to QSSVM.
Genetic analysis of leaf expansion trait in Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis (L.) Hanelt

Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis (L.) Hanelt is an important vegetable in eastern Asia. Its leaf area is one of main factor of influencing on the yield of individual plant. To reveal the mechanism of the leaf expansion, the joint segregation analysis of multiple generations (P<sub>1</sub>, P<sub>2</sub>, F<sub>1</sub>, B<sub>1</sub>, B<sub>2</sub> and F<sub>2</sub>) was used to analyze the genetics of leaf expansion trait in combination SW-13×L-118 of Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis (L.) Hanelt. In this paper, the results showed that the leaf expansion trait was controlled by one pair of additive-dominant major genes plus additive-dominant-epistatic polygene (D model). The additive effect of the major gene was -2.3061, the dominant effect was -1.4525. The heritability of major gene of leaf expansion was 2.56% in B<sub>1</sub> generation, 1.55% in B<sub>2</sub> generation and 12.12% in F<sub>2</sub> generation. The heritabilites of the polygene were 54.04% in B<sub>1</sub> generation, 25.11% in B<sub>2</sub> generation, and 62.60% in F<sub>2</sub> generation, respectively. It appeared that the polygene effects should be given prior to the improvement of leaf expansion trait of combination SW-13×L-118, and the selection was effective in later generation, and the negative additive effect and negative dominant effect of major gene were noticed.