Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of temperature and salinity on spawning of the brackish water bivalve Corbicula japonica in Lake Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan

The abundance of planktonic larvae (veliger) of Corbicula japonica in Lake Abashiri, which is near the northern limit of this species' range, was extremely low in 1995 and 1996, compared to other years (1989, 1990, 1994 and 1997). In histological examinations, the female genital tubules were filled with the atretic oocytes after the spawning season of 1995. Therefore, it was concluded that most C. japonica failed to spawn in 1995. The effects of temperature and salinity on the spawning of C. japonica were examined in a spawning induction experiment under laboratory conditions. Probability of spawning by C. japonica in the experiment was described by the equation: 1/( 1 + exp[-(-15.57 + 0.57 T- 12.64S- 0.55Gam + 0.69 T.S- 0.1T.S.Gam)]) (T: temperature, S: salinity, Gam: dummy variable of 1 or 2, i.e. 1 denotes each group to which the gamete suspension was added and 2 each group to which the gamete suspension was not added). The probability of spawning within the group to which the gamete suspension was added (i.e. Gam =1) explained well both annual and seasonal fluctuations of larval occurrence in Lake Abashiri in past years. The spawning of C. japonica may have been extremely low in 1995 and 1996 because of low temperature and low salinity. Such unfavorable conditions for spawning are not exceptional and occurred in 10 out of 21 years for which data were available. In C. japonica, reproduction succeeds less frequently in northern than in southern populations because the probability of spawning depends markedly on the temperature.
Microarray Analysis Reveals S-Adenosylmethionine (SAM) Synthetase Involvement in Salt Tolerance of Cyanidioschyzon merolae

We searched for candidate genes for producing salt tolerant plants from the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae, which lives in an extreme environment (hot springs). Arabidopsis thaliana plants die under 0.1 M salt culture, whereas the red algal cells survived under 0.3 M salt for 7 d. However, their chloroplasts changed from green to white and they soon died under 0.4 M, which is the concentration of seawater. Genes that were selectively expressed at 2 h and 24 h in 0.3 M salt concentrations were examined by microarray analysis. Under salt stress, the numbers of highly expressed genes at 2 h increased from 70 to 95 after culture for 24 h. The highly expressed genes included those encoding proteins similar to low molecular weight heat shock proteins, heat shock protein 70, and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthetase. On the base of the present data and on the known metabolic functions of the proteins, we suggest that the SAM synthetase gene from C. merolae is a candidate gene for genetic engineering to produce salt tolerance plants.
Antibacterial Activity of Different Organic Extracts of Achyranthes Aspera and Cassia Alata

Extracts in organic solvents (namely methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate and chloroform) of two medicinal plants - Achyranthes aspera and Cassia alata were evaluated for their antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli , Bacillus subtilis , Vibrio cholerae , Salmonella typhi and Staphylococcus aureus . These were carried out by taking the organic extracts of both the leaf and stem parts of the plants at a concentration of 5 mg/ml and their activities were recorded by estimating zones of inhibition as produced by disc-diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar media. While neither the leaf nor stem parts of A. aspera in any organic extractions showed antibacterial activity, the methanolic extracts of both the leaf and stem parts of C. alata exhibited antibacterial activity, but only to B. subtilis and S. typhi , and the corresponding MIC values of the leaf extracts were estimated as 1.25 and 1.5 mg/ml respectively. However, the ethanolic extracts of both the stem and leaf parts were found equally effective only to S. aureus (MIC= 1.25 mg/ml). The corresponding MBC values are reported. Keywords : Achyranthes aspera ; Cassia alata; Antibacterial. © 2009 JSR Publications. ISSN: 2070-0237 (Print); 2070-0245 (Online). All rights reserved. DOI: 10.3329/jsr.v1i2. 2298
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEKHAN THERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF STHOULYA (OBESITY)

Obesity is the world’s oldest metabolic disorder. The WHO now considers obesity to be a Global epidemic and a public health p roblem. Globally an estimated 300 million adults are now o bese and many are overweight. Prominent health risks associated with obesity are hypertension, type - 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, stroke, gall bladder stone, osteoarthritis, respiratory problem etc. As per Ayurved a , Acharya Charak has counted Sthoulya under the eight varieties of impediments which are designated as Nindita Purusha. According to Chikitsa Sutra of this disease , Lekhan therapy is an important therapeutic measure in Sthoulya as said by Acharya Charka. Moreover lekhan basti is the other and most effective therapy in the management of Sthoulya. To assess the effect of lekhan therapy by two therapeutic modules, 24 Sthoulya patients were selected for this study and were divided into two groups. Group A patients were given 15 lekhan basti in al ternate day. After completion of basti , lekhan vati was given for two months. In group B, patients were given lekhan vati for three months, which was selected from Ca.Su. 4:9 as lekhaneeya dasemani and is added with Varun and Vidang. The effects of two ther apeutic modules were assessed statistically based on the Performa prepared. This was a humble effort to compare the effect of lekhan basti and lekhan vati in the management of Sthoulya. In this study we have found that lekhan basti followed by lekhan vati was more effective in combating the disease than only lekhan vati therapy.
FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF TRANSDERMAL PATCH OF MELOXICAM

In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop a matrix3type transdermal therapeutic system comprising of Meloxicam with different ratios of hydrophobic polymeric combinations using solvent evaporation technique mercury as a substrate. The physicochemical compatibility of the drug and the polymers was studied by infrared spectroscopy. The results obtained showed no physical3chemical incompatibility between the drug and the polymers. The patches were further subjected to various physical evaluations along with the in3vitro permeation studies using skin. On the basis of results obtained form the in3vitro study and physical evaluation the patches containing hydrophobic polymers i.e. Eudragit RL PO and Eudragit RS PO, with Span80 as the penetration enhancer (5%) and plasticizer PEG400 (30%) were considered as suitable for large scale manufacturing with a backing layer and a suitable adhesive membrane.
Population of the Galactic X-ray binaries and eRosita

The population of the Galactic X-ray binaries has been mostly probed with moderately sensitive hard X-ray surveys so far. The eRosita mission will provide, for the first time a sensitive all-sky X-ray survey in the 2-10 keV energy range, where the X-ray binaries emit most of the flux and discover the still unobserved low-luminosity population of these objects. In this paper, we briefly review the current constraints for the X-ray luminosity functions of high- and low-mass X-ray binaries and present our own analysis based the INTEGRAL 9-year Galactic survey, which yields improved constraints. Based on these results, we estimate the number of new XRBs to be detected in the eRosita all-sky survey
An evaluation of eHealth systems implementation frameworks for sustainability in resource constrained environment: A literature review

International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT 2015) Conference Proceedings, 8-11 June 2015, Cape Town, South Africa. Due to copyright restrictions, the attached PDF file only contains the abstract of the full text item. For access to the full text item, please consult the publisher's website
CYP17A1 polymorphisms and clinical outcome of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with abiraterone

Background. Abiraterone acetate is a potent inhibitor of cytochrome P450 17 α-hydrolase (CYP17A1) that causes a reduction in the synthesis of testosterone in the adrenal glands, testes and tumor microenvironment. Blocking androgen production, abiraterone has been shown to prolong progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) previously submitted to chemotherapy. The aim of our study was to verify the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in predicting clinical outcome in CRPC patients treated with abiraterone after chemotherapy. Methods. We analyzed 48 CRPC consecutive patients treated with abiraterone after at least one chemotherapeutic regimen with docetaxel. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and genotyped for four polymorphisms in the CYP17A1 gene (rs743572, rs10883783, rs17115100, rs284849). PFS and OS survival curves were used to identify statistical associations between haplotypes and clinical outcome. Results. Forty-eight Caucasian patients with metastatic CRPC treated with abiraterone were genotyped for polymorphisms in the CYP17A1 gene. All samples were evaluable for both sequencing and TaqMan Genotyping assay. The CRPC patients treated with abiraterone had a median PFS and OS of 7.6 months (95% CI: 4.3-10.5) and 17.6 months (95% CI: 10.5-19.0), respectively Statistical analyses highlighted a difference approaching statistical significance (log-rank test p = 0.0534) between rs10883783 and PFS. Other polymorphisms were not associated with a benefit from treatment with abiraterone. Conclusions. In our case series of 48 treated patients, rs10883783 only was identified as a possible predictive marker, results showing a trend toward statistical significance. Further analysis of this polymorphism is needed in larger series of patients to confirm our findings.
Recommendation Systems Based on Association Rule Mining for a Target Object by Evolutionary Algorithms

Recommender systems are designed for offering products to the potential customers. Collaborative Filtering is known as a common way in Recommender systems which offers recommendations made by similar users in the case of entering time and previous transactions. Low accuracy of suggestions due to a database is one of the main concerns about collaborative filtering recommender systems. In this field, numerous researches have been done using associative rules for recommendation systems to improve accuracy but runtime of rule-based recommendation systems is high and cannot be used in the real world. So, many researchers suggest using evolutionary algorithms for finding relative best rules at runtime very fast. The present study investigated the works done for producing associative rules with higher speed and quality. In the first step Apriori-based algorithm will be introduced which is used for recommendation systems and then the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm will be described and the issues of these 2 work will be discussed. Studying this research could help to know the issues in this research field and produce suggestions which have higher speed and quality.
Use of a Probiotic to Ameliorate the Growth Rate and the Inflammation of Broiler Chickens Caused by Eimeria tenella Infection

A multistrain formula (MF) consisted of four selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains was evaluated for its function to ameliorate the growth rate and inflammation of broiler chickens caused by Eimeria tenella parasitizing. Thirty one day broiler chickens were divided into 3 groups with 10 chickens in 2 cages per group. These groups were control, infected and MF groups. In control group, chickens were fed with 0.2 ml PBS and not challenged with E. tenella. In MF group, chickens were gavage fed with 0.2 ml of MF (109 CFU/ml) from day 1 to day 23. On day 14, each chicken in both the infected and MF groups was challenged with 5,000 sporulated E. tenella oocysts. Seven days post infection, it was found that the average body weight gain (ABWG) for chickens in the infected and MF groups were 281.51 ± 61.00 and 295.52 ± 62.16 g per chicken, respectively. Chickens in each group were then sacrificed and their cecal tonsils collected. It was observed that feeding MF could reduce the cecal lesion scores (LS) of the Eimeria infected chickens significantly. In addition, for chickens in the MF group, the levels of cecal gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and interferon (IFN)-γ, were found significantly lower, while anti-inflammation cytokine, ie, IL-10, was significantly higher than those of the chickens in the infected group. This study thus suggests that the MF, which previously has been shown to have antagonistic effect against Salmonella infection and the induced inflammation either in live or in heat killed form, may also be useful for the amelioration of the growth rate and the inflammation of broiler chickens caused by E. tenella infection.
Planning theory: reconstruction or requiem for planning?

In spite of the geometric progression in the quantity of scholars who have devoted themselves—more or less totally—to theoretical reflections about planning, both as a practice and as an academic discipline (to the point of founding a new strand or discipline of study, Planning Theory), I think that a diffuse, creeping uneasiness has pervaded all the participants of this discipline. This uneasiness concerns not only the role, the sense, and the boundaries of Planning Theory, but also of planning tout court. I would even be tempted to say, that—paradoxically—this wide reflection and debate about planning (called Planning Theory) has been made worse instead of better, the uncertainties and ‘derangement’ of planning itself, both as practice and profession. How can this have been? Utilizing a metaphor (which has been perhaps abused, and is perhaps abusive), it is as if, confronted with a dark pond (planning) in which objects at the bottom can only be seen in an obscure, deformed way, people would throw stones (planning theory) into the pond, in the hope of being able to clarify and better define the objects. Instead, all they would accomplish would be to muddy the situation further and make comprehension impossible. After continuing in this manner for some time, these people would become discouraged and arrive at the conclusion that either:
Travelling Waves Solution of the Unsteady Flow Problem of a Rarefied Nonhomogeneous Charged Gas Bounded by an Oscillating Plate

The extension of the previous paper (Abdel Wahid and Elagan, 2012) has been made for a nonhomogeneous charged rarefied gas mixture (two-component plasma) instead of a single electron gas. Therefore, the effect of the positive ion collisions with electrons and with each other is taken into consideration, which was ignored, as an approximation, in the earlier work. Thus, we will have four collision terms (electron-electron, electron-ion, ion-ion, and ion-electron) instead of one term, as was studied before. These collision terms are added together with a completely additional system of differential equations for ions. This study is based on the solution of the Bhatnager-Gross-Krook (BGK) model of the Boltzmann kinetic equation coupled with Maxwell’s equations. The initial-boundary value problem of the Rayleigh flow problem applied to the system of the two-component plasma (positive ions
Derivatives of Regular Expressions with Lookahead

: Lookahead is an extension of regular expressions that has been adopted in many implementations and is widely used. Lookahead represents what is allowed as the rest of input. Morihata developed a conversion from regular expressions with lookahead (REwLA) to deterministic ﬁnite automata by extending Thompson’s construction. In this paper, we develop a conversion from REwLA to deterministic ﬁnite automata by extending derivatives of regular expressions. First, we formalize the semantics of REwLA. An REwLA has information about the rest of the input, so the deﬁnition of the semantics of REwLA is not languages but structures di ﬀ erent from those of regular expressions. Thus, we introduce languages with lookahead as sets of pairs of strings with several operations and deﬁne the semantics of REwLA as languages with lookahead. Next, we deﬁne two kinds of left quotient for languages with lookahead and give corresponding derivatives. Then, we show that the types of expressions obtained by repeatedly applying derivatives are ﬁnite under some equivalence relation and give a conversion to deterministic ﬁnite automata. We also show that the semantics of REwLA is a ﬁnite union of sets of the form A × B , where A and B are regular languages.
Determination of the head losses in metal body disc filters used in drip irrigation systems

The objective of this study was to determine the head losses in several type metal body disc filters manufactured by domestic companies. In order to meet the objective, three different filter designs (L, LT and Y type), each at four different inlet and outlet pipe diameters, were used to measure the head losses at different flow rates in the laboratory. A total of sixteen filters manufactured by three domestic companies (A, B and C) and two different disc elements (linear and curly) were taken into consideration in this study. A comparison of the different filter designs in terms of measured the head losses indicated that in all cases while the L type filters gave the highest head loss, the other two designs provided less head losses at the same flow rate. Furthermore, the head losses in C−LT type filters with curly groove shape discs were less than B−LT type filters with linear groove shape discs in comparing with the LT type filters produced by two different manufacturers even though the design and the size of the filter body were similar. The differences in the head loss can be clarified with the help of the results obtained from the structural characteristic of filtering elements. As a result, in drip irrigation systems, the use of Y and LT type disc filters with curly groove shaped discs are recommended in order to obtain less head losses and low energy requirements when compared with filters used in this study.
Civilisations and Capitalism: On Economic Growth and Institutions

Theories of political culture have typically refrained from a reinterpretation of the idea of civilisations, as a few well-known traditional approaches to this concept have been severely criticized. Yet, one may probe into the relevance of the concept of a set of civilisations for mankind in the period of globalisation. However, it is not the Weber thesis linking religion with modern capitalism or economic growth that appears most promising today when enquiring into cultural effects. Instead, it is the spread of respect for the rule of law regime, which has a much longer history than the democratic polity.
Managerial ability and earnings quality: Evidence from Tehran Stock Exchange

Article history: Received January 14, 2014 Accepted 10 June 2014 Available online June 15 2014 Auditor independence is associated with the independence of the internal/external auditor from various parties who may have some financial interest in the business being audited. Many countries have set up different rules forcing firms to change their auditors every few years. This helps business retain healthy business. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effect of change in auditing system on 90 selected firms from Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2007-2011. Using a regression model developed earlier by Demerjian et al. (2012a) [Demerjian, P. R. , Lev, B. , Lewis, M. F. , & McVay, S. E. (2012a). Managerial ability and earnings quality. The Accounting Review, 88(2), 463-498. ], the study determines a positive impact of change in auditor system on business development. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chronic amyloid arthropathy and increased serum amyloid levels in brown layers

Serum amyloid-A (SAA) levels were investigated in chickens with experimentally induced amyloid arthropathy in comparison with healthy counterparts. Forty-eight 5-week-old chickens were allocated into two equally numbered groups. Enterococcus faecalis was injected intraarticularly at concentrations of 10 cfu/ml, to induce amyloid arthropathy in one of the groups, whereas the other one was kept as a control and injected intraarticularly only with 0.9% NaCl (1 ml). All the chickens were necropsied at the 13 week after the injections. Joint sections were examined histopathologically and immunohistochemically. Blood samples were collected and SAA levels were determined by ELISA. Amyloid accumulation in joints was only seen in the experimental group (18/24). The SAA levels found were 154±20 ng/ml and 419±27 ng/ml in the control and experimental groups, respectively, and the differences were highly significant at (P<0.001). In conclusion, SAA plasma concentrations are influenced by amyloid arthropathy. Consequently, SAA may be a sensitive variable to assess the physical welfare in chicks; and increases in these values can be suggestive of chronic inflammatory processes, including amyloid arthropathy.
The Mediating Effect of Tax Fairness on the Relationship Between Knowledge, Complexity and Voluntary Tax Compliance

This study aims to examine the mediating role of tax fairness on the relationship between tax knowledge, tax complexity, and voluntary tax compliance. Based on 200 samples of taxpayers, it is found that tax knowledge increases tax fairness perceptions, which, consequently, increases tax compliance behaviour. Similarly, tax fairness perceptions do not reduce the tax compliance directly, but indirectly through the role of tax fairness perceptions. This implies that tax authorities should not only focus on introducing or developing tax rules that are fair to the taxpayers but be able to communicate the rationale of a tax rule in the context of how it permeates fairness into the tax system for certain classes of taxpayers. Our study found that, in situations where tax simplification is not possible, this form of information dissemination could lead to better compliance among taxpayers. Keywords: Tax Compliance, Knowledge, Fairness, ComplexityJEL Classification: H260
Effect of frequency of meals on intake and digestion of tropical grass consumed by rams

Eight Black Belly rams (45.2 kg) fitted with permanent ruminal cannulae were used in a 2x2 factorial design to determine the effects of feeding frequency and regrowth age on intake and digestion. Rams were fed with 21- or 35-day old fresh pangola grass offered ad libitum two or four times a day. Irrespective of the regrowth age, there was a tendency for intake to be positively correlated with increase in meal frequency. Differences were not significant (p>0.25). Significant effects of meal frequency were observed in NDF and ADF total tract digestibility of the 35-day grass which decreased as the number of meals increased. Meal frequency had no visible effect on feeding behaviour. Total rumen content increased when animals were fed twice a day as opposed to four times a day. Similarly, an accumulation of small and very small particles was observed in the rumen of rams fed twice a day in comparison with those fed four times a day. These results suggest that studies of digestive dynamics performed at a steady state are not representative of the rumen loading observed in farm rams which have two important peaks of meal.