Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motivation for Parenthood among LGBTIQ People in Croatia: Reasons for (not) Becoming a Parent

Parenting desires, intentions, and the underlying motivation for parenthood are well documented in the context of heterosexual couple parenthood, while among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people research is limited. The main goal of this study was to explore parenting desire and different reasons to become a parent or remain childfree among LGBTIQ people in Croatia. 486 childless LGBTIQ people participated in an on-line survey. In the quantitative part of the study, parenting desire and reasons for and against parenthood were measured, while the qualitative part analysed the answers to open-ended questions about additional reasons that influence the desire to want or not to want children. The results showed that 46% of the participants want to become parents, 35% did not know, and 19% reported they do not want to have children. The main reasons for parenthood among the participants who want children were internal – the desire to give love, share knowledge, and develop a special bond with a child. The participants who do not want to have children also stressed internal reasons against parenthood, such as restricted personal freedom, high responsibility, and the amount of workload they perceive as a part of parenthood. Several additional reasons for and against parenthood emerged from the qualitative data. Some reasons reflected universal issues unrelated to sexual orientation or gender identity, while others conveyed concerns related to social and legal barriers that LGBTIQ people face when it comes to parenthood.
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING AND METACOGNITIVE MONITORING IN MODERATE TO SEVERE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY A Thesis in Psychology by

Metacognition and executive functioning are two higher order cognitive processes that share similarly structured theoretical models, as well as common areas of associated neural networks. Despite the similarities, little research has been done to investigate the potential relationship between these two congruent processes. This current study aims to empirically and objectively examine the relationship between executive functioning and metacognition using a sample of adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Participants were recruited to complete a neuropsychological battery that included tests of both metacognition and executive functioning that would provide the data necessary to determine the nature of the relationship between the processes. Results suggest that the participants in the traumatic brain injury sample performed as well as healthy individuals on tasks of metacognition, and that performance on executive functioning tasks that involve a problem solving component were associated with metacognitive ability.
Evaluation of Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy related Parameters in Child’s C Patients With and without Adrenal Insufficiency

Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on 60 adult patients with advanced liver cirrhosis (Child’s C) who showed a low ejection fraction (EF) of <55 on ECHO. CCM related parameters including ejection fraction, left atrial and left end systolic/diastolic ventricular diameters (LAD, LVEDD) were measured using ECHO. All patients were assessed for AI by measuring fasting serum cortisol level using (Automated Chemoiluminescence Cobas e411 analyzer and EIA1887 kit). CCM related selected parameters were compared between those with and without AI. Results: The mean age was 63.83±7.64 with male sex predominance (87.4%). Their mean EF was 39.17±7.34, while 88.4% of them had a high LVEDD with a mean of 62.31±10.21 mm. The mean morning fasting free serum cortisol level was 7.95±5.23 mcg/dl with 48.4% of them having AI. Comparison of those with and without AI showed that the former group had a higher LAD (43.26±10.04 vs 42.76±7.64), LVESD (50.83±10.66 vs. 48.08±8 .17) and LVEDD (64.83±9.95vs. 59.94±9.97)) respectively. However, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). There was no significant correlation between any of the CCM parameters or those of hepatic decompensation and the fasting serum cortisol level among the studied group (P>0.05).
Natural Healing Compound for the Treatment of Excision and Incision Wound in Rats Model

The aim of the study was to evaluate the wound healing properties of ethanolic extract of Moringa olifera leaves. The ethanol extract of Moringa olifera leaves was prepared and evaluated for its wound healing potentials in Wistar rats using excision and incision wound models. The breaking strength and the hydroxyproline content of the wounds were also studied. The results indicated that the rate of wound healing in groups treated with Moringa olifera leaves extract ranged from 32.2 ± 0.0 to 100.0 ± 1.1 % at 4 and 15 days respectively, while the groups that received nitrofurazone ointment exhibited 11.0 ± 1.0 to 77.2 ± 2.0 % wound healing at 4 and 15 days respectively. Batches A, B and C treated with varying concentrations of the leaves extract exhibited greater breaking strength and higher contents of hydroxyproline significantly different from the reference and the control groups (p < 0.05). Therefore, Moringa olifera leaves extract exhibited faster wound healing rates than nitrofurazone ointment used as the reference drug.
Improvements of the Meteorological Research Institute Global Ocean- atmosphere Coupled GCM (MRI-CGCM2) and its climate sensitivity

A new version of the Meteorological Research Institute Coupled GCM (MRICGCM2) is improved in reproducing mean climate of global-mean and meridional distribution of energy budget by mainly adjusting clouds representation. In the global warming experiments, the effective climate sensitivity is evaluated and found to increase more than 1K with the improved version of the model. Decrease of negative feedback due to cloud forcing can explain the most of the change in climate sensitivity.
Effect of Boscia albitrunca (Omukunzi) root on the bacteriology and viscosity of Omashikwa, traditional fermented buttermilk from Namibia

The objective of this study was to determine the role of Omukunzi root ( Boscia albi trunca ) in the viscosity or consistency , sensory and bacteriological profile of Omashikwa , traditional fermented buttermilk from Namibia . Omashikwa is a popular traditional fermented butter milk product made with Omukunzi root among the Owambo and Herero tribes living in the North and Central Namibia. It is processed by fermenting raw milk in the presence of Omukunzi root in a calabash and agitated to obtain butter granules. Butter granules are then removed, washed, salted and made into butter or processed into ghee (butter oil). The remaining fermented milk is Omashikwa or traditional fermented buttermilk. The results of this study indicated that the root of Omukunzi tree had low pH (4.9) , exhibited bacterial inhibition properties and had high content of soluble carbohydrates (19.4%) . Omashikwa made with Omukunzi root (TO) was more viscous , 2.9 Pa.s compared to 2.5 Pa.s of laboratory Omashikwa made without the root (LO) . The total aerobic count s were 6.62 cfu/g for TO and 8.62 cfu/g for LO and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was 6.58 cfu/g for TO and 7.87 cfu/g for LO and were lower in samples with the root . C oliforms , 2.68 cfu/g (TO) and 2.70 cfu/g (LO) and yeasts and moulds were not significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) and were 1.57 cfu/g for TO and 1.69 cfu/g for LO . Yeasts and mould counts from the gourd swabs were high , 4.78 cfu/g . T he LAB identified belonged to the genera Lactobacillus (Lb.) , Leuconostoc (Leuc.) , Lactoc occus (Lact.) and Streptococcus (Strep.). The LAB species identified were Lb. plantarum, Lb. lac tis subsp . lactis, Leuc. lactis, Leuc. citreum, Lact. lactis subsp. lactis, Lact. lactis subsp. diacetylactis and Strep. t hermophillus. The result s indicate d that Omukunzi root plays a positive role in the quality of value added Omashikwa in terms of improving consistency , sensory quality and controlling microbial profile which could finally help to increase income, create jobs and improve food security and nutrition to the rural communities.
Reverse CAGTTTGTGGCCCTTTTG AGTTCCAGGCTGGGGTACTT GGACCTTCCTCAGCATCA AGGACCTTCTTGGCTTCGTT ATGCTCAATGCTGTGAAT GGATACAAGCCCAGAGTCCA AACCCAGGAATCCTCATT AGATAGGGGTGCCAGATGTC ACACCATGTTGGGAGTTG TGTGAGCAGGAAGGACTTGA TATGAGGCCCAGCATGTC TGACCCTATTGCCTCCAAAG ACCGAGCGTGGCTACAG CTTCTCTTTGATGTCACGCACAAT CCATCTGTG

Background: PCSK9 has emerged as a key regulator of serum LDL-C metabolism by promoting the degradation of hepatic LDL receptor (LDLR). In this study, we investigated the effect of fasting on serum PCSK9, LDL-C, and hepatic LDLR expression in hamsters and further delineated the molecular pathways involved in fasting-induced repression of PCSK9 transcription. Results: Fasting had insignificant effects on serum total cholesterol and HDL-C levels, but reduced LDL-C, triglyceride and insulin levels. The decrease in serum LDL-C was accompanied by marked reductions of hepatic PCSK9 mRNA and serum PCSK9 protein levels with concomitant increases of hepatic LDLR protein amounts. Fasting produced a profound impact on SREBP1 expression and its transactivating activity, while having modest effects on mRNA expressions of SREBP2 target genes in hamster liver. Although PPARa mRNA levels in hamster liver were elevated by fasting, ligand-induced activation of PPARa with WY14643 compound in hamster primary hepatocytes did not affect PCSK9 mRNA or protein expressions. Further investigation on HNF1a, a critical transactivator of PCSK9, revealed that fasting did not alter its mRNA expression, however, the protein abundance of HNF1a in nuclear extracts of hamster liver was markedly reduced by prolonged fasting. Conclusion: Fasting lowered serum LDL-C in hamsters by increasing hepatic LDLR protein amounts via reductions of serum PCSK9 levels. Importantly, our results suggest that attenuation of SREBP1 transactivating activity owing to decreased insulin levels during fasting is primarily responsible for compromised PCSK9 gene transcription, which was further suppressed after prolonged fasting by a reduction of nuclear HNF1a protein abundance. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Secondary analysis of large-scale international datasets in the service of national education policy evaluation: The case of PISA Australia

National educational policy analysis and evaluation is a complex endeavour that would seem to demand empirical data gathering efforts that are of appropriate scale and high quality. However, mounting such data-gathering efforts can be resource and time-intensive. As an alternative strategy, this presentation describes the secondary analysis of an existing large-scale dataset that potentially adds value to educational policy evaluation. In particular, as a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Australia participates in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that every few years assesses the educational attainment of 15-year old students in the core learning areas of reading, maths, science and problem solving. PISA datasets are housed and managed by the Australian Centre for Educational Research (ACER) and it is this dataset that is the subject of our secondary analysis here. For the current policy question, Australia’s new Commonwealth government has begun consideration of applying a so-called “socioeconomic status (SES) model” to public school funding. We suggest that the secondary analysis of extant large-scale datasets can provide important input to the discussion of school funding policies by shedding light on previously obscured or possibly unexamined relationships. For example, it is already well established in the educational research literature that the socioeconomic status of individual students is strongly associated with educational attainment as measured by standardized assessment systems, whether local, national or international. In addition, various international studies have shown that the aggregated socioeconomic profile of a school is also positively associated with students’ academic attainment. However, less is known about the nature of these relationships when both individual student and school socioeconomic status are disaggregated. To uncover these finer-grained associations, we subjected Australia’s 2003 PISA dataset to secondary analysis to better understand the reading, mathematics and science achievement of secondary school students from different SES backgrounds, across a variety of school SES strata. This finer-grained secondary analysis shows that increases in the aggregated SES of a school are consistently and strongly associated with increases in students’ academic performance, and that this relationship holds for all students regardless of their individual SES. In the Australian case, the aggregated socio-economic profile of the school matters greatly in terms of academic performance. We conclude the presentation with a discussion of the implications of these findings for Australia’s federal school funding policies with particular attention given to the influence of school composition on student attainment.
CHARACTERISTICS OF KAMPONG ROOSTER SEMEN IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEMEN EXTENDER LIM CHUN KEAT

LIM CHUN KEAT. Characteristics of Kampong Rooster Semen in Different Types of Semen Extender. Supervised by RETNO WULANSARI and TUTY LASWARDI YUSUF. Kampong chicken in West Java is popular for its meat production. Artificial insemination (AI) is introduced in poultry farm to increase poultry production for human consumption. Beltsville Poultry Semen Extender (BPSE) components have crucial role in supporting and sustaining the sperm lifespan. The objective of this research is to determine the characteristics of fresh semen in Kampong rooster and to determine motility and viability of rooster sperm using BPSE, Sodium Citrate Egg Yolk (SCEY) and saline solution at 3‒5C for 48 hours. Semen was collected manually from 3 roosters twice a week. The characteristic of semen was evaluated by macroscopic and microscopic view. The collected semen was diluted with BPSE, SCEY and saline solution respectively, preserved in a refrigerator at 3‒5C and evaluated for motility and viability every 12 hours. In this research, BPSE resulted in sperm motility (71.67±2.89%) and viability (80.59±1.32%) at 12 hours. SCEY has sperm motility (61.67±2.89%) and viability (73.03±3.81%) at 12 hours. Saline solution has sperm motility (43.33±2.89%) and viability (52.81±3.81%) at 12 hours. Duncan test shows BPSE has higher significant difference (P<0.05) compared to SCEY and saline solution at 12 hours. It is concluded BPSE shows better sperm quality compared with SCEY and saline solution in 3‒5C at 12 hours.
THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT OF YOUTH AND SPORTS ORGANIZATION EMPLOYEES IN ILAM

The present research aims to identify the influence of the organizational just ice exerted on the psychological empowerment of Youths and Sports Organization employees in Ilam. Research method was descriptive-correlative in which the sample size selected based of Cochran's sample size formula included 90 subjects of Youths and Sports Organization in Ilam. Two standard questionnaires were distributed to the respondents as the research measurement instruments, namely, the organizational justice questionnaire encompassing 20 questions with3 small scale manifest items and the psychological empowerment questionnaire encompassing 22 questions with 5 small scale manifest items. Results obtained from the research path analysis via LISREL Software demonstrated that organizational justice coupled with interactional justice (R2= .29) and procedural justice (R2= .28) specifications meaningfully affected the employees' psychological empowerment (P≤ .01), whereas there didn't appear to be a sensible correlation between the distributional justice and the employees' psychological empowerment. Furthermore, organizational justice has totally accounted for about 30 percent of the variance change in employees' psychological empowerment. Therefore, relying on the present research findings, it can be stated that the most important factor contributing to the employees' psychological empowerment in sports organizations is generating interactional justice. For due reason, organizational behavior managers in sports organizations are suggested to do as they think best to establish organizational justice of the interactional type in the organizations so as to enhance their workforce productivity.
Exploring the Effects of Using the Words Their Way Program with Teenage Boys with Autism

This project is an initial investigation into effective methods of literacy instruction for teenage boys with autism. This study specifically focused on the Words Their Way Program incorporating Word Study for Spelling Instruction. The program focuses on developmental levels, differentiated based on ability, and uses a variety of multi-modal activities. Through a mixed-methods approach, both qualitative and quantitative data is collected and significant themes are developed (improvement in handwriting, characteristics of autism becoming academic obstacles, issues with the program, and ways motivation and engagement have influenced student performance). It was concluded that the program does improve spelling ability though its relevance with the population varies based on severity of disability. The program requires modification for special education, as each student’s learning needs differ.
Biomechanical analysis of the mechanical environment of the cell nucleus in serum starvation-induced vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) actively remodel the arterial walls through biomechanical signals and dedifferentiate from the contractile to the synthetic phenotype under pathological conditions. It is important to elucidate the mechanism underlying phenotypic transition of VSMCs for understanding their role in the pathophysiology of disease and for developing engineered tissues. Although numerous studies have reported various biochemical or biomechanical factors that stimulate the phenotypic transition of VSMCs, very little is known about the changes in the mechanical environment of intracellular nucleus that are involved in various cellular functions. This study investigated the changes in the force exerted on the intracellular nucleus, and their morphology and mechanical properties during serum starvation-induced VSMC differentiation. Fluorescent microscopy image analysis and atomic force microscopy nano-indentation live cell imaging revealed that the serum-starvation culture conditions markedly promote the contractile differentiation of VSMCs with F-actin stabilization and reduces the internal force exerted on the nucleus. The nuclei in these contractile VSMCs exhibited surface stiffening and matured nuclear lamina. Additionally, the nuclei exhibited distinct surface dimples along the actin stress fibers even though these nuclei were exposed to lower internal forces. These results indicate that the distinct dimples on the nuclear surfaces represent a plastic remodeling of the nucleus under the serum-starvation culture conditions. The nuclear stiffening, local deformation, and plastic remodeling observed in this study may be important factors in contractile differentiation of VSMCs.
Nurses' Knowledge, Practices and Barriers Affecting a Safe Administration of Oxygen Therapy

"Oxygen therapy is like a two edged sword", at one edge oxygen is crucial for human being to survive, while at the other edge it may become toxic if it is delivered by inappropriate dose or method. This study was aiming to assess nurses' knowledge, practices and barriers affecting asafe administration of oxygen therapy. Design: A descriptive research designwas adopted to conduct this study. Subjects: A purposeful sampling technique was used to recruit 50 nurses from different departments in one of the Educational Hospitals in Cairo. Data Collection Tools: Four tools were used as follows: 1) Nurse's demographic data assessment tool, 2)Nurse's knowledge assessment tool, 3) Oxygen therapy administration assessment tool, and 4)Barriers to safe oxygen therapy administration assessment tool. Results: This study proved that, only less than tenth and less than fifth of the studied sample has satisfactory level of knowledge and adequate practices, while, the rest were ranged between average and unsatisfactory. With regard to the common barriers affecting safe oxygen therapy reported by the nurses are unavailability of protocol, lack of maintenance of the equipment used for oxygen therapy, and incomplete unclear written prescription for oxygen therapy. Conclusion: This study concluded that, a minority of the studied sample had satisfactory level of knowledge and less than fifth had adequate level of practices. The most common reported barriers were; absence of protocol for oxygen therapy could be followed, and unavailability of well-functioning equipment. Based on the results it is recommended that the hospital authority should establish relevant training courses, workshops, standardized protocol, periodic maintenance for the equipment, and clearly written and readable medical prescription for oxygen therapy.
A DIAGONAL CONSISTENT MASS MATRIX FOR EARTHQUAKE SITE RESPONSE SIMULATIONS

Computational aspects and especially mass matrix determination, play a key part in soil dynamics applications. In seismic response analyses of soils, one option is to perform finite-element transient analyses on one-dimensional multi-layered profiles assuming various initial and boundary conditions. Diagonal mass matrices are generally preferred with explicit integration schemes, as no inversion of the overall system matrix is required at each time-step, thus reducing computation costs. One of the widely used methods to diagonalize a consistent matrix is the lumping scheme. Another method can be envisaged in case of isoparametric finite elements, without using the lumping scheme, and which is based on the enrichment of the shape functions and the selection of the appropriate integration order. In this paper, we present this scheme (so called the “diagonal consistent” scheme) we have adapted for 1D isoparametric quadratic finite elements. Then, we analyse the stability requirements for the 1D seismic analysis when considering explicit and implicit-explicit integration schemes, as well as various initial and boundary conditions. Through numerical applications, we also show the advantages to use the proposed diagonal mass matrix over a classical lumped mass matrix.