Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In situ nanomechanical measurement of Cu nanowires

Copper nanowire is a potential material used as interconnect or component in the micro/ nano devices because of its high electrical and thermal conductivity. Therefore, quantitative measurement of mechanical properties of Cu nanowire is essential to the development of novel micro/nano devices. Here, in situ 3-point bending experiment is performed to measure the elastic properties of Cu nanowire using a SEM/SPM hybrid system. The experimental results show that the elastic modulus of Cu nanowire is significant size dependency in the research range.
Changing the Social Relations of Research Production

ABSTRACT This paper will argue that research on disability has had little influence on policy and made no contribution to improving the lives of disabled people. In fact, up to now the process of research production has been alienating both for disabled people and for researchers themselves. Neither positivist nor interpretive paradigms are immune from the characterisation of research as alienation, and hence it is suggested that the only way to produce unalienated research is to change the social relations of research production. This change will require the development of an emancipatory research paradigm and both the development of and agenda for such a paradigm are briefly considered.
Gender and risk: women, risk taking and risk aversion

– Labeling women as risk‐averse limits the positive benefits both women and organizations can gain from their risk taking. The purpose of this paper is to explore women's risk taking and reasons for stereotype persistence in order to inform human resource practice and women's career development. , – The paper draws on literature about gender and organizations to identify reasons for the persisting stereotype of women's risk aversion. Utilizing literature and concepts about risk appetite and decision making, the paper evaluates results of the Simmons Gender and Risk Survey database of 661 female managers. , – The paper finds evidence of gender neutrality in risk propensity and decision making in specific managerial contexts other than portfolio allocation. , – More in‐depth research is needed to explore the gender‐neutral motivators of risk decision making and to explore risk taking in a more diverse sample population. , – The paper explores why women's risk taking remains invisible even as they take risks and offers suggestions on how women and organizations may benefit from their risk‐taking activities. , – The paper synthesizes evidence on risk taking and gender, and the evidence of female risk taking is an important antidote to persisting stereotypes. The paper outlines reasons for this stereotype persistence and implications for human resource development.
Human and Machine Detection of Stylistic Similarity in Art

We describe methodology and evaluation for a new findsimilar search task: the user specifies a source painting and seeks other stylistically similar paintings, regardless of the source painting’s subject (i.e. the object, person, or scene depicted). We formulate this search as a content-based image retrieval task, modeling stylistic similarity via detected color, intensity in color changes, texture, and sharp points. Additional features from machine vision are used for local patches and the overall scene. To evaluate both the task diculty and system eectiveness, 90 people with varying knowledge of art were asked to judge stylistic similarity between dierent pairings of 240 paintings. To obtain these judgments, we utilized Amazon Mechanical Turk, and we discuss design issues involved in working with the platform and controlling for quality in a crowdsourced setting. Results of 3128 judgments show both task diculty, with approximately 50% to 76.5% agreement between judges, and a range of accuracies of system features vs. human judgments. Most promising, features based on Leung-Malik filters [10] achieve roughly 80% agreement with knowledgeable judges.
Advances in the phylogenesis of Agaricales and its higher ranks and strategies for establishing phylogenetic hypotheses

We present an overview of previous research results on the molecular phylogenetic analyses in Agaricales and its higher ranks (Agaricomycetes/Agaricomycotina/Basidiomycota) along with the most recent treatments of taxonomic systems in these taxa. Establishing phylogenetic hypotheses using DNA sequences, from which an understanding of the natural evolutionary relationships amongst clades may be derived, requires a robust dataset. It has been recognized that single-gene phylogenies may not truly represent organismal phylogenies, but the concordant phylogenetic genealogies from multiple-gene datasets can resolve this problem. The genes commonly used in mushroom phylogenetic research are summarized.
Children and young people’s uses of the Internet for homework

This article extends current research by more closely examining children and young people’s uses of the Internet for homework support within the familial context. In particular, it examines how young people find and deploy resources, how levels and quality of access influence use and the participation of other family members in homework support. It argues that whilst families view the Internet as a useful resource for homework, there are pitfalls which centre on the relatively high cost of home access in the UK. In some families, these costs may impact negatively on the affordances of the Internet for supporting homework and learning the functional skills and competencies needed to use the Internet autonomously.
Early enrichment of quasars by the first stars

Studies of the broad emission-line regions (BLRs) in quasars have revealed solar or higher enrichment levels up to the highest redshifts. In combination with the presence of large amounts of dust in QSOs at z ∼ 6, this implies that substantial amounts of star formation and nucleosynthesis took place at significantly earlier epochs. Here, we examine whether a top-heavy stellar initial mass function (IMF) is indicated by current data, by modelling the contributions from different regions of the IMF, including Type Ia/II and pair instability supernovae, to the metal synthesis in BLRs. We find that, in order to reproduce the observations of roughly solar values of N/C and Fe/Mg in these objects, (i) stars with a present-day IMF are sufficient, regardless of their metallicity, (ii) zero-metallicity stars with a top-heavy IMF severely underproduce N/C, and (iii) the contribution of Type Ia SNe is not strongly required by the data. Therefore, stars of mass ∼1-40 M ○. must have existed at z ∼ 10-20, possibly coeval with any hypothesized stars of masses ≥ 100 May at these epochs. This is in agreement with the nucleosynthetic abundance pattern detected in extremely metal-poor stars in the galactic halo.
Empirical study on customer satisfaction influencing factors of industry application products based on experiential level theory

The rapid development of industry application products has greatly influenced society. It has become essential for some telecommunication companies to focus on customer satisfaction with industrial products used by the government and enterprise customers. Following the review of a previous study of customer satisfaction and with the help of experiential level theory, this article attempts to establish a Satisfaction Factors Model for researching customer satisfaction with industry applications. We chose a product named “Mobile Monitor” and investigated the emotional satisfaction of 127 users and company leaders from different walks of life, and showed that 7 of the product's features affected the customers' overall emotional satisfaction. Lastly, this paper points out management implications of this application based on quantitative results. It presents a preliminary exploration program for customer satisfaction research in this specific field. The empirical research on a specific product based on experimental level theory may serve as a reference for other companies that desire to carry out similar surveys in future.
Prevention of Escherichia coli-induced diarrhea with microecologicalcomplex preparation in swine.

The aim of this work is to investigate the efficacy of non-antibiotic microecological complex preparation in the prevention of Escherichia coli - induced diarrhea in swine. A specific non-antibiotic microecological complex was prepared after sterilization and supplementation with probiotics. This preparation was used to prevent Escherichia coli (E.coli) - induced diarrhea in neonatal swine. Self-field epidemic strains were used to prepare vaccine and bacteriophages that were successfully applied to prepare the microecological complex preparation. Results showed no difference of cure rate of diarrhea between swine treated with microecological complex and antibiotic treatment (P>0.05). In the microecological complex treated swine, the recurrence rate of diarrhea was significantly lower than that in the antibiotic treated swine within 1 month (P 0.05). The microecological complex treatment could significantly reduce the incidence of diarrhea in weaned swine (P 0.05). The specific microecological complex preparation is effective to treat the E. coli - induced diarrhea and can reduce the short-term recurrence of diarrhea in swine. The microecological complex treatment in pregnant swine can reduce the incidence of diarrhea in neonatal swine, and the complex used in neonatal swine can decrease the incidence of diarrhea in weaned swine.
Serum Cystatin C as an Endogenous Marker of the Renal Function – a Review

Abstract Since 1985, cystatin C has been suggested to be a marker of the renal function. Cystatin C is a proteinase inhibitor with a low molecular weight (M r = 13359) . It is produced at a constant rate in all nucleated cells investigated to date, freely filtered in the renal glomeruli and reabsorbed and catabolised in the proximal tubules. The concentration of serum cystatin C is mainly determined by glomerular filtration, which makes cystatin C an endogenous marker of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). There are few data describing the influence of various factors on the production and elimination of cystatin C. Fully automated assays using particle-enhanced turbidimetry or particle-enhanced nephelometry are available and the assays are precise, rapid and usable in clinical routine practice. Reference intervals have been determined for cystatin C in adults and in children older than one year. It has been suggested that the same reference interval can be used in children older than one year and in adults without gender differences, on the assumption that the same method with the same standardisation is used. Several studies including adults and children with different renal diseases with various kidney function have suggested serum cystatin C to be a better marker of GFR than serum creatinine.
Collegial Climate and Novice Teachers’ Intent to Remain Teaching

Using survey data from novice teachers across 99 schools, we estimated multilevel regressions to identify the association between novices’ intent to remain teaching within their schools and their perceptions of the collegial climate. The results suggest that novice teachers who perceive a more positive collegial climate marked by higher degrees of professional fit and collective responsibility among colleagues are more likely to report intent to remain teaching within their schools. The findings from this study have implications for understanding novice teachers’ intended career decisions as a function of their perceptions of the collegial climate within their schools.
RearType: text entry using keys on the back of a device

RearType is a text input system for mobile devices such as Tablet PCs, using normal keyboard keys but on the reverse side of the device. The standard QWERTY layout is split and rotated so that hands gripping the device from either side have the usual keys under the fingers. This frees up the front of the device, maximizing the use of the display for visual output, eliminating the need for an onscreen keyboard and the resulting hand occlusion, and providing tactile and multi-finger text entry - with potential for knowledge transfer from QWERTY. Using a prototype implementation which includes software visualization of the keys to assist with learning, we conducted a study to explore the initial learning curve for RearType. With one hour's training, RearType typing speed was an average 15 WPM, and was not statistically different to a touchscreen keyboard.
25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Pre-Clinical Alterations in Inflammatory and Hemostatic Markers: A Cross Sectional Analysis in the 1958 British Birth Cohort

Background Vitamin D deficiency has been suggested as a cardiovascular risk factor, but little is known about underlying mechanisms or associations with inflammatory or hemostatic markers. Our aim was to investigate the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D, a measure for vitamin D status] concentrations with pre-clinical variations in markers of inflammation and hemostasis. Methodology/Principal Findings Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D, C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, D-dimer, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) antigen, and von Willebrand factor (vWF) were measured in a large population based study of British whites (aged 45y). Participants for the current investigation were restricted to individuals free of drug treated cardiovascular disease (n = 6538). Adjusted for sex and month, 25(OH)D was inversely associated with all outcomes (p≤0.015 for all), but associations with CRP, fibrinogen, and vWF were explained by adiposity. Association with tPA persisted after full adjustment (body mass index, waist circumference, physical activity, TV watching, smoking, alcohol consumption, social class, sex, and month), and average concentrations were 18.44% (95% CI 8.13, 28.75) lower for 25(OH)D ≥75 nmol/l compared to <25 nmol/l. D-dimer concentrations were lower for participants with 25(OH)D 50–90nmol/l compared to others (quadratic term p = 0.01). We also examined seasonal variation in hemostatic and inflammatory markers, and evaluated 25(OH)D contribution to the observed patterns using mediation models. TPA concentrations varied by season (p = 0.02), and much of this pattern was related to fluctuations in 25(OH)D concentrations (p≤0.001). Some evidence of a seasonal variation was observed also for fibrinogen, D-dimer and vWF (p<0.05 for all), with 25(OH)D mediating some of the pattern for fibrinogen and D-dimer, but not vWF. Conclusions Current vitamin D status was associated with tPA concentrations, and to a lesser degree with fibrinogen and D-dimer, suggesting that vitamin D status/intake may be important for maintaining antithrombotic homeostasis.
Effect of Converting Enzyme Inhibitor (SQ14,225) on Myocardial Hypertrophy in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

SUMMARY Tbe potent conrerting enzyme inhibitor (CEI) SQ14.225, which is known to prevent the formation of angiotensin II (All) has been used to evaluate the role of AH in tbe development and reversal of cardiac hypertrophy. The present study describes tbe effect of CEI on blood pressure (BP) and myocardial hypertrophy (prevention and reversal) in tbe spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). A group of 3-weekand 8-week-old male SHR was treated with CEI (30 mg/kg in drinking water) for 6 weeks. An additional group of SHR was also treated with a combination of CEI and a diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide, 500 mg/Uter). Heart weight, BP, deoxyrtbonudeic add (DNA), ribonudeic add (RNA), hydroxyproline, myocardial catecboiamlnes, and plasma rente activity (PRA) were determined. In the prevention study, we found a significant reduction in tbe ratio of heart weight to body weight along with the prevention of hypertension (200 vs 145 mm Hg, p < 0.001). Similar reductions in BP and heart weights were obtained with the reversal group. A better BP control was noted in the CEI and hydrochlorotbiazide group. The reduction of heart weight was associated with a reduction in RNA and hydroxyproline content. In all groups, we found a significant Increase in PRA (p < 0.001) and a slight increase in tissue catecholamlne concentration. No change in kidney weight was found in any group. Data dearly showed that oral administration of CEI prevented and reversed cardiac hypertrophy in SHR. Reversal was associated with a decrease in myocardial collagen content. These data indicate that prevention of All formation in combination with BP control can prevent and reverse cardiac hypertrophy in SHR. Of course, whether or not CEI acts only through the renin angiotension system is still speculative.
Cycle cancellation and pregnancy after luteal estradiol priming in women defined as poor responders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

STUDY QUESTION Does a luteal estradiol (LE) stimulation protocol improve outcomes in poor responders to IVF? SUMMARY ANSWER LE priming is associated with decreased cycle cancellation and increased chance of clinical pregnancy in poor responders WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Poor responders to IVF are one of the most challenging patient populations to treat. Many standard protocols currently exist for stimulating these patients but all have failed to improve outcomes. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Systematic review and meta-analysis including eight published studies comparing assisted reproduction technology (ART) outcomes in poor responders exposed to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with and without LE priming. A search of the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and PUBMED was carried out for studies in the English language published up to January 2012. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Studies evaluating women defined as poor responders to ART were evaluated. These studies were identified following a systematic review of the literature and data were analyzed using the DerSimonian-Laird random effects model. The main outcomes of interest were cycle cancellation rate and clinical pregnancy. Although the definition of clinical pregnancy varied between studies, the principal definition included fetal cardiac activity as assessed by transvaginal ultrasonography after 5 weeks of gestation. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE A total of 2249 publications were identified from the initial search, and the bibliographies, abstracts and other sources yielded 11 more. After excluding duplications, 1227 studies remained and 8 ultimately met the inclusion criteria. Compared with women undergoing non-LE primed protocols (n = 621), women exposed to LE priming (n = 468) had a lower risk of cycle cancellation [relative risk (RR): 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.45-0.78] and an improved chance of clinical pregnancy (RR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.02-1.72). There was no significant improvement in the number of mature oocytes obtained or number of zygotes obtained per cycle. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION These findings are limited by the body of literature currently available. As the poor responder lacks a concrete definition, there is some heterogeneity to these results, which merits caution when applying our findings to individual patients. Furthermore, the increased clinical pregnancy rate demonstrated when using the LE protocol may be principally related to the decreased cycle cancellation rate. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The LE protocol may be of some utility in the poor responder to IVF and may increase clinical pregnancy rates in this population by improving stimulation and thereby decreasing cycle cancellation. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS NIH K12 HD063086 (ESJ, MGT), NIH T32 HD0040135-11 (KAR), F32 HD040135-10 NIH (KRO), 5K12HD000849-25 (PTJ). No competing interests.
The role of the gut in β‐cell autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes: a hypothesis

Abstract: The origin of autoimmunity leading to the destruction of insulin‐producing β‐cells is not known. Several studies suggest that a link exists between the gut immune system and the islets infiltrating lympocytes. Inflamed pancreatic islets express the same adhesion molecules involved with the homing of gut‐associated lymphocytes. The manifestation of autoimmune diabetes in the animal models can be modified by dietary factors, which cause changes in the cytokine production by islet‐infiltrating lymphocytes. Increased risk of type 1 diabetes has been associated with an early introduction of cows' milk formula in infancy, indicating that triggering of the gut immune system in early infancy may contribute to the later development of β‐cell autoimmunity. Enhanced immune reactivity to cow milk (CM) proteins in the patients with type 1 diabetes suggests aberrant regulation of the gut immune system in this disease. In the patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, anti‐glutamate decarboxylase (GAD)‐reactivity was found in the subpopulation of lymphocytes expressing gut‐associated homing receptor α4β7. Based on these findings, the hypothesis that aberrant function of the gut immune system would lead to the development of β‐cell autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes has recently received a lot of attention. The possibility that regulation of the gut immune system is not normal in subjects at risk of autoimmune diabetes should be considered when treatments interfering with mucosal immunity for the prevention of type 1 diabetes are planned.
Community-based ecotourism: Its socio-economic impacts at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana

Abstract There is a lacuna in literature from Western Africa on how issue of participation influence socio-economic impacts at ecotourism destinations. This paper investigates the socio-economic impacts of ecotourism based on Boabeng- Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in Ghana. The paper is based on primary data generated from Boabeng and Fiema communities. Seventy mainly opened-ended questionnaires were administered face-to-face to purposively selected residents from the two communities, alongside, in-depth interviews with the management of the Sanctuary and focus group with purposively selected individuals from Boabeng and Fiema. The study reveals that the residents of the communities face burgeoning challenges such as shrinking livelihood options, inadequate involvement of community in the ecotourism, poor state of the visitor centre, inadequate government support and poor roads.