Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAIN IN NORMAL AND HEAT‐RETARDED GUINEA‐PIGS

Guinea‐pigs were exposed to a temperature of 41.5–42.5°C for 1h daily on days 20–23 of gestation. Fetuses from control and from heated mothers were studied at 30, 35, 41, 48, 55 and 62 days gestation and post‐natal offspring at 69, 76, 83, 90, 104, 118, 132, 146 and 160 days after conception. Body weights, whole and regional brain weights, and the dry matter, DNA (an index of cellularity) and cholesterol (an index of myelination) contents of these brain regions were measured. There was frequently a small but variable deficit in the body weight of heated offspring. A significant reduction of whole brain weight was found in the heated groups. The deficit in brain weight was detected 7 days after the heat‐stress and remained at about the same relative level until maturity. The DNA and cholesterol concentrations were the same in control and heated brains, but the absolute amounts were less in the latter which resembled proportional, normally shaped miniatures of the control brains. Hyperthermia is known to disrupt cellular proliferations, and since it was given during neurogenesis it is concluded that the size which might be attained by the brain is largely determined by the extent of early neuronal proliferation.
Civil society movements and campaigns for international democracy

Part VI provides a chapter on the role of global civil society movements in the democratization of international organizations. It gives a general perspective of the globalization process and shows the creation and the growth of transnational networks with a main objective to foster international democracy. The chapter is divided into two sections. The first presents a brief introduction to the concepts of democracy and globalization. It presents the role of the civil society movements to globalize democracy and gives a successful example of how an alliance between civil society and progressive governments brought about the establishment of a new institution that is considered an important step in reinforcing international democracy. Special attention will be given to Europe, considered the most advanced experiment of international democracy, with some important campaigns with the aim of the democratization of European institutions. The second part focuses on the 21st century and describes the global civil society movements building another possible world starting from the protests of Seattle (1999), Nice (2000) and Genoa (2001), and moving to the projects for international democracy produced in the wake of that world-wide process that originated in Porto Alegre with the World Social Forum. This chapter should be considered a preamble of what will be developed, in a detailed and comprehensive way, in the second report of International Democracy Watch. The next report will be devoted to the study of civil society movements and campaigns in the field of democratizing international organizations at the universal, inter-regional and regional levels.
Robustness analysis of an unstructured overlay for media communication

The wide diffusion of network address translators (NATs) (and, in some respect, firewalls) may prevent some applications that require direct end-to-end connectivity (e.g. real-time media) from being able to connect to the remote party. Although the solutions currently adopted rely on centralised nodes as third party relays, the distributed connectivity service (DISCOS) architecture has been recently proposed and aims at distributing such functionalities across a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay. The original study presented some performance characteristics of the overlay, but the ability to resist to both failures and attacks was not taken into consideration. This study illustrates the robustness feature of the DISCOS overlay and suggests some minor modifications to the original mechanisms, in order to improve the overall robustness. The key component of DISCOS is its dynamic scale-free topology. Hence, the study also extends the existing literature concerning the robustness of scale-free networks, which considers only static graphs.
Seasonal changes in mycorrhizal and fibrous-textured root biomass in 23- and 180-year-old Pacific silver fir stands in western Washington.

Seasonal changes in mycorrhizal and fibrous root biomass were examined in 23- and 180-year-old Abiesamabilis (Dougl.) Forbes stands. Both stands had similar patterns of change in mycorrhizal root biomass with the lowest level in the summer and highest in the fall. The fall peak of fine root biomass was the result of increased mycorrhizal and not fibrous root biomass. High levels of active mycorrhizal root biomass were measured during the winter months under a snowpack at soil temperatures of 1 °C. In both stands mycorrhizal roots comprised the largest proportion of the weight of fine roots during the winter (29%) and the lowest during the summer (2%). Except during early summer, the old stand had significantly higher levels of mycorrhizal root biomass in comparison to the young stand throughout the year.
Study of post cesarean section wound infection and microbiological epidemiology in tertiary care centre, Western Rajasthan, India

Caesarean delivery is a major obstetrical surgical procedure aiming to save the lives of mothers and foetuses. The incidence of C-section deliveries both primary and repeat has risen dramatically over the last few decades, with an estimated global number of 22.9 million C-section deliveries in 2012. More than a century earlier, the concepts of antisepsis and infection prevention in surgical practices were realized, this was later boosted by the use of preoperative antibiotics at correct dose and time. Any breach in the integrity of skin and mucous membranes is a risk factor to acquisition of infection by either endogenous or exogenous organisms. Surgery itself is a risk factor for acquisition of infection, including nosocomial infection. Malnutrition and low socio-economic status further exacerbate the risk of infection. C-section carries 20-fold increase risk of infection compared to normal vaginal delivery. The knowledge of risk factors associated with surgical site infection is essential to develop targeted prevention strategies and reduce the risk of infection.
A Meta-analysis of the Drivers of Franchise System Performance

Franchising is one of the fastest growing forms of retail globally yet fundamental gaps exist in our knowledge of the primary drivers of performance in franchise systems (Combs, Ketchen and Hoover 2004; Dant et al. 2007). Understanding the drivers of performance is of utmost concern to franchise managers (Lewis and Lambert 1999) as it enables them to develop strategies that can effectively enhance the performance of their franchise systems. The empirical literature has confounded this discussion by using disparate definitions and operationalizations of performance across different studies. While some studies utilize financial performance measures such as sales and ROA as measures of performance (e.g. Hoover et al. 2004), others consider growth to be a more appropriate form of performance (e.g. Dant et al. 2007; Shane 1996a). Along with these disparate findings and the inconsistency in performance measurement, there is little known about the methodological and contextual factors that may moderate the relationships between performance drivers and performance. Because of heterogeneous findings in the franchising literature, the relationship between various predictors and franchise performance are unclear. This complicates the efforts of researchers to develop a comprehensive understanding of the drivers of franchise performance. It also makes it difficult to translate the findings in the academic literature into a form. Such variations in definitions, findings, and methodological factors, along with the importance of the relationships and findings to theory and management, requires a synthesis and analysis of the empirical research. The objective of this study is to provide a meta-analytic review of the drivers of franchise performance system growth, financial performance, and survival. Specifically, this article answers three questions. First, what are the important and commonly examined factors that influence franchise system performance? Second, what is the relationship between the different performance drivers and franchise system performance? Third, does the relationship between performance drivers and franchise system performance vary by different sampling and study characteristics? The meta-analysis finds that various predictors such as brand reputation, and size are related to franchise system growth; age and proportion of outlets franchised are related to franchise system financial performance, whereas size, age and start-up costs are related to franchise system survival. The study also finds that the relationship between franchise performance and its drivers varies according to the study’s characteristics (e.g. industry sample and number of items used to measure performance). Overall the findings provide a benchmark to develop future research in the area of franchising performance. Furthermore, this study provides managerial implications for researchers and franchise managers.
Response of a mixed tropical seagrass assemblage to burial by inorganic and organic sediments under low light

Response of a mixed tropical seagrass assemblage to burial by inorganic and organic sediments under low light John Statton1,3, Kathryn McMahon2,3, Roisin McCallum2,3, Manuel Vivanco Bercovich1,3, Gary Kendrick 1,3, Paul Lavery2,3 1 The Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia 2 Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia 3 Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI), Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Método do índice de qualidade na determinação do frescor de peixes

O Metodo do Indice de Qualidade e um sistema de controle de qualidade do frescor do pescado e baseia-se na avaliacao objetiva dos principais atributos sensoriais de cada especie de peixe, atraves de um sistema de pontos de demerito. O MIQ e baseado na avaliacao visual e olfativa de certos atributos do peixe, principalmente a aparencia dos olhos, pele e brânquias, juntamente com o odor e textura, atraves de um sistema de classificacao por pontos de demerito, de 0 a 3. A pontuacao de todos os atributos e somada para dar uma pontuacao global sensorial, o chamado Indice de Qualidade (IQ). O metodo permite a avaliacao da qualidade do pescado em questao, a previsao da validade comercial da especie estudada, com a vantagem de ser barato, simples, requerer pouco treinamento em relacao aos outros metodos e nao destruir a amostra. Sua aplicacao faz da analise sensorial, tao importante para avaliacao do frescor do pescado, um metodo objetivo, permitindo de forma confiavel e rapida, a avaliacao da materia-prima, seja a bordo das embarcacoes, no controle da materia-prima nas industrias, ou nos entrepostos e em postos de venda.
The 1.2-Megabase Genome Sequence of Mimivirus

We recently reported the discovery and preliminary characterization of Mimivirus, the largest known virus, with a 400-nanometer particle size comparable to mycoplasma. Mimivirus is a double-stranded DNA virus growing in amoebae. We now present its 1,181,404–base pair genome sequence, consisting of 1262 putative open reading frames, 10% of which exhibit a similarity to proteins of known functions. In addition to exceptional genome size, Mimivirus exhibits many features that distinguish it from other nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses. The most unexpected is the presence of numerous genes encoding central protein-translation components, including four amino-acyl transfer RNA synthetases, peptide release factor 1, translation elongation factor EF-TU, and translation initiation factor 1. The genome also exhibits six tRNAs. Other notable features include the presence of both type I and type II topoisomerases, components of all DNA repair pathways, many polysaccharide synthesis enzymes, and one intein-containing gene. The size and complexity of the Mimivirus genome challenge the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms. This new sequence data might help shed a new light on the origin of DNA viruses and their role in the early evolution of eukaryotes.
Drivers of plankton populations in the Baltic Sea

Plankton are at the base of the food chain, and identifying their drivers is important for understanding how climate change will impact populations and communities. The main aim of my thesis was to quantify the effects of environmental drivers on population dynamics of natural phytoand zooplankton populations (mainly species and genera) using population dynamical modelling of time-series data. However, using time-series data for modelling population dynamics presents multiple challenges as data are never perfect. All data collection and observation processes contain multiple sources of uncertainty and in my thesis, I make an effort to account for such sources, with more detailed consideration of seasonality and wind. In a case study investigating the spatio-temporal population dynamics of six phytoplankton species, populations displayed a high level of synchrony in their annual biomass dynamics across the northern Baltic Sea, likely caused by the Moran effect. When I further investigated abiotic drivers in the Gulf of Finland, individual autoand heterotrophic plankton taxa were mainly driven by temperature, salinity and stratification. Identifying temperature effects on abundance can be challenging, as temperature can also affect seasonal timing of populations. While there were few direct effects of temperature on zooplankton abundances, there were changes in their seasonal occurrence to earlier spring, likely connected to warming. I also investigated potential biotic interaction between zooplankton and zoobenthos, as zooplankton can have resting eggs in the sediment. The results indicate that biotic interactions were important on annual scale within zoobenthos, but no interactions between zooplankton and zoobenthos were apparent. Based on the findings in my thesis, many of the identified environmental effects on densities were large in relation to the environmental variability. There is also a need to consider seasonality when investigating plankton populations, as ignoring changes in phenology can lead to noisier estimates or to issues with interpreting temporal patterns.
Diﬀerentiable neural computers - from inspiration to implementation

Information storage is an important research topic in both psychology and computer science. On one side, biological models of the human brain, especially the hippocampus, and psychological models of the working-memory of humans, inspired research in neural networks. On the other side, developments in computer science itself, like the long short-term memory (LSTM) and the Neural Turing Machine (NTM) lead to new inventions. One of these is the diﬀerentiable neural computer with an external memory (DNC) which combines psychological and biological aspects, as well as technical innovations. First experiments with traversal, shortest path and inference tasks showed that the DNC improved accuracy in comparison with LSTM and NTM a lot.
The role of aquaculture in upcoming food crisis

As the global population exceeds 6.5 billion in recent years, aquaculture is destined to play a more important role in providing animal protein in terms of aquaculture potential and high feed conversion rates. Technical and non-technical aspects of aquaculture are discussed in this paper to help sustainable development of this knowledge-based industry, with emphasis on food safety and human welfare. Technical strategies include consolidated standards for each species, introduction of exotic species, improvement of feeds, selective breeding, disease control and others. Non-technical strategies include training of personnel, proper licensing system, implementation of appropriate regulations and laws, efficient monitoring system, and establishment of local and global aquaculture networks.
Extreme spawning-site fidelity in Atlantic cod

Skjaeraasen, J. E. , Meager, J. J., Karlsen, O. , Hutchings, J. A. , and Ferno, A. 2011. Extreme spawning-site fidelity in Atlantic cod. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1472–1477.Based on a 3-year mark-recapture study, evidence is provided of spawning-site fidelity in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) at a scale (<1 km) smaller than documented previously. Coastal regions where barriers to dispersal exist may allow for local population dynamics and adaptation to develop in broadcast-spawning marine fish at extremely fine spatial scales.
Managerialismo e a questão da gestão das universidades

As Instituições de Ensino Superior contemporâneas enfrentam crescentes instabilidades e turbulências bem como constantes pressões para se modificarem para responderem às solicita çõ es da actualidade , gerir de forma eficiente os recursos disponíveis e adaptarem-se continuamente às mudanças no seu ambiente. A gestão managerialista desponta como prática ideal para bem governar, especialmente, instituições grandes e complexas, como as universidades públicas. Como sinónimo de bom governo, este sistema reorganiza e transforma as universidades sob os olhares preocupados do corpo docente. Neste ensaio, propomos uma discussão a respeito das consequências deste tipo de gestão para a criação do conhecimento científico nas universidades públicas e até que ponto a gestão destas se aproxima do modelo empresarial. Este paper faz parte de estudos que se encontram em andamento na Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto Portugal em projeto de doutoramento na área de Ciências Empresariais.
Design and Control of a CT- Compatible Needle Steering System

Image-guided minimally invasive interventions such as biopsies, brachytherapies and ablations are well-established procedures. Typically, such procedures require insertion of a needle into the body. The goal is to reach the cancerous or suspicious lesion accurately. To achieve this goal, different imaging modalities such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluoroscopy are used as feedback. Insertion and manipulation of the needle is done manually in current clinical practice. However, extensive research has been done which aims at developing methods to perform these procedures using robotic setups to benefit from their precision. One of the important topics in this field is cancer related diagnoses and therapies of lung, because lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer related death worldwide (1.59 million death in 2012) [1]. Early detection is very important to reduce mortality rates [2]. After a suspicious lesion is observed in CT images, usually a needle biopsy is performed, and the sampled tissue is tested to confirm the diagnosis. One of the main challenges involved in these interventions is that the lesion moves due to respiration. Therefore, patient compliance and clinician’s skill are important factors for a successful procedure. Different robotic setups has been developed to improve interventional accuracy and to make it less dependent on the clinician’s skills [3]. It is possible to categorize the robotic setups into different groups based on their insertion principle and the structure they use. Some of these setups are only positioning devices [4]. After the best insertion pose is determined, the device places a needle holder in the proper position and orientation and then needle insertion is done manually. On the other hand, there are Needle Insertion Devices (NID), which not only position the needle, but also perform the insertion [5]. Also, the positioning device or NID could be patientmounted, bed-mounted or could have its own base. While patient-mounted devices compensate for the body motion (due to respiration, fluid flow and etc.), bed-mounted and base-mounted devices need to track the chest motion and compensate for it in the control scheme. In this work, we are interested in developing a test bed to be used in lung and liver biopsies using CT images. 2 Design
A National Fish Consumption Advisory Data Base: A Step toward Consistency

Abstract In 1990, the Research Triangle Institute compiled a list of fish consumption advisories resulting from chemical contamination of fish and shellfish species throughout the United States. A major update of the data file in September 1993 revealed significant information on fish advisories. Regionally, the Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) have issued 73% of the listed advisories. The predominance of data from these states in the data base listings strongly influences the interpretation of other results, such as summaries of pollutants that trigger the most advisories, types of waterbodies where advisories are most commonly issued, and families and species most often cited in advisories. Four contaminants (mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlordane, and dioxin) are responsible for more than 90% of all advisories. Advisories for lakes represent two-thirds of all advisories issued by states. Seventy-five finfish species from 20 .
From Lomonosov Lemma to Radical Approach in Joint Spectral Radius Theory

In this paper we discuss the infinite-dimensional generalizations of the famous theorem of Berger-Wang (generalized Berger-Wang formulas) and give an operator-theoretic proof of I. Morris's theorem about coincidence of three essential joint spectral radius, related to these formulas. Further we develop Banach-algebraic approach based on the theory of topological radicals, and obtain some new results about these radicals.
Probabilistic Color Constancy

In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised color constancy method, called Probabilistic Color Constancy (PCC). We define a framework for estimating the illumination of a scene by weighting the contribution of different image regions using a graph-based representation of the image. To estimate the weight of each (super-)pixel, we rely on two assumptions: (Super-)pixels with similar colors contribute similarly and darker (super-)pixels contribute less. The resulting system has one global optimum solution. The proposed method achieves competitive performance, compared to the state-of-the-art, on INTEL-TAU dataset.
FETAL AND MATERNAL ATHYROSIS. II

The author has described a thyroid disturbance (1) that is prevalent among new-born domestic animals in western sections of this continent. The disease is one which affects swine, sheep, cattle, horses, goats and dogs, and occurs among such a wide range of animals that it appears very probable that if human beings were subjected to the same relative conditions a more or less severe form of a similar thyroid disturbance would result. A profound influence of pregnancy upon the maternal thyroid, which may develop into a pathologic condition, has to some extent been recognized, but the attention has been confined mainly to the maternal organism. The manifestations of the thyroid disturbance among domestic animals show very clearly, however, that the effects are more disastrous to the fetus than to the maternal organism. It is our opinion that when this subject has been thoroughly explored many of the cases of infantile fatality and of arrested development of children which are now vaguely designated as congen.