Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFECTS OF SODIUM FLUORIDE ON ANDROGEN RECEPTOR EXPRESSION IN MALE MICE

To investigate the effects of different doses of sodium fluoride (NaF) on protein and gene expression of the androgen receptor (AR) in the testis of mice, sexually mature male Kunming mice in groups of 20 were exposed to 0 (control), 50, 100, 200, and 300 mg NaF/L in their drinking water for 8 weeks. At the end of this period, streptavidin peroxidase immunochemistry and computer imaging analysis were applied to examine the AR expression in the testis. Compared with the control group, expressions of AR protein decreased significantly in the 200 and 300 mg NaF/ L groups (p<0.05). With quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR), we also assessed the expression of AR mRNA by culturing primary Sertoli cells from immature mice with different concentrations of fluoride (10-6, 10-5, 10-4, and 10-3 mol/ L) for 48 hr, resulting in a significant F-induced decline in the AR mRNA level in the cells compared to controls. On the basis of these findings, we propose that decreased AR protein and gene expression in the testis is associated with impairment of reproductive functions by NaF.
Opportunity Cost and Prudentiality: An Analysis of Futures Clearinghouse Behavior

Margin deposits, which serve as collateral to protect the clearinghouse, are typically the most important tool for risk management. The authors develop a model that explains how creating a futures clearinghouse may allow traders simultaneously to reduce both the risk of default and the total amount of margin that members post. Optimal margin levels are determined by the need to balance the deadweight costs of default against the opportunity cost of holding additional margin. Both costs are a consequence of market participants'imperfect access to capital markets. The simultaneous reduction in default risk and in the opportunity cost of margin deposits is possible because the creation of the clearinghouse facilitates multilateral netting. The authors characterize the conditions under which multilateral netting will dominate bilateral netting. They also show that it is credible for the clearinghouse to expel members who default, further reducing the risk of default. Finally, they show that it may (but need not) be optimal for the clearinghouse to monitor the financial condition of its members. If monitoring occurs, it will reduce the amount of margin required, but need not affect the probability of default. The empirical tests run by the authors indicate that the opportunity cost of margin plays an important role in determining margin. The relationship between volatility and margins indicates that participants face an upward-sloping opportunity cost for margin, which appears to more than offset the effects that monitoring and expulsion would be expected to have on margin setting.
Changes After Withdrawal of Atypical Antipsychotics in Patients With First-Episode Schizophrenia

The influence of antipsychotic medication on brain morphology in schizophrenia may confound interpretation of brain changes over time. We aimed to assess the effect of discontinuation of atypical antipsychotic medication on change in brain volume in patients. Sixteen remitted, stable patients with first-episode schizophrenia, schizoaffective or schizophreniform disorder and 20 healthy controls were included. Two magnetic resonance imaging brain scans were obtained from all subjects with a 1-year interval. The patients either discontinued (n = 8) their atypical antipsychotic medication (olanzapine, risperidone, or quetiapine) or did not (n = 8) discontinue during the follow-up period. Intracranial volume and volumes of total brain, cerebral gray and white matter, cerebellum, third and lateral ventricle, nucleus caudatus, nucleus accumbens, and putamen were obtained. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess main effects for group (patient-control) and discontinuation (yes-no) for brain volume (change) while correcting for age, sex, and intracranial volume. Decrease in cerebral gray matter and caudate nucleus volume over time was significantly more pronounced in patients relative to controls. Our data suggest decreases in the nucleus accumbens and putamen volumes during the interval in patients who discontinued antipsychotic medication, whereas increases were found in patients who continued their antipsychotics. We confirmed earlier findings of excessive gray matter volume decrements in patients with schizophrenia compared with normal controls. We found evidence suggestive of decreasing volumes of the putamen and nucleus accumbens over time after discontinuation of medication. This might suggest that discontinuation reverses effects of atypical medication.
Superposition rheology and anisotropy in rheological properties of sheared colloidal gels

Gelling colloidal suspensions represent an important class of soft materials. Their mechanical response is characterized by a solid-to-liquid transition at a given shear stress level. Moreover, they often exhibit a complex time-dependent rheological behavior known as thixotropy. The viscosity changes find their origin in the microstructure, which depends on flow history. Yet, the structural response of colloidal gels to flow differs fundamentally from most complex fluids, where flow induces orientation. Upon yielding, low to intermediate volume fraction gels break down in a spatially anisotropic way. Bonds in the velocity-velocity gradient plane are broken, whereas microstructural features in other planes are less affected. The subsequent flow-induced microstructural anisotropy is characterized by typical butterfly scattering patterns. However, as yet there was no evidence for the pertinence of this anisotropy for the rheological properties of these systems. In the present work, orthogonal superposition r.
Infrared imaging and spectroscopy with HAWAII and PICNIC arrays

This paper describes the results of a test program to evaluate four Rockwell HAWAII and two PICNIC near IR array detectors with a view to their application in imaging, spectroscopy and in fast telescope tracking and interferometer fringe detection. Results of the laboratory test of the arrays are presented, together with a guide for their general operation.
Semantic modeling for engineering data analytics solutions

Data analytics solution engineering often involves multiple tasks from data exploration to result presentation which are applied in various contexts and on different datasets. Semantic modeling based on the open world assumption supports flexible modeling of linked knowledge. The objective of this paper is to review existing techniques that leverage semantic web technologies to tackle challenges such as heterogeneity and changing requirements in data analytics solution engineering. We explore the application scope of those techniques, the different types of semantic concepts they use and the role these concepts play during the analytics solution development process. To gather evidence for the study we performed a systematic mapping study by identifying and reviewing 82 papers that incorporate semantic models in engineering data analytics solutions. One of the paper’s findings is that existing models can be classified within four types of knowledge spheres: domain knowledge, analytics knowledge, services and user intentions. Another finding is to show how this knowledge is used in literature to enhance different tasks within the analytics process. We conclude our study by discussing limitations of the existing body of research, showcasing the potential of semantic modeling to enhance data analytics solutions and discussing the possibility of leveraging ontologies for effective end-to-end data analytics solution engineering.
PRICE LEVEL CONVERGENCE Evidence from Pakistan Cities

We examine convergence of prices among 35 Pakistani cities and also explore how location of cities affects the convergence. We have found that there is bilateral price-level convergence for only food group and speed of convergence is around 3 months. On the other hand, prices of non-food commodities have very low speed of adjustment with 20 months. As a result, the overall CPI basket (food and non-food combined) has a moderate speed of convergence - 8 months. Moreover, relative prices have been found sensitive to locality as well as distance among them.
Analysis and Discussion of the Images of a Cluster of Periodically Flashing Lights Filmed Off the Coast of New Zealand

The New Zealand UFO sightings of December 3 1, 1978 are unique among civilian UFO reports because there is a large amount of the documentary evidence which includes the recollections of seven witnesses, two tape recordings made during the sightings, the detection of some unusual ground and airplane radar targets and a 16 mm color movie made with a professional camera. Of the several unidentified light sources that were filmed, one of the more interesting is the cluster of lights that oscillated periodically in intensity at a rate of about once per second. An analysis of the 279 frames of film which show about 30 cycles of the oscillation indicates that there were three lights which formed an isosceles triangle. The color of the light source at the apex was pale yellow or very pale orange (the exact shade is difficult to determine). The base of the triangle was formed by two red lights, side by side. The light at the apex oscillated over an intensity range which went from zero (no image) to such a large value that it greatly overexposed the film. The red lights also oscillated, but they were generally out of phase with the light at the apex and they did not get bright enough to overexpose the film. This paper presents some of the physical characteristics of the film images and a discussion of the visual and radar sighting, which, it is argued, took place at essentially the same time (i.e., within a minute or so) as the filming. A number of explanations have been suggested for the film of the flashing light. The explanations are analyzed and reasons for rejecting them are presented. As yet no explanation in terms of known phenomena has been proposed that satisfactorily explains the film. 0892-3310/87 $3.00+. 00
Can We Predict the Election Outcome from Sampled Votes?

In the standard model of voting, it is assumed that a voting rule observes the ranked preferences of each individual over a set of alternatives and makes a collective decision. In practice, however, not every individual votes. Is it possible to make a good collective decision for a group given the preferences of only a few of its members? We propose a framework in which we are given the ranked preferences of k out of n individuals sampled from a distribution, and the goal is to predict what a given voting rule would output if applied on the underlying preferences of all n individuals. We focus on the family of positional scoring rules, derive a strong negative result when the underlying preferences can be arbitrary, and discover interesting phenomena when they are generated from a known distribution.
Level of Control of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Attending Primary Health Care Centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases, its proper management is important for better prognosis. poor control is not uncommon and factors associated with uncontrolled state vary between communities. No previous published researches focused on estimating uncontrolled cases in Jeddah, nor exploring its associated factors. Objectives of the study: To estimate prevalence of uncontrolled type 2 diabetic cases and explore its associated factors in patients attending primary heal care centers, Jeddah, KSA. Subjects and methods: Through a cross section study, with nested case control design, 400 diabetic patients were selected randomly from primary health care centers in Jeddah. They responded to a predesigned valid questionnaire enclosing information about glycemic level, and demographic and clinical variables possibly associated with poor glycemic control. Chi square test and Odds ratio were used to identify factors significantly associated and predicting uncontrolled diabetes. Results: Out of all patients (n=400), more than one half (54%) aged 60 years or older, with marked dominance of females (65.5%). almost three quarters (72.5%) were considered as being “uncontrolled cases”. The most significant factors associated with poor glycemic control included being a female (OR=1.456, 95% CI: 1.065-2.706)), older patients as it reached up to 80.4% in patients aged 60-79 years, widowed (87.1%), obese patients (73.6%) and hypertensive patients (OR=3.126, 95% CI:1.867-5.233). Poor control was less frequentr in those who had positive history of hyperglycemic crisis (OR=0.578, 95% CI:0.497-0.673) and those who had positive family history of diabetes mellitus (OR=0.822, 95% CI:0.728-0.928) p<0.05. Conclusion and recommendations: Poor glycemic control is markedly prevalent among diabetic patients attending PHC in Jeddah. Associated factors included being female, old age, obesity, hypertension and positive family history of diabetes. Tailored care should be planned for diabetic patients with the predictors of poor glycemic explored in the current study.
Response of the temporal turbulent boundary layer to decaying free-stream turbulence

The turbulent boundary layer developing under a turbulence-laden free stream is numerically investigated using the temporal boundary layer framework. This study focuses on the interaction between the fully turbulent boundary layer and decaying free-stream turbulence. Previous experiments and simulations of this physical problem have considered a spatially evolving boundary layer beset by free-stream turbulence. The state of the boundary layer at any given downstream position in fact reflects the accumulated history of the co-evolution of boundary layer and free-stream turbulence. The central aim of the present work is to isolate the effect of local free-stream disturbances existing at the same time as the ‘downstream’ boundary layer. The temporal framework used here helps expose when and how disturbances directly above the boundary layer actively impart change upon it. The bulk of our simulations were completed by seeding the free stream above boundary layers that were ‘pre-grown’ to a desired thickness with homogeneous isotropic turbulence from a precursor simulation. Moreover, this strategy allowed us to test various combinations of the turbulence intensity and large-eddy length scale of the free-stream turbulence with respect to the corresponding scales of the boundary layer. The relative large-eddy turnover time scale between the free-stream turbulence and the boundary layer emerges as an important parameter in predicting if the free-stream turbulence and boundary layer interaction will be ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ before the free-stream turbulence eventually fades to a negligible level. If the large-eddy turnover time scale of the free-stream turbulence is much smaller than that of the boundary layer, the interaction will be ‘weak’, as the free-stream disturbances will markedly decay before the boundary layer is able be altered significantly as a result of the free-stream disturbances. For a ‘strong’ interaction, the injected free-stream turbulence causes increased spreading of the boundary layer away from the wall, permitting large incursions of free-stream fluid deep within it.
An Analysis of Plane Task Text Ellipticity and the Possibility of Ellipses Reconstructing Based on Cognitive Modeling Geometric Objects and Actions

The article describes the processing of ellipses in an automated system of solving planimetric tasks according to their description in natural language. An approach is proposed to processing ellipses basing on cognitive semantics. The resolution of ellipses is based on using syntactic structures and semantics of geometry in parallel. The types of ellipses most frequently encountered in geometric tasks are revealed. A new approach to recognizing and resolving ellipses in the framework of cognitive semantics is offered.
A multi-objective predictive control strategy for enhancing primary frequency support with wind farms

Nowadays, wind power plants (WPPs) should be able to dynamically change their power output to meet the power demanded by the transmission system operators. When the wind power generation exceeds the power demand, the WPP works in de-loading operation keeping some power reserve to be delivered into the grid to balance the frequency drop. This paper proposes to cast a model predictive control strategy as a multi-objective optimization problem which regulates the power set-points among the turbines in order to track the power demand profile, to maximize the power reserve, as well as to minimize the power losses in the inter-arrays connecting the wind turbines within the wind farm collection grid. The performance of the proposed control approach was evaluated for a wind farm of 12 turbines using a wind farm simulator to model the dynamic behavior of the wake propagation through the wind farm.
EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC VARIABILITY ON SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

This study examined the effects of acoustic variability on second language vocabulary learning. English native speakers learned new words in Spanish. Exposure frequency to the words was constant. Dependent measures were accuracy and latency of picture-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English recall. Experiment 1 compared presentation formats of neutral (conversational) voice only, three voice types, and six voice types. No significant differences emerged. Experiment 2 compared presentation formats of one speaker, three speakers, and six speakers. Vocabulary learning was superior in the higher-variability conditions. Experiment 3 partially replicated Experiment 1 while rotating voice types across subjects in moderate and no-variability conditions. Vocabulary learning was superior in the higher variability conditions. These results are consistent with an exemplar-based theory of initial lexical learning and representation.Portions of these data were presented at the 143rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Cancun, Mexico and at the Fourth International Conference on the Mental Lexicon in Windsor, Canada. The authors would like to thank Paola Rijos for help in data collection and scoring and the anonymous SSLA reviewers.
Prevalance and Market Expension of Homeopathy in the Cancer Management

DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2018. 7.6. 5 Abstract: Many cancer patients use homeopathic approaches to increase their bodys ability to fight cancer, improve their physical and emotional well-being, and alleviate their pain resulting from the disease or conventional treatments. The aim of this review is to summarize the efficacy of homeopathy and extent of homeopathy market in cancer treatment. Homoeopathic treatment is an important way of treating the physical, mental, emotional level of the patient. Cancer patients use chemotherapy to a great extent. There are also many adverse effects of chemotherapy, which we can reduce by homeopathic remedies and through homeopathy, we can activate our body's immune system, if we are using homeopathy with allopathic treatment it is a very strong strategy for completely removal of cancer. Conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy have many side effects. But allopathic treatment is essential for the treatment of cancer. Homeopathic remedies help to reduce the side effects of conventional allopathic treatment to a great extent.
Impact of Various Grass Species on Soil Bacteriobiome

Today, various grass species are important not only in animal feeding but, increasingly often, also in energetics and, due to esthetic and cultural values, in landscape architecture. Therefore, it is essential to establish the roles various grass species and their functional forms play in modifying soil bacteriobiome and enzymatic activity. To this end, a pot experiment was conducted to examine effects of various fodder grass and lawn grass species on the bacteriobiome and biochemical properties of soil. Nonsown soil served as the control for data interpretation. Analyses were carried out with standard and metagenomic methods. The intensity of effects elicited by grasses depended on both their species and functional form. More favorable living conditions promoting the development of soil bacteria and, thereby, enzymatic activity were offered by fodder than by lawn grass species. Among the fodder grasses, the greatest bacteriobiome diversity was caused by sowing the soil with Phleum pratense (Pp), whereas among lawn grasses in the soil sown with Poa pratensis (Pr). Among the fodder grasses, the highest enzymatic activity was determined in the soil sown with Lolium x hybridum Hausskn (Lh), and among the lawn grasses—in the soil sown with Lolium perenne. Sowing the soil with grasses caused the succession of a population of bacterial communities from r strategy to k strategy.
Finitely Generated Cumulants

Computations with cumulants are becoming easier through the use of computer algebra but there remains a difficulty with the finiteness of the computations because all distributions except the normal have an infinite number of non-zero cumulants. One is led therefore to replacing finiteness of computations by “finitely generated” in the sense of recurrence relationships. In fact it turns out that there is a natural definition in terms of the exponential model which is that the first and second derivative of the cumulant generating function, K, lie on a polynomial variety. This generalises recent polynomial conditions on variance functions. This is satisfied by many examples and has applications to, for example, exact expressions for variance functions and saddle-point approximations.
Effect of the age of ganders on reproductive behavior and fertility in a competitive mating structure

Abstract This paper presents the study on determination of gander-goose mating activity in relation to age and the position of gander in social hierarchic rank. Moreover, levels of fertility (F) and testosterone (T) in different gander age groups were analyzed. The study was carried out on one-year-old geese (N = 64) and one- or two-year-old ganders (N = 16; 1♂: 4♀). Observations of mating activity (MA) were conducted during the 3-h period of the daylight (10 h), 2-3 times per week (102 h/ group/34 days). The recording was done with a digital recorder connected to cameras. Agonistic behavioral interactions between ganders were noted to determine a social hierarchic rank. The MA was described by frequency of courtship displays, copulation attempts, successful copulation (SCop), and interaction disrupted (DMI) with agonistic behavior. Fertility was evaluated after the artificial incubation (1×/week) in a commercial hatchery. The frequency of SCop, DMI, and T concentration were higher (P<0.05) for two- than one-year-old ganders. Moreover, F was higher by 11.2% for group of geese kept with two-year-old ganders. There was an effect of the gander’s rank in social hierarchy on the frequency of MA. For dominant ganders, frequency of courtship displays (1.0/times/3 h) and copulation attempts (0.8/times/3 h) were lower (P<0.05), but SCop (1.5/times/3 h) was higher (P<0.05) than for subordinate ones. Thus, in domestic goose flocks reproductive success was associated with age of ganders used in competitive mating system. This is probably a multifactor effect of interaction between sexual/social experience, T-dependent mating motivation, and efficiency of MA. It is recommended to keep one-year-old geese with older ganders (after sexual reactivation) for optimal fertility results with sex ratio adjusted to gander-gander antagonistic interaction dynamic.