Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elasticity of fiber meshes from multiblock copolymers influences endothelial cell behavior.

BACKGROUND The behavior of endothelial cell is remarkably influenced by the physical and biochemical signals from their surrounding microenvironments. OBJECTIVE Here, the elasticity of fiber meshes was studied as a design parameter of substrates for endothelial cells in order to modulate angiogenesis. METHODS Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured on electrospun fiber meshes made from polyetheresterurethane (PEEU), differing in their elasticity. Cell morphology, proliferation, migration and angiogenesis of endothelial cells on the degradable substrates meshes were characterized. RESULTS The aspect ratio of HUVECs cultured on the fiber meshes from PEEU materials increased with increasing stiffness of the materials. HUVECs cultured on fiber meshes with high stiffness (Young's modulus E = 4.5±0.8 MPa) presented a higher proliferation rate and significantly faster migration velocity, as well as higher tube formation capability than the cells cultured on fiber meshes with low stiffness (E = 2.6±0.8 MPa). CONCLUSIONS These results suggested that tuning the fiber meshes' elasticity might be a potential strategy for modulating of the formation or regeneration of blood vessels.
Small RNA Sequencing Reveals Regulatory Roles of MicroRNAs in the Development of Meloidogyne incognita

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an extensive class of small regulatory RNAs. Knowing the specific expression and functions of miRNAs during root-knot nematode (RKN) (Meloidogyne incognita) development could provide fundamental information about RKN development as well as a means to design new strategies to control RKN infection, a major problem of many important crops. Employing high throughput deep sequencing, we identified a total of 45 conserved and novel miRNAs from two developmental stages of RKN, eggs and J2 juveniles, during their infection of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Twenty-one of the miRNAs were differentially expressed between the two stages. Compared with their expression in eggs, two miRNAs were upregulated (miR252 and miRN19), whereas 19 miRNAs were downregulated in J2 juveniles. Nine miRNAs were expressed at high levels, with >1000 reads per mapped million (RPM) sequenced reads in both eggs and J2 juveniles (miR1, miR124, miR2-3p, miR252, miR279, miR57-5p, miR7904, miR87, and miR92). Three miRNAs were only expressed in eggs (miR4738, miRN3, and miRN5). These differentially expressed miRNAs may control RKN development by regulating specific protein-coding genes in pathways associated with RKN growth and development.
Storage Stability of Texture and Sensory Properties of Yogurt with the Addition of Polymerized Whey Proteins

Herein, we examined the possibility of producing probiotic yogurt with the addition of polymerized whey protein (PWP). It was determined that the yogurt was stable in terms of syneresis, texture, and sensory features. No spontaneous whey syneresis (SWS) was found in PWP yogurt during 21 days of refrigerated storage at 3 ± 0.5 °C. PWP yogurt had a 5.3% higher water retention capacity (WHC) than yogurt with whey protein concentrate (WPC). Compared with yogurt with unpolymerized protein, PWP yogurt had a higher absolute cohesiveness and viscosity index. The addition of whey protein concentrates to native and polymerized form resulted in longer maintenance of the original yogurt coherence than the control yogurt during storage. PWP yogurt had the same color saturation as the control yogurt. The polymerization of whey proteins resulted in a vanilla pudding aftertaste in yogurt and increased butter flavor 2.5-fold.
Local Expectation Gradients for Doubly Stochastic Variational Inference

We introduce local expectation gradients which is a general purpose stochastic variational inference algorithm for constructing stochastic gradients through sampling from the variational distribution. This algorithm divides the problem of estimating the stochastic gradients over multiple variational parameters into smaller sub-tasks so that each sub-task exploits intelligently the information coming from the most relevant part of the variational distribution. This is achieved by performing an exact expectation over the single random variable that mostly correlates with the variational parameter of interest resulting in a Rao-Blackwellized estimate that has low variance and can work efficiently for both continuous and discrete random variables. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has interesting similarities with Gibbs sampling but at the same time, unlike Gibbs sampling, it can be trivially parallelized.
Cognitive-emotive change management

Research Question: The feasibility of applying cognitive-emotive techniques for change management. Methods: A theoretical analysis of the feasibility of the concepts of cognitive driven behavioural change for the change management in organizations. A cognitive-emotive change management process is proposed and a practical application for a case study is demonstrated that transfers existing psychological tools into the change management practice. Results: Cognitive-emotive concepts provide a theoretical foundation for the behavioural changes that are intended by change management in organizations. The cognitive-emotive techniques can be applied to existing organizational change projects. Further empirical support for the effec-tivity of these techniques for change management is necessary.
Rigorous Electromagnetic Analysis of Domestic Induction Heating Appliances

In this paper the developed analytical electromagnetic model of induction heating system is presented. The model was built up assuming equivalent electric and magnetic currents ∞owing in each planar element of the typical structure used for an induction heating system: the load disk represents the pan steel bottom, the copper inductor, and ferrite ∞ux conveyor. A system of integral equations system was then obtained enforcing the boundary conditions on each element of the structure for the electric and magnetic flelds, produced by the equivalent currents. The numerical solution of the system is a matrix equation with a known voltage vector in the left-hand side, and product of impedance coe-cients matrix and unknown electric and magnetic currents vector in the right-hand side. Since the feeding voltage is known, and impedance coe-cients are calculated using of geometry and material parameters, currents vector can be also calculated. Thus, the whole model is solved and it gives a detailed picture of currents distribution in the system, which in its turn allows to analyze heating process in the load. Each step of developing of the model was verifled by appropriate experimental measurements. Achieved results give a possibility to analyze and develop improvements to increase e-ciency, safety and to reduce the cost.
Economic Power: The Political Structure of Voluntary Exchanges ∗

“Economics has gained the title Queen of the Social Sciences by choosing solved political problems as its domain” (Lerner 1972):259. WhenAbba Lerner addressed these lines to a meeting of the American Economic Association almost a quarter of a century ago, it was the prose that caught one’s attention. The substantive claim was uncontroversial. But how many economic theorists today would agree with Lerner’s premise: “An economic transaction is a solved political problem. ”? In the professional journals, and even the undergraduate textbooks, one now encounters terms such as discipline, strategy, retaliation, monitoring, hostage-taking, enforcement, and first-mover advantage, concepts which one might have thought more appropriate to a handbook on diplomacy or military tactics than to the social science long criticized for its purported assumption of social harmony.1 The growing importance of game theory, transactions cost economics, the theory of rent seeking, the economic analysis of law, bargaining, and mechanism design has rendered Lerner’s insight anachronistic, for each of these contributions dramatizes the ∗We would like to thank Pranab Bardhan, Graciela Chichilnisky, Duncan Foley, David Gordon, Russell Hardin, Geoffrey Heal, Bruno Miconi, Paul Milgrom, Ugo Pagano, Fabio Petri, Michael Wallerstein, Donald Wittman, Elisabeth Wood, and the members of the University of Siena International School of Economic Research for their comments. 1For example, Milgrom and Roberts (1992) and cnschotter94.
Effects of sodium ions on synthesized alkali silica reaction gels

The alkali-silica reaction (ASR), leading to serious structural degradation, is the chemical reaction between reactive silica presenting in aggregates and hydroxyl ions from cement paste or pore solution. Although the chemical mechanism of ASR attack has been well studied for years, the mechanism of micro scale ASR gel formation leading to macro scale expansion is still under debate. The present study aims to illustrate the performance of ASR gel by investigating the interaction between ASR gel and sodium ion from solution. In this study, ASR gels with different calcium silica (Ca/Si) ratios (0.1, 0.5, 1) are synthesized by mixing reagent Ca(OH)2 with silica fume in a sodium hydroxide solution for seven days. Afterwards, the synthesized ASR gel is immersed in sodium hydroxide solutions with different concentrations (0.1mol/L, 0.5mol/L, 1.0mol/L) for seven days. Chemical composition, structure and water content of the ASR gel before and after alkali exposure are studied by XRD, XRF and TGA. The results confirm that an ASR gel with a targeted Ca/Si ratio can be synthesized. In addition, XRD and TGA results show that part of the calcium in the ASR gel is exchanged by sodium, leading to a structural modification. In general, this study will give further comprehension of ASR gel performance under alkaline environment, and provide detailed data to investigate the interaction between ASR gel and calcium ions in an alkaline solution in the future.
Effects of Rhamnolipid Biosurfactants on Removal of Phenanthrene from Soil

Solubilizing agents may enhance remediation of soils contaminated with hydrophobic organic contaminants by diminishing sorption of the contaminants or increasing desorption rates. The effectiveness of rhamnolipid biosurfactants to enhance the removal of sorbed contaminants from soil was determined using column studies. Soil columns were contaminated with phenanthrene and subsequently eluted with electrolyte solution or with electrolyte solution containing 500 mg/L rhamnolipid. For the four soils studied, removal of 50% of the phenanthrene from the soil columns was accomplished in a 2−5-fold shorter time period, and the time required for 90% removal was reduced up to 3.5-fold when elution was performed with the rhamnolipid-containing solution as compared to the treatment without rhamnolipid. The effect of rhamnolipid on the removal of phenanthrene was satisfactorily simulated using independently obtained parameters with a two-component advective−dispersive model accounting for micellar solubilization and a.
Optimization of a Microplate Assay for Generating Listeria Monocytogenes, E. Coli O157:H7, and Salmonella Biofilms and Enzymatic Recovery for Enumeration

Biofilms enable the persistence of pathogens in food processing environments. Sanitizing agents are needed that are effective against pathogens entrapped in biofilms that are more difficult to inactivate than planktonic cells that are displaced and found on equipment surfaces. We examined conditions to develop, analyze, and enumerate the enhanced biofilms of three different foodborne pathogens assisted by fluorescence adherence assay and enzymatic detachment. We compared three different isomeric forms of fluorescent substrates that are readily taken up by bacterial cells based on carboxy-fluorescein diacetate (5-CFDA, 5,6-CFDA, 5,6-CFDA, SE). Biofilm-forming strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7 F4546 and Salmonella Montevideo FSIS 051 were identified using a microplate fluorescence assay defined previously for L. monocytogenes. Adherence levels were determined by differences in relative fluorescence units (RFU) as well as recovered bacterial cells. Multiple hydrolytic enzymes were examined for each representative pathogen for the most suitable enzyme for detachment and enumeration to confirm adherence data obtained by fluorescence assay. Cultures were grown overnight in microplates, incubated, washed and replenished with fresh sterile growth medium; this cycle was repeated for seven consecutive days to enrich for robust biofilms. Treatments were performed in triplicate and compared by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine significant differences (p < 0.05).
Strain rate-dependent compressive deformation behavior of Nd-based bulk metallic glass

Compressive deformation behavior of the Nd60Fe20Co10Al10 bulk metallic glass was characterized over a wide strain rate range (6.0! 10 to 1.0! 10 s) at room temperature. Fracture stress was found to increase and fracture strain decrease with increasing applied strain rate. Serrated flow and a large number of shear bands were observed at the quasi-static strain rate (6.0! 10 s). The results suggest that the appearance of a large number of shear bands is probably associated with flow serration observed during compression; and both shear banding and flow serration are a strain accommodation and stress relaxation process. At dynamic strain rates (1.0! 10 s), the rate of shear band nucleation is not sufficient to accommodate the applied strain rate and thus causes an early fracture of the test sample. The fracture behavior of the Nd60Fe20Co10Al10 bulk metallic glass is sensitive to strain rate. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
On the Distribution Estimation of Power Threshold Garch Processes

The aim of this article is to estimate the probability distribution of power threshold generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity processes by establishing bounds for their finite dimensional laws. These bounds only depend on the parameters of the model and on the distribution function of its independent generating process. The application of this study to some particular models allows us to conjecture that this procedure is an adequate alternative to the corresponding estimation using the empirical distribution functions, particularly useful in the development of control charts for this kind of models.
A Latent Gaussian Copula Model for Mixed Data Analysis in Brain Imaging Genetics

Recent advances in imaging genetics make it possible to combine different types of data including medical images like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and genetic data like single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for comprehensive diagnosis of mental disorders. Understanding complex interactions among these heterogeneous data may give rise to a new perspective, while at the same time demand statistical models for their integration. Various graphical models have been proposed for the study of interaction or association networks with continuous, binary, and count data as well as the mixture of them. However, limited efforts have been made for the multinomial case, for instance, SNP data. Our goal is therefore to fill the void by developing a graphical model for the integration of fMRI image and SNP data, which can provide deeper understanding of the unknown neurogenetic mechanism. In this article, we propose a latent Gaussian copula model for mixed data containing multinomial components. We assume that the discrete variable is obtained by discretizing a latent (unobserved) continuous variable and then create a semi-rank based estimator of the graph structure. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed latent correlation has more steady and accurate performance than several existing methods in detecting graph structure. When applying to a real schizophrenia data consisting of SNP array and fMRI image collected by the Mind Clinical Imaging Consortium (MCIC), the proposed method reveals a set of distinct SNP-brain associations, which are verified to be biologically significant. The proposed model is statistically promising in handling mixed types of data including multinomial components, which can find widespread applications. To promote reproducible research, the R code is available at https://github.com/Aiying0512/LGCM.
How Finnish Teachers View Their Professional Ethos: A Case Study.

This study explored the main characteristics of professional morality according to Finnish secondary school teachers. Participants were 33 teachers from an urban Finnish secondary school with a heterogeneous student population. Teachers were asked to identify the most common moral dilemmas they had experienced in the teaching profession and to discuss their problem-solving strategies when dealing with the dilemmas. During the structured interviews, the participants described their subjective theories of teachers' professional ethos. Data analysis used Oser's model of teachers' ethos as the underlying taxonomy to examine the subjective theories expressed by teachers in the theoretical framework of justice, caring, truthfulness, and commitment. Results indicated that the highest percentage of teachers emphasized commitment as an indicator of teachers with a high professional ethos. The second most common dimension of teachers' ethos according to the teachers was justice. One-quarter of the teachers rated justice as an important quality. Only 12 percent of the teachers mentioned truthfulness, and 9 percent of the teachers mentioned care, as important qualities for teachers with a high professional ethos. (Contains 30 references.) (SM) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** A paper presented at the symposium "Ethical Rationality and technological Rationality. A Creature with two Heads? ". ECHA conference, Vienna, October 19-22, 1996 How Finnish teachers view their professional ethos: a case study Dr. Kirsi Tirri Department of Teacher Education, P.O. Box 38 FIN-00014 University of Helsinki r2( Finland email: ktirrigtc.Helsinki. FI
Violation of Bell-CHSH & CH Inequalities by Superposition of Two Coherent States (π/2 Out of Phase)

Einstein et al. [1] realized that in many states, when measuring either linear momentum or position of one of the two particles, one can infer precisely either momentum or position of the other. They advocated that if the local realism is taken for granted, then quantum theory is an incomplete description of the physical world. Following this line, Bell demonstrated that a contradiction arises between the EPR assumptions of realism and locality and quantum physics and termed as Bell's theorem. Quantum nonlocality con rms the interpretation and validity of quantum mechanics against the local-realistic theories by violations of the constraints on the correlation between local measurement outcomes. Mathematical expression of such a constraint is known as Bell inequality [2], of which many variants exist [3 5]. For example, well known Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt (CHSH) inequality [3] and Clauser and Horne (CH) [4] are used for the veri cation of nonlocal correlations in a two-dimensional Hilbert space. The Bell inequalities concern measurements made by observers on pairs of particles that have interacted and then separated. According to the quantum mechanics they are entangled, while local realism would limit the correlation of subsequent measurements of the particles. Nonlocal correlations play crucial role for the device-independent versions of quantum information protocols, such as cryptography, random number generation, state estimation, and entangled measurement certi cation. Quantum continuous variables (CV) [6] of light have been successfully used to realize some of the standard informational tasks traditionally based on qubits. Bell-inequality tests were performed by using qubits [7] which satisfy the space-like separation between two local parties. But, the di culty of the detection loophole [8, 9] demanded to look at other approaches for Bell-inequality tests. Continuous variable (CV) states are of recent in-
Early potential metabolic biomarkers of primary postpartum haemorrhage based on serum metabolomics.

OBJECTIVES Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death, accounting for 1/4 of maternal deaths worldwide. Determining sensitive biomarkers in the peripheral blood to identify postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is essential for the early diagnosis and management of PPH. The purpose of this study is to identify predictive serum metabolic biomarkers of PPH. Thirty healthy pregnant women and 30 cases of postpartum hemorrhage were studied for our research. MATERIAL AND METHODS The serum metabolites of all pregnant were detected by liquid chromatography-quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOFMS) and the corresponding biomarkers were identified. RESULTS 34 significantly altered metabolites in PPH-pre-group were identified. They were mainly involved in fatty acid, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. CONCLUSIONS The LysoPCs, PCs, PGs, PIs were effective biomarkers for identifying PPH. The disturbed signaling pathways, mTOR signaling, acute phase response signaling, AMPK signaling and eNOS signaling pathways might be related to the etiopathogenesis of PPH. Our study provided a valuable attempt to screen early diagnostic markers of PPH and to further understand its pathogenesis.
Ethnomedicinal use and pharmacological potential of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) birds` meat and eggs, and its potential implications on wild quail conservation in Zimbabwe: A review

Abstract A logical review of literature was conducted on Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) farming, consumption and potential of quail egg constituents for pharmacological use. While there is potential to tap on nutritional and therapeutic benefits from Japanese quail meat and eggs to foster food security and pharmacological improvements, there is no consensus among Zimbabwean communities concerning authenticity of the purported benefits. The role of quail eggs and meat as wealthy nutrient sources and functional foods is undermined. This work examined: nutritional composition and ethnomedicinal benefits of quail meat and eggs, drivers of Japanese quail farming in Zimbabwe, and implications of Japanese quail farming on wild quail conservation. Reviewed literature stated that quail eggs and meat contain nutrient compounds with therapeutic properties useful in prevention and treatment of various diseases including cardiovascular diseases. Japanese quail is regarded as an important agricultural bird for meat and egg production motivated by nutritional and medicinal benefits in many parts of the world. Japanese quail farming is also described as a cost effective poultry enterprise due to lower production cost requirements. However, some quail farming and harvesting practices may be incompatible with ecosystem integrity and threaten wild quail conservation. Conclusively, Japanese quail consumption may benefit human health and present a practical solution to protein shortages in developing countries. Information generated by this work is important in demystifying controversies surrounding Japanese quail farming in Zimbabwe. Characterization of bioactive compounds in Japanese quail eggs and meat to describe their physiological mechanism for disease curing is recommended.