Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Cryopreservation Protocols (Single and Two-steps) and Thawing (Fast and Slow) for Canine Sperm

ABSTRACT In addition to the existence of several cryopreservation protocols, no systematic research has been carried out in order to confirm the suitable protocol for canine sperm. This study aims to assess the effect of adding 5% glycerol during cryopreservation at 37°C (one-step) and 5°C (two-steps), in addition of testing two thawing protocols (37°C for 30 seconds, and 70°C for 8 seconds). We used 12 sperm samples divided into four experimental groups: Single-Step - Slow Thawing Group; Two-Step - Slow Thawing Group; Single-Step - Fast Thawing Group; and Two-Step - Fast Thawing Group. Frozen-thawed samples were submitted to automated analysis of sperm motility, evaluation of plasmatic membrane integrity, acrosomal integrity, mitochondrial activity, sperm morphology, sperm susceptibility to oxidative stress, and sperm binding assay to perivitellinic membrane of chicken egg yolk. Considering the comparison between freezing protocols, no statistical differences were verified for any of the response variables. When comparison between thawing protocols was performed, slow thawing protocol presented higher sperm count bound to perivitelline membrane of chicken egg yolk, compared to fast thawing protocol. Regardless of the freezing process, the slow thawing protocol can be recommended for the large scale cryopreservation of canine semen, since it shows a consistent better functional result.
Amenities and the attraction of Dutch cities

ABSTRACT Amenities and the attraction of Dutch cities. Regional Studies. Research on the relevance of amenities for urban wages, jobs or housing prices has mainly focused on the case of US cities. In many (European) countries, the labour and housing markets function, however, rather differently than in the case of the United States. As a result, amenities may affect urban labour or housing markets differently. In addition, in European countries the proximity of cities is such that spatial interdependencies between cities have to be taken into account as well. By using a very rich dataset, this paper analyses the relationship between urban amenities, agglomeration and housing prices for the case of a highly urbanized European country, the Netherlands. It finds that Dutch cities that combine a favourable job location with a variety of urban amenities have significantly higher housing prices. Relatively safe cities, offering a variety of history and cultural events, as well as good restaurants, also have significantly higher housing prices.
Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Transactivation Mediates Substance P-induced Mitogenic Responses in U-373 MG Cells*

Ligand-induced activation of G protein-coupled receptors is emerging as an important pathway leading to the activation of certain receptors with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Substance P (SP) exerts many effects via activation of its G protein-coupled receptor (neurokinin-1, NK-1). SP participates in acute inflammation and activates key proteins involved in mitogenic pathways, such mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), stimulating DNA synthesis. We tested the hypothesis that SP-induced MAPK activation and DNA synthesis require activation of the EGFR. In U-373 MG cells, which express functional NK-1, SP induced tyrosine phosphorylation of several proteins including EGFR. SP induced formation of an activated EGFR complex containing the adapter proteins SHC and Grb2, but not c-Src. SP activated the MAPK pathway as shown by increased Erk2 kinase activity. SP induced Erk2 activation, and DNA synthesis was inhibited in cells transfected with a dominant negative EGFR plasmid lacking kinase activity, as well as in cells treated with a specific EGFR inhibitor. In addition, pertussis toxin, an inhibitor of Gαι protein subunits, prevented SP-induced EGFR transactivation and subsequent DNA synthesis. Our results implicate EGFR as an essential regulator in SP/NK-1-induced activation of the MAPK pathway and cell proliferation in U-373 MG cells, and these events are mediated by a pertussis toxin-sensitive Gα protein. We suggest that this mechanism by which SP controls cell proliferation is an important pathway in tissue restoration and healing.
Design of an economical compact combline filter

An economical compact narrowband bandpass combline filter with coaxial input is presented. A novel configuration using identical post with capacitance-loading is introduced. Simulated results show that with order-5 filter centered at 2.0175 GHz, return loss lower than -18 dB can be achieved over a relative bandwidth of 0.75%. Sample filter has been fabricated and tested result confirmed the concept and the simulated results. In this paper, simulated and tested results will be given to illustrate the concept.
Effects of Methylphenidate on Acute Math Performance in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: Examine the short-term (acute) effects of methylphenidate (MPH) on math performance in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and what factors predict improvement in math performance. Method: One hundred ninety-eight children with ADHD participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized crossover MPH trial. Math response to MPH was determined through administration of math problems adjusted to their academic level during the Restricted Academic Situation Scale (RASS). Student t tests were conducted to assess change in math performance with psychostimulants. Correlation between change on the RASS and change on the math performance was also examined. Linear regression was performed to determine predictor variables. Results: Children with ADHD improved significantly in their math with MPH (P < 0.001). The degree of improvement on the RASS (which evaluates motor activity and orientation to task) and on math performance on MPH was highly correlated. A child's age at baseline and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT)-Numerical Operations standard scores at baseline accounted for 15% of variances for acute math improvement. Conclusions: MPH improves acute math performance in children with ADHD. Younger children with lower math scores (as assessed by the WIAT) improved most on math scores when given psychostimulants. Les effets du méthylphénidate sur la performance aiguë en math chez des enfants souffrant du trouble de déficit de l'attention avec hyperactivité
Managing intellectual capital through a collective intelligence approach: An integrated framework for universities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a new framework for managing intellectual capital (IC) inside a university considering the collective intelligence perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The research method uses the fourth stage of IC research and adopts the collective intelligence approach. The underlying assumption behind the framework is to consider the university as a collective intelligence system in which the tangible and intellectual assets are coordinated towards the achievement of strategic goals. Findings – The conceptual framework for IC management harnesses the power of IC, collectively created by the engagement of multiple stakeholders inside the university network. The main components are the final goal of a university (what); the collective human capital to achieve the goal (who); the processes activated inside the university (how); and finally the motivations behind the achievement of the goal (why). Research limitations/implications – The research is exploratory and t.
Social recommender system tutorial

In recent years, with the proliferation of the social web, users are increasingly exposed to social overload and the designers of social web sites are challenged to attract and retain their user basis. Social recommender systems are becoming an integral part of virtually any leading website, playing a key factor in its success: First, they aim to address the overload problem by helping users to find relevant content. Second, they can provide recommendations for content creation, increasing participation and user retention. In this tutorial, we will review the broad domain of social recommender systems, their application for the social web, the underlying techniques and methodologies; the data in use, recommended entities, and target population; evaluation techniques; and open issues and challenges.
Progressive extreme heterotopic calcification

The formation of ectopic calcifications in soft tissues can occur either sporadically or as a genetically determined condition, and is seen only infrequently. We report on a girl in whom widespread, rapidly progressive ectopic calcifications were detected shortly after birth. Calcifications became present around all joints, tendons and ligaments, but did not involve internal organs and skin, and eventually caused almost complete immobility of the child at 2 years. There were no other health problems and cognitive development was normal. We compare the manifestations in the child to the characteristics of known entities causing ectopic calcifications and conclude the child differs to each. Laboratory evaluation failed to identify autoimmune phenomena as well as calcium metabolism or other biochemical abnormalities; molecular studies did not identify occurrence of mutations in disease genes known to be involved in ectopic calcifications. We conclude the manifestations in the child represent an unreported entity of hitherto unknown etiology. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Impact of US Monetary Policy and Other External Shocks on the Hong Kong Economy: A Factor-Augmented VAR Approach

This paper uses the factor-augmented VAR (FAVAR) framework to study the impact on the Hong Kong economy of the diverging monetary policies by the Fed, ECB and BoJ as well as the Mainland economy slowdown. The empirical results show that changes in US monetary policy mainly affect interest rate-sensitive sectors in Hong Kong; while real variables such as real GDP growth, unemployment rate are more sensitive to the economic slowdown in Mainland China. Monetary easing from the ECB and BoJ to some extent offsets the tightening of the Fed. The transmission channels of external shocks are through trade and capital markets. It is estimated that the combined effect of the four external shocks will on average lower Hong Kongi¯s quarterly GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points and quarterly inflation by 0.2 percentage points in the first 4 quarters. However, Hong Kongi¯s financial stability, particularly with regard to loan quality, banksi¯ capital and liquidity, is well maintained by macroprudential policies suggesting that Hong Kongi¯s financial system is resilient to external shocks.
Alexithymic Characteristics in Responses to the Synthetic House-Tree-Person (Htp) Drawing Test

This study examined the association of certain complex personality traits assessed by the Synthetic House-Tree-Person Drawing Test and alexithymic characteristics assessed by the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale for a sample of 589 Japanese college students. Alexithymic students who scored over 61 points on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 exhibited two characteristics relative to the test: poor relationships between figures and additional written explanations. These two characteristics projected on the Synthetic House-Tree-Person Drawing Test may be related to alexithymic characteristics and related factors.
Peers for progress: promoting peer support for health around the world.

INTRODUCTION Peers for Progress, a global initiative of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, developed out of the World Health Organization (WHO) Consultation on Peer Support Programmes in Diabetes as a strategic approach to promote best practices in peer support for health around the world. Why peer support. People often find themselves on their own to manage complex factors for behaviour change. Peer support can link people sharing experiences to provide the practical, emotional, and ongoing support that is critical to sustained behaviour change. The need. Diabetes is a global epidemic that affects all aspects of people's lives for the rest of their lives. The complexity of self-management requires ongoing support for effective and sustained management. Key principles, strategies, activities. Peers for Progress aims to strengthen evidence of the value of peer support through evaluation grants, encourage recognition of a state-of-the-art in peer support through defining key functions of support that can be tailored and applied globally, and promote peer support through networking with programmes and leaders around the world. CONCLUSIONS People seeking to prevent or manage health conditions can be a powerful source of support to each other to manage complex behaviors. Peers for Progress has a defined functional framework for peer support's core functions, and is evaluating the scope and impact of peer support interventions based on this framework and a set of consensus evaluation measures. Peers for Progress looks to raise the visibility and applicability of peer support as good health care for all people.
The concentration of TNF-alpha correlate with number of inflammatory cells and degree of vascularization in radicular cysts.

OBJECTIVE To correlate values of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) depending on the count of inflammatory cells with degree of vascularization in cystic fluid of radicular cysts. MATERIAL AND METHODS We investigated TNF-alpha concentration in 43 radicular cysts obtained from patients undergoing surgery, under local anaesthesia, and after aspiration of cystic fluid from non-ruptured cysts by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay assay in respect of different clinical parameters as well as by histomorphometric analyses. RESULTS Significantly higher concentration of TNF-alpha is associated with smaller radicular cysts, higher protein concentration in cystic fluid as well as with higher presence of inflammatory cells, and increased degree of vascularization in pericystic tissues and cyst wall thickness. CONCLUSIONS We believe that determination of TNF-alpha in cystic fluid simultaneously with other parameters can be an additional parameter for clinical diagnosis of inflammed cysts.
100-GHz Grid-Aligned Multi-Channel Polarization Insensitive Black-Box Wavelength Converter

A new scheme for a flexible modulation and bit rate independent, polarization-insensitive optical wavelength converter (WC) based on four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear fiber is demonstrated and characterized for different modulation formats and data rates. Its robustness is demonstrated in a data transmission experiment in which the WC is incorporated at the mid-point of a transmission line based on installed fiber. In addition, an optical feedback system designed to prevent slow polarization drift of the pumps, and consequently, to ensure the long-term stability of the system is implemented and characterized. The WC is tested with the feedback system in place enabling turn-key operation.
A Phase II study of the sterilising activities of ofloxacin, gatifloxacin and moxifloxacin in pulmonary tuberculosis.

SETTING Current treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) might be shortened by the incorporation of fluoroquinolones (FQs). OBJECTIVES A Phase II study aimed to assess the sterilising activities of three novel regimens containing FQs before a Phase III trial of a 4-month regimen containing gatifloxacin (GFX). DESIGN A total of 217 newly diagnosed smear-positive patients were randomly allocated to one of four regimens: isoniazid (INH), pyrazinamide and rifampicin (RMP) with either ethambutol, GFX, moxifloxacin (MFX) or ofloxacin (OFX) for 2 months. At the end of the study, RMP and INH were given for 4 months. The rates of elimination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were compared in the regimens using non-linear mixed effects modelling of the serial sputum colony counts (SSCC) during the first 8 weeks. RESULTS After adjustment for covariates, MFX substitution appeared superior during the early phase of a bi-exponential fall in colony counts, but significant and similar acceleration of bacillary elimination during the late phase occurred with both GFX and MFX (P = 0.002). Substitution of OFX had no effect. These findings were supported by estimates of time to conversion, using Cox regression, but there were no significant differences in proportions culture-negative at 8 weeks. CONCLUSIONS GFX and MFX improve the sterilising activity of regimens and might shorten treatment; their progression into Phase III trials therefore seems warranted.
Project-Based Learning and Rubrics in the Teaching of Power Supplies and Photovoltaic Electricity

Project-based learning (PBL) and cooperative learning are, in various aspects, very superior education methodologies compared to other traditional ones. They are highly appropriate methodologies for elective courses, as they exert a strong attraction on the students, quite apart from their educational advantages. This paper describes how PBL and cooperative learning have been used to teach the topics of power supplies and photovoltaic electricity within two elective undergraduate courses. A project is carried out for each of the two topics. Moodle is used as the e-learning platform to provide the course materials and the wiki resource and to allow the submission of assignments. The simulation is done by means of Simulink. Work has been done to develop skills for project planning, group management of the work, technical document writing and presentations in public. The methodology has been seen to be successful, as all the students who have followed it over the last few years have passed the courses in which it was included, Design of Industrial Applications and Industrial Electronics. Examples of the rubrics for assessing the projects and examples of the projects themselves are also included.
Effect of familial Parkinson's disease point mutations A30P and A53T on the structural properties, aggregation, and fibrillation of human alpha-synuclein.

Parkinson's disease involves the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, leading to movement disorders. The pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the presence of Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, which are intracellular inclusions consisting primarily of alpha-synuclein. Although essentially all cases of sporadic and early-onset Parkinson's disease are of unknown etiology, two point mutations (A53T and A30P) in the alpha-synuclein gene have been identified in familial early-onset Parkinson's disease. Previous reports have shown that mutant alpha-synuclein may form fibrils more rapidly than wild-type protein. To determine the underlying molecular basis for the enhanced fibrillation of the mutants, the structural properties, responses to changes in the environment, and propensity to aggregate of wild-type, A30P, and A53T alpha-synucleins were systematically investigated. A variety of biophysical methods, including far-UV circular dichroism, FTIR, small-angle X-ray scattering, and light scattering, were employed. Neither the natively unfolded nor the partially folded intermediate conformations are affected by the familial Parkinson's disease point mutations. However, both mutants underwent self-association more readily than the wild type (i.e., at much lower protein concentration and more rapidly). We attribute this effect to the increased propensity of their partially folded intermediates to aggregate, rather than to any changes in the monomeric natively unfolded species. This increased propensity of these mutants to aggregate, relative to wild-type alpha-synuclein, would account for the correlation of these mutations with Parkinson's disease.
Towards the next plateau: innovative multimedia research beyond trecvid

The content track in ACM Multimedia 2007 will for the first time, feature close to 50% of papers related to TRECVID [1]. There are more TRECVID papers in the other tracks too. A large number of accepted papers also focus on various enhanced machine learning (ML) algorithms. While TRECVID provides a large scale structured dataset for systematic research, and machine learning framework offers a principled way to handle large scale unstructured multimodal data, it is generally felt that there should be more beyond TRECVID and ML. For example, the conference seems to have little representation in a number of key emerging areas like web search, (harnessing) social intelligence, personal media management, mobile and Internet applications, multimedia advertising, and human computer interactions. Part of the positive development of TRECVID is that we now have reasonably realistic large-scale datasets from which to empirically verify many of our algorithms/techniques. However, it offers only one facet of multimedia application and there are many interesting areas and issues that should also be considered. Moreover, reviewers are now looking for complete papers that have large scale testing. This means that areas that do not have large datasets will likely not be acceptable in the conference. A related problem is that many new idea papers, that tend to address new areas with non-formal datasets, will suffer the same fate. This panel will address these issues. In particular, the panel will discuss: • Are we having too many TRECVID type papers, at the expense of other emerging areas? • What new emerging areas of multimedia research we should be targeting? " • How to encourage papers in these emerging areas of research and applications? • How to leverage users in the loop, through social networking and user generated contents etc, to setup large test sets in important emerging areas? • How to ensure that more new idea papers are presented at future conferences.
An Analysis of Interaction Mechanism between Inflation Expectations and Actual Inflation in China

Based on a theoretical study on the interaction between inflation expectations and actual inflation,this paper employs the Carlson-Parkin method to measure Chinese urban consumer inflation expectations.Then an empirical analysis of the interaction mechanism between inflation expectations and Chinese actual inflation is provided.The results show that actual inflation is the Granger-causality of inflation expectations.Chinese urban consumer inflation expectations are adaptive rather than rational in nature.We suggest that the independence of China's monetary policy should be enhanced,the statistical survey system of price and inflation expectations should be improved and public communication should be made actively by different channels.
Targeting adolescent risk-taking behaviors: the contributions of egocentrism and sensation-seeking.

Tremendous resources are spent each year developing programs and messages targeting adolescent risk behavior. Adolescents are often reasonably well educated about methods for health promotion such as preventing HIV infection, yet they fail to act accordingly. One widely used individual difference variable, sensation-seeking, has been incorporated in health message design to some extent, but it fails to take development into account. Research on adolescent egocentrism suggests adolescents experience personal fable which can lead to an exaggerated sense of invulnerability. The present study sampled adolescents and college students to examine relative contributions of egocentrism and sensation-seeking to risk-taking behavior. Results indicate a latent factor labeled risk-seeking (primarily indicated by disinhibition and risk-taking personality, and to a lesser degree by invulnerability, experience-seeking, boredom susceptibility, and thrill and adventure-seeking) indeed predicted a latent factor labeled delinquent behavior (primarily indicated by alcohol consumption and delinquency, and to a lesser degree by drug use, drinking and driving, and risky driving). Other results indicate consistently high personal fable combined with high sensation-seeking explained most risk-taking behavior. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.