Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of different extenders on recovery and storage of epididymal ram spermatozoa

This experiment was conducted to determine effect of different extender on recovery and storage of epididymal ram spermatozoa. Testes were obtained from eight mature rams which were slaughtered at four different occasions, a pair in each session. Caudal epididymis was isolated and divided to four equal parts. Spermatozoa recovery from each part of the caudal epididymis was performed by milk (M), Tris (T), Tris plus caproic acid (T-C) and sodium citrate (S) extenders. Spermatozoa in each extender were divided into four parts and then the amount of 0 (E0), 5 (E5), 10 (E10) and 15% (E15) egg yolk were added. Samples were chilled to 4 °C and stored for 7 days. The evaluation of sperm motility, viability, membrane integrity and acrosome integrity were performed daily. The results showed that there was interaction between egg yolk and storage time and also egg yolk and extender on sperm motility (p < 0.05). Sperm motility was highest at 15 % egg yolk (25.6 %) on 7 d (p < 0.05). Sperm motility was higher in ME15 (57.8 %) and T-CE15 (62.3 %) than TE15 (53.4 %) and SE15 (41.9 %; p < 0.05). There was interaction among egg yolk, extender and storage time on acrosome integrity, membrane integrity and sperm viability (p < 0.05). On 7 d, there were no differences among ME15, T-CE15 and TE15 on sperm viability and membrane integrity. Acrosome integrity was higher in T-CE15 (75.25 %) than ME15 (62.5 %) on 7 d (p < 0.05). Therefore, Tris caproic extender was superior to other extender for recovery and storage of ram epididymal spermatozoa.
Fuzzy Datalog with background knowledge

In this paper we give a possible model for handling uncertain information. The concept of fuzzy knowledge-base will be defined as a triplet of a background knowledge defined by the similarity of predicates and terms; a deduction mechanism: a fuzzy Datalog program, and a decoding set of the program, which help us to determine the uncertainty level of the results.
Commuting, Wages and Bargaining Power

A search model of the labor market is augmented to include commuting time to work. The theory posits that wages are positively related to commute distance, by a factor itself depending negatively on the bargaining power of workers. Since not all combinations of distance and wages are accepted, there is non-random selection of accepted job offers. We build on these ingredients to explore in the data the relationship between wages and commute time. We find that neglecting to account for this selection will bias downward the wage impact of commuting, and marginally affect the coefficients on education, age and gender. The correlation between the residuals of the selectivity equation and the distance equation is -0.70, showing the large impact of commute time on job acceptance decisions. We also use the theory to calculate the bargaining power of workers which largely varies depending on demographic groups: it appears to be much larger for men than that for women and that the bargaining power of women with young children is essentially zero.
The Role of the State as Controlling Shareholder in the Telecoms: Incentive versus Entrenchment Theory

In this study we investigate the role played by the state as controlling shareholder in setting CEO incentives. Analyzing listed telecommunication companies from 13 European countries during 1999-2013, we measure the difference between the state and a private dominant shareholder in setting CEO compensation packages. We find that state control curbs the level of CEO compensation and this effect weakens as the state’s ownership stake increases. When we focus on CEO incentive compensation, we report that CEO pay for performance sensitivity is higher for state controlled firms than for private firms. However, as the state’s ownership stake increases, differences in sensitivity tend to disappear, but the effect of governance variables commonly used to proxy entrenchment becomes statistically significant.
High sensitive photonic crystal multiplexed biosensor array using H0 sandwiched cavities

We theoretically investigate a high sensitive photonic crystal integrated biosensor array structure which is potentially used for label-free multiplexed sensing. The proposed device consists of an array of three sandwiched H0 cavities patterned above silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate; each cavity has been designed for different cavity spacing and different resonant wavelength. Results obtained by performing finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, indicate that the response of each detection unit shifts independently in terms of refractive index variations. The optimized design makes possible the combination of sensing as a function of location, as well as a function of time in the same platform. A refractive index sensitivity of 520nm/RIU and a quality factor over 104 are both achieved with an accompanied crosstalk of less than -26 dB. In addition, the device presents an improved detection limit (DL) of 1.24. 10-6 RIU and a wide measurement range. These features make the designed device a promising element for performing label-free multiplexed detection in monolithic substrate for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.
Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology High-Dimensional Regression and Variable Selection Using CAR Scores

Variable selection is a difficult problem that is particularly challenging in the analysis of high-dimensional genomic data. Here, we introduce the CAR score, a novel and highly effective criterion for variable ranking in linear regression based on Mahalanobis-decorrelation of the explanatory variables. The CAR score provides a canonical ordering that encourages grouping of correlated predictors and down-weights antagonistic variables. It decomposes the proportion of variance explained and it is an intermediate between marginal correlation and the standardized regression coefficient. As a population quantity, any preferred inference scheme can be applied for its estimation. Using simulations, we demonstrate that variable selection by CAR scores is very effective and yields prediction errors and true and false positive rates that compare favorably with modern regression techniques such as elastic net and boosting. We illustrate our approach by analyzing data concerned with diabetes progression and with the effect of aging on gene expression in the human brain. The R package “care” implementing CAR score regression is available from CRAN.
How Important is the Reproduction Technique for the Perception of Spaciousness in Music

Sound fields are preferred when spaciousness is perceived. “Spaciousness means that auditory events, in a characteristic way, are themselves perceived as being spread out in an extended region of space”. The author’s former study (2012) investigated the perception of spaciousness of five musical genres. Participants evaluated spaciousness while listening to music with loudspeakers. Resulting, these genres allowed classifications of spatial features such as “big”, “wide” and “open”. A new idea of conducting listening tests has arisen using wave field synthesis instead of headphones. Firstly, this study aims to reveal the perceptional characteristics of spaciousness in music itself with headphones, loudspeakers and wave field synthesis. Secondly, it will find the differences of perception when participants listen with headphones, loudspeakers and wave field synthesis. Thirdly, this study's goal is to investigate the possibility of replacing headphones with wave field synthesis for listening tests. A hearing test has been conducted asking 28 participants for their spacious impression. The Participants rated 30 music excerpts on a 7 Point-Likert-Scale from “little spacious” to “much spacious”. Dummy head measurements for an objective comparison were made. 3x3 ANOVA repeated measures revealed a significant Within-Subject effect for the technical devices (F = 4.541, p < 0.05), different instrument groups (F = 71.281, p < 0.01) and also for the interaction technical devices-instrument groups (F = 7.700, p < 0.01). The kind and number of music instruments on the one hand and the reproduction technique on the other hand influences the perception of spaciousness.
ESTIMATION OF SUBPIXEL SNOW-COVERED AREA BY NONPARAMETRIC REGRESSION SPLINES

Abstract. Measurement of the areal extent of snow cover with high accuracy plays an important role in hydrological and climate modeling. Remotely-sensed data acquired by earth-observing satellites offer great advantages for timely monitoring of snow cover. However, the main obstacle is the tradeoff between temporal and spatial resolution of satellite imageries. Soft or subpixel classification of low or moderate resolution satellite images is a preferred technique to overcome this problem. The most frequently employed snow cover fraction methods applied on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data have evolved from spectral unmixing and empirical Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) methods to latest machine learning-based artificial neural networks (ANNs). This study demonstrates the implementation of subpixel snow-covered area estimation based on the state-of-the-art nonparametric spline regression method, namely, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). MARS models were trained by using MODIS top of atmospheric reflectance values of bands 1-7 as predictor variables. Reference percentage snow cover maps were generated from higher spatial resolution Landsat ETM+ binary snow cover maps. A multilayer feed-forward ANN with one hidden layer trained with backpropagation was also employed to estimate the percentage snow-covered area on the same data set. The results indicated that the developed MARS model performed better than th
Population Genetics and Characterization of Campylobacter jejuni Isolates from Western Jackdaws and Game Birds in Finland

The roles of environmental reservoirs, including wild birds, in the molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni have not been assessed in depth. Our results showed that game birds may pose a risk for acquiring campylobacteriosis, because they had C. jejuni genomotypes highly similar to human isolates detected previously. Therefore, hygienic measures during slaughter and meat handling warrant special attention. On the contrary, a unique phylogeny was revealed for the western jackdaw isolates, and certain genomic characteristics identified among these isolates are hypothesized to affect their host specificity and virulence. Comparative genomics within sequence types (STs), using whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST), and phylogenomics are efficient methods to analyze the genomic relationships of C. jejuni isolates. ABSTRACT Poultry are considered a major reservoir and source of human campylobacteriosis, but the roles of environmental reservoirs, including wild birds, have not been assessed in depth. In this study, we isolated and characterized Campylobacter jejuni from western jackdaws (n = 91, 43%), mallard ducks (n = 82, 76%), and pheasants (n = 9, 9%). Most of the western jackdaw and mallard duck C. jejuni isolates represented multilocus sequence typing (MLST) sequence types (STs) that diverged from those previously isolated from human patients and various animal species, whereas all pheasant isolates represented ST-19, a common ST among human patients and other hosts worldwide. Whole-genome MLST revealed that mallard duck ST-2314 and pheasant ST-19 isolates represented bacterial clones that were genetically highly similar to human isolates detected previously. Further analyses revealed that in addition to a divergent ClonalFrame genealogy, certain genomic characteristics of the western jackdaw C. jejuni isolates, e.g., a novel cdtABC gene cluster and the type VI secretion system (T6SS), may affect their host specificity and virulence. Game birds may thus pose a risk for acquiring campylobacteriosis; therefore, hygienic measures during slaughter and meat handling warrant special attention. IMPORTANCE The roles of environmental reservoirs, including wild birds, in the molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni have not been assessed in depth. Our results showed that game birds may pose a risk for acquiring campylobacteriosis, because they had C. jejuni genomotypes highly similar to human isolates detected previously. Therefore, hygienic measures during slaughter and meat handling warrant special attention. On the contrary, a unique phylogeny was revealed for the western jackdaw isolates, and certain genomic characteristics identified among these isolates are hypothesized to affect their host specificity and virulence. Comparative genomics within sequence types (STs), using whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST), and phylogenomics are efficient methods to analyze the genomic relationships of C. jejuni isolates.
Infaunal abundance in restored and reference marshes of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Infaunal Abundance in Restored and Reference Marshes in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico. (April 2011) Brittney Lauren Davis Department of Marine Biology Texas A&M University Research Advisor: Dr. Anna Armitage Department of Marine Biology One widely accepted approach to mitigate the loss of natural marsh habitat is to restore marshes in areas that were previously open water. To better understand the infaunal community within restored marshes, infauna were collected from a restored and reference brackish marsh in East Texas. The restored marsh was constructed using multiple methods to incorporate a variety of different morphologies. A one-way ANOVA was used to determine if significant differences in species richness and density existed among the habitat types. Sediment characteristics were also measured to address infaunal-sediment relationships. No significant differences were observed between habitat types for either average infauna abundance (P= 0.654) or species richness (P = 0.748). Additionally, no significant correlations were found for sediment and total infauna abundance. Similar infaunal communities in the reference and restored marsh suggests that the recovery of constructed marshes to reference conditions occurs in less than 4 years. iii
Optical trapping and orientation of Escherichia coli cells using two tapered fiber probes

We report on the optical trapping and orientation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells using two tapered fiber probes. With a laser beam at 980 nm wavelength launched into probe I, an E. coli chain consisting of three cells was formed at the tip of probe I. After launching a beam at 980 nm into probe II, the E. coli at the end of the chain was trapped and oriented via the optical torques yielded by two probes. The orientation of the E. coli was controlled by adjusting the laser power of probe II. Experimental results were interpreted by theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.
niversal reconstruction method for radiometric quality improvement f remote sensing images

The performance of remote sensing images in some applications is often affected by the existence of noise, blurring, stripes and corrupted pixels, as well as the hardware limits of the sensor with respect to spatial resolution. This paper presents a universal reconstruction method that can be used to improve the image quality by performing image denoising, deconvolution, destriping, inpainting, interpolation and superemote sensing image adiometric quality improvement niversal reconstruction method resolution reconstruction. The proposed method consists of two parts: a universal image observation model and a universal image reconstruction model. In the observation model, most degradation processes in remote sensing imaging are considered in order to relate the desired image to the observed images. For the reconstruction model, we use the maximum a posteriori (MAP) framework to set up the minimization energy equation. The likelihood probability density function (PDF) is constructed based on the image observation model, and a robust Huber–Markov model is employed as the prior PDF. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Exploring ERP post-implementation modifications and their influence on business process outcomes: a theory driven model

The objective of this research in progress paper is to develop a theory-driven model to categorise postimplementation modifications to ERP systems and to understand the relationship between the identified categories and business process outcomes that are generated as a result of the modifications. While ERP systems can improve the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of business processes, the relationship between these outcomes and post-implementation modifications is not understood adequately. The model proposed here provides a theoretical foundation for research into the impact of modifications on business process performance, and brings clarity to the definition of an ERP modification by developing a typology of modifications.
CRYSTALLINE PHASE REACTIVITY IN THE SYNTHESIS OF FLY ASH-BASED GEOPOLYMER

Aluminosilicate, alkaline solution and fly ash from a power plant have been used to synthesize geopolymer at ambient temperature. SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 mole ratio of the starting materials was varied by the addition of pure, insoluble corundum and quartz. The geopolymer exhibited some differences in the ratio of initial reaction mixtures and that of final products. The corundum gave no influence to the compressive strength while the quartz at SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 =4.0-6.0 produced significant change in the strength. The highest compressive strength achieved was 65 MPa. XRD using analysis Rietveld method proved that quartz has been found both in starting materials as well as in the geopolymer indicating the involvement of crystalline phases, to some extent, in geopolymerization process.
Employment and Education Policy for Young People in the EU: What Can New Member States Learn from Old Member States?

The EU experience with youth unemployment has changed over recent years with the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna process. A dramatic shift has taken place from the 1990s emphasis on labour market flexibility as a tool to abate youth long term unemployment to the more recent stress on the importance of increasing the human capital endowment via a deep reform of education and training systems. This shift is also taking place worldwide, since, as recent studies show, labour market flexibility can increase employability when the human capital level of young people is sufficiently high. To reduce the “experience gap” between young and adult people, the education systems should become of a higher quality, more inclusive to reduce the dropout rate, homogeneous to other EU countries to favour labour mobility, flexible to allow young people to better find the best match, and contemplate the duality principle, by providing training together with education, to favour smoother school-to-work transitions. Apprenticeships schemes, fiscal incentives to hire the youth unemployed as well as on-the-job training schemes should help reach objectives that cannot be guaranteed simply via an increase in labour market flexibility.
Development of the Double Digest Selective Label (DDSL) Typing Technique and Its Application to Staphylococcus aureus Epidemiology

Bacterial typing is a key technology in human and veterinary medicine, community health, consumer protection and in agricultural research. The importance of the development of epidemiological tracking tools is underlined by numerous outbreaks of diseases due to bacterial pathogens. Particularly important is tracing pathogen dissemination in ‘real time’ i.e. to use a fast typing technique to distinguish between clonally related (epidemic) strains and unrelated (sporadic) strains. The aim of the research was to develop a fast discriminatory molecular typing technique - double digest selective label (DDSL) for Staphylococcus aureus isolates and to compare typing data with that obtained by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. In this new typing method, large DNA fragments are produced with a restriction enzyme commonly used for PFGE but are trimmed by a second enzyme to a size which can be separated on a conventional agarose gel within a short period of time. Selective labelling of a subset of the numerous restriction fragments gives a distinct banding pattern for each isolate. Discriminatory power obtained with DDSL calculated over two different sets was higher than that of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Clusters of identical isolates were further resolved to unique DDSL strains. Two combinations of restriction enzymes for DDSL technique has been proposed with approximately equal discriminatory power. It has been demonstrated that DDSL approach is a fast, discriminatory alternative to other typing techniques suitable for short-term epidemiological studies.
A typology of entrepreneurial network configurations: integration of network structures and flows

Studies of entrepreneurial networks have largely concentrated on one or the other of the two dominant network perspectives – structural or flow. We argue that an integrated approach can provide new insights into interactions of different types of flows across actors, and the interdependence of structures and flows. Because of this either-or divide, we know relatively little about how both these perspectives combine to create distinct network configurations. In response, we contrast and integrate structural and flow complexity to develop a typology of four network configurations: clusters, cliques, communities and crowds. By adopting the structural contingency theory logic, we identify network goals and capabilities on which the performance of each configuration is contingent. Rent seeking and opportunity seeking goals, and intermediation and mediation capabilities correspond with low and high levels of structural complexity, respectively. Efficiency seeking and synergy seeking goals, and standardization and mutual adjustment capabilities correspond with low and high levels of flow complexity, respectively. Based on these goals and capabilities, parallels are drawn between each of the four configurations and the Miles and Snow typology (1978). This study makes two contributions. First, it formally introduces configuration theory to the study of how elements in networks interact to holistically form configurations. Second, the typology provides the ability to classify entrepreneurial network configurations, and predict which network goals and capabilities their performance is contingent on. We believe this typology may also apply to other inter-organizational networks.