Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DRAFT GUIDANCE DOCUMENT on t he Weanling Hershberger Bioassay in Rats : A Short-term Screening Assay for ( Anti ) Androgenic Properties

1. The OECD initiated a high-priority activity in 1998 to revise existing guidelines and to develop new guidelines for the screening and testing of potential endocrine disrupters (1). One element of the activity was to develop a Test Guideline for the rat Hershberger Bioassay. The Hershberger Bioassay is a short-term in vivo screening test using accessory tissues of the male reproductive tract. The assay originated in the 1930’s and was modified in the 1940’s to include androgen-responsive muscles in the male reproductive tract (2)(9-15). In the 1960s, over 700 possible androgens were evaluated using a standardized version of the protocol (2)(14), and use of the assay for both androgens and antiandrogens was considered a standard method in the 1960s (2)(15). After several decades of use by the pharmaceutical industry, this assay was first standardized by an official expert committee in 1962 as a screening tool for androgenic chemicals (2). In 2001-2007, the rat Hershberger Bioassay has undergone an extensive validation programme including the generation of a Background Review Document (25), compilation of a detailed methods paper (3), development of a dissection guide and the conduct of extensive intraand interlaboratory studies to show the reliability and reproducibility of the bioassay. These validation studies were conducted with a potent reference androgen (testosterone propionate (TP)), two potent synthetic androgens (trenbolone acetate and methyl testosterone), a potent antiandrogenic pharmaceutical (flutamide), a potent inhibitor of the synthesis (finasteride) of the natural androgen (dihydrotestosterone-DHT), several weakly antiandrogenic pesticides (linuron, vinclozolin, procymidone, p,p’ DDE), a potent 5α reductase inhibitor (finasteride) and two known negative chemicals (dinitrophenol and nonylphenol) (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(26). Test Guideline 441 and this Guidance Document are the outcome of the long historical experience with the bioassay and the experience gained during the validation test programme and the results obtained therein.
Demonstration of 2.4 GHz vector modulator for RF wireless systems on cellulose-based substrates

This paper presents a 2.4 GHz vector modulator fabricated on mechanically flexible, low-cost, environmentally friendly, celluose-based substrate. This circuit can be adopted either as a digitally controlled target for radars' testing, or, more in general, as an I/Q modulator in RF systems. The system is composed by a directional coupler, two mixers and a Wilkinson divider, all of them designed in microstrip technology and resulting in a (64 × 119) mm2 planar device. The modulator functionality is demonstrated by showing the results of a wired test in which the modulator is connected to a signal generator (input), to a spectrum analyzer (output) and digitally controlled by means of an Arduino board.
Magnitudes of Performativity : Donald Trump in the Anthropo(s)cene

The article presents the Trump presidency and the human-driven geological epoch of the Anthropocene as two arguable extremes among current notions of ‘performativity’: (1) a traditionally vertical model based on individual action and antagonism – where ‘facts’ matter less than ‘making things great’; and (2) the more extended, horizontal human performance of things like global warming (“All the world’s a stage”). Drawing freely on George Lakoff and Timothy Morton, it is argued that these models differ fundamentally in ‘magnitude’: where the one is direct, singular, vertical, and fast, the other is systemic, plural, horizontal, and slow beyond human perception. With Judith Butler and Naomi Klein, it is also argued that to actually confront the twin crises at issue, we need to acknowledge the kind of ‘plural performativity’ – of repetition, norms, and dissimulation – that brought them into being in the first place.
New Zealand Travel Agents in the Internet Era: Impacts, Responses, and Relationships

The impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is a significant issue in today’s tourism industry. The development of the internet has made information easily accessible to consumers, and has therefore established a direct link between consumers and suppliers. As a result, traditional travel distribution channels are changing rapidly. A major feature of this change is “disintermediation”, with principals such as airlines, hotels and rental car chains bypassing intermediaries and sell directly to consumers. Travel agents (TAs) are considered to be particularly vulnerable to this process. ICTs have the potential to replace their core competencies, which include transaction processing (ticketing and settlement) and information provision (raw product information provided by suppliers). This thesis focuses on the impact of ICTs on the TA sector, and specifically on the New Zealand TA case. A theoretical approach based on regulation theory combined with a mixed method approach was used to investigate the main issues in New Zealand. The research included a case study to identify the principal issues and trends in the TA sector, in-depth interviews with TAs and industry specialists to refine the main issues and allow the formulation of some theoretical assumptions, in-depth interviews with consumers regarding the role of TAs in the internet era and the quality of service they provide, and a fully-structured, national on-line survey of TAs to verify the assumptions made in the earlier interviews and test the applicability of the post-Fordism model for the New Zealand TA sector. Based on the findings, it is argued that disintermediation is particularly pronounced in the relationship between airlines and travel agents. To minimise the risk of disintermediation and improve business performance, TAs need to reposition themselves and review their core strategies to compete efficiently in the changing business environment. The thesis
Experimental and comparative investigation of low and high field transport in substrate- and process-induced strained nanoscaled MOSFETs

We report a detailed comparison of low and high-Vd transport between various substrate- and process-induced strained MOSFETs down to 40nm gate lengths. Thanks to an original extraction method and low temperature measurements, we demonstrate that the mobility behaviour is deeply impacted by the down-scaling because of Coulomb scattering. Introducing this behaviour into a saturation current model, we clearly explain the I/sub ON/ enhancement trend of all strained devices.
Materials, Surfaces, and Systems for Extracorporeal Therapies and Beyond

As a highly active member of the scientific community in the field of artificial organs, Dieter Falkenhagen contributed greatly to the collaboration and to the education of scientists, engineers, and clinicians across disciplines. He was elected board member of the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO) for many years, served as ESAO president from 20002002, organized the ESAO Congress 2007 in Krems and established the ESAO Winter and Summer schools to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge between students, postdoctoral fellows, clinicians, and engineers. The current issue reflects a number of topics brought forward by Dieter Falkenhagen in the field of extracorporeal therapies and biomedical technology, which has grown into a highly interdisciplinary area of artificial organ research and an important pillar of Regenerative Medicine.
Restrictive diastolic filling predicts death after acute myocardial infarction: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

Objective: To determine, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, the magnitude of the survival deficit associated with a restrictive filling pattern after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: Online databases were searched for prospective echocardiography outcome studies of patients after AMI. All authors were contacted to seek confirmation of their data. Restrictive filling was compared with all non-restrictive filling patterns. Review Manager Version 4.2. 7 software was used for analysis. Results: 3855 patients in 16 studies were identified. Follow up varied from two weeks to five years (> 1 year, 10 studies; and > 4 years, four studies). 776 (20%) of patients had a restrictive filling pattern at baseline. 580 patients died (247 in the restrictive group), and the overall odds ratio for death (restrictive filling worse) was 4.10 (95% confidence interval 3.38 to 4.99). Conclusions: Mortality is about four times higher in patients with a restrictive filling pattern than in those with non-restrictive filling patterns after AMI. Echocardiographic assessment of diastolic filling pattern is an important part of the echocardiographic assessment of patients after myocardial infarction and provides important prognostic information about such patients.
‘CROWDING OUT’ IN CORPORATE WIKIS: THE EFFECTS OF JOB RESPONSIBILITY AND MOTIVATION ON PARTICPATION

Wiki is a conversational knowledge management (KM) tool that has the potential to alleviate the bottlenecks in knowledge creation and sharing associated with traditional KM systems. An understanding of the motivational forces driving participation is paramount for the success of such KM initiatives. The inherent tension between traditional managerial practices and wikis’ affordances calls for the development of theoretical frameworks tailored to this unique setting. Our study of corporate wikis investigates a wiki-based organizational encyclopedia, Bluepedia. The primary purpose of this study is to provide an account of the motivational dynamics around content contribution evoked in a corporate wiki context. We center our attention on the differences between those who are assigned to edit Bluepedia as part of their job and those who edit Bluepedia outside of their formal job responsibility. An analysis of a large-scale web-survey data from one multi-national firm shows that, in line with the ‘crowding out effect’, those not formally assigned to the task are driven primarily by intrinsic motivations, while are those who contribute content as part of their regular job, however, are primarily driven by extrinsic motivations. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Adjuvant arthritis and immunity to the mycobacterial 65 kDa heat shock protein.

The mycobacterial 65 kDa heat shock protein (HSP65) is of critical significance in the model of adjuvant arthritis (AA). Arthritogenic and protective T cell clones obtained from arthritic rats recognized the 180-188 sequence of HSP65. Previous reports have shown that administration of HSP65 prior to disease induction led to resistance to arthritis in the AA model and in several other models of experimental arthritis. Here, we report the development of immunity to HSP65 and the critical 180-188 epitope during the course of AA. Following Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) immunization both antibodies and T cell responses to HSP65 were detected. Proliferative responses to the 180-188 epitope were seen exclusively in the local draining lymph node cells at day 14 after immunization. The anatomical distribution and course of T cell responses to HSP65 and its 180-188 epitope are compatible with T cell regulated control of the disease. Although lower HSP65 antibody levels were observed in the animals with severe arthritis, in individual animals no evidence was obtained for a relationship between development of HSP65 humoral immunity and arthritis severity. Nevertheless, during disease exacerbation, elicited by HSP65 immunization during disease development, elevated T cell responses against HSP65 and its 180-188 epitope were found. In contrast, we obtained evidence that successful transfer of arthritis resistance to naive recipients depends on the transfer of HSP65 specific T cells. On the basis of these results, it seems that HSP65 plays a crucial role in the T cell regulatory events involved in both the induction of, and protection against, AA. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Confirmation of viral safety of dry heated factor VIII concentrate (8Y) prepared by Bio Products Laboratory (BPL): a report on behalf of U.K. Haemophilia Centre Directors *

Summary. Twenty‐seven factor VIII deficient patients who had previously not been treated with blood or blood products were studied after infusion of a total of 24 batches of NHS factor VIII (8Y) concentrate produced by Bio‐Products Laboratory, Elstree. Follow‐up was carried out according to guidelines laid down by the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Cardiovascular Reactivity and the Presence of Pets, Friends, and Spouses: The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the presence of friends, spouses, and pets on cardiovascular reactivity to psychological and physical stress. Methods Cardiovascular reactivity was examined among 240 married couples, half of whom owned a pet. Mental arithmetic and cold pressor were performed in one of four randomly assigned social support conditions: alone, with pet or friend (friend present for non-pet owners), with spouse, with spouse and pet/friend. Results Relative to people without pets, people with pets had significantly lower heart rate and blood pressure levels during a resting baseline, significantly smaller increases (ie, reactivity) from baseline levels during the mental arithmetic and cold pressor, and faster recovery. Among pet owners, the lowest reactivity and quickest recovery was observed in the pet-present conditions. Conclusions People perceive pets as important, supportive parts of their lives, and significant cardiovascular and behavioral benefits are associated with those perceptions.
SAWTOOTH: Learning from Huge Amounts of Data

SAWTOOTH: Learning from Huge Amounts of Data Andrés Sebastián Orrego Data scarcity has been a problem in data mining up until recent times. Now, in the era of the Internet and the tremendous advances in both, data storage devices and high-speed computing, databases are filling up at rates never imagined before. The machine learning problems of the past have been augmented by an increasingly important one, scalability. Extracting useful information from arbitrarily large data collections or data streams is now of special interest within the data mining community. In this research we find that mining from such large datasets may actually be quite simple. We address the scalability issues of previous widely-used batch learning algorithms and discretization techniques used to handle continuous values within the data. Then, we describe an incremental algorithm that addresses the scalability problem of Bayesian classifiers, and propose a Bayesian-compatible on-line discretization technique that handles continuous values, both with a “simplicity first” approach and very low memory (RAM) requirements. To my family. To Nana.
Restoration of gait and motor recovery by functional electrical stimulation therapy in persons with stroke

Purpose. To evaluate the clinical efficacy of functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy of the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle on gait restoration and enhancing motor recovery with stroke patients. Method. Thirty hemiparetic participants with spastic foot-drop impairments who were at least 3 months post-stroke were recruited from a rehabilitation institute and were assigned either to a control group or a FES group. Both the groups participated in a conventional stroke rehabilitation program for 60 min per day, 5 days a week, for 12-weeks. The FES group received the electrical stimulation to the TA muscle for correction of foot-drop. Results. Functional electric stimulation (FES) resulted in a 26.3% (p < 0.001) improvement of walking speed measured with 10-m walkway, whereas the improvement in the control group was only 11.5% (p < 0.01). The FES group also showed significantly greater improvements compared to control group in other gait parameters (e.g. cadence, step length), physiological cost index (PCI), ankle range of motion, spasticity of calf muscle, Fugl–Meyer scores, and the maximum value of the root mean square (RMSmax), which reflects the capacity of the muscle output. Conclusions. These findings suggest that, the FES therapy combined with conventional therapy treatment more effectively improves the walking ability and enhances the motor recovery when compared with conventional therapy alone in stroke survivors.
Determination of the antioxidant capacity of two seagrass species according to the extraction method

Context: There is a wide variety of methods for obtaining of plant extracts that enable a good yield of bioactive metabolites. For several years, extractive techniques have been perfected for obtaining natural extracts with powerful pharmacological properties. Aims: To determine the influence of various extraction methods (infusion, decoction, microwave, maceration with heat and agitation, and constant heat and agitation) on the content of solids, phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of marine angiosperms Thalassia testudinum Banks ex König (Hyrocharitacea) and Syringodium filiforme kützing (Cymodoceaceae). Methods: The soluble solids content was determined by the gravimetric method; total phenolic content, using Folin-Ciocalteu method, and the antioxidant capacity by 2,2-diphenyl-1 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Results: Results showed the effectiveness of extraction by decoction for T. testudinum and by microwave for S. filiforme, among the methods that use water as the extraction solvent. In the case those that use the hydroalcoholic mixture as solvent extraction, maceration with agitation and heat extraction showed the higher yields of soluble solids and total polyphenols, as well as a higher antioxidant activity for both species. Conclusions: Results showed the effectiveness of extraction by decoction for T. testudinum and by microwave for S. filiforme, among the methods that use water as extraction solvent. In the case those that use hydroalcoholic mixture as solvent extraction, maceration with agitation and heat extraction showed the higher yields of soluble solids and total polyphenols, as well as a higher antioxidant activity for both species.
Preprocessing of Face Images: Detection of Features and Pose Normalization

The reliability, speed, and complexity of virtually any face recognition system are substantially improved if the location and the scale of the faces are known. We propose a method for automatic and robust detection of the eyes and mouth using the context freegeneralized symmetry transformand knowledge of faces. The features are extracted from the image of the intensities gradients and are then used to normalize the face images. We show that a normalization procedure based on affine transformations whose anchor points are the locations of the eyes and mouth substantially increases the effectiveness of general purpose classification techniques in face recognition.Other normalization procedures for avoiding the effect of background and varying light conditions are proved to be instrumental as well.
Arginine–aromatic interactions and their effects on arginine‐induced solubilization of aromatic solutes and suppression of protein aggregation

We examine the interaction of aromatic residues of proteins with arginine, an additive commonly used to suppress protein aggregation, using experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. An aromatic‐rich peptide, FFYTP (a segment of insulin), and lysozyme and insulin are used as model systems. Mass spectrometry shows that arginine increases the solubility of FFYTP by binding to the peptide, with the simulations revealing the predominant association of arginine to be with the aromatic residues. The calculations further show a positive preferential interaction coefficient, ΓXP, contrary to conventional thinking that positive ΓXP's indicate aggregation rather than suppression of aggregation. Simulations with lysozyme and insulin also show arginine's preference for aromatic residues, in addition to acidic residues. We use these observations and earlier results reported by us and others to discuss the possible implications of arginine's interactions with aromatic residues on the solubilization of aromatic moieties and proteins. Our results also highlight the fact that explanations based purely on ΓXP, which measures average affinity of an additive to a protein, could obscure or misinterpret the underlying molecular mechanisms behind additive‐induced suppression of protein aggregation. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2012
Digital signature to help network management using flow analysis

Because of constant growth in proportion and complexity of networks, flow analysis has become an indispensable tool for network management mechanisms. Through this resource, a traffic characterization, called digital signature of network segment using flow analysis (DSNSF), is accomplished. The models used for this purpose are the ant colony optimization metaheuristic, the Holt–Winters forecasting method and the statistical procedure, principal component analysis. The obtained DSNSF by each model is compared with the actual traffic of packets and bits and then subjected to specific evaluations in order to measure its accuracy. The experimental results show that the three methods could achieve good correlation indices and low normalized mean square error values between the DSNSF curve and the real traffic movement, indicating a good adaptability and efficiency in characterizing a network traffic segment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Secreted MD-2 is a large polymeric protein that efficiently confers lipopolysaccharide sensitivity to Toll-like receptor 4

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), the principal signaling receptor for lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in mammals, requires the binding of MD-2 to its extracellular domain for maximal responsiveness. MD-2 contains a leader sequence but lacks a transmembrane domain, and we asked whether it is secreted into the medium as an active protein. As a source of secreted MD-2 (sMD-2), we used culture supernatants from cells stably transduced with epitope-tagged human MD-2. We show that sMD-2 exists as a heterogeneous collection of large disulfide-linked oligomers formed from stable dimeric subunits and that concentrations of sMD-2 as low as 50 pM enhance the responsiveness of TLR4 reporter cells to LPS. An MD-2-like activity is also released by monocyte-derived dendritic cells from normal donors. When coexpressed, TLR4 indiscriminately associates in the endoplasmic reticulum/cis Golgi with different-sized oligomers of MD-2, and excess MD-2 is secreted into the medium. We conclude that normal and transfected cells secrete a soluble form of MD-2 that binds with high affinity to TLR4 and that could play a role in regulating responses to LPS and other pathogen-derived substances in vivo.