Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
56.2: Invited Paper: Pixel‐Isolated Liquid Crystal Mode for Plastic Liquid Crystal Displays

We proposed a pixel‐isolated liquid crystal (PILC) mode for enhancing mechanical stability of flexible display applications. Since the LC molecules in this mode are isolated in pixels by patterned or phase‐separated microstructures, the LC alignment is stable against external pressure. Moreover, the cell gap of our structure is uniformly preserved against bending deformation of the plastic substrates since two substrates are tightly attached each other by the solidified polymer layer produced by photoinduced anisotropic phase separation. For flexible display applications, we have tested the mechanical stability of electrooptic properties in PILC structures with plastic substrates.
Relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction: The moderating effect of gender and the salience of family and work roles

Work-family conflict has become an issue of particular concern to today’s businesses. Its prevalence among employees and the negative consequences of this conflict for one’s job satisfaction has led it to become one of the problems that managers and directors have to deal with most. Although there have been researches into the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction, few studies have analysed the role of gender in this relationship. The objectives of this study are to analyse the moderating role of gender and the salience of family and work roles in the work-to-family conflict and general job satisfaction, while the job’s characteristics are controlled. 162 workers from a Spanish public organisation took part in the study. The results from the regression analysis confirms the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between work-to-family conflict and job satisfaction, such that women show a lower level of job satisfaction than men. However, the salience of the family and work roles were not found to have a moderating effect on the aforementioned relationship, neither in the case of men nor in women. The results are discussed in the context of the theory of role identity salience and the gender role theory, as well as the possible cultural effects. Key words: Work-family conflict, job satisfaction, gender, salience of family role, salience of work role, Spain.
Unraveling the molecular mechanisms of herpes simplex virus attachment and release using cell membrane mimics

The herpes simplex virus is a widespread human pathogen, most commonly known for causing cold sores. Its infection cycle is initiated with the formation of multiple bonds between viral glycoproteins and cellular glycosaminoglycans, which are long polysaccharide chains found close to the cell surface. While the key molecular actors of this initial attachment have been identified, less is known about the dynamics of the herpes-glycosaminoglycan interaction. This thesis focuses on implementing bioanalytical assays to address two main research questions. First, we investigated how specific physicochemical properties of the glycosaminoglycan chains and of the viral glycoproteins influence the binding characteristics of the virus, in particular particle mobility and binding kinetics. Second, we aimed at elucidating how new progeny virus successfully releases from the cell membrane without getting trapped. To this end, we used two different cell membrane mimics. The first one consisted of end-grafted glycosaminoglycan chains, mimicking the native brush-like architecture of glycosaminoglycans, while the second one was obtained through incorporation of native membrane material into supported lipid bilayers. To study virus mobility and measure affinities and binding forces, we mainly used total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy in combination with single particle tracking, and atomic force microscopy. Our results showed that the type of GAG or the glycosylation of the viral glycoproteins influence the diffusive behavior of herpes simplex virions, which we attributed to a change in binding forces of the herpes-glycosaminoglycan interaction. Furthermore, we suggest that a highly glycosylated region, called mucin-like region, found on certain glycoproteins balances the herpes-glycosaminoglycan interaction to ensure successful release. Taken together, this thesis provides new insights into the mechanisms regulating attachment and release of the herpes simplex virus to and from the cell membrane, which could be of relevance to the development of new strategies in antiviral research.
Reading in the Foreign Language Classroom: Students’ Perception of the Interrelation among the Context, Reading Materials and Themselves as Readers

This study was carried out in a private Colombian university in order to answer the following research questions: How do university students perceive the interrelation among the context, reading materials, and themselves as readers? How does an academic context shape students’ self-perception as readers? and How does an academic context determine students’ engagement in reading activities? Findings indicated that, although students were highly exposed to reading events in the academic context and that they had to understand and analyze a great diversity of texts, they continue perceiving themselves as “average readers” along the reflective process, due to the reduced opportunities the university gives them to select readings that they voluntarily would read.
Biomechanical analysis of quarterback throw in American soccer

Introduction: American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada, and also known as "gridiron football" or simply "gridiron", is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The aim of the study was to analyse quarterback throw of All India Inter-University level player in American Soccer. Methodology: For the purpose of the study, 10 All India Inter-University level American Soccer players were selected from Jadavpur University. The actions of throwing technique of ten American Soccer players (20.70 ± 1.16year, 171.70 ± 7.97cm, 73.77 ± 11.53kg) were recorded by two fixed video cameras. By using the Kinovea-0.8. 25 motion analysis software. The video was digitised and analysed to measure the selected kinematics parameters such as ball release height, ball release angle and ball release velocity. Throwing distance of the ball was measured manually by the measuring tape. Mean, standard deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation test were employed to analyze the data statistically. Results and Discussions: The result of the statistical analysis of the data revealed that ball release height (159.31 ± 18.29cm) and ball release velocity (59.81 ± 9.90km/h) were positively related (r = 0.339 & 0.665) with the ball throwing distance (29.90 ± 5.46m), where ball release angle (36.60 ± 4.900) was negatively related (r = -0.344) Conclusions: From the study, it may be concluded easily that, for quarterback throw of All India InterUniversity American Soccer players, higher the ball release height and ball release velocity, there will be a greater throwing distance whereas, higher the ball release angle lower will be the throwing distance.
The Paradox of Institutional Conversion: The Evolution of Complementarity in the International Criminal Court

The understanding and practice of ICC complementarity changed in the first six years following the signing of the Rome Statute in 1998. The author argues that the shift to positive complementarity was the result of the Prosecutor’s efforts to ensure that the up-in-coming tribunal developed a favorable anti-impunity reputation in the context of existing challenges and opportunities. However, the shift represents a double-edge sword. The paradox of institutional conversion is that the positive turn of complementarity has produced adverse unintended consequences which can potentially undermine the Rome Statute system’s long-term credibility and viability—the very concerns that motivated complementarity’s redirection in the first place.
Coping with recession in the ski-industry: A suppliers’ and consumers’ perspective

The current study explores the impact of the recession on the ski industry based on interviews with suppliers in two ski resorts (n=10) as well as ski travel agencies (n=8). Subsequently, Flemish ski tourists (n=252) were surveyed about changes in their behavior towards ski vacations from 2008 to 2011, taking into account their socio-cultural background as well their level of ski/snowboard participation. Both studies reveal a decline in ski tourism during the years under investigation. The impact of the recession varies according to the type of sports provider. The impact of the recession on ski vacations is more prevalent for some groups in society (e.g., households with no children, more financial constraints, lower professional status, younger people), regardless if one is a highly motivated and/or experienced skier. This paper contributes to socio-economic theory related to the ski tourism industry and assists suppliers to identify strategies to overcome hurdles during a recession.
Production of Mycobacterium Avium subsp. Paratuberculosis detection Kit in dairy Products

Introduction Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) which is a gram-positive, acid-fast bacillus, is the etiological agent of paratuberculosis, ordinarily recognized as Johne’s disease (JD), in cattle and other ruminants (Cocito et al., 1994). Common symptoms of this infection include diarrhea, reduced milk production, emaciation, and eventually death in afflicted animals, and infections leading to considerable economic losses for individual farms and the dairy industry as a whole. Annual losses in the United States alone are reported to be as high as $250 million (Ott et al., 1999). There has also been an association of MAP with Crohn’s disease in humans (Dalton et al., 2014). Johne’s and Crohn’s disease share some clinical characteristics: both are chronic granulomatous diseases of the gut, which influence nutrient absorption and commonly occurs in the young and it has been shown that the ingestion of a few organisms can create disease (Chiodini et al., 1984). Animals may shed MAP in their milk, even at the time of subclinical infection (Streeter et al., 1995; Ellingson et al., 2005), and human exposure to MAP through the medium of dairy products has emerged as an issue of concern, in spite of the fact that there is no deducible evidence supporting the association of this pathogen with Crohn’s disease (Hermon Taylor and Bull, 2002). The ability of MAP to with stand industrial or laboratory pasteurization has been evaluated in various investigations (Keswani and Abstract Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis (MAP), the causative agent of Johne disease in ruminants, has been incriminated as the cause of Crohn disease in humans. Cattle with Johne’s disease can shed MAP in their milk, and MAP can survive under simulated commercial pasteurization conditions. In this study, we investigated the presence of MAP retail cheeses, raw and pasteurization milk from Khorasan Razavi by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We found that 36.66% of raw milk samples reacted positive by PCR. PCR results for cheese sample was negative. 413 bp PCR product was cloned in pTZ57 R/T plasmid for positive control. These results suggest that the use of the specific PCR assay with the primer sets used in the study is a rapid, reliable, and accurate technique in comparison to traditional and conventional methods for the detection and diagnosis of MAP in milk samples.
A content-based music recommender system

Content Based Music Recommender System Duggirala krishna teja Supervising Professor: Dr. Carol J. Romanowski With the digitization of music, it has paved the path for many changes. Some of the significant ones being extinction of CDs, online music streaming services, and too many options. With many options, the users are confused to select what they want to hear thus the need for a recommender system had arisen. One of the main factors which makes a user like a song is the subject of the song. Finding the subject/latent topic of a song is a very hard task because musicians play with contrasting or implied emotions thus causing the lyrics to be confusing, but musical interpretations of several users can be very helpful in finding the latent topic. Since manual annotation to a large set of music collections is arduous, Topic Modelling is preferred to automatically identify the underlying topics present in the text sources. In this project, Topic Modelling was performed on the interpretations of songs to produce a better recommendation system.
Cyberbullying: A narrative review

A literature search was conducted using PubMed and PsycINFO to locate cyberbullying research that was published during the last 4 years. In this narrative review, cyberbullying research is briefl y summarized and critiqued. The review is focused on the varying defi nitions and characteristics of cyberbullies, victims and bystanders. Highly variable prevalence rates have been reported for cyberbullies, victims and bystanders as a function of age, gender, country, size of the social network and socioeconomic factors. In addition, the effects of cyberbullying are reviewed including the frequent suicide attempts along with risk factors/predictors of cyberbullying which include previous cyberbullying, excessive internet use and lack of empathy, anger, narcissism and authoritarian/permissive parenting. To refl ect the recent literature, special attention is given to the studies on victims of bullying. Research on cyberbullies and on prevention/intervention programs for bullying is extremely limited despite the increasing prevalence of bullying and the rapidly accumulating literature. Methodological limitations include the primary focus on the prevalence of bullying and on the victims of bullying. Longitudinal, multivariate studies are needed to identify profi les on risk factors for bullying that can inform prevention programs. Review Article Cyberbullying: A narrative review
Analysis on Reliability of Wine Tasters' Evaluation Results Based on the Analysis of Variance

Based on the data related to the evaluation score of wine taster provided in 2012 CUMCM, this study firstly adopts confidence interval method to eliminate the effect of wine tasters' personal differences. Then, by using analysis of variance, we make a test of significance on evaluation results of wine tasters from Group A and B at the significance level of 0.05. Results show that there is no significant difference in the sensory evaluation results of wine tasters from the two groups. By comparing the variance of comprehensive scores given by wine tasters from the two groups, we confirm the evaluation results of wine tasters from which group are more reliable. Results of the model shows that variances of evaluation results given by wine tasters from Group B are all smaller than that of Group A, which prove that evaluation result of wine tasters from Group B is more reliable.
The effect of taking green tea extract for 12 weeks on telomerase enzyme content in heart tissue of old rats in response to acute exhaustive exercise

The prevalence, incidence, and complications of heart disease increase with age. Green tea is an antioxidant which can prevent cellular senescence and cardiovascular diseases. Telomerase enzyme decreases with aging. Acute exhaustive exercise results in disturbances in the oxidative system and production of active oxygen species in the heart tissue. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the effect of taking green tea extract for 12 weeks on telomerase enzyme content in heart tissue of old rats in response to acute exhaustive exercise. Materials & Methods: In this study, 20 male rats were randomly categorized into two groups of supplement and non-supplement each consisting of 10 rats. The supplement group received green tea extract for 12 weeks. At the end of 12 weeks, each of these groups was further divided into two groups of rest and acute exhaustive exercise. The non-supplement with rest group was called control group. The non-supplement with exercise group was called exercise group. Further, the supplement group with rest was called supplement group and finally the last group was entitled supplement with exercise. After 12 weeks of taking green tea extract, one session of acute exhaustive exercise was held on the treadmill. Sandwich ELISA method was used to measure telomerase content. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey tests. Results: The results showed that telomerase enzyme content in the supplement with exercise group was significantly more than the exercise group (P=0.021). Also, it was significantly more in the supplement group than the control group (P=0.008). The difference between the exercise and control groups (P=0.241) as well as the difference between the supplement with exercise and supplement groups (P=0.112) were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The study showed that using green tea extract for 12 weeks can increase telomerase enzyme content in rest or after acute exhaustive exercise and accordingly prevent cellular senescence.
Screening, molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Penicillium sp producing high levels of protease

This paper deals with the isolation, screening, molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of proteolytic fungi. Forty seven fungal isolates were preliminarily screened for their ability to produce protease on skimmed milk agar. Among the forty seven isolates, thirty four isolates were protease positive. Based on the secondary screening, three promising proteolytic fungi were selected for further investigations. The DNA was extracted from the fungi, ITS-rDNA amplified by PCR and its ITS regions were sequenced. Based on the molecular characterization and phylogenetic studies, the selected isolates were identified as Penicillium citrinum LCJ 222 (Accession no. KF414682), Penicillium griseofulvum LCJ 231 (Accession no. KF414683) and Penicillium citrinum LCJ 233 (Accession no. KF414684).
Infrared activity of hydrogen molecules trapped in Si

The rovibrational-translational states of a hydrogen molecule moving in a cage site in Si, when subjected to an electrical field arising from its surroundings, are investigated. The wave functions are expressed in terms of basis functions consisting of the eigenfunctions of the molecule confined to move in the cavity and rovibrational states of the free molecule. The energy levels, intensities of infrared and Raman transitions, effects of uniaxial stress, and a neighboring oxygen defect are found and compared with existing experimental data.
Towards a novel approach to applied research: The role of motor sequence learning in the process of mastering complex motor procedures

Research strives for the development of an optimised laparoscopic training process to help trainees acquire all skills necessary for surgery. Laparoscopic simulator tasks pose a promising alternative to training procedures. Yet the repetitive nature of practice using such tasks runs the risk of exercising only motor sequence learning (MSL); that is, the automation of a specific sequence of movements (Verwey, 1996). Sufficient task variability needs to be ensured, to allow acquisition of holistic, generalizable skills. Our research attempted to shed light into the role of MSL on performance, to better understand its implications to skill acquisition, if it were promoted in laparoscopic tasks. We thus introduced the varied-fixed learning (VFL) paradigm, consisting of dexterity tasks with a varied and a fixed part, the former allowing participants to practice holistic skill acquisition blocking the practice of MSL, while the latter allowing them to practice MSL. Both parts were modelled on a two-part exponential learning curve. Findings suggest that MSL has a small, but still detectable role in improving performance on complex motor procedures. Our research affirmed the feasibility of the VFL paradigm and learning curve model to investigate learning, which offers a promising alternative to research in applied settings.
Gender equality in the boardroom : the Norwegian case of Rosa Parks? : an event study

As the only country in the world, Norway recently passed a law that requires gender neutral boards in all public listed companies. Although the media attention abroad and in Norway, gorged on the controversial ruling, there is an absence of research done on the effects of changing the gender composition of a corporate board. In our event study we propose an approach to valuing the effects of a change in the gender composition of Norwegian, stock exchange listed, corporate boards. We investigate the effects of the legal requirement and look at differences between size and industry. Analysis of 44 events reveals an insignificant, market adjusted decline in the value of companies of -1.96% where there is an increase in the number of female board members. Our results additionally show a larger, insignificant effect for events captured before the enactment of the law for smaller companies and differences between certain industries.
Comparison of Different Statistical Prediction Methods for Fetal Growth Abnormalities

The decision tree method has become very popular because it can efficiently accommodate a large amount of data with a mixture of different types of variables, missing data and many irrelevant predictors. Trees also can be graphically presented and easily explained. However, the weaknesses of the decision tree model are high variance and lower predictive accuracy. These problems have been substantially improved by the tree ensemble-based methods: random forests and boosting trees. In this study, tree and tree ensemble-based methods, as well as logistic regression are reviewed and are applied to the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database to predict fetal growth abnormalities such as infants with birth weight small for gestational age or large for gestational age. It was found that predictive accuracy of the boosted tree model is better than both random forests and decision trees, but this model does not show much improvement over logistic regression.
A Comparison of Generalized Additive Models to Other Common Modeling Strategies for Continuous Covariates: Implications for Risk Adjustment

Common modeling strategies for quantitative covariates include single linear terms, dummy variables on categories, Fractional Polynomials (FP) and cubic smoothing splines in Generalized Additive Models (GAM). The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of using GAM over other common covariate modeling strategies on risk adjustment. Analyses were based on inter-hospital mortality comparisons in a Canadian provincial trauma system (n=123,732; 59 hospitals). Parameter estimates describing the increase in log odds of mortality for one hospital compared to the reference were adjusted with five quantitative covariates modeled using 1) single linear terms, 2) dummy variables on 2, 3, 4, 5 categories, 3) FP, and 4) GAM. The parameter estimates generated by the first three modeling strategies were compared to that generated by the GAM using mean standardized difference. Mean standardized difference (95% CI) was 71.69 (51.7-91.7) for single linear terms, 21.1 (14.3-28.9); 23.4 (15.6-31.2); 49.6 (28.1-71.1); and 48.5 (28.8-68.2) for dummy variables on 2, 3, 4, and 5 categories, respectively and 12.7 (10.0-15.4) for FP. Results suggest that GAM, FP and at least 4 risk-homogeneous categories provide equivalent risk adjustment to smoothing splines in GAM while single linear terms and less than 4 categories may induce residual confounding.