LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The effect of varying lengths of straw bedding on the behaviour of growing pigs

Straw provided as a substrate allows pigs to use it as a recreational substrate, as a nutritional substrate and as a bedding material and, because of this, has been reported to improve the welfare of pigs. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different lengths of chopped straw bedding would achieve similar enhancements in pig welfare as those achieved by unchopped, full-length straw. This would offer the possibility that small quantities of chopped straw could be provided in partly and fully slatted systems to serve as environmental enrichment, without blocking the liquid slurry handling facilities. Twenty-four groups of growing pigs were exposed to one of four treatments (no straw bedding, full-length straw, half chopped straw, and fully chopped straw). Both pen-mateand strawdirected behaviours were recorded using ad libitum sampling. Overall levels of measured behavioural activity differed between the treatments; therefore the data were expressed both in absolute terms and relative to the activity levels (proportional frequencies). It was found that the length of straw affected both the quantity and quality of straw-directed behaviours. The provision of straw of any length reduced the occurrence of behaviours such as nosing other pigs, aggression and tail-biting compared with when straw was absent. Chopped straw increased the prevalence of behaviours such as licking and decreased the prevalence of behaviours such as picking, suggesting that pigs were not able to manipulate the chopped straw in the same way as full-length or half chopped straw. In addition, levels of tail-biting were higher in groups that were provided with chopped straw than in groups with full-length or half chopped straw. It is concluded that the use of chopped straw in growing/finishing housing systems, www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim Applied Animal Behaviour Science 109 (2008) 249–260 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1623 844331; fax: +44 1623 844472. E-mail address: Heleen.vandeweerd@adas.co.uk (H.A. Van de Weerd). 1 Present address: SCA Nutec, SCA Mill, Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate, Dalton, Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 3HE,
Lattice Boltzmann method for moving boundaries

We propose a lattice Boltzmann method to treat moving boundary problems for solid objects moving in a fluid. The method is based on the simple bounce-back boundary scheme and interpolations. The proposed method is tested in two flows past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a channel in two dimensions: (a) the flow past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a transient Couette flow; and (b) the flow past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a channel flow at rest. We obtain satisfactory results and also verify the Galilean invariance of the lattice Boltzmann method. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Gene Variant of the Bradykinin B2 Receptor Influences Pulmonary Arterial Pressures in Heart Failure Patients

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) varies considerably in heart failure (HF) despite similar degrees of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Bradykinin alters vascular tone and common variations in the kinin B2 receptor (BDKRB2) gene exists. We hypothesized that genetic variation in this receptor would influence PAP in HF. METHODS: 131 HF patients (>1yr history systolic HF), without COPD, not currently smoking, BMI < 40, without atrial fibrillation completed the study which included a blood draw for genotyping and neurohormones (ACE, A-II, Bradykinin, ANP, BNP, and catecholamines), an echocardiogram for cardiac function and systolic PAP (PAPsys). RESULTS: Mean LVEF was 29% ± 12%, NYHA class 2 ± 1, age 56 ± 12 yr, BMI 28 ± 5 kg/m(2). Forty-six patients (35%) were homozygous for the +9 allele, 58 (44%) were heterozygous (+9/-9) and 27 (21%) were homozygous for the -9 allele of the BDKRB2. PAPsys averaged 42 ± 13, 38 ± 12, and 35 ± 11 mmHg for +9/+9, +9/-9 and -9/-9, respectively (p = 0.03). There was a trend towards gene effect for plasma ACE with the highest values in +9/+9 and lowest in -9/-9 patients (9.5 ± 10.7, 7.1 ± 8.7, and 5.4 ± 6.4 U/L, respectively, p = 0.06). There were no differences in plasma bradykinin or A-II, LVEF, or NYHA across genotypes. CONCLUSION: These data suggest the +9/+9 polymorphism of the BDKRB2 receptor influences pulmonary vascular tone in stable HF.
Integrated lot-sizing and scheduling for just-in-time production of complex assemblies with finite set-ups

This paper addresses the integrated scheduling and lot-sizing problem in a manufacturing environment which produces complex assemblies. Given the due-dates of the end items, the objective is to minimize the cumulative lead time of the production schedule (total makespan) and reduce set-up and inventory holding costs. A JIT production strategy is adopted in which production is scheduled as late as possible (to minimize WIP costs), but without backlogging end items. The integrated scheduling and lot-sizing problem within such an environment has been formulated and is NP hard. An e cient heuristic is developed that schedules operations by exploiting the critical path of a network and iteratively groups orders to determine lotsizes that minimize the makespan as well as set-up and holding costs. The performance of the proposed heuristic is evaluated and numerical results are presented comparing the savings achieved in makespan and cost over a lot-for-lot production strategy, and scheduling using an existing heuristic. More generally, this study demonstrates that lot-for-lot production in small batches may not be the best JIT strategy in an assembly environment with nite set-ups.
Acupuncture in patients suffering from allergic asthma: is it worth additional costs?

OBJECTIVES
Acupuncture is increasingly used in patients with allergic asthma, but there is a lack of evidence on the cost-benefit relationship of this treatment. The aim of this study was to assess economic aspects of additional acupuncture treatment in patients with allergic bronchial asthma compared to patients receiving routine care alone. DESIGN, SUBJECTS, INTERVENTION, OUTCOME MEASURES: In a randomized controlled trial, patients with allergic bronchial asthma were either allocated to a group receiving acupuncture immediately or a waiting-list control group. Both groups were free to use routine care treatment. The resource consumption, costs, and health-related quality of life were evaluated at baseline, and after 3 and 6 months by using statutory health insurance information and standardized questionnaires. Main economic outcome parameters were direct and indirect cost differences during the study period and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of acupuncture treatment.


RESULTS
Three hundred and six (306) patients (159 acupuncture; 147 controls) were included (mean age 46.5±13.11 years, female 57.2%) and were comparable at baseline. Acupuncture treatment was associated with significantly higher costs compared to control patients (overall costs: €860.76 [95% confidence interval (CI) 705.04-1016.47] versus €518.80 [95% CI 356.66-680.93]; p=0.003; asthma-related costs: €517.52 [95% CI 485.63-549.40] versus €144.87 [95% CI 111.70-178.05]; p<0.001). These additional costs seem essentially driven by acupuncture costs themselves (€378.40 [95% CI 367.10-389.69]). However, acupuncture was associated with superior effectiveness in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Resulting ICER lay between €23,231 (overall) and €25,315 (diagnosis-specific) per additional QALY. When using German acupuncture prices of year 2012, the ICER would improve to €12.810 (overall) versus €14,911 (diagnosis-specific) per QALY gained.


CONCLUSIONS
Treating patients who have allergic bronchial asthma with acupuncture in addition to routine care resulted in additional costs and better effects in terms of patients' quality of life. Acupuncture therefore seems to be a useful and cost-effective add-on treatment.
Optimal Filter Design for Volume Reconstruction and Visualization

Digital filtering is a crucial operation in volume reconstruction and visualization. Lowpass filters are needed for subsampling and minification. Interpolation filters are needed for registration and magnification, and to compensate for geometric distortions introduced by scanners. Interpolation filters are also needed in volume rendering for ray-casting and slicing. In this paper, we describe a method for digital filter design of interpolation filters based on weighted Chebyshev minimization. The accuracy of the resulting filters are compared with some commonly used filters defined by piecewise cubic polynomials.A significant finding of this paper is that although piecewise cubic interpolation have some computational advantages and may yield visually satisfactory results for some data, other data results in artifacts such as blurring. Furthermore, piecewise cubic filters are inferior for operations such as registration. Better results are obtained by the filters derived in this papers at only small increases in computation.
Expression and New Exon Mutations of the Human Beta Defensins and Their Association on Colon Cancer Development

The development of cancer involves genetic predisposition and a variety of environmental exposures. Genome-wide linkage analyses provide evidence for the significant linkage of many diseases to susceptibility loci on chromosome 8p23, the location of the human defensin gene cluster. Human β-defensins (hBDs) are important molecules of innate immunity. This study was designed to analyze the expression and genetic variations in hBDs (hBD-1, hBD-2, hBD-3 and hBD-4) and their putative association with colon cancer. hBD gene expression and relative protein expression were evaluated by Real-Time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and immunohistochemistry, respectively, from 40 normal patients and 40 age-matched patients with colon cancer in Saudi Arabia. In addition, hBD polymorphisms were genotyped by exon sequencing and by promoter methylation. hBD-1, hBD-2, hBD-3 and hBD-4 basal messenger RNA expression was significantly lower in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. Several insertion mutations were detected in different exons of the analyzed hBDs. However, no methylation in any hBDs promoters was detected because of the limited number of CpG islands in these regions. We demonstrated for the first time a link between hBD expression and colon cancer. This suggests that there is a significant link between innate immunity deregulation through disruption of cationic peptides (hBDs) and the potential development of colon cancer.
Geometric and force errors compensation in a 3-axis CNC milling machine

This paper proposes a new off line error compensation model by taking into accounting of geometric and cutting force induced errors in a 3-axis CNC milling machine. Geometric error of a 3-axis milling machine composes of 21 components, which can be measured by laser interferometer within the working volume. Geometric error estimation determined by back-propagation neural network is proposed and used separately in the geometric error compensation model. Likewise, cutting force induced error estimation by back-propagation neural network determined based on a flat end mill behavior observation is proposed and used separately in the cutting force induced error compensation model. Various experiments over a wide range of cutting conditions are carried out to investigate cutting force and machine error relation. Finally, the combination of geometric and cutting force induced errors is modeled by the combined back-propagation neural network. This unique model is used to compensate both geometric and cutting force induced errors simultaneously by a single model. Experimental tests have been carried out in order to validate the performance of geometric and cutting force induced errors compensation model. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Modified HOG Descriptor-Based Banknote Recognition System

Article history: Received: 15 August, 2018 Accepted: 11 October, 2018 Online: 18 October, 2018 This research presents a banknote recognition and counterfeit detection system that proposes a pre-processing approach before creating a new feature set by extracting Speeded-Up Robust Feature, creating image patches from its vertices and then computing the Histogram of Gradient descriptors from cells within the patch boundaries. A feature reduction approach is also designed based on a high correlation and Low variance filter to reduce the feature set by calculating the intra-feature value variability to ascertain the similarity between the elements to prune out highly correlated values and variances using a fixed threshold. For experimental evaluation, additional analysis was conducted using Principal Component Analysis, Bag of words, Low Variance filter, and High Correlation Filter method. Furthermore, the classification was performed using 10-fold crossvalidation based One-Versus-One Support Vector Machine. Additionally, the developed technique was tested on counterfeit banknotes to authenticate genuine and fake currencies. Lastly, point matching method was applied to detect our suggested feature vectors to match images containing multiple notes to distinguish and determine the value of the bills.
3D to 2D bijection for spherical objects under equidistant fisheye projection

The core problem addressed in this article is the 3D position detection of a spherical object of knownradius in a single image frame, obtained by a dioptric vision system consisting of only one fisheye lens camera that follows equidistant projection model. The central contribution is a bijection principle between a known-radius spherical object’s 3D world position and its 2D projected image curve, that we prove, thus establishing that for every possible 3D world position of the spherical object, there exists a unique curve on the image plane if the object is projected through a fisheye lens that follows equidistant projection model. Additionally, we present a setup for the experimental verification of the principle’s correctness. In previously published works we have applied this principle to detect and subsequently track a known-radius spherical object. 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Overview of current and future energy storage technologies for electric power applications

In today’s world, there is a continuous global need for more energy which, at the same time, has to be cleaner than the energy produced from the traditional generation technologies. This need has facilitated the increasing penetration of distributed generation (DG) technologies and primarily of renewable energy sources (RES). The extensive use of such energy sources in today’s electricity networks can indisputably minimize the threat of global warming and climate change. However, the power output of these energy sources is not as reliable and as easy to adjust to changing demand cycles as the output from the traditional power sources. This disadvantage can only be effectively overcome by the storing of the excess power produced by DG-RES. Therefore, in order for these new sources to become completely reliable as primary sources of energy, energy storage is a crucial factor. In this work, an overview of the current and future energy storage technologies used for electric power applications is carried out. Most of the technologies are in use today while others are still under intensive research and development. A comparison between the various technologies is presented in terms of the most important technological characteristics of each technology. The comparison shows that each storage technology is different in terms of its ideal network application environment and energy storage scale. This means that in order to achieve optimum results, the unique network environment and the specifications of the storage device have to be studied thoroughly, before a decision for the ideal storage technology to be selected is taken. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Breast cancer metastasis: Putative therapeutic role of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1

Breast cancer is a notable cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. Metastasis to distant organs is responsible for ~90% of this death. Breast cells convert to malignant cancer cells after acquiring the capacity of invasion/intravasation into surrounding tissues and, finally, extravasation/metastasis to distant organs (i.e., lymph nodes, lungs, bone, brain). Metastasis to distant organs depends on interactions between disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) and the endothelium of blood vessels present in the tumor microenvironment. Among several known endothelial adhesion molecules, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) has been found to be involved in this process. It has been shown that VCAM-1 is aberrantly expressed in breast cancer cells and that it can bind to its natural ligand α4β1integrin, also denoted as very late antigen 4 (VLA-4). This binding appears to be responsible for the metastasis of breast cancer cells to lung, bone and brain. The α4β1 integrin - VCAM-1 interaction thus represents a potential therapeutic target for metastatic breast cancer cells. The development of inhibitors of this interaction may be instrumental for the clinical management of breast cancer patients. This study focuses on recent progress on the role of VCAM-1, an important glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily of cell surface adhesion molecules in breast cancer angiogenesis, survival and metastasis. Targeting VCAM-1, expressed on the surface of breast cancer cells, and/or its specific ligand VLA-4/α4β1 integrin, expressed on cells at the site of metastasis, may be a useful strategy to reduce breast cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Various approaches to therapeutically target VCAM-1 and VLA-4 are also discussed.
Single-Tablet Emtricitabine-Rilpivirine-Tenofovir as HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis in Men Who Have Sex With Men.

BACKGROUND
Completion rates for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) are low. We investigated the adherence and safety of coformulated emtricitabine (FTC), rilpivirine (RPV), and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) as a 3-drug, single-tablet regimen for PEP in men who have sex with men (MSM).


METHODS
In an open-label, single-arm study at 2 public sexual health clinics and 2 hospital emergency departments in urban Australia, 100 HIV-uninfected MSM requiring 3-drug PEP received single-tablet FTC-RPV-TDF once daily for 28 days. The primary endpoint was premature PEP cessation or primary HIV infection through week 12. Additional endpoints were adherence (by self-report of doses missed or not ingested with a meal, by pill count, and by plasma concentrations of tenofovir and FTC at week 4); and safety (clinical and laboratory adverse events [AEs]).


RESULTS
PEP completion was 92% (95% confidence interval, 85%-96%); premature cessation resulted from loss to follow-up (6%), AEs (1%), or study burden (1%). No participant was found to acquire HIV through week 12. Adherence was 98.6% (standard deviation [SD], 2.4) by pill count and 98.5% (SD, 2.7) by self-report; 86% reported taking all doses with food, and 88% of the subset tested had plasma tenofovir levels suggesting full adherence (>40 ng/mL). Eighty-eight participants experienced at least 1 clinical AE; 4 had grade 3 AEs or higher, possibly attributable to study drug. Fifty-six participants experienced at least 1 laboratory AE; 4 had AEs of grade 3 or higher, possibly attributable to study drug.


CONCLUSIONS
A single-tablet regimen of FTC-RPV-TDF was well tolerated as once-daily PEP, with high levels of adherence and completion.


CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION
NCT01715636.
Key Terms for Service Level Agreements to Support Cloud Forensics

As cloud adoption grows, the importance of preparing for forensic investigations in cloud environments also grows. A recent survey of digital forensic professionals identified that missing terms and conditions regarding forensic activities in service level agreements between cloud providers and cloud consumers is a significant challenge for cloud forensics. This paper addresses the challenge by specifying standard terms for service level agreements that support cloud forensics.
Gastric acid control with esomeprazole, lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantoprazole, and rabeprazole: a five-way crossover study

OBJECTIVES:Proton pump inhibitors owe their clinical efficacy to their ability to suppress gastric acid production. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare intragastric pH following standard doses of esomeprazole, lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantoprazole and rabeprazole.METHODS:This randomized, open-label, comparative five-way crossover study evaluated the 24-h intragastric pH profile of oral esomeprazole 40 mg, lansoprazole 30 mg, omeprazole 20 mg, pantoprazole 40 mg, and rabeprazole 20 mg once daily in 34 Helicobacter pylori–negative patients aged 18–60 yr with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Patients were randomly assigned to one of five treatment sequences and study drug was taken on 5 consecutive mornings 30 minutes prior to a standardized breakfast. A washout period of at least 10 days separated each treatment phase.RESULTS:Thirty-four patients provided evaluable data for all five comparators. The mean number of hours of evaluable pH data was ≥23.75 hours. On day 5, intragastric pH was maintained above 4.0 for a mean of 14.0 h with esomeprazole, 12.1 h with rabeprazole, 11.8 h with omeprazole, 11.5 h with lansoprazole, and 10.1 h with pantoprazole (p ≤ 0.001 for differences between esomeprazole and all other comparators). Esomeprazole also provided a significantly higher percentage of patients with an intragastric pH greater than 4.0 for more than 12 h relative to the other proton pump inhibitors (p < 0.05). The frequency of adverse events was similar between treatment groups.CONCLUSIONS:Esomeprazole at the standard dose of 40 mg once daily provided more effective control of gastric acid at steady state than standard doses of lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantoprazole, and rabeprazole in patients with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease.
Capturability-based analysis and control of legged locomotion, Part 2: Application to M2V2, a lower-body humanoid

This two-part paper discusses the analysis and control of legged locomotion in terms of N -step capturability: the ability of a legged system to come to a stop without falling by taking N or fewer steps. We consider this ability to be crucial to legged locomotion and a useful, yet not overly restrictive criterion for stability. Part 1 introduced the N -step capturability framework and showed how to obtain capture regions and control sequences for simplified gait models. In Part 2, we describe an algorithm that uses these results as approximations to control a humanoid robot. The main contributions of this part are 1) step location adjustment using the 1-step capture region, 2) novel instantaneous capture point control strategies, and 3) an experimental evaluation of the 1-step capturability margin. The presented algorithm was tested using M2V2, a 3D force-controlled humanoid robot with 12 actuated degrees of freedom in the legs, both in simulation and in physical experiments. The physical ∗J. Pratt, T. Koolen, S. Cotton, J. Carff, M. Johnson, and P. Neuhaus are with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Florida †T. Koolen and T. de Boer are with the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands ‡J. Rebula is with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor §This work was funded through the Army Tank and Automotive Research and Development Command (W56HZV04-C-0072), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (FA8650-05-C-7265), the Office of Naval Research (N00014-091-0913-01), NASA (NNX10AG54A), and the Honda Research Institute. robot was able to recover from forward and sideways pushes of up to 21 Ns while balancing on one leg and stepping to regain balance. The simulated robot was able to recover from sideways pushes of up to 15 Ns while walking, and walked across randomly placed stepping stones.