Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ovulation rate and twinning rate in cattle: heritabilities and genetic correlation.

Repeated measures of ovulation rate on puberal heifers should be an effective way to select for increased twinning rate. A reliable estimate of the genetic correlation between ovulation and twinning rates is needed to implement such selection and to predict its efficiency. Restricted maximum likelihood was used to estimate genetic correlations from subsets of data collected from the twinning project at the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. The animal model included numerator relationships among the animals and fixed effects of year-season of measurement, age at measurement, and birth group. Genetic correlations between averages of ovulation rates for three, four, five, six, seven, and eight estrous cycles and the occurrence of twins were, respectively, . 62, . 76, 1.00, 1.00, 1.00, and . 98 based on observations on 200 to 325 puberal heifers. Corresponding phenotypic correlations ranged from . 06 to . 26. Genetic correlations between ovulation rate in a single estrous cycle and occurrence of twins were . 38, . 98, and . 98, respectively, for 323, 430, and 283 cows with ovulation rate measured after measurement of twinning, in the same season as measurement of twinning, and more than 1 yr before measurement of twinning. Phenotypic correlations were . 00, . 07, and . 00. Genetic and phenotypic correlations among ovulation rates at six consecutive estrous cycles averaged, respectively, . 66 and . 12 for 610 heifers. Heritabilities for ovulation rates in individual cycles averaged . 16. No evidence of negative environmental covariance between ovulation rates in adjacent cycles was found. These results support the approach of indirectly selecting for twinning rate by measuring ovulation rates in estrous cycles of puberal heifers.
A dynamic model for magnetostrictive hysteresis

The rate-dependent hysteresis present in thin magnetostrictive actuators can be captured by a dynamic model, consisting of a Preisach operator coupled to an ordinary differential equation in an unusual way. The model presents interesting problems in analysis and computation due to its special structure. In this paper we first transform the model into a more amenable form and gain insight into the model by introducing a new hysteretic operator. Then we investigate some system-theoretic properties of the model: stability of equilibria, input-output stability, reachability and observability. Existence of periodic solutions under periodic forcing is also established. Finally numerical integration schemes for the model are discussed.
Projecting the Fokker-Planck Equation onto a finite dimensional exponential family

In the present paper we discuss problems concerning evolutions of densities related to Ito diffusions in the framework of the statistical exponential manifold. We develop a rigorous approach to the problem, and we particularize it to the orthogonal projection of the evolution of the density of a diffusion process onto a finite dimensional exponential manifold. It has been shown by D. Brigo (1996) that the projected evolution can always be interpreted as the evolution of the density of a different diffusion process. We give also a compactness result when the dimension of the exponential family increases, as a first step towards a convergence result to be investigated in the future. The infinite dimensional exponential manifold structure introduced by G. Pistone and C. Sempi is used and some examples are given.
Proteinuria selectivity index based upon alpha 2-macroglobulin or IgM is superior to the IgG based index in differentiating glomerular diseases. Technical note.

BACKGROUND The proteinuria selectivity index (SI) may be used to describe changes of the glomerular permeability for macromolecules in glomerular diseases. Proteins the size of alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2 M) or IgM cannot normally pass the glomerular barrier, whereas IgG can pass through the large pores of glomerular basement membrane. Comparison of the clearance of the three high-molecular-weight proteins to that of albumin may be useful in characterization and diagnosis of different glomerular diseases as well as in understanding of the permeability characteristics of the glomerular filter. METHODS Three types of SI, each calculated as a ratio of clearance of either IgG, alpha 2M or IgM to that of albumin, were measured in 199 proteinuric patients. The patients were subdivided into eight different biopsy-verified glomerular diseases. RESULTS Two diagnoses could be clearly distinguished using SI based on alpha 2M (alpha 2 M SI) or IgM (IgM SI). Both alpha 2M SI and IgM SI were significantly lower in minimal change nephropathy and higher in crescentic necrotizing glomerulonephritis than in all the other diagnoses. The SI based on IgG (IgG SI) was less useful in determining specific diagnoses, since patients with minimal change nephropathy could not be distinguished from those with other types of primary glomerulonephritis and patients with crescentic necrotizing glomerulonephritis did not differ from those with diabetic nephropathy. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study indicate that alpha 2M SI and IgM SI are superior to IgG SI in characterization of glomerular disorders and might replace the IgG SI for this purpose.
Effect of high alumina iron ore of gibbsite type on sintering performance

The fundamental properties and utilisation feasibility in the sintering production of a newly developed commercial iron ore resource were studied at laboratory scale in the present work. The new iron ore contained medium iron content and high of alumina of gibbsite type. The ore is a typical limonite, which could help to reduce the production cost of hot metal. The assimilation and fluidity properties of the new kind of high alumina iron ore were investigated, comparing with other kinds of limonite and magnetite iron ores. The effect of addition of the iron ore on sintering process was also performed in a sintering pot, and the properties of the sinter samples were then examined. The results showed that the melt formation and fluidity properties of the high alumina iron ore were not good, and it had adverse effect on sinter quality. The yield and strength of the sinter samples gradually decreased with the increasing of high alumina iron ore blending ratio from 7 to 27·3 wt-%. The reducibility first increased then decreased, and the low temperature reduction degradation characteristics changed in an opposite trend correspondingly. The softening–melting property of the sinter samples also deteriorated in the experiment and might have a negative influence on the blast furnace operation.
Toward a Durable Anti‐HIV Gene Therapy Based on RNA Interference

Basic research in the field of molecular biology led to the discovery of the mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi) in Caenorhabditis elegans in 1998. RNAi is now widely appreciated as an important gene control mechanism in mammals, and several RNAi‐based gene‐silencing applications have already been used in clinical trials. In this review I will discuss RNAi approaches to inhibit the pathogenic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1), which establishes a chronic infection that would most likely require a durable gene therapy approach. Viruses, such as HIV‐1, are particularly difficult targets for RNAi attack because they mutate frequently, which allows viral escape by mutation of the RNAi target sequence. Combinatorial RNAi strategies are required to prevent viral escape.
Ozone-induced production of nitric oxide and TNF-α and tissue injury are dependent on NF-κB p50

Ozone-induced lung injury is associated with increased production of reactive nitrogen intermediates and TNF-α, which have been implicated in the pathogenic process. Generation of these mediators is regulated in part by transcription factors, e.g., NF-κB and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP). The present studies used NF-κB p50 knockout mice to assess the role of this transcription factor protein in ozone-induced inflammatory mediator production and toxicity. Treatment of wild-type (WT) mice with ozone (0.8 ppm, 3 h) resulted in a rapid increase in NF-κB binding activity in alveolar macrophages that peaked after 6–12 h. This response was attenuated in NF-κB p50−/− mice. In WT mice, but not NF-κB p50−/− mice, C/EBP was also markedly increased in macrophages following ozone inhalation. Ozone also induced changes in the mobility of C/EBP in gel shift assays, suggesting alterations in the transcription factor complex that may be important in controlling inflammatory gene expression. Whereas macrophages fr.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Can Be Detected in a Polymicrobial Competition Model Using Impedance Spectroscopy with a Novel Biosensor

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful technique that can be used to elicit information about an electrode interface. In this article, we highlight six principal processes by which the presence of microorganisms can affect impedance and show how one of these - the production of electroactive metabolites - changes the impedance signature of culture media containing Pseudomonas aeruginosa. EIS, was used in conjunction with a low cost screen printed carbon sensor to detect the presence of P. aeruginosa when grown in isolation or as part of a polymicrobial infection with Staphylococcus aureus. By comparing the electrode to a starting measurement, we were able to identify an impedance signature characteristic of P. aeruginosa. Furthermore, we are able to show that one of the changes in the impedance signature is due to pyocyanin and associated phenazine compounds. The findings of this study indicate that it might be possible to develop a low cost sensor for the detection of P. aeruginosa in important point of care diagnostic applications. In particular, we suggest that a development of the device described here could be used in a polymicrobial clinical sample such as sputum from a CF patient to detect P. aeruginosa.
Association of breast-feeding and feeding on demand with child weight status up to 4 years.

OBJECTIVES The mechanisms underlying the protective effect of breast-feeding on the development of childhood overweight are unclear. This study examines the association of breast-feeding with weight gain in the first year, and body mass index (BMI) and overweight up to 4 years. In addition, we examine possible mechanisms of this effect (i.e., feeding pattern, eating style, unhealthy snacking behavior). METHODS Data originated from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study (N = 2 834). Questionnaires assessed breast-feeding duration up to 12 months, feeding pattern (i.e., feeding on demand or feeding to schedule) at 3 months, BMI at 1, 2 and 4 years, eating style (e.g., slow eating) at age 1, and unhealthy snacking at age 2. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association of breast-feeding and feeding pattern with eating style, unhealthy snacking, BMI z-scores and overweight. RESULTS Each additional month of breast-feeding was associated with less weight gain in the first year (regression coefficient B = -37.6 g, p < 0.001), a lower BMI z-score at age 1 (B = -0.02, p < 0.01), and a lower odds of being overweight at age 1 (odds ratio = 0.96, p < 0.05). Breast-feeding was associated with fewer unhealthy snacking occasions per week at age 2 (B = -0.19 for each month of breast-feeding, p < 0.001), but was unrelated to eating style. Feeding pattern was unrelated to all outcome variables after adjustment for breast-feeding duration. CONCLUSIONS The study showed a short-term protective effect of breast-feeding against overweight development. Possible mechanisms through which breast-feeding may protect against overweight include less unhealthy snacking behavior, but not feeding pattern or child's eating style.
Reliability and validity of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status in community-dwelling elderly

Introduction The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is a widely used screening instrument in neuropsychological assessment and is a brief, individually administered measure. The present study aims to assess the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the RBANS in community-dwelling elderly. Material and methods All subjects come from the community-dwelling elderly in Shanghai, China. They completed a questionnaire concerning demographic information, the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and the Chinese version of the RBANS. To test for internal consistency, Cronbach's α was calculated for all six RBANS indices. Correlations between each of the RBANS and MMSE subtests were conducted to measure the concurrent validity. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the construct validity. Results The final sample of participants included 236 community-dwelling elderly. The mean total score on the RBANS was 86.02 (±14.19). The RBANS total score showed strong internal consistency (r = 0.806), and the coefficient α value for each of the RBANS scales ranged from 0.142 to 0.727. The total RBANS score was highly correlated with that of the MMSE (r = 0.594, p<0.001), and the RBANS subtests also demonstrated strong correlations with most of the MMSE subtests. The results of the CFA indicated an acceptable fit between the Chinese version of the RBANS and the original. Conclusions The Chinese version of the RBANS had relatively good reliability and validity in a community-dwelling elderly sample. It may be a useful screening instrument for conducting cognitive assessments in community-dwelling elderly.
A Fair Comparison of Pull and Push Strategies in Large Distributed Networks

In this paper, we compare the performance of the pull and push strategies in a large homogeneous distributed system. When a pull strategy is in use, lightly loaded nodes attempt to steal jobs from more highly loaded nodes, while under the push strategy, more highly loaded nodes look for lightly loaded nodes to process some of their jobs. Given the maximum allowed overall probe rate R and arrival rate λ, we provide closed-form solutions for the mean response time of a job for the push and pull strategy under the infinite system model. More specifically, we show that the push strategy outperforms the pull strategy for any probe rate % > 0 when λ <; φ-1, where φ = (1 +√5)/2 ≈ 1.6180 is the golden ratio. More generally, we show that the push strategy prevails if and only if 2λ <; √(R+1)2 + 4(R+1) √ (R+1). We also show that under the infinite system model, a hybrid pull-and-push strategy is always inferior to the pure pull or push strategy. The relation between the finite and infinite system model is discussed, and simulation results that validate the infinite system model are provided.
A longitudinal intergenerational analysis of executive functions during early childhood.

Despite the importance of executive function (EF) in both clinical and educational contexts, the aetiology of individual differences in early childhood EF remains poorly understood. This study provides the first longitudinal intergenerational analysis of mother-child EF associations during early childhood. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age-appropriate EF tasks. Mother and child EFs were modestly correlated by 24 months of age, and this association was stable through 48 months. Importantly, maternal-child EF associations were still robust after controlling for verbal ability (potential indicator of verbal/crystallized intelligence) and maternal education (correlate of socio-economic status and verbal intelligence). Potential implications of these findings as well as underlying mechanisms of the maternal-child EF association (gene-environment interplay) are discussed.
Protection of Renal Epithelial Cells against Oxidative Injury by Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Preconditioning Is Mediated by ERK1/2 Activation*

We investigated the role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in intracellular Ca2+ regulation, MAPK activation, and cytoprotection in LLC-PK1 renal epithelial cells in an attempt to identify the mechanisms of protection afforded by ER stress. Cells preconditioned with trans-4,5-dihydroxy-1,2-dithiane, tunicamycin, thapsigargin, or A23187 expressed ER stress proteins and were resistant to subsequent H2O2-induced cell injury. In addition, ER stress preconditioning prevented the increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration that normally follows H2O2 exposure. Stable transfection of cells with antisense RNA targeted against GRP78 (pkASgrp78 cells) prevented GRP78 induction, disabled the ER stress response, sensitized cells to H2O2-induced injury, and prevented the development of tolerance to H2O2 that normally occurs with preconditioning. ERK and JNK were transiently (30–60 min) phosphorylated in response to H2O2. ER stress-preconditioned cells had more ERK and less JNK phosphorylation than control cells in response to H2O2 exposure. Preincubation with a specific inhibitor of JNK activation or adenoviral infection with a construct that encodes constitutively active MEK1, the upstream activator of ERKs, also protected cells against H2O2 toxicity. In contrast, the pkASgrp78 cells had less ERK and more JNK phosphorylation upon H2O2 exposure. Expression of constitutively active ERK also conferred protection on native as well as pkAS-grp78 cells. These results indicate that GRP78 plays an important role in the ER stress response and cytoprotection. ER stress preconditioning attenuates H2O2-induced cell injury in LLC-PK1 cells by preventing an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, potentiating ERK activation, and decreasing JNK activation. Thus, the ER stress response modulates the balance between ERK and JNK signaling pathways to prevent cell death after oxidative injury. Furthermore, ERK activation is an important downstream effector mechanism for cellular protection by ER stress.
Review of Salivary Gland Neoplasms

Salivary gland tumours most often present as painless enlarging masses. Most are located in the parotid glands and most are benign. The principal hurdle in their management lies in the difficulty in distinguishing benign from malignant tumours. Investigations such as fine needle aspiration cytology and MRI scans provide some useful information, but most cases will require surgical excision as a means of coming to a definitive diagnosis. Benign tumours and early low-grade malignancies can be adequately treated with surgery alone, while more advanced and high-grade tumours with regional lymph node metastasis will require postoperative radiotherapy. The role of chemotherapy remains largely palliative. This paper highlights some of the more important aspects in the management of salivary gland tumours.
A biased competition account of attention and memory in Alzheimer's disease

The common view of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is that of an age-related memory disorder, i.e. declarative memory deficits are the first signs of the disease and associated with progressive brain changes in the medial temporal lobes and the default mode network. However, two findings challenge this view. First, new model-based tools of attention research have revealed that impaired selective attention accompanies memory deficits from early pre-dementia AD stages on. Second, very early distributed lesions of lateral parietal networks may cause these attention deficits by disrupting brain mechanisms underlying attentional biased competition. We suggest that memory and attention impairments might indicate disturbances of a common underlying neurocognitive mechanism. We propose a unifying account of impaired neural interactions within and across brain networks involved in attention and memory inspired by the biased competition principle. We specify this account at two levels of analysis: at the computational level, the selective competition of representations during both perception and memory is biased by AD-induced lesions; at the large-scale brain level, integration within and across intrinsic brain networks, which overlap in parietal and temporal lobes, is disrupted. This account integrates a large amount of previously unrelated findings of changed behaviour and brain networks and favours a brain mechanism-centred view on AD.
Effects of Physical Form and Urea Treatment of Rice Straw on Rumen Fermentation, Microbial Protein Synthesis and Nutrient Digestibility in Dairy Steers

This study was designed to determine the effect of physical form and urea treatment of rice straw on rumen fermentation, microbial protein synthesis and nutrient digestibility. Four rumen-fistulated dairy steers were randomly assigned according to a 2 (2 factorial arrangement in a 4 (4 Latin square design to receive four dietary treatments. Factor A was roughage source: untreated rice straw (RS) and urea-treated (3%) rice straw (UTRS), and factor B was type of physical form of rice straw: long form rice straw (LFR) and chopped (4 cm) rice straw (CHR). The steers were offered the concentrate at 0.5% body weight (BW) /d and rice straw was fed ad libitum. DM intake and nutrient digestibility were increased (p<0.05) by urea treatment. Ruminal pH were decreased (p<0.05) in UTRS fed group, while ruminal ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were increased (p<0.01) by urea treatment. Total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations increased (p<0.01) when steers were fed UTRS. Furthermore, VFA concentrations were not altered by treatments (p>0.05), except propionic acid (C3) was increased (p<0.05) in UTRS fed group. Nitrogen (N) balance was affected by urea treatment (p<0.05). Microbial protein synthesis (MCP) synthesis were greater by UTRS and CHR group (p<0.05). The efficiency of microbial N synthesis was greater for UTRS than for RS (p<0.05). From these results, it can be concluded that using the long form combined with urea treatment of rice straw improved feed intake, digestibility, rumen fermentation and efficiency of microbial N synthesis in crossbred dairy steers.
C terminus of RGS‐GAIP‐interacting protein conveys neuropilin‐1‐mediated signaling during angiogenesis

Initially, it was thought that there was no intracellular signaling mediated by NRP‐1 alone in response to its ligands. However, the emerging data from our group as well as others suggest that the signaling through NRP‐1 actually promotes angiogenesis and is mediated through its C‐terminal domain and downstream molecules such as phosphoinositide 3‐kinase. Hence, understanding the signal transduction pathways mediated by NRP‐1 and identification of its downstream molecules are of importance. By using both in vivo zebrafish model and in vitro tissue culture system, we have shown that the C‐terminal three amino acids of NRP‐1 (SEA‐COOH) are required for NRP‐1‐mediated angiogenesis. Furthermore, knocking down of RGS‐GAIP‐interacting protein C terminus (GIPC) in zebrafish, which is associated with C‐terminal domain of NRP‐1, exhibits similar vasculature phenotypes to those from NRP‐1 null. Specific and effective silencing of GIPC in vascular endothelium results in inhibition of NRP‐1‐mediated migration. In both cases as described, PDZ domain of GIPC is responsible for its function. Taken together, our data suggest a novel role of GIPC in angiogenesis and vessel formation and also support our hypothesis that NRP‐1 can facilitate downstream signaling to promote angiogenesis through GIPC. —Wang, L. , Mukhopadhyay, D. , Xu, X. C terminus of RGS‐GAIP‐interacting protein conveys neuropilin‐1‐mediated signaling during angiogenesis. FASEB J. 20, E732–E741 (2006)