Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observations on the history of the development of antimicrobials and their use in poultry feeds.

Antimicrobials are powerful tools, but controversy and conflict often follow power. The development of antimicrobials was marked by personal attacks, political intrigue, internal conflicts, and lawsuits. Such controversy and conflict has continued. The early history of supplementing animal feeds with antimicrobials parallels the isolation and identification of vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 was isolated and characterized in 1948, but further research showed that several feed ingredients, including dried mycelia of certain fungi, were more potent as growth promoters in the diet of chicks than was vitamin B12 alone. The growth-promoting component in fungal mycelia was shown to have antimicrobial activity. A total of 32 antimicrobial compounds are approved for use in broiler feeds in the U.S. without a veterinary prescription. Fifteen compounds are listed for treatment of coccidiosis, 11 are listed as growth promotants, and six are listed for other purposes. Seven compounds are also used in human medicine. These compounds include bacitracin, chlotetracycline, erythromycin, lincomycin, novobiocin, oxytetracycline, and penicillin. No published estimates of antimicrobial use in animals exist at present, and estimates of that use differ markedly. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) estimates usage at 30.6 million pounds, nearly 50% (49.85%) higher than the Animal Health Institute (AHI) estimate of 20.42 million pounds. AHI surveyed their members (the manufacturers of antimicrobials) to obtain their estimates, whereas USC calculated their estimates using published data and the following general formula: antimicrobial use = number of animals treated x average days treated x average dose.
Cost and CO 2 Emission Optimization of Steel Reinforced Concrete Columns in High-Rise Buildings

The construction industry is a representative industry that consumes large amounts of energy and produces substantial pollution. The operation of a building accounts for a large portion of its total CO 2 emissions. Most efforts are focused on improving the energy efficiency related to the operation of a building. The relative importance of the energy and CO 2 emissions from the construction materials increases with the increasing number of low-energy buildings. To minimize the life-cycle energy use of a building, the energy consumed from both materials in the construction phase as well as the energy consumed from the operation of the building must be reduced. In this study, an optimal design method for composite columns in high-rise buildings using a genetic algorithm is proposed to reduce cost and CO 2 emissions from the structural materials in the construction phase. The proposed optimal method minimizes the total cost, including the additional cost calculated based on CO 2 emissions from composite columns, while satisfying the structural design criteria and constructability conditions. The proposed optimal method is applied to an actual 35-story building, and the effective use of structural materials for the sustainable design of composite columns is investigated. It is shown that using more concrete than steel section and using high-strength materials are economically and environmentally effective methods.
Relationship of body fat to fertility in broiler breeder hens.

Sixty-one dwarf broiler breeder hens (58 weeks of age) were utilized to examine relationships among body weight, body fat, oviduct fat, and fertility. Body weight showed a significant (P less than .05) positive relationship to percent body fat (r = +.26). The correlation coefficient between percent body fat and percent oviduct fat was +. 26 (P less than .05). Body weight and percent body fat were negatively correlated with fertility; oviduct fat, however, was not significantly correlated to fertility. The adverse effect of body fat on fertility seems to involve a mechanism other than increased fat deposition in the oviduct.
New Insights into the Biosynthesis Pathway of Polyketide Alkaloid Argimycins P in Streptomyces argillaceus

Argimycins P are a recently identified family of polyketide alkaloids encoded by the cryptic gene cluster arp of Streptomyces argillaceus. These compounds contain either a piperideine ring, or a piperidine ring which may be fused to a five membered ring, and a polyene side chain, which is bound in some cases to an N-acetylcysteine moiety. The arp cluster consists of 11 genes coding for structural proteins, two for regulatory proteins and one for a hypothetical protein. Herein, we have characterized the post-piperideine ring biosynthesis steps of argimycins P through the generation of mutants in arp genes, the identification and characterization of compounds accumulated by those mutants, and cross-feeding experiments between mutants. Based in these results, a biosynthesis pathway is proposed assigning roles to every arp gene product. The regulation of the arp cluster is also addressed by inactivating/overexpressing the positive SARP-like arpRI and the negative TetR-like arpRII transcriptional regulators and determining the effect on argimycins P production, and through gene expression analyses (reverse transcription PCR and quantitative real-time PCR) of arp genes in regulatory mutants in comparison to the wild type strain. These findings will contribute to deepen the knowledge on the biosynthesis of piperidine-containing polyketides and provide tools that can be used to generate new analogs by genetic engineering and/or biocatalysis.
The Tao of Inference in Privacy-Protected Databases

To protect database confidentiality even in the face of full compromise while supporting standard functionality, recent academic proposals and commercial products rely on a mix of encryption schemes. The recommendation is to apply strong, semantically secure encryption to the "sensitive" columns and protect other columns with property-revealing encryption (PRE) that supports operations such as sorting. We design, implement, and evaluate a new methodology for inferring data stored in such encrypted databases. The cornerstone is the multinomial attack , a new inference technique that is analytically optimal and empirically outperforms prior heuristic attacks against PRE-encrypted data. We also extend the multinomial attack to take advantage of correlations across multiple columns. This recovers PRE-encrypted data with sufficient accuracy to then apply machine learning and record linkage methods to infer columns protected by semantically secure encryption or redaction. We evaluate our methodology on medical, census, and union-membership datasets, showing for the first time how to infer full database records. For PRE-encrypted attributes such as demographics and ZIP codes, our attack outperforms the best prior heuristic by a factor of 16. Unlike any prior technique, we also infer attributes, such as incomes and medical diagnoses, protected by strong encryption. For example, when we infer that a patient in a hospital-discharge dataset has a mental health or substance abuse condition, this prediction is 97% accurate.
Improved Performance in Master Runners Competing in the European Championships between 1978 and 2014.

The performance trends in elite runners have been well investigated, but we have no knowledge about performance trends and the difference between the sexes in elderly runners competing at a high level in varying distances. The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of these age groups. Data from seventeen European Championships held between 1978 and 2014 were analyzed for various race distances (i.e. 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m, 5000 m, 10,000 m and marathon). Running speed for the top 8 female and male finalists for each age group (35-99 years, split into 5 year gaps) and each race distance were included. A two-way analysis of variance compared the effects of sex, race distance, age group and calendar year on speed. Subsequent comparisons between race distances, age groups or calendar years were carried out using a post-hoc Bonferroni test. Our analysis shows that men were faster than women in all distances and the difference between the sexes was greater in the shorter distances. Speed was higher for shorter distances than for longer distances. Younger participants were faster than older ones, and the effect of age group was the largest for the 200 m. There was a minor effect of calendar year on speed in the 100 m, 200 m, 1500 m, 10,000 m and marathon, and a minor calendar year×sex interaction on running speed was shown for the 200 m. For athletes and coaches, the current study demonstrates that both male and female athletes improved their running performance over time and that the sex gap may have reached its limit.
A Comparative Analysis of Thermal Characteristics Between Experimental Value and FEM Value in Helical Coil Heat Exchanger

Helical coils are used for heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers. While the thermal characteristics of helical coil heat exchangers available in the literature, there are no any published paper in which the comparative analysis of thermal characteristics between experimental and FEM value. In this paper, the constraints are only velocity and mass flow rate. For this, different heat transfer rates and inner heat transfer coefficients are calculated which is based on experimentation and compared with the FEM value. FEM value is nothing, it is CFD value. Thermal characteristics are compared for various boundary conditions in helical coils. FEM calculation results using the CFD package ANSYS CFX 12.1. Index Terms Helical coil Heat exchanger, CFD or computational fluid dynamics, Solid works 2009, ANSYS CFX 12.1, FEM or Finite Element Method.
Relevance of water quality to broiler and turkey performance.

Water was tested from 300 broiler farms in Arkansas in cooperation with three integrated poultry companies, each having at least two locations in the state. The turkey study was conducted in cooperation with three integrated turkey companies with samples from 100 turkey farms, although the numbers were not equal among companies. Performance criteria collected were body weight, feed conversion, livability, and condemnation. In the overall analysis in the broiler study, nitrate had a detrimental effect on performance. Calcium was negatively correlated with adjusted conversion; i.e., conversion improved as calcium increased. Magnesium was positively correlated with adjusted conversion, or had an adverse effect on conversion. Dissolved oxygen, bicarbonate, hardness, calcium, and magnesium were all positively correlated with adjusted weight but nitrate was negatively correlated with adjusted weight. Calcium and potassium were negatively correlated with livability and calcium and nitrate were positively correlated with condemnation. The bacterial results showed no significant difference between top and bottom producers for either Pseudomonas or Escherichia coli. In the turkey study, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, hardness, and aggressive index were beneficial to feed conversion. Phosphate and ammonia were detrimental to feed conversion. Calcium, magnesium, dissolved oxygen, zinc, hardness, and aggressive index were all positively correlated with adjusted body weight. Magnesium was negatively correlated with livability. Magnesium and aggressive index were positively correlated with condemnation and potassium, zinc, nitrate, and phosphate were negatively correlated with condemnation. Although fewer farms were involved in the turkey study, the results generally support the results of the broiler study.
Medical Comorbidities and Physical Disability amongHypertensive Patients from a Teaching Hospital Clinicin Enugu, South East Nigeria

Introduction: Physical disability in hypertension may be due to medical comorbidities and the complications of hypertension. It may pose limitations in blood pressure control in Sub Saharan Africa because of added cost of treatment. Little is known about the pattern of medical comorbidities and disability among hypertensive patients in south East Nigeria. Methods: This was study cross sectional and descriptive study conducted in the medical outpatient clinic of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Enugu Nigeria. Data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire. Level of Physical disability was estimated using the Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living score. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: A total of 436 subjects were surveyed. Males and females were 161 (36.9%) and 275 (63.1%) respectively with a male to female ratio was 1:1.7. Most patients 379 (86.9%) had at least one comorbidity with most of them having two (30.3%). A total of 234 (53.7%) areas of dependency were reported in 69 (15.8%) individuals with an average of 3.4 per individual. The most frequent areas of disability among the 69 were mobility: stair climbing (66.7%), ambulation (58%) and transfers (27.5%). Severe disability was significantly more common in males and increased with age. In bivariate correlation analysis, age, history of stroke, use of herbal drugs positively correlated with the level of disability. BMI negatively correlated with level of dependence. Conclusions: Patients with hypertension have high rates of disability and comorbidities especially in the elderly. Measures targeted towards improving adherence and treatment of comorbidities should be developed for these centers.
Do director networks improve managerial learning from stock prices ?

We find that the sensitivity of investment to noise in stock prices is smaller for firms with more connected boards, consistent with connected directors possessing information that can help managers filter out the noise in prices. This effect is more pronounced for firms with stronger corporate governance and less entrenched managers. We further find that boards with more industry and executive connections are the most effective in preventing managerial mislearning from prices. Taken together, our findings identify director networks as a mechanism through which managers can more effectively learn from financial markets.
Amelioration of ethionine toxicity in the chick.

Several chick bioassays were conducted to evaluate means of ameliorating ethionine toxicity. Supplementing a corn-soy diet marginally deficient in sulfur amino acids (methionine + cystine) with . 075% D,L-ethionine reduced weight gain in 8-day-old chicks by 70% compared to gains of unsupplemented controls. Dietary addition of . 50% DL-methionine prevented reduction in weight gain and feed intake resulting from ethionine supplementation whereas feeding supplemental L-cystine was without effect. Supplementation of the ethionine-containing diet with either choline or betaine ameliorated the growth depression, although neither compound was able to completely overcome the toxic effects of ethionine. Dietary ethionine did not affect plasma levels of free methionine or cystine but did increase plasma free glycine 6-fold. Dietary addition of . 50% DL-methionine caused normalization of plasma glycine levels whereas it elevated plasma methionine concentration. Although results suggested the possibility of ethionine-induced serine or threonine deficiency, dietary additions of . 75% L-serine or . 75% L-threonine failed to improve chick weight gain. These studies suggest that ethionine, in addition to affecting transsulfuration and transmethylation activity may exert specific effects on certain amino acids in tissue pools.
Selection for early responsiveness of chicks to Escherichia coli and Newcastle disease virus.

A broiler chicken population was divergently selected for high or low early immune responses to Escherichia coli and to Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccines. Four selection cycles were performed in one replicate, and a single cycle in a second replicate. Selection was based on sire-family averages of a titer index (TI) calculated as the mean titer of antibodies produced by offspring vaccinated with either E. coli or NDV at 18 or 10 days of age, respectively. After the first selection cycle, TI of the early-high (EH) line were 22 and 38% greater than those of the early-low (EL) line in Replicates A and B, respectively. After four selection cycles, the average immune response to E. coli and NDV of Line EH exceeded that of Line EL by 68%. Viability was greater in the EH than in the EL line. Realized family heritabilities were . 72 and . 67 in Replicates A and B, respectively and the levels of response to the two antigens were not genetically correlated. The immune response of the EH line developed earlier than that in the EL line as shown by fewer nonresponders against E. coli and the higher response of this line against the two antigens at young ages. Mortality after challenge at 18 days of age and general mortality from hatching to 20 wk of age was lower in Line EH than in Line EL. Body weights at 7 wk were higher in EH than EL chicks.
Modulation of Peripheral Endogenous Opioid Analgesia by Central Afferent Blockade

Background Peripheral tissue injury causes a migration of opioid peptide-containing immune cells to the inflamed site. The subsequent release and action of these peptides on opioid receptors localized on peripheral sensory nerve terminals causes endogenous analgesia. The spinal application of opioid drugs blocks the transmission of nociceptive information from peripheral injury. This study investigates the influence of exogenous spinal opioid analgesia on peripheral endogenous opioid analgesia. Methods Six and forty-eight hours after initiation of continuous intrathecal morphine infusion and administration of Freund's complete adjuvant into the hind paw of rats, antinociceptive and antiinflammatory effects were measured by paw pressure threshold, paw volume, and paw temperature, respectively. Inflammation and quantity of opioid-containing cells were evaluated by immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry. Cold water swim stress-induced endogenous analgesia was examined 24 h after discontinuation of intrathecal morphine administration. Results Intrathecal morphine (10 &mgr;g/h) resulted in a significant and stable increase of paw pressure threshold (P < 0.05) without changing inflammation, as evaluated by paw volume, paw temperature, and flow cytometry (P > 0.05). At 48 but not at 6 h after Freund's complete adjuvant, the number of &bgr;-endorphin–containing cells and cold water swim–induced antinociception were significantly reduced in intrathecal morphine–treated rats compared with those treated with intrathecal vehicle (P < 0.05). Conclusions These findings suggest an interplay of central and peripheral mechanisms of pain control. An effective central inhibition of pain apparently signals a reduced need for recruitment of opioid-containing immune cells to injured sites.
Comparison of clinical characteristics of real-life atrial fibrillation patients treated with vitamin K antagonists, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban: results from the CRAFT study.

BACKGROUND The first-line drugs for the treatment of non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) are non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs), which are preferred over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). There is some evidence that there are dis-crepancies between everyday clinical practice and the guidelines. AIM The study aimed to compare the characteristics of patients on VKAs, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban in everyday practice (i.e. baseline characteristics, drug doses, risk factors for bleeding and thromboembolic events). Additionally, we assessed the frequency of prescription of different oral anticoagulants (OACs) in recent years. METHODS This study consisted of data from the multicentre CRAFT (MultiCentre expeRience in AFib patients Treated with OAC) study (NCT02987062). This was a retrospective analysis of hospital records of AF patients (hospitalised in the years 2011-2016) treated with VKAs (acenocoumarol, warfarin) and NOACs (dabigatran, rivaroxaban). A total of 3528 patients with non-valvular AF were enrolled in the CRAFT study. RESULTS The total cohort consisted of 1973 patients on VKA, 504 patients on dabigatran, and 1051 patients on rivaroxaban. Patients on rivaroxaban were older (70.5 ± 13.1 years) and more often female (47.9%), compared with those on VKAs (67.0 ± 12.8 years, p < 0.001; 35.5%, p < 0.001) and on dabigatran (66.0 ± 13.9 years, p < 0.001; 38.9%, p = 0.001). Among NOACs, patients with persistent and permanent AF were more likely to receive rivaroxaban (54.7% and 73.4%, re-spectively) than dabigatran (45.3%, p < 0.001 and 26.6%, p = 0.002, respectively). Patients on rivaroxaban had higher risk of thromboembolic events (CHA2DS2VASc 3.9 ± 2.0, CHADS2 2.2 ± 1.4) than those on VKAs (3.3 ± 2.0, 1.9 ± 1.3) and on dabigatran (3.1 ± 2.0, 1.8 ± 1.3). Patients on rivaroxaban had also a higher rate of prior major bleeding (11.2%) than those on VKAs (6.7%, p < 0.001) and on dabigatran (7.3%, p = 0.02). Patients on lower doses of dabigatran and rivaroxaban had a significantly higher risk of thromboembolic and bleeding events. Use of VKAs in the year 2011 was reported in over 96% of patients on OACs, but this proportion decreased to 34.6% in 2016. In the last analysed year (2016) AF patients were treated mainly with NOACs - dabigatran (24.2%) and rivaroxaban (41.3%). CONCLUSIONS The prescription of VKAs declined significantly after the introduction of NOACs. Patients treated with different OACs demonstrated a distinct baseline clinical profile. The highest risk of thromboembolic events and incidence of major bleedings was observed in patients on rivaroxaban, in comparison to patients on VKAs and dabigatran. Among NOACs, patients treated with lower doses of dabigatran and rivaroxaban were older and had a significantly higher risk of thromboembolic and bleeding events.
Evaluation of Loudspeaker-Based Virtual Sound Environments for Testing Directional Hearing Aids.

BACKGROUND Assessments of hearing aid (HA) benefits in the laboratory often do not accurately reflect real-life experience. This may be improved by employing loudspeaker-based virtual sound environments (VSEs) that provide more realistic acoustic scenarios. It is unclear how far the limited accuracy of these VSEs influences measures of subjective performance. PURPOSE Verify two common methods for creating VSEs that are to be used for assessing HA outcomes. RESEARCH DESIGN A cocktail-party scene was created inside a meeting room and then reproduced with a 41-channel loudspeaker array inside an anechoic chamber. The reproduced scenes were created either by using room acoustic modeling techniques or microphone array recordings. STUDY SAMPLE Participants were 18 listeners with a symmetrical, sloping, mild-to-moderate hearing loss, aged between 66 and 78 yr (mean = 73.8 yr). DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The accuracy of the two VSEs was assessed by comparing the subjective performance measured with two-directional HA algorithms inside all three acoustic environments. The performance was evaluated by using a speech intelligibility test and an acceptable noise level task. RESULTS The general behavior of the subjective performance seen in the real environment was preserved in the two VSEs for both directional HA algorithms. However, the estimated directional benefits were slightly reduced in the model-based VSE, and further reduced in the recording-based VSE. CONCLUSIONS It can be concluded that the considered VSEs can be used for testing directional HAs, but the provided sensitivity is reduced when compared to a real environment. This can result in an underestimation of the provided directional benefit. However, this minor limitation may be easily outweighed by the high realism of the acoustic scenes that these VSEs can generate, which may result in HA outcome measures with a significantly higher ecological relevance than provided by measures commonly performed in the laboratory or clinic.