Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optical diagnosis of colorectal polyps using high-definition i-scan: an educational experience.

AIM To examine performances regarding prediction of polyp histology using high-definition (HD) i-scan in a group of endoscopists with varying levels of experience. METHODS We used a digital library of HD i-scan still images, comprising twin pictures (surface enhancement and tone enhancement), collected at our university hospital. We defined endoscopic features of adenomatous and non-adenomatous polyps, according to the following parameters: color, surface pattern and vascular pattern. We familiarized the participating endoscopists on optical diagnosis of colorectal polyps using a 20-min didactic training session. All endoscopists were asked to evaluate an image set of 50 colorectal polyps with regard to polyp histology. We classified the diagnoses into high confidence (i.e., cases in which the endoscopist could assign a diagnosis with certainty) and low confidence diagnoses (i.e., cases in which the endoscopist preferred to send the polyp for formal histology). Mean sensitivity, specificity and accuracy per endoscopist/image were computed and differences between groups tested using independent-samples t tests. High vs low confidence diagnoses were compared using the paired-samples t test. RESULTS Eleven endoscopists without previous experience on optical diagnosis evaluated a total of 550 images (396 adenomatous, 154 non-adenomatous). Mean sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for diagnosing adenomas were 79.3%, 85.7% and 81.1%, respectively. No significant differences were found between gastroenterologists and trainees regarding performances of optical diagnosis (mean accuracy 78.0% vs 82.9%, P = 0.098). Diminutive lesions were predicted with a lower mean accuracy as compared to non-diminutive lesions (74.2% vs 93.1%, P = 0.008). A total of 446 (81.1%) diagnoses were made with high confidence. High confidence diagnoses corresponded to a significantly higher mean accuracy than low confidence diagnoses (84.0% vs 64.3%, P = 0.008). A total of 319 (58.0%) images were evaluated as having excellent quality. Considering excellent quality images in conjunction with high confidence diagnosis, overall accuracy increased to 92.8%. CONCLUSION After a single training session, endoscopists with varying levels of experience can already provide optical diagnosis with an accuracy of 84.0%.
Resolution of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in CD4+ lymphocyte- depleted mice given aerosols of heat-treated Escherichia coli

Mice were thymectomized and depleted of CD4+ lymphocytes by treatment with monoclonal antibody to induce Pneumocystis carinii (PC) pneumonia (PCP). These mice were then exposed to aerosols of heat-treated Escherichia coli three times a week. Aerosol treatment for 10 d caused a slight reduction in numbers of PC nuclei in the lungs of mice, and treatment for 22 d resulted in nearly complete resolution of PCP. Large numbers of macrophages, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and lymphocytes accumulated in lungs of aerosol-treated mice. Depletion of either CD8+ lymphocytes or asialo GM1+ cells that remained in the mice after CD4+ cell depletion had no effect on the ability of the mice to resolve PCP after E. coli aerosol treatments. However, depletion of Thy-1+ lymphocytes in these mice abrogated their ability to resolve PCP and reduced the numbers of macrophages that accumulated in the lungs. In addition, it was found that resolution of PCP induced by heat-treated E. coli aerosol treatments was also abrogated when mice were treated with polyclonal antibodies against tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- alpha). Thus, resolution of PCP in CD4+ lymphocyte-depleted mice by heat-treated E. coli aerosols was not dependent on either CD8+ or asialo GM1+ cells but was dependent on Thy-1+CD4-CD8- lymphocytes and on the participation of TNF. These results indicate that heat-treated E. coli aerosols can act as an immune response modifier by inducing resolution of PCP in mice by a mechanism not dependent on the presence of CD4+ lymphocytes.
Effects of alfalfa flavonoids on the production performance, immune system, and ruminal fermentation of dairy cows

Objective The objective of this study was to examine the effects of alfalfa flavonoids on the production performance, immunity, and ruminal fermentation of dairy cows. Methods The experiments employed four primiparous Holstein cows fitted with ruminal cannulas, and used a 4×4 Latin square design. Cattle were fed total mixed ration supplemented with 0 (control group, Con), 20, 60, or 100 mg of alfalfa flavonoids extract (AFE) per kg of dairy cow body weight (BW). Results The feed intake of the group receiving 60 mg/kg BW of AFE were significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of the group receiving 100 mg/kg BW. Milk yields and the fat, protein and lactose of milk were unaffected by AFE, while the total solids content of milk reduced (p = 0.05) linearly as AFE supplementation was increased. The somatic cell count of milk in group receiving 60 mg/kg BW of AFE was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of the control group. Apparent total-tract digestibility of neutral detergent fiber and crude protein showed a tendency to increase (0.05<p≤0.10) with ingestion of AFE. Methane dicarboxylic aldehyde concentration decreased (p = 0.03) linearly, whereas superoxide dismutase activity showed a tendency to increase (p = 0.10) quadratically, with increasing levels of AFE supplementation. The lymphocyte count and the proportion of lymphocytes decreased (p = 0.03) linearly, whereas the proportion of neutrophil granulocytes increased (p = 0.01) linearly with increasing levels of dietary AFE supplementation. The valeric acid/total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) ratio was increased (p = 0.01) linearly with increasing of the level of AFE supplementation, the other ruminal fermentation parameters were not affected by AFE supplementation. Relative levels of the rumen microbe Ruminococcus flavefaciens tended to decrease (p = 0.09) quadratically, whereas those of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens showed a tendency to increase (p = 0.07) quadratically in response to AFE supplementation. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate that AFE supplementation can alter composition of milk, and may also have an increase tendency of nutrient digestion by regulating populations of microbes in the rumen, improve antioxidant properties by increasing antioxidant enzyme activities, and affect immunity by altering the proportions of lymphocyte and neutrophil granulocytes in dairy cows. The addition of 60 mg/kg BW of AFE to the diet of dairy cows was shown to be beneficial in this study.
Using the theory of planned behaviour to investigate the antecedents of physical activity participation among Saudi adolescents

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 LIST OF TABLES 8 LIST OF FIGURES 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10 CHAPTER ONE Introduction 12 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 20 CHAPTER TWO Review of Literature THEORIES OF INTENTIONAL BEHAVIOUR 22 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR 39 TPB EXTENSIONS AND MODIFICATIONS 45 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS 51 CHAPTER THREE Elicitation of Model Salient Beliefs Introduction 54 Method 57 Results 60 Discussion 63 CHAPTER FOUR Psychometric Properties for Questionnaires of Beliefs and the TPB with Additional Variables Pilot study 68 Participants and procedure 68 PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION 6 Measures 70 Reliability 75 Principal components analysis 79 Correlation 81 Two-way ANOVA 81 Current level of physical activity 83 Discussion 84 CHAPTER FIVE EXPLORING BELIEFS AND INTENTIONS ABOUT EXERCISING Introduction 87 Method 90 Results 97 Discussion 109 CHAPTER SIX PREDICTING BEHAVIOUR Introduction 115 Method 117 Results 123 Discussion 129 CHAPTER SEVEN GENERAL DISCUSSION The content of behavioural, normative, and control beliefs 132 Psychometric properties 135 The effects of direct measures and additional variables on intentions to exercise 138 The effect of intention, PBC and, past behaviour on exercise behaviour 141 Implication of the present studies 143 PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION 7 recommendations for future research 150 Strengths and Limitations 153 conclusions 155 APPENDICES Appendix A 158 Appendix B 159 Appendix C 163 Appendix D 170
Development and evaluation of orally disintegrating tablets comprising taste-masked mirtazapine granules

Abstract Introduction: Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) provide an important treatment option for pediatric, geriatric and psychiatric patients. In our previous study, we have performed the initial studies for the formulation development and characterization of new ODT formulations containing a bitter taste drug, mirtazapine, coated with 6% (w/w) Eudragit® E-100 (first group of formulations, FGF) without taste evaluation. In present study, coating ratio of the drug was increased to 8% (w/w) (second group of formulations, SGF) to examine the effect of increased coating ratio of drug on in vitro characterization of the formulations including in vitro taste masking study. Materials and methods: Coacervation technique using Eudragit® E-100 was employed to obtain taste-masked mirtazapine granules. FGF and SGF were compared to original product (Remeron SolTab, an antidepressant drug which produced by pellet technology) in terms of in vitro permeability, in vitro taste masking efficiency which was performed by dissolution studies in salivary medium and dissolution stability. Also, the other tablet characteristics (such as diameter, thickness) of SGF were examined. Results and discussion: The disintegration time of the SGF were found as A1 < A2 < A3 < A5 < A4 (8% Eudragit® E-100), but all of the formulations dissolved under 30 seconds and friability values were less than 1%. In vitro taste masking efficiency studies demonstrated that C2 formulation (in FGF) had the most similar dissolution profile to Remeron SolTab. Conclusions: According to these findings, B2 or C2 (with citric acid or sodium bicarbonate, respectively, with 6% Eudragit® E-100) formulations could be promising alternatives to Remeron SolTab.
The radio spectrum and magnetic field structure of SNR HB3

Context. Evidence for a spectral flattening of the supernova remnant (SNR) HB3 (G132.7+1.3) was recently claimed in the literature based on previously published total flux density data, and the flattening was further interpreted as the discovery of thermal bremsstrahlung emission in the shell of HB3. Aims. A spectral flattening has never been observed from any SNR before. Reliable observations of HB3 at frequencies above 3000 MHz are crucial to confirm such a spectral behaviour. Methods. We extracted 4800 MHz total intensity and polarisation data of HB3 from the Sino-German 6 cm polarisation survey of the Galactic plane made with the Urumqi 25 m telescope, and analysed the spectrum of HB3, together with Effelsberg data at 1408 MHz and 2675 MHz. Results. We found an overall spectral index of HB3 of α = −0.61 ± 0.06 between 1408 MHz and 4800 MHz, similar to the index at lower frequencies. There is no spectral flattening at high frequencies. We detected strong polarised emission from HB3 at 4800 MHz. Our 4800 MHz data show a tangential field orientation in the HB3 shell.
Limitations of Neurobiological Approach in Neuropsychiatry: DCD and the TwoVisual Systems Theory

Abstract The purpose of this review is to address possible limitations of the neurobiological approach to understanding psychiatric disorders. Neurobiological approach helps to resolve the mind-body dualism and develop new assessment and treatment approaches in psychiatry. However, it could be a problem to place too much emphasis on certain aspects of neurobiology, specifically structural neuroanatomy, because of the complexity or comorbidity of neuropsychiatric disorders. Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), for instance, is generally related to problems in motor skills and this movement disability is often related to perception. One account, two visual systems theory, relied on functional distinction in brain; ventral stream is responsible for visual recognition (perceptual representation), and dorsal stream is responsible for the guidance of actions. Numerous neuropsychological and neurophysiological studies have suggested that there are two separate visual streams. What then can we understand of DCD from this neuroanatomical approach? Studies are now showing that shape perception is relevant to visually guided action, such as reaching-to-grasp an object. In retrospect, it is not so surprising that we would need information about 3D shape to interact with 3D structure. In this article, I reviewed fundamental findings of two-visual system theory and suggested problems of visually guided action to consider what shape perception implies for the hypothesis that there are two separate visual streams in the brain. Questions raised highlight possible limitations of adopting a structural neuroanatomical approach to account for perception and action effects, and by extent related psychiatric conditions such as DCD. In conclusion, neurobiological approach in neuropsychiatry, while useful, would be limited if it focuses too much on anatomical distinction.
Rectification of the Background Potassium Current: A Determinant of Rotor Dynamics in Ventricular Fibrillation

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death. Yet, the mechanisms of VF remain elusive. Pixel-by-pixel spectral analysis of optical signals was carried out in video imaging experiments using a potentiometric dye in the Langendorff-perfused guinea pig heart. Dominant frequencies (peak with maximal power) were distributed throughout the ventricles in clearly demarcated domains. The fastest domain (25 to 32 Hz) was always on the anterior left ventricular (LV) wall and was shown to result from persistent rotor activity. Intermittent block and breakage of wavefronts at specific locations in the periphery of such rotors were responsible for the domain organization. Patch-clamping of ventricular myocytes from the LV and the right ventricle (RV) demonstrated an LV-to-RV drop in the amplitude of the outward component of the background rectifier current (IB). Computer simulations suggested that rotor stability in LV resulted from relatively small rectification of IB (presumably IK1), whereas instability, termination, and wavebreaks in RV were a consequence of strong rectification. This study provides new evidence in the isolated guinea pig heart that a persistent high-frequency rotor in the LV maintains VF, and that spatially distributed gradients in IK1 density represent a robust ionic mechanism for rotor stabilization and wavefront fragmentation.
Enumeration and biomass estimation of planktonic bacteria and viruses by transmission electron microscopy

Bacteria and virus particles were harvested from water samples by ultracentrifugation directly onto Formvar-coated electron microscopy grids and counted in a transmission electron microscope. With this technique, we have counted and sized bacteria and viruses in marine water samples and during laboratory incubations. By X-ray microanalysis, we could determine the elemental composition and dry-matter content of individual bacteria. The dry weight/volume ratio for the bacteria was 600 fg of dry weight microns-3. The potassium content of the bacteria was normal compared with previous estimates from other bacterial assemblages; thus, this harvesting procedure did not disrupt the bacterial cells. Virus particles were, by an order of magnitude, more abundant than bacteria in marine coastal waters. During the first 5 to 7 days of incubation, the total number of viruses increased exponentially at a rate of 0.4 day-1 and thereafter declined. The high proliferation rate suggests that viral parasitism may affect mortality of bacteria in aquatic environments.
Towards Optimally Decentralized Multi-Robot Collision Avoidance via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Developing a safe and efficient collision avoidance policy for multiple robots is challenging in the decentralized scenarios where each robot generates its paths without observing other robots' states and intents. While other distributed multi-robot collision avoidance systems exist, they often require extracting agent-level features to plan a local collision-free action, which can be computationally prohibitive and not robust. More importantly, in practice the performance of these methods are much lower than their centralized counterparts. We present a decentralized sensor-level collision avoidance policy for multi-robot systems, which directly maps raw sensor measurements to an agent's steering commands in terms of movement velocity. As a first step toward reducing the performance gap between decentralized and centralized methods, we present a multi-scenario multi-stage training framework to learn an optimal policy. The policy is trained over a large number of robots on rich, complex environments simultaneously using a policy gradient based reinforcement learning algorithm. We validate the learned sensor-level collision avoidance policy in a variety of simulated scenarios with thorough performance evaluations and show that the final learned policy is able to find time efficient, collision-free paths for a large-scale robot system. We also demonstrate that the learned policy can be well generalized to new scenarios that do not appear in the entire training period, including navigating a heterogeneous group of robots and a large-scale scenario with 100 robots. Videos are available at https://sites.google. com/view/drlmaca.
Rice and Bean Targets for Biofortification Combined with High Carotenoid Content Crops Regulate Transcriptional Mechanisms Increasing Iron Bioavailability

Iron deficiency affects thousands of people worldwide. Biofortification of staple food crops aims to support the reduction of this deficiency. This study evaluates the effect of combinations of common beans and rice, targets for biofortification, with high carotenoid content crops on the iron bioavailability, protein gene expression, and antioxidant effect. Iron bioavailability was measured by the depletion/repletion method. Seven groups were tested (n = 7): Pontal bean (PB); rice + Pontal bean (R + BP); Pontal bean + sweet potato (PB + SP); Pontal bean + pumpkin (PB + P); Pontal bean + rice + sweet potato (PB + R + P); Pontal bean + rice + sweet potato (PB + R + SP); positive control (Ferrous Sulfate). The evaluations included: hemoglobin gain, hemoglobin regeneration efficiency (HRE), gene expression of divalente metal transporter 1 (DMT-1), duodenal citocromo B (DcytB), ferroportin, hephaestin, transferrin and ferritin and total plasma antioxidant capacity (TAC). The test groups, except the PB, showed higher HRE (p < 0.05) than the control. Gene expression of DMT-1, DcytB and ferroportin increased (p < 0.05) in the groups fed with high content carotenoid crops (sweet potato or pumpkin). The PB group presented lower (p < 0.05) TAC than the other groups. The combination of rice and common beans, and those with high carotenoid content crops increased protein gene expression, increasing the iron bioavailability and antioxidant capacity.
Contention-Free Interleavers for High-Throughput Turbo Decoding

This paper presents a low-complexity interleaver design that facilitates the high throughput turbo decoding required for next generation wireless systems. Specifically, it addresses the interleaver design issues that arise when several Log-MAP processors are used in parallel to improve turbo decoding throughput. In such a parallel decoder, memory access contentions occur when more than one extrinsic value is to be written to or read from the same memory block at the same time. These contentions may be avoided by designing contention- free (CF) interleavers that incorporate hardware constraints into the interleaver description. The paper first derives bounds on the number of CF interleavers, demonstrating that the fraction of interleavers of a given size that are contention-free is quite small. In spite of this, a class of contention-free "inter-window shuffle" (IWS) interleavers are shown via simulation to achieve near-WCDMA performance. Further, the paper shows that the memory requirement of CF IWS interleavers is small compared to an alternate contention-resolving method that uses a modified memory addressing scheme. Finally, we note that the advantages of contention-free interleavers have led to the adoption of a CF quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver in the 3 GPP long term evolution (LTE) standard.
Plasmin Triggers Cytokine Induction in Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages

Objective—Fibrinolytic activity is upregulated in atherosclerotic lesions, yet little is known about the role of plasmin in macrophage function. We postulated a direct effect of plasmin on human monocyte-derived macrophages. Methods and Results—Plasmin activates macrophages via the annexin A2 heterotetramer composed of annexin A2 and S100A10 with subsequent stimulation of Janus kinase JAK1/TYK2 signaling. JAK1/TYK2 leads to STAT3 activation, Akt-dependent NF-&kgr;B activation, and phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and mitogen-activated kinase p38. These signaling pathways trigger nuclear translocation of STAT3 and p65 transcription factors and the induction of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-&agr; and IL-6. Inhibitors of JAK, p38, and NF-&kgr;B revealed that these signaling pathways are indispensable for the plasmin-mediated tumor necrosis factor-&agr; and IL-6 induction. By contrast, the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation is essential only for the IL-6 expression. The activation clearly depends on the proteolytic activity of plasmin, which cleaves the A2 subunit of the annexin A2 heterotetramer. Downregulation of each of the receptor subunits by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides abolished the plasmin-induced expression of proinflammatory cytokines stressing the crucial role the annexin A2 heterotetramer. Conclusions—Plasmin generated at sites of inflammation such as atherosclerotic lesions will trigger cytokine expression in human macrophages.
Estimates of genetic parameters for fat yield in Murrah buffaloes

Aim: The present study was performed to investigate the effect of genetic and non-genetic factors affecting milk fat yield and to estimate genetic parameters of monthly test day fat yields (MTDFY) and lactation 305-day fat yield (L305FY) in Murrah buffaloes. Materials and Methods: The data on total of 10381 MTDFY records comprising the first four lactations of 470 Murrah buffaloes calved from 1993 to 2014 were assessed. These buffaloes were sired by 75 bulls maintained in an organized farm at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. Least squares maximum likelihood program was used to estimate genetic and non-genetic parameters. Heritability estimates were obtained using paternal half-sib correlation method. Genetic and phenotypic correlations among MTDFY, and 305-day fat yield were calculated from the analysis of variance and covariance matrix among sire groups. Results: The overall least squares mean of L305FY was found to be 175.74±4.12 kg. The least squares mean of overall MTDFY ranged from 3.33±0.14 kg (TD-11) to 7.06±0.17 kg (TD-3). The h2 estimate of L305FY was found to be 0.33±0.16 in this study. The estimates of phenotypic and genetic correlations between 305-day fat yield and different MTDFY ranged from 0.32 to 0.48 and 0.51 to 0.99, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, all the genetic and non-genetic factors except age at the first calving group, significantly affected the traits under study. The estimates of phenotypic and genetic correlations of MTDFY with 305-day fat yield was generally higher in the MTDFY-5 of lactation suggesting that this TD yields could be used as the selection criteria for early evaluation and selection of Murrah buffaloes.