Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of gender on breast and thigh turkey meat quality

ABSTRACT 1. The influence of gender on chemical composition, physicochemical parameters, fatty acid profile, amino acid and mineral composition of turkey breast and thigh meat was studied in order to assess nutrient requirements. 2. Chemical composition showed that only intramuscular fat in breast meat was significantly affected by gender (p < 0.05). The results showed a higher percentage of intramuscular fat in male samples, almost double the amount found in females (0.73% vs. 0.38%). 3.For meat colour parameters, only a* showed different results between sexes, with male samples (breast: p < 0.01; thigh: p < 0.001) having the highest values. 4. Fatty acid profiles showed that medium chain unsaturated fatty acids were the most abundant. The significant differences (p < 0.05) found in both breast and thigh muscle could be linked to a difference in metabolism between males and females. 5.There were higher levels of C16:1n-7 in females (breast: p < 0.001; thigh: p < 0.01) compared with male muscle sample (5.05 vs. 2.67 g/100 g in breast and 4.95 vs. 3.27 g/100 g in thigh). Nutritional indices (n-6/n-3 and thrombogenic index) were more favourable in female samples demonstrating that female turkeys had better fatty acid profile than the others. 6. Turkey meat is an important source of dietary amino acids, and female samples had the highest contents both of essential and non-essential amino acids. Furthermore, gender had a numeric effect (p > 0.05) on amino acid composition. 7. Mineral composition showed that Na, Zn and Fe were the minerals most affected by turkey gender.
Ambient benzene at the residence and risk for subtypes of childhood leukemia, lymphoma and CNS tumor

Exposure to benzene increases the risk for acute myeloid leukemia and possibly other types of cancer in adults. For children, only limited evidence about benzene and cancer exists. A few studies have indicated that benzene may increase risk for some subtypes of childhood cancer but not for others. We aimed to investigate if outdoor levels of benzene at the residence increase the risk for subtypes of leukemia, lymphoma and CNS tumor in children. We identified 1,989 children diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or CNS tumor during 1968–1991 in the Danish Cancer Registry and randomly selected 5,506 control children from the Danish population, matched on sex, age and calendar time. We traced residential history of all children from 9 months before birth to time of diagnosis, calculated outdoor benzene concentration at all addresses and summarized cumulative exposure over fetal and childhood periods separately. We used conditional logistic regression for the statistical analyses. Benzene exposure during childhood above the 90th percentile was associated with relative risks for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) of 1.0 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.6–1.7) and 1.9 (95% CI: 0.3–11.1), respectively, when compared with exposure levels below the median. For CNS tumors, there was a tendency of lower risk for ependymoma and higher risk for medulloblastoma in association with higher exposure. In conclusion, benzene was associated with higher risk for childhood AML, but not ALL, which is consistent with the few previous studies.
Frontal and Temporo-Parietal Lobe Contributions to Theory of Mind: Neuropsychological Evidence from a False-Belief Task with Reduced Language and Executive Demands

A model of the functional and anatomical basis of belief reasoning is essential for understanding the relationship between belief reasoning and other cognitive processes in both normal development and pathology. Studies of brain-damaged patients can give valuable insights into the nature of belief processing but pose unique methodological problems. The current study addresses these problems by using a nonlinguistic belief-reasoning task with substantially reduced executive demands. A case series of 12 brain-damaged patients is presented. The belief-reasoning errors of four patients with damage to the prefrontal cortex appeared to arise from these patients' executive function problems. The belief-reasoning errors of three patients with damage to the temporo-parietal junction could not easily be accounted for in this way, raising the possibility that this brain region has a necessary role in representing beliefs, rather than handling the executive demands of belief-reasoning tasks. We discuss the importance of gaining empirical evidence about the scope of theory of mind impairments, and the important role for neuropsychological studies in this project.
Optimization of 3D Print Material for the Recreation of Patient-Specific Temporal Bone Models

Objective: Identify the 3D printed material that most accurately recreates the visual, tactile, and kinesthetic properties of human temporal bone Subjects and Methods: Fifteen study participants with an average of 3.6 years of postgraduate training and 56.5 temporal bone (TB) procedures participated. Each participant performed a mastoidectomy on human cadaveric TB and five 3D printed TBs of different materials. After drilling each unique material, participants completed surveys to assess each model’s appearance and physical likeness on a Likert scale from 0 to 10 (0 = poorly representative, 10 = completely life-like). The 3D models were acquired by computed tomography (CT) imaging and segmented using 3D Slicer software. Results: Polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) had the highest average survey response for haptic feedback (HF) and appearance, scoring 8.3 (SD = 1.7) and 7.6 (SD = 1.5), respectively. The remaining plastics scored as follows for HF and appearance: polylactic acid (PLA) averaged 7.4 and 7.6, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) 7.1 and 7.2, polycarbonate (PC) 7.4 and 3.9, and nylon 5.6 and 6.7. Conclusion: A PETG 3D printed temporal bone models performed the best for realistic appearance and HF as compared with PLA, ABS, PC, and nylon. The PLA and ABS were reliable alternatives that also performed well with both measures.
A Novel Principal Component Analysis Method for the Reconstruction of Leaf Reflectance Spectra and Retrieval of Leaf Biochemical Contents

Vegetation variable retrieval from reflectance data is typically grouped into three categories: the statistical–empirical category, the physical category and the hybrid category (physical models applied to statistical models). Based on the similarities between the spectra of leaves in the optical domain, the leaf reflectance spectra can be linearly modelled using a very limited number of principal components (PCs) if the PCA (principal component analysis) transformation is carried out at the sample dimension. In this paper, we present a novel data-driven approach that uses the PCA transformation to reconstruct leaf reflectance spectra and also to retrieve leaf biochemical contents. First, the PCA transformation was carried out on a training dataset simulated by the PROSPECT-5 model. The results showed that the leaf reflectance spectra can be accurately reconstructed using only a few leading PCs, as the ten leading PCs contained 99.999% of the total information in the 3636 training samples. The spectral error between the simulated or measured reflectance and the reconstructed spectra was also investigated using the simulated and measured datasets (ANGERS and LOPEX’93). The mean root mean squared error (RMSE) values varied from 5.56 × 10−5 to 6.18 × 10−3, which is about 3–10 times more accurate than the PROSPECT simulation method for measured datasets. Secondly, the relationship between PCs and leaf biochemical components was investigated, and we found that the PCs are closely related to the leaf biochemical components and to the reflectance spectra. Only when the weighting coefficient of the most sensitive PC was employed to retrieve the leaf biochemical contents, the coefficients of determination for the PCA data-driven model were 0.69, 0.99, 0.94 and 0.68 for the specific leaf weight (SLW), equivalent water thickness (EWT), chlorophyll content (Cab) and carotenoid content (Car), respectively. Finally, statistical models for the retrieval of leaf biochemical contents were developed based on the weighting coefficients of the sensitive PCs, and the PCA data-driven models were validated and compared to the traditional VI-based and physically-based approaches for the retrieval of leaf properties. The results show that the PCA method shows similar or better performance in the estimation of leaf biochemical contents. Therefore, the PCA method provides a new and accurate data-driven method for reconstructing leaf reflectance spectra and also for retrieving leaf biochemical contents.
Breast Pain , Nipple Pain and Nipple Discharge – An Overview

Breast pain (Mastalgia) is the 2nd most common presenting symptom at Breast Clinics all across the world [1]. Nipple Discharge and pain are the next in order. Patients are usually worried about a potential underlying diagnosis of cancer, however, the incidence of malignancy is actually fairly low among the patients presenting with these symptoms. Aetiology of mastalgia is poorly understood, making appropriate treatment methods more difficult to identify. Reassurance, breast support brassiere and topical non-steroidal creams are commonly used in the management of breast pain. Nipple pain, on the other hand, occurs in a particular set of patients – breastfeeding women – and usually has a more clear-cut underlying diagnosis, i.e. infection, cracked nipple, vasospasm or poor breastfeeding technique. The underlying cause should be identified and treated in a timely manner while continuing with breastfeeding, if at all possible. Nipple discharge is the most worrying of the symptoms among these three, in terms of detecting the malignancy, especially, if the discharge is haemorrhagic. Investigations and treatment of nipple discharge largely differs, depending upon whether or not intraductal pathology is identified. Other systemic causes should be considered, especially in patients with bilateral nipple discharge. Novel diagnostic methods are also on the rise and can help practitioners investigate patients with nipple pain and discharge in a less invasive manner, with Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or special biomarkers. All in all, mastalgia, nipple pain and nipple discharge are frequent complaints and each needs to be investigated thoroughly in order to tailor the treatment best suited to the individual patient.
Promoter region polymorphism & expression profile of toll like receptor-3 (TLR-3) gene in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients from India

Background & objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) induces an immune response of the host, manifested by the formation of anti-HCV antibodies mediated by adaptive and innate immunity. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a pivotal role in innate immunity system. This study was aimed to investigate the promoter region polymorphism and expression of TLR3 gene in patients with chronic HCV infection. Methods: Patients with chronic HCV infection (N=180) and an equal number of age-sex matched controls were included in the study. Patients positive for HCV-RNA were subjected to analysis of TLR3 polymorphism by direct sequencing of PCR products verified by comparing with the sequences reported in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database (accession number: NT 022792). Expression of TLR3 gene was analyzed by semiquantitative RT-PCR using housekeeping β-actin gene as the internal control. Results: Polymorphisms at position -288G/A and -705A/G were identified. The results were significant in -705 allele (P=0.004) OR 2.79(1.46-5.42) and were associated with high risk of HCV infection. In silico sequence analysis showed the presence of ectropic viral integration site 1 encoded factor, in which G at -705 results in the loss of this site. The -7C/A polymorphism was not seen in our study cohort. The expression of TLR3 was upregulated in chronic HCV patients compared to healthy controls. Interpretation & conclusions: Polymorphism in the -705A/G allele at the promoter region of the TLR3 gene may predispose individual to HCV infection. However association of TLR3 expression with polymorphism of TLR3 promoter was not found.
A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems

ABSTRACT Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, have a long evolutionary history but are now challenged with rapid environmental changes as a result of coastal human population pressures. Seagrasses provide key ecological services, including organic carbon production and export, nutrient cycling, sediment stabilization, enhanced biodiversity, and trophic transfers to adjacent habitats in tropical and temperate regions. They also serve as “coastal canaries,” global biological sentinels of increasing anthropogenic influences in coastal ecosystems, with large-scale losses reported worldwide. Multiple stressors, including sediment and nutrient runoff, physical disturbance, invasive species, disease, commercial fishing practices, aquaculture, overgrazing, algal blooms, and global warming, cause seagrass declines at scales of square meters to hundreds of square kilometers. Reported seagrass losses have led to increased awareness of the need for seagrass protection, monitoring, management, and restoration. However, seagrass science, which has rapidly grown, is disconnected from public awareness of seagrasses, which has lagged behind awareness of other coastal ecosystems. There is a critical need for a targeted global conservation effort that includes a reduction of watershed nutrient and sediment inputs to seagrass habitats and a targeted educational program informing regulators and the public of the value of seagrass meadows.
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels throughout pregnancy: a longitudinal study in healthy and preeclamptic pregnant women

Background Worldwide there is a high prevalence of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) deficiency and has been associated with adverse outcomes during pregnancy. Objective This is a nested, case–control study in a longitudinal cohort to compare the serum 25OHD levels and other biomarkers throughout pregnancy in a group of 20 preeclamptic women and 61 healthy pregnant women. An additional group of 29 healthy non-pregnant women were also studied during the two phases of the menstrual cycle. Results Mean 25OHD levels in non-pregnant women were 31.9 ng/mL and 34.9 ng/mL during follicular and luteal phase, respectively (P < 0.01). Mean serum 25OHD levels in healthy pregnant women were 26.5, 30.1 and 31.9 ng/mL, at first, second and third trimester, respectively (P < 0.001). The first trimester levels of 25OHD were lower than those of healthy non-pregnant women (P < 0.001), showing a significant recovery at third trimester. In the group of healthy pregnant women, the 25OHD levels were 25.7 ng/mL and 27.2 ng/mL at 3 and 6 months postpartum, respectively; both values were lower than those observed in the non-pregnant women (P < 0.001). In preeclamptic women, 25OHD serum levels were similar to those of healthy pregnant women; nevertheless, they remained almost unchanged throughout pregnancy. Conclusion There were no significant differences between healthy and preeclamptic pregnant women in terms of 25OHD levels throughout the pregnancy. Serum 25OHD levels in non-pregnant women were higher during luteal phase compared with follicular phase. The 25OHD levels of non-pregnant women tended to be higher than those of pregnant women.
Investigation of boron and nitrogen ion beam implantation in gold thin films for ohmic MEMS switch contact improvement

Contact material and more precisely surface properties are a major issue for RF MEMS ohmic switch reliability. Shallow ion implantation of boron and nitrogen on gold thin film is investigated to increase surface hardness with a limited impact on Electrical Contact Resistance (ECR). The implantation energies were chosen to place the concentration peak of the implanted species at a depth of 100 nm. A microstructural analysis shows that the hardness increases with boron concentration due to a solid solution hardening mechanism, whereas in case of nitrogen, for concentration above 1%, the nitrogen precipitates into a nitride phase correlated to a hardness decrease. The ECR is measured using a Nanoindenter XP which experimental setup reproduces MEMS ohmic switch contact (from 100 μN to 1 mN applied loads under 1 mA). A notable result is obtained with a boron dose of 7.37 × 1016 ions/cm2 at 90 keV into gold thin film: 50% hardness increase and 2.6 times higher ECR than pure gold.
Effects of tissue factor, PAR-2 and MMP-9 expression on human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 invasion.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore the expression of tissue factor (TF), protease activated receptor-2 (PAR-2), and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and influence on invasiveness. METHODS Stable MCF-7 cells transfected with TF cDNA and with TF ShRNA were established. TF, PAR-2, and MMP-9 protein expression was analyzed using indirect immunofluorescence and invasiveness was evaluated using a cell invasion test. Effects of an exogenous PAR-2 agonist were also examined. RESULTS TF protein expression significantly differed between the TF cDNA and TF ShRNA groups. MMP-9 protein expression was significantly correlated with TF protein expression, but PAR-2 protein expression was unaffected. The PAR- 2 agonist significantly enhanced MMP-9 expression and slightly increased TF and PAR-2 expression in the TF ShRNA group, but did not significantly affect protein expression in MCF-7 cells transfected with TF cDNA. TF and MMP-9 expression was positively correlated with the invasiveness of tumor cells. CONCLUSION TF, PAR-2, and MMP-9 affect invasiveness of MCF-7 cells. TF may increase MMP-9 expression by activating PAR-2.
Smart City Pilot Projects Using LoRa and IEEE802.15.4 Technologies

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), through wireless communications and the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, are the enabling keys for transforming traditional cities into smart cities, since they provide the core infrastructure behind public utilities and services. However, to be effective, IoT-based services could require different technologies and network topologies, even when addressing the same urban scenario. In this paper, we highlight this aspect and present two smart city testbeds developed in Italy. The first one concerns a smart infrastructure for public lighting and relies on a heterogeneous network using the IEEE 802.15. 4 short-range communication technology, whereas the second one addresses smart-building applications and is based on the LoRa low-rate, long-range communication technology. The smart lighting scenario is discussed providing the technical details and the economic benefits of a large-scale (around 3000 light poles) flexible and modular implementation of a public lighting infrastructure, while the smart-building testbed is investigated, through measurement campaigns and simulations, assessing the coverage and the performance of the LoRa technology in a real urban scenario. Results show that a proper parameter setting is needed to cover large urban areas while maintaining the airtime sufficiently low to keep packet losses at satisfactory levels.
Changes in nutrient content and stable isotope ratios of C and N during decomposition of seagrasses and mangrove leaves along a nutrient availability gradient in Florida Bay, USA

The decomposition of the mangrove Rhizophora mangle and the seagrass Thalassia testudinum was examined using litterbags along a natural gradient in nutrient availability. Seagrass leaves had a higher fraction of their biomass in the labile pool (57%), compared to mangrove leaves (36%) and seagrass rhizomes (29%); the overall decomposition rates of the starting material reflected the fractionation into labile and refractory components. There was no relationship between the N or P content of the starting material and the decomposition rate. Nutrient availability had no influence on decomposition rate, and mass was lost at the same rate from litterbags that were buried in the sediment and litterbags that were left on the sediment surface. The dynamics of N and P content during decomposition varied as a function of starting material and burial state. N content of decomposing mangrove leaves increased, but seagrass rhizomes decreased in N content during decomposition while there was no change in seagrass leaf N content. These same general patterns held for P content, but buried seagrass leaves increased in P content while surficial leaves decreased. δ13C and δ15N changed by as much as 2‰ during decomposition.
Block copolymer self-assembly: ordered film formation and defect analysis

Block copolymer self-assembly: ordered film formation and defect analysis Author(s) Collins, Timothy William Publication date 2017 Original citation Collins, T. W. 2017. Block copolymer self-assembly: ordered film formation and defect analysis. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2017, Timothy William Collins. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Decreased functional connectivity and structural deficit in alertness network with right-sided temporal lobe epilepsy

Abstract Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often suffer from alertness alterations. However, specific regions connected with alertness remain controversial, and whether these regions have structural impairment is also elusive. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and neural mechanisms underlying the functions and structures of alertness network in patients with right-sided temporal lobe epilepsy (rTLE) by performing the attentional network test (ANT), resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-SfMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). A total of 47 patients with rTLE and 34 healthy controls underwent ANT, R-SfMRI, and DTI scan. The seed-based functional connectivity (FC) method and deterministic tractography were used to analyze the data. Patients with rTLE had longer reaction times in the no-cue and double-cue conditions. However, no differences were noted in the alertness effect between the 2 groups. The patient group had lower FC compared with the control group in the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL), amygdala, and insula. Structural deficits were found in the right parahippocampal gyrus, superior temporal pole, insula, and amygdala in the patient group compared with the control group. Also significantly negative correlations were observed between abnormal fractional anisotropy (between the right insula and the superior temporal pole) and illness duration in the patients with rTLE. The findings of this study suggested abnormal intrinsic and phasic alertness, decreased FC, and structural deficits within the alerting network in the rTLE. This study provided new insights into the mechanisms of alertness alterations in rTLE.