Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-phytate phosphorus requirement of broilers in the finisher phase of a four phase feeding program

s of papers 11 43 Autosexing and sex ratio in the Dandarawi Egyptian breed. Mohamed A. Abdellatif*, Animal and Poultry Production Department,Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. The present study was carried out on a population of the Egyptian local breed Dandarawi maintained in Assiut University Poultry Farm. Hatching records of three lines in a selection program over two generations were considered. The results obtained showed that it is possible to identify the sex at hatching time (autosexing) by using down color where female chicks had a black spot on the head or irregular strips on the back, but male chicks had no markings on the head or back. At 8 wk of age, it was easy to separate males and females by the diffference in their feather color which was black and white for males and brown for females. The degree of accuracy of autosexing at hatching time was 89.02% for males and 92.42% for females. Sexual dimorphism in feather color is due to the presence of autosomal recessive wild type genetic background (co+/co+). The observed number of female chicks exceeded that of males for primary, secondary, and tertiary sex ratios slightly deviated from the expected ratio of 1:1 based on pooled data of lines and generations. The embryos and chicks of the two sexes had the same chance for survival without preference towards one sex up to 8 wk of age.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 5-2-2012 TRANSACTIVE MEMORY SYSTEMS , KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION , AND TEAM PERFORMANCE IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DISPERSED TEAMS

This study proposes and tests a model that explains the mediating mechanism through which the transactive memory system (TMS) of a team impacts on team performance under varying levels of team geographic dispersion. The model proposes that the relationship between TMS and team performance is mediated by the extent of knowledge integration among team members. The model further proposes that the degree of team geographic dispersion moderates the effect of TMS and knowledge integration on team performance. Survey data from 54 project teams in a major telecommunication company were collected to test the model. The study develops a deeper understanding of the mechanism through which TMS affects team performance and highlights the need to explicitly theorize team geographic dispersion, an important characteristic of contemporary project teams, in TMS research.
The Red Nucleus: Past, Present, and Future

The purpose of this review is to consider the regression of the magnocellular red nucleus and the progression of the parvocellular red nucleus. The red nucleus (RN) can be divided into two histologically distinct structures: the parvocellular red nucleus (RNp) and the magnocellular red nucleus (RNm). Literature indicates that the origin of the RN can be attributed to the advent of limbs, or limb-like structures, in lower vertebrates. Research has shown that RNm and its primary efferent pathway, the rubrospinal tract, comprise most of the red nuclei related structures from early vertebrates through the mammals. Imaging of the modern human brain displays a dominance of the RNp with marked regression of the RNm, at least related to size. The relatively large development of the RNp has been accompanied by uncertainty regarding its function in the humans. © Neuroanatomy. 2010; 9: 1–3.
Activity-dependent structural dynamics of insect sensory fibers

This report analyses the role of neuronal activity in shaping the axonal arborizations of sensory neurons from individually identified filiform hairs on the prosternum of locusts (Locusta migratoria), and their connections with a pair of identified interneurons (A4I1). Afferents from lateral filiform hairs terminate in the ipsilateral neuropil and connect only with the ipsilateral interneuron in all instars. Afferents from ventral filiform hairs possesses ipsi- and contralateral branches and make monosynaptic connections with both interneurons in first instars. In later instars, the ipsilateral branch, and its synaptic connection to the ipsilateral interneuron, is gradually reduced until it is lost in the adult, whereas the contralateral branch, and its synaptic connection with the contralateral interneuron, is strengthened. Therefore, after an initial overgrowth of fibers and synapses, segregation of fibers occurs involving the loss of synaptic connections. This loss of branches and synapses was prevented by immobilizing a subpopulation of ventral and lateral filiform hairs, or each group independently, so that their normal activity was blocked. In such treated animals afferents from ventral filiform hairs retain their ipsi- and contralateral branches until adulthood. We therefore conclude that afferent activity plays an important role in shaping the final structure and connectivity of afferents, as neither the peripheral position of the receptors nor the hormonal environment was changed by these manipulations.
A Multidimensional Collaborative Filtering Fusion Approach with Dimensionality Reduction

Multidimensional data are getting increasing attention from researchers for creating better recommender systems in recent years. Additional metadata provides algorithms with more details for better understanding the interaction between users and items. While neighbourhood-based Collaborative Filtering (CF) approaches and latent factor models tackle this task in various ways effectively, they only utilize different partial structures of data. In this paper, we seek to delve into different types of relations in data and to understand the interaction between users and items more holistically. We propose a generic multidimensional CF fusion approach for top-N item recommendations. The proposed approach is capable of incorporating not only localized relations of user-user and item-item but also latent interaction between all dimensions of the data. Experimental results show significant improvements by the proposed approach in terms of recommendation accuracy.
Implementation and Performance of Transparent Rollback-recovery in Manetho

We describe the implementation and performance of rollback-recovery in Manetho. During failure-free operation, Manetho maintains an antecedence graph which records the \happened before" relation between certain events in the distributed computation. The antecedence graph is used in combination with checkpointing and volatile sender-based message logging to simultaneously achieve low failure-free overhead, fast output commit, and limited rollback, at the expense of a more elaborate recovery protocol. Measurements show that the costs of maintaining the antecedence graph, taking the checkpoints, and recording the message logs are small, and that the added complexity in the recovery protocol results in a negligible increase in recovery time. The measurements of six compute-intensive applications show that the failure-free overhead causes the application running time to increase by less than 1.5% on the average and by at most 3.8% for the applications under study. The output latency introduced by Manetho 1 is much lower than that introduced by optimistic message logging or consistent checkpoint-ing, often by an order of magnitude. For the failure scenarios that we studied, the added complexity in Manetho's recovery protocol resulted in an average increase of 1% of the total recovery time. Thus, Manetho's recovery protocol does not signiicantly increase the cost of recovery beyond the cost of restoring the state from stable storage and replaying the execution, which are inherent in any rollback-recovery system. These results connrm that Manetho ooers eecient recovery at a very low failure-free overhead.
(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Induces Non-Apoptotic Cell Death in Human Cancer Cells via ROS-Mediated Lysosomal Membrane Permeabilization

(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the most extensive studied tea polyphenol for its anti-cancer function. In this study, we report a novel mechanism of action for EGCG-mediated cell death by identifying the critical role of lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP). First, EGCG-induced cell death in human cancer cells (both HepG2 and HeLa) was found to be caspase-independent and accompanied by evident cytosolic vacuolization, only observable when cells were treated in serum-free medium. The cytosolic vacuolization observed in EGCG-treated cells was most probably caused by lysosomal dilation. Interestingly, EGCG was able to disrupt autophagic flux at the degradation stage by impairment of lysosomal function, and EGCG-induced cell death was independent of Atg5 or autophagy. The key finding of this study is that EGCG is able to trigger LMP, as evidenced by Lyso-Tracker Red staining, cathepsin D cytosolic translocation and cytosolic acidification. Consistently, a lysosomotropic agent, chloroquine, effectively rescues the cell death via suppressing LMP-caused cytosolic acidification. Lastly, we found that EGCG promotes production of intracellular ROS upstream of LMP and cell death, as evidenced by increased level of ROS in cells treated with EGCG and the protective effects of antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) against EGCG-mediated LMP and cell death. Taken together, data from our study reveal a novel mechanism underlying EGCG-induced cell death involving ROS and LMP. Therefore, understanding this lysosome-associated cell death pathway shed new lights on the anti-cancer effects of EGCG.
Winds from massive stars: implications for the afterglows of γ‐ray bursts

Recent observations suggest that long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows are produced by highly relativistic jets emitted in core-collapse explosions. The pre-explosive ambient medium provides a natural test for the most likely progenitors of GRBs. Those stars that shed their envelopes most readily have short jet crossing times and are more likely to produce a GRB. We construct a simple computational scheme to explore the expected contribution of the presupernova ejecta of single Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars to the circumstellar environment. Using detailed stellar tracks for the evolution of massive stars, we discuss the effects that the initial main-sequence mass, metallicity, rotation and membership in a binary system have on the ambient medium. We extend the theory of GRB afterglows in winds to consider the effect of the relativistic fireball propagating through the WR ejecta. Specific predictions are made for the interaction of the relativistic blast wave with the density bumps that arise when the progenitor star rapidly loses a large fraction of its initial mass or when the ejected wind interacts with the external medium and decelerates. A re-brightening of the afterglow with a spectrum redder than the typical synchrotron spectrum (as seen in GRB 970508, GRB 980326 and GRB 000911) is predicted. We also calculate the luminosity of the reflected echo that arises when circumstellar material Compton-scatters the prompt radiation, and examine the spectral signatures expected from the interaction of the GRB afterglow with the ejected medium.
Soil organic matter dynamics in a North America tallgrass prairie after 9 yr of experimental warming

Abstract. The influence of global warming on soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems remains unclear. In this study, we combined soil fractionation with isotope analyses to examine SOM dynamics after nine years of experimental warming in a North America tallgrass prairie. Soil samples from the control plots and the warmed plots were separated into four aggregate sizes (>2000 μm, 250–2000 μm, 53–250 μm, and
N ov 2 00 4 Magnetic turbulence in the plasma sheet

Small-scale magnetic turbulence observed by the Cluster spacecraft in the plasma sheet is investigated by means of a wavelet estimator suitable for detecting distinct scaling characteristics even in noisy measurements. The spectral estimators used for this purpose are affected by a frequency dependent bias. The variances of the wavelet coefficients, however, match the power-law shaped spectra, which makes the wavelet estimator essentially un-biased. These scaling characteristics of the magnetic field data appear to be essentially non-steady and intermittent. The scaling properties of bursty bulk flow (BBF) and non-BBF associated magnetic fluctuations are analysed with the aim of understanding processes of energy transfer between scales. Small-scale (∼ 0.08 − 0.3 s) magnetic fluctuations having the same scaling index α ∼ 2.6 as the large-scale (∼ 0.7 − 5 s) magnetic fluctuations occur during BBF-associated periods. During non-BBF associated periods the energy transfer to small scales is absent, and the large-scale scaling index α ∼ 1.7 is closer to Kraichnan or Iroshnikov-Kraichnan scalings. The anisotropy characteristics of magnetic fluctuations show both scale-dependent and scale-independent behavior. The former can be partly explained in terms of the Goldreich-Sridhar model of MHD turbulence, which leads to the picture of Alfvénic turbulence parallel and of eddy turbulence perpendicular to the mean magnetic field direction. Nonetheless, other physical mechanisms, such as transverse magnetic structures, velocity shears, or boundary effects can contribute to the anisotropy characteristics of plasma sheet turbulence. The scale-independent features are related to anisotropy characteristics which occur during a period of magnetic reconnection and fast tailward flow.
The Development and Evaluation of Speaking Learning Model by Cooperative Approach.

A cooperative approach-based Speaking Learning Model (SLM) has been developed to improve speaking skill of Higher Education students. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of cooperative-based SLM viewed from the development of student’s speaking ability and its effectiveness on speaking activity. This mixed method study combined evaluative descriptive and experimental designs. The population was the first semester students from Department of Indonesian Language and Letter Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education in 4 regencies of East Java Province, Indonesia. By stratified random sampling, 50% of populations were taken as the sample. The research instruments covered questionnaire, interview, FGD, and speaking test. Data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing became the data analyses phases upon questionnaire, interview, and FGD. The data from speaking test were analyzed by t-test in which normality and homogeneity tests were conducted previously. Statistically, both speaking ability scores were different because Fcalculation was 11.380 while Ftable was 3.91 at the significance level = 0.05. Since Fcalculation > Ftable, it can be concluded that cooperative approach gave significant influence in improving speaking ability and was more effective than the conventional one.
Constrained initialisation for bearing-only SLAM

Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) is a stochastic map building method which permits consistent robot navigation without requiring an a priori map. The map is built incrementally as the robot observes the environment with its on-board sensors and, at the same time, is used to localise the robot. Typically, SLAM has been performed using range-bearing sensors, but the development of a SLAM implementation using only bearing measurements is desirable as it permits the use of sensors such as CCD cameras, which are small, reliable and cheap. However, bearing-only SLAM is hindered by the feature initialisation problem, where the estimated location of a new map landmark cannot be determined from a single measurement, and combined information from multiple measurements may be ill-conditioned. This paper presents a solution to the feature initialisation problem called constrained initialisation, which defers the use of sensor information until initialisation becomes well-conditioned. Measurements may be used out-of-sequence and all the available information can be incorporated without inconsistency. Furthermore, this method operates within the conventional extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework of the SLAM algorithm.
The Behavioral Approach to Open and Interconnected Systems

In this article we have presented an approach to the mathematical description of dynamical systems. The central notion is the behavior, which consists of the set of time trajectories that are declared possible by the model of a dynamical system. Often, the behavior is defined as the set of solutions of a system of differential equations. Models that specify a behavior usually involve latent variables in addition to the manifest variables the model aims at. We have also described a methodology for modeling interconnected systems, called tearing, zooming, and linking. The underlying mathematical language consists of terminals, modules, the interconnection graph, the module embedding, and the manifest variable assignment. The combination of module equations, interconnection constraints, and manifest variable assignment leads to a latent-variable representation for the behavior of the manifest variables the model aims. This methodology of tearing, zooming, and linking offers a systematic procedure for modeling interconnected systems that is much better adapted to the physics of interconnected systems than input/output-modeling procedures such as, for example, Simulink. The methodology of tearing, zooming, and linking has many things in common with bond graphs.
Teaching students with Down syndrome in regular classrooms in Ghana: views of secondary school mathematics teachers

ABSTRACT The recent development of making secondary school education free in Ghana has raised concerns about the level of preparedness of teachers to teach students with diverse needs in one classroom. Significantly, mathematics is one of the core areas that the Ghanaian government has prioritised, and it has institutionalised mechanisms to encourage participation by many students. Accordingly, this qualitative study aimed to document the level of preparedness of mathematics teachers to support the teaching of students with Down syndrome in secondary school classrooms. Twenty-seven mathematics teachers from 14 schools, made up of 18 males and nine females, took part in the study. We found that participants were in favour of implementation of inclusive education. However, regarding the prospect of teaching students with Down syndrome, most of the participants thought that the regular secondary school classroom is not a suitable environment for these students to access education, especially due to a number of challenges. The need for the government to support schools with appropriate teaching materials and facilities is discussed extensively.
Adiponectin inhibits oxidized low density lipoprotein-induced increase in matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression in vascular smooth muscle cells

BACKGROUND High expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) during vascular injury and inflammation plays an important role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and rupture. In the process of atherosclerosis, oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) upregulates MMP9 in human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (HA/VSMCs). Adiponectin is an adipose tissue-derived hormone that has been shown to exert anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adiponectin on MMP9 expression under pathogenic condition created by oxLDL in HA/VSMCs. METHODS In this experimental study, HA/VSMC were stimulated with oxLDL alone and in the presence of adiponectin for 24 and 48 h. The expression of MMP9 gene was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction method. The protein level of this gene was investigated by western blotting technique. RESULTS An oxLDL increased MMP9 expression 2.16 ± 0.24- and 3.32 ± 0.25-fold after 24 and 48 h, respectively and adiponectin decreased oxLDL-induced MMP9 expression in a time-dependent manner. CONCLUSION These results show that adiponectin changes extracellular matrix by reducing MMP9 mRNA and protein, therefore, may stabilize lesions and reduce atheroma rupture.
Micro-doppler radar signature classification by time-frequency and time-scale analysis

This paper deals with the micro-Doppler (m-D) phenomenon which is a frequency modulation induced on the returned radar signal due to micro-motion. Indeed, the micro-Doppler provides an additional information for target recognition that is complementary to existing recognition methods. In this paper we present a comparative study between feature extraction based on 2 types of analysis: time frequency (Instantaneous Frequency IF) analysis and time scale analysis (Wavelet Transform WT and Multiplicative Multiresolution Decomposition MMD), associated to SVM classifier to perform target identification. These approaches are tested on RadEch Database, containing radar echoes from various targets. The data has been collected in controlled test environments at the premises of Military Academy - Republic of Serbia. Thus, the results show that good performances are provided by the association of the instantaneous frequency with the MMD descriptor.
Image registration and object recognition using affine invariants and convex hulls

This paper is concerned with the problem of feature point registration and scene recognition from images under weak perspective transformations which are well approximated by affine transformations and under possible occlusion and/or appearance of new objects. It presents a set of local absolute affine invariants derived from the convex hull of scattered feature points (e.g., fiducial or marking points, corner points, inflection points, etc.) extracted from the image. The affine invariants are constructed from the areas of the triangles formed by connecting three vertices among a set of four consecutive vertices (quadruplets) of the convex hull, and hence do make direct use of the area invariance property associated with the affine transformation. Because they are locally constructed, they are very well suited to handle the occlusion and/or appearance of new objects. These invariants are used to establish the correspondences between the convex hull vertices of a test image with a reference image in order to undo the affine transformation between them. A point matching approach for recognition follows this. The time complexity for registering L feature points on the test image with N feature points of the reference image is of order O(N x L). The method has been tested on real indoor and outdoor images and performs well.
A Clinically Useful Assessment of Patients’ (and Therapists’) Mental Functioning: M-Axis Implications for the Therapeutic Alliance

Among its several changes and innovations, the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2) strongly emphasizes the importance of the therapeutic relationship. The manual helps clinicians to understand better their behaviors in therapy with different patient groups, to guide therapeutic interventions, to track in-session processes, to deal with ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, and to achieve a better therapy outcome. In this article, we examine the clinical implications of the PDM-2 Adult M Axis (i.e., the Profile of Mental Functioning). We begin by describing the structure and main features of the M Axis. We then outline how a psychodynamically informed assessment of the mental capacities involved in a patient’s overall psychological health or pathology can provide therapists with useful insight into the development of the therapeutic alliance. We discuss 2 items of a clinical measure developed by our research group (the Collaborative Interactions Scale—Revised), to illustrate their interplay with specific M-Axis mental capacities and the role of this interplay in determining both patients’ and therapists’ contributions to the therapeutic alliance. Finally, we provide a clinical illustration and commented excerpt, along with the patient and therapist assessments of M-Axis capacities.