Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Fibre Level and Fibre Source on Gut Morphology and Micro-environment in Local (Mong Cai) and Exotic (Landrace×Yorkshire) Pigs

The effect of genotype, fibre level and fibre source on gut morphology, environment and microflora was studied using 18 Mong Cai (MC) and 18 Landrace×Yorkshire (LY) pigs, aged around 60 d. The diets were based on maize, rice bran, soybean meal, fish meal and soybean oil, and cassava residue (CR) or brewer’s grain (BG) as fibrous ingredient sources in the high-fibre diets (HF). A low-fibre diet (LF), containing around 200 g NDF/kg dry matter (DM), was formulated without CR and BG as feed ingredients. The HF diets (HF-CR and HF-BG) were formulated to contain around 270 g NDF/kg DM. The experiment was arranged according to a 2×3 factorial completely randomized design with six replications, and lasted 30 d. Crypt density in ileum was lowest (p<0.05) and villus height in jejunum and ileum were the greatest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-BG. Villus width in ileum was greatest in pigs fed diets HF-CR and HF-BG (p<0.05). Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) counts in stomach were greatest (p<0.05) and E. coli counts in ileum and colon were lowest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-CR. The concentration of total organic acids in ileum, caecum and colon were greatest (p<0.05), and pH in ileum and colon were lowest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-CR. Crypt density in ileum was lowest, and villus height in ileum and villus width in jejunum and ileum was greatest in LY pigs (p<0.05). LAB counts in stomach and ileum were greatest, and E. coli counts in ileum were lowest in MC pigs (p<0.05). The concentration of total organic acids in ileum, caecum and colon were greatest (p<0.05) and pH lowest (p<0.05) in MC pigs.
A Comparative Evaluation of the Prokaryotic Actin Homologues, MreB and FtsA

The MreB and FtsA proteins are essential components of cytoskeletal and divisome assemblies, respectively. In bacteria and archaea, MreB is required for the maintenance of a non-spherical cell shape, whilst FtsA is necessary for anchoring the Z-ring to the cell membrane. The aim of the present study was to comparatively characterise the physicochemical properties of the prokaryotic actin homologues, MreB and FtsA proteins, including the thermal and in vitro stabilities, theoretical isoelectric points (pI) and grand average of hydropathicity values (GRAVY) in order to evaluate their suitability for the construction of microdevices that are based on linear molecular motors as it remains an area of intensive research focus despite eukaryotic proteins limited abilities to perform within microdevice environments. The data obtained in this study have indicated that physicochemical properties of MreB and FtsA proteins largely strain-specific and as such the properties were not able to be directly correlated with the environmental habitat of the organisms, their pathogenicity nor thermophilicity. Nevertheless, all of the bacterial and archaeal MreB and FtsA proteins appeared to exhibit greater thermostablility than actin. This study allowed to evaluate the suitability of the selected proteins for use in certain biotechnological applications, such as in microdevices.
Sense of Community as a Protective Factor against Long‐Term Psychological Effects of Childhood Violence

This study uses a risk and resilience framework for conceptualizing the long‐term effects of childhood family violence on mental health. It examines sense of community as a protective factor against adult psychological distress associated with experiences of physical or psychological violence in childhood from parents. Regression models are estimated using data from the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States and from the 1996–97 National Study of Daily Experiences. Reported experiences of frequent psychological violence, regardless of the frequency of physical violence, is found to be positively associated with adult psychological distress. Adults’ sense of community is found to moderate the association between reports of both frequent psychological and frequent physical violence in childhood from parents and adult psychological distress.
The decline in middle-skilled employment in 12 European countries: New evidence for job polarisation

Is the middle class shrinking? This article contributes to the debate on job polarisation in Europe. Based on data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and looking at 12 European countries, it shows that there is an evident trend towards job polarisation. While this polarisation takes various forms, it is clearly the highest- and lowest-skilled jobs that have increased most rapidly among the active population over the past 20 years, to the detriment of middle-skilled jobs. The article then goes on to demonstrate that polarisation also exists when it comes to working conditions insofar as the lowest-skilled jobs are also where the most precarious employment conditions are found. Conversely, the remaining middle-skilled jobs are relatively shielded from this decline in working conditions.
Characteristics of people’s binge-watching behavior in the “entering into early adulthood” period of life

background The study focuses on psychological conditions of the phenomenon of binge-watching. The aim of the article was to characterize the frequency and motivation to perform binge-watching in a group of young adults. Another goal of the research was to present the results of preliminary adaptation works on two scales that were previously nonexistent in Polish literature, which may be used to study binge-watching.
Neurolinguistics: Structure, Function, and Connectivity in the Bilingual Brain

Advances in neuroimaging techniques and analytic methods have led to a proliferation of studies investigating the impact of bilingualism on the cognitive and brain systems in humans. Lately, these findings have attracted much interest and debate in the field, leading to a number of recent commentaries and reviews. Here, we contribute to the ongoing discussion by compiling and interpreting the plethora of findings that relate to the structural, functional, and connective changes in the brain that ensue from bilingualism. In doing so, we integrate theoretical models and empirical findings from linguistics, cognitive/developmental psychology, and neuroscience to examine the following issues: (1) whether the language neural network is different for first (dominant) versus second (nondominant) language processing; (2) the effects of bilinguals' executive functioning on the structure and function of the “universal” language neural network; (3) the differential effects of bilingualism on phonological, lexical-semantic, and syntactic aspects of language processing on the brain; and (4) the effects of age of acquisition and proficiency of the user's second language in the bilingual brain, and how these have implications for future research in neurolinguistics.
Regional myocardial perfusion reserve determined using myocardial perfusion magnetic resonance imaging showed a direct correlation with coronary flow velocity reserve by Doppler flow wire.

AIMS Quantitative analysis of rest-stress myocardial perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide assessments of regional myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR). The purpose of this study was to compare regional MPR determined by myocardial perfusion MRI with coronary flow reserve (CFR) by intracoronary Doppler flow wire. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) were studied. Average peak velocity was measured by Doppler flow wire in the resting state and during adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stress in 36 coronary arteries. CFR measurements for each patient were performed in the culprit and one non-culprit non-stenotic artery. First-pass, contrast-enhanced myocardial perfusion MR images were obtained in the resting state and during ATP stress within the week before the Doppler wire procedure. Regional myocardial blood flow (MBF) was quantified in 16 myocardial segments by analysing arterial input and myocardial output using a Patlak plot method. MPR was calculated as stress MBF divided by rest MBF. CFR measured by Doppler flow wire was compared with MPR in the myocardial segments corresponding to vessel territories. The average MPR measured by perfusion MRI was 1.77 +/- 0.62 for the culprit arteries and 3.45 +/- 0.78 for the non-culprit arteries, respectively (P < 0.001). The averaged CFR by Doppler flow wire was 1.72 +/- 0.44 in the culprit arteries and 3.14 +/- 0.74 in the non-culprit arteries, respectively (P < 0.001). For both culprit and non-culprit vessel groups, significant direct correlations were observed between MR assessments of MPR and Doppler assessments of CFR (culprit artery: R = 0.87, Non-culprit artery: R = 0.86) On Bland-Altman analysis, the mean differences between MPR determined by myocardial perfusion MRI and CFR measured by Doppler wire were 0.05 in culprit arteries (95% limit of agreement; -0.65 to 0.56) and 0.36 in non-culprit arteries (95% limit of agreement; -1.24 to 0.44). The sensitivity and specificity of MR measurement of MPR for predicting physiologically significant reduction of Doppler CFR (<2) was 88% (95% CI 61.7-98.5) and 90% (95% CI 68.3-98.8), respectively. CONCLUSION The current results using Doppler flow wire as a reference method demonstrated that quantitative analysis of stress-rest myocardial perfusion MRI can provide a non-invasive assessment of reduced MPR in patients with CAD.
Securing the commercial Internet

HE great Internet explosion during the past two years is largely fueled by the prospect of performing business online. Prophets tell of the day when even the most mundane transactions will be handled through the Internet, along with the most sophisticated bank transfers in use today. The Internet can bring down physical barriers to commerce, almost immediately giving even the smallest business access to untapped markets around the world. By the same token, consumers can conduct business and make purchases from organizations previously unavailable to them. Armed with these goals, individuals have flocked to the Internet, and most businesses have set out to set up storefronts on the Internet and its WorldWide Web. Just about every major business in the U.S., perhaps in the world, has a home page on the Internet on which can be found information about their services and products. Despite the forecasts, however, consumers and businesses alike seem wary of this new medium for conducting business on a large scale. Given the potential for both consumers and businesses, why the apprehension? Insecurity The original Internet was designed for research, not as a commercial environment. As such, it operated A n i s h B h i m a n i Consumers as well as businesses wary of exposing secret financial data through the Internet's frail protection select from numerous patchwork security options incorporating protocols that may or may not turn out to be adopted as standards.
Intraspinal stem cell transplantation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder in which the loss of upper and lower motor neurons produces progressive weakness and eventually death. In the decades since the approval of riluzole, the only US Food and Drug Administration‐approved medication to moderately slow progression of ALS, no new therapeutics have arisen to alter the course of the disease. This is partly due to our incomplete understanding of the complex pathogenesis of motor neuron degeneration. Stem cells have emerged as an attractive option in treating ALS, because they come armed with equally complex cellular machinery and may modulate the local microenvironment in many ways to rescue diseased motor neurons. Various stem cell types are being evaluated in preclinical and early clinical applications; here, we review the preclinical strategies and advances supporting the recent clinical translation of neural progenitor cell therapy for ALS. Specifically, we focus on the use of spinal cord neural progenitor cells and the pipeline starting from preclinical studies to the designs of phase I and IIa clinical trials involving direct intraspinal transplantation in humans. ANN NEUROL 2016;79:342–353
Initialization and System Modeling in 3-D Pose Tracking

Initialization and choice of adequate motion models are two important but seldom discussed problems in 3D model-based pose (position and orientation) tracking. In this paper, we propose an automatic initialization approach suitable for textured objects. In addition, we define, study and experimentally evaluate three motion models commonly used in visual servoing and augmented reality
Consumer Behaviour in Sport and Events : Marketing Action

Consumer Behaviour in Sport and Events emphasises the role of consumer behaviour in sport marketing. Given the social, economic, and environmental benefits of sport events, the challenge for marketers is to understand the complexity of sport and event participation. Through a heightened understanding of consumer behaviour, marketers are able to develop communication strategies to enhance the experience, while identifying key elements of the consumer's decision-making process. This book provides students and industry professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the current marketing challenges facing professionals working in the sport and event industries. This comprehensive text covers a wide range of determinants that influence both active recreation and passive spectator participation, and offers the reader: A detailed understanding of the personal, psychological and environmental factors that influence sport and event related consumer behaviour A basis for the development of marketing actions useful in sport and related business, community and government sectors A comprehensive understanding of how individuals associate themselves with sport and event products and services A quick and simple segmentation tool to guide discussion of marketing actions and strategies for four stages of involvement with sport and events A comprehensive events checklist to help understand marketing actions related to the development, promotion and delivery of a sport event. Sport and event consumer behaviour is a rapidly growing area of interest and this book is considered a valuable resource for those involved in the sport and events industries from students to marketers to academics.
Broadband optical properties of large-area monolayer CVD molybdenum disulfide

Recently emerging large-area single-layer MoS2 grown by chemical vapor deposition has triggered great interest due to its exciting potential for applications in advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices. Unlike gapless graphene, MoS2 has an intrinsic band gap in the visible which crosses over from an indirect to a direct gap when reduced to a single atomic layer. In this paper, we report a comprehensive study of fundamental optical properties of MoS2 revealed by optical spectroscopy of Raman, photoluminescence, and vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopic ellipsometry. A band gap of 1.42 eV is determined by the absorption threshold of bulk MoS2 that shifts to 1.83 eV in monolayer MoS2. We extracted the high precision dielectric function up to 9.0 eV, which leads to the identification of many unique interband transitions at high symmetry points in the MoS2 momentum space. The positions of the so-called A and B excitons in single layers are found to shift upwards in energy compared with those of the bulk form and have smaller separation because of the decreased interactions between the layers. A very strong optical critical point predicted to correspond to a quasiparticle gap is observed at
Chemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Thymus capitata Essential Oil with Its Preservative Effect against Listeria monocytogenes Inoculated in Minced Beef Meat

The chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, and the preservative effect of Thymus capitata essential oil against Listeria monocytogenes inoculated in minced beef meat were evaluated. The essential oil extracted was chemically analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Nineteen components were identified, of which carvacrol represented (88.89%) of the oil. The antioxidant activity was assessed in vitro by using both the DPPH and the ABTS assays. The findings showed that the essential oil exhibited high antioxidant activity, which was comparable to the reference standards (BHT and ascorbic acid) with IC50 values of 44.16 and 0.463 μg/mL determined by the free-radical scavenging DPPH and ABTS assays, respectively. Furthermore, the essential oil was evaluated for its antimicrobial activity using disc agar diffusion and microdilution methods. The results demonstrated that the zone of inhibition varied from moderate to strong (15–80 mm) and the minimum inhibition concentration values ranged from 0.32 to 20 mg/mL. In addition, essential oil evaluated in vivo against Listeria monocytogenes showed clear and strong inhibitory effect. The application of 0.25 or 1% (v/w) essential oil of T. capitata to minced beef significantly reduced the L. monocytogenes population when compared to those of control samples (P-value <0.01).
The Probability Distribution Function of Light in the Universe: Results from Hydrodynamic Simulations

While second and higher order correlations of the light distribution have received extensive study, the lowest order probability distribution function (PDF)—the probability that a unit volume of space will emit a given amount of light—has received very little attention. We estimate this function with the aid of hydrodynamic simulations of the ΛCDM model, finding it significantly different from the mass density PDF, and not simply related to it by linear bias or any of the other prescriptions commonly adopted. If the optical light PDF is, in reality, similar to what we find in the simulations, then some measures of Ωm based on the mass-to-light ratio and the cosmic virial theorem will have significantly underestimated Ωm. Basically, the problem is one of selection bias, with galaxy-forming regions being unrepresentative of the dark matter distribution in a way not described by linear bias. Knowledge of the optical PDF and the plausible assumption of a lognormal distribution for the matter PDF will allow one to correct for these selection biases. We find that this correction (which amounts to 20%-30%) brings the values of Ωm estimated by using the mass-to-light ratio and the cosmic virial theorem to the range Ωm = 0.2-0.3, in better agreement with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe result than the uncorrected estimates. In addition, the relation between mass and light PDFs gives us insight concerning the nature of the void phenomenon. In particular, our simulation indicates that 20% of mass is distributed in voids, which occupy 85% of volume in the universe.
Smarter eyewear: using commercial EOG glasses for activity recognition

Smart eyewear computing is a relatively new subcategory in ubiquitous computing research, which has enormous potential. In this paper we present a first evaluation of soon commercially available Electrooculography (EOG) glasses (J! NS MEME) for the use in activity recognition. We discuss the potential of EOG glasses and other smart eye-wear. Afterwards, we show a first signal level assessment of MEME, and present a classification task using the glasses. We are able to distinguish of 4 activities for 2 users (typing, reading, eating and talking) using the sensor data (EOG and acceleration) from the glasses with an accuracy of 70 % for 6 sec. windows and up to 100 % for a 1 minute majority decision. The classification is done user-independent. The results encourage us to further explore the EOG glasses as platform for more complex, real-life activity recognition systems.
Arginase inhibition augments nitric oxide production and facilitates left ventricular systolic function in doxorubicin‐induced cardiomyopathy in mice

A metabolizing enzyme arginase can decrease nitric oxide (NO) production by competing with NO synthase for arginine as a substrate, but its pathophysiological role in heart failure remains unknown. We aimed to investigate the effect of pharmacological inhibition of arginase on left ventricular function in doxorubicin‐induced cardiomyopathy in mice. Doxorubicin administration for 5 weeks significantly increased protein expression levels or activity of arginase in the lungs and liver, and caused moderate increase in arginase 2 expression in the aorta. In the lungs, accumulated interstitial cells strongly expressed both arginase 1 and arginase 2 by doxorubicin administration. Echocardiography revealed that administration of a potent, reversible arginase inhibitor N‐omega‐hydroxy‐nor‐l‐arginine completely reversed doxorubicin‐induced decrease in the ejection fraction, in parallel with expression levels of BNP mRNA, without affecting apoptosis, hypertrophy, fibrosis, or macrophage infiltration in the left ventricle. Arginase inhibition reversibly lowered systolic blood pressure, and importantly, it recovered doxorubicin‐induced decline in NO concentration in the serum, lungs, and aorta. Furthermore, arginase inhibition stimulated NO secretion from aortic endothelial cells and peritoneal macrophages in vitro. In conclusion, pharmacological inhibition of arginase augmented NO concentration in the serum, lungs, and aorta, promoted NO‐mediated decrease in afterload for left ventricle, and facilitated left ventricular systolic function in doxorubicin‐induced cardiomyopathy in mice.
Mosaicism of Podocyte Involvement Is Related to Podocyte Injury in Females with Fabry Disease

Background Fabry disease. an X-linked deficiency of α-galactosidase A coded by the GLA gene, leads to intracellular globotriaosylceramide (GL-3) accumulation. Although less common than in males, chronic kidney disease, occurs in ∼15% of females. Recent studies highlight the importance of podocyte injury in Fabry nephropathy development and progression. We hypothesized that the greater the % of podocytes with active wild-type GLA gene (due to X-inactivation of the mutant copy) the less is the overall podocyte injury. Methods Kidney biopsies from 12 treatment-naive females with Fabry disease, ages 15 (8–63), median [range], years were studied by electron microscopy and compared with 4 treatment-naive male patients. Results In females, 51 (13–100)% of podocytes (PC) per glomerulus had no GL-3 inclusions, this consistent with a non-Fabry podocyte phenotype (NFPC). In PC with GL-3 inclusions [Fabry podocyte phenotype (FPC)], GL-3 volume density per podocyte was virtually identical in females and males, consistent with little or no cross-correction between FPC and NFPC. %NFPC per glomerulus (%NFPC/glom) correlated with age in females (r = 0.65, p = 0.02), suggesting a survival disadvantage for FPC over time. Age-adjusted %NFPC/glom was inversely related to foot process width (FPW) (r = −0.75, p = 0.007), an indicator of PC injury. GL-3 volume density in FPC in females correlated directly with FPW. Conclusions These findings support important relationships between podocyte mosaicism and podocyte injury in female Fabry patients. Kidney biopsy, by providing information about podocyte mosaicism, may help to stratify females with Fabry disease for kidney disease risk and to guide treatment decisions.