Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Limiting Concentrate during Growing Period Affect Performance and Gene Expression of Hepatic Gluconeogenic Enzymes and Visfatin in Korean Native Beef Calves

This study elucidated the effects of limited concentrate feeding on growth, plasma profile, and gene expression of gluconeogenic enzymes and visfatin in the liver of Hanwoo beef calves. The purpose of this study was to test that reducing the amount of concentrate would partially be compensated by increasing the intake of forage and by altering the metabolic status. The study utilized 20 Korean native beef calves (Hanwoo; 60 to 70 d of age) divided into two groups of 10 calves each for 158 d. Control group calves received the amount of concentrate as per the established Korean feeding standards for Hanwoo, whereas calves in the restricted group only received half the amount of concentrate as per standard requirements. Good quality forage (Timothy hay) was available for ad libitum consumption to both groups. Since calves were with their dam until 4 months of age in breeding pens before weaning, the intake of milk before weaning was not recorded, however, the concentrate and forage intakes were recorded daily. Body weights (BW) were recorded at start and on 10 d interval. Blood samples were collected at start and at 50 d interval. On the final day of the experiment, liver biopsies were collected from all animals in each group. The BW was not different between the groups at all times, but tended to be higher (p = 0.061) only at final BW in control than restricted group. Total BW gain in the control group was 116.2 kg as opposed to 84.1 kg in restricted group that led to average BW gain of 736 g/d and 532 g/d in respective groups, and the differences were significant (p<0.01). As planned, the calves in the control group had higher concentrate and lower forage intake than the restricted group. The plasma variables like total protein and urea were higher (p<0.05) in control than restricted group. The mRNA expressions for the gluconeogenic enzymes such as cytosolic phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase (EC 4.1.1.32) and pyruvate carboxylase (EC 6.4.1.1), and visfatin measured by quantitative real-time PCR in liver biopsies showed higher expression (p<0.05) in restricted group than control. Overall, restricting concentrate severely reduced the growth intensity and affected few plasma indices, and gene expression in liver was increased indicating that restricting concentrate in the feeding schemes during early growth for beef calves is not advocated.
Multiple calcium-activated neutral proteinases (CANP) in mouse retinal ganglion cell neurons: specificities for endogenous neuronal substrates and comparison to purified brain CANP

Calcium-activated neutral proteinases (CANPs) and their specificities for axonally transported proteins were studied within intact axons of mouse retinal ganglion cell (RGC) neurons in vitro. Two CANP activities with markedly different properties were identified. CANP B, at endogenous calcium levels, selectively cleaved the 145,000 Da (145 kDa) neurofilament protein subunit to yield 143 and 140 kDa neurofilament proteins that are also major constituents of the axonal cytoskeleton. This process represents a posttranslational modification of the neurofilament protein subunit rather than the initial step in its degradation (Nixon et al., 1982, 1983). A second calcium-activated neutral proteinase activity, CANP A, appeared only when calcium levels in the incubating medium were 100 microM or higher. CANP A degraded most proteins in RGC axons but acted considerably more rapidly on high- molecular-weight species. In particular, a 290–320 kDa protein in the Group IV (SCb) phase of axoplasmic transport was degraded 3 X faster than other major axonal proteins, including neurofilament proteins and fodrin. When maximally expressed, CANP A activity represented an enormous proteolytic potential in RGC axons--more than 50% of the total axonal content of proteins larger than 60 kDa could be hydrolyzed within 5 min. The calcium requirements, inhibitor profile, and substrate specificity of CANP A were similar to those of mCANP, the major CANP of mouse brain purified to homogeneity, suggesting that these enzymes may be the same or highly related proteins. The existence in a single neuron type of two CANP activities with markedly different substrate specificities and enzymatic properties emphasizes the possible functional diversity of calcium-activated neutral proteinases in neurons. These functions include the posttranslational modification, as well as degradation of neuronal proteins.
Simulation-based Ultrasound Training Supported by Annotations, Haptics and Linked Multimodal Views

When learning ultrasound (US) imaging, trainees must learn how to recognize structures, interpret textures and shapes, and simultaneously register the 2D ultrasound images to their 3D anatomical mental models. Alleviating the cognitive load imposed by these tasks should free the cognitive resources and thereby improve the learning process. We argue that the amount of cognitive load that is required to mentally rotate the models to match the images to them is too large and therefore negatively impacts the learning process. We present a 3D visualization tool that allows the user to naturally move a 2D slice and navigate around a 3D anatomical model. The slice is displayed in-place to facilitate the registration of the 2D slice in its 3D context. Two duplicates are also shown externally to the model; the first is a simple rendered image showing the outlines of the structures and the second is a simulated ultrasound image. Haptic cues are also provided to the users to help them maneuver around the 3D model in the virtual space. With the additional display of annotations and information of the most important structures, the tool is expected to complement the available didactic material used in the training of ultrasound procedures.
“ I wonder why they don ’ t talk to us more ” 43 “ I wonder why they don ’ t talk to us more ” : Exploring interdisciplinarity in Japanese higher education

This paper investigated interdisciplinary attitudes within the English Language Teaching (ELT) department and across its boundaries, drawing upon case study research, conducted by means of questionnaires and follow up semi-structured interviews among ELT and non-ELT faculty in four Japanese colleges and universities in one prefecture. Three themes are argued as impacting upon the concept of interdisciplinarity: disciplinary cultures, collegiality, and collaboration among teachers both within the ELT department (intradisciplinarity) and across into other disciplines within the institution (interdisciplinarity). Findings suggest that interdisciplinarity suffers when strict hierarchies in an institution marginalize ELT practitioners irrespective of their full-time or part-time status. Additionally, institutional and personal constraints based upon real and perceived differences in disciplinary cultures appear to limit collaboration and collegiality. As a possible solution, the introduction of more content-based instruction in English and English for Specific Purposes courses is voiced as a possible means to improve interdisciplinary collaboration although such measures require institutional approval.
Tumor Angiogenesis Factor 1

Recent evidence from our studies indicates that solid tumor growth is not continuous but that it can be separated into two stages, avascular and vascular. In the avascular stage, tumors remain dormant at diameters of 1 to 2 mm. Further growth is possible only after new capillaries have been elicited from the host and have penetrated the tumor. This capillary proliferation is stimulated by a diffusible factor, tumor angiogenesis factor, released by solid tumors, and by neoplastic cells in culture. The biology and isolation of tumor angiogenesis factor are discussed. Evidence for the mechanism of tumor dor mancy in the absence of angiogenesis will be presented. Therapeutic implications of the inhibition of tumor angi ogenesis will be mentioned briefly.
Route Navigating without Place Recognition: What is Recognised in Recognition-Triggered Responses?

The use of landmark information in a route-navigation task has been investigated in a virtual environment. After learning a route, subjects were released at intermediate points along the route and asked to indicate the next movement direction required to continue the route. At each decision point, three landmarks were present, one of which was viewed centrally and two which appeared in the periphery of the visual field when approaching the decision point. In the test phase, landmarks could be replaced either within or across places. If all landmarks combined into a new place had been associated with the same movement direction during training, subjects performed as in the control condition. This indicates that they did not need to recognise places as configurations of landmarks. If, however, landmarks that had been associated with conflicting movement directions during training were combined, subjects' performance was reduced. We conclude that local views and objects are recognised individually and that the associated directions are combined in a voting scheme. No evidence was found for a recognition of places as panoramic views or configurations of objects.
A k-nearest neighbor classification rule based on Dempster-Shafer theory

In this paper, the problem of classifying an unseen pattern on the basis of its nearest neighbors in a recorded data set is addressed from the point of view of Dempster-Shafer theory. Each neighbor of a sample to be classified is considered as an item of evidence that supports certain hypotheses regarding the class membership of that pattern. The degree of support is defined as a function of the distance between the two vectors. The evidence of the k nearest neighbors is then pooled by means of Dempster's rule of combination. This approach provides a global treatment of such issues as ambiguity and distance rejection, and imperfect knowledge regarding the class membership of training patterns. The effectiveness of this classification scheme as compared to the voting and distance-weighted k-NN procedures is demonstrated using several sets of simulated and real-world data. >
Improved Deep Metric Learning with Multi-class N-pair Loss Objective

Deep metric learning has gained much popularity in recent years, following the success of deep learning. However, existing frameworks of deep metric learning based on contrastive loss and triplet loss often suffer from slow convergence, partially because they employ only one negative example while not interacting with the other negative classes in each update. In this paper, we propose to address this problem with a new metric learning objective called multi-class N-pair loss. The proposed objective function firstly generalizes triplet loss by allowing joint comparison among more than one negative examples - more specifically, N-1 negative examples - and secondly reduces the computational burden of evaluating deep embedding vectors via an efficient batch construction strategy using only N pairs of examples, instead of (N+1) x N. We demonstrate the superiority of our proposed loss to the triplet loss as well as other competing loss functions for a variety of tasks on several visual recognition benchmark, including fine-grained object recognition and verification, image clustering and retrieval, and face verification and identification.
Demographic Evidence of Illegal Harvesting of an Endangered Asian Turtle

Harvesting pressure on Asian freshwater turtles is severe, and dramatic population declines of these turtles are being driven by unsustainable collection for food markets, pet trade, and traditional Chinese medicine. Populations of big‐headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) have declined substantially across its distribution, particularly in China, because of overcollection. To understand the effects of chronic harvesting pressure on big‐headed turtle populations, we examined the effects of illegal harvesting on the demography of populations in Hong Kong, where some populations still exist. We used mark‐recapture methods to compare demographic characteristics between sites with harvesting histories and one site in a fully protected area. Sites with a history of illegal turtle harvesting were characterized by the absence of large adults and skewed ratios of juveniles to adults, which may have negative implications for the long‐term viability of populations. These sites also had lower densities of adults and smaller adult body sizes than the protected site. Given that populations throughout most of the species’ range are heavily harvested and individuals are increasingly difficult to find in mainland China, the illegal collection of turtles from populations in Hong Kong may increase over time. Long‐term monitoring of populations is essential to track effects of illegal collection, and increased patrolling is needed to help control illegal harvesting of populations, particularly in national parks. Because few, if any, other completely protected populations remain in the region, our data on an unharvested population of big‐headed turtles serve as an important reference for assessing the negative consequences of harvesting on populations of stream turtles.
Evaluation of analgesic efficacy of bromfenac sodium ophthalmic solution 0.09% versus ketorolac tromethamine ophthalmic solution 0.5% following LASEK or Epi-LASIK

Background To evaluate the analgesic efficacy of bromfenac sodium ophthalmic solution 0.09% compared with ketorolac tromethamine ophthalmic solution 0.5% in laser epithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) or epithelial keratomileusis (epi-LASEK), sometimes referred to as epi-LASIK. Methods Eighty eyes (from 40 patients, 18 men and 22 women) undergoing bilateral simultaneous LASEK or epi-LASEK were randomized to receive ketorolac in one eye and bromfenac in the other. Mean age was 33.13 ± 9.34 years. One drop of bromfenac or ketorolac was instilled in each eye 15 minutes and one minute prior to surgery, and two and four hours following surgery. Patients were instructed to instill the medications on-label each day through postoperative day 4. The subjects completed pain and visual blurriness assessments from day of surgery to postoperative day 4. Uncorrected visual acuity was tested on postoperative days 1 and 6. Results For each of the five days, pain scores for bromfenac-treated eyes were significantly less than that for ketorolac-treated eyes (P < 0.01). Of the 40 patients, 32 (80%) said bromfenac provided better postoperative analgesia than ketorolac. There was no statistically significant difference in visual blurriness scores between the two groups (P > 0.1). Uncorrected visual acuity did not vary significantly between the treatment groups (P > 0.1). No serious adverse events were noted. Conclusion Bromfenac is subjectively superior to ketorolac in reducing postoperative pain following LASEK or epi-LASEK. The subjects tolerated the drugs well with no serious adverse outcomes and no difference in uncorrected visual acuity.
Infliximab to treat Crohn’s disease: an update

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by recurring flares followed by periods of inactive disease and remission. The etiology is unknown, although the common opinion is that the disease arises from a disordered immune response to the gut contents in genetically predisposed individuals. Infliximab (IFX), a chimeric immunoglobulin G1 monoclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor, has dramatically changed the approach to managing patients with CD and improving their treatment, by achieving treatment goals, such as mucosal healing, and decreasing the need for hospitalizations and surgeries. This review provides an update on existing evidence for the use of IFX in CD, taking into account the safety profile in clinical practice and special situations such as pregnancy. Antitumor necrosis factor therapy has been evaluated as an induction and maintenance therapy in CD in several randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses, showing efficacy in both clinical settings. Early use of biologics may improve patient outcomes in active CD. However, a widespread use of a “top-down” approach in all CD patients cannot be recommended. Clinical factors at diagnosis may predict poor outcome in CD, and should be taken into account when determining the initial therapeutic approach.
Evaluative laboratory testing practices of United States rheumatologists.

OBJECTIVE Several laboratory tests can be used to monitor disease activity in patients with rheumatic diseases. We sought to learn how rheumatologists use evaluative laboratory tests in the care of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis. METHODS We surveyed United States rheumatologists by mailed questionnaire. Of the 976 rheumatologists who received the questionnaire, 575 responded, for a response rate of 59%. RESULTS Eighty-six percent of the respondents reported using either the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or C-reactive protein level to monitor patients with RA, 92% used either the anti-DNA antibody level or complement C3 level to monitor patients with SLE, and 95% used either the ESR or ANCA levels to monitor patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis. The frequency of testing was distributed over a broad range, but testing was common. Testing on 50% of the visits or more was reported by 52% of respondents for RA, 59% of respondents for SLE, and 64% of respondents for ANCA-associated vasculitis. Between 7% and 11% of respondents reported testing patients on every visit, regardless of clinical disease activity. The majority of respondents reported not altering the treatment of clinically stable patients based on these test results. CONCLUSION Evaluative laboratory testing is common, and is rarely used as an independent guide for treatment.
Intrinsic Plasma Cell Differentiation Defects in B Cell Expansion with NF-κB and T Cell Anergy Patient B Cells

B cell Expansion with NF-κB and T cell Anergy (BENTA) disease is a novel B cell lymphoproliferative disorder caused by germline, gain-of-function mutations in the lymphocyte scaffolding protein CARD11, which drives constitutive NF-κB signaling. Despite dramatic polyclonal expansion of naive and immature B cells, BENTA patients also present with signs of primary immunodeficiency, including markedly reduced percentages of class-switched/memory B cells and poor humoral responses to certain vaccines. Using purified naive B cells from our BENTA patient cohort, here we show that BENTA B cells exhibit intrinsic defects in B cell differentiation. Despite a profound in vitro survival advantage relative to normal donor B cells, BENTA patient B cells were severely impaired in their ability to differentiate into short-lived IgDloCD38hi plasmablasts or CD138+ long-lived plasma cells in response to various stimuli. These defects corresponded with diminished IgG antibody production and correlated with poor induction of specific genes required for plasma cell commitment. These findings provide important mechanistic clues that help explain both B cell lymphocytosis and humoral immunodeficiency in BENTA disease.
Asymptotic and Numerical Solutions of a Free Boundary Problem for the Sorption of a Finite Amount of Solvent into a Glassy Polymer

The behavior of the one-phase Stefan problem describing the sorption of a finite amount of swelling solvent is studied. The solvent diffuses into the polymer, which causes it to change from a glassy to a rubbery state. The interface between these two states is characterized by a moving boundary, whose speed is defined by a kinetic law. A key distinctive feature of the model in this paper is that the polymer is exposed initially to a finite amount of penetrant and eventually approaches an equilibrium value. This equilibrium causes the time history of the interface to be more complex than that of the related, and more studied, problem where the swelling process occurs instantaneously at the penetration surface. We analyze the model using formal asymptotic expansions, for both small and large times as well as for the large control parameter. A numerical scheme is described which immobilizes the boundary and correctly identifies the appropriate starting solution. In addition, we discuss the heat balance integ.
Analysis of laterally loaded group of piles located on sloping ground

Abstract In this paper, a finite element numerical analysis was carried out to study the behaviour of group of piles located on sloping ground using finite element analysis software PLAXIS 3D. A pile of 0.305 m diameter and 9.1 m length was arranged in 3 × 3 group pattern with spacing equal to three times the pile diameter (3D) and was modelled by PLAXIS 3D. The group of piles was embedded into a soil profile consisting of soft to medium-stiff clay and silts underlain by sand. A parametric study was carried out to study the behaviour of group of piles located on sloping ground surface (1V:5H and 1V:3H slopes) and subjected to lateral loads. The effect of slopes on pile capacity, the behaviour of lateral deflections and bending moment profile of front, middle and back rows of group of piles were studied.
Person-specific face representation for recognition

Most face recognition methods rely on a common feature space to represent the faces, in which the face aspects that better distinguish among all the persons are emphasized. This strategy may be inadequate to represent more appropriate aspects of a specific person's face, since there may be some aspects that are good at distinguishing only a given person from the others. Based on this idea and supported by some findings in the human perception of faces, we propose a face recognition framework that associates a feature space to each person that we intend to recognize. Such feature spaces are conceived to underline the discriminating face aspects of the persons they represent. In order to recognize a probe, we match it to the gallery in all the feature spaces and fuse the results to establish the identity. With the help of an algorithm that we devise, the Discriminant Patch Selection, we were capable of carrying out experiments to intuitively compare the traditional approaches with the person-specific representation. In the performed experiments, the person-specific face representation always resulted in a better identification of the faces.
Mast cell-derived tumour necrosis factor is essential for allergic airway disease

Mast cells are thought to contribute to allergic airway disease. However, the role of mast cell-produced mediators, such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF), for the development of allergic airway disease is unclear. In order to define the role of mast cells in acute allergic airway disease two strains of mast cell-deficient mice (KitW/Wv and KitW-sh/W-sh) were studied. Compared with their wild-type littermates, KitW/Wv and KitW-sh/W-sh mice developed significantly lower airway responsiveness to methacholine and less airway inflammation and goblet cell metaplasia, following sensitisation in the absence of adjuvant and airway challenge. Transfer of bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) from wild-type mice to KitW-sh/W-sh mice reconstituted both airway responsiveness and inflammation to levels similar to those in sensitised and challenged wild-type mice. In contrast, sensitised KitW-sh/W-sh mice reconstituted with BMMCs from TNF-deficient mice were still severely impaired in their ability to develop airway hyperresponsiveness, inflammation or goblet cell metaplasia following allergen challenge. The present results demonstrate the significance of mast cells in the development of airway disease and highlight the importance of mast cell-derived tumour necrosis factor in these responses.