Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutrient sensitivity of gastric emptying of digesta in the preruminant calf

1. Studies of gastric function were made in preruminant calves fitted with a single abomasal cannula, re-entrant cannulas in the duodenum close to the pylorus and recording electrodes on the pyloric antrum and proximal duodenum. 2. Simultaneous measurements were made of gastric emptying of a saline (9 g sodium chloride/1) meal, myoelectric activity of antral muscle and plasma concentration of somatostatin in jugular blood whilst infusing the duodenum with different solutions. The duodenal infusates were isotonic sodium bicarbonate (300 mosmol/kg), hyperosmolar solutions of NaCl (1000 mosmol/kg), sodium carbonate (500 mosmol/kg), sucrose (1000 mosmol/kg), 41 g emulsified butterfat/kg or 60 mM-hydrochloric acid. 3. Infusing the duodenum with isotonic NaHCO3 stimulated intense myoelectric activity of the antral smooth muscle and rapid emptying of the test meal. In contrast, infusions of 60 mM-HCl reduced antral motility and inhibited gastric emptying of digesta. This inhibitory response to HCl infusion was related to a significant (P < 0·05) increase of somatostatin in peripheral venous blood. 4. The Na2CO3 infusate, like HC1, inhibited gastric motor activity and digesta emptying, but the concentration of circulating somatostatin was only slightly elevated above pre-infusion levels. 5. Compared with the effects of infusing HCl, infusions of emulsified butterfat or hyperosmolar NaCl and sucrose induced a greater intensity of antral motor activity and faster outflow of gastric effluent, although not to the same extent as with isotonic NaHCO3. However, as with isotonic NaHCO3, these infusates did not evoke the release of somatostatin. 6. The results support the concept of duodenal receptors which, in response to a variety of stimuli in gastric chyme, modulate stomach emptying of digesta through actions on contractile processes of antral smooth muscle. Activation of such receptors by fat or osmotic stimuli, both ionic and non-ionic, do not appear to involve the release of somatostatin. However, the hormone appears to have an entero-gastrone role in mediating the inhibitory action of HCI on gastric motor function.
Social competence and emotional comprehension: How are they related in children?

The developmental progression of emotional competence in childhood provides a robust evidence for its relation to social competence and important adjustment outcomes. This study aimed to analyze how this association is established in middle childhood. For this purpose, we tested 182 Portuguese children aged between 8 and 11 years, of 3rd and 4th grades, in public schools. Firstly, for assessing social competence we used an instrument directed to children using critical social situations within the relationships with peers in the school context Socially in Action-Peers (SAp) (Rocha, Candeias & Lopes da Silva, 2012); children were assessed by three sources: themselves, their peers and their teacher. Secondly, we assessed children’s emotional understanding, individually, with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (Pons & Harris, 2002; Pons, Harris & Rosnay, 2004). Relations between social competence levels (in a composite score and using self, peers and teachers’ scores) and emotional comprehension components (comprehension of the recognition of emotions, based on facial expressions; external emotional causes; contribute of desire to emotion; emotions based on belief; memory influence under emotional state evaluation; possibility of emotional regulation; possibility of hiding an emotional state; having mixed emotions; contribution of morality to emotion experience) were investigated by means of two SSA (Similarity Structure Analysis) a Multidimensional Scaling procedure and the external variable as points technique. In the first structural analysis (SSA) we will consider self, peers and teachers’ scores on Social Competence as content variables and TEC as external variable; in the second SSA we will consider TEC components as content variables and Social Competence in their different levels as external variable. The implications of these MDS procedures in order to better understand how social competence and emotional comprehension are related in children is discussed, as well as the repercussions of these findings for social competence and emotional understanding assessment and intervention in childhood is examined.
Design, implementation, and evaluation of highly available distributed call processing systems

This paper presents the design of a highly available distributed call processing system and its implementation on a local area network of commercial, off-the-shelf workstations. A major challenge of using off-the-shelf components is meeting the strict performance and availability requirements in place for existing public telecommunications systems in a cost-effective manner. Traditional checkpointing and message logging schemes for general distributed applications are not directly applicable since call processing applications built using these schemes suffer from high failure-free overhead and long recovery delays. We propose an application-level fault-tolerance scheme that takes advantage of general properties of distributed call processing systems to avoid message logging and to limit checkpointing overhead. The proposed scheme, applied to a call processing system for wireless networks, shows average call setup latencies of 180 ms, failover times of less than three seconds, and recovery times of less than seventeen seconds. System availability is estimated to be 0.99995. The results indicate that using our proposed scheme meets the above challenge.
Results of operative treatment of hip fractures in patients over 90.

BACKGROUND The number of people living more than 90 years is increasing. This population is at high risk of osteoporotic hip fracture and the rates of a good outcome after surgical treatment are lower than in younger patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate psychophysical status and survival time following hip fracture surgery in nonagenarians. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-two nonagenarian patients included in the study were assessed retrospectively using our own 16-point scale. Evaluation was made on several occasions: prior to injury, at discharge from the hospital and during a follow-up examination, at least 6 months after surgery. Medical data were obtained from medical records and from telephone information given by patients, their family members, carers or social welfare employees. Statistical analyses were performed using average point values and standard deviations. RESULTS 48% of the operated patients died within 1-9 months after surgery. Considerable deterioration of psychophysical status following surgery was reported for 24% of patients. CONCLUSIONS Operative treatment in patients 90 years of age and over with hip fractures was associated with a good outcome, i.e. the recovery of psychophysical status comparable to that prior to the injury, only in 36% of the patients.
The role of attentional flexibility during emotion processing in resilience and emotional disorders

Attentional bias towards threat is a key characteristic of anxiety (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). This study examined the influence of attentional bias on information processing patterns under varying levels of task load. We used a face change detection task where valence (neutral vs fearful faces) and working memory load (low vs high load) were manipulated. In addition to behavioral indices, we measured ERPs during encoding (N170) and maintenance of information (CNV). We observed a robust load effect on behavioral indexes. N170 activity was modulated by load and anxiety with high anxiety associated with greater N170 under high load. CNV activity was modulated by load, valence, and anxiety with high anxiety associated with lower CNV under high vs low load in the presence of fearful faces. There was a negative association between N170 and CNV in the presence of fearful faces as a function of load which was particularly pronounced in high-anxious individuals. These results suggest a connection between enhanced early processing of fearful faces and recruitment of later cognitive resources in high-trait-anxious individuals. INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER 1 Sari, B. A. , Koster, E. H. , & Derakshan, N. (2016). Processing emotional faces in relation to working memory load and anxiety: An event-related potential study. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Effect of an open window and conspecifics within view on the welfare of stabled horses, estimated on the basis of positive and negative behavioural indicators

The effect of environmental enrichment on the welfare of stabled horses was estimated on the basis of positive and negative behavioural indicators. Six stabled horses were exposed for seven days to each of two conditions in early spring: i) a window at the back of the loose box was opened, but no horses were within the view of the subject horses (OW) and ii) the window in the loose box was opened and two horses that had been in the same stable as the subject horses were turned out to the paddock next to the stable and were within view of the subject horses (OWH). The window in the loose box had been closed prior to the start of the study for protection against the cold during winter months (CW condition) but horses could see outside the loose box through the grille door. The behaviour of the subject horses was recorded by video camera from 1300 to 1530h, firstly, in the CW condition for the three days prior to treatment as the control condition, and then for the last three days of each week in the OW and OWH conditions. The behaviour was focal- and instantaneous-sampled at 30-s intervals. Significant differences between the effects of the loose box conditions on the mean percentage of time spent in standing behaviour, looking behaviour, and bedding investigation behaviour (which may be an indicator of frustration) were observed but no significant difference in the mean percentage of time spent in standing-sleep behaviour (which may be an indicator of behavioural satisfaction) was observed. When the window was opened, bedding investigation and standing behaviour decreased and, when the conspecifics were within view, bedding investigation behaviour decreased and looking behaviour increased. The results suggested that the OW and OWH treatments suppressed the frustration of stabled horses which did not perform any abnormal behaviour, but may not increase the behavioural satisfaction of stabled horses.
Topology Construction and Maintenance in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy efficiency and network capacity are two of the most important issues in wireless sensor networks. Topology-control algorithms have been proposed to maintain network connectivity while reducing energy consumption and improving network capacity. Several studies have also been performed to investigate critical conditions on several network parameters in order to ensure network k-connectivity (in the asymptotic sense). In this chapter, several problems (and their corresponding solutions) related to topology construction, maintenance, and connectivity in wireless sensor networks are discussed. Specifically, topics discussed include (1) various communication models and generation of random network topologies; (2) neighbor discovery and maintenance; (3) basic connectivity properties of wireless sensor networks (with the random unit graph model as the underlying model); (4) localized topology construction algorithms, along with their associated geometric structures in both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks; and (5) how to enhance fault tolerance in topology construction and connectivity.
On the Impact of Uplink Scheduling on Intercell Interference Variation in MIMO OFDM Systems

Recently, several works have pointed out the negative impact of intercell interference variation on the performance of link adaptation in multi-cell single input single output (SISO) systems. However, the performance of adaptive precoder selection in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) cellular networks in the presence of interference variation is much less understood. In this paper we develop a simulation model for MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks that allows us to study the impact of popular scheduling and power control algorithms on the time variation of the uplink interference power. We find that employing a time persistent proportional fair scheduler (which we term proportional fair in frequency, PFF, scheduler) together with an open loop power control scheme significantly reduces intercell interference variation and thereby it provides higher throughput than traditional schedulers that are primarily optimized for a single cell setting without taking into account the variation of the intercell interference power.
Diversity and composition of Amazonian moths in primary, secondary and plantation forests

Abstract: The response of tropical fauna to landscape-level habitat change is poorly understood. Increased conversion of native primary forest to alternative land-uses, including secondary forest and exotic tree plantations, highlights the importance of assessing diversity patterns within these forest types. We sampled 1848 moths from 335 species of Arctiidae, Saturniidae and Sphingidae, over a total of 30 trap-nights. Sampling was conducted during the wet season 2005, using three light-traps at 15 sites within areas of primary forest, secondary forest and Eucalyptus urograndis plantations in northern Brazilian Amazonia. The Jari study region provides one of the best opportunities to investigate the ecological consequences of land-use change, and this study is one of the first to examine patterns of diversity for a neotropical moth assemblage in a human-dominated landscape in lowland Amazonia. We found that the three moth families responded consistently to disturbance in terms of abundance and community structure but variably in terms of species richness, in a manner apparently supporting a life-history hypothesis. Our results suggest that secondary forests and Eucalyptus plantations can support a substantial level of moth diversity but also show that these forest types hold assemblages with significantly distinct community structures and composition from primary forest. In addition, the ability of these converted land-uses to support primary forest species may be enhanced by proximity to surrounding primary forest, an issue which requires consideration when assessing the diversity and composition of mobile taxa in human-dominated landscapes.
Pathophysiology of hypertension in obese children: a systematic review

Hypertension is increasingly common in overweight and obese children. The mechanisms behind the development of hypertension in obesity are complex, and evidence is limited. In order to effectively treat obese children for hypertension, it is important to have a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of hypertension in obese children. The present review summarizes the main factors associated with hypertension in obese children and discusses their potential role in its pathophysiology. Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed and EMBASE for articles published up to October 2014. In total, 60 relevant studies were included. The methodological quality of the included studies ranged from weak to strong. Several factors important in the development of hypertension in obese children have been suggested, including endocrine determinants, such as corticosteroids and adipokines, sympathetic nervous system activity, disturbed sodium homeostasis, as well as oxidative stress, inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Understanding the pathophysiology of hypertension in overweight and obese children is important and could have implications for its screening and treatment. Based on solely cross‐sectional observational studies, it is impossible to infer causality. Longitudinal studies of high methodological quality are needed to gain more insight into the complex mechanisms behind the development of hypertension in obese children.
Evolution of stellar collision products in open clusters : II. A grid of low-mass collisions

In a companion paper we studied the detailed evolution of stellar collision products that occurred in an N-body simulation of the old open cluster M 67 and compared our detailed models to simple prescriptions. In this paper we extend this work by studying the evolution of the collision products in open clusters as a function of mass and age of the progenitor stars. We calculated a grid of head-on collisions covering the section of parameter space relevant for collisions in open clusters. We create detailed models of the merger remnants using an entropy-sorting algorithm and follow their subsequent evolution during the initial contraction phase, through the main sequence and up to the giant branch with our detailed stellar evolution code. We compare the location of our models in a colour−magnitude diagram to the observed blue straggler population of the old open clusters M 67 and NGC 188 and find that they cover the observed blue straggler region of both clusters. For M 67, collisions need to have taken place recently. Differences between the evolution tracks of the collision products and normal main sequence stars can be understood quantitatively using a simple analytic model. We present an analytic recipe that can be used in an N-body code to transform a precomputed evolution track for a normal star into an evolution track for a collision product.
A multilevel study of transformational leadership, dual organizational change and innovative behavior in groups

Purpose Based on dual organizational theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative behavior in groups. The authors proposed that group innovative behavior was influenced by transformational leadership as a group-level construct which was moderated by dual organizational change that represent organization-level resources. Furthermore, the authors identified two organizational change-related situational variables-radical change and incremental change and examined their effects on group innovative behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data from full-time employees working in groups in 43 companies, located in five cities in China including Beijing, Yantai, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Chengde. These enterprises were from a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, financing, information technology, and geological exploration. The authors chose a middle- or senior-level manager from each company to act as chief survey respondent, who were asked to contact managers and employees from a list they had provided and invite them to participate in a web-based survey (via an e-mailed link) or a paper-and-pencil survey. A total of 192 managers and 756 direct subordinates from 112 groups completed the survey. Findings Results found that transformational leadership was positively related to group innovative behavior, and this relationship was moderated by radical change, but not incremental change; radical change and incremental change were also positively related to group innovative behavior. Research limitations/implications This study adopts a cross-sectional study design, which is insufficient for deriving causal inferences. Future research may adopt a longitudinal study design to investigate causal impacts. Besides, some unmeasured variables could be related to transformational leadership and innovative behavior. Practical implications The paper includes implications for adopting appropriate leadership style to motivate innovative behavior, promoting dual organizational change to boost innovative behavior, and generating greater innovative behavior for transformational leaders in times of radical change. Originality/value This cross-level study contributes to the relationship between transformational leadership and group innovative behavior in the context of dual organizational change.
Children’s and Adults’ On-Line Processing of Syntactically Ambiguous Sentences during Reading

While there has been a fair amount of research investigating children’s syntactic processing during spoken language comprehension, and a wealth of research examining adults’ syntactic processing during reading, as yet very little research has focused on syntactic processing during text reading in children. In two experiments, children and adults read sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity while their eye movements were monitored. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences such as, ‘The boy poked the elephant with the long stick/trunk from outside the cage’ in which the attachment of a prepositional phrase was manipulated. In Experiment 2, participants read sentences such as, ‘I think I’ll wear the new skirt I bought tomorrow/yesterday. It’s really nice’ in which the attachment of an adverbial phrase was manipulated. Results showed that adults and children exhibited similar processing preferences, but that children were delayed relative to adults in their detection of initial syntactic misanalysis. It is concluded that children and adults have the same sentence-parsing mechanism in place, but that it operates with a slightly different time course. In addition, the data support the hypothesis that the visual processing system develops at a different rate than the linguistic processing system in children.
Long-term outcome of preoperative transarterial chemoembolization and hepatic resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background/Aims Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) improves the survival of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and has been recommended as a first-line therapy for nonsurgical patients with large or multifocal HCC. The long-term outcome of HCC patients receiving TACE prior to hepatic resection is uncertain. Methods Between January 1997 and December 2007, 1,530 patients underwent hepatic resection for HCC at our center. Thirty-two patients received 1~12 sessions of TACE followed by surgical resection (TACE-surgery group). Their overall and recurrence-free survival rates were compared with those of 64 age- and sex-matched controls who underwent surgery only (surgery group). Overall and recurrence-free survival rates were analyzed. Results The 1-, 2-, and 5-year overall survival rates did not differ significantly between the TACE-surgery group and the surgery group (78%, 60%, and 26%, respectively, vs. 97%, 83%, and 45%, respectively; P=0.11); however, the 1-, 2-, and 5-year recurrence-free survival rates were significantly lower in the TACE-surgery group than in the surgery group (58%, 36%, and 7%, respectively, vs. 77%, 58%, and 32%, respectively; P=0.01). The distribution of recurrence sites in the TACE-surgery group were intrahepatic in 85.7% and extrahepatic in 14.3%, and did not differ from those in the surgery group (91.4% and 8.6%, respectively; P=0.66). Conclusions HCC patients who underwent TACE before resection appear to have overall survival rates that are comparable to those without preoperative therapy, although recurrence rates appear to be higher in patients with TACE.
Power Grid Sensitivity Analysis of Geomagnetically Induced Currents

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) have the potential to severely disrupt power grid operations, and hence their impact needs to be assessed through planning studies. This paper presents a methodology for determining the sensitivity of the GICs calculated for individual and/or groups of transformers to the assumed quasi-dc electric fields on the transmission lines that induce the GICs. Example calculations are provided for two small systems and for the North American Eastern Interconnect model. Results indicate that transformer GICs are mostly due to the electric fields on nearby transmission lines, implying localized electric field models may be appropriate for such studies.