Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Production effects related to mastitis and mastitis economics in dairy cattle herds.

Mastitis is the most prevalent production disease in dairy herds world-wide and is responsible for several production effects. Milk yield and composition can be affected by a more or less severe short-term depression and, in case of no cure, by a long-acting effect, and, sometimes, an overlapping effect to the next lactation. Summary values in the literature for losses of milk production were proposed at 375 kg for a clinical case (5% at the lactation level) and at 0.5 kg per 2-fold increase of crude SCC of a cow. Due to the withdrawal period after treatment, composition changes in milk can almost be neglected in economic calculations. Lethality rate for clinical mastitis is very low on the average, while anticipated culling occurs more frequently after clinical and subclinical mastitis (relative risk between 1.5 and 5.0). The economics of mastitis needs to be addressed at the farm level and, per se, depends on local and regional epidemiological, managerial and economic conditions. To assess the direct economic impact of mastitis, costs (i.e. extra resource use) and losses (i.e. reduced revenues) have to be aggregated. To support decision making for udder health control, it is necessary to use a marginal approach, based on the comparison of the losses avoided and the additional costs of modified plans, compared to the existing ones.
Forward coupling phenomena between artificial left-handed transmission lines

Coupling phenomena between artificial left-handed (LH) transmission lines are explored on the basis of a transmission line approach of LH materials. A LH forward coupler in the form of an ideal lumped-element ladder network is presented and is shown to exhibit strong forward coupling that increases with decreasing of frequency. A quasi-lumped element microstrip implementation of a LH coupler is proposed. It is demonstrated that this coupler requires a shorter coupling length in comparison with the conventional right-handed coupled-line forward couplers, and hence makes the device much more compact.
Application of nonlinear feedback control to enhance the performance of a pulsed combustor

A feedback control strategy is applied to enhance the performance of a laboratory-scale pulsed combustor operating near the lower flammability limit. As with many combustion processes, at lean conditions, combustion instabilities develop which result in complex, lowfrequency fluctuations in fuel concentration and lead directly to misfire and flameout. The control strategy exploits the highly nonlinear relationship between equivalence ratio and reaction rate at lean operating conditions to dampen the instabilities via high-speed injection of supplemental fuel. Timing of the control perturbations is determined by monitoring the combustor pressure for characteristic mediating trajectories which lead to misfire. The nonlinear nature of the system allows combustion stabilization to be achieved with relatively small injections of supplemental fuel. The control scheme is shown to be effective in reducing unburnedhydrocarbon emission levels and extending the practical operating limit of the pulsed combustor towards the lower flammability limit.
Adult neurogenesis in mammals – a theme with many variations

Investigations of adult neurogenesis in recent years have revealed numerous differences among mammalian species, reflecting the remarkable diversity in brain anatomy and function of mammals. As a mechanism of brain plasticity, adult neurogenesis might also differ due to behavioural specialization or adaptation to specific ecological niches. Because most research has focused on rodents and only limited data are available on other mammalian orders, it is hotly debated whether, in some species, adult neurogenesis also takes place outside of the well‐characterized subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle and subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus. In particular, evidence for the functional integration of new neurons born in ‘non‐neurogenic’ zones is controversial. Considering the promise of adult neurogenesis for regenerative medicine, we posit that differences in the extent, regional occurrence and completion of adult neurogenesis need to be considered from a species‐specific perspective. In this review, we provide examples underscoring that the mechanisms of adult neurogenesis cannot simply be generalized to all mammalian species. Despite numerous similarities, there are distinct differences, notably in neuronal maturation, survival and functional integration in existing synaptic circuits, as well as in the nature and localization of neural precursor cells. We also propose a more appropriate use of terminology to better describe these differences and their relevance for brain plasticity under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. In conclusion, we emphasize the need for further analysis of adult neurogenesis in diverse mammalian species to fully grasp the spectrum of variation of this adaptative mechanism in the adult CNS.
Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of Turkish children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

AIM To assess clinical and demographic characteristics of Turkish children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. METHOD The study comprised 47 children and adolescents (31 boys and 15 girls) aged between 9 and 15 years, who were diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV. At the first interview, sociodemographic data of patients were recorded and Maudsley Obsession Compulsive Questionnaire (MOCQ), Child Depression Inventory (CDI), and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAI-C) were administered concurrently. Afterwards, the comorbid diagnosis and clinical characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder were investigated in detail during a psychiatric interview. RESULTS The obsessive-compulsive disorder prevalence among 1,739 outpatients seen for the first time at our clinics between January 1998 and April 1999 was 2.7% (n=47). Initial complaints with a content of obsession or compulsion were observed in only 14.9% (n=7) of the patients. Contamination (48.9%) and cleaning (68.1%) were the most common symptoms. Thirty-one patients (65.9%) had at least one comorbid disorder with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the most common being major depression (29.8%). There were no significant differences between the patients with and those without comorbid disorder in terms of MOCQ and subscales scores. Children under age of 13 had higher scores on cleanliness subscale on MOCQ, whereas children with migration history had higher state anxiety scores. There were no differences in STAI-C and CDI scores between boy and girls, children (<13 years) and adolescents (13 years), and firstborn and other children in a family. CONCLUSION Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a serious clinical problem in childhood and practitioners, pediatricians, and psychiatrists should explicitly ask about the presence of symptoms characteristic to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Given the high rates of various comorbid states, such as anxiety, mood and tic disorders, comorbidities should also be taken into account during psychiatric evaluation of a child patient.
Metabolic Depression in Cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus) Is Influenced by Ontogeny, and Enhances Thermal Tolerance

To examine the effect of ontogeny on metabolic depression in the cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus), and to understand how ontogeny and the ability to metabolically depress influence this species' upper thermal tolerance: 1) the metabolic rate of 9°C-acclimated cunner of three size classes [0.2–0.5 g, young of the year (YOY); 3–6 g, small; and 80–120 g, large (adult)] was measured during a 2°C per day decrease in temperature; and 2) the metabolic response of the same three size classes of cunner to an acute thermal challenge [2°C h−1 from 10°C until Critical Thermal Maximum, CTMax] was examined, and compared to that of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). The onset-temperature for metabolic depression in cunner increased with body size, i.e. from 5°C in YOY cunner to 7°C in adults. In contrast, the extent of metabolic depression was ∼80% (Q10 = ∼15) for YOY fish, ∼65% (Q10 = ∼8) for small fish and ∼55% (Q10 = ∼5) for adults, and this resulted in the metabolic scaling exponent (b) gradually increasing from 0.84 to 0.92 between 9°C to 1°C. All size classes of cunner had significantly (approximately 60%) lower routine metabolic rates at 10°C than Atlantic cod. However, there was no species' difference in the temperature-induced maximum metabolic rate, and this resulted in factorial metabolic scope values that were more than two-fold greater for cunner, and CTMax values that were 6–9°C higher (∼21 vs. 28°C). These results: 1) show that ontogeny influences the temperature of initiation and the extent of metabolic depression in cunner, but not O2 consumption when in a hypometabolic state; and 2) suggest that the evolution of cold-induced metabolic depression in this northern wrasse species has not resulted in a trade-off with upper thermal tolerance, but instead, an enhancement of this species' metabolic plasticity.
Apache REEF

Resource Managers like YARN and Mesos have emerged as a critical layer in the cloud computing system stack, but the developer abstractions for leasing cluster resources and instantiating application logic are very low level. This flexibility comes at a high cost in terms of developer effort, as each application must repeatedly tackle the same challenges (e.g., fault tolerance, task scheduling and coordination) and reimplement common mechanisms (e.g., caching, bulk-data transfers). This article presents REEF, a development framework that provides a control plane for scheduling and coordinating task-level (data-plane) work on cluster resources obtained from a Resource Manager. REEF provides mechanisms that facilitate resource reuse for data caching and state management abstractions that greatly ease the development of elastic data processing pipelines on cloud platforms that support a Resource Manager service. We illustrate the power of REEF by showing applications built atop: a distributed shell application, a machine-learning framework, a distributed in-memory caching system, and a port of the CORFU system. REEF is currently an Apache top-level project that has attracted contributors from several institutions and it is being used to develop several commercial offerings such as the Azure Stream Analytics service.
Early rehabilitation treatment combined with equinovarus foot deformity surgical correction in stroke patients: safety and changes in gait parameters.

BACKGROUND Equinovarus foot deformity (EVFD) compromises several prerequisites of walking and increases the risk of falling. Guidelines on rehabilitation following EVFD surgery are missing in current literature. AIM The aim of this study was to analyze safety and adherence to an early rehabilitation treatment characterized by immediate weight bearing with an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) in hemiplegic patients after EVFD surgery and to describe gait changes after EVFD surgical correction combined with early rehabilitation treatment. DESIGN Retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING Inpatient rehabilitation clinic. POPULATION Forty-seven adult patients with hemiplegia consequent to ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke (L/R 20/27, age 56±15 years, time from lesion 6±5 years). METHODS A specific rehabilitation protocol with a non-articulated AFO, used to allow for immediate gait training, started one day after EVFD surgery. Gait analysis (GA) data before and one month after surgery were analyzed. The presence of differences in GA space-time parameters, in ankle dorsiflexion (DF) values and peaks at initial contact (DF at IC), during stance (DF at St) and swing (DF at Sw) were assessed by the Wilcoxon Test while the presence of correlations between pre- and post-operative values by Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS All patients completed the rehabilitation protocol and no clinical complications occurred in the sample. Ankle DF increased one month after surgery at all investigated gait phases (Wilcoxon Test, P<0.0001), becoming neutral at IC. Significant (P<0.05) variations were found for stride length, stride width, anterior step length of the affected side and for the duration of the double support phase of the contralateral side. The postsurgery ankle DF at St was found to be correlated (R=0.81, P<0.0001) with its pre-surgery value, thus being predictable. Weaker significant correlations were found for DF at Sw and DF at IC, where contribution from the dorsiflexor muscles is required in addition to calf muscle passive lengthening. CONCLUSIONS An orthosis-assisted immediate rehabilitation associated with surgical procedure is safe and may be suitable to correct EVFD by restoring both the neutral heel foot-ground contact and the ankle DF peaks during stance and swing at one month from surgery. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT The proposed protocol is a safe and potentially useful rehabilitative approach after EVFD surgical correction in stroke patients.
The Microbiota in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Different Age Groups

BACKGROUND Many efforts were made in the past decades to assess the role of gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), leading to the hypothesis that an altered microbial composition, other than the presence of a specific pathogen, could be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. On the other hand, existing differences in gut microbial community between distinct classes of age make sense of an increasing research in microbial shifts in IBD. METHODS Cultural, molecular, metabolomic and metagenomic approaches are trying to define the human gut microbiota in different age groups. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION An increase in anaerobic bacteria (Bacteroidesvulgatus, Streptococcus faecalis) was observed in adult IBD, whereas an increase in aerobic and facultative-anaerobic (Escherichia coli) was found in pediatric IBD. Overall higher bacterial cell counts were observed in IBD, jointly with a general loss of biodiversity and a preponderance of Bacteroidetes and a parallel decrease of Firmicutes phylum: a predominance of potential harmful members of Proteobacteria (E. coli) and low abundance of beneficial species (Faecalibacterium prausnitzii) was also reported in pediatric and adult age groups, respectively. Microbial community of elderly subjects contains a wider range of different species than those of children and adults, both in healthy and IBD status.
HOTAIR, a prognostic factor in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, inhibits WIF‐1 expression and activates Wnt pathway

Long non‐coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been recently found to be pervasively transcribed in the genome and critical regulators of the epigenome. HOTAIR, as a well‐known LncRNA, has been found to play important roles in several tumors. Herein, the clinical application value and biological functions of HOTAIR were focused and explored in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). It was found that there was a great upregulation of HOTAIR in ESCC compared to their adjacent normal esophageal tissues. Meanwhile, patients with high HOTAIR expression have a significantly poorer prognosis than those with low expression. Moreover, HOTAIR was further validated to promote migration and invasion of ESCC cells in vitro. Then some specific molecules with great significance were investigated after HOTAIR overexpression using microarray and quantitative real time‐polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). WIF‐1 playing an important role in Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway was selected and further tested by immunehistochemistry. Generally, inverse correlation between HOTAIR and WIF‐1 expression was demonstrated both in ESCC cells and tissues. Mechanistically, HOTAIR directly decreased WIF‐1 expression by promoting its histone H3K27 methylation in the promoter region and then activated the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway. This newly identified HOTAIR/WIF‐1 axis clarified the molecular mechanism of ESCC cell metastasis and represented a novel therapeutic target in patients with ESCC.
Internet-Based Therapy for Mild to Moderate Depression in Swedish Primary Care: Short Term Results from the PRIM-NET Randomized Controlled Trial

Depression presents a serious condition for the individual and a major challenge to health care and society. Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) is a treatment option supported in several trials, but there is as yet a lack of effective studies of ICBT in “real world” primary care settings. We examined whether ICBT differed from treatment-as-usual (TAU) in reducing depressive symptoms after 3 months. TAU comprised of visits to general practitioner, registered nurse, antidepressant drugs, waiting list for, or psychotherapy, or combinations of these alternatives. Patients, aged ≥ 18 years, who tentatively met criteria for mild to moderate depression at 16 primary care centers in the south-western region of Sweden were recruited and then assessed in a diagnostic interview. A total of 90 patients were randomized to either TAU or ICBT. The ICBT treatment included interactive elements online, a workbook, a CD with mindfulness and acceptance exercises, and minimal therapist contact. The treatment period lasted for 12 weeks after which both groups were assessed. The main outcome measure was Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Additional measures were Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale – self rating version (MADRS-S) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The analyses revealed no significant difference between the two groups at post treatment, neither on BDI-II, MADRS-S, nor BAI. Twenty patients (56%) in the ICBT treatment completed all seven modules. Our findings suggest that ICBT may be successfully delivered in primary care and that the effectiveness, after 3 months, is at par with TAU.
The effect of social proof on people’s risk perception and attitudes towards the use of nanotechnology in food products on Social Network Sites

In two studies, on a fake Facebook page, we investigated two types of social proof found on a Social Network Site by analysing people’s cognition, affect and behavioural intent. The two types of social proof investigated were the ‘comments’ and the ‘number of likes’ under the comments. In study A, people were presented with only one comment valence and either high or low enforcement of the comments. In study B there was a mix of comment valance and depending upon the condition either the positive comments had high enforcement and the negative comments had low enforcement of vice versa. The results have shown that in case all comments were in favour of nanotechnology in food products people had less risk perception, an increased benefit perception and a better attitude towards nanotechnology in food products compared to all negative comments. The ‘number of likes’, however, did not work when it comes to social proof in case of nanotechnology in food products. This study has indicated that people might use a different mental process when they read ‘comments’ compared to observing the ‘number of likes’. In case people read ‘comments’, the ‘number of likes’ do not seem to be of any relevance.
The Long and Viscous Road: Uncovering Nuclear Diffusion Barriers in Closed Mitosis

Diffusion barriers are effective means for constraining protein lateral exchange in cellular membranes. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, they have been shown to sustain parental identity through asymmetric segregation of ageing factors during closed mitosis. Even though barriers have been extensively studied in the plasma membrane, their identity and organization within the nucleus remains poorly understood. Based on different lines of experimental evidence, we present a model of the composition and structural organization of a nuclear diffusion barrier during anaphase. By means of spatial stochastic simulations, we propose how specialised lipid domains, protein rings, and morphological changes of the nucleus may coordinate to restrict protein exchange between mother and daughter nuclear lobes. We explore distinct, plausible configurations of these diffusion barriers and offer testable predictions regarding their protein exclusion properties and the diffusion regimes they generate. Our model predicts that, while a specialised lipid domain and an immobile protein ring at the bud neck can compartmentalize the nucleus during early anaphase; a specialised lipid domain spanning the elongated bridge between lobes would be entirely sufficient during late anaphase. Our work shows how complex nuclear diffusion barriers in closed mitosis may arise from simple nanoscale biophysical interactions.
Computer-assisted identification of cell cycle-related genes: new targets for E2F transcription factors.

The processes that take place during development and differentiation are directed through coordinated regulation of expression of a large number of genes. One such gene regulatory network provides cell cycle control in eukaryotic organisms. In this work, we have studied the structural features of the 5' regulatory regions of cell cycle-related genes. We developed a new method for identifying composite substructures (modules) in regulatory regions of genes consisting of a binding site for a key transcription factor and additional contextual motifs: potential targets for other transcription factors that may synergistically regulate gene transcription. Applying this method to cell cycle-related promoters, we created a program for context-specific identification of binding sites for transcription factors of the E2F family which are key regulators of the cell cycle. We found that E2F composite modules are found at a high frequency and in close proximity to the start of transcription in cell cycle-related promoters in comparison with other promoters. Using this information, we then searched for E2F sites in genomic sequences with the goal of identifying new genes which play important roles in controlling cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, we then experimentally verified the binding of E2F in vivo to the promoters predicted by the computer-assisted methods. Our identification of new E2F target genes provides new insight into gene regulatory networks and provides a framework for continued analysis of the role of contextual promoter features in transcriptional regulation. The tools described are available at http://compel.bionet. nsc.ru/FunSite/SiteScan.html.
Characteristics and Significance of Microbial Biofilm Formation

Biofilm is a microbially derived sessile community characterized by cells that are attached to an abiotic or living surface and embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances that they have produced. This polymicrobic community has an altered phenotype and it is physiologically different from planktonic microorganisms. Epidemiological studies have shown that biofilm formation is associated with more than 60% of all human infections. Since microorganisms growing in a biofilm are highly resistant to antimicrobial agents and host’s immune system, it is necessary to employ effective methods for the prevention or control of biofilm formation. Formation and persistance of a biofilm is a complex and dynamic process that needs to be studied as better understanding of biofilm characteristics will enable the development of new therapeutic strategies.