Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experiences with drug-free broiler production 1

Blanket bans on all growth-promoting or prophylactic drug approvals are controversial and arguably unwarranted and counterproductive. Nevertheless, legislation, consumer preference, and trade opportunities have encouraged some producers to grow broilers with reduced reliance on antibiotics, including completely drug-free production. Drug-free production programs may have varied consequences on efficiency and disease incidence, depending on the individual situation. Although difficulties may be encountered, most notably with clinical and subclinical clostridial enteritis, experience suggests that these problems can be surmounted, but at increased cost. This report discusses some of the potential pitfalls and interventions to address the problems encountered in the context of 12 yr of field experiences of one producer of drug-free broilers.
Molecular Modeling to Study Dendrimers for Biomedical Applications

Molecular modeling techniques provide a powerful tool to study the properties of molecules and their interactions at the molecular level. The use of computational techniques to predict interaction patterns and molecular properties can inform the design of drug delivery systems and therapeutic agents. Dendrimers are hyperbranched macromolecular structures that comprise repetitive building blocks and have defined architecture and functionality. Their unique structural features can be exploited to design novel carriers for both therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Many studies have been performed to iteratively optimise the properties of dendrimers in solution as well as their interaction with drugs, nucleic acids, proteins and lipid membranes. Key features including dendrimer size and surface have been revealed that can be modified to increase their performance as drug carriers. Computational studies have supported experimental work by providing valuable insights about dendrimer structure and possible molecular interactions at the molecular level. The progress in computational simulation techniques and models provides a basis to improve our ability to better predict and understand the biological activities and interactions of dendrimers. This review will focus on the use of molecular modeling tools for the study and design of dendrimers, with particular emphasis on the efforts that have been made to improve the efficacy of this class of molecules in biomedical applications.
MUC1 (episialin) expression in non-small cell lung cancer is independent of EGFR and c-erbB-2 expression and correlates with poor survival in node positive patients.

AIM: To examine tumour samples immunohistochemically for MUC1 (episialin), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and c-erbB-2, since the disruption of the cell-cell adhesion system by MUC1 and the c-erbB oncoprotein family is known to be important in the development of metastasis in human cancers. METHODS: 93 tumour samples from patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer treated with surgery alone were examined for episialin, EGFR, and c-erbB-2. RESULTS: Episialin depolarised expression did not correlate with any of the histopathological variables examined (T,N stage, grade, histology, Ki67 proliferation index). No correlation was observed between episialin and EGFR or c-erbB-2 expression. Survival analysis showed that episialin depolarised expression correlated with poor prognosis (p = 0.003), especially in squamous cell cases (p = 0.0003). Episialin expression defined a group of patients with poor prognosis in the node positive category (p = 0.003). In multivariate analysis episialin was the most significant independent prognostic factor (p = 0.007), followed by N stage (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Depolarised expression of episialin is associated with poor outcome in early stage non-small cell lung cancer. Despite the similar activity on the cadherin cell-cell adhesion system, the expression of episialin and c-erbB oncoproteins is likely to be activated within different pathogenic pathways.
The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: European Disintegration, Unemployment and Instability

Gli effetti macroeconomici degli accordi di libero scambio vengono solitamente valutati attraverso modelli di equilibrio generale computazionale (CGE) che ipotizzano la piena occupazione e una distribuzione del reddito costante. Non sorprende che queste valutazioni suggeriscano effetti positivi su crescita e occupazione. In questo saggio gli effetti dell'Accordo transatlantico di partenariato su commercio e investimenti (TTIP) vengono valutati con un modello econometrico basato sul principio della "domanda effettiva" - il Modello di politica economica globale delle Nazioni Unite. L'aggiustamento macroeconomico e guidato dalla concorrenza sul costo del lavoro fra i paesi partecipanti, mentre occupazione e distribuzione del reddito si adattano. I risultati sono nettamente diversi dalle valutazioni ufficiali, con perdite in termini di PIL, occupazione e redditi personali. Le proiezioni mostrano, inoltre, un aumento dell'instabilita finanziaria e una continua diminuzione della quota del PIL che va ai redditi da lavoro.
Rewards Satisfaction, Perception about Social Status and Commitment of Nurses in Pakistan

This research is undertaken to approve or reject the general perception of masses about commitment of employees and to identify those factors, which effect commitment of employees in general and of nurses in particular. In previous research of Allen and Myere (1990), the factor of social status was not addressed. In this study target audience is nurses. Whereas, it is a proven fact that psychological perception effects individual’s attitudes and behaviors, so to see that how satisfaction with rewards/ benefits and perception about social status effect commitment of employees, this research was undertaken. Satisfaction level varies from person to person. The empirical results have proved that commitment of employees is affected due to satisfaction with rewards/ benefits and perception about social status.
Cleft Lips and Palates in Northumberland and Durham

Under present-day conditions, and particularly because of the statutory examination of all children of school age through the School Health Service. we can be certain that almost all cases of cleft lip and palate in Great Britain come to notice and are referred for surgical treatment. The exceptions are those infants who are stillborn or who die before being referred, but even of the latter a considerable proportion will find their way into hospital index systems. In this region surgical care is concentrated in a few specialized units, making possible the ascertainment of all cases from a defined population over a defined period of time and affording an opportunity of measuring the incidence. The object of this study is the measurement of the incidence of the various types of cleft lips and palates in the counties of Northumberland and Durham in the 10 years 1949 to 1958.
A Spatial Analysis of Homicide Across Brazil’s Municipalities

Examining homicide across Brazil’s 5,562 municipalities, we find that violence nearby has a positive effect on local violence (diffusion effect), violence exerts an unusual negative spatial effect in small clusters of communities in northeastern Brazil, and a prominent poverty-reduction program (Bolsa Família [BF]) has mixed effects. The spatial dimensions of violence complement existing non-spatial research on violence in Brazil, and the results regarding BF offer a spatial complement to research on conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, clarifying the sources of violence in Latin America’s largest country and shedding light on the content and geographic targeting of violence reduction policies.
Effectiveness of ultrasound therapy for myofascial pain syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective The objective of this review was to assess the therapeutic effect of ultrasound (US) on myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). Date sources PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched to find relevant studies from January 1966 to May 2016 using keywords. Four investigators performed the data extraction. Study selection Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the outcomes of pain and physical function between MPS patients receiving and not receiving US were selected by two researchers independently. Data extraction Data were extracted from the RCTs. Risk of bias and study quality were evaluated following the recommendations of Cochrane Collaboration. Standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Data synthesis A total of 10 studies involving 428 MPS patients were included. US therapy significantly reduced pain intensity (SMD [CI]=−1.41 [−2.15, −0.67], P=0.0002) and increased pain threshold (SMD [CI]=1.08 [0.55, 1.60], P<0.0001), but had no significant effect on cervical range of motion (ROM) of lateral flexion (SMD [CI]=0.40 [−0.19, 0.99], P=0.19), rotation (SMD [CI]=0.10 [−0.33, 0.52], P=0.66), or extension or flexion (SMD [CI]=0.16 [−0.35, 0.68], P=0.53). Heterogeneity between studies was mainly attributed to differences in the follow-up time, parameter of US, course of treatment, and the control group. The overall risk of bias from the included studies was high, and the evidence proving these effect calculations were assessed as low quality. Conclusion Owing to the high risk of bias and the across-trial heterogeneity of the studies, the current evidence is not clear enough to support US as an effective method to treat MPS. Clinical trials with methodological rigorousness and adequate power are needed to confirm it in the future.
Vibrating Makes for Better Seeing: From the Fly’s Micro-Eye Movements to Hyperacute Visual Sensors

Active vision means that visual perception not only depends closely on the subject’s own movements, but that these movements actually contribute to the visual perceptual processes. Vertebrates’ and invertebrates’ eye movements are probably part of an active visual process, but their exact role still remains to be determined. In this paper, studies on the retinal micro-movements occurring in the compound eye of the fly are reviewed. Several authors have located and identified the muscles involved in these small retinal movements. Others have established that these retinal micro-movements occur in walking and flying flies, but their exact functional role still remains to be determined. Many robotic studies have been performed in which animals’ (flies’ and spiders’) miniature eye movements have been modeled, simulated, and even implemented mechanically. Several robotic platforms have been endowed with artificial visual sensors performing periodic micro-scanning movements. Artificial eyes performing these active retinal micro-movements have some extremely interesting properties, such as hyperacuity and the ability to detect very slow movements (motion hyperacuity). The fundamental role of miniature eye movements still remains to be described in detail, but several studies on natural and artificial eyes have advanced considerably toward this goal.
A comparison of Landsat 8 (OLI) and Landsat 7 (ETM+) in mapping geology and visualising lineaments: A case study of central region Kenya

Availability of multispectral remote sensing data cheaply and its higher spectral resolution compared to remote sensing data with higher spatial resolution has proved valuable for geological mapping exploitation and mineral mapping. This has benefited applications such as landslide quantification, fault pattern mapping, rock and lineament mapping especially with advanced remote sensing techniques and the use of short wave infrared bands. While Landsat and Aster data have been used to map geology in arid areas and band ratios suiting the application established, mapping in geology in highland regions has been challenging due to vegetation land cover. The aim of this study was to map geology and investigate bands suited for geological applications in a study area containing semi arid and highland characteristics. Therefore, Landsat 7 (ETM+, 2000) and Landsat 8 (OLI, 2014) were compared in determining suitable bands suited for geological mapping in the study area. The methodology consist performing principal component and factor loading analysis, IHS transformation and decorrelation stretch of the FCC with the highest contrast, band rationing and examining FCC with highest contrast, and then performing knowledge base classification. PCA factor loading analysis with emphasis on geological information showed band combination (5, 7, 3) for Landsat 7 and (6, 7, 4) for Landsat 8 had the highest contrast and more contrast was enhanced by performing decorrelation stretch. Band ratio combination (3/2, 5/1, 7/3) for Landsat 7 and (4/3, 6/2, 7/4) for Landsat 8 had more contrast on geologic information and formed the input data in knowledge base classification. Lineament visualisazion was achieved by performing IHS transformation of FCC with highest contrast and its saturation band combined as follows: Landsat 7 (IC1, PC2, saturation band), Landsat 8 (IC1, PC4, saturation band). The results were compared against existing geology maps and were superior and could be used to update the existing maps.
Theory of Auditory Temporal and Spatial Primary Sensations 1

Getting results of a number of previous papers into together, this paper proposes a theory of auditory temporal and spatial primary sensations. The model consists of the autocorrelation function (ACF) mechanism and the interaural crosscorrelation function (IACF) mechanism for signals arriving at two ear entrances, and the specialization of human cerebral hemispheres. Evidences of this auditory model have been found by recording the auditory brainstem response (ABR), the slow vertex response (SVR), the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the magnetroencephalogram (MEG). It may describe four temporal primary sensations including pitch or missing fundamental, loudness, timbre, and in addition duration sensation. These four temporal sensations may be formulated by the temporal factor, which may be extracted from the ACF associated with left hemisphere. Three spatial sensations consisting of localization in the horizontal plane, apparent source width (ASW) and subjective diffuseness are described by the spatial factor extracted from the IACF associated with the right hemisphere.
Long-term Effects of Land Reform on Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from West Bengal

We use data on inter-generational gains in educational attainment by some 500,000 individuals in 200 West Bengal villages to explore gender-differentiated impacts of land reform on human capital accumulation at the individual level. While there are significant gains (of about 0.3 years for males) in the immediate post-reform generation, their magnitude pales in comparison to second-generation effects of between 0.85 and 1.2 years that appear irrespectively of the land reform modality. Moreover, there are possibly significant spillover benefits on villagers who did not directly benefit from reform. Placebo tests and alternative specifications support robustness of the results. By contrast, levels of beneficiary productivity and welfare remain far below average, something that could likely be avoided if land reform beneficiaries would receive full ownership rights.rather than being recognized as permanent share tenants and if restrictions on transferability of land were abandoned.
An 80 GHz Low-Noise Amplifier Resilient to the TX Spillover in Phase-Modulated Continuous-Wave Radars

An 80 GHz transmitter leakage cancellation circuit is implemented and integrated together with a low-noise amplifier (LNA) as part of a receiver front-end for a phase-modulated continuous-wave radar. The cancellation is achieved by subtracting a copy of the leakage signal from the received one at the output of the LNA. The system incorporates an analog feedback loop to adjust the amplitude of the leakage copy, as well as a vector modulator to adjust its phase. The proposed 80 GHz LNA with transmitter leakage cancellation is implemented in 28 nm CMOS technology and achieves a gain of 15.2 dB, NF of 5.5 dB, and IP1dB of -15.5 dBm while attenuating the transmitter leakage by 27.5 dB.
A cognitive-representational account of intuitive moral judgment: Effects of typicality and accessibility

In this article, it is argued that intuitive judgments of immoral events result from an automatic process where perceived events are matched against mentally represented event prototypes. The proposed cognitive underpinnings of such a process are tested in two experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that typical immoral events require shorter judgment times than atypical events. This typicality effect implies that immediate moral responding depends on the similarity of an encountered event to a pre-existing mental prototype. Experiment 2 showed that priming representations of immoral events facilitates the responding only to other events violating the same moral value, and not to events related to other moral values. This finding provides further support for the notion that moral reactions rely on pre-existing schematic mental representations, and suggests that these representations are stored in associative networks with values as a basis for categorization. It is concluded that the results concord with and extend recent work that places moral cognition in a dual-process perspective.
Vertical Signalling Involves Transmission of Hox Information from Gastrula Mesoderm to Neurectoderm

Development and patterning of neural tissue in the vertebrate embryo involves a set of molecules and processes whose relationships are not fully understood. Classical embryology revealed a remarkable phenomenon known as vertical signalling, a gastrulation stage mechanism that copies anterior-posterior positional information from mesoderm to prospective neural tissue. Vertical signalling mediates unambiguous copying of complex information from one tissue layer to another. In this study, we report an investigation of this process in recombinates of mesoderm and ectoderm from gastrulae of Xenopus laevis. Our results show that copying of positional information involves non cell autonomous autoregulation of particular Hox genes whose expression is copied from mesoderm to neurectoderm in the gastrula. Furthermore, this information sharing mechanism involves unconventional translocation of the homeoproteins themselves. This conserved primitive mechanism has been known for three decades but has only recently been put into any developmental context. It provides a simple, robust way to pattern the neurectoderm using the Hox pattern already present in the mesoderm during gastrulation. We suggest that this mechanism was selected during evolution to enable unambiguous copying of rather complex information from cell to cell and that it is a key part of the original ancestral mechanism mediating axial patterning by the highly conserved Hox genes.
Evaluating the measuring properties of the principal instructional management rating scale in the Chinese educational system: Implications for measuring school leadership

During the last 25 years researchers have proposed a number of conceptual frameworks to measure the various functions of instructional leadership. One of the most frequently used frameworks is the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS). Despite the great number of studies employing the PIMRS, evidence for its reliability and validity is relatively limited. In addition, we still don’t know much about the extent to which this instrument could be used in diverse demographic and cultural educational settings. This study explores the content, face, and construct validity, reliability and internal consistency of the PIMRS in the Chinese educational system. A total number of 311 teachers from five middle schools in the Haidian District of Beijing participated in the study. The data were analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). On an overall basis the results provided support for the face, content, and construct validity, reliability and internal consistency of the PIMRS. However, six o.
Effects of fixational saccades on response timing in macaque lateral geniculate nucleus

Abstract Even during active fixation, small eye movements persist that might be expected to interfere with vision. Numerous brain mechanisms probably contribute to discounting this jitter. Changes in the timing of responses in the visual thalamus associated with fixational saccades are considered in this study. Activity of single neurons in alert monkey lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was recorded during fixation while pseudorandom visual noise stimuli were presented. The position of the stimulus on the display monitor was adjusted based on eye position measurements to control for changes in retinal locations due to eye movements. A method for extracting nonstationary first-order response mechanisms was applied, so that changes around the times of saccades could be observed. Saccade-related changes were seen in both amplitude and timing of geniculate responses. Amplitudes were greatly reduced around saccades. Timing was retarded slightly during a window of about 200 ms around saccades. That is, responses became more sustained. These effects were found in both parvocellular and magnocellular neurons. Timing changes in LGN might play a role in maintaining cortical responses to visual stimuli in the presence of eye movements, compensating for the spatial shifts caused by saccades via these shifts in timing.
Use of the Motivation and Engagement Scale–University/College as a Means of Identifying Student Typologies

The Motivation and Engagement Scale–University/College (MES-UC) was used to identify student typologies on the basis of adaptive and maladaptive academic cognitions and behaviours. The sample comprised first-year (n = 390), second-year (n = 300), and third-year (n = 251) undergraduate students with 4 student typologies identified: high engagement/skills, low engagement/skills, and 2 moderately engaged groups distinguished by either high or low levels of maladaptive cognitions (e.g., anxiety). Additional analyses which displayed theoretically appropriate differences between these groups suggest that the MES-UC is suitable for identifying student typologies.
Performance Efiects of Scheduling Strategies for Master/Slave Distributed Applications

The achievement of parallel application performance on non-dedicated workstation clusters requires careful attention to the scheduling of tasks and communication on the underlying platform. In the literature, application scheduling policies are usually chosen by matching the resource requirements of an application with the performance characteristics of the target platform. However, when clusters of workstations are shared with other users, platform performance is non-uniform and varies over time. As a result, the performance of distinct scheduling policies may also vary depending on dynamic system state and particular characteristics of the job being run. Our experimental work focuses on a master/slave parallel ray-tracing application executing on a set of workstation clusters at UCSD and the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The experiments show that two different scheduling strategies, one static and one dynamic, exhibit very different performance sensitivities to variabilities in resource capabilities and workload distribution. We demonstrate for our example application that neither scheduling strategy by itself consistently induces the best application performance (minimal execution time) when running on the same resources under normally experienced production operating conditions. These results support the idea that dynamic selection of appropriate scheduling strategies to match run-time conditions provides a promising approach to achieving application performance for master/slave applications on heterogeneous time-shared workstation clusters.