Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carcass and meat quality characterization of indigenous and improved variety of chicken genotypes

Abstract A study was conducted to examine four genotypes of chicken for their carcass and meat quality characteristics. From each genotype, 20 birds were slaughtered at their respective age of maturity. Breast and thigh muscles were evaluated for meat quality characteristics. Transport loss and carcass weight were highest in the white commercial broiler (WBR) and lowest in Aseel (ASL) and Indbro Aseel (ASR). Dressing percentage ranged between 66.41 and 72.56 and was not significantly different among genotypes. The yield of various cut‐up parts for different genotypic birds was significantly different (P < 0.05). Highest percent yield for breast (29.15), thigh (15.57), drumstick (13.82) and wings (18.44) were observed in WBR, rainbow rooster (RR), ASR and rainbow rooster Plus (RRP), respectively. Giblet % was highest in RR and meat:bone ratio of thigh portion was highest in WBR. Higher ultimate pH was recorded for RR, RRP, and WBR, and higher water‐holding capacity was detected in ASL and ASR. Further, bound water was higher in RR, RRP, and WBR, and free water was maximum in ASL and ASR. A significant (P < 0.05) higher shear force was observed in ASL and higher muscle fiber diameter in WBR. Cooking yield did not differ significantly among genotypes. The breast meat from ASL showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher redness value and WBR showed the lower redness. Further, ASL and ASR meats were darker and red in color than broiler meat. Meat from two indigenous birds (ASL and ASR) had significantly (P < 0.05) lower fat content compared to broilers and other crosses. ASL gave a slightly firmer meat as liked by consumers. The sensory evaluation showed breast meat from RR birds and ASL birds had better flavor scores than other birds. These results indicated that meat of indigenous chickens (ASL and ASR) has some unique features over commercial fast‐growing birds that would increase their demand by consumers who prefer chewy, low‐fat chicken meat.
Model of Persistent Salmonella Infection: Salmonella enterica Serovar Pullorum Modulates the Immune Response of the Chicken from a Th17-Type Response towards a Th2-Type Response

Salmonella enterica infection affects a wide range of animals and humans, and a small number of serovars cause typhoid-like infections, one characteristic of which is persistent infection in convalescents. Avian-specific S. enterica serovar Pullorum produces systemic disease in young chickens, which is followed by a carrier state in convalescent birds, leading to infection of the ovary at sexual maturity and vertical transmission. ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica infection affects a wide range of animals and humans, and a small number of serovars cause typhoid-like infections, one characteristic of which is persistent infection in convalescents. Avian-specific S. enterica serovar Pullorum produces systemic disease in young chickens, which is followed by a carrier state in convalescent birds, leading to infection of the ovary at sexual maturity and vertical transmission. However, the immunological basis of persistent infection remains unclear. S. enterica serovar Enteritidis is taxonomically closely related but does not show this characteristic. Differences in the immune responses between S. Pullorum and S. Enteritidis were compared by using Salmonella-infected chicken monocyte-derived macrophages (chMDMs) and CD4+ T lymphocytes that had been cocultured with infected chMDMs or chicken splenocytes in vitro and also in 2-day-old chickens in vivo. In comparison with S. Enteritidis, S. Pullorum-infected chMDMs showed reduced mRNA expression levels of interleukin-12α (IL-12α) and IL-18 and stimulated the proliferation of Th2 lymphocytes, with reduced expression of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and IL-17 and increased expression levels of IL-4 and IL-13. There was little evidence of clonal anergy or immune suppression induced by S. Pullorum in vitro. S. Pullorum also increased the levels of expression of IL-4 and decreased the levels of IFN-γ in the spleen and cecal tonsil of infected birds. This suggests that S. Pullorum is able to modulate host immunity from a dominant IFN-γ-producing Th17 response toward a Th2 response, which may promote persistent infection in chickens. S. Pullorum in chickens is presented as a good model of the typhoid group to study persistent infection.
Simulation of Groundwater Flow and Migration of the Radioactive Cobalt-60 from LAMA Nuclear Facility-Iraq

This study provides a simulation of groundwater flow and advective-dispersive migration of radioactive Co-60 through an aquifer with three layers, which release or leak to groundwater from the Active Metallurgy Testing Laboratory (LAMA) Nuclear Facility-Iraq due to the nuclear accident scenario. Processing Modflow for windows (PMWIN) and Modular Three-Dimensional Multispecies Transport (MT3DMS) Models were used for this purpose. The study area and the contaminated area were 12.7 km2 and 0.005625 km2, respectively. Water levels of the groundwater have been measured in six monitoring wells. The simulation time was assumed to have started in 2016. The PMWIN model simulated the flow for two scenarios of water level in Tigris River (average and minimum water levels). The MT3DMS model simulated 10 years of plume travel, beginning in 2016. The simulated Co-60 concentrations after five years of travel were 32.34 and 34.44 μg/m3 for the two scenarios. The maximum predicted Co-60 concentrations at the end of Year 10 were 34.86 and 37.31 μg/m3, respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the simulated hydraulic heads in the observation wells and the simulated plume of Co-60 were highly sensitive to changes in the effective porosity but less sensitive to changes in other parameters of the dispersion and chemical reaction processes. The time necessary to reach steady state condition was predicted to be approximately 16 years. The contaminated area was isolated by using remedial process which is represented by three fully penetrating pumping wells with a suitable flow rate (0.045 m3/s) for controlling the movement of Co-60 pollutant.
Assistants in nursing working with mental health consumers in the emergency department.

Nursing students, regardless of setting, require skills in working with people with mental health issues. One way to provide students with learning opportunities within the context of limited undergraduate mental health content and lack of mental health placements is through employment as assistants in nursing (AIN). The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of AINs employed in an emergency department in South Australia to supervise (continuous observation) mental health consumers on inpatient treatment orders. Twenty-four participants took part in the study, with AINs (n = 8, all studying in an undergraduate nursing programme), nurse managers (n = 5), and nurses (n = 11) participating in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Themes focused on (i) the AIN role, their practice, boundaries or restrictions of their role, and the image consumers have of AINs; (ii) learning through experience, where the AIN role was a practical opportunity to learn and apply knowledge obtained through university studies; and (iii) support, which focused on how AINs worked with nursing staff as part of the healthcare team. Overall, participants believed that AINs played an important role in the ED in supervising consumers on involuntary mental health treatment orders, where their unique role was seen to facilitate more positive consumer experiences. The AIN role is one way for nursing students to develop skills in working with people with mental health issues.
Missed opportunities for prevention of vertical HIV transmission in Canada, 1997-2016: a surveillance study.

BACKGROUND Vertical HIV transmission has declined in Canada, but missed opportunities for prevention continue to occur. We sought to determine the adequacy, and changes over time in adequacy, of uptake of maternal and neonatal antiretroviral therapy for the prevention of vertical HIV transmission, and to determine the vertical transmission rate over time and according to adequacy of antenatal antiretroviral therapy during the combination antiretroviral therapy era in Canada. METHODS The Canadian Perinatal HIV Surveillance Program collects data annually through retrospective chart review concerning HIV-infected women and their infants. We determined receipt of adequate antiretroviral treatment (antenatal combination antiretroviral treatment for ≥ 4 wk, intrapartum intravenous zidovudine treatment and 4-6 wk of infant oral zidovudine treatment) and predictors of inadequate antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy (none or < 4 wk) in Canada in 1997-2016. RESULTS We identified 3785 mother-infant pairs. Uptake of 4 weeks or more of antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy increased over time across all provinces/territories and regardless of maternal race/ethnicity or risk category (p < 0.001). During 2011-2016, 92 women (6.5%) received no or less than 4 weeks of antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy, 146 women (10.7%) received no intrapartum zidovudine treatment, and 43 infants (3.1%) received less than 4 weeks of zidovudine treatment. In multivariate analysis restricted to 2011-2016, higher uptake of adequate antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy was seen among black women than among Indigenous (odds ratio [OR] 2.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23-7.26) or white (OR 1.87, 95% CI 0.99-1.27) women and in British Columbia/Yukon Territory than in Alberta (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.06-10.32), Ontario (OR 3.16, 95% CI 1.08-9.26) or Quebec (OR 3.44, 95% CI 1.09-10.84). Among the 14 vertical HIV transmission events during 2011-2016 (vertical transmission rate 1.0%), maternal HIV infection was diagnosed before the onset of labour in 5 cases, and only 2 women received adequate antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy. INTERPRETATION Efforts to improve timely access to care, HIV screening and treatment for all women, combined with enhanced resources targeting populations at increased risk for HIV infection, will be needed if vertical HIV transmission is to be eliminated in Canada.
Vitamin D in inflammatory bowel disease: more than just a supplement

Purpose of review The aim of this review is to explore the protective role of vitamin D on the gastrointestinal tract, summarize the epidemiology of vitamin D deficiency in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and highlight recent studies examining the impact of low vitamin D and vitamin D supplementation on IBD clinical outcomes. Recent findings Vitamin D protects the gut barrier by regulating tight junction proteins and inhibiting intestinal apoptosis. Vitamin D enhances innate immunity by inducing antimicrobial peptides and regulates adaptive immunity by promoting anti-inflammatory T cells and cytokines. Vitamin D may also alter the gut microbiota. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in IBD is 30–40%. Predictors of vitamin D deficiency in IBD include non-white ethnicity, IBD-related surgery, BMI more than 30, female sex, and pregnancy. Low vitamin D is associated with increased disease activity, inflammation, and clinical relapse. The effect of vitamin D supplementation on IBD clinical outcomes is inconclusive. Summary Vitamin D plays a protective role on gut health. Vitamin D deficiency in IBD is prevalent and associated with poor outcomes. The benefits of vitamin D supplementation in IBD is unclear. Measuring novel vitamin D metabolites and vitamin D absorption in IBD patients may help guide future studies.
Joint Atlas-Mapping of Multiple Histological Series combined with Multimodal MRI of Whole Marmoset Brains

Development of a mesoscale neural circuitry map of the common marmoset is an essential task due to the ideal characteristics of the marmoset as a model organism for neuroscience research. To facilitate this development there is a need for new computational tools to cross-register multi-modal data sets containing MRI volumes as well as multiple histological series, and to register the combined data set to a common reference atlas. We present a fully automatic pipeline for same-subject-MRI guided reconstruction of image volumes from a series of histological sections of different modalities, followed by diffeomorphic mapping to a reference atlas. We show registration results for Nissl, myelin, CTB, and fluorescent tracer images using a same-subject ex-vivo MRI as our reference and show that our method achieves accurate registration and eliminates artifactual warping that may be result from the absence of a reference MRI data set. Examination of the determinant of the local metric tensor of the diffeomorphic mapping between each subject's ex-vivo MRI and resultant Nissl reconstruction allows an unprecedented local quantification of geometrical distortions resulting from the histological processing, showing a slight shrinkage, a median linear scale change of ~-1% in going from the ex-vivo MRI to the tape-transfer generated histological image data.
Denoising with kernel prediction and asymmetric loss functions

We present a modular convolutional architecture for denoising rendered images. We expand on the capabilities of kernel-predicting networks by combining them with a number of task-specific modules, and optimizing the assembly using an asymmetric loss. The source-aware encoder---the first module in the assembly---extracts low-level features and embeds them into a common feature space, enabling quick adaptation of a trained network to novel data. The spatial and temporal modules extract abstract, high-level features for kernel-based reconstruction, which is performed at three different spatial scales to reduce low-frequency artifacts. The complete network is trained using a class of asymmetric loss functions that are designed to preserve details and provide the user with a direct control over the variance-bias trade-off during inference. We also propose an error-predicting module for inferring reconstruction error maps that can be used to drive adaptive sampling. Finally, we present a theoretical analysis of convergence rates of kernel-predicting architectures, shedding light on why kernel prediction performs better than synthesizing the colors directly, complementing the empirical evidence presented in this and previous works. We demonstrate that our networks attain results that compare favorably to state-of-the-art methods in terms of detail preservation, low-frequency noise removal, and temporal stability on a variety of production and academic datasets.
Short-Term Effect of Low-Dose, Electromyography-Guided Botulinum Toxin A Injection in the Treatment of Chronic Lateral Epicondylar Tendinopathy: A Randomized, Double-Blinded Study

Background: Botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) is a novel treatment for chronic lateral epicondylar tendinopathy. Preliminary studies have demonstrated promising results; however, confirmation of the effectiveness of BoNT-A treatment and further assessment of its side effects are required. This study investigated the analgesic effects of BoNT-A in the treatment of chronic lateral epicondylar tendinopathy. Methods: This was a phase-III, single-center, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study including 60 patients with chronic lateral epicondylar tendinopathy that had been resistant to treatment for >6 months. Patients received either a 40-IU injection of BoNT-A or saline solution placebo into the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) muscle, aided by electromyographic (EMG) stimulation. Follow-up was 3 months. The primary assessment criterion was the percentage of patients whose pain was reduced by >50% at 90 days after injection. Secondary outcomes, including pain intensity, pain frequency, interference with quality of life, sick leave taken, maximum grip strength, and side effects, were assessed at days 30 and 90, and the number of participants per group requesting additional therapies at day 90 was recorded. Results: Twenty-nine patients in the BoNT-A group and 28 patients in the placebo group were included in the day-90 analysis. Fifteen (51.7%) of the patients who were administered BoNT-A and 7 (25%) of the patients who received placebo reported a >50% reduction in initial pain intensity at day 90 (p = 0.005). Pain intensity and the effect on quality of life, measured using visual analog scales, were both significantly lower in the group treated with BoNT-A compared with placebo at day 90 (p < 0.05). The rate of clinically detected transitory paresis of the third finger on extension was 17.2% in the BoNT-A group, with no associated functional impairment. Conclusions: BoNT-A at 40 IU injected into the ECRB is an effective treatment for chronic lateral epicondylar tendinopathy that has been otherwise resistant to medical treatment. The rate of paresis of the third finger was low, with no associated functional impairment. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Molecular detection of mutations involved in Helicobacter pylori antibiotic resistance in Algeria

Objectives In Algeria, there are limited data regarding the pattern of Helicobacter pylori primary antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the primary resistance of H. pylori to clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and rifampicin and to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the resistance. Methods Two hundred and seventy Algerian adults who had never received H. pylori treatment were enrolled in this study. Human biopsies were obtained for culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Etest for clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and rifampicin. Real-time fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-PCR was also performed in all cases to assess primary clarithromycin resistance and point mutations involved, real-time PCR was used to detect mutations involved in tetracycline primary resistance and sequencing of the QRDR of gyrA was performed to detect mutations involved in quinolone resistance. Results No resistance to rifampicin was detected. Resistance to clarithromycin and ciprofloxacin was found in 29.7% and 17.9%, respectively. Results of real-time FRET-PCR showed that A2143G was the most frequent point mutation, A2142C was not found and 42 patients (15.5%) were infected by both resistant and susceptible genotypes. Only two isolates were resistant to tetracycline and exhibited an A926G mutation. Four mutations were found to be responsible for resistance to ciprofloxacin [N87K (44.73%), D91N (23.68%), N87I (18.42%) and D91G (7.89%)]. Conclusions Local data regarding the primary resistance of H. pylori to clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and rifampicin and the main genetic mutations involved in the resistance are necessary for a periodic evaluation of antibiotic consumption and new therapeutic strategies in Algeria.
Generative Adversarial Forests for Better Conditioned Adversarial Learning

In recent times, many of the breakthroughs in various vision-related tasks have revolved around improving learning of deep models; these methods have ranged from network architectural improvements such as Residual Networks, to various forms of regularisation such as Batch Normalisation. In essence, many of these techniques revolve around better conditioning, allowing for deeper and deeper models to be successfully learned. In this paper, we look towards better conditioning Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in an unsupervised learning setting. Our method embeds the powerful discriminating capabilities of a decision forest into the discriminator of a GAN. This results in a better conditioned model which learns in an extremely stable way. We demonstrate empirical results which show both clear qualitative and quantitative evidence of the effectiveness of our approach, gaining significant performance improvements over several popular GAN-based approaches on the Oxford Flowers and Aligned Celebrity Faces datasets.
Relationships among factors affecting advanced practice registered nurses' job satisfaction and intent to leave: A systematic review

Background and purpose: This systematic review explores relationships between advanced practice registered nurses' (APRN) job satisfaction and intent to leave. There exists a dearth of APRN providers compared with the ever-growing need for their services. Furthermore, the organizational costs associated with the APRN turnover are extremely high. It, therefore, behooves practice administrators to understand what factors most contribute to APRN job satisfaction and retention. Methods: A search of research databases CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO, using keywords “Advanced Practice Registered Nurse,” “job satisfaction,” “intent to leave,” “anticipated turnover,” and “Nurse Practitioner” to yield articles included in this review. Conclusions: The strength of existing evidence for this topic is weak. Studies have found that extrinsic factors, such as administrative support and salary, significantly contribute to job dissatisfaction, whereas intrinsic factors, such as autonomy and finding work meaningful, most significantly contribute to job satisfaction. Additional research is needed to better understand the factors relating to APRN job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and how those factors influence practitioners' intent to leave. Implications for practice: Efforts to improve APRN job satisfaction will have positive implications for provider retention, practices, and patients. Administrators should consider the job satisfaction factors identified herein when implementing practice improvement and retention efforts.
Perfect sampling for quantum Gibbs states

We show how to obtain perfect samples from a quantum Gibbs state on a quantum computer. To do so, we adapt one of the `Coupling from the Past'-algorithms proposed by Propp and Wilson. The algorithm has a probabilistic run-time and produces perfect samples without any previous knowledge of the mixing time of a quantum Markov chain. To implement it, we assume we are able to perform the phase estimation algorithm for the underlying Hamiltonian and implement a quantum Markov chain such that the transition probabilities between eigenstates only depend on their energy. We provide some examples of quantum Markov chains that satisfy these conditions and analyze the expected run-time of the algorithm, which depends strongly on the degeneracy of the underlying Hamiltonian. For Hamiltonians with highly degenerate spectrum, it is efficient, as it is polylogarithmic in the dimension and linear in the mixing time. For non-degenerate spectra, its runtime is essentially the same as its classical counterpart, which is linear in the mixing time and quadratic in the dimension, up to a logarithmic factor in the dimension. We analyze the circuit depth necessary to implement it, which is proportional to the sum of the depth necessary to implement one step of the quantum Markov chain and one phase estimation. This algorithm is stable under noise in the implementation of different steps. We also briefly discuss how to adapt different `Coupling from the Past'-algorithms to the quantum setting.