Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of calcium levels and limestone particle size on the egg quality of semi-heavy layers in their second production cycle

A 112-day trial was carried out to evaluate the effect of dietary calcium level and limestone particle size on the egg quality of 288 HyLine Brown semi-heavy layers, with 83 weeks of age at the beginning of the experiment. A completely randomized experimental design was applied in a 2x3 factorial arrangement, with two dietary calcium levels (3.5 and 4.0%) e three limestone particle size compositions (100% fine limestone (FL), with 0.185mm; 30% coarse limestone (CL), with 2.83mm, + 70% FL, with 0.185mm; and 50% CL, with 2.83mm, + 50% FL, with 0.185mm), with six replicates of eight birds each. Mean geometric diameter and in-vitro solubility of the limestone sources were, respectively, 0.185mm and 18.7% for the fine limestone, and 2.83mm and 10.5% for the coarse limestone. At the end of each 28-day period, 72 eggs per treatment were used to determine egg specific gravity, yolk percentage, albumen percentage, eggshell percentage, yolk index, Haugh units, eggshell thickness, and eggshell breaking strength. There was no influence of the treatments on the evaluated parameters. It was concluded that feeding the level of 3.5% calcium usually recommended for layers in their first laying cycle, and the substitution of up to 50% fine limestone by coarse limestone in the feed of semiheavy commercial Hy-Line Brown layers in their second laying cycle can be applied with no impairment of egg quality.
Oxytocin regulates social approach

ABSTRACT The physical space individuals share is known as interpersonal space. As social creatures, people tend to approach others actively and explore the environment around them, opting for different space preferences with different people. In the current study, we sought to examine the role of oxytocin (OT) in regulating active social interpersonal space preferences. Contrary to previous studies that reported a preference for increased space following intranasal OT, we predicted that following OT administration individuals would exhibit increased active approach towards a protagonist. Accordingly, we measured active approach towards friends and strangers. The results indicated that OT increased social approach, particularly to strangers, suggesting that the OT system plays a major role in regulating social approach, depending on type of protagonist. The results are in line with the social salience and anxiety reduction hypotheses showing that OT increases approach to strangers.
Time-Domain $N$-Continuous OFDM: System Architecture and Performance Analysis

<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula>-continuous orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (NC-OFDM) is a promising technique to achieve significant sidelobe suppression for baseband OFDM signals. However, NC-OFDM usually has high implementation complexity that limits its practical applications. Based on conventional NC-OFDM, this paper proposes a new technique, termed time-domain <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula>-continuous OFDM (TD-NC-OFDM), which shifts the processing burden from the frequency domain to the time domain. This is achieved by adding a smooth signal, which is linearly combined by rectangularly pulsed OFDM basis signals consisting of a novel basis set. We prove that TD-NC-OFDM with the basis set is essentially equivalent to conventional NC-OFDM. Furthermore, using the time-domain structure, an asymptotic spectrum analysis of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math></inline-formula>-continuous OFDM signals is obtained by developing a closed-form expression related to sidelobe decaying. This paper also examines the impact of TD-NC-OFDM on the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and derives closed-form expressions.
Acute Exercise Increases Sex Differences in Amateur Athletes’ Risk Taking

Abstract The research presented here investigates the interaction between acute exercise, biological sex and risk-taking behavior. The study involved 20 amateur athletes (19–33 years old), 10 males and 10 females, who were asked to undergo subsequent experimental sessions designed to compare their risky behaviors on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) 34 at rest and while exercising at moderate intensity (60% of their maximal aerobic power). Results showed that physical exercise affected male and female participants differently: Whereas males became more risk seeking, females became more risk averse during exercise.
Lack of association between beta 2‐adrenergic receptor polymorphisms and juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Objective: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic autoimmune arthropathy. Beta 2‐adrenergic receptors are a link between the sympathetic nervous system and the immune system. Associations between variants in the gene encoding the beta 2‐adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been demonstrated. We aimed to investigate ADRB2 variants for association with JIA. Methods: Genotypes and haplotypes of two ADRB2 variants (G16R and Q27E) were determined in 348 children with JIA and 448 healthy controls by direct molecular haplotyping using melting‐curve analysis of a fluorescently labelled loci‐spanning probe. Case–control analysis was performed to investigate whether ADRB2 variants were associated with JIA. Results: No association was found between JIA and alleles, genotypes, or haplotypes of ADRB2. Specifically, the haplotype that demonstrated a strong association with RA (R16/Q27) was not associated with JIA. None of the variants demonstrated association after stratification by JIA subtypes or gender. Conclusions: Our results indicate that ADRB2 variants are not associated with JIA or any of the major JIA subtypes. These observations suggest that, although they share several clinical and pathological features, JIA and RA have unique genetic associations.
The Images and Data Bases Group at University of São Paulo

reated in the middle of the 1990s, the Images and Data Bases Group (Grupo de Bases de Dados e de Imagens) at the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Sao Paulo at Sao Carlos -- GBdI-ICMC-USP -- has since the start worked in the development of core databases and data analysis techniques to handle large databases for scientific applications involving complex data. Its research activities include applying Fractal Theory concepts to improve analysis and search operations over very large datasets, development of search algorithms, indexing structures and optimization techniques for similarity-based queries, development of data mining and data warehousing techniques aimed at dealing with datasets with large cardinality and dimensionality, information visualization for data stored in relational databases and techniques to allow data integration from diverse sources including those maintained in complex structures. Derived from those basic research activities, the research group has generated several tools released for the community in general, including tools for computer-assisted medical diagnosis and for climate change analysis, libraries to help the development of efficient and efficacious biological applications, and software libraries to help including similarity queries into existing DBMS.
A comparison of marital interaction patterns between couples in which the husband does or does not have Alzheimer's disease.

UNLABELLED Objectives. Our main purpose was to examine similarities and differences in patterns of interpersonal interaction between Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregiving and noncaregiving couples (n = 54). Methods. Twenty-seven wives caring for moderately impaired husbands with probable AD and 27 noncaregiving wives from comparable sociodemographic backgrounds were videotaped in their homes during both mealtime and a future event planning task. In addition, they completed self-report questionnaires to assess depression, stress, relationship mutuality, and perceived hope. Results. Compared with their counterparts, caregiving wives reported higher levels of depression and stress, but similar shared values and closeness. For the three factors developed from the Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS, version IV; Supportive Facilitative, and Rapport Building), a complex pattern of results was found in which disease status, type of task, and gender interacted significantly. Noncaregiving couples were more interactive overall and expressed more support to each other. Caregiving wives were found to be most facilitative during the planning task, whereas AD husbands were highest on interactions that built rapport (e.g., smiling) during that same task. Caregiving wives actually increased their facilitative behavior from the mealtime to planning task, probably reflecting the increased demand characteristics of the latter. DISCUSSION This study is one of a small body of literature to describe the negative impact of AD on spousal communication as observed and coded in two videotaped interaction situations in the home. Suggestions are made for future research, including the inclusion of longitudinal designs and non-Caucasian couples.
Sphingomyelin Inhibits the Lecithin-Cholesterol Acyltransferase Reaction with Reconstituted High Density Lipoproteins by Decreasing Enzyme Binding*

Lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) catalyzes the formation of cholesterol esters on high density lipoproteins (HDL) and plays a critical role in reverse cholesterol transport. Sphingomyelin, an important constituent of HDL, may regulate the activity of LCAT at any of the key steps of the enzymatic reaction: binding of LCAT to the interface, activation by apo A-I, or inhibition at the catalytic site. In order to clarify the role of sphingomyelin in the regulation of the LCAT reaction and its effects on the structure of apolipoprotein A-I, we prepared reconstituted HDL (rHDL) containing egg phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I, and up to 22 mol % sphingomyelin. Because the interfacial properties of substrate particles can dramatically affect LCAT binding and kinetics, we also prepared and analyzed proteoliposome substrates having the same components as the rHDL, except for a 4-fold higher ratio of phospholipid to apolipoprotein A-I. The reaction kinetics of LCAT with the rHDL particles revealed no significant change in the apparent Vmax but showed a concentration-dependent increase in slope of the reciprocal plots and in the apparent Km values with sphingomyelin content. The dissociation constant (Kd) for LCAT with these particles increased linearly with sphingomyelin content up to 22 mol %, changing in parallel with the apparent Km values. No structural changes of apolipoprotein A-I were detected in the particles with increasing content of sphingomyelin, but fluorescence results with lipophilic probes revealed that significant changes in the acyl chain, backbone, and head group regions of the lipid bilayer of the particles are introduced by the addition of sphingomyelin. On the other hand, the proteoliposome substrates also had increased Kd values for LCAT at high sphingomyelin contents but compared with the rHDL particles had a 6-10-fold lower affinity for LCAT binding and exhibited kinetics consistent with competitive inhibition by sphingomyelin at the active site. These results show conclusively that the dominant mechanism for the inhibition of LCAT activity with rHDL particles by sphingomyelin is the impaired binding of the enzyme to the interface. The results also underscore the significant differences in the enzyme reaction kinetics with different substrate particles.
Platelet participation in the pathogenesis of dermonecrosis induced by Loxosceles gaucho venom

Loxosceles gaucho spider venom induces in vitro platelet activation and marked thrombocytopenia in rabbits. Herein, we investigated the involvement of platelets in the development of the dermonecrosis induced by L. gaucho venom, using thrombocytopenic rabbits as a model. L. gaucho venom evoked a drop in platelet and neutrophil counts 4 h after venom injection. Ecchymotic areas at the site of venom inoculation were noticed as soon as 4 h in thrombocytopenic animals but not in animals with initial normal platelet counts. After 5 days, areas of scars in thrombocytopenic animals were also larger, evidencing the marked development of lesions in the condition of thrombocytopenia. Histologically, local hemorrhage, collagen fiber disorganization, and edema were more severe in thrombocytopenic animals. Leukocyte infiltration, predominantly due to polymorphonuclears, was observed in the presence or not of thrombocytopenia. Thrombus formation was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry at the microvasculature, and it occurred even under marked thrombocytopenia. Taken together, platelets have an important role in minimizing not only the hemorrhagic phenomena but also the inflammatory and wound-healing processes, suggesting that cutaneous loxoscelism may be aggravated under thrombocytopenic conditions.
Auto‐Amputation of the Breast; a Rare Case Caused by Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

L aboratory and radiological examinations performed following admission of 73 year-old woman with dyspnea for emergency room; due to detection of pleural effusion at left thorax, she was hospitalized by department of Thorax surgery for further investigation and treatment. During detailed examination of the patient, due to presence of a wide scar tissue that retracts surrounding tissues at right breast and there was no history of any previous surgery for this region (mastectomy etc.) and exposure to burns or chemicals, and general surgery consultation was requested. On her physical examination, it was observed that right breast was absent and a hard mass resembling a scar tissue with diameter of about 15 cm in that region (Fig. 1). On axillary examination, palpable lymph nodes whose diameter was reaching up to 3 cm were palpated. No noticeable feature was present in patient’s family history and background. It was learned that it took 3 years of this mass to appear as scar-like and during that period the patient who was aware of this situation avoided from examination. The result of incisional biopsy taken from the tissue in structure of hypertrophic scar was observed as invasive ductal carcinoma. In videoendoscopic examination of thorax performed aimed at left thorax; in the pleural biopsy taken due to observation of pleural involvement with malignant appearance, invasion of invasive ductal carcinoma was observed. During the same session, pleurodesis was performed to the patient. Patient was evaluated with computerized tomography of thorax (Fig. 2) and magnetic resonance imaging of the breast (Fig. 3). The patient at which “amputated breast cancer showing contralateral involvement that was invaded the thoracic wall and the pleura” was evaluated by Committee of oncological cases of our hospital and accepted as unresectable, she was referred to the oncological treatment. Now, the oncological follow-up and treatment of the patient is ongoing. Although several cases in the literature with spontaneous amputation of any organ are detected, cases of auto-amputation belonging to the breast are uncommon. First, two cases in Israel, in Africa, and India and finally from Turkey have been reported. Such a rare situation which is neglected by the patient until it reaches the stage of amputation can be correlated with lack of awareness of regular control and examination in developing countries.
Linezolid-associated serotonin syndrome: what we can learn from cases reported so far.

OBJECTIVES To study the characteristics of the linezolid-associated serotonin syndrome cases. METHODS Database search for linezolid-associated serotonin syndrome. RESULTS Twelve cases were found. The mean age of patients was 52.8 years. All patients received linezolid concomitantly with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor drugs (SSRID). The onset of syndrome was 9.5 days after linezolid introduction and was directly correlated to patients' age (P = 0.024). The symptoms resolved in 2.9 days. Citalopram was associated with a delayed resolution (P = 0.018). A trend was observed towards longer resolution time the longer the half-life of the interacting drug (P = 0.096). CONCLUSIONS Patients are at risk when receiving SSRID concomitant with linezolid. The syndrome onset could be delayed in older patients. The resolution could be delayed when citalopram is involved in the syndrome.
Modeling Feral Cat Population Dynamics in Knox County, TN

Feral cats (Felis catus) are recognized as a problem internationally due to their negative impact on wildlife and potential to spread infectious disease to people and other animals. Trap-neuterreturn (TNR) programs are employed in many areas to control feral cat populations as a humane method, and this approach is used on a limited basis in Knox County, Tennessee. Despite the frequent use of TNR as a strategy, its effectiveness remains controversial. The objective of this mathematical model is to predict the impact of selected strategies on the population of feral cats. The model with three age classes predicts the population over a period of 5 years in one month time steps. TNR rates are varied to investigate the effects of targeting spay/neuter programs seasonally, and such targeting predicts a measurable decline in feral cat population growth over a five year period. Targeting TNR intervention at adult females during the time prior to mating season in highly populated feral colonies may further decrease the population. These results suggest a more efficacious strategy than non-targeted TNR programs.
The Validity of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales

This introductory article addresses the question,‘Are the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) scales valid? ’ The initial evidence for the validity of the family of MHLC scales is reviewed, followed by a discussion of the empirical evidence for the hypothesis linking MHLC scale scores to measures of health behavior. There is ample evidence in the literature that the MHLC scales validly assess health locus of control beliefs. Nevertheless, caution should be used when making generalizations regarding the validity of the MHLC scales to new theoretical or situational contexts. The theoretical relationships between these beliefs and other constructs are complex, making it necessary to thoughtfully consider the valid application of the MHLC scales in each new study.
Bitmap techniques for optimizing decision support queries and association rule algorithms

In this paper, we discuss some new bitmap techniques for optimizing decision support queries and association rule algorithm. We first show how to use a new type of predefined bitmap join index (prejoin/spl I.bar/bitmap/spl I.bar/index) to efficiently execute complex decision support queries with multiple outer join operations involved and push the outer join operations from the data flow level to the bitmap level and achieve significant performance gain. Then we discuss a bitmap based association rule algorithm. Our bitmap based association rule algorithm Bit-AssocRule doesn't follow the generation-and-test strategy of a priori algorithm and adopts the divide-and-conquer strategy, thus avoids the time-consuming table scan to find and prune the item sets, all the operations of finding large item sets from the datasets are the fast bit operations. The experimental results show Bit-AssocRule is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude faster than a priori and a priori hybrid algorithms. Our results indicate that bitmap techniques can greatly improve the performance of decision support queries and association rule algorithm, and bitmap techniques are very promising for the decision support query optimization and data mining applications.
Chronic social stress reduces dendritic arbors in CA3 of hippocampus and decreases binding to serotonin transporter sites

Male rats housed in mixed‐sex groups in a visible burrow system (VBS) form a dominance hierarchy in which subordinate animals show stress‐related changes in behavior, endocrine function and neurochemistry. Dominants also appear to be moderately stressed compared to controls, although these animals do not develop the more pronounced behavioral and physiological deficits seen in the subordinates. In the present study, we examined the effects of chronic psychosocial stress on the morphology of Golgi‐impregnated CA3 pyramidal neurons. In addition, since serotonin has been implicated in the mechanisms mediating the dendritic remodeling seen with other chronic stress regimens, we used quantitative autoradiography to measure binding to the serotonin transporter (5HTT) in hippocampus and dorsal and median raphe. Chronic social stress led to a decrease in the number of branch points and total dendritic length in the apical dendritic trees of CA3 pyramidal neurons in dominant animals compared to unstressed controls; subordinates also had a decreased number of dendritic branch points. [3H]paroxetine binding to the 5HTT was decreased in Ammon's horn in both dominants and subordinates compared to controls, while 5HTT binding remained unchanged in dentate gyrus and raphe. The similarity of the changes in 5HTT binding and dendritic arborization between both groups of VBS animals, despite apparent differences in stressor severity, suggests that these changes may be part of the normal adaptive response to chronic social stress. The mechanisms underlying dendritic remodeling in CA3 pyramidal neurons are likely to involve stress‐induced changes in glucocorticoids and in 5HT and other transmitters. Synapse 36:85–94, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modulation of 06-Alkylguanine-DNA Alkyltransferase-mediated Carmustine Resistance Using Streptozotocin: A Phase I Trial1

l,3-Bis(2-chloroethyl)-l-nitrosourea (BCNU) resistance may be me diated by repair of chloroethylated guanine before stable cross-linking occurs. Guanine adducts may be repaired by the enzyme C^-alkylguanineDNA alkyltransferase (O6-AGAT). Such repair irreversibly inactivates O'-AGAT. Streptozotocin (STZ) forms adducts at the O6 position of guanine; repair of these adducts consumes O6-AGAT. In vivo STZ potentiates BCNU cytotoxicity. The purpose of this trial was to determine the maximum tolerated dose of BCNU that can be administered together with STZ. The STZ dose was 500 mg/m2/day for 4 days and was not escalated. BCNU was given 4 h after the third dose of STZ at a starting dose of 75 mg/m2. A total of 43 patients were entered in the study. There were 4 dose escalations, reaching a maximum tolerated BCNU dose of 175 mg/m2.At this dose, thrombocytopenia was the dose-limiting toxicity (one patient, 25-49 x III'' liter; 2 patients, <25 x Id" liter): neutropenia was less severe (2 patients, 2.0-3.9 x lO'/liter; 1 patient, 1.0-1.9 x IO'/ liter). Two other commonly seen toxicities were elevations in the serum alkaline phosphatase and mild elevations in the serum creatinine. Periph eral blood lymphocyte O6-AGAT levels decreased from a mean of 212 fmol/mg protein pretherapy to 8.2 fmol/mg protein on day 3 prior to BCNU (P = 0.03). Three partial responses were seen. There were no therapy-related fatalities, and toxicity was easily managed. This study established that 150 mg of BCNU can be administered safely together with STZ, 500 mg/mVday for 4 days. Additional studies are required to determine whether O6-AGAT-mediated BCNU resistance is suppressed.