Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bile Salts and Acid Tolerance and Cholesterol Removal from Media by some Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria

In this study three strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus (DSM 9126, DSM 20079 and DSM 20242), two strains of Bifidobacteria (infantis DSM 20088 and angulatum DSM 20098) and Streptococcus thermophilus DSM 20617 were tested for acid tolerance, bile salt tolerance, capability to remove cholesterol and to deconjugate sodium taurocholate from the culture medium. Results showed that a considerable variation existed among cultures in their growth viability in the presence of bile salt, deconjugation of sodium taurocholate and assimilation of cholesterol from the medium. Moreover, the two cultures of bifidobacteria (infantis DSM 20088 and angulatum DSM 20098) were shown to be the most bile salts tolerant culture. All bacterial strains tested in this study exhibited sensitivity to acidity at pH 2. However, increasing the pH of the medium to 3 had improved the acid tolerance of all strains except Streptococcus thermophilus. Addition of 1% skim milk powder into medium at pH 2 increased the viability of all strains especially bifidobacteria strains. All tested strains removed less cholesterol from the broth (ranged from 3.08- 29.68%) compared to those grown in broth supplemented with 0.2% bile salts (from 36.07-55.43%). Furthermore, considerable amount of cholesterol was precipitated with cells obtained from broth enriched with 0.2% bile salts. Lactobacillus acidophilus DSM 20079 appeared to be more active in deconjugation of sodium taurocholate (2.38 µmol/ ml) compared to the other strains, as well as being able to remove up to 66.61 mg of cholesterol (95.6%) from the culture medium and therefore, is regarded as a suitable candidate probiotic and adjunct culture.
Prevalence of Modern Contraceptive Utilization and Associated Factors Among Women of Reproductive Age Group at Boditi Town, Wolayita Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the most populous countries in Africa with high fertility and fast growth rate. Still, Modern contraceptive use persists to be low in most African countries where fertility, population growth, and unmet need for family planning are high. In Ethiopia, though there is an evidence of increased overall contraceptive prevalence, a substantial effort remains behind. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of modern contraceptives method utilization and its associated factors among women of reproductive age groups at Boditi town, Wolayita zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia. A Community based cross sectional study designs were employed on 388 sampled women of reproductive age groups in Boditi town in 2017. From the 9 kebeles, four kebeles were randomly selected using simple random sampling method. Data were collected by face to face interview by using semi-structured. Data-entry, cleaning and statistical analysis was done using Version 21 SPSS software. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors which affect the dependent variable. In this study a total of 388 reproductive age women were participated with response rate of 92%. The mean age of the study participants were 27 years (±SD 7.46). The majority of respondents (63.7%) were married. Almost all, 99% of the respondents have ever heard about modern contraceptives at least one method. Among these, the most commonly used modern contraceptive method was injectable (84.3%), and followed by pills (80.2%). The majority of the respondents (62.4%) have ever used a method. Currently use of modern contraceptive was 48.2%; among these the injectable was the most commonly used method. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that women who are attended primary school (AOR=8.95, 95%CI (3.64-22.03)) and attended tertiary school (AOR=5.11, 95%CI (1.04-25.02)), Women with three up to five children (AOR=8.95, 95%CI (3.64-22.03)), Women with six up to seven children were 8 times (AOR=7.51, 95%CI (2.58-21.87)) and Women who have eight and above children (AOR=5.11, 95%CI (1.04-25.02)) were the factors associated with modern contraceptives utilization. The study showed that forty eight percent of reproductive age women were currently used modern contraceptive. Education and number of children were statistically significant with modern contraceptives utilization. Promoting women education and limiting number of children are very important in the community at large.
The Influence of the AMOC Variability on the Atmosphere in CCSM3

AbstractThe influence of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variability on the atmospheric circulation is investigated in a control simulation of the NCAR Community Climate System Model, version 3 (CCSM3), where the AMOC evolves from an oscillatory regime into a red noise regime. In the latter, an AMOC intensification is followed during winter by a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The atmospheric response is robust and controlled by AMOC-driven SST anomalies, which shift the heat release to the atmosphere northward near the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Current. This alters the low-level atmospheric baroclinicity and shifts the maximum eddy growth northward, affecting the storm track and favoring a positive NAO. The AMOC influence is detected in the relation between seasonal upper-ocean heat content or SST anomalies and winter sea level pressure. In the oscillatory regime, no direct AMOC influence is detected in winter. However, an upper-ocean heat content anomaly resembling the.
Organic matter from comet 81P/Wild 2, IDPs, and carbonaceous meteorites; similarities and differences

Abstract— During preliminary examination of 81P/Wild 2 particles collected by the NASA Stardust spacecraft, we analyzed seven, sulfur embedded and ultramicrotomed particles extracted from five different tracks. Sections were analyzed using a scanning transmission X‐ray microscope (SXTM) and carbon X‐ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra were collected. We compared the carbon XANES spectra of these Wild 2 samples with a database of spectra on thirty‐four interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and with several meteorites. Two of the particles analyzed are iron sulfides and there is evidence that an aliphatic compound associated with these particles can survive high temperatures. An iron sulfide from an IDP demonstrates the same phenomenon. Another, mostly carbon free containing particle radiation damaged, something we have not observed in any IDPs we have analyzed or any indigenous organic matter from the carbonaceous meteorites, Tagish Lake, Orgueil, Bells and Murchison. The carbonaceous material associated with this particle showed no mass loss during the initial analysis but chemically changed over a period of two months. The carbon XANES spectra of the other four particles varied more than spectra from IDPs and indigenous organic matter from meteorites. Comparison of the carbon XANES spectra from these particles with 1. the carbon XANES spectra from thirty‐four IDPs (<15 micron in size) and 2. the carbon XANES spectra from carbonaceous material from the Tagish Lake, Orgueil, Bells, and Murchison meteorites show that 81P/Wild 2 carbon XANES spectra are more similar to IDP carbon XANES spectra then to the carbon XANES spectra of meteorites.
GNAI2 polymorphic variance associates with salt sensitivity of blood pressure in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Salt Sensitivity study

Salt sensitivity of blood pressure (BP) increases hypertension risk and associated adverse cardiovascular outcomes. At present, there are no validated rapid tests or diagnostic markers to identify salt sensitivity of BP in clinical practice. Based on our prior animal studies that report a role for brain Gαi2 proteins in the salt sensitivity of BP and evidence that GNAI2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associate with hypertension risk, we investigated the hypothesis that GNAI2 SNPs associate with salt sensitivity of BP in humans. Our data provide the first evidence that a GNAI2 SNP (rs10510755) positively associates with salt sensitivity of BP in the Genetic Epidemiology of Salt Sensitivity data set (continuous phenotype P = 0.049, case-control phenotype P = 0.039; n = 968), independently of subject sex or age. These observations suggest that genotyping at GNAI2 may be a useful biomarker in identifying individuals at risk for developing salt-sensitive BP and related complications or in identifying salt sensitivity within the hypertensive population.
Diet and nutrition therapy in pre-liver transplant patients

Malnutrition is universally prevalent among pre-liver transplantation patients. Malnutrition among cirrhotic patients had been associated to increased morbidity and mortality rates. Also, severely malnourished patients before the transplant surgery have a higher rate of complications and a decreased overall survival rate after liver transplantation. In light of the high incidence of malnutrition and associated complications, it is essential to initiate treatment as early as it is assessed. This review addresses the aetiologies of malnutrition and appropriate treatment strategies to correct it in pre-liver transplant phase. Treatment should focus on maintaining nutrient intake and correcting various nutritional deficiencies. The dietician plays an integral role as part of the transplant team by providing appropriate nutrition therapy for solving various nutrition problems.
The Capital, Labour and Age Structure Substitution Effect in Malaysia Paddy Crop: A Study in MADA Kedah

High output is not necessarily in line with the level of efficiency, increased scale efforts, and the increase of the intensity of production factors. This situation may be attributed to the substitutability between the inputs used in a production process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the substitutability and return to scale between farmers’ age structures and capital-labour substitutability in "Malaysia’s Rice Bowl" area in Kedah. We employed a time series of data ranging from main and off seasons in 1996 to 2011 (1996H1 to 2011H1). The results showed that the substitution between capital-labour is inelastic. Meanwhile, the elasticity of substitution between farmers’ age structure is unitary. This research has also found that the paddy production experienced increasing return to scale. For long-term development, the government should implement policies that encourage more young people to get involved in paddy farming.
The Impact of Leadership and Change Management Strategy on Organizational Culture and Individual Acceptance of Change During a Merger

This article reports a longitudinal study that examined mergers between three large multi-site public-sector organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis are used to examine the effect of leadership and change management strategies on acceptance of cultural change by individuals. Findings indicate that in many cases the change that occurs as a result of a merger is imposed on the leaders themselves, and it is often the pace of change that inhibits the successful re-engineering of the culture. In this respect, the success or otherwise of any merger hinges on individual perceptions about the manner in which the process is handled and the direction in which the culture is moved. Communication and a transparent change process are important, as this will often determine not only how a leader will be regarded, but who will be regarded as a leader. Leaders need to be competent and trained in the process of transforming organizations to ensure that individuals within the organization accept the changes prompted by a merger.
Entrepreneurship and State Taxation

Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the economy, yet there exists little well-identified research into the effects of taxes on startup activity. Using recently developed county-level data on startups, we examine the effect of states' corporate, personal and sales tax rates on new firm activity and test for cross-border spillovers in response to these policies. We find that new firm employment is negatively? and disproportionately? affected by corporate tax rates. We find little evidence of an effect of personal and sales taxes on entrepreneurial outcomes. Our results are robust to changes in the tax base and other state-level policies.
Prevention of falls injuries among older community-dwelling Victorians

This edition of Hazard provides an overview of fall injuries among Victorians aged 65 years and over. This is an update of Hazard Edition 19 and is based on the latest available data on fall-related deaths, hospital admissions and emergency department presentations. A number of interventions have been shown to be effective in community trials and these are outlined. This information will be of particular interest to injury prevention practitioners and health professionals.
Nodes in the gap structure of the iron arsenide superconductor Ba ( Fe 1 − x Co x ) 2 As 2 from c -axis heat transport measurements

The thermal conductivity $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ of the iron-arsenide superconductor $\text{Ba}{({\text{Fe}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\text{Co}}_{x})}_{2}{\text{As}}_{2}$ was measured down to 50 mK for a heat current parallel $({\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{c})$ and perpendicular $({\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{a})$ to the tetragonal $c$ axis for seven Co concentrations from underdoped to overdoped regions of the phase diagram $(0.038\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}0.127)$. A residual linear term ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{c0}/T$ is observed in the $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ limit when the current is along the $c$ axis, revealing the presence of nodes in the gap. Because the nodes appear as $x$ moves away from the concentration of maximal ${T}_{c}$, they must be accidental, not imposed by symmetry, and are therefore compatible with an ${s}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ state, for example. The fact that the in-plane residual linear term ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{a0}/T$ is negligible at all $x$ implies that the nodes are located in regions of the Fermi surface that contribute strongly to $c$-axis conduction and very little to in-plane conduction. Application of a moderate magnetic field (e.g., ${H}_{c2}/4$) excites quasiparticles that conduct heat along the $a$ axis just as well as the nodal quasiparticles conduct along the $c$ axis. This shows that the gap must be very small (but nonzero) in regions of the Fermi surface which contribute significantly to in-plane conduction. These findings can be understood in terms of a strong $\mathbf{k}$ dependence of the gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}(\mathbf{k})$ which produces nodes on a Fermi-surface sheet with pronounced $c$-axis dispersion and deep minima on the remaining, quasi-two-dimensional sheets.
Regularization parameter selection for Bayesian reconstruction of attenuation map

Previously the authors developed algorithms to obtain transmission reconstructions from truncated projections and from emission data without transmission measurements. The optimal basis set of "knowledge set" was used to create an approximate attenuation map, and the expansion coefficients were estimated using optimization algorithms. Since a truncated expansion does not represent an image precisely and the projections of the basis vectors are not orthogonal, the estimated coefficients can be unstable in the presence of systematic errors. A constraint, based on distribution of the expansion coefficient, is considered here to regularize the estimation problem. The parameter selection methods based on different assumptions are applied to find the optimal regularization parameter. The selected regularization parameter obtained from a projection data set has been shown to provide satisfactory reconstruction results.
Health Information Technology: A New World of Nursing Homes

The United States population is growing older, meaning there will be higher numbers of elderly people. The first baby boomers are now turning 65 and by 2030 the US population aged 65 and over is expected to double, which means that assistance or the transition to long-term care facilities (i.e. nursing homes) will be in higher demand. Advancements in Health Information Technology (HIT) have influenced the healthcare field by becoming more efficient, effective, and have improved patient satisfaction and safety. However, nursing homes and long-term care (LTC) facilities are slower in the adoption process or lack the willingness to transition to the various technologies available. One of the best examples is the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). While acute care settings and physician practices are adopting EHR systems at a brisk pace, LTC facilities, specifically licensed nursing facilities, have been slower to embrace such technologies. The main barriers to the implementation of EHRs include: cost; training; complex implementation processes; and the lack of evidence that such systems can deliver the promises. This review paper addresses the current state of HIT and what is currently available in nursing homes; it also addresses barriers and benefits that HIT faces with EHR implementation.
A Biologically Inspired System for Action Recognition by Hueihan Jhuang

We present a biologically-motivated system for the recognition of actions from video sequences. The approach builds on recent work on object recognition based on hierarchical feedforward architectures and extends a neurobiological model of motion processing in the visual cortex. The system consists of a hierarchy of spatio-temporal feature detectors of increasing complexity: an input sequence is first analyzed by an array of motion-direction sensitive units which, through a hierarchy of processing stages, lead to position-invariant spatio-temporal feature detectors. We experiment with different types of motion-direction sensitive units as well as different system architectures. Besides, we find that sparse features in intermediate stages outperform dense ones and that using a simple feature selection approach leads to an efficient system that performs better with far fewer features. We test the approach on different publicly available action datasets, in all cases achieving the best results reported to date. Thesis Supervisor: Tomaso Poggio Title: Professor
Alula size signals male condition and predicts reproductive performance in an Arctic‐breeding passerine

While studies of achromatic plumage signaling are scarce relative to chromatic ornaments, achromatic ornaments have the potential to act as an effi cient form of visual communication due to the highly conspicuous contrast between black and white body regions. Recently, achromatic plumage refl ectance has been shown to indicate condition, yet the conditiondependence of achromatic patch size remains unstudied. Here we show the fi rst evidence that alula size, an achromatic plumage patch, has the potential to signal a male ’ s condition and predict reproductive performance. In Arctic-breeding snow buntings Plectrophenax nivalis , the size of the alula simultaneously predicted pre-breeding physiological health and the number of off spring produced, through an intermediate variable (lay date). Snow buntings appear to pair assortatively; males and females arriving earlier pair together, and changes in body condition over the breeding season are positively related within pairs. We suggest that simple achromatic plumage patches, like alula size, have the potential to act as condition-dependent signals. Consequently, females may benefi t from assessing these signals to reliably evaluate a male ’ s condition and reproductive potential as a means of maximizing their reproductive success.
Isokinetic peak torque in young wrestlers

The purpose of the present study was to examine age-related changes in isokinetic leg flexion and extension peak torque (PT), PT/body weight (PT/BW), and PT/fat-free weight (PT/FFW) in young wrestlers. Male wrestlers (N = 108; age M ± SD = 11.3 ± 1.5 years) volunteered to be measured for peak torque at 30, 180, and 300° · s−1. In addition, underwater weighing was performed to determine body composition characteristics. The sample was divided into six age groups (8.1−8.9, n = 10; 9.0−9.9, n= 11; 10.0−10.9, n = 25; 11.0−11.9, n = 22; 12.0−12.9, n = 28; 13.0−13.9, n = 12), and repeated measures ANOVAs with Tukey post hoc comparisons showed increases across age for PT, PT/BW, and PT/FFW. The results of this study indicated that there were age-related increases in peak torque that could not be accounted for by changes in BW or FFW. It is possible that either an increase in muscle mass per unit of FFW, neural maturation, or both, contributes to the increase in strength across age in young male athletes.
Salient meanings : The whens and wheres 1

The bulk of research into lexical ambiguity resolution has made it clear that both lexical (e.g., degree of meaning salience) and contextual information influence the processing of lexically ambiguous words (e.g., Giora, 2003; Duffy, Morris and Rayner, 1988; Peleg, Giora and Fein, 2001, 2004, 2008; Titone, 1998). Whereas one’s previous experience with one of the meanings of an ambiguous word (e.g., the monetary, institutional meaning of bank) may render that meaning accessible, the immediate context may bias our interpretation towards any of the meanings of the word. For example when we encounter Bill stole from . , we expect a place one can steal from, and when we encounter Bill fished from . , we expect a place one can fish from. However, despite decades of intensive research, the time course and the relative weight of these effects are still highly debated (for an overview, see Giora 2003; Simpson, 1984; Simpson, 1994; Small, Cottrell, and Tanenhaus, 1988). On the one hand, interactive, direct-access models suggest that a strong biasing context can selectively activate the contextually appropriate meaning of an ambiguous word initially, regardless of degree of meaning salience (e.g., Kellas, Paul, Martin and Simpson 1991; Martin, Vu, Kellas, and Metcalf, 1999; Vu, Kellas, Metcalf and Herman 2000; Vu, Kellas, and Paul, 1998). On the other hand, modular, two-stage models argue that initially all the meanings of an ambiguous word are activated, regardless of contextual bias. At a later, post-lexical access stage, however, contextually inappropriate meanings are discarded (e.g., Onifer and Swinney, 1981; Swinney, 1979). Between these two extremes, The Graded Salience Hypothesis (Giora, 1997, 1999, 2003; Peleg et al., 2001, 2004, 2008) proposes that comprehension involves two distinct mechanisms – lexical and contextual – that run parallel without interacting initially (as proposed by Fodor, 1983). The mechanism responsible for lexical access is sensitive only to lexical
Modern Code Review: A Case Study at Google

Employing lightweight, tool-based code review of code changes (aka modern code review) has become the norm for a wide variety of open-source and industrial systems. In this paper, we make an exploratory investigation of modern code review at Google. Google introduced code review early on and evolved it over the years; our study sheds light on why Google introduced this practice and analyzes its current status, after the process has been refined through decades of code changes and millions of code reviews. By means of 12 interviews, a survey with 44 respondents, and the analysis of review logs for 9 million reviewed changes, we investigate motivations behind code review at Google, current practices, and developers' satisfaction and challenges.