Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of semen quality among four chicken lines

Evaluation of semen quality is very important before selection of breeding cocks used for artificial insemination. The aim of this study was to characterize the semen parameters of 4 lines of cocks followed by comparison of such parameters among lines. A total of 60 semen samples were collected from 3 Sasso, 3 Synthetic and 3 White Rock and 3 Assel RIR cock at 3 days interval. Semen was collected by abdominal massage method. Semen parameters with respect to ejaculate volume, mass activity, sperm motility, sperm concentration, proportion of live spermatozoa and proportion of spermatozoa with normal morphology were examined. The semen parameters did not differ significantly among individual cocks of Sasso line. However, sperm concentration varied significantly among individual cocks of Synthetic, White Rock and Assel RIR lines. The ejaculate volume, mass activity, sperm motility, sperm concentration, proportion of live spermatozoa and proportion of spermatozoa with normal morphology varied from 410.0 ± 0.0 to 810.0 ± 0.0 μl, 3.8 ± 0.1 to 4.0 ± 0.0 +, 71.1 ± 1.1 to 83.3 ± 1.2%, 7.5 ± 0.1 to 9.6 ± 0.2 x 10 9 /ml, 82.2 ± 1.3 to 87.3 ± 1.1% and 87.2 ± 0.8 to 90.1 ± 0.7%, respectively. However, only the variations in ejaculate volume, sperm motility, sperm concentration and proportion of live spermatozoa were significant among lines of cocks (P<0.05). It is concluded that semen quality of different lines of cocks were within normal range although variations in some parameters of semen may exist among lines.
Effectiveness of Different Preventive Programs in Cariogram Parameters of Young Adults at High Caries Risk

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of different preventive programs in young adults at high caries risk using Cariogram software. Methods Sixty-six young adults with high caries risk were evaluated. Dental caries risk for all subjects was determined according to WHO criteria. Subjects were divided into three different preventive groups (control: OH, fluoride varnish: FV, and chlorhexidine varnish: CV). They were followed for 12 weeks (baseline: T0, 1 week: T1, 4 weeks: T2, and 12 weeks: T3). Plaque index, diet frequency, and salivary chairside tests (to record the flow rate, buffer capacity, and mutans streptococci and lactobacillus counts) were performed at each visit. Based on these data, ten caries-related variables were collected and inserted into the Cariogram software to calculate the predicted chance of avoiding caries for each subject. Results Significant changes were obtained about the Cariogram parameters (diet, bacteria, susceptibility, circumstances, and Cariogram risk group). No significant differences were found between the three methods regarding mean Cariogram scores after 3 months (p > 0.05). Conclusions The regular and effective short-term (three months) use of 1450 ppm fluoridated toothpaste, one visit application of fluoride, and chlorhexidine varnishes were effective for reducing caries risk in young adults, which can be clearly demonstrated using Cariogram software.
Functional differences in the allometry of the water, carbon and nitrogen content of gelatinous organisms

AXAYACATL MOLINA-RAMIREZ1*, CARLOS CACERES1, SONIA ROMERO-ROMERO1, JUAN BUENO2, J. IGNACIO GONZALEZGORDILLO3, XABIER IRIGOIEN4, JORGE SOSTRES1, ANTONIO BODE5, CARMEN MOMPEAN5, MARILUZ FERNANDEZ PUELLES6, FIDEL ECHEVARRIA3, CARLOS M. DUARTE4,7 AND JOSE LUIS ACUNA1 1 DEPARTAMENTO BOS, UNIVERSIDAD DE OVIEDO, CATEDRATICO RODRIGO URIA, SN, 33071 OVIEDO, SPAIN, DEPARTAMENTO DE BIOLOGIA, CESAM-CENTRO DE ESTUDOS DO AMBIENTE E DO MAR, UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO, 3810-193 AVEIRO, PORTUGAL, CAMPUS DE EXCELENCIA INTERNACIONAL DEL MAR (CEIMAR), DPTO
A modular, open-source information extraction framework for identifying clinical concepts and processes of care in clinical narratives

In this thesis, a synthesis is presented of the knowledge models required by clinical informa- tion systems that provide decision support for longitudinal processes of care. Qualitative research techniques and thematic analysis are novelly applied to a systematic review of the literature on the challenges in implementing such systems, leading to the development of an original conceptual framework. The thesis demonstrates how these process-oriented systems make use of a knowledge base derived from workflow models and clinical guidelines, and argues that one of the major barriers to implementation is the need to extract explicit and implicit information from diverse resources in order to construct the knowledge base. Moreover, concepts in both the knowledge base and in the electronic health record (EHR) must be mapped to a common ontological model. However, the majority of clinical guideline information remains in text form, and much of the useful clinical information residing in the EHR resides in the free text fields of progress notes and laboratory reports. In this thesis, it is shown how natural language processing and information extraction techniques provide a means to identify and formalise the knowledge components required by the knowledge base. Original contributions are made in the development of lexico-syntactic patterns and the use of external domain knowledge resources to tackle a variety of information extraction tasks in the clinical domain, such as recognition of clinical concepts, events, temporal relations, term disambiguation and abbreviation expansion. Methods are developed for adapting existing tools and resources in the biomedical domain to the processing of clinical texts, and approaches to improving the scalability of these tools are proposed and evalu- ated. These tools and techniques are then combined in the creation of a novel approach to identifying processes of care in the clinical narrative. It is demonstrated that resolution of coreferential and anaphoric relations as narratively and temporally ordered chains provides a means to extract linked narrative events and processes of care from clinical notes. Coreference performance in discharge summaries and progress notes is largely dependent on correct identification of protagonist chains (patient, clinician, family relation), pronominal resolution, and string matching that takes account of experiencer, temporal, spatial, and anatomical context; whereas for laboratory reports additional, external domain knowledge is required. The types of external knowledge and their effects on system performance are identified and evaluated. Results are compared against existing systems for solving these tasks and are found to improve on them, or to approach the performance of recently reported, state-of-the- art systems. Software artefacts developed in this research have been made available as open-source components within the General Architecture for Text Engineering framework.
Assessment of competence in technical clinical skills of general practitioners

Technical clinical procedures constitute an important part of the work of general practitioners. Assessment of competence in the relevant skills is important from the perspective of quality assurance. In this study, the psychometric characteristics of three different methods for assessment of competence in technical clinical skills in general practice were evaluated. A performance‐based test (8 stations), a written knowledge test of skills (125 items) and a self‐assessment questionnaire (41 items) on technical clinical skills were administered to 49 GPs and 47 trainees in general practice. The mean scores on the performance‐based test and the written knowledge test of skills showed no substantial differences between GPs and trainees, whereas the GPs scored higher on the self‐assessment questionnaire. While the correlation of the score on the knowledge test of skills with the score on the performance‐based test was moderately high, the score on the self‐assessment questionnaire showed a rather low correlation with the performance‐based test. Although performance‐based testing is obviously the best method to assess proficiency in hands‐on skills, a written test can serve as a reasonable alternative, particularly for screening and research purposes.
Experimental milk formulae with reduced protein content and desialylated milk proteins: influence on the faecal flora and the growth of term newborn infants

We have assessed the growth, tolerance and the faecal flora composition in healthy infants on different feeding regimens. Four groups of infants were fed exclusively on mother's milk, a standard formula and two experimental formulae. The first experimental formula consisted of a milk with a reduced protein content (1.2 g/100 ml), the second in a formula with the same protein content and with milk proteins desialylated by mild acid hydrolysis. The aim of the study was to test whether lowering the protein content and/or modifying the proteins by desialylation would favour the development of a bifidus flora. A bifidus flora was detected in 60% of breastfed infants at 1 month of life. All formulae employed during the study failed to induce a prevalence of colonization with bifidobacteria at 1 month of age. The two experimental milk formulae were well tolerated, but the infant growth rate was slightly lower as compared to the breastfed infants and the infants fed the standard formula. The presence in milk formulae of pre‐digested and desialylated proteins can offer some advantages in term of digestibility and mimic a physiological intestinal mechanism of the infant.
Effect of lameness on the calving-to-conception interval in dairy cows.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between lameness and the duration of the interval from calving to subsequent conception in lactating dairy cows. DESIGN Cohort study. ANIMALS 837 dairy cows. PROCEDURE Cows affected with lameness were classified into 1 of 4 groups on the basis of types of disease or lesions observed, including foot rot, papillomatous digital dermatitis, claw lesions, or multiple lesions. Cows not affected with lameness were classified as healthy. Time from calving to conception was compared between lame cows and healthy cows. RESULTS 254 (30%) cows were affected with lameness during lactation. Most lame cows (59%) had claw lesions. Lame cows with claw lesions were 0.52 times as likely to conceive as healthy cows. Median time to conception was 40 days longer in lame cows with claw lesions, compared with healthy cows. Number of breedings per conception for lame cows with claw lesions was significantly higher than that for healthy cows. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Claw lesions were the most important cause of lameness, impairing reproductive performance in dairy cows, as indicated by a higher incidence of affected cows and a greater time from calving to conception and a higher number of breedings required per conception, compared with healthy cows.
A compact printed Yagi type antenna for GPS application

An experiment is performed on a thin dielectric substrate for the compact printed Yagi type antenna described theoretically in [1]. This time the SMA connector at the feed is taken into design considerations. Measured results show that this implemented antenna has a high directivity of 7.3 dBi, a front-to-back ratio of 11.6 dB, a cross-polarization level of −33.5 dB, and 3-dB beamwidths of 73° and 112° in the planes of θ = 90° and ϕ= 90°, respectively. The bandwidth is 9.1%, and the antenna efficiency is 92%. The proposed antenna is suitable for the global positioning system application in the mobile devices whose volumes are usually not sufficient for embedded antennas with good axial ratio (AR) values of right hand circular polarizations and good angular coverage of preferred AR values.
Effect of pyridostigmine pretreatment on cardiorespiratory function in tabun poisoning

1 The effect of pyridostigmine on cardiorespiratory func tion after oxime+atropine injection was investigated in tabun poisoned guinea-pigs and without tabun poisoning. 2 The trachea, a carotid artery and jugular vein were can nulated in female urethane-anaesthetised Pirbright white guinea-pigs. After baseline measurements the ani mals received pyridostigmine (0.05 μmol kg-1) and 30 min later atropine (29.5 μmol kg-1) plus obidoxime, HI 6 or HL6 7 (30 or 100 μmol kg-1) or tabun (1.85 μmol kg-1 = 5 x LD50) followed by oxime+atropine treatment (all i.v.). Erythrocyte, brain and diaphragm acetyl cholinesterase (AChE) activity were determined. Similar groups without pretreatment were included for compar ison. 3 Pyridostigmine aggravated the oxime+atropine induced hypotension and prevented the increase in heart rate but not the respiratory stimulation. The pyridostigmine inhibited AChE recovered only in the 100 μmol kg-1 kg oxime groups at the end of the experiment. 4 In tabun poisoning, pyridostigmine reduced the oxime+atropine induced circulatory recovery and decreased the survival time and rate. It did not affect the therapeutic oxime+atropine effect on respiratory function. 5 These results suggest that pyridostigmine enhances oxime+atropine related circulatory depression which may be the reason for the reduced efficacy of oxime+atropine treatment in tabun poisoning. The pos sible mechanisms are discussed.
Lung volume recruitment after surfactant administration modifies spatial distribution of ventilation.

RATIONALE Although surfactant replacement therapy is an established treatment in infant respiratory distress syndrome, the optimum strategy for ventilatory management before, during, and after surfactant instillation remains to be elucidated. OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of surfactant and lung volume recruitment on the distribution of regional lung ventilation. METHODS Acute lung injury was induced in 16 newborn piglets by endotracheal lavage. Optimum positive end-expiratory pressure was identified after lung recruitment and surfactant was administered either at this pressure in the "open" lung or after disconnection of the endotracheal tube in the "closed" lung. An additional recruitment maneuver with subsequent optimum end-expiratory pressure finding was executed in eight animals; in the remaining eight animals, end-expiratory pressure was set at the same level as before surfactant without further recruitment. ("Open" and "closed" lung surfactant administration was evenly distributed in the groups.) Regional ventilation was assessed by electrical impedance tomography. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Impedance tomography data, airway pressure, flow, and arterial blood gases were acquired during baseline conditions, after induction of lung injury, after the first lung recruitment, and before as well as 10 and 60 min after surfactant administration. Significant shift in ventilation toward the dependent lung regions and less asymmetry in the right-to-left lung ventilation distribution occurred in the postsurfactant period when an additional recruitment maneuver was performed. Surfactant instillation in an "open" versus "closed" lung did not influence ventilation distribution in a major way. CONCLUSIONS The spatial distribution of ventilation in the lavaged lung is modified by a recruitment maneuver performed after surfactant administration.
Analysis of 100 Cases of Free‐Muscle Transplantation for Facial Paralysis

&NA; Free‐muscle transplantation is the treatment of choice for long‐standing facial paralysis. It enables the reconstructive surgeon to restore facial movement and some emotional animation. Despite all technical innovations and 20 years of experience with free‐muscle transplantation, the aesthetic and functional outcomes of the surgery are still unpredictable. The present report reviews 100 free‐muscle transplantations to the face by a single surgeon and analyzes various preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors in relation to the functional recovery of the muscle transplants. These factors were demographic variables such as age, gender, and etiology as well as intraoperative variables such as choice of muscles, number of nerve coaptations, and ischemia time of the muscle. Additionally, four independent raters not involved in the care of these patients rated standardized preoperative and postoperative videos and judged the functional and aesthetic outcomes. From 1981 to 1993, 93 patients with facial paralysis underwent free‐muscle transplantation. A total of 100 muscles were transplanted, since 7 patients received two muscle transplants. There were 33 male and 60 female patients ranging in age from 3 to 57 years, with an average of 22.2 ± 14.9 years. The gracilis muscle was used in 63 cases of free‐muscle transplantation, while the pectoralis minor was used in 34 cases. In 2 patients a segment of the rectus abdominis was transferred, and in 1 patient a small segment of the latissimus dorsi was transferred. In 89 patients the onset of muscle function was reported. The range was from 6 to 48 weeks postoperatively. The average was 21.6 ± 9.14 weeks after muscle transplantation. The correlations showed a trend to earlier onset of function and higher aesthetic rating in young female patients. The intraoperative ischemia of the free muscle did not correlate with the onset of muscle function. Using a five‐step scale of judgments, a higher postoperative rating was seen in 94 percent of the patients, and 80 percent of all patients achieved a moderate or better result. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 99: 1905, 1997.)
A search for photometric variability towards M71 with the Near-Infrared Transiting ExoplanetS Telescope

We present the results of a high-cadence photometric survey of an 11 arcmin × 11 arcmin field centred on the globular cluster M71, with the Near-Infrared Transiting ExoplanetS Telescope. The aim of our survey is to search for stellar variability and giant transiting exoplanets. This survey differs from previous photometric surveys of M71 in that it is more sensitive to lower amplitude (ΔM ≤ 0.02 mag) and longer period (P > 2 d) variability than previous work on this cluster. We have discovered 17 new variable stars towards M71 and confirm the nature of 13 previously known objects, for which the orbital periods of 7 are refined or newly determined. Given the photometric precision of our high-cadence survey on the horizontal branch of M71, we confirm that the cluster is devoid of RR Lyrae variable stars within the area surveyed. We present new B- and V-band photometry of the stars in our sample from which we estimate spectral types of the variable objects. We also search our survey data for transiting hot Jupiters and present simulations of the expected number of detections. Approximately 1000 stars were observed on the main sequence of M71 with sufficient photometric accuracy to detect a transiting hot Jupiter; however, none were found.
Moisture Chamber Versus Lubrication for Corneal Protection in Critically Ill Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose: Critically ill patients in the intensive care unit are at increased risk of exposure keratopathy. There is limited evidence available to make the best choice of eye care modality. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effect of moisture chamber compared with lubrication for corneal protection in critically ill patients. Methods: Studies were identified through PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and complementary manual searches, up to May 31, 2014. Randomized controlled trials of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit comparing moisture chamber with lubrication and evaluating risk of corneal damage were included. Results: Seven trials were included. The pooled analysis showed that the use of moisture chambers resulted in a reduction of the incidence of corneal damage [risk ratio (RR), 0.27; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.11–0.67; P = 0.005]. In 1 subgroup analysis, there was a significant difference between the use of moisture chambers and lubricating drops, and the moisture chamber group had a decreased incidence of corneal damage (RR, 0.13; 95% CI: 0.05–0.35; P < 0.0001). In the other subgroup analysis, no statistically significant difference was observed between the use of moisture chambers and lubricating ointments (RR, 0.81; 95% CI: 0.51–1.29; P = 0.38). The overall quality of evidence was low. Conclusions: The use of moisture chambers is associated with more effective corneal protection compared with lubrication. The analytic result is limited by serious risk of bias and imprecision.
High-Throughput Non-Binary LDPC Decoder Based on Aggressive Overlap Scheduling

Non-binary LDPC (NB-LDPC) codes offer better error correcting performance than their binary counterparts. However, to achieve excellent performance, decoding complexity and large memory are required, which makes it difficult to implement the high-throughput decoder. This paper presents a fully overlapped NB-LDPC decoder using three proposed techniques to improve throughput performance. First, an early bubble check is presented to reduce the initialization latency of the check node processing (CNP). Second, the CNP and variable node processing (VNP) are overlapped with the proposed backward memory scan method to hide the CNP latency within the VNP. Finally, we propose a redundant memory reuse technique to further decrease the latency of a single decoding iteration. We implemented the high-throughput decoder for (160, 80) regular (2, 4) NB-LDPC code over GF (64). The iteration latency was decreased by up to 57.5% with our three proposed methods. The proposed decoder achieved a throughput of 2.22 Gb/s at a 625-MHz frequency with 2.96-M gates in a 65-nm CMOS process. The proposed decoder showed outstanding area efficiency compared with the state-of-the-art decoders.
Establishment of regeneration and transformation system of sugarcane cultivar GT54-9 (C9)

Plant regeneration protocols for sugarcane GT54-9(C9) cultivar were developed for direct organogenesis and indirect somatic embryogenesis, using young leaf segments as explants by studying the influence of different concentrations and types of cytokinin and auxin hormones. For the callus formation from young leaves, a medium containing 4mg/l 2,4-D was found very effective. For embryo formation, MS medium supplemented with 1mg/l Kin and 0.5 mg/l 2,4-D was used. While in the case of direct organogenesis protocol, the medium containing 1mg/l BAP and 2mg/l NAA was the best for direct shoot formation. Data showed that the best shoot regeneration and elongation medium for direct organogenesis and indirect somatic embryogenesis was obtained on medium with 2 mg/l Kin and 0.1 mg/l BAP. Root induction was best performed on 2mg/l NAA and complete plantlets were hardened in the greenhouse before transferring to the field for further evaluation. For transformation, young leaf segments of sugarcane from the cultivar GT54-9(C9) were inoculated and co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LB4404 harboring the binary vector pISV2678 with the bar and the gus-intron genes. The obtained putative transgenic plantlets were able to grow under bialaphose containing medium. Stable integration of the bar gene into the plant genomes was tested by PCR and Southern blot hybridization. Histochemical assay and leaf painting analysis were carried out to study the expression of the gus and bar genes in transgenic plants, respectively. The results indicated that the direct organogenesis produced a higher yield of regenerated plants (22% more) within shorter time (4 weeks less). Therefore, this method is recommended for sugarcane regeneration and for further use in genetic transformation via A. tumefaciens with desired genes.