Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
By-products of rice processing: an overview of health benefits and applications

Our study was centred on the increasing literature associated with rice by-products and main components, especially those intended to combat cancer, improve plasma lipid levels or control the blood glucose levels. Rice byproducts, such as rice straw, rice husks, rice bran, rice germ and broken rice, are extensively abundant agricultural wastes from the rice industry, and the percentage of their production depends on the milling rate and type of rice. Among all rice by-products, rice bran has been extensively studied. It contains phytochemicals such as γ-oryzanol, vitamin E, mainly tocotrienols and dietary fibre. This paper reviews the existing literature on the potential role of rice by-products, focusing not only on the role of rice bran but also on the roles of other rice by-products, such as rice germ and rice husk, in the management of the diseases, investigating their various potential uses in the food industry and all possible properties that may contribute to these effects.
Mycobacterial Response to Organic Solvents and Possible Implications on Cross-Resistance With Antimicrobial Agents

Mycobacterium vaccae, a bacterium found in soil, has been receiving attention as adjuvant to antituberculosis treatment, vaccines and immunotherapies and even as antidepressant. This bacterium is also able to degrade several pollutants, including aromatic compounds. The increasing presence of organic solvents in the environment may lead to M. vaccae adapted populations. A possible relationship between solvent tolerance and decreased susceptibility to other types of chemicals, including antibiotics, may pose a problem during opportunistic infections. The present study thus aimed at assessing if solvent adapted cells presented higher tolerance to antibiotics and efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs). M. vaccae cells were able to thrive and grow in the presence of up 20% (v/v) glycerol, 5% (v/v) ethanol, 1% (v/v) methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and 0.1% (v/v) toluene. During adaptation to increasing concentration of ethanol and MTBE, the cells changed their fatty acid profile, zeta potential and morphology. Adapted cells acquired an improved tolerance toward the EPIs thioridazine and omeprazole, but became more susceptible to the antibiotics levofloxacin and teicoplanin when compared with non-adapted cells.
Learning Curve for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Under a Controlled Introduction System　- Initial Analysis of a Japanese Nationwide Registry.

BACKGROUND The introduction of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) into Japan was strictly controlled to optimize patient outcomes. The goal of this study was to assess if increasing experience during the introduction of this procedure was associated with outcomes.Methods and Results:The initial 1,752 patients registered in the Japanese national TAVI registry were included in the study. The association between operator procedure number and incidence of the early safety endpoint at 30 days (ESE30) as defined in the Valve Academic Research Consortium-2 consensus document was evaluated. Patients were divided into 4 groups by quartiles of procedure count (Groups I-IV in order of increasing number of procedures). Median patient age was 85 years, and 30.5% were male. The 30-day mortality rate was 1.4% (n=24), and 78 patients (7.9%) experienced 95 ESE30. Among the variables included in the model, ESE30 was associated with non-transfemoral approach (P=0.004), renal dysfunction (Cr >2.0 mg/dL) (P=0.01) and NYHA class III/IV (P=0.04). ESE30 incidence was not significantly different between Groups I-III and Group IV. Spline plots demonstrated that experience of 15-20 cases in total was needed to achieve a consistent low risk of ESE30. CONCLUSIONS Increasing experience was associated with better outcomes, but to a lesser degree than in previous reports. Our findings suggested that the risks associated with the learning curve process were appropriately mitigated.
Normative Reference Values for Handgrip Strength in Chilean Children at 8-12 Years Old Using the Empirical Distribution and the Lambda, Mu, and Sigma Statistical Methods.

Garcia-Hermoso, A, Cofre-Bolados, C, Andrade-Schnettler, R, Ceballos-Ceballos, R, Fernández-Vergara, O, Vegas-Heredia, ED, Ramírez-Vélez, R, and Izquierdo, M. Normative reference values for handgrip strength in Chilean children at 8-12 years old using the empirical distribution and the lambda, mu, and sigma statistical methods. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-The aim of this study was 2-fold (a) to provide sex- and age-specific handgrip reference standards for Chilean children aged 8-12 years and (b) to compare the levels of handgrip strength of Chilean children with those of children from other countries. This cross-sectional study enrolled 2,026 schoolchildren (boys n = 1,334 and girls n = 692, mean age 10.18 [1.16] years old). Handgrip strength was measured using a hand dynamometer with an adjustable grip. Relative handgrip strength was calculated by dividing handgrip strength by body mass (handgrip strength kg per mass kg). Smoothed centile curves and tables for the 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, and 90th centiles were calculated using Cole's lambda, mu, and sigma method. The results indicate that mean handgrip strength was greater among boys than girls. Handgrip strength peaked at 16.25 (5.03) kg in boys and 14.90 (4.32) kg in girls. In addition, relative handgrip strength peaked at 0.38 (0.08) in boys and 0.34 (0.07) in girls. Chilean children of both sexes scored higher than their South American counterparts from Colombia and Peru but showed lower handgrip strength than European and Australian children. Our results provide, for the first time, sex- and age-specific handgrip reference standards for Chilean children aged 8-12.9 years. These normative reference values could help identify the levels of handgrip strength that need attention to provide appropriate feedback and advice to children about how to best improve their overall physical fitness.
IGCV3: Interleaved Low-Rank Group Convolutions for Efficient Deep Neural Networks

In this paper, we are interested in building lightweight and efficient convolutional neural networks. Inspired by the success of two design patterns, composition of structured sparse kernels, e.g., interleaved group convolutions (IGC), and composition of low-rank kernels, e.g., bottle-neck modules, we study the combination of such two design patterns, using the composition of structured sparse low-rank kernels, to form a convolutional kernel. Rather than introducing a complementary condition over channels, we introduce a loose complementary condition, which is formulated by imposing the complementary condition over super-channels, to guide the design for generating a dense convolutional kernel. The resulting network is called IGCV3. We empirically demonstrate that the combination of low-rank and sparse kernels boosts the performance and the superiority of our proposed approach to the state-of-the-arts, IGCV2 and MobileNetV2 over image classification on CIFAR and ImageNet and object detection on COCO.
Herd-Level Mastitis-Associated Costs on Canadian Dairy Farms

Mastitis imposes considerable and recurring economic losses on the dairy industry worldwide. The main objective of this study was to estimate herd-level costs incurred by expenditures and production losses associated with mastitis on Canadian dairy farms in 2015, based on producer reports. Previously, published mastitis economic frameworks were used to develop an economic model with the most important cost components. Components investigated were divided between clinical mastitis (CM), subclinical mastitis (SCM), and other costs components (i.e., preventive measures and product quality). A questionnaire was mailed to 374 dairy producers randomly selected from the (Canadian National Dairy Study 2015) to collect data on these costs components, and 145 dairy producers returned a completed questionnaire. For each herd, costs due to the different mastitis-related components were computed by applying the values reported by the dairy producer to the developed economic model. Then, for each herd, a proportion of the costs attributable to a specific component was computed by dividing absolute costs for this component by total herd mastitis-related costs. Median self-reported CM incidence was 19 cases/100 cow-year and mean self-reported bulk milk somatic cell count was 184,000 cells/mL. Most producers reported using post-milking teat disinfection (97%) and dry cow therapy (93%), and a substantial proportion of producers reported using pre-milking teat disinfection (79%) and wearing gloves during milking (77%). Mastitis costs were substantial (662 CAD per milking cow per year for a typical Canadian dairy farm), with a large portion of the costs (48%) being attributed to SCM, and 34 and 15% due to CM and implementation of preventive measures, respectively. For SCM, the two most important cost components were the subsequent milk yield reduction and culling (72 and 25% of SCM costs, respectively). For CM, first, second, and third most important cost components were culling (48% of CM costs), milk yield reduction following the CM events (34%), and discarded milk (11%), respectively. This study is the first since 1990 to investigate costs of mastitis in Canada. The model developed in the current study can be used to compute mastitis costs at the herd and national level in Canada.
Testing the Larson relations in massive clumps

We tested the validity of the three Larson relations in a sample of 213 massive clumps selected from the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane (Hi-GAL) survey, also using data from the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) survey of 3-mm emission lines. The clumps are divided into five evolutionary stages so that we can also discuss the Larson relations as a function of evolution. We show that this ensemble does not follow the three Larson relations, regardless of the clump's evolutionary phase. A consequence of this breakdown is that the dependence of the virial parameter αvir on mass (and radius) is only a function of the gravitational energy, independent of the kinetic energy of the system; thus, αvir is not a good descriptor of clump dynamics. Our results suggest that clumps with clear signatures of infall motions are statistically indistinguishable from clumps with no such signatures. The observed non-thermal motions are not necessarily ascribed to turbulence acting to sustain the gravity, but they might be a result of the gravitational collapse at the clump scales. This seems to be particularly true for the most massive (M ≥ 1000 M⊙) clumps in the sample, where exceptionally high magnetic fields might not be enough to stabilize the collapse.
Compositional effects on the growth of Mg(M)O films

The influence of the composition on the crystallographic properties of deposited Mg(M)O (with M=Al, Cr, Ti, Y, and Zr) films is studied. For a flexible control of the composition, dual reactive magnetron sputtering was used as deposition technique. Two different approaches to predict the composition are discussed. The first is an experimental way based on the simple relationship between the deposition rate and the target-substrate distance. The second is a route using a Monte Carlo based particle trajectory code. Both methods require a minimal experimental input and enable the user to quickly predict the composition of complex thin films. Good control and flexibility allow us to study the compositional effects on the growth of Mg(M)O films. Pure MgO thin films were grown with a (111) preferential out-of-plane orientation. When adding M to MgO, two trends were noticed. The first trend is a change in the MgO lattice parameters compared to pure MgO. The second tendency is a decrease in the crystallinity of the MgO phase. The experimentally determined crystallographic properties are shown to be in correspondence with the predicted properties from molecular dynamics simulations.
The role of torpor in the life of Australian arid zone mammals.

Approximately half of the Australian continent is arid and is characterised by low primary productivity, limited supply of food and pronounced daily fluctuations of ambient temperature (Ta). Despite these adverse conditions the diversity of small mammals in the Australian arid zone is high, although their abundance is generally low. The most successful groups of small arid zone mammals are the dasyurid marsupials, native rodents, and insectivorous bats. A probable reason for the success of the insectivorous dasyurids and bats, which must cope with strong fluctuations in food and water availability, is their extensive use of torpor. Mammalian torpor is characterised by substantial reductions of body temperature (Tb) metabolic rate (MR) and water loss. Small arid zone dasyurids use exclusively daily torpor, some even during the reproductive season, when most mammals maintain strict homeothermy. Dasyurids reduce Tb from ~ 35oC during normothermia to ~ 15oC during torpor, the MR during torpor (TMR) is ~ 30% of basal metabolic rate (BMR). Mass loss, and thus water loss, is related to the duration of torpor bouts. Dasyurids usually enter torpor at night or in the early morning and arouse around midday or in the afternoon. Recent evidence shows that desert dasyurids may bask in the sun during rewarming from torpor. This can minimise energetic cost of arousal to a fraction of that required for endogenous warming. Arid zone bats are also likely to use torpor extensively, but few species, specific to the arid zone, have been studied. Nevertheless, widely distributed bats that occur in the arid zone, such as Nyctophilus geoffroyi, enter brief torpor for part of the day in summer and prolonged torpor (hibernation) for up to two weeks in winter and can reduce Tb to a minimum of 2 - 3oC and TMR to ~ 3% of BMR; mass loss and water loss are minimal during torpor. Patterns of torpor similar to those in bats also have been observed in the insectivorous echidnas and two species of insectivorous / nectarivorous pygmy-possums, which have distribution ranges that include semi-arid and arid areas. In contrast to these species, no detailed information is available on torpor in native Australian rodents, because little work with respect to torpor has been conducted in Australia. However, many arid zone rodents on other continents employ torpor and it is likely that Australian rodents do as well. In addition to reducing energy expenditure and water loss, use of torpor also appears to prolong life span. This is important for bridging adverse conditions and for subsequent re-colonization of areas after droughts and fires in inland Australia. Thus it appears that the success of small insectivorous/nectarivorous mammals and perhaps rodents in the Australian arid zone is partially due to their use of torpor.
Lexically specific knowledge and individual differences in adult native speakers’ processing of the English passive

ABSTRACT This article provides experimental evidence for the role of lexically specific representations in the processing of passive sentences and considerable education-related differences in comprehension of the passive construction. The experiment measured response time and decision accuracy of participants with high and low academic attainment using an online task that compared processing and comprehension of active and passive sentences containing verbs strongly associated with the passive and active constructions, as determined by collostructional analysis. As predicted by usage-based accounts, participants’ performance was influenced by frequency (both groups processed actives faster than passives; the low academic attainment participants also made significantly more errors on passive sentences) and lexical specificity (i.e., processing of passives was slower with verbs strongly associated with the active). Contra to proposals made by Dąbrowska and Street (2006), the results suggest that all participants have verb-specific as well as verb-general representations, but that the latter are not as entrenched in the participants with low academic attainment, resulting in less reliable performance. The results also show no evidence of a speed–accuracy trade-off, making alternative accounts of the results (e.g., those of two-stage processing models, such as Townsend & Bever, 2001) problematic.
A Wearable System for Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Physical Activity

Over the last decades, wearable systems have gained interest for monitoring of physiological variables, promoting health, and improving exercise adherence in different populations ranging from elite athletes to patients. In this paper, we present a wearable system for the continuous real-time monitoring of respiratory frequency (fR), heart rate (HR), and movement cadence during physical activity. The system has been experimentally tested in the laboratory (by simulating the breathing pattern with a mechanical ventilator) and by collecting data from one healthy volunteer. Results show the feasibility of the proposed device for real-time continuous monitoring of fR, HR, and movement cadence both in resting condition and during activity. Finally, different synchronization techniques have been investigated to enable simultaneous data collection from different wearable modules.
Genetic and Phenotypic Parameters for 305-Day Milk Yield of Turkish Holstein Population

This study has been carried out to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters for 305-day milk yields of Turkish Holstein cattle to use in breeding program of Turkish Holstein Breeder's Association. The data set used in this study consisted of 15 910 first, second and third lactation milk records of 9655 cows calved between 1990 and 2001 years. The pedigree file used to build relationship matrix was cowered 22145 animals and 222 genetic groups. Estimates of additive-genetic variance, permanent variance, phenotypic variance, heritability, permanent variance ratio, repeatability and phenotypic coefficient of variation were 349636, 320903, 1574935, 0.222 ± 0.0288, 0.204 ± 0.0256, 0.426 ± 0.0102 and 21.8% respectively. The general accuracy of predictions defined as correlation between true and predicted breeding values was calculated as 54.8%.
Influence of sepiolite additions to different litter materials on performance and some welfare parameters of broilers and litter characteristics

ABSTRACT The litter quality is an important factor affecting the performance, welfare and carcass quality of the broilers. Depending on the progress of the fattening duration, some materials may be added to the litter in order to keep the pH, moisture and ammonia levels in the litter under control. Sepiolite is a natural material and it has strong absorbing ability to the water. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of sepiolite additions to different litter materials on performance and some welfare parameters of broilers and litter characteristics. A total of 288 1‐d‐old male broiler chicks (ROSS‐308) were used. Birds were randomly allocated to 2 litters (wood shavings and rice hull) and 3 sepiolite groups (0, 25, 50%) with 6 replication, and each pen contains 8 chicks. Fattening performance, IgG, tonic immobility period, feather score, skin injures, breast burns, and footpad burns of broilers were not affected significantly by sepiolite additions to the litter. However, sepiolite addition to the litter can improve litter quality. There was no significant difference between 2 litter materials because both have same color. There were no significant interactions in examined parameters. In conclusion, addition of sepiolite at 25 and 50% levels to litter materials may be used as a litter material in the broiler production without adverse welfare and performance problem.
Bacterial Contamination of the Toothbrushes

Toothbrushes are an environment for transfer of microbes, their retention and growth. The aim of the study was to evaluate the bacterial contamination of toothbrushes during everyday use in the periodontal healthy student population and to record the way of maintaining the toothbrush and the time and the reason for their replacement with new ones. The research included 20 students of both sexes, with a healthy periodontium, who filled out a special questionnaire and got a new toothbrush for everyday use in one month period. After the test period, toothbrushes were transported in sterile conditions at the Institute of Microbiology of the Medical Faculty in Skopje and further processed. The total number of bacteria in each plate was determined and larger colonies identified by the method of Gram and other biochemical tests. The microbiological findings showed a high contamination of the used toothbrushes at 100% of the analyzed samples, with a domination of coliform bacilli (Escherichia coli-40%, Klebsiella-25%, Enterobacter cloacae-5%, Serratia-15%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa -15%. Toothbrushes became highly contaminated after everyday use and can be carriers of microorganisms, increasing the risk of diseases caused by oral biofilm in healthy people. Clinical article (J Int Dent Med Res 2016; 9: (1), pp. 6-12)
Intertidal and shallow water amphipods (Amphipoda: Gammaridea and Corophiidea) from Isla Pérez, Alacranes Reef, southern Gulf of Mexico

Tropical coral reefs are known to exhibit high levels of biodiversity. Amphipod crustaceans are successfully adapted to a wide range of marine habitats in coral reefs, but some regions, such as the Campeche Bank in southern Gulf of Mexico, are poorly studied or even unsurveyed for amphipods. To begin to address this paucity of information, the present study records amphipod species from Isla Perez, an island of the Alacranes Reef National Park, southern Gulf of Mexico. Twenty sites were sampled in the intertidal zone and shallow water adjacent to the island. Thirty-one species of amphipod were identified, 15 of which represented a geographical range extension to the northern Yucatan Peninsula, with four new records for the Mexican south-east sector of the Gulf of Mexico; nine for the Gulf Coast of Mexico; and two for the entire Gulf of Mexico. Significantly, a difference in faunal composition between windward and leeward areas of the intertidal zone was found.
A Unified Particle-Optimization Framework for Scalable Bayesian Sampling

There has been recent interest in developing scalable Bayesian sampling methods such as stochastic gradient MCMC (SG-MCMC) and Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD) for big-data analysis. A standard SG-MCMC algorithm simulates samples from a discrete-time Markov chain to approximate a target distribution, thus samples could be highly correlated, an undesired property for SG-MCMC. In contrary, SVGD directly optimizes a set of particles to approximate a target distribution, and thus is able to obtain good approximations with relatively much fewer samples. In this paper, we propose a principle particle-optimization framework based on Wasserstein gradient flows to unify SG-MCMC and SVGD, and to allow new algorithms to be developed. Our framework interprets SG-MCMC as particle optimization on the space of probability measures, revealing a strong connection between SG-MCMC and SVGD. The key component of our framework is several particle-approximate techniques to efficiently solve the original partial differential equations on the space of probability measures. Extensive experiments on both synthetic data and deep neural networks demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our framework for scalable Bayesian sampling.