Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of increasing the proportion of chicory in forage-based diets on intake and digestion by sheep.

There is a lot of evidence that chicory could be a highly palatable and nutritious source of forage for ruminants, well adapted to climate change and dry conditions in summer, thanks to its resistance to drought and high water content. This study aimed to describe the effect of incorporating chicory to ryegrass or to a ryegrass-white clover mixture on feeding behaviour, digestive parameters, nitrogen (N) balance and methane (CH4) emissions in sheep. In total, three swards of ryegrass, white clover and chicory were established and managed in a manner ensuring the forage use at a constant vegetative stage throughout the experiment. In all, four dietary treatments (pure ryegrass; binary mixture: 50% ryegrass-50% chicory; ternary mixture: 50% ryegrass-25% white clover-25% chicory; and pure chicory) were evaluated in a 4×4 replicated Latin square design with eight young castrated Texel sheep. Each experimental period consisted of an 8-day diet adaptation phase, followed by a 6-day measuring phase during which intake dynamics, chewing activity, digestibility, rumen liquid passage rate, fermentation end-products, N balance and CH4 emissions were determined. Data were analysed using a mixed model and orthogonal contrasts were used to detect the potential associative effects between ryegrass and chicory. The daily voluntary dry matter intake was lower for pure ryegrass than for diets containing chicory (P<0.001) and increased quadratically from 1.39 to 1.74 kg/day with increasing proportion of chicory. Huge positive quadratic effects (P<0.001) between ryegrass and chicory were detected on eating time and eating rate just after feeding indicating an increase of the motivation to eat with mixtures, whereas rumination activity decreased linearly with the proportion of chicory (P<0.001). The organic matter digestibility was similar among treatments (around 80%), but a strong positive quadratic P<0.001) effect was observed on liquid passage rate suggesting that chicory allowed fast particle breakdown in the rumen. Animals fed with the ryegrass-white clover-chicory mixture had the higher urinary N losses (P<0.001), whereas retained N per day or per g N intake was greater when the proportion of chicory was at least 50% (P<0.001) being ~40% greater than for the other treatments. The CH4 yield was lower with pure chicory than with the other treatments (P<0.001) for which emissions were similar. In conclusion, mixing ryegrass and chicory in equal proportions produces a synergy on voluntary intake and an improved N use efficiency likely due to complementarity in chemical composition, increased motivation to eat and faster ruminal particle breakdown.
The role of big data in shaping ambidextrous business process management: Case studies from the service industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how big data can shape ambidextrous business process management (BPM) in terms of exploitation and exploration. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology involving case studies has been chosen to explore the impact of big data deployment on exploitative and explorative business processes. Findings The results of case studies offer some opportunities and challenges for service firms related to both the exploitative and the explorative aspects of BPM driven by big data. Originality/value The deployment of big data in business processes has attracted a large amount of interest recently. However, these studies are mostly conceptual, so empirical research about this complex relationship is quite rare, especially research with specific arguments regarding exploitative and explorative activities. This paper aims to fill this gap by offering empirical evidence for big data-driven business processes.
Biomedical Text Categorization Based on Ensemble Pruning and Optimized Topic Modelling

Text mining is an important research direction, which involves several fields, such as information retrieval, information extraction, and text categorization. In this paper, we propose an efficient multiple classifier approach to text categorization based on swarm-optimized topic modelling. The Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) can overcome the high dimensionality problem of vector space model, but identifying appropriate parameter values is critical to performance of LDA. Swarm-optimized approach estimates the parameters of LDA, including the number of topics and all the other parameters involved in LDA. The hybrid ensemble pruning approach based on combined diversity measures and clustering aims to obtain a multiple classifier system with high predictive performance and better diversity. In this scheme, four different diversity measures (namely, disagreement measure, Q-statistics, the correlation coefficient, and the double fault measure) among classifiers of the ensemble are combined. Based on the combined diversity matrix, a swarm intelligence based clustering algorithm is employed to partition the classifiers into a number of disjoint groups and one classifier (with the highest predictive performance) from each cluster is selected to build the final multiple classifier system. The experimental results based on five biomedical text benchmarks have been conducted. In the swarm-optimized LDA, different metaheuristic algorithms (such as genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm, cuckoo search algorithm, and bat algorithm) are considered. In the ensemble pruning, five metaheuristic clustering algorithms are evaluated. The experimental results on biomedical text benchmarks indicate that swarm-optimized LDA yields better predictive performance compared to the conventional LDA. In addition, the proposed multiple classifier system outperforms the conventional classification algorithms, ensemble learning, and ensemble pruning methods.
Nanocrystals of Poorly Soluble Drugs: Drug Bioavailability and Physicochemical Stability

Many approaches have been developed over time to overcome the bioavailability limitations of poorly soluble drugs. With the advances in nanotechnology in recent decades, science and industry have been approaching this issue through the formulation of drugs as nanocrystals, which consist of “pure drugs and a minimum of surface active agents required for stabilization”. They are defined as “carrier-free submicron colloidal drug delivery systems with a mean particle size in the nanometer range, typically between 10–800 nm”. The primary importance of these nanoparticles was the reduction of particle size to nanoscale dimensions, with an increase in the particle surface area in contact with the dissolution medium, and thus in bioavailability. This approach has been proven successful, as demonstrated by the number of such drug products on the market. Nonetheless, despite the definition that indicates nanocrystals as a “carrier-free” system, surface active agents are necessary to prevent colloidal particles aggregation and thus improve stability. In addition, in more recent years, nanocrystal properties and technologies have attracted the interest of researchers as a means to obtain colloidal particles with modified biological properties, and thus their interest is now also addressed to modify the drug delivery and targeting. The present work provides an overview of the achievements in improving the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs according to their administration route, describes the methods developed to overcome physicochemical and stability-related problems, and in particular reviews different stabilizers and surface agents that are able to modify the drug delivery and targeting.
Superoxide Anion Production and Bioenergetic Profile in Young and Elderly Human Primary Myoblasts

Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function. It is associated with regenerative difficulties by satellite cells, adult muscle stem cells, and alteration of oxidative management, mainly the increase in superoxide anions (O2 •−). We aimed to investigate the relation between regenerative deficit in elderly and increase in O2 •− production along with mitochondrial alterations. Myoblasts and myotubes from skeletal muscle of young and elderly healthy subjects (27.8 ± 6 and 72.4 ± 6.5 years old) were measured: (1) superoxide dismutase activity and protein content, (2) mitochondrial O2 •− production levels, (3) O2 •− production variability, and (4) mitochondrial bioenergetic profile. Compared to young myoblasts, elderly myoblasts displayed decreased SOD2 protein expression, elevated mitochondrial O2 •− baseline levels, and decreased oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis. Additionally, elderly versus young myotubes showed elevated mitochondrial O2 •− levels when stressed with N-acetyl cysteine or high glucose and higher glycolysis despite showing comparable oxidative phosphorylation levels. Altogether, the elderly may have less metabolic plasticity due to the impaired mitochondrial function caused by O2 •−. However, the increased energy demand related to the differentiation process appears to activate compensatory mechanisms for the partial mitochondrial dysfunction.
Rapamycin rescues BMP mediated midline craniosynostosis phenotype through reduction of mTOR signaling in a mouse model

Craniosynostosis is defined as congenital premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures. While the genetic basis for about 30% of cases is known, the causative genes for the diverse presentations of the remainder of cases are unknown. The recently discovered cranial suture stem cell population affords an opportunity to identify early signaling pathways that contribute to craniosynostosis. We previously demonstrated that enhanced BMP signaling in neural crest cells (caA3 mutants) leads to premature cranial suture fusion resulting in midline craniosynostosis. Since enhanced mTOR signaling in neural crest cells leads to craniofacial bone lesions, we investigated the extent to which mTOR signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of BMP‐mediated craniosynostosis by affecting the suture stem cell population. Our results demonstrate a loss of suture stem cells in the caA3 mutant mice by the newborn stage. We have found increased activation of mTOR signaling in caA3 mutant mice during embryonic stages, but not at the newborn stage. Our study demonstrated that inhibition of mTOR signaling via rapamycin in a time specific manner partially rescued the loss of the suture stem cell population. This study provides insight into how enhanced BMP signaling regulates suture stem cells via mTOR activation.
Impact of SLCO1B1 Pharmacogenetic Testing on Patient and Healthcare Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes will facilitate the clinical implementation of pharmacogenetic testing. Using the association between solute carrier organic anion transporter family member 1B1 (SLCO1B1) and statin‐associated muscle symptoms (SAMSs) as a model, we conducted a systematic review of patient outcomes after delivery of SLCO1B1 results. Using PubMed and Embase searches through December 19, 2017, we identified 37 eligible records reporting preliminary or final outcomes, including six studies delivering only SLCO1B1 results and five large healthcare system–based implementation projects of multipharmacogene panels. Two small trials have demonstrated at least short‐term improvements in low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol after SLCO1B1 testing among previously statin intolerant patients. Evidence from large implementation projects suggests that SLCO1B1 results may change prescribing patterns for some high‐risk patients. No study has reported improvements in SAMSs or cardiovascular events or tracked the economic outcomes of SLCO1B1 testing. Ongoing studies should collect and report outcomes relevant to pharmacogenetics stakeholders.
2′‐Hydroxyflavanone inhibits in vitro and in vivo growth of breast cancer cells by targeting RLIP76

Consumption of citrus‐fruits is associated with reduced incidence of breast cancer (BC), the most common cancer diagnosed in women across the globe. In this study, we investigated the anticancer potential of 2‐Hydroxyflavanone (2HF) in BC. 2HF, a citrus‐bioflavonoid, has demonstrated anticancer properties in various cancers, but its anticancer role in BC has not been well studied. We investigated the in vitro and in vivo growth inhibitory effects of 2HF in an array of BC lines and in xenograft mouse models of ER‐positive and HER2‐positive BC cells. Compared to control, 2HF treatment reduced cell viability and suppressed migratory and invasive potential of BC cells, while, no growth inhibitory effects were observed in non‐tumorigenic breast epithelial cells. Further, 2HF inhibited the expression of RLIP76, a stress‐defensive and anti‐apoptotic protein, which is over‐expressed in BC cells and simultaneously reduced proliferation of BC cells. Nude mice bearing MCF7 or SKBR3 BC cells xenografts treated with either 2HF or targeting RLIP76 by RLIP76‐antisense or RLIP76‐antibody treatment had significantly lower tumor‐weight as compared to corresponding controls. In addition, Western‐blotting and immunohistochemical analysis of tumor tissue from control and treatment group mice showed that 2HF decreased protein expression levels of RLIP76, and the decrease was similar to those seen following RLIP76‐antisense treatment. Furthermore, 2HF decreased expression of Ki67, CD31, vimentin, inhibited phosphorylation of Akt and expression of survivin and Bcl2, and increased levels of Bax, E‐cadherin, and cleaved‐PARP. Therefore, our results indicate that 2HF may suppress BC growth in vitro and in vivo by targeting RLIP76, and may serve as a potential adjuvant treatment in BC patients.
Analysis of Factors Related to Back Squat Concentric Velocity

Abstract Fahs, CA, Rossow, LM, and Zourdos, MC. Aanalysis of factors related to back squat concentric velocity. J Strength Cond Res 32(9): 2435–2441, 2018—Measuring bar velocity during barbell exercises can be a useful metric for prescribing resistance training loads and for predicting the 1 repetition maximum (1RM). However, it is not clear whether either anthropometric factors (e.g., limb length) or training experience influences bar velocity. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between 1RM back squat bar velocity and femur length, training experience, strength, and 36.6-m sprint time in college athletes. Thirteen college football (22 ± 1 years) and 8 college softball players (20 ± 1 years) performed the 36.6-m sprint followed by a 1RM back squat protocol while average concentric velocity and peak concentric velocity were measured. Height (m), body mass (kg), squat training experience (years), squat frequency (d·wk−1), and femur length (m) were also measured. Pearson product moment correlations were used to determine the relationship between variables. Average concentric velocity was not related to training age (r = 0.150, p = 0.515), squat frequency (r = 0.254, p = 0.266), femur length (r = 0.002, p = 0.992), or relative strength (r = −0.090, p = 0.699). Peak concentric velocity was related to 36.6-m sprint time (r = −0.612, p = 0.003), relative squat average (r = 0.489, p = 0.029), and relative peak (r = 0.901, p < 0.001) power. These results suggest that college athletes using velocity to regulate squat training may not necessarily need to modify velocity ranges based on limb length or training age. In addition, peak velocity during a 1RM back squat may be a useful indicator of an athlete's relative power output ability and speed. Coaches may consider measuring velocity during strength testing as a surrogate measure for speed and power.
ESBMC 5.0: An Industrial-Strength C Model Checker

ESBMC is a mature, permissively licensed open-source context-bounded model checker for the verification of single- and multithreaded C programs. It can verify both predefined safety properties (e.g., bounds check, pointer safety, overflow) and user-defined program assertions automatically. ESBMC provides C++ and Python APIs to access internal data structures, allowing inspection and extension at any stage of the verification process. We discuss improvements over previous versions of ESBMC, including the description of new front- and back-ends, IEEE floating-point support, and an improved k-induction algorithm. A demonstration is available at https://www.youtube. com/watch? v=YcJjXHlN1v8.
Lost in Aggregation: The Geographic Distribution of Kwashiorkor in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background: Kwashiorkor is a major classification of severe acute malnutrition whose etiology remains elusive. It is estimated to affect hundreds of thousands of children annually, but no accurate global prevalence figures are available. Little is known how prevalence varies within populations, an important undocumented aspect of kwashiorkor obscured by the aggregation of prevalence or incidence of the condition across large populations and geographic areas. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of kwashiorkor in select neighboring villages of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and assess if prevalence can vary dramatically among neighboring villages. Methods: An anthropometric census survey evaluated 1328 children aged 12 to 59 months within all 19 villages in one health area of eastern DRC, recording all cases of kwashiorkor, diagnosed by bipedal pitting edema. Results: Village-level prevalence of kwashiorkor in the study area varied from 0% to 14.9%. Interviews with health services staff in the study area and across 2 provinces confirmed that current differences in prevalence reflect a long-term pattern and are a common feature of kwashiorkor throughout this region. Conclusions: Aggregation of kwashiorkor prevalence and incidence data across large populations or geographic regions poses several risks to understanding the epidemiology of kwashiorkor. If clustering of kwashiorkor is not taken into account, (1) nutritional crises in particular villages may go undetected; (2) the real effect of interventions may be underestimated; (3) interventions may be inappropriately targeted, leading to reduced coverage, efficacy, and cost-efficiency; and (4) important insights into the root causes of kwashiorkor may be lost.
Lower Pretreatment Gut Integrity Is Independently Associated With Fat Gain on Antiretroviral Therapy

BACKGROUND Fat accumulation and insulin resistance remain a threat to the success of antiretroviral therapy (ART). The role of gut dysfunction in metabolic complications associated with ART initiation is unclear. METHODS Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected ART-naive participants were randomized to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine plus atazanavir/ritonavir, darunavir/ritonavir, or raltegravir (RAL). Changes in the gut integrity markers zonulin, lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), and intestinal fatty acid and ileal bile acid binding proteins (I-FABP and I-BABP) were assessed over 96 weeks. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare changes between groups and linear regression models to quantify associations between gut markers, insulin resistance, body mass index (BMI), and visceral, subcutaneous, and total adipose tissue (VAT, SAT, and TAT). RESULTS : 90% were male and 48% were White non-Hispanic. The median age was 36 years, HIV-1 ribonucleic acid was 4.56 log10 copies/mL, and CD4 count was 338 cells/µL. An overall 1.7-fold increase in I-FABP was observed throughout 96 weeks, with no difference between arms. Zonulin levels increased with RAL compared to protease inhibitor-based regimens (week 96, P = .02); minimal changes in I-BABP or LBP levels were observed. Higher baseline I-FABP levels were associated with increases in VAT, TAT, and BMI (16%, 9%, and 2.5%, respectively; P < .04) over 96 weeks. CONCLUSIONS While ART induces changes in the markers of gut barrier dysfunction, the extent to which they improve or worsen the gut barrier function remains unclear. Nevertheless, markers of gut barrier dysfunction in ART-naive individuals predict increases in total and visceral abdominal fat with treatment initiation.
N-glycanase NGLY1 regulates mitochondrial homeostasis and inflammation through NRF1

Mutations in the NGLY1 (N-glycanase 1) gene, encoding an evolutionarily conserved deglycosylation enzyme, are associated with a rare congenital disorder leading to global developmental delay and neurological abnormalities. The molecular mechanism of the NGLY1 disease and its function in tissue and immune homeostasis remain unknown. Here, we find that NGLY1-deficient human and mouse cells chronically activate cytosolic nucleic acid–sensing pathways, leading to elevated interferon gene signature. We also find that cellular clearance of damaged mitochondria by mitophagy is impaired in the absence of NGLY1, resulting in severely fragmented mitochondria and activation of cGAS–STING as well as MDA5–MAVS pathways. Furthermore, we show that NGLY1 regulates mitochondrial homeostasis through transcriptional factor NRF1. Remarkably, pharmacological activation of a homologous but nonglycosylated transcriptional factor NRF2 restores mitochondrial homeostasis and suppresses immune gene activation in NGLY1-deficient cells. Together, our findings reveal novel functions of the NGLY1–NRF1 pathway in mitochondrial homeostasis and inflammation and uncover an unexpected therapeutic strategy using pharmacological activators of NRF2 for treating mitochondrial and immune dysregulation.
Simulation based cuckoo search optimization algorithm for flexible job shop scheduling problem

The Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO) is a novel evolutionary algorithm having natural swarm intelligence behavior and suitable for NP-Hard combinatorial problems. This algorithm possesses the features of the way of living of a bird's family, called Cuckoo. Particularly, the system of "egg laying and breeding" of cuckoos is the driving force behind the development of this nature inspired algorithm. The survival endeavor of cuckoos converges to a society in which each cuckoo has same fitness value. Thus, CSO algorithm has been recognized to handle the complex optimization problems, effectively. Therefore, in the present work, simulation based CSO algorithm has been proposed to solve flexible job shop scheduling problem, which is a well-known and real-world problem. The value of fitness function is evaluated through simulation. Simulation is used to calculate value of performance measure as it yields the performance closed to a real system as compare to the mathematical functions. PROMODEL© simulation software has been used to model the shop. Makespan is considered as a performance measure. Results indicates that simulation-based CSO algorithm is effective to optimize the flexible job shop scheduling problem.
Shared-Memory Parallel Computation of Morse-Smale Complexes with Improved Accuracy

Topological techniques have proven to be a powerful tool in the analysis and visualization of large-scale scientific data. In particular, the Morse-Smale complex and its various components provide a rich framework for robust feature definition and computation. Consequently, there now exist a number of approaches to compute Morse-Smale complexes for large-scale data in parallel. However, existing techniques are based on discrete concepts which produce the correct topological structure but are known to introduce grid artifacts in the resulting geometry. Here, we present a new approach that combines parallel streamline computation with combinatorial methods to construct a high-quality discrete Morse-Smale complex. In addition to being invariant to the orientation of the underlying grid, this algorithm allows users to selectively build a subset of features using high-quality geometry. In particular, a user may specifically select which ascending/descending manifolds are reconstructed with improved accuracy, focusing computational effort where it matters for subsequent analysis. This approach computes Morse-Smale complexes for larger data than previously feasible with significant speedups. We demonstrate and validate our approach using several examples from a variety of different scientific domains, and evaluate the performance of our method.