Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soft and persistent-The influence of sand-flooring and calves on the resting behavior of a zoo-kept African elephant (Loxodonta africana) group.

Caring for all aspects of zoo elephants' well-being is considered a major challenge. Providing an appropriate flooring substrate to facilitate lying rest presents a meaningful part of a holistic management concept. Investigating the impact of a new sand flooring on the nocturnal resting behavior of a breeding group of seven African elephants living at one zoo revealed more total lying rest, longer bouts of lying rest and a reduced side preference in the adult females. With an average total daily lying rest of about 1.5-2.0 hrs, the investigated zoo elephants expressed longer lying rest compared to recently reported data from free-ranging individuals in Botswana. In addition, the presence of nursing calves in the observed elephant group seemed to impact the resting pattern of all group members, with around 60% of all lying bouts being discontinued after interruption by the youngsters. With respect to observed nursing during leaning rest, we encourage the installation of appropriate horizontal structures in breeding facilities to support leaning rest behavior of their female elephants. In doing so, zoos may improve rest quality of nursing females, and, in general, the welfare aspect of sleep for their elephants.
International Consensus on the Use of Genetics in the Management of Hereditary Angioedema

54 Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is becoming much more genetically complex than was initially 55 considered. Thus, the role of HAE genetics is expanding beyond research laboratories and 56 the genotyping of subjects suffering from HAE has become diagnostically indispensable in 57 clinical practice. The synthesis and interpretation of the clinical and biochemical analyses to 58 facilitate appropriate genetic test selection has thus also become significantly more 59 complex. With this in mind, an international multidisciplinary group of 13 experts in HAE 60 genetics and disease management was convened in October 2018. The objective was to 61 develop clear, actionable, evidence- and consensus-based statements aiming to facilitate the 62 communication between physicians treating HAE patients and clinical geneticists, and thus 63 promote the effective use of genetics in the management of the disease. Eleven consensus 64 statements were generated, encompassing considerations regarding the clinical indications 65 for genotyping angioedema patients, the methods of detection of HAE causative variants, 66 the variant pathogenicity curation, the genotyping of HAE patients in the clinic, and genetic 67 counseling. These statements are intended both to guide clinicians and to serve as a 68 framework for future educational and further genetic testing developments as the field 69 continues to evolve rapidly. 70 71
MediMLP: Using Grad-CAM to Extract Crucial Variables for Lung Cancer Postoperative Complication Prediction

Lung cancer postoperative complication prediction (PCP) is significant for decreasing the perioperative mortality rate after lung cancer surgery. In this paper we concentrate on two PCP tasks: (1) the binary classification for predicting whether a patient will have postoperative complications; and (2) the three-class multi-label classification for predicting which postoperative complication a patient will experience. Furthermore, an important clinical requirement of PCP is the extraction of crucial variables from electronic medical records. We propose a novel multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model called medical MLP (MediMLP) together with the gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) algorithm for lung cancer PCP. The proposed MediMLP, which involves one locally connected layer and fully connected layers with a shortcut connection, simultaneously extracts crucial variables and performs PCP tasks. The experimental results indicated that MediMLP outperformed normal MLP on two PCP tasks and had comparable performance with existing feature selection methods. Using MediMLP and further experimental analysis, we found that the variable of “time of indwelling drainage tube” was very relevant to lung cancer postoperative complications.
Determining factors of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration specimens for lung cancer subtyping and molecular testing

Objective: This study is to explore the determining factors for testing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion after subtyping by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using samples obtained from endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). Materials and Methods: Patients suspected with advanced lung cancer were performed EBUS-TBNA without rapid on-site evaluation(ROSE) from January 2015 to March 2016 in Shanghai Chest Hospital. All samples diagnosed as lung cancer by histopathology underwent IHC to identify subtypes. EGFR mutation and ALK fusion were tested in adenocarcinoma and non-small-cell lung cancer-not otherwise specified (NSCLC-NOS) using remnant tissue samples. Results: A total of 453 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer, including 44.15% (200/453) with adenocarcinoma and 11.04% (50/453) with NSCLC-NOS. With the average passes of 3.41 ± 0.68, samples obtained from EBUS-TBNA were adequate for performing EGFR mutation and ALK fusion gene analysis in 80.4% (201/250) of specimens after routine IHC. On univariate analysis, successful molecular testing was associated with passes per lesion (P = 3.80E-05), long-axis diameters (P = 6.00E-06) and short-axis diameters (P = 4.77E-04), and pathology subtypes of lesions (P = 3.00E-03). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that passes per lesion (P = 1.00E-03), long-axis diameters (P = 3.50E-02), and pathology subtypes (P = 8.00E-03) were independent risk factors associated with successful molecular testing. Conclusions: With at least three passes of per lesion, EBUS-TBNA is an efficient method to provide adequate samples for testing of EGFR mutation and ALK gene arrangement following routine histopathology and IHC subtyping. Determining factors associated with successful pathology subtyping and molecular testing using samples obtained by EBUS-TBNA are passes of per lesion, long-axis diameter, and pathology subtypes. During the process of EBUS-TBNA, selecting larger lymph nodes and the puncturing at least 3 passes per lesion may result in higher success rate in lung cancer subtyping and molecular testing.
Synaptic Inputs to the Mouse Dorsal Vagal Complex and Its Resident Preproglucagon Neurons

Stress responses are coordinated by widespread neural circuits. Homeostatic and psychogenic stressors activate preproglucagon (PPG) neurons in the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNTS) that produce glucagon-like peptide-1; published work in rodents indicates that these neurons play a crucial role in stress responses. While the axonal targets of PPG neurons are well established, their afferent inputs are unknown. Stress responses are coordinated by widespread neural circuits. Homeostatic and psychogenic stressors activate preproglucagon (PPG) neurons in the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNTS) that produce glucagon-like peptide-1; published work in rodents indicates that these neurons play a crucial role in stress responses. While the axonal targets of PPG neurons are well established, their afferent inputs are unknown. Here we use retrograde tracing with cholera toxin subunit b to show that the cNTS in male and female mice receives axonal inputs similar to those reported in rats. Monosynaptic and polysynaptic inputs specific to cNTS PPG neurons were revealed using Cre-conditional pseudorabies and rabies viruses. The most prominent sources of PPG monosynaptic input include the lateral (LH) and paraventricular (PVN) nuclei of the hypothalamus, parasubthalamic nucleus, lateral division of the central amygdala, and Barrington's nucleus (Bar). Additionally, PPG neurons receive monosynaptic vagal sensory input from the nodose ganglia and spinal sensory input from the dorsal horn. Sources of polysynaptic input to cNTS PPG neurons include the hippocampal formation, paraventricular thalamus, and prefrontal cortex. Finally, cNTS-projecting neurons within PVN, LH, and Bar express the activation marker cFOS in mice after restraint stress, identifying them as potential sources of neurogenic stress-induced recruitment of PPG neurons. In summary, cNTS PPG neurons in mice receive widespread monosynaptic and polysynaptic input from brain regions implicated in coordinating behavioral and physiological stress responses, as well as from vagal and spinal sensory neurons. Thus, PPG neurons are optimally positioned to integrate signals of homeostatic and psychogenic stress. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent research has indicated a crucial role for glucagon-like peptide-1-producing preproglucagon (PPG) neurons in regulating both appetite and behavioral and autonomic responses to acute stress. Intriguingly, the central glucagon-like peptide-1 system defined in rodents is conserved in humans, highlighting the translational importance of understanding its anatomical organization. Findings reported here indicate that PPG neurons receive significant monosynaptic and polysynaptic input from brain regions implicated in autonomic and behavioral responses to stress, as well as direct input from vagal and spinal sensory neurons. Improved understanding of the neural pathways underlying the recruitment of PPG neurons may facilitate the development of novel therapies for the treatment of stress-related disorders.
Morphology and Spatial Probability Maps of the Horizontal Ascending Ramus of the Lateral Fissure.

The horizontal ascending ramus of the lateral fissure (half) is a characteristic sulcus of the ventrolateral frontal cortex that forms the morphological boundary between the pars triangularis and the pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus. The present study examined the morphology of this sulcus to provide a means of identifying it accurately with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Voxels within the half were labeled in 50 in vivo MRI volumes (1.5 T) that had been linearly registered to the Montreal Neurological Institute stereotaxic space and the morphology of the half was categorized based on relations with neighboring sulci. The spatial variability and extent of the half were then quantified across subjects using volumetric (MINC Toolkit) and surface (FreeSurfer) spatial probability maps. The half could be identified in 95% of hemispheres, and the main morphological patterns were classified into three categories: Types I, II, and III. There were no statistically significant interhemispheric differences in the frequency of the half or its morphological patterns. Understanding the details of the sulcal morphology of this ventrolateral region is critical for an accurate interpretation of the location of activation peaks generated in functional neuroimaging studies investigating language, working memory, and other cognitive processes.
Effects of phytogenic feed additives, probiotic and mannan-oligosaccharides on performance, blood metabolites, meat quality, intestinal morphology, and microbial population of Japanese quail

ABSTRACT 1. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi) and dill (Anethum graveolens) essential oils (AEO and DEO, respectively), probiotic (PRO) and mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) on the growth performance, serum metabolites, meat quality, intestinal morphology and microbial populations of Japanese quail. 2. A total of 375 one-day-old Japanese quail were randomly allocated into five treatment groups with five replicates of 15 birds each for a 42 d feeding experiment. The dietary treatments were a basal diet (control) or the same diet supplemented with PRO (0.15 g/kg feed), MOS (2 g/kg feed), AEO (0.25 g/kg feed) or DEO (0.25 g/kg feed). 3. AEO, MOS, and PRO supplementation increased weight gain, while diets supplemented with AEO decreased feed intake (FI), and improved feed conversion ratio from d 1 to 21 (P < 0.05). The relative weight of the gizzard was higher in birds supplemented with AEO compared to control group, while the birds fed MOS diet had the longest intestine (P < 0.05). Ceca length was greater in control, MOS and PRO groups (P < 0.05). Both essential oils decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration of breast meat and percentage of cooking loss in quail (P < 0.05). The villus length (VL) was greater in birds fed diet supplemented with MOS, AEO, and DEO (P < 0.05). The population of E.coli decreased in Japanese quail fed MOS, while Lactobacilli spp. count was increased in the MOS group (P < 0.05). 4. In conclusion, AEO, MOS, and PRO supplementation exhibited a positive effect on growth performance, while lipid peroxidation of the meat decreased in birds fed AEO and DEO diets. The intestinal morphometric indices increased in quail fed the AEO, MOS, and DEO diets. Supplementation with MOS modulated intestinal microbial populations of the Japanese quail.
Antibiotics can cause weight loss by impairing gut microbiota in mice and the potent benefits of lactobacilli

ABSTRACT This study assessed whether antibiotics could alter gut microbiota to affect host growth and the possibility of alleviation by lactobacilli. We divided four-week-old BABL/c mice into control (Ctrl), antibiotic exposure (Abx), Lactobacillus plantarum PC-170 (PC), and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) group and the Abx, LGG, and PC group received an one-week antibiotic/antibiotic + probiotic treatment. The fecal microbiota and the expression of splenic cytokines were determined. Following the ceftriaxone treatment, the body weight gain of Abx was delayed compared with others. The ceftriaxone treatment significantly decreased the alpha-diversity of the fecal microbiota and altered the fecal microbiota but LGG and PC can partly alleviate the effect. At the end of the study, the microbial community of LGG and PC group were more similar to Ctrl compared with Abx group. The results indicated that ceftriaxone could significantly alter intestinal microbiota. Lactobacilli might alleviate the side effects of antibiotics by stabilizing the intestinal microbiota. Graphical abstract Lactobacilli alleviate dysbiosis of the gut microbiota induced by antibiotic.
Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Arabic Version of the Rating Anxiety in Dementia Scale

ABSTRACT Objectives: This study aims to cross-culturally adapt the Rating Anxiety in Dementia (RAID) scale into Arabic language, evaluate its psychometric properties in a sample of Lebanese patients with dementia and determine the optimal cutoff for the identification of anxiety. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 136 patients with dementia aged 55 years and above. RAID-A was administered to a formal caregiver of the patient as well as a battery of psychological tools namely Hamilton anxiety scale (HAM-A) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory anxiety subscale (NPI-A). The Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) was used to establish a clinical diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Results: RAID-A scale demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s a = 0.82) and test-retest reliability (Intraclass coefficient = 0.99). Significant correlations were found between RAID-A total score and both NPI-A (r = 0.43) and HAM-A (r = 0.88) suggesting good concurrent validity. Results from the receiver operating curve analysis identified a score of 11 as the optimal cutoff for the diagnosis of GAD with a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 82%. Conclusions: The Arabic version of the RAID scale exhibits good psychometric properties. Clinical Implications: RAID is a valid tool to measure anxiety in Arabic elder patients suffering from dementia.
GLP-1 Analog Modulates Appetite, Taste Preference, Gut Hormones and Regional Body Fat Stores in Adults with Obesity.

PURPOSE Obesity is associated with alterations in appetite, gastrointestinal (GI) hormone levels and excessive fat mass. We previously published a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, 16-week trial on effects of once daily GLP-1 analog, liraglutide on weight, satiation, and gastric functions in obese volunteers. The aim of this sub-study was to compare to placebo the effects of liraglutide on appetite, taste preference, regional body fat stores and anthropometric measurements. METHODS Forty obese adults received standard instruction for weight management, monthly behavioral intervention utilizing motivational interviews, and 16-week treatment of once daily liraglutide (escalated to 3mg SQ daily). At baseline and 16 weeks, the following were measured: appetite and taste preferences rated every 30 minutes for 5 hours after ingesting 300mL Ensure®; maximal tolerated volume (MTV) with a nutrient drink test; fasting and postprandial bioactive GLP-1 (7-36) and PYY levels; total and regional body fat with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and waist and hip circumference. RESULTS Thirty-five participants (17 liraglutide; 18 placebo) completed the trial. Compared to placebo group, liraglutide group had significant reductions in MTV, prospective food consumption score, desire to eat something sweet, salty, savory or fatty, and an increase in perceived fullness. Postprandial plasma levels of GLP-1 decreased and PYY levels increased with liraglutide relative to baseline. Significant reductions in total body, trunk, upper and lower body fat without reduction in lean body mass were observed. CONCLUSION Liraglutide 3mg SQ modulates appetite, taste preference, gut hormones and regional body fat stores in adults with obesity without reduction in lean body mass.
Clinical landmarks in chronic otitis media with tympanosclerosis: clinical history may have predictive value in the diagnosis of ossicular chain mobility.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate clinical characteristics of tympanosclerosis and to investigate the predictive value of clinical evaluation in diagnosing the ossicular chain status in tympanosclerosis. METHODS The study included 166 ears operated on for chronic otitis media. Age, gender, duration of symptoms and history of ear drainage were recorded from the patient's file. Details of ossicular mobility were obtained from the operation records. RESULTS There was no difference in age or disease duration between ears with chronic otitis media with or without tympanosclerosis. The ears with chronic otitis media without tympanosclerosis had a higher rate of middle-ear suppuration compared to those with tympanosclerosis (p < 0.001). In chronic otitis media with tympanosclerosis, the ears with a mobile ossicular chain had a higher rate of active drainage in their clinical history compared to ears with a fixed ossicular chain (p = 0.026). Stapes fixation was present mostly in dry ears with tympanosclerosis (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION Chronic otitis media with tympanosclerosis is characterised by the long-term absence of suppurations. The probability of having a fixed ossicular chain or stapes was higher in tympanosclerosis cases with no ear drainage.
GST: A Brain-Inspired Graph Signal Transmitter for Biomedical Image Segmentation

Automatic segmentation of biomedical image is of great significance for computer-aided diagnosis. Different from the existing segmentation models based on convolutional neural network or attention mechanism with pixelwise prediction mode, this paper proposes a new Graph Signal Transmitter (GST) which regresses patch probability directly from the evolved semantic node and edge features. The images pass through an encoder to derive the semantic features, each voxel of which is taken as a node, and the corresponding feature vector along the channel dimension is taken as the node feature of the initial graph layer, and the relative positions between different nodes are considered as the edge features. With the feedforward process, the node and edge features of the following layers are evolved by fusing the features of source nodes, destination nodes and edges. The node features of the last graph layers are directly mapped back to the patch in semantic space with fold module and generate segmentation map. In the semantic and instance segmentation tasks for gland dataset, comparative experiments show that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods, and ablation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of GST.
Pharmacokinetics, tissue residues, and ex vivo pharmacodynamics of tylosin against Mycoplasma anatis in ducks.

The pharmacokinetics of tylosin were investigated in 3 groups of ducks (n = 6). They received a single dose of tylosin (50 mg/kg) by intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), and oral administrations, respectively. Plasma samples were collected at various time points to 24 hr post-administration to evaluate tylosin concentration over time. Additionally, tylosin residues in tissues and its withdrawal time were assessed using 30 ducks which received tylosin orally (50 mg/kg) once daily for 5 consecutive days. After IV administration, the volume of distribution, elimination half-life, area under the plasma concentration-time curve, and the total body clearance were 7.07 ± 1.98 L/kg, 2.04 hr, 19.47 µg hr/ml, and 2.82 L hr-1 kg-1 , respectively. After IM and oral administrations, the maximum plasma concentrations were 3.70 and 2.75 µg/ml achieved at 1 and 2 hr, and the bioavailability was 93.95% and 75.77%, respectively. The calculated withdrawal periods of tylosin were 13, 8, and 5 days for kidney, liver, and muscle, respectively. For the pharmacodynamic profile, the minimum inhibitory concentration for tylosin against M. anatis strain 1,340 was 1 µg/ml. The calculated optimal oral dose of tylosin against M. anatis in ducks based on the ex vivo pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling was 61 mg kg-1 day-1 .
Bacteriuria in pregnancy varies with the ambiance: a retrospective observational study at a tertiary hospital in Doha, Qatar

Abstract Objectives To explore the influence of ambient temperature and humidity on significant bacteriuria (SB) and urinary bacterial isolates in pregnant women. Methods A retrospective observational study was conducted in the sole tertiary-care hospital in Doha, Qatar. A sample of 1588 pregnant women delivering between June 2012 and March 2013 was randomly selected. Meteorological variables including ambient average daily temperature and humidity were sourced from online meteorological data, and patient information such as demographic data, urine culture results and bacterial isolates were collected from patient files. The receptor operative curve (ROC) analysis was used to determine the cutoff for temperature and humidity. Statistical analyses of associations between SB and bacterial isolates with respect to the ambient temperature and humidity were performed using Pearson’s correlation, the chi-square (χ2) test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results Of the 21.24% positive cultures, 11.25% had SB. SB showed a significant strong positive (r = +0.677, n = 17, P = 0.003) and moderate negative (r = −0.587, n = 17, P = 0.013) correlation with average monthly temperature and humidity, respectively, with doubling of rates noted with temperatures ≥35°C (11.3% vs. 3.6%; P < 0.0001) and humidity ≤50% (10.6% vs. 3.2%; P < 0.0001). Escherichia coli and Group B Streptococcus (GBS) were the most common isolates. Conclusion This is the first study in this region that demonstrates maternal risk with SB, with ambient temperatures of ≥35°C and humidity ≤50%. The effect of these variables on the growth of various urinary bacteria has also been shown.