Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide Emissions vs. Feeding and Defecation Activities of Laying Hens

This study characterizes dynamic ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with feeding and defecation activities of laying hens. Manure handling scheme used was reflective of commercial manure-belt house operation. Four dynamic emission chambers and measurement system was developed, featuring continuous measurement of the following variables for each chamber: (a) NH3 concentrations of inlet and outlet air, (b) air temperature and relative humidity, (c) airflow rate, (d) feeder weight and thus feeding activity, and (e) manure pan weight and thus defecation activity. Daily feed consumption of the hens averaged 103 g/hen-d and fresh manure production averaged 125 g/hen-d. Ammonia emission rate ranged from 1.26 mg/hen-hr on the first day of manure accumulation to 9.26 mg/hen-hr after 7 d of manure accumulation. CO2 emission rate averaged 3.41 and 2.47 g/hen-hr during light and dark hours of the day, respectively. Dynamic NH3 emissions tend to be inversely related to defecation events as manure accumulates. Results from this study will contribute to the development and/or validation of process-based farm emission model for predicting NH3 emissions from laying-hen houses. The dynamic nature of NH3 emissions vs. defecation may also provide insight concerning application timing of manure treatment agents to mitigate NH3 emissions from laying-hen houses.
Signal Transduction Pathways Mediating Parathyroid Hormone Stimulation of Bone Sialoprotein Gene Expression in Osteoblasts*

Bone sialoprotein is a major noncollagenous protein of bone. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) was shown to cause a 2-4-fold increase in the steady-state levels of bone sialoprotein mRNAs within primary cultures of embryonic osteoblasts. The induction could be mimicked by both forskolin and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and was not inhibited by cycloheximide. Transient expression of a ∼1200-base pair avian 5′ bsp promoter/reporter construct demonstrated similar inductions as mRNA levels. Co-transfection of an expression plasmid encoding heat-stable inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, a peptide inhibitor of PKA, decreased both the basal and PTH-induced bsp transcription, while co-expression of the catalytic subunit of PKA-induced bsp expression 3-fold. Protein kinase C activation, on the other hand, did not appear to work through its activation of c-fos, since co-transfection of an expression clone for c-fos had no effect. Interestingly, heat-stable inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase also inhibited the phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate induction, suggesting that the protein kinase C acts through some form of interaction with the cAMP/PKA pathway. A half-cAMP response element site in the bsp promoter was identified as the cis-acting element that mediated the PTH response by the transient transfections with reporter constructs containing nested deletions of the promoter or a heterologous promoter containing the cAMP response element. In conclusion, these data indicate that PTH stimulation of bsp gene expression is specific to osteoblasts and mediated by changing cellular cAMP/PKA levels. They further suggest that although protein kinase C is capable of stimulating the gene by itself, it plays a minimal role in mediating the PTH induction of bone sialoprotein.
Variants in adiponectin signaling pathway genes show little association with subclinical CVD in the diabetes heart study

Understanding the interplay between adiposity, inflammation, and cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains a challenge. Signaling from adipocytes is considered important in this context. Adiponectin is the most abundant adipocytokine and has been associated with various measures of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study examines the relationships between genetic variants in the adiponectin (ADIPOQ) and adiponectin‐related signaling pathway genes and measures of subclinical CVD (vascular calcified plaque and carotid intima‐media thickness), plasma lipids, and inflammation in T2DM.
It's Not What You Think: Gender Bias in Information about Fortune 1000 CEOs on Wikipedia

Increasingly, information generated by open collaboration communities is being trusted and used by individuals to make decisions and carry out work tasks. Little is known about the quality of this information or the bias it may contain. In this study we address the question: How is gender bias embedded in information about organizational leaders in an open collaboration community? To answer this question, we use the bias framework developed by Miranda and colleagues (2016) to study bias stemming from structural constraints and content restrictions in the open collaboration community Wikipedia. Comparison of Wikipedia profiles of Fortune 1000 CEOs reveals that selection, source, and influence bias stemming from structural constraints on Wikipedia advantage women and disadvantage men. This finding suggests that information developed by open collaboration communities may contain unexpected forms of bias.
A multi-schedule approach to high-level synthesis

Traditional high-level synthesis systems generate a single schedule, and try to minimize the allocation cost for that schedule. Since there are often a large number of schedules for a given problem, this approach prematurely prunes the design space and it may miss many better solutions. The multi-schedule synthesis approach overcomes this deficiency by producing a number of schedules and generating a complete data-path for each schedule. In most cases multi-schedule synthesis not only produces better results but also runs faster than well-known synthesis systems such as HAL, SALSA, and SE. <<ETX>>
Cone-mediated multifocal electroretinogram in early age-related maculopathy and its relationships with subjective macular function tests

Purpose. To investigate the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) and subjective function in early age-related maculopathy (ARM). Methods. Seventeen subjects with early ARM with visual acuity (VA) of 6/12 or better and 20 age-matched control subjects were examined. We assessed mfERGs, high and low contrast distance VA, near VA, low luminance VA, contrast sensitivity, saturated and desaturated Panel D-15 and visual fields (mean sensitivity). The mfERG responses were analysed by comparing central-overall (method 1) and superior-inferior (method 2) ratios. Results. The mfERG did not discriminate between the groups whereas colour vision (tritan deficiency), contrast sensitivity, and high contrast and low contrast VA showed significantly reduced responses for the early ARM group compared with the control group (p ≤⃒ 0.01). The mfERG first-order kernel responses correlated significantly with the desaturated D-15 in both methods (r = −0.5, p ≤⃒ 0.05). Fundus grading was not correlated with the mfERG measures. Conclusions. Although the mfERG correlated significantly with the desaturated D-15 in early ARM, suggesting it operates at a sensitive level, it failed to discriminate between the control and ARM groups. In our sample, the subjective function measures were more sensitive than the mfERG measures.
Involvement of hypothalamic peptides in the anorectic action of the CB1 receptor antagonist rimonabant (SR 141716)

Numerous studies have demonstrated that administration of rimonabant (SR 141716), a CB1 receptor antagonist, causes a decrease in energy intake. However, the mechanisms by which rimonabant exerts its anorectic actions are unclear. The main focus of the study reported here was to establish the chemical identity of neurons that may subserve the anorectic effects of rimonabant. As such three approaches were utilised: (i) the identification of rimonabant‐activated neurons using Fos as a marker of neuronal activity; (ii) the identification of the chemical phenotype of rimonabant‐activated neurons by combining immunocytochemical identification of Fos and feeding‐related peptides; and (iii) the evaluation of the effect of rimonabant on messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein for a number of feeding‐related peptides. Rimonabant‐induced Fos‐positive nuclei were localized within a range of discrete hypothalamic regions with a predominance in the parvocellular part of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, dorsomedial hypothalamus, arcuate nucleus and lateral hypothalamic area. Furthermore, Fos labelling within these hypothalamic regions was colocalized with anorexigenic and orexigenic peptides including melanin‐concentrating hormone (MCH), orexin, cocaine‐ and amphetamine‐regulated transcript (CART) and alpha‐melanocyte‐stimulating hormone (α‐MSH). Rimonabant specifically induced a decrease in NPY and an increase in CART and α‐MSH mRNA and protein, consistent with its effect in reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. As such these data provide insights into the mechanisms of action that may underpin rimonabant’s effects on energy balance and body weight.
Feeding Habits of Both Deep-Water Red Shrimps, Aristaeomorpha foliacea and Aristeus antennatus (Decapoda, Aristeidae) in the Ionian Sea (E. Mediterranean)

At bathyal depths, most of our knowledge on deep-sea demersal communities, mainly for both fishes and large invertebrates – e.g. decapods crustaceans, comes principally from areas where deep-water fisheries are commercially developed. Most deep-sea (>1000 m) fish are active predators, regarded as generalist (i.e. highly diversified diets) and depend mainly on benthopelagic and mesopelagic prey (Mauchline & Gordon, 1986). The distribution of these preys is closely associated with the bottom; however, many demersal fishes feed principally on vertically migrating mesopelagic organisms such as myctophids and cephalopods. Crustacean zooplanktivores constitute the majority of deep-sea pelagic fish species and families examined. Less common are predators that primarily ingest soft-bodied or gelatinous zooplankton, gastropod molluscs and polychaete worms. These categories of predators are generally represented by a few individual species within different families (Randall & Farrell, 1997)
Distribution and prevalence of crown rot pathogens affecting wheat crops in southern Chile

Crown rot pathogens are associated with higher losses for wheat crop farmers, but information about the distribution and prevalence of these pathogens in Chile is inadequate. Distribution and prevalence of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crown rot pathogens were examined in a survey of 48 commercial fields from December 2011 to February 2012 in southern Chile. These fields were located between Collipulli (37o56’00” S; 72°26’39” W) and Purranque (40o50’30” S; 73°22’03” W). Severity of crown rot disease was determined through visual assessment of the first internode of 20 tillers obtained from each field. Incidence of crown rot pathogens per field was determined by plating the 20 tillers on Petri plates with 20% potato dextrose agar amended with lactic acid (aPDA) medium. Resulting fungal colonies from monoxenic culture were identified by morphological or molecular-assisted identification. Severity of crown rot varied between 11.3% and 80% for individual fields. Culture plate analysis showed 72.2% of stems were infected with some fungus. Fusarium avenaceum, F. graminearum, and F. culmorum, pathogens associated with Fusarium crown rot disease were isolated from 13.5% of tillers. Gaeumannomyces graminis, causal agent of take-all disease in cereals, was isolated from 11.1% of culms. Phaeosphaeria sp. , an endophyte and possibly a non-pathogenic fungus, was isolated from 13.9% of tillers. Pathogenic fungi such as Rhizoctonia spp. and Microdochium nivale, other saprophyte, and several unidentified non-sporulating fungi were isolated at frequencies lower than 3% of the total. Fusarium crown rot and take-all were the most prevalent and distributed crown rot diseases present in wheat crops in southern Chile.
Phase I clinical and pharmacokinetic study of taxol.

Taxol, selected for clinical trial because of its animal antitumor activity and unique structure and mechanism of action, was administered in Cremophor by i.v. infusion over 6 h in a phase I study. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group toxicity grading was used. Eighty-three taxol courses were administered to 34 patients. Grade 3-4 hypersensitivity reactions occurred in 4 of 13 courses at the first 2 dose levels, but premedication with dexamethasone, diphenhydramine, and cimetidine resulted in only 3 additional Grade 2 reactions in the next 70 courses. Neurotoxicity, which resolved or improved after stopping therapy, was Grade 1 with 2 of 10 courses of 230 mg/m2 and Grades 1-3 after 11 of 12 courses of 275 mg/m2. Leukopenia, first seen (Grade 1) after 1 of 8 75 mg/m2 courses, was Grades 3-4 after 10 of 34 courses of 175-230 mg/m2 and 10 of 12 courses of 275 mg/m2. The WBC nadir occurred at a median of 10 days and the median time required for normalization of the WBC was 18 days. Alopecia began 2-3 weeks posttaxol in 2 of 9 patients treated with 75-135 mg/m2 and in all 16 patients (Grade 3) treated with 175-275 mg/m2. Grades 1-2 nausea and vomiting occurred in about one-third of the patients treated at a dose of 105 mg/m2 or more. Taxol disappearance from plasma was biphasic; half-lives of the first and second phases after a 275 mg/m2 dose were 0.32 and 8.6 h, respectively. The apparent volume of distribution was 55 liters/m2, and the peak plasma concentration with a dose of 275 mg/m2, which occurred immediately postinfusion, was approximately 8 microM. Only 5% of parent drug was excreted in the urine within 24 h. Minor objective responses were noted in one patient with gastric cancer and another with ovarian carcinoma. In addition, one patient with massive ascites due to metastatic adenocarcinoma from an unknown primary had only minimal sonographic evidence of ascites for 6 months posttreatment. Neurotoxicity and leukopenia were dose limiting in this schedule. The recommended phase II trial dose is 250 mg/m2, with premedication.
Maternal use of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors in early pregnancy and infant congenital malformations.

BACKGROUND Maternal use of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has recently been associated with an increased risk for certain malformations. METHODS Using the Swedish Medical Birth Register, we identified women who had reported the use of SSRIs in early pregnancy and studied their infants, born between July 1, 1995 and the end of 2004. Congenital malformations were identified from that register, from the Register of Congenital Malformations, and from the Hospital Discharge Register. The effect of drug exposure was studied after adjustment for a number of identified maternal characteristics that could act as confounders. RESULTS We identified 6,481 women who reported the use of SSRIs in early pregnancy and their 6,555 infants. There was no general increase in malformation risk. An increased risk for cystic kidneys was seen, but this was based on only nine malformed infants, and the pathology varied between these cases. An in-depth study of cardiovascular defects identified an association between such defects and notably ventricular and atrial septum defects and maternal use of paroxetine but not other SSRIs. No support for a postulated association between SSRI use and infant craniostenosis or omphalocele was found. CONCLUSIONS Use of SSRIs in early pregnancy does not seem to be a major risk factor for infant malformations. The association between paroxetine use and infant cardiovascular defects may be a result of multiple testing, but is supported by other studies.
Measurement of Refractive State and Deprivation Myopia in Two Strains of Mice

Purpose. The mouse eye has a bright retinal image (f/number <1) but low optical quality (visual acuity about 0.5 cpd) that may render emmetropization unnecessary. However, this species is potentially a powerful model to study eye growth and myopia because its genome can be readily manipulated and has been completely sequenced. We have investigated how precisely eyes of mice can be refracted and tested whether deprivation myopia can be induced by frosted diffusers. Methods. An automated eccentric infrared photorefractor was adapted to refract eyes of two mouse strains—C57BL/6 (B6) and DBA/2 (D2)—during Tropicamide cycloplegia without anesthesia. Axial lengths were measured in highly magnified video images of freshly excised eyes. Plastic hemispherical diffusers were applied between postnatal days and 29 and left attached for 7 or 14 days. Results. (1) Trial lenses ranging from +10 to −10 D produced high correlations between the brightness slope in the pupil and applied lens power (r = 0.81 and r = 0.87), demonstrating reliable refraction. Five repeated measures in 12 eyes showed an average standard deviation of 3.0 D, equivalent to an axial length change <10 &mgr;m (derived from schematic eye modeling). (2) Deprivation produced a significant shift toward myopia, relative to untreated eyes, but only after 14 days and only in B6 mice (p = 0.02 with or p = 0.00038 without one outlier; N = 9). In contrast, DBA/2J were unaffected by occlusion, perhaps due to mutations that target eye, lens, or anterior segment. (3) Both eyes of untreated animals often had axial lengths that differed markedly. Surprisingly, we detected no significant correlation between refractive error and axial length after treatment. Conclusions. The infrared refraction technique is sufficiently sensitive to resolve equivalent changes in axial length of only ±10 &mgr;m in alert mice. Prolonged occlusion produces a significant myopic shift in B6 mice, but not in D2 mice. Even among isogenic B6 mice, the response is variable for reasons that presumably trace back to subtle developmental, environmental, and technical factors.
Autoantibodies to beta2-glycoprotein I in systemic lupus erythematosus and primary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome: clinical correlations in comparison with other antiphospholipid antibody tests.

OBJECTIVE To examine relationships between anti-beta2-glycoprotein (beta2-GPI) antibodies and other antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) tests (aPL ELISA and the lupus anticoagulant or LAC) and the associations of each of these aPL tests with individual clinical manifestations of the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS). METHODS IgG and IgM anti-beta2-GPI antibodies were determined by ELISA in 281 patients with SLE, primary APS, or other connective tissue diseases. Frequencies, sensitivities, specificities, and predictive values and correlations of anti-beta2-GPI were compared to the aPL ELISA (IgG and IgM) and LAC for individual (and combined) features of APS. RESULTS Among 139 patients with positive aPL ELISA and/or LAC tests, 57 (41%) had anti-beta2-GPI antibodies (IgG and/or IgM) compared to 11% of patients with SLE negative for these tests (p = 0.00001). In 130 patients with APS, anti-beta2-GPI occurred in 42% and tended to be more specific but less sensitive than the aPL ELISA or LAC. When all 3 aPL tests were combined, the best sensitivities and negative predictive values were achieved; however, specificity and positive predictive values remained low. Anti-beta2-GPI antibodies occurred more frequently in primary APS (58%) vs secondary antiphospholipid syndromes (33%) (p = 0.008, OR = 2.9). Among 79 patients with SLE negative by both aPL ELISA and LAC, 9 (11 %) were positive for anti-beta2-GPI, 7 of whom had clinical features consistent with APS (representing 5% of all with APS). Stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis revealed beta2-GPI to be most strongly associated with neurological syndromes other than stroke, deep venous thrombosis, and recurrent fetal loss, while LAC was most strongly correlated with stroke and thrombocytopenia. IgM aPL antibodies also were independently associated with neurological syndromes and recurrent fetal loss. CONCLUSION Testing for beta2-GPI antibodies may be clinically useful in the diagnosis of APS but cannot supplant other aPL ELISA or LAC. Multivariate analyses suggest that anti-beta2-GPI antibodies may play a more central role in certain clinical manifestations of APS than antibodies detected by the aPL ELISA or LAC.
The Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety: A Validation Study*

The quest for accurate measures of anxiety has produced many scales, though very few which are‘both brief and valid and can be used for frequent and repeated measurements. McReynolds (1 968) in an extensive review of 88 formal anxiety assessment procedures noted the less than satisfactory status of anxiety assessment technology, and also concluded that relatively simple and straightforward self-rating measures often represent the techniques of choice, particularly in the measurement of current anxiety. One self-rating scale ideally suited to frequent and repeated measurements is the visual analogue or graphic rating scale, described over 50 years ago (Freyd, 1923) but relatively little used in clinical contexts until recently. Six recent studies (Zealley and Aitken, 1969; Crawford Little and McPhail, 1973; Folstein and Luria, 1973; Byrne, 1975; Davies, Burrows, and Poynton, 1975; Luria, 1975) have shown the visual analogue scale to be a valid and reliable measure of depressive mood. In two of these studies (Folstein and Luria, 1973, Davies et al., 1975) the visual analogue scale was also used as a measure of anxiety, with unimpressive results. Both studies used as the criterion measure the Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor, 1953) which may be considered a measure of trait (characteristic) rather than state (current) anxiety.
Good surveys guide.

mained unchanged, the training improved exercise performance, systemic arteriovenous oxygen difference, and leg blood flow on exercise, and resulted in reduced arterial and femoral venous lactate concentrations. Thus exercise training may delay the onset of anaerobic metabolism and facilitate more efficient peripheral oxygen extraction. Nevertheless, the only longer term solution for most patients with cardiac cachexia remains transplantation, after which the tissue wasting and abnormal protein turnover can be reversed.2 Reversal occurs through correcting peripheral oxygenation as a result of correcting systemic hypoxaemia, increased activity and exercise, and improved substrate availability with an improved diet and assimilation of nutrients. The results of further research, however, into the mechanisms of cardiac cachexia and their reversal with treatment are awaited. LfMORRISON
Wheezing in school children is not always asthma

Our objective was to study whether children with reported asthma differed from children with wheeze but without asthma, and from children with neither asthma nor wheeze, regarding lung function, bronchial hyper‐responsiveness (BHR) using methacholine inhalation, exercise‐induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), and skin prick test (SPT) reactivity. School children (n=2188), enrolled in a survey of asthma, were classified into three mutually exclusive groups by parental report of: asthma, wheeze, and no asthma/no wheeze. A random sample of 80 children in each group was tested (n=240). Among asthmatics, 68% (95% confidence interval (CI), 57–79) had a BHR (measured as PD20 forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) ≤ 8.16 μmol using methacholine) compared to 31% (CI 20–42%) and 30% (CI 19–40%) in the wheeze and no asthma/no wheeze groups. The dose–response slope (DRS) confirmed the PD20 data and distinguished equally between groups. EIB (≥10% fall in FEV1) was more frequent (40%, CI 29–52%) among asthmatics than among children with wheeze (12%, CI 4–19%) and no asthma/no wheeze (7%, CI 1–13%). The prevalence of at least one positive SPT was twice as high in the asthma group (58%, 47–69%) than in the wheeze (27%, CI 16–37%) and the no asthma/no wheeze (25%, 15–35%) groups. These results indicate that children with asthma differ from children with wheeze and children with no asthma/no wheeze regarding lung function, BHR, EIB, and SPT reactivity. Children with wheeze are more similar to children with no asthma/no wheeze with respect to these parameters.