Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of a Fusarium toxin-contaminated triticale, either untreated or treated with sodium metabisulphite (Na2S2O5, SBS), on weaned piglets with a special focus on liver function as determined by the 13C-methacetin breath test

The aim of the present experiment was to test the effects of a wet preservation of triticale contaminated mainly with deoxynivalenol (DON) with sodium metabisulphite (Na2S2O5, SBS) on growth performance, liver function, clinical-chemical plasma parameters and organ histopathology of piglets. For this purpose both the uncontaminated control triticale and the DON contaminated triticale were included in the piglet diet either untreated (CON, FUS) or SBS-treated (CON-SBS, FUS-SBS) and fed for 28 d starting from weaning. The dietary concentrations of DON and DON sulfonate (DONS), the DON derivative resulting from the SBS treatment, amounted to 0.156, 0.084, 2.312 and 0.275 mg DON per kg CON, CON-SBS, FUS and FUS-SBS diet, and to <0.05, <0.05, <0.05 and 1.841 mg/kg diet, respectively. Feeding the FUS diet significantly reduced the feed intake compared to the other three groups as indicated by the significant interactions between triticale source and SBS treatment when the whole experimental period of 28 d was considered (p = 0.014) while live weight gain and feed to gain ratio remained unaffected. The total plasma protein concentration was significantly depressed due to feeding the contaminated diets whereas SBS treatment exerted an increasing effect at the same time (45.4, 49.5, 40.7 and 46.5 g/l for piglets fed the CON, CON-SBS, FUS and FUS-SBS diet, respectively). The liver function was tested by the 13C-methacetin breath test (MBT) allowing evaluation of the cytochrome P4501A2 activity. MBT results, expressed as cumulative percentage dose recovery after 360 min (cPDR360) revealed a slight stimulation of liver function due to SBS treatment (p = 0.052) (37.5, 39.4, 37.4 and 55.1% for piglets fed the CON, CON-SBS, FUS and FUS-SBS diet, respectively). Liver weight and histopathological scoring were only weakly related to the MBT results. Further histopathological examinations of kidneys, pancreas and heart revealed no treatment effects. It was concluded that the SBS treatment of the contaminated triticale restored the performance of piglets to the level of the piglets fed the control diet while the effects on liver function, clinical-chemical plasma parameters – excepting the protein concentration – and organ histopathology were only marginal.
Effects of the failure free Reading Program on Students with Severe Reading Disabilities

Reading problems are among the most prevalent concerns for those who teach students with learning disabilities. In the present research, 39 students with severe reading problems were taught word recognition and comprehension skills using the failure free Reading Program. The intervention is based on principles identified in research on successful reading programs. Key steps in the program included (a) previewing the story, (b) listening to the story being read, (c) presenting content from the story, (d) reading the story, and (e) reviewing the story. Improved performance in letter-word identification, word attack, comprehension, and dictation was evident after intensive intervention. Discrepancies between intellectual ability and reading achievement decreased in more than half of the students. The failure free Reading Program seems to hold promise for improving reading in students with learning disabilities.
SLAMMOT-SP: Simultaneous SLAMMOT and Scene Prediction

In recent years, SLAMMOT (simultaneous localization, mapping and moving object tracking) has attracted widespread attention in the mobile robot field. This paper proposes a new approach, SLAMMOT-SP, which combines SLAMMOT and scene prediction (SP). It extends the SLAMMOT problem to simultaneous map prediction and moving object trajectory prediction. The robot not only passively collects the data and executes SLAMMOT, but actively predicts the scene. The recursive Bayesian formulation of SLAMMOT-SP is derived for real-time operations. A generalized framework for tracking and predicting the moving objects is also proposed. Simulations and experiments show that the proposed SLAMMOT-SP is effective and can be performed in real-time.
Short chain nitrocompounds as a treatment of layer hen manure and litter; effects on in vitro survivability of Salmonella, generic E. coli and nitrogen metabolism

ABSTRACT The current study was conducted to assess the bactericidal effectiveness of several nitrocompounds against pathogens in layer hen manure and litter. Evidence from an initial study indicated that treatment of layer hen manure with 12 mM nitroethane decreased populations of generic E. coli and total coliforms by 0.7 and 2.2 log10 colony forming units (CFU) g−1, respectively, after 24 h aerobic incubation at ambient temperature when compared to untreated populations. Salmonella concentrations were unaffected by nitroethane in this study. In a follow-up experiment, treatment of 6-month-old layer hen litter (mixed with 0.4 mL water g−1) with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol or ethyl nitroacetate decreased an inoculated Salmonella typhimurium strain from its initial concentration (3 log10 CFU g−1) by 0.7 to 1.7 log10 CFU g−1 after 6 h incubation at 37°C in covered containers. After 24 h incubation, populations of the inoculated S. Typhmiurium in litter treated with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol, ethyl nitroacetate or nitroethane were decreased more than 3.2 log10 CFU g−1 compared to populations in untreated control litter. Treatment of litter with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol, ethyl nitroacetate decreased rates of ammonia accumulation more than 70% compared to untreated controls (0.167 µmol mL−1 h−1) and loses of uric acid (< 1 µmol mL−1) were observed only in litter treated with 44 mM 2-nitropropanol, indicating that some of these nitrocompounds may help prevent loss of nitrogen in treated litter. Results warrant further research to determine if these nitrocompounds can be developed into an environmentally sustainable and safe strategy to eliminate pathogens from poultry litter, while preserving its nitrogen content as a nutritionally valuable crude protein source for ruminants.
“Going Out” of the Box: Close Intercultural Friendships and Romantic Relationships Spark Creativity, Workplace Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

The present research investigates whether close intercultural relationships promote creativity, workplace innovation, and entrepreneurship—outcomes vital to individual and organizational success. We triangulate on these questions with multiple methods (longitudinal, experimental, and field studies), diverse population samples (MBA students, employees, and professional repatriates), and both laboratory and real-world measures. Using a longitudinal design over a 10-month MBA program, Study 1 found that intercultural dating predicted improved creative performance on both divergent and convergent thinking tasks. Using an experimental design, Study 2 established the causal connection between intercultural dating and creativity: Among participants who had previously had both intercultural and intracultural dating experiences, those who reflected on an intercultural dating experience displayed higher creativity compared to those who reflected on an intracultural dating experience. Importantly, cultural learning mediated this effect. Extending the first 2 studies, Study 3 revealed that the duration of past intercultural romantic relationships positively predicted the ability of current employees to generate creative names for marketing products, but the number of past intercultural romantic partners did not. In Study 4, we analyzed an original dataset of 2,226 professional repatriates from 96 countries who had previously worked in the U.S. under J-1 visas: Participants’ frequency of contact with American friends since returning to their home countries positively predicted their workplace innovation and likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs. Going out with a close friend or romantic partner from a foreign culture can help people “go out” of the box and into a creative frame of mind.
Validity of the TAS-45 as a measure of toddler–parent attachment: preliminary evidence from Early Head Start families

A new observational measure of attachment strategies in the home, the Toddler Attachment Sort-45 (TAS-45) was completed for 59 18- to 36-month-old recipients of EHS. Mothers completed the Brief Infant Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA); children were tested on the Preschool Language Scale (PLS-4); and a mother–child snack was videotaped and coded for dyadic mutuality. The TAS-45 Security score was associated with more dyadic mutuality, higher language and competence scores, and lower problem scores. Discriminant validity was evidenced by a lack of associations with the TAS-45 Dependence score. The TAS-45 Disorganized “hotspot” (cluster) score also showed expected associations with these outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of next steps for use of the TAS-45 in research and practice.
Herpes B‐virus seroreactivity in a colony of Macaca mulatta: data from the Sabana Seca Field Station, a new Specific Pathogen‐Free Program

Abstract: The demand for B‐virus‐free animals for biomedical research is increasing, while at the same time the availability of such animals is decreasing. The establishment of Specific Pathogen‐Free (SPF) breeding macaque colonies is a priority of the National Institutes of Health. Nevertheless, it is well known that seroreactivity to B‐virus can be difficult to interpret, particularly as it can vary over time in a single animal. The aim of the present study was to implement a reliable algorithm to examine B‐virus reactivity among the rhesus monkey population of the Caribbean Primate Research Center. The sensitivity and specificity of our assay were determined using reports from two different laboratories as references. Whereas 95.4% of animals showed consistent serological status and 4.6% of animals recruited to this SPF program showed serovariability to B‐virus over the initial 2 years of examination. Implications for all SPF programs are discussed in this article.
New look at arrhythmias.

The changing scene of modern cardiology opened new avenues to explore old problems, Intensive coronary care units, cardiac surgery, pacing, the exploration of the intimate mechanism of impulse production and impulse conduction by microelectrodes have given a renewed impetus to investigate cardiac arrhythmias. In this short article this new knowledge will be considered under the following aspects: (1) ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation, (2) junctional rhythms and AV conduction, (3) heart block and pacing, and (4) treatment.
Embryonal hepatoma in Japan: pathological study on 19 cases of hepatic carcinoma in infancy and childhood.

1. The pathological study on 19 cases of embryonal hepatoma of which gross specimens were submitted from various parts in Japan was presented with a survey of 40 cases of embryonal hepatoma reported from Japan in literatures available in review.2. Comparison of the incidence of embryonal hepatoma between Japan and the United States was briefly discussed and the geographical distribution of the submitted cases of embryonal hepatoma in Japan was recorded.3. The majority of embryonal hepatoma was predominantly noticed under 3 years of age.4. There was no specific relation between hepatic cirrhosis and primary carcinoma of the liver in infancy and chldhood unlike in adult.5. Main metastatic growth of embryonal hepatoma was observed in the lung.6. All cases of embryonal hepatoma in the present study were microscopically recognized as liver cell carcinoma and their histological arrangements were observed to be mostly trabecular combined with closely packed pattern.7. The so-called osteoid tissue and hematopoietic foci within the neoplasm were described as conspicuous histologccal findings of embryonal hepatoma.Grateful acknowledgement is made to Professors Akazaki (Tohoku Univ.), Fuji-maki (Niigata Univ.), Hosokawa (Yamaguchi Univ.), Katsura (Iwate Univ.), Kawai (Gunma Univ.), Kawaji (Kagoshima Univ.), Miyagawa (Nagoya Univ.), Miyaji (Osaka Univ.), Ootaka (Tokyo Med. College) and Takizawa (Chiba Univ.) for the privilege of reviewing the necropsy records and generous supply of the autopsy material of embryonal hepatoma, and to Dr. Sano (Director of Department of Pathology, Institute for Science of Labour) for the preparing large section specimens of the submitted material.
Mode Coupling of a Flexible Rotor Supported by a Superconducting Magnetic Bearing Due to the Nonlinearity of Electromagnetic Force

Recently magnetic bearings have been applied to many engineering products, such as flywheels and turbo-chargers. Now development of flywheel energy storage systems using superconducting magnetic bearings has reached its validation phase. In most of these systems, active magnetic bearings, as auxiliary bearings, are used to reduce vibration of the rotor. However, because of its high rotational speed, the spill-over effect of elastic deformation of the rotor has become a problem. This complicated phenomenon can be partly caused by nonlinear coupling between plural vibration modes. This study investigates nonlinear mode coupling of a flexible rotor system. We developed an essential model of a rotor with an elastic shaft supported by a superconducting magnetic bearing. The equations of motion of the rotor were derived by taking into account the nonlinearity of the electromagnetic force and also by modeling the elastic shaft as a continuum body. The obtained equations show nonlinear coupling between the first mode and second mode of elastic vibration, and also suggest that mutual resonance can occur between these modes due to a cubic nonlinearity if the ratio of their natural frequencies is one to three. This prediction was consistent with our numerical results. The above findings may be useful for considering avoidance of the spill-over effect.
Perceptual evaluation of speech quality-implementation using a non-traditional symbian operating system

The ever increasing challenges to provide high quality, reliable and low cost mobile voice services have made speech quality a major area of research. Due to evolving and liberalized market, the quality of telecommunication voice services has become an important issue. With the advent of new technologies, however, a diversification takes place which makes it necessary to carefully plan and observe network quality. A characteristic of the competitive telecommunications market is the convergence in many aspects of service, such as price between different operators. In this environment, speech quality is becoming a key factor distinguishing one operator from another — a strong indicator for customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is imperative that a service provider is capable of predicting customers' perceptions of quality so that networks can be optimized and maintained.
Joint Dynamic Pricing of Multiple Perishable Products Under Consumer Choice

In response to competitive pressures, firms are increasingly adopting revenue management opportunities afforded by advances in information and communication technologies. Motivated by these revenue management initiatives in industry, we consider a dynamic pricing problem facing a firm that sells given initial inventories of multiple substitutable and perishable products over a finite selling horizon. Because the products are substitutable, individual product demands are linked through consumer choice processes. Hence, the seller must formulate a joint dynamic pricing strategy while explicitly incorporating consumer behavior. For an integrative model of consumer choice based on linear random consumer utilities, we model this multiproduct dynamic pricing problem as a stochastic dynamic program and analyze its optimal prices. The consumer choice model allows us to capture the linkage between product differentiation and consumer choice, and readily specializes to the cases of vertically and horizontally differentiated assortments. When products are vertically differentiated, our results show monotonicity properties (with respect to quality, inventory, and time) of the optimal prices and reveal that the optimal price of a product depends on higher quality product inventories only through their aggregate inventory rather than individual availabilities. Furthermore, we show that the price of a product can be decomposed into the price of its adjacent lower quality product and a markup over this price, with the markup depending solely on the aggregate inventory. We exploit these properties to develop a polynomial-time, exact algorithm for determining the optimal prices and the profit. For a horizontally differentiated assortment, we show that the profit function is unimodal in prices. We also show that individual, rather than aggregate, product inventory availability drives pricing. However, we find that monotonicity properties observed in vertically differentiated assortments do not hold.
Use of subcutaneous immunoglobulin in primary immune deficiencies.

AIM Immunoglobulin replacement therapy is required to reduce the frequency and severity of infections in patients with primary antibody deficiencies. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) can be administered intramuscularly, intravenously or subcutaneously. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy, dose adjustment and adverse events in subcutaneous immunoglobulin therapy by retrospectively presenting the records of 16 patients who received subcutaneous immunoglobulin therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS The demographic findings, clinical and laboratory findings, subcutaneous immunoglobulin dosage and dose frequency, infusion time, area and methods, adverse events and frequency of infections were obtained from patient files and recorded. RESULTS Sixteen patients (seven female, nine male) aged between 0-33 years who were diagnosed with primary immune deficiency and treated with subcutaneous immunoglobulin were enrolled. All patients had been receiving intravenous imunoglobulin (5-10%) at a dose of 0.33-1.25 gr/kg/dose with two-four week intervals before subcutaneous immunoglobulin. Subcutaneous immunoglobulin (10%) was administered at a dose of 0.03-0.43 gr/kg/dose with one-two week intervals. No significant difference was found between serum through IgG levels before administration of intravenous imunoglobulin and steady state IgG levels during subcutaneous immunoglobulin therapy. When five patients whose serum through IgG levels were below 600 mg/dL were evaluated, however, a significant increase was found in steady state IgG levels with subcutaneous immunoglobulin therapy (p=0.043). In a ten-month follow-up period, seven infections were observed in four patients (three upper respiratory infectons, two lower respiratory tract infections and three acute gastroenteritis). No acute severe bacterial infection was observed. Local advers reaction was reported in only 10 of 180 infusions (6%). No serious adverse events were reported. All 16 patients were willing to continue IgG replacement therapy by subcutaneous administration. CONCLUSIONS Ig replacement therapy by subcutaneous route is an efficient, safe and easy option which is eligible for individual administration. Home therapy is feasible for patients with primary immune deficiency, if informed consent is obtained and sufficient education is ensured.
Influence of hospital volume on revision rate after total knee arthroplasty with cement.

BACKGROUND The number of total knee replacements has substantially increased worldwide over the past ten years. Several studies have indicated a correlation between high hospital procedure volume and decreased morbidity and mortality following total knee arthroplasty. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether there is a correlation between procedure volume and the risk of revision following total knee arthroplasty with use of hospital volume data from the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register. METHODS Thirty-seven thousand, three hundred and eighty-one total knee arthroplasties that were reported to the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register from 1994 to 2010 were used to examine the annual procedure volume per hospital. Hospital volume was divided into five categories according to the number of procedures performed annually: one to twenty-four (low volume), twenty-five to forty-nine (medium volume), fifty to ninety-nine (medium volume), 100 to 149 (high volume), and ≥150 (high volume). Cox regression (adjusted for age, sex, and diagnosis) was used to estimate the proportion of procedures without revision and the risk ratio (RR) of revision. Analyses were also performed for two commonly used prosthesis brands combined. RESULTS The rate of prosthetic survival at ten years was 92.5% (95% confidence interval, 91.5 to 93.4) for hospitals with an annual volume of one to twenty-four procedures and 95.5% (95% confidence interval, 94.1 to 97.0) for hospitals with an annual volume of ≥150 procedures. We found a significantly lower risk of revision for hospitals with an annual volume of 100 to 149 procedures (relative risk = 0.73 [95% confidence interval, 0.56 to 0.96], p = 0.03) and ≥150 procedures (relative risk = 0.73 [95% confidence interval, 0.54 to 1.00], p = 0.05) compared with hospitals with an annual volume of one to twenty-four procedures. Similar results were found when we analyzed two commonly used prosthesis brands. CONCLUSIONS In the present study, there was a significantly higher rate of revision knee arthroplasties at low-volume hospitals as compared with high-volume hospitals.
The impact of glycosylation on the biological function and structure of human immunoglobulins.

Immunoglobulins are the major secretory products of the adaptive immune system. Each is characterized by a distinctive set of glycoforms that reflects the wide variation in the number, type, and location of their oligosaccharides. In a given physiological state, glycoform populations are reproducible; therefore, disease-associated alterations provide diagnostic biomarkers (e.g., for rheumatoid arthritis) and contribute to disease pathogenesis. The oligosaccharides provide important recognition epitopes that engage with lectins, endowing the immunoglobulins with an expanded functional repertoire. The sugars play specific structural roles, maintaining and modulating effector functions that are physiologically relevant and can be manipulated to optimize the properties of therapeutic antibodies. New molecular models of all the immunoglobulins are included to provide a basis for informed and critical discussion. The models were constructed by combining glycan sequencing data with oligosaccharide linkage and dynamics information from the Glycobiology Institute experimental database and protein structural data from "The Protein Data Bank. "