Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Involvement of the mesolimbic system in palatability-induced ingestion.

The pleasantness of taste powerfully influences the preference for food and fluids. Particularly palatable tastes can lead to considerable overconsumption. Because palatable foods and fluids are potentially nutritive, animals are highly motivated to ingest them. The brain regions along the taste pathway and its anatomical interfacing with the brain reward system are thought to be involved in palatabilitydependent consumption (Kelley et al., 2002). However, the role of the mesolimbic system in the behavioral expression induced by taste pleasantness is still unclear. Our previous studies (Shimura et al., 2002) demonstrated that lesions of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the origin of the mesolimbic dopamine system, selectively affected the consumption of highly palatable solutions in rats. To obtain further information concerning the mechanisms of the reward system for palatability-driven ingestion, we recorded single neuron activities from the mesolimbic system during the licking of water and taste solutions in freely behaving rats.
Detection of serum antibodies against Leptospira spp. in brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) from Grenada, West Indies

Background and Aim: Leptospirosis is an emerging disease of animals and humans. Among rodents brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are an important reservoir of bacteria Leptospira. There is a paucity of information on reservoirs of Leptospira in Grenada. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of antibodies against Leptospira spp. in brown rats in a densely human populated area of Grenada. Materials and Methods: Blood samples from 169 brown rats were collected and sera screened for antibodies against Leptospira spp. using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Among a total of 169 brown rats trapped in two parishes in Grenada, 77/169 (45.5%) were positive for Leptospira spp. antibodies. A significant difference in seropositive population of brown rats between two collection sites was observed. No differences were found between sex and age of seropositive rats. Conclusion: Due to the close contact of brown rats with humans in Grenada, rats should be considered a high-risk factor in transmission of Leptospira to humans. Appropriate preventive measures should be instituted to prevent the transmission of Leptospira infection to humans.
Potassium channels Kv1.1, Kv1.2 and Kv1.6 influence excitability of rat visceral sensory neurons

Voltage‐gated potassium channels, Kv1.1, Kv1.2 and Kv1.6, were identified as PCR products from mRNA prepared from nodose ganglia. Immunocytochemical studies demonstrated expression of the proteins in all neurons from ganglia of neonatal animals (postnatal days 0‐3) and in 85‐90 % of the neurons from older animals (postnatal days 21‐60). In voltage clamp studies, α‐dendrotoxin (α‐DTX), a toxin with high specificity for these members of the Kv1 family, was used to examine their contribution to K+ currents of the sensory neurons. α‐DTX blocked current in both A‐ and C‐type neurons. The current had characteristics of a delayed rectifier with activation positive to −50 mV and little inactivation during 250 ms pulses. In current‐clamp experiments α‐DTX, used to eliminate the current, had no effect on resting membrane potential and only small effects on the amplitude and duration of the action potential of A‐ and C‐type neurons. However, there were prominent effects on excitability. α‐DTX lowered the threshold for initiation of discharge in response to depolarizing current steps, reduced spike after‐hyperpolarization and increased the frequency/pattern of discharge of A‐ and C‐type neurons at membrane potentials above threshold. Model simulations were consistent with these experimental results and demonstrated how the other major K+ currents function in response to the loss of the α‐DTX‐sensitive current to effect these changes in action potential wave shape and discharge.
Fulfillment of Diagnostic Criteria in Kawasaki Disease

Background. The diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) is made by fulfillment of clinical criteria. The dramatic effectiveness of intravenous immune globulin in this disease might lead to treatment of cases that do not meet those criteria. Methods. A retrospective review was conducted of all cases of KD treated at Kosair Children's Hospital between January 1993 and July 1997. Results. Fifty-six patients were identified. Demographic features were similar to reports from other regions of the country. Forty-eight children fulfilled criteria for typical or atypical KD and 8 (14%) did not. The latter children were not distinguished from those meeting criteria by standard laboratory test results. Echocardiographic abnormalities were found in 17 cases, including 3 with coronary artery aneurysms, but all abnormalities eventually resolved. Conclusions. The treatment of 14% of patients despite incomplete diagnostic criteria illustrates the tendency to be liberal in treatment decisions regarding KD. Whether this proportion of patients has a forme fruste of the illness that warrants treatment will await definitive biological markers for the syndrome.
On the Adverbial Relativiser Where and Prepositional Relatives from an Interlanguage Perspective

This interlanguage study, with an emphasis on two different proficiency levels of L2 learners, aims at examining Thai EFL learners’ acquisition of locative adverbial relative clauses and related prepositional relatives. It was revealed that the most frequent problem with which both proficiency groups were confronted pertained to the relative adverb where functioning as a relative pronoun, possibly attributed to overgeneralisation. As regards prepositional relatives, Thai learners in the lower proficiency group had apparently acquired preposition stranding prior to pied-piping, without any use of the latter structure in their interlanguage. Additionally, preposition omission and pronoun retention, which are ungrammatical in English, were also prominent in the learners’ interlanguage relative clauses.
Inclusion through trade unions ’ community organising and migrant workers ’ activism : the case of Polish migrants in the UK Theme 2

The present working paper examines the response of UK trade unions to migration in the context of EU-enlargement. More specifically the paper scrutinises the challenges faced by a specific large UK trade union and its inclusion strategies of community organising to foster migrant workers’ activism amongst Polish migrants. In order to investigate the overall response of the researched union to this migrant group, findings from semi-structured interviews are analysed in the light of existing knowledge of the challenges faced by UK trade unions in organising Polish migrant workers. Acknowledgements This publication was financially supported by the FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN project "Changing Employment" ("The changing nature of employment in Europe in the context of challenges, threats and opportunities for employees and employers", project no. 317321. P ag e 2
Use of the ketogenic diet and dietary practices in the UK.

BACKGROUND In 2000, a survey showed that use of the ketogenic diet as a treatment for intractable epilepsy in the UK was low. Subsequently, the number of medical publications supporting its efficacy has increased and demand from parents for this treatment has also increased. This survey was undertaken to determine whether there had been an increase in the use of the ketogenic diet and the necessary resources to provide it. METHODS A survey of paediatric dietitians in the UK was undertaken. Data were collected on their experience of implementing a ketogenic diet, the type of diet used, patient caseloads, other members of the care team, the process for initiation of the diet and funding. RESULTS Twenty-eight hospitals offered the ketogenic diet treatment with a total of 152 patients. The caseload per dietitian ranged from 1-36 patients. The classical diet was prescribed for 74% cases. The majority of patients began the diet as outpatients. Six dietitians were specifically funded to provide the treatment. Fifty more dietitians had experience of implementing the diet but currently had no patients. The reasons given for this were no referrals, no funding or not working with patients with epilepsy. CONCLUSIONS The number of patients on the ketogenic diet had increased since 2000. However, numbers remained low and the main reasons given were the lack of referrals and a lack of funding. Recommendations are made to improve the dietetic and funding resources available so that an efficacious treatment for intractable epilepsy of childhood can be made more widely available.
Evaluation of Integrated Nutrient Management Practices for Lettuce Production under Drip Irrigation System

It is well known that trophic interactions between plant cover and soil organisms are key factors in ecosystems balance. In present study, the effect of combination among mineral, organic and bio-fertilizers on quality and productivity of lettuce under drip irrigation conditions have been studied. The combination effect of fertilizers on soil microbial enzyme activities also was studied. The highest total yield of lettuce is 31.96 and 31.84 Mg ha, respectively during the two growing seasons. The best yield components were obtained with using combination of mineral, organic and bio-fertilizers (50 % mineral + 50 % organic + biofertilizers). Whereas, the using of organic and biofertilizer treatments recorded the lowest content of nitrate in leaves 0.82 and 0.81 g kg DW, respectively, were observed in both seasons. The highest soil dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase and nitrogenase activities were 64.2 and 51.0 μg TPF g dw h, 22.3 and 19.9 μg ρNP g h and 83.7 and 81.2 μL C2H4 g dw h respectively in both seasons and after 30 days from lettuce transplanting were achieved by using of the combination of fertilizers (50 % mineral + 50 % organic + biofertilizer). The results of this study suggest that, it could be depended on the biological or organic farming to produce a better food and the integrated fertilization program should be followed in agriculture under drip irrigation even in clay loam soil.
Color Feature Extraction of Oil Palm Fresh Fruit Bunch Image for Ripeness Classification

The color of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) has been used as a ripeness indicator in the oil palm sector. This parameter is assessed manually by human vision, which makes oil palm FFB grading subjective and can lead to misjudgment. Thus, this paper presents the development of automated classification system of oil palm FFB using artificial neural network (ANN), focusing on the comparison of two feature extraction techniques that could improve the classification performance. This system used image processing techniques to extract the color features of the oil palm FFB and artificial neural network to classify the oil palm FFB into the following four ripeness categories: unripe, underripe, ripe and overripe. Principal component analysis and stepwise discriminant analysis techniques were used to reduce the color features and the reduced features were fed to ANN for classification. The result showed that reducing the color features using stepwise discriminant analysis improved the performance of classification accuracy by more than 10%. Key–Words: feature extraction, artificial neural network, principal component analysis, stepwise discriminant analysis, oil palm fresh fruit bunch
Interleukin-12 Enhances Antifungal Activity of Human Mononuclear Phagocytes against Aspergillus fumigatus: Implications for a Gamma Interferon-Independent Pathway

ABSTRACT The potential of recombinant human interleukin-12 (IL-12) to enhance the capacity of human monocytes (MNC) to elicit an oxidative burst and damage hyphae of Aspergillus fumigatus was investigated. Incubation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy adults with 10 to 100 ng of IL-12/ml at 37°C for 2 to 3 days enhanced the production of superoxide anion (O2−) in response to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) (P = 0.04) and unopsonized A. fumigatus hyphae (P = 0.03) and further enhanced hyphal damage (P = 0.009). Anti-gamma interferon (anti-IFN-γ) blocked secretion of IFN-γ by IL-12-treated PBMC but did not inhibit IL-12-induced O2− production by these cells in response to PMA. In addition, IL-12-treated elutriated MNC secreted no IFN-γ or tumor necrosis factor alpha but exhibited enhanced O2− production compared to controls (P = 0.013). These findings demonstrate that IL-12 augments oxidative antifungal activities of MNC via an IFN-γ-independent route, suggesting a novel pathway of IL-12 action in antifungal defense.
Geographic variation in fatty acid composition and food source of the commercial clam ( Venerupis decussata , Linnaeus , 1758 ) , from the Tunisian Coast : Trophic links

Geographic variation in fatty acid composition and food source of the commercial clam (Venerupis decussata, Linnaeus, 1758), from the Tunisian Coast: Trophic links S. Bejaoui, D. Boussoufa, K. Telahigue, I. Chetoui, F. Ghribi, I. Rabeh and M. El Cafsi Unit of Physiology and Aquatic Environment, Biology Department, Faculty of Science of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092, Tunis, Tunisia. ¥ These authors contribute equally to this work Corresponding author: safa.bejaoui@fst.utm. tn
L O ] 2 8 M ay 2 01 9 Proving Non-Termination via Loop Acceleration

We present the first approach to prove non-termination of integer programs that is based on loop acceleration. If our technique cannot show non-termination of a loop, it tries to accelerate it instead in order to find paths to other non-terminating loops automatically. The prerequisites for our novel loop acceleration technique generalize a simple yet effective non-termination criterion. Thus, we can use the same program transformations to facilitate both non-termination proving and loop acceleration. In particular, we present a novel invariant inference technique that is tailored to our approach. An extensive evaluation of our fully automated tool LoAT shows that it is competitive with the state of the art.
Prevalence of Eimeriaparasite in cattle in Al-Najaf province and its relation to risk factors: age, gender and season

The study was designed to be an observational cross sectional study. The study extended from April 2015 through January 2016 and included 600 cattle with varying age (1 day to 8 years). It was conducted in Al.Najaf province and included four Districts: Najaf, Kufa, Al.Manathera, and Al.Meshkhab. Direct and flotation methods were used for the diagnosis of Eimeria infection. Eimeria infection was reported in 211 out of 600 (35.2 %). Infection rate was significantly highest in young cattle, less than three years of age (41%) (P<0.05). The infection was significantly more frequent in female than male cattle, 42.3% versus 22.6%, respectively (P<0.001). The highest rate of infection was reported during December (75%). Performance of Chi-Square test revealed no significant difference in rate of infection according to district (P= 0.632).
Major increase in Type 1 diabetes: no support for the Accelerator Hypothesis

© 2008 The Authors. 376 Journal compilation © 2008 Diabetes UK. Diabetic Medicine , 25 , 375–380 in their mothers. Conscientiousness in the children and Agreeableness in the mothers predicted 18% of the variability in mean HbA 1c . However, the authors acknowledged that they had not assessed cognitive function or behavioural factors, which could have had an influence on the outcome of this study. In a previous study [2] we assessed the influence of child and parental mental ability on glycaemic control, and found that maternal intelligence appears to exert a significant effect, accounting for 7.6% of the variability in HbA 1c . Did the authors consider maternal intelligence as potentially having additional, significant variance on the outcome of their study? Achievement of good glycaemic control requires consistently informed decision making by both the child and parent, and it would seem intuitive that intelligence, in addition to personality factors, could affect long-term glycaemic control. It is widely acknowledged that social class, family structure and chronic life stress may all influence glycaemic control [3–5]. It is difficult, therefore, to justify the claim that personality alone is principally responsible for the variability observed, when many other co-existing factors that are difficult to study in isolation have not been addressed.
Enhancing Metacognitive Literacy : A Research Study Using Sticky Notes in the Classroom

For this study, the researchers used a note-taking strategy for their Literacy and ESL methods graduate students to interact with their assigned text readings using sticky-notes to document their experiences in order to think metacognitively during their literacy meaning-making process. (The theoretical framework of the study was based on Louise Rosenblatt’s 1938 transacting with text research.) The results of a mixed-research method approach served to validate the efficacy of the authors’ sticky note/interacting-with-text approach, suggesting that this method can become a universal teaching/reading/learning/reflecting and discussion-enhancing metacognitive strategy appropriate for all levels of post-secondary students.
Clinical and immunophenotypic characteristics of patients with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: a single institution’s experience

Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the clinical and immunologic features of patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome who were followed up in our clinic. Thus, it is aimed to identify the syndrome early, choose the right treatment options according to humoral and cellular immunologic analysis, and enlighten how to follow up these kinds of patients with immunodeficiencies. Material and Methods: We retrospectively collected data by reviewing the files of 11 patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome who were followed up in our clinic between January 2003 and January 2015. The diagnoses were based on the patients’ clinical, genetic, and immunologic features. Demographic features, family history, initial symptoms on admission, physical findings, and results of immunologic studies of the patients. Age of diagnosis, treatment options, and clinical follow-up were evaluated. Results: The patients’ diagnosis age ranged from 1-11 months and the most common symptoms of admission were cardiac murmur and atypical facial appearance, which were detected during a routine physical examination. All patients had cardiac anomalies, and four patients had a history of cardiovascular surgery. Eight patients (72.7%) had a history of severe infection; recurrent lower respiratory tract infections were reported in six patients (54.5%), pulmonary tuberculosis in one patient (9.1%), and moniliasis resistant to treatment was detected in one patient. None of the patients required intravenous immunoglobulin replacement therapy, and antibiotic prophylaxis was administered to two patients with lymphopenia. Conclusion: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is a multi-systemic disorder that should be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team. It should be kept in mind for patients with neonatal hypocalcemic tetany or recurrent infections or atypical facial appearance with cardiac anomalies. Early diagnosis should lead to immunologic analysis and enable the choice of treatment. Preventive measures against infection is recommended for the patients with incomplete immunodeficiency, and thymus transplantation is recommended for patients with complete immunodeficiency.
Comparative Analysis of Some Production Traits in F Recombinant Inbred Lines ( RILs ) of Bread Wheat

The prime objective of wheat breeding program is to increase economic yield. In this regard the current research was conducted during 2013-14 at The University of Agriculture, Peshawar to evaluate the performance of F recombinant inbred lines (RILs) to generate more comprehensive information on inheritance 5:9 and association of some production traits. Thirty four F RILs and two check cultivars Atta Habib and Janbaz 5:9 were evaluated in 6x6 alpha lattice design with two replications. Significant differences among recombinant inbred lines indicated the presence of sufficient genetic variability as reflected form its wide range from 25.5 to 53.2 cm for flag leaf area, 156.0 to 172.0 days for physiological maturity, 84.8 to 121.9 cm for plant height, 2 2017500 to 3982500 for spikes ha , 33.0 to 72.0 for grains spike , 1.5 to 3.4 g for grain weight spike , 39.8 to 1 1 1 54.5 g for 1000-grain weight and 3745.6 to 6711.4 kg ha for grain yield. Higher magnitude of genetic variances 1 than environmental variances resulted in high heritability (>60%) for flag leaf area (72.8%), physiological maturity (75.1%), plant height (92.6%), spikes ha (60.9%), grains spike (70.01%), grain weight spike 1 1 1 (69.17%) and grain yield (70.4%) accompanied by high genetic advance (10.9, 5.3, 15.1, 9924470.5, 10.5, 0.5 and 1054.7, respectively). These results indicated the prevalence of additive gene action in the inheritance of these traits and hence, amenable for simple selection. Furthermore, the study showed that spikes ha , grains spike 1 1 and grain weight spike could be used as most reliable selection index for yield improvement in wheat since 1 they manifested notable contribution towards grain yield.
Corporate Cash Holdings : Evidence from Switzerland WWZ-Forschungsbericht 07 / 06

This paper investigates the determinants of a broad sample of Swiss non-financial firms’ cash holdings between 1995 and 2004. The median Swiss firm holds almost twice as much cash and cash equivalents as the median U.S. or U.K. firm. Our results indicate that asset tangibility and firm size are both negatively related to cash holdings and that there is a non-linear relationship between the leverage ratio and liquidity holdings. Dividend payments and operating cash flows are positively related to cash reserves, but we cannot detect a significant relationship between growth opportunities and cash holdings. Most of these findings, but not all of them, can be explained by the transactions and/or the precautionary motive. Dynamic panel estimation indicates that Swiss firms adjust their liquidity holdings only slowly towards an endogenous target cash ratio. Looking at the firms’ corporate governance structures, we document a non-linear relationship between managerial ownership and cash holdings, indicating an incentive alignment effect and an opposing effect related to increasing risk aversion. Finally, our results suggest that firms in which the CEO simultaneously serves as the COB hold significantly more cash.