Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Claw Lesions in Beef Cattle Slaughtered in Northern Portugal: A Preliminary Study

Simple Summary While most research on claw diseases focuses on dairy cattle, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of claw disorders in beef cattle in northeast Portugal. The investigation was an observational study carried out at two slaughterhouses, in which claw lesions were assessed according to the ICAR Claw Health Atlas. The influence of sex and age and the potential economic impact on hot carcass weight, carcass classification, and fat coverage were investigated. The results revealed a high animal prevalence of claw lesions (65.8%), with the primary lesions being of a non-infectious mechanical nature, including heel horn erosion, double sole, and asymmetric claws. The lesions found are consistent with the production method in the area under study, where beef cattle are raised in small, rustic premises with uneven floors and beds made of a mix of manure and plant material. Also, the impact of claw lesions on carcass characteristics (weight, classification, and fat deposition) was not evident. Thus, the presence of claw lesions in beef cattle raised under the conditions of this geographical area does not seem to cause a negative impact on both animal health and the farm economy. Abstract Claw diseases have a profound impact on cattle welfare, affecting behaviors such as grazing, rumination, rest, decubitus, and water consumption. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of claw lesions and classify them according to the ICAR Claw Health Atlas (International Committee of Animal Recording) in two slaughterhouses. The influence of claw lesions on carcass weight, classification, and fat deposition was also examined. Involving 343 crossbreed cattle from 103 different extensive or semi-intensive farms, this study found an animal prevalence of claw disorders at 65.8%, with a higher incidence in females (n = 207, 60.35%) compared to males (n = 136, 39.65%). Despite the observed prevalence, claw lesions were not influenced by age or sex (p > 0.05). The main claw lesions identified, including heel horn erosion, double sole, and asymmetric claw, were consistent with the cattle management practices in the study area. These cattle were raised in small, rustic premises with uneven floors, utilizing a mix of manure and plant material as bedding and lacking access to pasture. Also, no negative economic impact was detected concerning carcass weight, classification, or fat deposition. Consequently, it was concluded that the presence of claw lesions in beef cattle raised under the characteristic management of this geographical area does not adversely affect animal health or farm economics.
Crisis of landscapes, landscapes of the crisis: notes for a socio-ecological approach

The paper focuses on relationships between landscape and the multi-faceted crisis of our times. We are in a time of crises, both for Western citizens (cultural, ecological, political, institutional and social crises) and for non-western citizens which can suffer humanitarian crises. Landscape crisis is entangled in a bundle of planetary crises, and the paper represents a tentative to outline a relational and “genetic” approach to this subject. Landscape crisis is rooted in an underlying territorial crisis, and the case of the crumbling of the Italian code of space is taken as an example. Pre-modern Italian landscape has been dismantled by the irruption of a growth-first paradigm and a “commodification” of the social system. In a globalising process, surrounding territories have lost importance for localised communities. Contextually, mechanised monocultures and industrialized metropolitan areas have reshaped the geographical features of territories, in Italy and on world scale. The landscape issue cannot therefore be detached from an overall process of change from traditional to modern territorialities. The aim of this approach to landscapes and landscaping is to develop “healing procedures” to the present crisis, in the conviction that landscape cannot be saved alone. In fact, it is not possible to attain liveable landscapes without preserving at the same time our territories, our living planet and the natural commons essential to life.
Avaliação in vitro e in silico da lectina de Canavalia brasiliensis (ConBr) no controle de Haemonchus contortus

Entre as principais limitacoes para que a ovinocaprinocultura se torne autossustentavel e comercialmente viavel destacam-se as doencas parasitarias, controlar essas parasitoses com eficiencia tem se tornado um desafio, visto que o fenomeno da resistencia aos produtos quimicos sinteticos comumente utilizados tem desfavorecido o controle efetivo dos parasitas, sendo os nematoides gastrintestinais os de maior importância por acarretarem inumeros prejuizos economicos. Haemonchus contortus e um dos parasitas economicamente mais importantes que infectam pequenos ruminantes em todo o mundo. Este nematoide mostrou uma grande capacidade de desenvolver resistencia a drogas anti-helminticas, exigindo o desenvolvimento de abordagens alternativas de controle. Como as lectinas reconhecem e se ligam a carboidratos especificos e estruturas de glicano presentes nos parasitas, elas podem ser consideradas como uma alternativa para o desenvolvimento de novas drogas antiparasitarias. Nesse sentido, este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar o efeito anti-helmintico da lectina das sementes Canavalia brasiliensis (ConBr) contra o H. contortus e avaliar uma possivel interacao do ConBr com glicanos desse parasita por meio de docking molecular. ConBr mostrou inibicao significativa do desenvolvimento larval de H. contortus com IC50 de 0,26 mg/mL. Ensaios de ancoragem molecular revelaram que glicanos contendo o nucleo trimanosideo Man (α1-3) Man (α1-6) Man de H. contortus interagem no dominio de reconhecimento de carboidratos de ConBr com um valor de interacao de MDS = - 248,77. Nossos achados sugerem que a inibicao do desenvolvimento larval de H. contortus esta diretamente relacionada ao reconhecimento do nucleo tri-manosideo presente nos glicanos desses parasitas. Este trabalho e o primeiro a relatar as relacoes estrutura-funcao da atividade anti-helmintica de lectinas de plantas, portanto, espera-se que essa abordagem possa colaborar como bases referenciais para trabalhos posteriores, quanto a caracterizacao e o comportamento da interacao entre essas moleculas, alem de poder auxiliar em uma possivel elaboracao de farmacos com efeitos antiparasitarios.
Evaluation of the IUFRO provenance plot with grand fir in the Habr locality (Western Bohemia) at the age of 31 years

In the framework of an international IUFRO provenance research of grand fir ( Abies grandis /D. Don/ Lindl.), a series of research plots was established in the Czech Republic in 1980-1982. This paper focuses on an evalu - ation of experimental plot No. 213 - Habr (Western Bohemia), where 24 provenances of grand fir are investigated. Results of the evaluation of height, diameter at breast height, volume of large timber (diameter outside bark > 7 cm), and some qualitative parameters are presented for the age of 31 years. Results of the plot evaluation showed the best growth in provenances originating from the Washington state coastal region. Individuality of growth pattern was confirmed for different Vancouver provenances and those from Idaho and Montana states. These areas cannot be considered as homogeneous. The growth of all provenances originating from the Cascades, Washington, is below average. The low - est growth rates were documented for the Cascades, Oregon state provenances; superior characteristics of some of them probably result from the high mortality of others at earlier stages and larger growth space available at present.
Changes in anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the St. Lawrence sub‐basin over 110 years and impacts on riverine export

Human activities have increased the flow of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) over much of the Earth, leading to increased agricultural production, but also the degradation of air, soil, and water quality. Here we quantify the sources of anthropogenic N and P inputs to 76 watersheds of the St. Lawrence Basin (SLB) throughout the 20th century using NANI/NAPI (net anthropogenic N/P input to watersheds), a mass balance modeling approach, and estimate the fraction of these inputs exported to adjacent rivers. Our results show that since 1901, NANI and NAPI increased 4.5‐fold and 3.8‐fold, respectively, with a peak in 1991 mainly due to high atmospheric N deposition and P fertilizer application. However, the relative increase over the course of the last century was much higher in certain watersheds, particularly those where there was greater urbanization. Ranges in NANI and NAPI vary greatly among watersheds (110 to 9351 kg N km−2 yr−1 and 0.16 to 1938 kg P km−2 yr−1, respectively in 2011) and are strongly related to riverine fluxes (R2 = 0.87 and 0.71 for N and P, respectively). Our results suggest that 22% of NANI (ranging from 11% to 68% across watersheds) and 17% of NAPI (ranging from 3% to 173%) are exported to rivers. Predominant sources of inputs vary spatially and through time largely due to changes in farming practices. By tracking the main sources of inputs to specific watersheds and through time, our work provides insights for N and P management. Reduction strategies will likely need to be watershed specific, although through time, our results clearly show the large‐scale impact of targeted legislation.
Acute Compartment Syndrome of the Thigh After Contusion in a Football Player

Acute compartment syndrome of the thigh is an exceptionally uncommon condition that can have severe consequences if not promptly and effectively treated. A 19-year-old man presented to our emergency department with severe and progressive pain in his left thigh after sustaining a direct trauma during a football game 24 hours prior. Compartment pressure was assessed, confirming the diagnosis of compartment syndrome arising from a sizable intramuscular hematoma without detection of any other contributing factors. Fasciotomy incisions were closed using the shoelace technique with excellent functional results. This case highlights the importance of high suspicion and intra-compartmental pressure measurement to diagnose this condition accurately.
Overexpression of VEGFα as a biomarker of endothelial dysfunction in aortic tissue of α-GAL-Tg/KO mice and its upregulation in the serum of patients with Fabry’s disease

Introduction Fabry's disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by reduced activity of α-galactosidase A (GAL), leading to premature death on account of renal, cardiac, and vascular organ failure. Accumulation of the GAL substrate globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) in endothelial and smooth muscle cells is associated with early vascular cell damage, suggesting endothelial dysfunction as a driver of cardiorenal organ failure. Here, we studied the vascular expression of the key angiogenic factors, VEGFα and its antagonist angiostatin, in Fabry α-GAL-Tg/KO mice and determined circulating VEGFα and angiostatin serum levels in patients with Fabry’s disease and healthy controls. Methods Cryopreserved aortic vessels from six α-GAL-Tg/KO and six wild-type (WT) mice were obtained and VEGFα and angiostatin levels were determined by performing Western blot analysis. VEGFα expression was visualized by an immunohistochemical staining of paraffin aortic rings. In addition, VEGFα and angiostatin serum levels were measured by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 48 patients with genetically verified Fabry's disease (50% male) and 22 healthy controls and correlated with disease severity markers such as lyso-Gb3, albuminuria, NTproBNP, high-sensitive troponin T (hsTNT), and myocardial wall thickness. Results It was found that there was a significant increase in VEGFα protein expression (1.66 ± 0.35 vs. 0.62 ± 0.16, p = 0.0009) and a decrease in angiostatin expression (0.024 ± 0.007 vs. 0.053 ± 0.02, p = 0.038) in aortic lysates from α-GAL-Tg/KO compared with that from WT mice. Immunohistochemical staining revealed an adventitial VEGFα signal in α-GAL-Tg/KO mice, whereas no VEGFα signal could be detected in WT mice aortas. No differences in aortic angiostatin expression between α-GAL-Tg/KO- and WT mice could be visualized. The serum levels of VEGFα were significantly upregulated in patients with Fabry’s disease compared with that in healthy controls (708.5 ± 426.3 vs. 458.5 ± 181.5 pg/ml, p = 0.048) and positively associated with albuminuria (r = 0.82, p < 0.0001) and elevated NTproBNP (r = 0.87, p < 0.0001) and hsTNT values (r = 0.41, p = 0.048) in male patients with Fabry’s disease. For angiostatin, no significant difference was found between patients with Fabry’s disease and healthy controls (747.6 ± 390.3 vs. 858.8 ± 599.3 pg/ml). Discussion In conclusion, an overexpression of VEGFα and downregulation of its counter player angiostatin in aortic tissue of α-GAL-Tg/KO mice support the hypothesis of an underlying vasculopathy in Fabry's disease. Elevated VEGFα serum levels were also observed in patients with Fabry’s disease and were positively associated with elevated markers of organ manifestation in males. These findings suggest that angiogenetic markers, such as VEGFα, may be potentially useful biomarkers for the detection of endothelial dysfunction in classical Fabry's disease.
Lung Segmentation using a ConvMixer-Based Framework

Accurate lung segmentation is crucial for diagnosing various lung diseases from chest X-ray images. U-Net and its variations have been successfully applied in the medical field, but they have limitations in capturing global context information due to the local nature of convolution operations. In this paper, we propose a novel Conv-Mixer based model for lung segmentation. This model is inspired by the ConvMixer model to effectively capture local and global features in lung images. The proposed model is evaluated on two public chest X-ray datasets: Shenzhen and Montgomery; and achieves superior performance compared to the state-of-art segmentation methods. Specifically, it achieves an accuracy of 97.52% and an IoU of 92.71%. The proposed model is a promising method for lung segmentation and has the potential to aid in the diagnosis of various lung diseases.
A Multilab Replication of the Induced-Compliance Paradigm of Cognitive Dissonance

According to cognitive-dissonance theory, performing counterattitudinal behavior produces a state of dissonance that people are motivated to resolve, usually by changing their attitude to be in line with their behavior. One of the most popular experimental paradigms used to produce such attitude change is the induced-compliance paradigm. Despite its popularity, the replication crisis in social psychology and other fields, as well as methodological limitations associated with the paradigm, raise concerns about the robustness of classic studies in this literature. We therefore conducted a multilab constructive replication of the induced-compliance paradigm based on Croyle and Cooper (Experiment 1). In a total of 39 labs from 19 countries and 14 languages, participants ( N = 4,898) were assigned to one of three conditions: writing a counterattitudinal essay under high choice, writing a counterattitudinal essay under low choice, or writing a neutral essay under high choice. The primary analyses failed to support the core hypothesis: No significant difference in attitude was observed after writing a counterattitudinal essay under high choice compared with low choice. However, we did observe a significant difference in attitude after writing a counterattitudinal essay compared with writing a neutral essay. Secondary analyses revealed the pattern of results to be robust to data exclusions, lab variability, and attitude assessment. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to test predictions from cognitive-dissonance theory. Overall, the results call into question whether the induced-compliance paradigm provides robust evidence for cognitive dissonance.
An evaluation of four soil moisture models for estimating natural ground water recharge

From 1953 to 1978 at Winchmore Irrigation Research Station near Ashburton, New Zealand, daily recharge data were collected in six non-weighing, monolith lysimeters, 1220 mm in diameter and 900 mm deep. The soil at the Station is a Lismore stony silt loam, with stony silt loam about 350 mm thick overlying sandy gravels. The recharge data collected up to 1978 were archived but never published. Additional data were collected through the same lysimeters from September 1994 until December 1997, using tipping bucket rain gauges logging at five-minute intervals. A meteorological station on site was set up in 1950 and is a part of the national network. Four soil moisture models have been evaluated for recharge estimation using a fifteen-year subset of the archived data, plus the recent data, from five of the lysimeters. Two of the models, SOILMOD and SWIM© produced good estimates of natural recharge under grass but underestimate recharge when the soil is bare. Both successful models proved to be very sensitive to rainfall input. Recent measurements suggested that the Station rainfall record has systematically underestimated the rain actually hitting the ground by about 10% and this was allowed for in the simulations. Neither of the successful models was very sensitive to soil moisture characteristics. The two successful models have potential for incorporation into a system for estimating regional ground water recharge.
Cognitive Inflexibility Predicts Negative Symptoms Severity in Patients with First-Episode Psychosis: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study

Negative symptoms and cognitive deficits play a major role in psychosis and significantly influence the functional outcomes of patients, particularly those with a first episode of psychosis (FEP). However, limited research has explored the predictive capacity of cognitive deficits during FEP for subsequent negative symptomatology. Drawing from the Athens FEP research study, we conducted a retrospective longitudinal study in 80 individuals with FEP. All patients were drug naive at admission. Cognitive tests were administered at 1-month and 1-year post-admission, while negative symptomatology was assessed at the same time points using PANSS by trained raters. We considered confounding factors such as age, gender, duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), treatment received, premorbid social adjustment, and premorbid IQ. Univariate regression analysis identified cognitive domains that correlated with negative symptomatology. These, along with the confounders, were incorporated into a multiple regression, with the 1-year PANSS negative scale serving as the dependent variable. Employing the backward elimination technique, we found a statistically significant inverse relationship between the categories completed in the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and the 1-year PANNS negative scale (p = 0.01), beyond the associations with DUP and the 1-month PANSS negative scale. Our results suggest that cognitive flexibility, a key component of executive functions, predicts negative symptom severity one year after FEP.
Association between Dietary Inflammatory Index and Bone Mineral Density Changes among Pregnant Women: A Prospective Study in China

Objectives: This study aims to examine the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and bone mineral density (BMD) changes among Chinese pregnant women, offering valuable insights for dietary guidance during pregnancy. Methods: 289 pregnant women were enrolled in this cohort. Serum inflammatory factors and ultrasonic BMD were measured at the first, second, and the third trimesters. DII scores were calculated based on a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and divided into tertiles. We compared the differences in inflammatory factors in serum across the tertiles of DII and changes in BMD at the second and third trimesters across the tertiles. Results: The participants with higher DII scores had higher total energy intakes than those with lower DII scores. The serum level of interleukin-6 (IL-6) was significantly different across the tertiles of the DII. Women who had lower DII scores had higher T-scores and Z-scores in the BMD assessment. In the test of trends, after adjusting potential covariates, including educational level, physical activity, body mass index, and calcium, vitamin D, or multivitamin supplements, DII values were determined to be positively related to the maternal BMD lost. Conclusions: DII was positively associated with serum IL-6. Meanwhile, higher DII scores were associated with more bone mass loss in pregnant women. We recommend adhering to a lower-DII diet to preserve BMD during pregnancy.
The effect of deformation bands on simulated fluid flow within fault-propagation fold trap types: Lessons from the San Rafael monocline, Utah

Porous siliciclastic reservoirs are known to contain structural heterogeneities such as deformation bands, which fall below current seismic resolution and which generally cannot be explicitly represented in reservoir models because of the prohibitively high computational cost. In this study, we built a reservoir model to evaluate fluid flow across a contractionally folded unit containing deformation bands (the Navajo Sandstone in the San Rafael Reef monocline, Utah). Using field data, geometric relationships, and auxiliary computational techniques, we upscale deformation bands to capture flow effects in the large-scale structure, running simulations with variable scenarios of permeability contrast between host rock and deformation bands. Our simulations show that pervasive deformation band arrays (such as the ones present in the monocline) have effects when the contrast of permeability between them and the host rock is of at least three orders of magnitude, delaying water breakthrough and enhancing sweep; in long-term production, this results in larger final produced volumes and higher total recovery. Because of the wide range of deformation band permeabilities used in this study, our findings can be of importance for the prediction of flow and optimization of production strategies in comparable traps and reservoirs. Additionally, auxiliary computational techniques and geometric relationships such as the ones presented in this study can significantly improve the incorporation of small-scale features with strong scale gap into conventional sized reservoirs.
Comparison Between Clean Sand Liquefaction Charts Based on Penetration Resistance and Shear Wave Velocity

A comparison is conducted between clean sand liquefaction charts based, respectively, on normalized point penetration resistance in CPT static cone tests (qc1N) and shear wave velocity (Vs1). Examination of the shape of these field-calibrated curves, review of the factors influencing liquefaction resistance in the laboratory, field correlations between qc1N and Vs1, and field and laboratory evidence related to some of the factors influencing cone penetration resistance and shear wave velocity in sands, are all used in the discussion. It is concluded that the difference between the shapes of the two charts at the high end may be due at least partially to lateral stress effects associated with overconsolidation and preshaking, which are known to increase liquefaction resistance, and specifically to the higher sensitivity of the penetration resistance to the value of the coefficient of lateral stress at rest, K0.