Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histomorphometric traits, microbiota, nutrient digestibility, growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality parameters of chickens fed diets supplemented with different levels of Bacillus protease

ABSTRACT The effects of dietary Bacillus protease on broiler performance were examined. Three hundred ‘Cobb 500’ day-old broilers were randomly assigned to five dietary groups with five replicates of 12 birds each. Treatments include: PROT0; without protease addition (0 g/kg; control), PROT10, PROT15, PROT20 and PROT25 diets supplemented with Bacillus protease at the level of 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 g/kg, respectively. Birds fed PROT25 had the highest (p < 0.05) villi height and villi height to crypt depth ratio, as well as crypt depth at the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of intestine. At starter and finisher phases, BWG was the highest (p < 0.05), whereas FI and FCR had their lowest values in PROT25 group (p < 0.05). PROT25 broilers had the best (p < 0.05) energy efficiency ratio. Crude protein, dry matter, and crude fibre digestibility were improved (p < 0.05) with increased inclusion levels of Bacillus protease. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria count increased (p < 0.05) as the inclusion levels of Bacillus protease increased in both ileum and caecum, while E. coli population decreased. Chickens fed with the PROT25 diets had the highest (p < 0.05) values for carcass, thigh, breast and drumstick weight. Cooking loss decreased (p < 0.05) as the inclusion levels of Bacillus protease increased, while water holding capacity increased (p < 0.05). Highest Bacillus protease (2.5 g/kg) inclusion improved digestibility, gut integrity, and health status with a better FCR, body weight gain, and retail cut yields.
Predictors of DAPSA Response in Psoriatic Arthritis Patients Treated with Apremilast in a Retrospective Observational Multi-Centric Study

Background: To date, only a few real-world-setting studies evaluated apremilast effectiveness in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The aims of this retrospective observational study are to report long-term Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA) response of apremilast in PsA patients and to analyze the predictors of clinical response. Methods: All PsA consecutive patients treated with apremilast in fifteen Italian rheumatological referral centers were enrolled. Anamnestic data, treatment history, and PsA disease activity (DAPSA) at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months were recorded. The Mann–Whitney test and chi-squared tests assessed the differences between independent groups, whereas the Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test assessed the differences between dependent samples. Logistic regressions verified if there were factors associated with achievement of DAPSA low disease activity or remission at 6 and 12 months. Results: DAPSA low disease activity or remission rates at 6 and 12 months were observed, respectively, in 42.7% (n = 125) and 54.9% (n = 161) patients. Baseline DAPSA was inversely associated with the odds of achieving low disease activity or remission at 6 months (odds ratio (OR) 0.841, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.804–0.879; p < 0.01) and at 12 months (OR 0.911, 95% CI 0.883–0.939; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Almost half of the PsA patients receiving apremilast achieved DAPSA low disease activity or remission at 6 and 12 months. The only factor associated with achievement of low disease activity or remission at both 6 and 12 months was baseline DAPSA.
Analytical study of WDM-based all-optical networks with light-path reservation

In this paper, we present an analytical model to analyze and to evaluate the blocking performance of a WDM-based All- Optical Network when light-path reservation is introduced. The computed results show that the link blocking probability is marginally less with light-path reservation than when there is no reservation provided that the traffic is low and that no routing is allowed; while the path blocking probability reduces significantly at high traffic when light-path reservation is introduced. Furthermore, the mean blocking probability of the network is reduced for low traffic with light-path reservation and routing is allowed. However, for high traffic, light-path reservation increases the blocking probability. We also discovered that, for given traffic load, there exists an optimum reservation level at which one can achieve the minimum mean blocking probability.
Studies on the Comparability of Consumer Price Indices

Comparability of statistical data between countries is a major objective for international statistical organisations such as EUROSTAT. The convergence criteria set down in the Maastricht Treaty explicitly require comparable consumer price indices in the European Union. We present an empirical analysis, largely based on simulations with Swedish and Finnish CPI data, of various potential sources of non‐comparability, conceptual as well as technical ones.
On the positive charge and interface states in metal‐oxide‐semiconductor capacitors

We have studied the defects created in p‐metal‐oxide‐semiconductor capacitors by Fowler– Nordheim injection. This injection has been performed either from the gate or from the substrate. We have shown that the oxide keeps no memory of the trapped holes created by an injection from the gate, once they have been neutralized. Nevertheless, we think that the corresponding traps are stress created by a mechanism similar to that which creates the slow states. The trapped hole annihilation has no influence on the number of interface states or slow states present after stress in the oxide. The increase of the interface state density with injected charge depends on whether the injection is from the gate or from the substrate. In both cases, the increase of the interface density differs from that of the trapped holes and slow states which suggests that the formation mechanisms of trapped holes and slow states are not the same as those of interface states.
Assessment of the Effect of Treating ‘GiSelA 5’ Softwood Cuttings with Biostimulants and Synthetic Auxin on Their Root Formation and Some of Their Physiological Parameters

The ‘GiSelA 5’ rootstock is of high importance for growing sweet cherries because it significantly reduces the growth vigour of the trees and accelerates their fruiting. However, the method of its propagation using ‘in vitro’ cultures is expensive, prompting researchers to look for alternative methods of propagation. One of these is the root formation in shoot cuttings. The experiment presented in this paper compared the use of powdered synthetic auxins (Rhizopon AA, Ukorzeniacz AB) and their alcoholic solution (IAA, IBA), and the biostimulants Goteo and Bispeed as foliar sprays for root formation in softwood cuttings ‘GiSelA 5’ and measured some parameters of physiological processes. In addition, two different substrates of river sand with peat (1:2) and peat substrate with perlite (2:1) were used. Cuttings were obtained on two dates, in the first and third years in the month of June. Biostimulants increased the number of rooted cuttings (Goteo—16.1%, Bispeed—18.1%) without improving their growth and the intensity of most of the analyzed physiological processes compared to the control. Synthetic preparations also increased the percentage of rooted cuttings Rhizopon AA (24.4%), Ukorzeniacz AB (21.4%), auxin IBA (19.7%) and auxin IAA (14.7%), while simultaneously improving their growth and level of vital processes compared to the controls and biostimulants. The substrate consisting of peat with sand improved root formation by 6.2%, without significantly changing the growth parameters and vital functions of the cuttings. The earlier date of propagation increased the root formation percentage only by 4% and the number of roots by 14% of the ‘GiSelA 5’ rootstock cuttings.
Which range of magnitudes for layer oriented MCAO?

Layer Oriented MCAO is a promising technique attempting to perform wide field of view correction with Natural Guide Stars. In the extended concept of Multiple Field of View Layer Oriented MCAO the wavefront sensor field of view is enlarged to collect more photons from more Natural Guide Stars and, in principle, significant sky coverages at any galactic latitude are achieved using only Natural Guide Stars. In this paper we address the problem of finding the best magnitude range for the Natural Guide Stars in order to achieve the best correction with the largest sky coverage in the Layer Oriented Multiple Field of View. For a given Field of View and sky direction we consider only the Natural Guide Stars within a given brightness range and we compute the equivalent integrated magnitude. Then we correlate the contribution in sky coverage of the previously considered Natural Guide Stars and we extrapolate which is the magnitude class giving the largest sky coverage. Once identified the more suitable Natural Guide Star magnitude class we discuss the possible implications in the design of a Multiple Field of View Layer Oriented wavefront sensor and we give the order of magnitude for the main parameters, i.e., maximum number of Natural Guide Stars and detector characteristics.
A New IRF-1–Driven Apoptotic Pathway Triggered by IL-4/IL-13 Kills Neonatal Th1 Cells and Weakens Protection against Viral Infection

Early life immune responses are deficient in Th1 lymphocytes that compromise neonatal vaccination. We found that IL-4 and IL-13 engage a developmentally expressed IL-4Rα/IL-13Rα1 heteroreceptor to endow IFN regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1) with apoptotic functions, which redirect murine neonatal Th1 reactivation to cell death. IL-4/IL-13–induced STAT6 phosphorylation serves to enhance IRF-1 transcription and promotes its egress from the nucleus. In the cytoplasm, IRF-1 can no longer serve as an anti-viral transcription factor but, instead, colocalizes with Bim and instigates the mitochondrial, or intrinsic, death pathway. The new pivotal function of IRF-1 in the death of neonatal Th1 cells stems from the ability of its gene to bind STAT6 for enhanced transcription and the proficiency of its protein to precipitate Bim-driven apoptosis. This cytokine-induced, IRF-1–mediated developmental death network weakens neonatal Th1 responses during early life vaccination and increases susceptibility to viral infection.
Importance of participatory narrative inquiry in sensitive research

This paper engages and persuades social researchers to use Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) in their sensitive social research. PNI is a pertinent approach which situates effective communication at the heart of social inquiry – it includes a form of personal interaction based on language, thought, and action which produced an appropriate climate that allows people to clarify their situation and generate personal solutions. Yet, PNI is rarely used in sensitive research. This study provides a window into its use in sensitive research from a perspective of a social researcher who has used it in exploring lived experience of young rural women who sell sex for livelihood in the suburbs of Mwanza town, in Tanzania. PNI afforded a space for a group of six young rural women who are in sex industry to tell stories so as to make sense of their complex situations and redefine themselves. PNI significantly helped the participants to speak about things that they would never have had a chance to speak about, reflect upon issues that would belong to the realm of taboo, and talk about subjects that they would not have been willing or able to speak about directly without the process of narrative inquiry.
Entrepreneurial business network and dynamic relational capabilities: a case study approach

PurposeTo further extend the understanding of the aggregating functions of an entrepreneurial business network, this paper attempts to explore the antecedents enabling the organisation of diverse entrepreneurs to engage in a collaborative inter-firm business network project. This paper also elucidates the development of the relational capabilities and performance of entrepreneurial business networks.Design/methodology/approachAn explorative, longitudinal case study design is employed to analyse an Italian agricultural business network, which comprised a group of local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using the network as the focus of analysis, the case study draws insights from key informants comprising the network management team and the entrepreneurs who make up the membership of the business network.FindingsThe results of the study provide critical factors for successful organisation of inter-firm engagement. Although these factors are not mutually exclusive, the results show that organising for inter-firm engagement in an entrepreneurial business network context positively influenced the network relational performance and entrepreneurs' innovation capabilities.Originality/valueThe paper extends current understanding of inter-organisational engagement and illuminates the antecedents enabling the development of network relational dynamics capabilities. The empirical results provide unusual insights into the aggregating roles of an entrepreneurial business network, giving practitioners practical insights into managing a successful inter-organisational collaborative project. Using the relevant theoretical frameworks, the study empirically tests the organisation solutions relevant to literature on inter-firm engagement in a business network context and addresses the organisation solutions' interrelationship and linkages to entrepreneurial network relational performance in terms of knowledge practice, information and resources sharing and innovation.
GRAPHITE DEFECTS OBSERVED BY ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Structural defects of natural graphite are characterized by Newton‐ring‐like electron microscopic contrast. Pictures are given, evidencing their aspect, their peculiar distribution (often corresponding to linear alignment), and their behavior at high temperatures. A discussion is presented concerning related theoretical and experimental results of other authors and in particular the relationship of these defects to radiation damage.
Influence of dicarboxylic acid polymer in enhancing the growth and productivity of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) in acidic soil

The available phosphorus (P) in acid sulfate soils (ASSs) is low because of fixation by aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe), resulting in decreased P use efficiency and crop yield. At present, the use of dicarboxylic acid polymer (DCAP) coated on P fertilizer is expected to improve P use efficiency and plant productivity. However, the influence of DCAP on P solubility and on the yield of sweet potato cultivated in acidic soils has not been elucidated. Thus, the aimed of this study was to evaluate the effect of the use of DCAP-coated P fertilizer on the availability and nutrient uptake of P as well as the yield of sweet potato. Under the greenhouse condition, the use of DCAP significantly improved P availability (~3 mg P kg−1), increasing tuber diameter and length by ~0.5 and ~1.0 cm, respectively. Thus, the productivity of sweet potato in the treatment 40-kg P2O5 and 60-kg P2O5 ha−1 coated with DCAP was higher by about 100 g pot−1 than that in the same rate of P fertilizers (40- and 60-kg P2O5 ha−1) not coated with DCAP. In the field experiment, P accumulation (82.7 kg P2O5 ha−1) and tuber yield (22.0 t ha−1) in the treatment of DCAP-coated with 60-kg P2O5 ha−1 were not significantly different compared with that in the treatment of 80-kg P2O5 ha−1 (82.1 kg P2O5 and 21.7 t ha−1, respectively). Furthermore, the use of DCAP combined with 75% P fertilizer increased the P availability by the same amount as that with the use of 100% P fertilizer. Hence, the use of DCAP reduced about 25% of the chemical P fertilizer applied in soil.
Stability versus reversibility in information processing

The paper is motivated by the discussion of feasibility of large scale quantum computations which should incorporate both unitarity of quantum dynamics for information bearing degrees of freedom and stability with respect to environmental noise. The minimal thermodynamic cost of a single CNOT gate, which is equivalent to the minimal cost of a quantum measurement of a binary observable is analyzed using a generic quantum model of one bit memory. For this model stability of memory with respect to thermal and quantum noise and the error of readout can be quantified. One obtains the relations between the minimal work which is invested in a measurement or CNOT gate, the error and the stability factor. The basic formula differs from the standard Landauer one and seems to be much more realistic. The results show the fundamental conflict between stability and irreversibility of information processing. This explains the feasibility of classical stable and scalable information processing performed by irreversible gates and suggests impossibility of large scale quantum computations based on unitary gates.
Fracture Intensity Impacts on Reaction Front Propagation and Mineral Weathering in Three‐Dimensional Fractured Media

Studying reaction front propagation in heterogeneous natural settings is challenging, but numerical simulations can provide insight into the varying spatial and temporal scales of reaction front propagation. Here, the impact of increasing fracture intensity on mineral dissolution rates, and the extent of reaction front propagation is investigated using reactive transport simulations in upscaled discrete fracture network domains with varied fracture intensity. Domain‐averaged dissolution rates vary less than 0.5 log units regardless of the fracture intensity, but the spatial distribution of reactions is controlled by the location and number of dead‐end fractures and the number of connected flowpaths through the domain. Higher fracture intensities lead to more weathering in the domain because of more available mineral for water‐rock interactions. We find that reaction fronts propagate through the primary flowpaths in the first 10,000 years of the simulation for a 10‐m length domain, then propagate into secondary flowpaths and dead‐end fractures between 10,000 and 100,000 years, and finally into the matrix over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years. The domain‐averaged reaction rates decrease through time corresponding to a transition from dissolution in advection‐dominated, fast‐flowing pathways, to dissolution in transport‐limited zones of disconnected fractures and matrix. Matrix dissolution, or dissolution under transport‐limited conditions, is the dominant process at late times in these simulations. The results of these simulations recreate the observed paradox found in nature where highly fractured hillslopes tend to be more weathered but have slower weathering rates, while hillslopes with fewer fractures, are less weathered but have higher dissolution rates.
Application of precomputed control laws in a reconfigurable aircraft flight control system

A self-repairing flight control system concept in which the control law is reconfigured after actuator and/or control surface damage to preserve stability and pilot command tracking is described. A key feature of the controller is reconfigurable multivariable feedback. The feedback gains are designed off-line and scheduled as a function of the aircraft control impairment status so that reconfiguration is performed simply by updating the gain schedule after detection of an impairment. A novel aspect of the gain schedule design procedure is that the schedule is calculated using a linear quadratic optimization-based simultaneous stabilization algorithm in which the scheduled gain is constrained to stabilize a collection of plant models representing the aircraft in various control failure modes. A description and numerical evaluation of a controller design for a model of a statically unstable high-performance aircraft are given.
Gaussian beams and Legendre polynomials as invariants of the time reversal operator for a large rigid cylinder

The DORT method (French acronym for decomposition of the time reversal operator) is an active remote sensing technique using an array of antennas for the detection and localization of scatterers. This method is based on the singular value decomposition of the interelement response matrix. In this paper an analytical expression of the singular vectors due to the reflection from a large rigid cylinder is provided. Depending on the array aperture, two asymptotic regimes are described. It is shown that the singular vectors correspond to Hermite-Gaussian modes for large apertures and Legendre polynomials for small ones. Using perturbation theory, the corresponding singular values are deduced. Theoretical predictions are in good agreement with experimental results.
Niclosamide Revitalizes Sorafenib through Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R)/Stemness and Metabolic Changes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Simple Summary Sorafenib resistance is the major challenge for the unsatisfactory response to targeted therapies in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Combination therapy may overcome the obstacle and is an increasingly acceptable strategy. In this study, we demonstrate that niclosamide can increase sorafenib sensitivity in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells/organoids through the regulation of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R)/p-IGF-1R/stemness and metabolic changes. A combination of sorafenib and niclosamide can yield a synergistic combination index (CI) for sorafenib-resistant HCC cells that decrease the expressions of IGF-1R/p-IGF-1R/OCT4, attenuate stemness-related properties, downregulate the glycolysis-associated gene expressions, and reduce the mitochondrial membrane potential in vitro, and decrease tumor size and tumor volume resulting from apoptosis in vivo. These findings may highlight a practical clinical strategy for repurposing niclosamide for enhancing sorafenib sensitivity in HCC. Abstract Sorafenib is the first approved systemic targeting agent for advanced HCC; however, when used alone, drug resistance can result in considerably reduced efficacy. Here, we demonstrate that niclosamide, an antihelminthic agent approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, can be repurposed to increase sorafenib sensitivity in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells. We generated sorafenib-resistant HCC cell lines (HepG2215_R and Hep3B_R) with elevated IGF-1R levels and strong properties in terms of stemness and epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Niclosamide was found to increase sorafenib sensitivity effectively in both cell lines and their organoids. The underlying mechanism involves the modulation of cancer stemness, IGF-1R/p-IGF1R/OCT4, and metabolic changes. The combination of sorafenib and niclosamide, but not linsitinib, effectively suppressed the IGF-1R/OCT4 expressions, yielded a synergistic combination index (CI), and attenuated stemness-related properties such as secondary tumor sphere formation and cell migration in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells. Notably, niclosamide significantly suppressed the sorafenib-induced IGF-1R phosphorylation prompted by IGF-1 treatment. Niclosamide effectively downregulated the sorafenib-induced gene expression associated with glycolysis (GLUT1, HK2, LDHA, and PEPCK), stemness (OCT4), and drug resistance (ABCG2) and enhanced the ability of sorafenib to reduce the mitochondrial membrane potential in vitro. The synergistic effect of a combination of niclosamide and sorafenib in vivo was further demonstrated by the decreased tumor size and tumor volume resulting from apoptosis regulation. Our results suggest that niclosamide can enhance sorafenib sensitivity in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells through IGF-1R/stemness regulation and metabolic changes. Our findings highlight a practical clinical strategy for enhancing sorafenib sensitivity in HCC.