Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Explorer Genomic contributions in livestock gene introgression programmes

The composition of the genome after introgression of a marker gene from a donor to a recipient breed was studied using analytical and simulation methods. Theoretical predictions of proportional genomic contributions, including donor linkage drag, from ancestors used at each generation of crossing after an introgression programme agreed closely with simulated results. The obligate drag, the donor genome surrounding the target locus that cannot be removed by subsequent selection, was also studied. It was shown that the number of backcross generations and the length of the chromosome affected proportional genomic contributions to the carrier chromosomes. Population structure had no significant effect on ancestral contributions and linkage drag but it did have an effect on the obligate drag whereby larger offspring groups resulted in smaller obligate drag. The implications for an introgression programme of the number of backcross generations, the population structure and the carrier chromosome length are discussed. The equations derived describing contributions to the genome from individuals from a given generation provide a framework to predict the genomic composition of a population after the introgression of a favourable donor allele. These ancestral contributions can be assigned a value and therefore allow the prediction of genetic lag. introgression / genomic contributions / linkage drag / backcross / genetic lag
Diagnóstico de Nódulo Pulmonar Solitário Utilizando Textura e Geometria em Imagens de Tomografia Computadorizada: Resultados Preliminares

�Resumo — Este trabalho analisa medidas baseadas em textura, no Metodo de Dependencia Espacial de Niveis de Cinza — SGLDM — e na geometria utilizando o esqueleto, para diagnosticar nodulos pulmonares em imagens de tomografia computadorizada. Com base em uma amostra de 31 nodulos, sendo 25 benignos e 6 malignos, estes metodos sao primeiro analisados individualmente e depois combinados, e utilizando um conjunto de tecnicas para classificacao e analise (analise discriminante, passo a passo, deixa um de fora e curva ROC), concluimos que os metodos individualmente e combinados produziram bons resultados no diagnostico de nodulos pulmonares solitarios. Para obtermos um padrao de comportamento mais preciso, necessitamos efetuar mais testes com um banco de dados amplo e nodulos mais complexos.
Pregabalin for the treatment of fibromyalgia

Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FM) is the most common cause of chronic widespread body pain in humans. Co-morbidities include sleep disturbance, fatigue, impaired physical functioning, altered mood and negative effects on health-related quality of life. Pregabalin inhibits presynaptic release of pronociceptive neurotransmitters in the CNS; this likely underpins its therapeutic benefit in patients with FM. Areas covered: This review addresses pregabalin pharmacokinetics, efficacy and adverse event (AE) profiles from randomized controlled trials and open-label extension studies in patients with FM. These effects are compared with those of the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, duloxetine and milnacipran that also have FDA approval for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Expert opinion: At the approved dosages, oral pregabalin has at most a moderate therapeutic benefit above placebo with tolerable side-effects, in no more than 50% of patients with FM. Durability of clinically meaningful (≥ 30%) pain relief in pregabalin-responders has been demonstrated for at least 6-months, but longer-term studies are required as most patients have symptoms for decades. Exclusion of patients with common co-morbidities from the pregabalin RCTs in FM raises questions on the generalizability of the RCT findings to the typical patient seen in clinical practice and so additional investigation is required.
Modeling and Parameter Identification of Ultracapacitors for Hybrid Electrical Vehicles

An ultracapacitor equivalent circuit model and the procedure to identify its parameters is proposed and validated. The model, appropriated for hybrid electrical vehicle simulation, is experimentally validated under controlled conditions in laboratory and under real utilization conditions in a hybrid electric vehicle. The validation is performed with different ultracapacitor nominal values (583F-15V, 32F-270V and 16F-540V).
A modified Watersheds Image Segmentation Algorithm for Blood Cell

In this paper, we present a new grayscale image segmentation algorithm, which combines edge- and region-based techniques through the morphological algorithm of watersheds. The method integrating top/bottom hat transformation with gray-level transformation and median filters is used as a preprocessing stage in order to reduce noise as well as augment the foreground. Then, an initial partitioning of the image into primitive regions is produced by applying the watershed transform. A region merging process based on the properties of watershed region is applied to control the oversegmentation. As additional contribution, we demonstrate a new method to establish the watershed regions based on the distance and elevation fall associated with pixels and minima and an approach to merge region to control oversegmentation according to the properties of initial watershed regions
Forced swimming stimulates the expression of vasopressin and oxytocin in magnocellular neurons of the rat hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus

Previous studies have shown that a 10‐min forced swimming session triggers the release of both vasopressin and oxytocin into the extracellular fluid of the hypothalamic paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic nuclei (SON) in rats. At the same time oxytocin, but not vasopressin, was released from the axon terminals into the blood. Here we combined forced swimming with in situ hybridization to investigate whether (i) the stressor‐induced release of vasopressin and oxytocin within the PVN originates from parvo‐ or magnocellular neurons of the nucleus, and (ii) central release with or without concomitant peripheral secretion is followed by changes in the synthesis of vasopressin and/or oxytocin. Adult male Wistar rats were killed 2, 4 or 8 h after a 10‐min forced swimming session and their brains processed for in situ hybridization using 35S‐labelled oligonucleotide probes. As measured on photo‐emulsion‐coated slides, cellular vasopressin mRNA concentration increased in magnocellular PVN neurons 2 and 4 h after swimming (P < 0.05). Similarly, oxytocin mRNA concentration was significantly increased in magnocellular neurons of the PVN at 2 and 8 h (P < 0.05). We failed to observe significant effects on vasopressin and oxytocin mRNA levels in the parvocellular PVN and in the SON. Taken together with results from previous studies, our data suggest that magnocellular neurons are the predominant source of vasopressin and oxytocin released within PVN in response to forced swimming. Furthermore, in the case of vasopressin, central release in the absence of peripheral secretion is followed by increased mRNA levels, implying a refill of depleted somato‐dendritic vasopressin stores. Within the SON, however, mRNA levels are poor indicators of the secretory activity of magnocellular neurons during stress.
Contrast Maximization in F0 Declination: Japanese Shiki-accent Dialects

Japanese dialects spoken in the Kinki and Shikoku regions have a lexical contrast of pitch register types called shiki. The shallow f0 downtrend in the high-pitched shiki type is thought of as a manifestation of backdrop f0 declination that is blind to tonal structure. Acoustic analysis of three Japanese dialects with 2or 3-way contrast of shiki types, however, reveals that the degree of f0 declination takes different values depending on the number and structure of contrastive shiki types. This can be regarded as dialect-specific ways of maximizing difference in f0 trends in word-sized units for enhancing contrasts between phonological categories, suggesting that f0 declination patterns in shiki dialects are encoded in the contrastive structure of their phonology.
The first IA-64 microprocessor

The first implementation of the IA-64 architecture achieves high performance by using a highly parallel execution core, while maintaining binary compatibility with the IA-32 instruction set. Explicitly parallel instruction computing (EPIC) design maximizes performance through hardware and software synergy. The processor contains 25.4 million transistors and operates at 800 MHz. The chip is fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process with six metal layers and packaged in a 1012-pad organic land grid array using C4 (flip chip) assembly technology. A core speed back-side bus connects the processor to a 4-MB L3 cache.
Prevalence and first molecular identification of Sarcocystis species in cattle and water buffaloes in India

The importance of Sarcocystis hominis in causing zoonotic infections is well known. Recently, S. hominis like cysts have been reported from water buffalo in China. Previous studies indicate prevalence of Sarcocystis species in bovine populations in India but molecular evidence is required for proper species differentiation. We examined two hundred and ninety six cardiac tissue samples of Indian water buffaloes and cattle from northern and western parts of the country. Tissues were examined for Sarcocystis using intact cyst isolation method, pepsin acid digestion method and Sarcocystis 18S rRNA PCR. The combination of primers was used for 18S rRNA PCR amplification followed by sequencing. Twenty five representative samples were sent for sequencing and 19 readable sequences were obtained for phylogenetic analysis. Overall, the Sarcocystis cysts/zoites were recorded in 44% (95% CI 38–49%), 58% (95% CI 53–64%) and 68% (95% CI 63–73%) from both cattle and buffalo samples using intact cyst isolation, pepsin-HCl digestion method and conventional PCR, respectively. The results indicate that pepsin- HCl digestion method and conventional PCR are more sensitive than intact cyst isolation for detection of Sarcocystis species in tissue samples. The prevalence of Sarcocystis species was high in buffalo as compared to cattle intermediate hosts. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that more than one Sarcocystis species are circulating in cattle and water buffaloes in India. The results further indicate that experimental transmission studies are required to re-confirm the identities and host ranges of the Sarcocystis species in cattle and water buffaloes in India.
A visual tracking system for sports video annotation in unconstrained environments

A visual tracking system is presented in which a combination of techniques is used to obtain motion features of objects from a video sequence. Further processing of the motion features gives the spatio-temporal trajectories of the objects, that can be used as cues for annotation. The system solves problems found in tracking objects in unconstrained environments, such as in sports games, where there are multiple objects in motion, the camera performs pan, tilt and zoom movements, and there are objects other than the players in the background. Coarse segmentation is performed with multi-class statistical color models, constructed from samples of the representative colors of each team. Motion vectors are computed to find region correspondence between consecutive frames. Background elements are eliminated by using camera motion parameters, and other false matches are detected by analyzing motion pattern consistency. Finally, objects are registered by placing windows centered in each tracked region. An experimental realization was used to test the system for tracking players in a soccer game, but it could had also been used for generating annotation cues of videos from other sports as well.
Microfluidic Trapping of Antibody-secreting Cells

The development of antibody-based drugs typically begins with the isolation and screening of thousands of antibody-secreting cells, often requiring 4-6 weeks to identify only 1-10 cell lines of interest. We are developing a novel immunobiosensing device to afford direct and rapid assessment of the antibody production of each of thousands of living cells captured on a single slide. Each cell shall he trapped near a designated surface plasmon-resonant nanohole array immunobiosensor to detect the binding of the cell's secreted antibodies to an immobilized target antigen. This paper presents arrays of single-cell traps consisting of concave hydrodynamic structures and inset microwells. Each design is fabricated using either SU-8 photoresist or poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) and then tested using polystyrene microspheres and 17/9 mouse B cell hybridoma cells. Although we find that PDMS adheres more strongly to our substrates than SU-8, we also find that channels fabricated in PDMS are wider than expected and thus fail to limit cellular passage. The hydrodynamic tests agree with the predictions of finite element modeling using COMSOL(superscript ®) Multiphysics. We find that the hydrodynamic designs featuring concave traps inset into spirals and serpentine bends capture cells more efficiently than our other hydrodynamic designs. Testing also verities the functionality of our microwell traps, with 5-20 cells/well trapped following a 10 min settling time. Moreover, untrapped cells beyond the microwells are removed via peristaltic pumping, with minimal trapped cell displacement. Furthermore, 4-24 hr trapped-cell incubations verify the biocompatibility of each of our fabricated designs, provided that a Cr-free substrate is used.
Silicon on sapphire and SOI photonic devices for mid-infrared and near-IR wavelengths

Conventional SOI waveguide technology, serving as the foundation of near-IR photonics, meets its limitation in mid-IR due to high loss associated with the buried oxide. Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) waveguides are considered as a good mid-IR alternative, because the transparency window of sapphire is up to 6 μm and SOS waveguides are compatible with SOI technology. We show that properly-designed SOS waveguides can facilitate frequency band conversion between near-IR and mid-IR. An indirect mid-IR detection scheme is proposed and the mid-IR signal is down-converted to telecommunication wavelength (1.55 μm) through SOS waveguides and indirectly detected by near-IR detectors. The performance of the indirect mid-IR detection scheme is discussed. Particularly we model and compare the noise performance of the indirect detection with direct detection using state-of-the-art mid-IR detectors. In addition to advantages of room temperature and high-speed operation, the results show that the proposed indirect detection can improve the electrical signal-to-noise ratio up to 50dB, 23dB and 4dB, compared to direct detection by PbSe, HgCdTe and InSb detectors respectively. The improvement is even more pronounced in detection of weak MWIR signals. In order to further boost the performance, we also investigate mechanisms to increasing the conversion efficiency in SOS waveguide wavelength converters. The conversion efficiency can be improved by periodically cascading SOS waveguide sections with opposite dispersion characteristics to achieve quasi-phase-matching. Conversion efficiency enhancement over 30dB and the conversion bandwidth increased by 2 times are demonstrated, which may facilitate the fabrication of parametric oscillators that can improve the conversion efficiency by 50dB.
Troponin Is Unlikely to Occur in Bovine and Chick Forebrain

Abstract: A search for the presence of troponin in brain reveals that troponin is below 0.00037% of total bovine brain soluble protein. Troponin levels were examined using G‐actin‐linked Sepharose affinity chromatography and 45Ca binding. The chromatographic and 45Ca binding experiments revealed the presence of several actin and calcium‐binding proteins, none of which corresponded to any troponin subunit. In addition, troponin was not found in any chick brain subfraction analyzed, and the level of troponin in chick nerve ending cytoplasm enriched for troponin was less than 0.023%. Considering that substantial amounts of myosin and actin occur in brain, these findings indicate that troponin is not likely to be a regulator of putative brain actomyosin interactions. The significance of these results and their relation to proposed models for neurotransmitter release is discussed.
Activated protein C resistance among postmenopausal women using transdermal estrogens: importance of progestogen

Objective: Although the route of estrogen administration is known to be an important determinant of the thrombotic risk among postmenopausal women using hormone therapy, recent data have shown that norpregnane derivatives but not micronized progesterone increase venous thromboembolism risk among transdermal estrogens users. However, the differential effects of progesterone and norpregnanes on hemostasis have not yet been investigated. Methods: We set up a cross-sectional study among healthy postmenopausal women aged 45 to 70 years. The impact of activated protein C (APC) on endogenous thrombin potential was investigated in the plasma samples of 108 women who did not use any hormone therapy (n = 40) or who were treated with transdermal estrogens combined with micronized progesterone (n = 30) or norpregnane derivatives (n = 38). Results: After exclusion of women with factor V Leiden and/or G20210A prothrombin gene mutations, there was no significant change in APC sensitivity among women who used transdermal estrogens combined with micronized progesterone compared with nonusers. Women using transdermal estrogens combined with norpregnanes were less sensitive to APC than were nonusers (P = 0.003) or users of transdermal estrogens combined with micronized progesterone (P = 0.004). In addition, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 concentration was higher in users of transdermal estrogens plus norpregnanes than in nonusers (P = 0.004). Other hemostatic parameters did not vary significantly across the different subgroups. Conclusions: Transdermal estrogens combined with norpregnanes may induce APC resistance and activate blood coagulation. These results provide a biological support to epidemiological data regarding the potential thrombogenic effects of norpregnanes. However, these findings need to be confirmed in a randomized trial.
Pulsewidth modulation for electronic power conversion

The efficient and fast control of electric power forms part of the key technologies of modern automated production. It is performed using electronic power converters. The converters transfer energy from a source to a controlled process in a quantized fashion, using semiconductor switches which are turned on and off at fast repetition rates. The algorithms which generate the switching functions-pulsewidth-modulation techniques-are manifold. They range from simple averaging schemes to involved methods of real-time optimization. This paper gives an overview. >
A Study of Optimal Nonfirm Wind Capacity Connection to Congested Transmission Systems

As wind is a low capacity factor source of power generation, a nonphysically firm connection strategy is key to its cost-effective and timely integration to presently constrained transmission networks. This paper, therefore, outlines the design and study of an optimal nonfirm wind capacity allocation model. While a precise statistical representation of wind power variations and geographical interdependency requires a significant number of data samples, the structured very-large-scale linear programming problem that results is shown to be exploitable by the Benders' decomposition scheme. Various wind capacity target levels are considered, and important sensitivity analyses are performed for multiple load profiles, wind profiles, and fuel price parameter values. Interestingly, the optimal wind capacity allocation is found to be reasonably robust to sizeable load and fuel price deviations, and while the effect of a limited historical wind data profile is more influential, the associated cost-function penalty is not significantly critical. The economic value of combining wind connection with advanced postcontingency network remedial action schemes is also highlighted.
Neonatal Complications of Vacuum-Assisted Delivery

OBJECTIVE: To assess systematically the extent of neonatal complications in a cohort of vacuum-assisted deliveries, identify risk factors associated with the occurrence of these complications, and to evaluate the usefulness of skull X-ray and transfontanellar ultrasonography after vacuum extraction. METHODS: We reviewed a cohort of 1,123 attempted vacuum extractions of singletons performed between January 2000 and December 2004. During this period, a systematic screening using transfontanellar ultrasonography and skull X-ray was performed after vacuum extraction. RESULTS: Among 913 successful vacuum-assisted, full-term deliveries, 25.7% were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Scalp edema, cephalhematoma, and skull fracture were assessed by cranial radiography and were present in, respectively, 18.7%, 10.8%, and 5.0% of cases. Intracranial hemorrhage occurred in eight cases (0.87%). Nulliparity, a vacuum attempt at mid station, an extraction requiring more than three tractions, and dislodgment of the cup were associated with these complications but had a low predictive value. CONCLUSION: Severe neonatal complications associated with vacuum extraction are uncommon. Systematic X-ray and ultrasonographic examination led to the discovery of asymptomatic complications. Because the clinical significance of these complications is unknown, we do not recommend them as routine screening tools. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
A Binary-Ordered Probit Model of Cigarette Demand

This study analyzes the demand for cigarettes fitting observed zero outcomes with a trivariate model consisting of an equation for the starting smoking decision, an equation for the quitting decision, and an equation that models the level of cigarettes consumed. Five competing specifications are considered to explain level, with the ordered probit, which accommodates pile-ups of counts in the dependent variable, providing the best fit. Marginal effects of explanatory variables are calculated providing strong evidence of race and gender differences in consumption patterns. The estimated marginal effects are robust to alternative categorizations of the level of cigarettes.
Development and optimization of interpenetrating network beads of delonix regia gum and sodium alginate using response surface methodology

The aim of present investigation was to develop and optimize sustained release interpenetrating network (IPN) beads of delonix regia seed polysaccharide (DRG) and sodium alginate using response surface methodology. Diclofenac sodium (DS) was chosen as model drug. A central composite design was used to study and optimize the effect of independent variables (A: sodium alginate:DRG ratio and B: calcium chloride concentration) on drug encapsulation efficiency (DEE, %) and drug release in 8h (R8h, %). Total thirteen batches of DRG-alginate IPN beads were prepared by ionotropic gelation method using calcium chloride as a cross-linking agent. The DEE (%) of the beads was found in the range 32.79-56.54%. Swelling of beads was high in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) whereas, less in 0.1 N HCl (pH 1.2). The beads exhibited sustained release of DS for 8h (65.6±0.98 - 99.9±1.87%) and followed Higuchi model demonstrating non-fickian diffusion mechanism. The observed responses of the optimized batch were similar to the predicted values determined by Design Expert (V.7.0, Stat-Ease Inc, USA) software. The optimized DRG-alginate IPN beads may show good encapsulation of water soluble drugs followed by their sustained release for 8h which might be advantageous in terms of advanced patient compliance with reduced dosing interval.