Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of heat-stress on liver and blood transcriptomes of laying hen

In this report, we investigate by RNAseq the effects of chronic heat stress (constant 32°C during 4 weeks, HS group) on the liver and blood transcriptomes of laying hens from two experimental lines selected for low and high residual feed intake. We found 229 and 960 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in the liver and blood respectively, when comparing HS and control (CT, 22°C) groups of animals. Analysis of the DEG revealed an under-expression of genes linked to lipid and amino acids metabolism, and mitochondria in the liver and an alteration of genes linked with cell-related functions (cell cycle, differentiation or proliferation) and protein metabolism in the blood. Analysis of phenotypic data collected during the stress exposure showed that the HS group had a significantly lower feed intake, body weight, total mass of laid eggs, hematocrit, uric acid concentration, plasmatic anti-oxidant activity compared to CT group. Our results indicate a turndown of liver’s metabolic activity that may aim at decreasing metabolic heat production and an alteration of cell-related functions involved in angiogenesis that may aim at increasing heat dissipation efficiency.
Quasi–static studies of the deformation and failure of β–HMX based polymer bonded explosives

This paper describes research into the low strain rate mechanical properties of polymer bonded explosives (PBXs) and follows on from that presented by Palmer and co-workers in 1993. PBXs are highly filled composite materials comprised of crystals of a secondary explosive supported in ca.5–10% (by mass) polymeric binder. In general, the modulus of the binder is 105 times lower than that of the crystalline explosive, resulting in the behaviour of the composite being heavily influenced by the properties of the binder despite the low concentration present. The Brazilian test, in which a disc of material is loaded diametrically in compression, has been used to generate tensile failure in the materials studied. Three methods of microscopy have been used to examine the nature of failure in two UK compositions and one US material (PBX 9501). Pre– and post–failure optical and electron microscopy examinations of the materials have been undertaken to gain a greater understanding of the role of the microstructure and this has been aided by the use of an environmental scanning electron microscope to follow real-time failure in the PBXs. Failure in all three compositions has been observed to start around the edges of larger filler particles perpendicular to the direction of tensile strain. Compositions with rubbery binders have been observed forming binder filaments which bridge the crack walls, while clean crystal faces are observed on the larger particles. In a composition with a nitrocellulose-based binder, hair-like features of nitrocellulose have been seen sticking out from the failure surfaces and the rougher crack walls.
A Practical, Robust and Fast Method for Location Localization in Range-Based Systems

Location localization technology is used in a number of industrial and civil applications. Real time location localization accuracy is highly dependent on the quality of the distance measurements and efficiency of solving the localization equations. In this paper, we provide a novel approach to solve the nonlinear localization equations efficiently and simultaneously eliminate the bad measurement data in range-based systems. A geometric intersection model was developed to narrow the target search area, where Newton’s Method and the Direct Search Method are used to search for the unknown position. Not only does the geometric intersection model offer a small bounded search domain for Newton’s Method and the Direct Search Method, but also it can self-correct bad measurement data. The Direct Search Method is useful for the coarse localization or small target search domain, while the Newton’s Method can be used for accurate localization. For accurate localization, by utilizing the proposed Modified Newton’s Method (MNM), challenges of avoiding the local extrema, singularities, and initial value choice are addressed. The applicability and robustness of the developed method has been demonstrated by experiments with an indoor system.
Cysteine S-linked N-acetylglucosamine (S-GlcNAcylation), A New Post-translational Modification in Mammals*

Intracellular GlcNAcylation of Ser and Thr residues is a well-known and widely investigated post-translational modification. This post-translational modification has been shown to play a significant role in cell signaling and in many regulatory processes within cells. O-GlcNAc transferase is the enzyme responsible for glycosylating cytosolic and nuclear proteins with a single GlcNAc residue on Ser and Thr side-chains. Here we report that the same enzyme may also be responsible for S-GlcNAcylation, i.e. for linking the GlcNAc unit to the peptide by modifying a cysteine side-chain. We also report that O-GlcNAcase, the enzyme responsible for removal of O-GlcNAcylation does not appear to remove the S-linked sugar. Such Cys modifications have been detected and identified in mouse and rat samples. This work has established the occurrence of 14 modification sites assigned to 11 proteins unambiguously. We have also identified S-GlcNAcylation from human Host Cell Factor 1 isolated from HEK-cells. Although these site assignments are primarily based on electron-transfer dissociation mass spectra, we also report that S-linked GlcNAc is more stable under collisional activation than O-linked GlcNAc derivatives.
An architecture of IPTV networks based on network coding

In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for IPTV networks, where network coding is deployed in the backbone networks. As the number of subscribers to IPTV services increases, the size of backbone network is correspondingly grows. Therefore, it is challenging to manage network faults in a centralized manner. Moreover, IPTV services that provide larger video stream sizes in a limited network capacity becomes a problem of current networks. In order to overcome such challenges of IPTV services in the current networks, we propose to deploy network coding technique, which can increase network capacity while improving robustness against network faults.
Effect of opicapone multiple‐dose regimens on levodopa pharmacokinetics

AIMS To compare the levodopa/carbidopa (LC) and levodopa/benserazide (LB) pharmacokinetic profiles following repeated doses of opicapone (OPC) administered apart from levodopa. METHODS Two randomized, double blind, sex-balanced, placebo-controlled studies in four groups of 12 or 18 healthy subjects each. In each group, enrolled subjects received a once-daily morning (5, 15 and 30 mg) or evening (5, 15 and 50 mg) administration of OPC or placebo for up to 28 days. On the morning of Day 11, 12 h after the OPC or placebo evening dose, or the morning of Day 21, 1 h after the OPC or placebo dose, a single dose of immediate-release 100/25 mg LC was administered. Similarly, on Day 18 morning, 12 h after the OPC or placebo evening dose, or Day 28 morning, 1 h after the OPC or placebo dose, a single dose of immediate-release 100/25 mg LB was administered. RESULTS All OPC treatments, in relation to the placebo group, presented a higher extent of exposure (AUC) to levodopa following either LC or LB doses. A relevant but not dose-dependent increase in the levodopa AUC occurred with all OPC dose groups in relation to placebo. All active treatments significantly inhibited both peak (Emax ) and extent (AUEC) of the catechol-O-methyltransferase activity in relation to placebo. The tolerability profile was favourable. CONCLUSION Opicapone, as once-daily oral evening regimen and/or 1 h apart from levodopa therapy, increases the bioavailability of levodopa associated with its pronounced, long-lasting and sustained catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibition. The tolerability profile was favourable and similar between OPC and placebo.
Evaluating Task-Dependent Taxonomies for Navigation

Taxonomies of concepts are important across many application domains, for instance, online shopping portals use catalogs to help users navigate and search for products. Task-dependent taxonomies, e.g., adapting the taxonomy to a specific cohort of users, can greatly improve the effectiveness of navigation and search. However, taxonomies are usually created by domain experts and hence designing task-dependent taxonomies can be an expensive process: this often limits the applications to deploy generic taxonomies. Crowdsourcing-based techniques have the potential to provide a cost-efficient solution to building task-dependent taxonomies. In this paper, we present the first quantitative study to evaluate the effectiveness of these crowdsourcing based techniques. Our experimental study compares different task-dependent taxonomies built via crowdsourcing and generic taxonomies built by experts. We design randomized behavioral experiments on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform for navigation tasks using these taxonomies resembling real-world applications such as product search. We record various metrics such as the time of navigation, the number of clicks performed, and the search path taken by a participant to navigate the taxonomy to locate a desired object. Our findings show that task-dependent taxonomies built by crowdsourcing techniques can reduce the navigation time up to $20\%$. Our results, in turn,demonstrate the power of crowdsourcing for learning complex structures such as semantic taxonomies.
HipOP mesenchymal population has high potential for repairing injured peripheral nerves

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are reportedly a heterogeneous population of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Recently, we developed a simple strategy for the enrichment of MSCs with the capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. On transplantation, the progenitor‐enriched fractions can regenerate the bone with multiple lineages of donor origin and are thus called “highly purified osteoprogenitors” (HipOPs). Although our previous studies have demonstrated that HipOPs are enriched with MSCs and exhibit a higher potential to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes than BMSCs, their potential to differentiate into neural cells has not been clarified. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of HipOPs as a resource of neural stem cells. The neurosphere assay showed that neurospheres formed by HipOPs exhibited self‐renewal ability and their size was generally larger than that of neurospheres formed by BMSCs. A limiting dilution assay was used to evaluate the frequency of neural progenitors in BMSCs and HipOPs. The results demonstrated that the frequency of neural progenitors in HipOPs was 120‐fold higher than that in BMSCs. Furthermore, to investigate the in vivo regenerative potential of the peripheral nerve, we modified a murine peripheral nerve injury experimental model and demonstrated that HipOPs exhibit a higher efficacy in repairing injured peripheral nerves. These findings suggest that HipOPs are a useful cell resource for regenerative therapies such as that in case of peripheral nerve injury.
Lifelong-RL: Lifelong Relaxation Labeling for Separating Entities and Aspects in Opinion Targets

It is well-known that opinions have targets. Extracting such targets is an important problem of opinion mining because without knowing the target of an opinion, the opinion is of limited use. So far many algorithms have been proposed to extract opinion targets. However, an opinion target can be an entity or an aspect (part or attribute) of an entity. An opinion about an entity is an opinion about the entity as a whole, while an opinion about an aspect is just an opinion about that specific attribute or aspect of an entity. Thus, opinion targets should be separated into entities and aspects before use because they represent very different things about opinions. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, called Lifelong-RL, to solve the problem based on lifelong machine learning and relaxation labeling. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm Lifelong-RL outperforms baseline methods markedly.
An Exploratory Microdialysis Study to Assess the Ocular Pharmacokinetics of Ciprofloxacin Eye Drops in Rabbits.

PURPOSE Despite the high frequency of use, data regarding the ocular in vivo pharmacokinetics (PK) of topically applied antibiotics are sparse. This study seeks to investigate the PK of the widely used fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin by means of in vivo microdialysis. METHODS Twelve New Zealand white rabbits were included in the experiments. Under general anesthesia, microdialysis probes were implanted in the anterior chamber and the posterior segment of the same eye. After a period of 90 min after implantation, one drop of ciprofloxacin was administered onto the ocular surface. Microdialysis samples of the anterior chamber and the vitreous were collected every 30 min for 6 h. Relative recovery was assessed by retrodialysis to calculate absolute concentration values. Samples were analyzed using HPLC. RESULTS In the anterior chamber, the maximum total drug concentration (Cmax) amounted to 0.373 ± 0.281 μg/mL and was reached (Tmax) after 116 ± 36 min. Calculated area under the concentration-time curve AUC(0-n) for ciprofloxacin in the anterior chamber was 78.8 ± 47.1 μg min/mL. For the vitreous, Cmax was 0.02 ± 0.03 μg/mL and maximum drug concentration was reached 107 ± 60 min after topical administration. AUC(0-n) for ciprofloxacin in the vitreous was 0.269 ± 0.370 μg min/mL. CONCLUSION Microdialysis is a suitable method to assess in vivo pharmacokinetic profiles in the anterior chamber and in the vitreous. In the anterior chamber, maximum drug concentration was reached ∼2 h after single drug administration. Although the drug concentration in the vitreous was considerably lower, time course of drug concentration was comparable.
Autonomous robot motion path planning using shortest path planning algorithms

Motion planning(1) is a fundamental problem in robotics and also arises in other applications including navigation, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)(2), animation etc., in the motion planning normally using many techniques and algorithms. In this paper for path planning using a novel path planning algorithm called as Dijkstra's iteration (D*) inspired by the witkowski's algorithm based on a two dimensional grid map of the Static environment designed in mat lab using bioinformatics tools.
Minimizing expected loss for risk-avoiding reinforcement learning

This paper considers the design of a reinforcement learning (RL) agent that can strike a balance between return and risk. First, we discuss several favorable properties of an RL risk model, and then propose a definition of risk based on expected negative rewards. We also design a Q-decomposition-based framework that allows a reinforcement learning agent to control the balance between risk and profit. The results of experiments on both artificial and real-world stock datasets demonstrate that the proposed risk model satisfies the beneficial properties of an RL-based risk learning model, and also significantly outperforms other approaches in terms of avoiding risks.
Infant Attachment Moderates Paths From Early Negativity to Preadolescent Outcomes for Children and Parents.

Although infant attachment has been long seen as key for development, its long-term effects may be complex. Attachment may be a catalyst or moderator of future developmental sequelae rather than a source of main effects. In 102 mothers, fathers, and infants, attachment was assessed at 15 months; children's negativity (rejection of parental rules and modeling attempts) at 25, 38, 52, and 67 months; and developmental outcomes (the child's parent-rated externalizing problems and the parent-child observed relationship quality) at ages 10 and 12. In both mother-child and father-child relationships, children's higher negativity was associated with more detrimental outcomes but only in dyads with formerly insecure infants. Infant insecurity appears to amplify detrimental cascades, whereas infant security appears to defuse such risks.
Metastatic renal cell carcinoma presenting as maxillary lesion: Report of two rare cases

Oral cavity is not a usual site for metastasis, accounting about 1% of all oral tumors. The majority site for metastasis is the mandible and less common the maxilla followed by intraoral soft tissue. These tumors may be the first clinical manifestation of the primary lesion. One of the most important sites of the primary neoplasm that metastasizes to the jaws is kidney. Therefore, considering to this fact that the metastatic tumors always are not seen in a typical site, it is necessary to rule out the metastatic carcinomas to jaws. We presented two cases of metastatic renal cell carcinoma to maxilla with two different clinical features, one of them with an intraosseous lytic lesion and the other one with a large exophytic mass.
Anthropometry and physical activity level in the prediction of metabolic syndrome in children

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of anthropometric measures and physical activity level in the prediction of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children. Design Cross-sectional study with children from public and private schools. Children underwent an anthropometric assessment, blood pressure measurement and biochemical evaluation of serum for determination of TAG, HDL-cholesterol and glucose. Physical activity level was calculated and number of steps per day obtained using a pedometer for seven consecutive days. Setting Viçosa, south-eastern Brazil. Subjects Boys and girls (n 187), mean age 9·90 (sd 0·7) years. Results Conicity index, sum of four skinfolds, physical activity level and number of steps per day were accurate in predicting MetS in boys. Anthropometric indicators were accurate in predicting MetS for girls, specifically BMI, waist circumference measured at the narrowest point and at the level of the umbilicus, four skinfold thickness measures evaluated separately, the sum of subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness, the sum of four skinfolds and body fat percentage. Conclusions The sum of four skinfolds was the most accurate method in predicting MetS in both genders.
Rheumatism and chronic fatigue, the two facets of post-chikungunya disease: the TELECHIK cohort study on Reunion island

Abstract Prolonged fatigue is increasingly reported among chikungunya virus (CHIKV)-infected populations. We investigated the relationships between CHIKV exposure, long-lasting rheumatic musculoskeletal pain (LRMSP) and chronic fatigue. 1094 participants (512 CHIKV seropositive and 582 seronegative) of the TELECHIK population-based cohort were analysed considering the duration of the manifestations throughout an average 2-year follow-up. Weighted prevalence rates and prevalence ratios for LRMSP, idiopathic chronic fatigue (ICF), and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)-like illness, both latter syndromes adapted from Centers for Disease Control (CDC)-1994/Fukuda criteria, were compared. Population attributable fractions (PAF) were estimated to assess the contribution of CHIKV infection to each of the three phenotypes. Among 362 adult subjects who had reported either rheumatic pain or fatigue at the onset of the infection, weighted prevalence rates of LRMSP, ICF and CFS-like illness were respectively of 32.9%, 38.7% and 23.9%, and of 8.7%, 8.5% and 7.4% among initially asymptomatic peers (P < 0.01, respectively). Each of the three outcomes was highly attributable to chikungunya (PAF of 43.2%, 36.2% and 41.0%, respectively). In the sub-cohort of CHIKV-infected subjects, LRMSP, ICF and CFS-like illness, which overlapped in 70%, accounted for 53% of the chronic manifestations. In addition to rheumatic disease, chronic fatigue could be considered in caring for patients with chronic chikungunya disease.
Green synthesis of silver nano particles from marine alga Gracilaria edulis

Green nanoparticles synthesis of silver was achieved at room temperature using the alga Gracilaria edulis. Biological reduction and extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles was achieved in 24 hr at 37∞C at pH 5.6. The nanometallic dispersions were characterized by surface plasmon absorbance measuring at 403 nm for silver. Microstructural characterizations by TEM, SEM and selected area electron diffraction showed that the nanoparticles were oriented with {1 0 0} planes as the basal plane. The experimental results implicated proteins as the active biomolecules involved in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles.
TPPU enhanced exercise‐induced epoxyeicosatrienoic acid concentrations to exert cardioprotection in mice after myocardial infarction

Exercise training (ET) is a safe and efficacious therapeutic approach for myocardial infarction (MI). Given the numerous benefits of exercise, exercise‐induced mediators may be promising treatment targets for MI. C57BL/6 mice were fed 1‐trifluoromethoxyphenyl‐3‐(1‐propionylpiperidine‐4‐yl) urea (TPPU), a novel soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor (sEHI), to increase epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET) levels, for 1 week before undergoing MI surgery. After 1‐week recovery, the mice followed a prescribed exercise programme. Bone marrow‐derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were isolated from the mice after 4 weeks of exercise and cultured for 7 days. Angiogenesis around the ischaemic area, EPC functions, and the expression of microRNA‐126 (miR‐126) and its target gene Spred1 were measured. The results were confirmed in vitro by adding TPPU to EPC culture medium. ET significantly increased serum EET levels and promoted angiogenesis after MI. TPPU enhanced the effects of ET to reduce the infarct area and improve cardiac function after MI. ET increased EPC function and miR‐126 expression, which were further enhanced by TPPU, while Spred1 expression was significantly down‐regulated. Additionally, the protein kinase B/glycogen synthase kinase 3β (AKT/GSK3β) signalling pathway was activated after the administration of TPPU. EETs are a potential mediator of exercise‐induced cardioprotection in mice after MI. TPPU enhances exercise‐induced cardiac recovery in mice after MI by increasing EET levels and promoting angiogenesis around the ischaemic area.
A Micro-Economic Approach to Geographic Market Definition on Local Retail Markets: Demand Side Considerations

Abstract This paper formalizes an empirically implementable framework for the definition of local antitrust markets in retail markets. This framework rests on a demand model that captures the trade-off between distance and pecuniary cost across alternative shopping destinations within local markets. The paper develops, and presents estimation results for, an empirical demand model at the store level for groceries in the UK.
Test for interface characterictics of geogrid

There are many results about the interface test for geotextile , but the testing result of geogrid is lacking. This paper presents the contents and results of interface tests for uniaxial oriented geogrid and warp knitting geogrid; some useful opinions are provided. The interface friction coefficients between geogrid and sand-gravel and coarse sand and eluvial soil, are evaluated; and then compared with the testing results of the woven geotextile .