Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feeding ground and pelleted hay rather than chopped hay to ponies 1 . Consequences for in vivo digestibility and rate of passage of digesta

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of the physical form of a hay diet on total tract digestibility in ponies, with particular emphasis in ®bre digestion and digesta passage rate. Ten gelded ponies (four of them ®tted with cannulae in the cecum and the right-ventral colon) were kept on wood shavings and fed twice daily a maintenance diet of equal parts Lucerne and Cocksfoot hay. The hay was either chopped (CH) or ground (1.5 mm screen) and pelleted (GPH). The apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), and ®bre fractions was measured in the six non-®stulated ponies using a crossover design. Two trials were conducted to measure mean retention time (MRT) of digesta in the whole digestive tract in four non-®stulated and four ®stulated animals using rare earth labelled hay and Cr-EDTA as markers of the particles and solutes, respectively. In a third trial, MRTs in the hind gut and the colon, as well as in the entire tract, were determined in the ®stulated ponies using various markers given by mouth and through the cannulae. OM and ®bre digestibility were not signi®cantly different (P > 0:05) between diets. However, particle (P < 0:05) and solute (P < 0:001) MRT were signi®cantly longer on GPH compared to CH as a consequence of an increased retention in the colon. The longer MRTs with GPH did not signi®cantly affect ®bre digestibility. This implies a reduction in the rate of ®bre degradation in the hindgut in the GPH fed animals. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Mini-review: Obesity in Caribbean Youth.

OBJECTIVE Our focus was on the determination of the growing number of youths of every race and ethnicity, diagnosed with obesity and its co-morbidities in the Caribbean. We reviewed the causes and strategies to combat obesity, and the implications of the fast food industry in enabling the escalation of obesity. METHODS We consulted several databases such as PubMed, MEDLINE, the Obesity Gene Map Database, and the USEPA Toxicity Reference Database. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) were used as information sources. RESULTS Transgenerational effects and triggers like obesogens, pathogens, environmental stress, antibiotics and gut microbiota are some of the causes of obesity, and some of these triggers are imprinted epigenetically early in embryonic development, leading to lifelong obesity. With an estimated population of 42 million in the Caribbean, the economic cost of obesity, including medical, absenteeism, presenteeism, insurance, disability, direct and indirect cost, was estimated cost of 68.5 billion USD with 88.2 million quality-adjusted life years lost. CONCLUSION Genome-wide association studies have established that genetics play a role in the aetiology of this "non-communicable" disease. While the development of personalized interventions according to genotype is futuristic, we must focus on effective nutrition and physical education classes in schools and establishing monitoring programmes using simple tools such as scales and tape measures as suggested intervention. A Pigovian tax to control the fast food industry is mandatory. Nevertheless, lifestyle adjustment, including alterations in diet and increased physical activity, continues to be a sound recommendation.
Utility of Two-Compartment Models of Exhaled Nitric Oxide in Patients with Asthma

Two-compartment models provide more precise information about the contribution of the different portions of the airways to exhaled nitric oxide (NO). Airway wall concentration of NO (Caw,NO) and maximum flux of NO in the airways (J′aw,NO) reflect the tissue production rate of NO and they can be modified by corticosteroids. The airway wall diffusing capacity of NO (Daw,NO) depends on diverse physical and anatomical determinants of the airways, such as gas exchange surface area. Daw,NO can be modified by structural and physiological changes that are characteristic of airway remodeling, which take place over the long term. The alveolar concentration of NO (Calv,NO) represents the degree of small airway inflammation. The persistence of high Calv,NO in patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids could reflect the incapacity of these drugs to reach distal locations due to the heterogeneity of the acinar ventilation. In this review, we evaluate the parameters provided by the compartmentalized analysis of exhaled NO that could be useful in characterizing asthma patients.
Level-1 Probabilistic Safety Analysis of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor

This paper summarizes the results from the level-l Probabilistic Safety Analysis of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) which is under construction at Kalpakkam. The scope of this study is limited to internal events at full power. The regulatory requirement in India is risk informed and the required target value for overall core damage frequency (CDF) &#60; 1e−6 1 / ry. The salient feature of this study is the inclusion of functional failure of natural convection based system in event tree development. For this study three categories of end states namely, pin failures, sub-assembly failures and whole core accident were identified. With conservative assumptions the estimated core damage frequency is about 0.9−1.3E−6 / ry. This includes the contribution from sub-assembly failures and whole core accident. Loss of Steam Water System (Heat Sink) is the dominant contributor. Modeling Sub-Assembly flow blockage event tree is found to have large uncertainties.
Safety and Reliability Driven Task Allocation in Distributed Systems

Distributed computer systems are increasingly being employed for critical applications, such as aircraft control, industrial process control, and banking systems. Maximizing performance has been the conventional objective in the allocation of tasks for such systems. Inherently, distributed systems are more complex than centralized systems. The added complexity could increase the potential for system failures. Some work has been done in the past in allocating tasks to distributed systems, considering reliability as the objective function to be maximized. Reliability is defined to be the probability that none of the system components falls while processing. This, however, does not give any guarantees as to the behavior of the system when a failure occurs. A failure, not detected immediately, could lead to a catastrophe. Such systems are unsafe. In this paper, we describe a method to determine an allocation that introduces safety into a heterogeneous distributed system and at the same time attempts to maximize its reliability. First, we devise a new heuristic, based on the concept of clustering, to allocate tasks for maximizing reliability. We show that for task graphs with precedence constraints, our heuristic performs better than previously proposed heuristics. Next, by applying the concept of task-based fault tolerance, which we have previously proposed, we add extra assertion tasks to the system to make it safe. We present a new heuristic that does this in such a way that the decrease in reliability for the added safety is minimized. For the purpose of allocating the extra tasks, this heuristic performs as well as previously known methods and runs an order of magnitude faster. We present a number of simulation results to prove the efficacy of our scheme.
Metabolic Regulation of Ca2+ Release in Permeabilized Mammalian Skeletal Muscle Fibres

In the present study, the link between cellular metabolism and Ca2+ signalling was investigated in permeabilized mammalian skeletal muscle. Spontaneous events of Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum were detected with fluo‐3 and confocal scanning microscopy. Mitochondrial functions were monitored by measuring local changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (with the potential‐sensitive dye tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester) and in mitochondrial [Ca2+] (with the Ca2+ indicator mag‐rhod‐2). Digital fluorescence imaging microscopy was used to quantify changes in the mitochondrial autofluorescence of NAD(P)H. When fibres were immersed in a solution without mitochondrial substrates, Ca2+ release events were readily observed. The addition of l‐glutamate or pyruvate reversibly decreased the frequency of Ca2+ release events and increased mitochondrial membrane potential and NAD(P)H production. Application of various mitochondrial inhibitors led to the loss of mitochondrial [Ca2+] and promoted spontaneous Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. In many cases, the increase in the frequency of Ca2+ release events was not accompanied by a rise in global [Ca2+]i. Our results suggest that mitochondria exert a negative control over Ca2+ signalling in skeletal muscle by buffering Ca2+ near Ca2+ release channels.
Effect of human patient plasma ex vivo treatment on gene expression and progenitor cell activation of primary human liver cells in multi‐compartment 3D perfusion bioreactors for extra‐corporeal liver support

Cultivation of primary human liver cells in innovative 3D perfusion multi‐compartment capillary membrane bioreactors using decentralized mass exchange and integral oxygenation provides in vitro conditions close to the physiologic environment in vivo. While a few scale‐up bioreactors were used clinically, inoculated liver progenitors in these bioreactors were not investigated. Therefore, we characterized regenerative processes and expression patterns of auto‐ and paracrine mediators involved in liver regeneration in bioreactors after patient treatment. Primary human liver cells containing parenchymal and non‐parenchymal cells co‐cultivated in bioreactors were used for clinical extra‐corporeal liver support to bridge to liver transplantation. 3D tissue re‐structuring in bioreactors was studied; expression of proteins and genes related to regenerative processes and hepatic progenitors was analyzed. Formation of multiple bile ductular networks and colonies of putative progenitors were observed within parenchymal cell aggregates. HGF was detected in scattered cells located close to vascular‐like structures, expression of HGFA and c‐Met was assigned to biliary cells and hepatocytes. Increased expression of genes associated to hepatic progenitors was detected following clinical application. The results confirm auto‐ and paracrine interactions between co‐cultured cells in the bioreactor. The 3D bioreactor provides a valuable tool to study mechanisms of progenitor activation and hepatic regeneration ex vivo under patient plasma treatment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 817–827. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Quasi-Optimal Convergence of Non-Overlapping Domain Decomposition Algorithm for the Helmholtz Equation

This paper presents a new non-overlapping domain decomposition method for the Helmholtz equation, whose effective convergence is quasi-optimal. These improved properties result from a combination of an appropriate choice of transmission conditions and a suitable approximation of the Dirichlet to Neumann operator. A convergence theorem of the algorithm is established and numerical results validating the new approach are presented in both two and three dimensions.
A novel real-time video transport system based on H.264

In network delivery of compressed video, packets may be lost if the channel is unreliable. But in some real time video applications such as video conferencing and push to talk systems, time delay and Quality of Service are both very important. This makes the use of error resilience and flow control techniques necessary. In this paper, we propose a new approach for real-time video stream transporting based on H.264 error resilience algorithm and error concealment methods. A new framework is designed to meet our application. The key algorithms of the system are improved and a novel control system is designed to coordinate the different parts of the system. And the experimental results show that our method works well in some different network conditions.
FAST FPGA BASED LOW-TRIGGER-JITTER WAVEFORM GENERATOR METHOD FOR BARRIER-BUCKET ELECTRONICS AT FAIR ∗

A new method for low trigger-jitter waveform generation is presented. The targeted application is the time-delayed, trigger synchronous waveform generation. The method can be implemented on a single FPGA, which drives an ADC. The phase-jitter between a trigger signal fed to the FPGA and the generated single sine waveform is σ= 40 ps and 275 ps peak-to-peak. The response time of the wave form generator is 50 ns. The amplitude and the offset of each sine wave can also be manipulated in real time. The waveform generator was designed for the use in the Barrier-Bucket system of the SIS100 synchrotron at the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany.
Improved Particle Swarm Optimization for Wireless Intelligent Surveillance Path Planning using Wireless Sensor Network

Context Aware Surveillance Device path planning is divided into off-line static path planning and real-time dynamic path planning. Actually, the flight situation is very complex for the devices; we have to adopt real-time path planning based on off-line static path planning. Wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies are expected to be integrated Robust Autonomous system, allowing for the global interconnection of heterogeneous smart objects with advanced functionality. Recent advances of microcontroller design and radio technologies have opened the way to an emerging category of wire-less network-enabled sensors that serve as smart agents equipped with a low-power dedicated high-performance microcontroller and a large memory space. The paper shows that the path planning strategy and proposes the basic ideas which meets the needs of real-time path planning. Moreover, it has better performance than other algorithm.
Towards the Comprehension of Human Understanding

This paper presents the results of a research on the effectiveness of semantic relations as an indicator for understanding, the presence of acknowledgement grounding acts, in a two person dialogue. Semantic relations can easily be detected using WordNet. Three types of relations are used: least-common ancestor, i.e. words are semantically related if they can be described by one more general term; word relation nding, i.e. two words are semantically related if they are synonyms, antonyms, ‘siblings’, etc. and what-question analysis. The theory was implemented and veried over the Simple Dialogue Corpus. In 56.90% of the cases, the model did predict correctly. The results show that semantic relatedness, based on found relations in WordNet, indeed does work as an indicator for understanding in some cases, but that in more complex cases it is not possible to detect semantic relations in the proposed way.
A Virulence Locus of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Encodes a Protein Secretion Apparatus

Bacterial pathogens frequently use protein secretion to mediate interactions with their hosts. Here we found that a virulence locus (HSI-I) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes a protein secretion apparatus. The apparatus assembled in discrete subcellular locations and exported Hcp1, a hexameric protein that forms rings with a 40 angstrom internal diameter. Regulatory patterns of HSI-I suggested that the apparatus functions during chronic infections. We detected Hcp1 in pulmonary secretions of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and Hcp1-specific antibodies in their sera. Thus, HSI-I likely contributes to the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa in CF patients. HSI-I–related loci are widely distributed among bacterial pathogens and may play a general role in mediating host interactions.
The carboxy-terminal transactivation domain of Oct-4 acquires cell specificity through the POU domain

The POU transcription factor Oct-4 is expressed in totipotent and pluripotent cells of the early mouse embryo and the germ cell lineage. Transactivation capacities of regions flanking the DNA binding domain of Oct-4 were analyzed in undifferentiated and differentiated cell lines. The amino- and carboxy-terminal regions (N domain and C domain) fused to the Gal4 DNA binding domain both functioned as transactivation domains in all cell lines tested. However, the C domain failed to activate transcription in some cell lines in the context of the native protein. The underlying regulatory mechanism appears to involve the POU domain of Oct-4 and can discriminate between different POU domains, since constructs in which the C domain was instead fused to the POU domain of Pit-1 were again equally active in all cell lines. These results indicate that the C domain is subject to cell-type-specific regulation mediated by the Oct-4 POU domain. Phosphopeptide analysis revealed that the cell-type-specific difference of C-domain activity correlates with a difference in Oct-4 phosphorylation status. Since Oct-4 is expressed in a variety of distinct cell types during murine embryogenesis, these results suggest an additional regulatory mechanism for determining Oct-4 function in rapidly changing cell types during development.
Mobilization of peripheral-blood stem cells by concurrent administration of daniplestim and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in patients with breast cancer or lymphoma.

PURPOSE To evaluate the safety and hematopoietic activity of daniplestim administered concurrently with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) for peripheral-blood stem-cell (PBSC) mobilization. PATIENTS AND METHODS In the initial dose-escalation phase, 25 patients with adenocarcinoma of the breast (AB; 13 patients) or lymphoma (12 patients) were given daniplestim at doses ranging from 0.1 to 3.75 microgram/kg/d plus G-CSF 10 microgram/kg/d. In the randomized phase, 52 patients with AB (27 patients) or lymphoma (25 patients) were randomized within disease categories to the daniplestim dose chosen in the dose-escalation phase plus G-CSF 10 microgram/kg/d (D+G) or placebo plus G-CSF 10 microgram/kg/d (P+G) for up to 7 days. RESULTS A daniplestim dose of 2. 5 microg/kg/d was chosen for further study because it was hematopoietically active and had an acceptable side-effect profile. In the randomized phase, in patients with AB, D+G was associated with a higher probability (P =.0696) of collecting >/= 2.5 x 10(6) CD34(+) cells/kg and significantly higher circulating CD34(+) cell counts (P =.0498) on days 6 through 9 after the initiation of dosing. The target level was more likely to be reached with additional leukaphereses in the patients given D+G. Patients given P+G did not benefit from additional leukaphereses beyond the first procedure. The type of mobilization did show a trend toward a shorter duration of neutropenia in the D+G group. The adverse events with D+G consisted largely of mild to moderate flu-like symptoms, including headache and fever, and occurred more frequently than with P+G. CONCLUSION Daniplestim administered at 2.5 microgram/kg/d is tolerable and active when combined with G-CSF, and the combination may prove more effective than G-CSF alone in promoting the collection of adequate numbers of CD34(+) cells for PBSC infusion in patients with AB.
Autophosphorylation, Phosphotransfer, and DNA-binding Properties of the RegB/RegA Two-component Regulatory System inRhodobacter capsulatus *

In the purple, photosynthetic bacterium,Rhodobacter capsulatus, the RegB/RegA two-component system is required for activation of several anaerobic processes, such as synthesis of the photosynthetic apparatus and assimilation of CO2 and N2 . It is believed that RegB is an integral membrane histidine kinase that monitors the external environment. Under anaerobic growth conditions, it transduces a signal through phosphorylation of the response regulator, RegA, which then induces target gene expression. We used an in vitroassay to characterize the phosphorylation of wild-type RegA and a mutant variant (RegA*) that is responsible for abnormally high photosynthesis gene expression under both aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions. Phosphorylation assays indicate that phosphorylated RegA* (RegA*∼P) is much more stable than RegA∼P, indicating that it may be locked in a conformation that is resistant to dephosphorylation. DNase I footprint assays also indicate that unphosphorylated RegA* has a much higher affinity for specific DNA binding sites than the wild-type protein. Phosphorylation of RegA* increases DNA binding 2.5-fold, whereas phosphorylation of RegA increases DNA binding more than 16-fold. Collectively, these results support the hypothesis that RegA* is a constitutively active variant that does not require phosphorylation to assume a structural conformation required to bind DNA.
PLEXSYS-84: An Integrated Development Environment for Informational Systems

Abstract:Integrated Development Environments (ides) are presented as a unified set of information system development concepts, techniques, and computer-aided tools. An ide consists of both a complete and unified development methodology and set of computer aids that support use of the methodology. The need for ides and their characteristics are reviewed. The plexsys-84 ide is reviewed in relation to these needs and characteristics. Techniques and tools which extend the initial work are placed within the original plexsys-84 framework and are described in some detail.
User-policy-based dynamic remote attestation in cloud computing

As one of the most influential technologies, cloud computing brings users more benefits and improves the efficiency of computing in comparison to the traditional model. However, it also introduces a number of unknown risks and challenges, upon which effectiveness and efficiency of those traditional security protection solutions could have very little influence. We introduce DTEM into JVM, which gives robust trust guarantees to Java applications and makes a dynamic attestation about the integrity state of the current applications. DTEM advanced the state of the art in trusted computing and is designed to tackle the dynamic issues by verifying the runtime bytecode integrity of these applications in cloud environments. DTEM not only provides user-defined policy to determine the complexity of integrity checks and the frequency of their executions, but also enhances the availability to pledge the continuous business. What is more, it has less impact on execution performance of cloud applications.