Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impacts of Limestone Multi-particle Size on Production Performance, Egg Shell Quality, and Egg Quality in Laying Hens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of single or multi-particle size limestone on the egg shell quality, egg production, egg quality and feed intake in laying hens. A total of 280 laying hens (ISA brown) were used in this 10-wk trial. Laying hens were randomly assigned to 4 treatments with 14 replications per treatment and 5 adjacent cages as a replication (hens were caged individually). The experimental treatments were: i) L, basal diet+10% large particle limestone; ii) LS1, basal diet+8% large particle limestone+2% small particle limestone; iii) LS2, basal diet+6% large particle limestone+4% small particle limestone; iv) S, basal diet+10% small particle limestone. The egg production was unaffected by dietary treatments. The egg weight in S treatment was lighter than other treatments (p<0.05). The egg specific gravity in S treatment was lower than other treatments (p<0.05). The eggshell strength and eggshell thickness in S treatment were decreased when compared with other dietary treatments (p<0.05). The laying hens in LS1 and LS2 treatment had a higher average feed intake than the other two treatments (p<0.05). Collectively, the dietary multi-particle size limestone supplementation could be as efficient as large particle size limestone.
The superstring Hagedorn temperature in a pp-wave background

The thermodynamics of type-IIB superstring theory in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background is studied. We compute the thermodynamic partition function for non-interacting strings exactly and the result differs slightly from previous computations. We clarify some of the issues related to the Hagedorn temperature in the limits of small and large constant RR 5-form. We study the thermodynamic behavior of strings in the case of AdS3 × S3 × T4 geometries in the presence of NS-NS and RR 3-form backgrounds. We also comment on the relationship of string thermodynamics and the thermodynamic behavior of the sector of Yang-Mills theory which is the holographic dual of the string theory.
Contesting Places of Memory: The Case of Auschwitz

The author considers the contestation over symbolic space at the Auschwitz death camp, the postwar symbol of the Holocaust. He examines both Communist and Catholic attempts to de-Judaise the place and hence turn, in Young's words, an icon of remembrance into an idol of remembrance, In the New World Order such contestation has lessons for the political geographer, particularly in terms of appreciating the religious dimension in national identity.
The Hyperflexible Hip

Context: Dance, gymnastics, figure skating, and competitive cheerleading require a high degree of hip range of motion. Athletes who participate in these sports use their hips in a mechanically complex manner. Evidence Acquisition: A search of the entire PubMed database (through December 2013) and additional searches of the reference lists of pertinent articles. Study Design: Systematic review. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Results: Whether innate or acquired, dancers and gymnasts have some hypermobility that allows their hips to be placed in potentially impinging or unstable positions required for their given activity. Such extremes of motion can result in both intra-articular and extra-articular impingement as well as compensatory osseous and muscular pathology. In addition, dancers and gymnasts are susceptible to impingement-induced instability. Dancers with innate generalized hyperlaxity are at increased risk of injury because of their activities and may require longer recovery times to return to play. Both nonoperative and operative treatments (arthroscopic and open) have an important role in returning flexibility athletes to their preoperative levels of sport and dance. Conclusion: Because of the extreme hip motion required and the compensatory soft tissue laxity in dancers and gymnasts, these athletes may develop instability, impingement, or combinations of both. This frequently occurs in the setting of subtle pathoanatomy or in patients with normal bony anatomy. With appropriate surgical indications and the correct operative technique, the treating surgeon can anticipate high levels of return to play for the gymnast and dancer with hip pain.
Creative Destruction: Singapore's Speak Good English.

The increasing use of Singlish in the media, in early schooling and other everyday domains reflects its growing importance as a symbol of social identity and cohesion in Singapore. However, this trend runs counter to the country’s avowed economical goals of becoming a knowledge hub in the region, which it seeks to achieve by developing a highly skilled service sector that is proficient in (Standard) English. Thus, paradoxically, despite a new policy initiative to loosen their traditional tight grip on society in the interest of developing a nation of creative risk-takers, the authorities have recently launched the Speak Good English movement, spawning a slew of editorials, cartoons, skits and commercials in a vigorous attempt at generating awareness among the public of the need to promote the use of Standard English. This paper attempts to show that this move to stem the popularity of Singlish is yet another manifestation of the notion of “creative destruction,” currently being proposed as a strategy to improve the efficiency of corporate and industrial businesses in the country. “Creative destruction” entails the partial destruction of existing economic ideas and structures which rapidly obsolesce with the emergence of new ones. Drawing a parallel with the Speak Mandarin campaign, which has successfully resulted in the dispersal of the local Chinese dialects, the paper argues that this attempt to replace Singlish by Standard English, while throwing up valid issues of social identity and cohesiveness, which are prone to get subsumed by the more urgent pragmatic and economic rationalizations proffered, can then be seen as a triumph of the relentless, hegemonic forces of globalization.
Knee Joint Immobilization Decreases Aggrecan Gene Expression in the Meniscus

Aggrecan is the major proteoglycan of the meniscus, and its primary function is to give the meniscus its viscoelastic compressive properties. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of joint immobilization on aggrecan gene expression in the meniscus. The right hindlimbs of six mature beagles were knee cast-immobilized in 90° of flexion and supported by a sling to prevent weightbearing, while the contralateral limb was left free to bear weight. The animals were sacrificed at 4 weeks, and the anterior and posterior halves of the medial and lateral menisci were analyzed separately. Analysis of aggrecan gene expression by quantitative polymerase chain reaction showed decreased aggrecan gene expression in menisci from immobilized knees (P 0.01, two-way analysis of variance). Aggrecan gene expression decreased by a factor of 2 to 5.5 in the different regions examined. Analysis of the composition of the meniscus also showed decreased proteoglycan content and increased water content with immobilization (P 0.05, two-way analysis of variance). These results show that joint immobilization can significantly affect meniscal cellular activity and composition and can therefore potentially affect meniscal function.
Yoga on Our Minds: A Systematic Review of Yoga for Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Background: The demand for clinically efficacious, safe, patient acceptable, and cost-effective forms of treatment for mental illness is growing. Several studies have demonstrated benefit from yoga in specific psychiatric symptoms and a general sense of well-being. Objective: To systematically examine the evidence for efficacy of yoga in the treatment of selected major psychiatric disorders. Methods: Electronic searches of The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the standard bibliographic databases, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO, were performed through April 2011 and an updated in June 2011 using the keywords yoga AND psychiatry OR depression OR anxiety OR schizophrenia OR cognition OR memory OR attention AND randomized controlled trial (RCT). Studies with yoga as the independent variable and one of the above mentioned terms as the dependent variable were included and exclusion criteria were applied. Results: The search yielded a total of 124 trials, of which 16 met rigorous criteria for the final review. Grade B evidence supporting a potential acute benefit for yoga exists in depression (four RCTs), as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy in schizophrenia (three RCTs), in children with ADHD (two RCTs), and Grade C evidence in sleep complaints (three RCTs). RCTs in cognitive disorders and eating disorders yielded conflicting results. No studies looked at primary prevention, relapse prevention, or comparative effectiveness versus pharmacotherapy. Conclusion: There is emerging evidence from randomized trials to support popular beliefs about yoga for depression, sleep disorders, and as an augmentation therapy. Limitations of literature include inability to do double-blind studies, multiplicity of comparisons within small studies, and lack of replication. Biomarker and neuroimaging studies, those comparing yoga with standard pharmaco- and psychotherapies, and studies of long-term efficacy are needed to fully translate the promise of yoga for enhancing mental health.
Forecasts for dark energy measurements with future H i surveys

We use two independent methods to forecast the dark energy measurements achievable by combining future galaxy redshift surveys based on the radio HI emission line with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from the Planck satellite. In the first method we focus on the ‘standard ruler’ provided by the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) length scale. In the second method we utilize additional information encoded in the galaxy power spectrum including galaxy bias from velocity-space distortions and the growth of cosmic structure. We find that a radio synthesis array with about 10 per cent of the collecting area of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), equipped with a wide (10! 100 deg 2 ) field-of-view, would have the capacity to perform a 20,000 deg 2 redshift survey to a maximum redshift zmax " 0.8 and thereby produce dark energy measurements that are competitive with surveys likely to be undertaken by optical telescopes around 2015. There would then be powerful arguments for adding collecting area to such a ‘Phase-1’ SKA because of the square-law scaling of survey speed with telescope sensitivity for HI surveys, compared to the linear scaling for optical redshift surveys. The full SKA telescope should, by performing a 20,000 deg 2 HI redshift survey to zmax " 2 around 2020, yield an accurate measurement of cosmological parameters independent of CMB datasets. Combining CMB (Planck) and galaxy power spectrum (SKA) measurements will drive errors in the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w well below the 1 per cent level. The major systematic uncertainty in these forecasts is the lack of direct information about the mass function of high-redshift HI-emitting galaxies. ‘Stacking experiments’ with SKA pathfinders will play an important role in resolving this uncertainty.
The role of the cuff leak test in predicting the effects of corticosteroid treatment on postextubation stridor.

BACKGROUND There is not enough evidence to determine the most appropriate treatment of postextubation stridor. Although the cuff leak test is a simple method to predict postextubation stridor, little is known about its use in monitoring the effects of steroid treatment for this complication. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of steroids on postextubation stridor based on the clinical response and the cuff leak test. METHODS A cohort of 110 translaryngeal intubated patients in the medical intensive care unit (ICU) were enrolled. A cuff leak test was conducted before extubation. Patients developing postextubation stridor were intravenously given 5 mgs of dexamethasone every 8 hours for 3 days. The clinical response and cuff leak volume before and after steroid treatment were gathered for analysis. RESULTS The incidence of postextubation stridor was 18.2% (20/110). Fifty-five percent of patients (11/20) with stridor needed reintubation. Overall, 80% of patients (16/20) with postextubation stridor improved with steroid treatment. The leak volume significantly increased after treatment (152.4 +/- 109.6 ml vs. 29.9 +/- 35.7 ml, p = 0.012); stridor did not recur in 64% of reintubated patients (7/11). A threshold leak volume of less than 88 ml predicted the occurrence of stridor (positive predictive value, 54.5%; negative predictive value, 90.9%). Postextubation stridor was associated with the female gender and lower leak volumes (p = 0.007 and 0.003, respectively). CONCLUSION Corticosteroids improve postextubation stridor. The cuff leak test accurately predicts the absence of stridor and is a non-invasive method of monitoring for regression of laryngeal edema after steroid treatment. Steroid treatment should be considered for patients developing postextubation stridor.
Migrants ouest-africains : miséreux, aventuriers ou notables ?

Les événements migratoires des deux dernières années ont frappé les observateurs par leur radicale nouveauté : les assauts répétés contre les grillages de Ceuta et Melilla en octobre 2005 et les départs des pirogues à partir des côtes ouest-africaines vers les Canaries afin de rallier l’Espagne durant l’été 2006. Mais au lieu des ruptures d’intelligibilité attendues, les grilles de lectures et interprétations qui se sont imposées à travers les médias ont été très conventionnelles, recyclant de vieilles rhétoriques, de l’humanitaire et son double sécuritaire au codéveloppement. On a assisté d’abord à une victimisation des migrants renvoyant à une vision misérabiliste de la migration, héritière de la longue tradition de déploration des « exodes » provoqués par la colonisation en Afrique autour de la Première guerre mondiale. Dès la fin août 2006, le ministre de l’Intérieur sénégalais Ousmane Ngom parlait ainsi de « drame humanitaire», comme les autorités ibériques des îles Canaries. Avec la mise en place, au large du Sénégal et de la Mauritanie, du dispositif européen Frontex, la criminalisation des passeurs fait écho à la déresponsabilisation
Mussel-inspired human gelatin nanocoating for creating biologically adhesive surfaces

Recombinant human gelatin was conjugated with dopamine using carbodiimide as a surface modifier. This dopamine-coupled human gelatin (D-rhG) was characterized by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectroscopy, and circular dichroism. D-rhG-coated surface properties were analyzed by physicochemical methods. Additionally, cell attachment and growth on the modified surfaces was assessed using human umbilical endothelial cells. Binding of gelatin onto titanium was significantly enhanced by dopamine conjugation. The thickness of the D-rhG coating depended on the treatment pH; thicker layers were formed at higher pH values, with a maximum thickness of 30 nm. D-rhG enhanced the binding of collagen-binding vascular endothelial growth factor and cell adhesion as compared with gelatin alone, even at the same surface concentration. The D-rhG surface modifier enhanced substrate binding by creating an adhesive nanointerface that increased specific protein binding and cell attachment.
Sociální konstrukce lokálního/regionálního kapitálu - metoda

The starting point for identifying environmental, social and cultural capitals in rural areas is integrated research based on methodological interconnection between quantitative and qualitative investigation. The sorts of capital are constructed by means of an interactive investigation in cooperation with insiders. In this way, such approach belong to endogenous investigating of reality and to the theory of social constructivism.
Nursing Theory-Based Research: Parse’s Theory

From this researcher’s perspective an essential component of rigorous inquiry is the ability of the researcher to provide a transparent accounting of his/her journey throughout the research process. In keeping with this belief this researcher’s personal reflections of, and insights gleaned from, his experience into the world of research in general, and the human becoming school of thought in particular, are presented. He offers personal insights into the lived experience of completing a Parsean study on the structure of taking life day-by-day as a universal lived experience of health. Throughout this research process a number of insights have been gleaned which include the importance of adequate preparation in conducting research, the role of the researcher, preparedness to work with uncertainty, and achieving authentic rigor.
Robotic gastrointestinal surgery: early experience and system description.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Robotic technology has recently been introduced to gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery. Its addition offers the promise of opening more procedures up to minimally invasive surgery. One system is described and illustrated in detail using antireflux surgery as an example. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seventy patients underwent robotically assisted gastrointestinal surgical procedures. These procedures were antireflux surgery (25), bowel resection (18), cholecystectomy (8), Heller myotomy (5), splenectomy (5), exploratory laparoscopy (4), adrenalectomy (1), pyloroplasty (1), and resection of a gastric mass (1) and duodenal (1) and colonic (1) polyps. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Seventeen percent of patients required conversion to either an open or a standard laparoscopic procedure. This early experience with an the first Food and Drug Administration-approved general surgery robotic surgical system showed that it is safe and effective, the system has significant promise.
ESTIMA: extrapolating scalability of in-memory applications

This paper presents ESTIMA, an easy-to-use tool for extrapolating the scalability of in-memory applications. ESTIMA is designed to perform a simple, yet important task: given the performance of an application on a small machine with a handful of cores, ESTIMA extrapolates its scalability to a larger machine with more cores, while requiring minimum input from the user. The key idea underlying ESTIMA is the use of stalled cycles (e.g. cycles that the processor spends waiting for various events, such as cache misses or waiting on a lock). ESTIMA measures stalled cycles on a few cores and extrapolates them to more cores, estimating the amount of waiting in the system. ESTIMA can be effectively used to predict the scalability of in-memory applications. For instance, using measurements of memcached and SQLite on a desktop machine, we obtain accurate predictions of their scalability on a server. Our extensive evaluation on a large number of in-memory benchmarks shows that ESTIMA has generally low prediction errors.
Stability Criteria for Switched and Hybrid Systems

The study of the stability properties of switched and hybrid systems gives rise to a number of interesting and challenging mathematical problems. The objective of this paper is to outline some of these problems, to review progress made in solving them in a number of diverse communities, and to review some problems that remain open. An important contribution of our work is to bring together material from several areas of research and to present results in a unified manner. We begin our review by relating the stability problem for switched linear systems and a class of linear differential inclusions. Closely related to the concept of stability are the notions of exponential growth rates and converse Lyapunov theorems, both of which are discussed in detail. In particular, results on common quadratic Lyapunov functions and piecewise linear Lyapunov functions are presented, as they represent constructive methods for proving stability and also represent problems in which significant progress has been made. We also comment on the inherent difficulty in determining stability of switched systems in general, which is exemplified by NP-hardness and undecidability results. We then proceed by considering the stability of switched systems in which there are constraints on the switching rules, through both dwell-time requirements and state-dependent switching laws. Also in this case the theory of Lyapunov functions and the existence of converse theorems are reviewed. We briefly comment on the classical Lur'e problem and on the theory of stability radii, both of which contain many of the features of switched systems and are rich sources of practical results on the topic. Finally we present a list of questions and open problems which provide motivation for continued research in this area.
Directed collective motion of bacteria under channel confinement

Dense suspensions of swimming bacteria are known to exhibit collective behaviour arising from the interplay of steric and hydrodynamic interactions. Unconfined suspensions exhibit transient, recurring vortices and jets, whereas those confined in circular domains may exhibit order in the form of a spiral vortex. Here we show that confinement into a long and narrow macroscopic ‘racetrack’ geometry stabilises bacterial motion to form a steady unidirectional circulation. This motion is reproduced in simulations of discrete swimmers that reveal the crucial role that bacteria-driven fluid flows play in the dynamics. In particular, cells close to the channel wall produce strong flows which advect cells in the bulk against their swimming direction. We examine in detail the transition from a disordered state to persistent directed motion as a function of the channel width, and show that the width at the crossover point is comparable to the typical correlation length of swirls seen in the unbounded system. Our results shed light on the mechanisms driving the collective behaviour of bacteria and other active matter systems, and stress the importance of the ubiquitous boundaries found in natural habitats.
Establishment and antitumor effects of dasatinib and PKI-587 in BD-138T, a patient-derived muscle invasive bladder cancer preclinical platform with concomitant EGFR amplification and PTEN deletion

Muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) consists of a heterogeneous group of tumors with a high rate of metastasis and mortality. To facilitate the in-depth investigation and validation of tailored strategies for MIBC treatment, we have developed an integrated approach using advanced high-throughput drug screening and a clinically relevant patient-derived preclinical platform. We isolated patient-derived tumor cells (PDCs) from a rare MIBC case (BD-138T) that harbors concomitant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) amplification and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) deletion. High-throughput in vitro drug screening demonstrated that dasatinib, a SRC inhibitor, and PKI-587, a dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, exhibited targeted anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects against BD-138T PDCs. Using established patient-derived xenograft models that successfully retain the genomic and molecular characteristics of the parental tumor, we confirmed that these anti-tumor responses occurred through the inhibition of SRC and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. Taken together, these experimental results demonstrate that dasatinib and PKI-587 might serve as promising anticancer drug candidates for treating MIBC with combined EGFR gene amplification and PTEN deletion.