Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cataracts and strabismus associated with hand rearing using artificial milk formulas in Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris spp tigris) cubs

The aim of this investigation is to describe the potential contributing nutritional factors involved in the development of ophthalmic and dermatologic changes in four Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris spp tigris) cubs fed an artificial milk formula. The affected animals were compared with two other tiger cubs that had been nursed by their dam naturally. After the first clinical signs appeared, the tiger cubs underwent ophthalmic evaluation. Severe symmetric generalized alopecia over the trunk, sparing the head and distal portion of the front and rear limbs, bilateral cataracts and strabismus were noticed. Milk and blood from the mother, as well as blood from the healthy and affected cubs were collected in order to evaluate complete blood counts, serum chemistry values, and amino acid levels. The amino acid concentrations in the artificial formula were also evaluated for comparison to the milk from the dam. The concentration of taurine, arginine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and histidine were very low in the artificial formulas as compared to the dam´s milk. The tiger cubs that received the artificial formula had lower levels of the amino acids listed previously as compared to those that nursed from the dam naturally. Taurine, as well as arginine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and histidine deficiency appeared to be possible causes of the development of skin problems, cataracts and strabismus in the tiger cubs fed with these particular artificial milk replacers. In the future, special attention should be given in order to make sure that adequate levels of these amino acids are present in artificial milk for tiger cubs.
Intelligent Thermographic Diagnostic Applied to Surge Arresters: A New Approach

This paper describes a methodology that aims to extract information to enable the detection and diagnosis of faults in surge arresters, using the thermovision technique. Thermovision is a non-destructive technique used in diverse services of maintenance, having the advantage not to demand the disconnection of the equipment. The methodology uses a digital image processing algorithm based on the Watershed Transform to get the segmentation of the surge arresters. By applying the methodology is possible to classify surge arresters operative condition in: faulty, normal, light, and suspicious. The computational system generated train its neuro-fuzzy network by using a historical thermovision data. During the train phase, a heuristic is proposed in order to set the number of networks in the diagnosis system. This system was validated by a database with a hundreds of different faulty sceneries. The validation error of the set of neuro-fuzzy and the automatic digital thermovision image processing was about 10%t. The diagnosis system described has been successfully used by Electric Energy Research Center as a decision making tool for surge arresters fault diagnosis.
Modeling Percolation in Polymer Nanocomposites by Stochastic Microstructuring

A methodology was developed for the prediction of the electrical properties of carbon nanotube-polymer nanocomposites via Monte Carlo computational simulations. A two-dimensional microstructure that takes into account waviness, fiber length and diameter distributions is used as a representative volume element. Fiber interactions in the microstructure are identified and then modeled as an equivalent electrical circuit, assuming one-third metallic and two-thirds semiconductor nanotubes. Tunneling paths in the microstructure are also modeled as electrical resistors, and crossing fibers are accounted for by assuming a contact resistance associated with them. The equivalent resistor network is then converted into a set of linear equations using nodal voltage analysis, which is then solved by means of the Gauss–Jordan elimination method. Nodal voltages are obtained for the microstructure, from which the percolation probability, equivalent resistance and conductivity are calculated. Percolation probability curves and electrical conductivity values are compared to those found in the literature.
Organization of Secondary Motor Areas of Cerebral Cortex

The sections in this article are: 1 Scope of Chapter 2 Methodological Approach in Historical Perspective 3 Primary and Secondary Motor Areas: Cytoarchitectonic Maps and Terminology 4 Premotor Area 4.1 Structure and General Considerations 4.2 Lesions of Premotor Cortex 4.3 Electrical Stimulation of Premotor Cortex 4.4 Electrical Activity Recorded in Premotor Cortex of Unconscious Animals 4.5 Single-Unit Recordings in Premotor Cortex of Conscious Monkeys 4.6 Synthesis 5 Supplementary Motor Area 5.1 Definition and Historical Note 5.2 Structural Relationship of Supplementary Motor Area 5.3 Effects of Electrical Stimulation of Supplementary Motor Area and Epilepsy 5.4 Deficits Following Supplementary Motor Area Lesions 5.5 Electrophysiology of Supplementary Motor Area 5.6 Studies on Activation of Supplementary Motor Area in Human Beings 5.7 Synthesis 6 Somatosensory Cortical Areas SI And SII 6.1 Critical Review of Evidence for Motor Features of Areas SI and SII 6.2 Concept of Corticofugal Control of Somatosensory Transmission 6.3 Synthesis 7 Parietal Association Cortex Viewed as A Motor Area (A Short Introduction) 7.1 Lesions of Parietal Association Cortex and Electrical Stimulation 7.2 Structural Relationships With Motor Areas 7.3 Command Functions of Parietal Lobe 7.4 Synthesis 8 Addendum
Possibilities for Qualitative Research in Sport Psychology

Various forms of qualitative research can aid our applied practice by increasing our understanding of the contexts and psychological dynamics of sport. To reap greater benefits from qualitative research, a key step will be to recognize and accept different views of knowledge that underlie many qualitative approaches. From this perspective, this paper focuses on possibilities to use qualitative research in sport psychology to describe, interpret, verify, and evaluate phenomena of interest. The potential of qualitative research to allow for surprises and produce understandable and credible findings and theories is also addressed. The spirit of the paper and the conclusion focus on the many ways in which the “goodness” (Peshkin, 1993) or “strength” (Maxwell, 1996) of qualitative research can be part of what is done in sport psychology.
The profile of prospective memory impairment in Parkinson's disease and implications for everyday functioning

Prospective memory (ProM) is an aspect of episodic memory that involves remembering to perform an intended action at some designated point in the future, and is critically involved in everyday functioning. Studies suggests that ProM is dependent on the functional integrity of the frontal lobe system and associated executive functions, with time-based ProM relying more heavily on executive processes than event-based ProM. Although individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) demonstrate impairments in executive functions and strategic aspects of episodic memory, few studies have examined ProM in PD. The present study examined ProM and the relationship between ProM and everyday functioning in 33 PD patients and 26 demographically comparable adults. PD participants were disproportionately impaired in TB ProM (Cohen's d = 1.30) compared to EB ProM (d = 0.63), committed an increased number of omission errors on TB trials, and were worse (at a trend level) than healthy older adults in retrospective memory for the contents of the intentions. TB ProM performance correlated with standardized measures of executive function, working memory, and retrospective episodic memory in PD. Taken together, these results suggest that PD participants are impaired in the executive /strategic and retrospective memory aspects of ProM. There were no significant differences between groups in strategic time monitoring or basic temporal perception, suggesting that TB ProM impairment in PD may not be related to declines in these cognitive processes. Alternatively, these findings may be related to methodological limitations of the tasks used to measure these processes in the present study. Within the PD sample, ProM deficits correlated with two performance-based measures of everyday functioning (financial capacity, medication management) and a self-report measure of medication management. Moreover, ProM impairment uniquely predicted declines on a performance-based measure of financial capacity, but not medication management, over and above other predictors of everyday functioning. Although future studies with larger samples and longitudinal designs are warranted, these results suggest that ProM may provide unique information regarding everyday functioning skills. The present findings have implications for the assessment of ProM in clinical neuropsychological evaluations and for intervention strategies aimed at improving ProM dysfunction in individuals with PD
Comparison of Daclatasvir Resistance Barriers on NS5A from Hepatitis C Virus Genotypes 1 to 6: Implications for Cross-Genotype Activity

ABSTRACT A comparison of the daclatasvir (DCV [BMS-790052]) resistance barrier on authentic or hybrid replicons containing NS5A from hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes 1 to 6 (GT-1 to -6) was completed using a replicon elimination assay. The data indicated that genotype 1b (GT-1b) has the highest relative resistance barrier and genotype 2a (GT-2a M31) has the lowest. The rank order of resistance barriers to DCV was 1b > 4a ≥ 5a > 6a ≅ 1a > 2a JFH > 3a > 2a M31. Importantly, DCV in combination with a protease inhibitor (PI) eliminated GT-2a M31 replicon RNA at a clinically relevant concentration. Previously, we reported the antiviral activity and resistance profiles of DCV on HCV genotypes 1 to 4 evaluated in the replicon system. Here, we report the antiviral activity and resistance profiles of DCV against hybrid replicons with NS5A sequences derived from HCV GT-5a and GT-6a clinical isolates. DCV was effective against both GT-5a and -6a hybrid replicon cell lines (50% effective concentrations [EC50s] ranging from 3 to 7 pM for GT-5a, and 74 pM for GT-6a). Resistance selection identified amino acid substitutions in the N-terminal domain of NS5A. For GT-5a, L31F and L31V, alone or in combination with K56R, were the major resistance variants (EC50s ranging from 2 to 40 nM). In GT-6a, Q24H, L31M, P32L/S, and T58A/S were identified as resistance variants (EC50s ranging from 2 to 250 nM). The in vitro data suggest that DCV has the potential to be an effective agent for HCV genotypes 1 to 6 when used in combination therapy.
Pericyte-Mediated Regulation of Capillary Diameter: A Component of Neurovascular Coupling in Health and Disease

Because regional blood flow increases in association with the increased metabolic demand generated by localized increases in neural activity, functional imaging researchers often assume that changes in blood flow are an accurate read-out of changes in underlying neural activity. An understanding of the mechanisms that link changes in neural activity to changes in blood flow is crucial for assessing the validity of this assumption, and for understanding the processes that can go wrong during disease states such as ischaemic stroke. Many studies have investigated the mechanisms of neurovascular regulation in arterioles but other evidence suggests that blood flow regulation can also occur in capillaries, because of the presence of contractile cells, pericytes, on the capillary wall. Here we review the evidence that pericytes can modulate capillary diameter in response to neuronal activity and assess the likely importance of neurovascular regulation at the capillary level for functional imaging experiments. We also discuss evidence suggesting that pericytes are particularly sensitive to damage during pathological insults such as ischaemia, Alzheimer's disease and diabetic retinopathy, and consider the potential impact that pericyte dysfunction might have on the development of therapeutic interventions and on the interpretation of functional imaging data in these disorders.
The Effects of Whole Body Irradiation on Serum Colony Stimulating Factor and in Vitro Colony‐Forming Cells in the Bone Marrow

Summary. Using in vitro cultures of mouse bone marrow cells, levels of colony stimulating factor were assayed in serum from mice following whole body irradiation. No significant differences from control levels were noted in the period 1–32 days following 50, 150, 250 or 450 rads. A dose of 250 rads caused a sharp fall in the level of colony‐forming cells in the bone marrow followed by regeneration between 6 and 16 days following irradiation.
BDDC Algorithms for Incompressible Stokes Equations

The purpose of this paper is to extend the balancing domain decomposition by constraints (BDDC) algorithm to saddle‐point problems that arise when mixed finite element methods are used to approximate the system of incompressible Stokes equations. The BDDC algorithms are iterative substructuring methods which form a class of domain decomposition methods based on the decomposition of the domain of the differential equations into nonoverlapping subdomains. They are defined in terms of a set of primal continuity constraints which are enforced across the interface between the subdomains and which provide a coarse space component of the preconditioner. Sets of such constraints are identified for which bounds on the rate of convergence can be established that are just as strong as previously known bounds for the elliptic case. In fact, the preconditioned operator is effectively positive definite, which makes the use of a conjugate gradient method possible. A close connection is also established between the BDDC .
Prevalence and abundance of Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia spp. in wild rural rodents from the Mazury Lake District region of Poland

Prevalence and abundance of Cryptosporodium parvum and Giardia spp. were studied in 3 species of rodents from forests and abandoned agricultural fields in N.E. Poland (Clethrionomys glareolus n = 459; Microtus arvalis n = 274; Apodemus flavicollis n = 209). Overall prevalence was consistently higher in the voles compared with A. flavicollis (70·6, 73·0 and 27·8% respectively for C. parvum and 93·9, 96·3 and 48·3% respectively for Giardia spp.). Prevalence and abundance of infection also varied markedly across 3 years with 1998 being a year of higher prevalence and abundance with both species. Fewer older animals (especially C. glareolus and M. arvalis) carried infection with C. parvum and infections in these animals were relatively milder. Although seasonal differences were significant, no consistent pattern of changes was apparent. Host sex did not influence prevalence or abundance of infection with C. parvum, but made a small contribution to a 4-way interaction (in 5-way ANOVA) with other factors in the case of Giardia spp. The 2 species co-occurred significantly and in animals carrying both parasites there was a highly significant positive correlation between abundance of infection with each, even with between-year, seasonal, host age, sex and species differences taken into account. Quantitative associations were confined to the 2 vole species in the study. These results are discussed in relation to the importance of wild rodents as reservoir hosts and sources of infection for local human communities.
Witnesses for non-satisfiability of dense random 3CNF formulas

We consider random 3CNF formulas with n variables and m clauses. It is well known that when m > cn (for a sufficiently large constant c), most formulas are not satisfiable. However, it is not known whether such formulas are likely to have polynomial size witnesses that certify that they are not satisfiable. A value of m sime n3/2 was the forefront of our knowledge in this respect. When m > cn3/2 , such witnesses are known to exist, based on spectral techniques. When m < n3/2-epsi, it is known that resolution (which is a common approach for refutation) cannot produce witnesses of size smaller than 2nepsiv. Likewise, it is known that certain variants of the spectral techniques do not work in this range. In the current paper we show that when m > cn7/5, almost all 3CNF formulas have polynomial size witnesses for non-satisfiability. We also show that such a witness can be found in time 2(O(n0.2 log n)), whenever it exists. Our approach is based on an extension of the known spectral techniques, and involves analyzing a certain fractional packing problem for random 3-uniform hypergraphs
Public perceptions of child physical abuse in Beijing

ABSTRACT The present study focuses on public perceptions of parental child beating and child physical abuse (CPA) in mainland China. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 20 parents and a quantitative survey was administered to a sample of 1033 adults in urban districts of Beijing. The quantitative and qualitative results are consistent: both parents and the general public were hesitant to consider the beating of one's own child (by biological parents) as a case of CPA. Respondents indicated that only when parents beat their children malevolently and frequently, so as to cause serious physical injuries, could it be considered CPA. The majority of respondents supported governmental interventions in severe cases of CPA. However, respondents' perceptions of CPA in mainland China are different from those that are prevalent in the West. Therefore, it is essential to develop programmes that educate the public in order to improve their awareness and knowledge of CPA in mainland China.
Annoying Tourist Behaviors: Perspectives of Hosts and Tourists in Macao

The study of annoying tourist behaviors is timely as key destinations in Asia welcome large waves of new arrivals. In this study in Macao, 728 respondents—half of whom were tourists and the other half local residents—provided ratings of the perceived frequency and levels of annoyance of 40 potentially problematic behaviors. The behaviors studied were identified by a two-step, inclusive, emic and conceptually driven process and classified with a new framework. The results provided evidence that a few select behaviors (smoking in public, spitting and littering, not flushing toilets, abusing service personnel) were both highly annoying and frequent. An action grid was developed to illustrate the behaviors across these two measurements. Most undesirable behaviors studied are not yet widely prevailing in Macao but these annoying behaviors could pose potential threat to stakeholders as the number of tourist arrivals continued to increase. The authors also linked the findings with numerous theories in the literature including those of cultural convergence, personal relevance, and self-serving biases in attribution. Communities seeking to manage less desirable behaviors can build their strategies based on these kinds of empirical findings.
Advances in Susceptibility Genetics of Intervertebral Degenerative Disc Disease

The traditional view that the etiology of lumbar disc herniation is primarily due to age, gender, occupation, smoking and exposure to vehicular vibration dominated much of the last century. Recent research indicates that heredity may be largely responsible for the degeneration as well as herniation of intervertebral discs. Since 1998, genetic influences have been confirmed by the identification of several genes forms associated with disc degeneration. These researches are paving the way for a better understanding of the biologic mechanisms. Now, many researchers unanimously agree that lumbar disc herniation appears to be similar to other complex diseases, whose etiology has both environmental and hereditary influence, each with a part of contribution and relative risk. Then addressing the etiological of lumbar disc herniation, it is important to integrate heredity with the environment factors. For the purpose of this review, we have limited our discussion to several susceptibility genes associated with disc degeneration.
Harmonizing bioCADDIE Metadata Schemas for Indexing Clinical Research Datasets Using Semantic Web Technologies

An important role of the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) biomedical and healthCAre Data Discovery Index Ecosystem (bioCADDIE) is to promote data integration through the adoption of content standards and alignment to common data elements and high-level schema. The objective of this study was to investigate how a combination of Semantic Web technologies and the ISO/IEC 11179 data element model could be used in the alignment of a biomedical study database and the bioCADDIE indexing schema. Using the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) as a representative example, we were able to demonstrate the viability of the general approach and propose a number of promising next steps.
The huggable: a therapeutic robotic companion for relational, affective touch

Numerous studies have shown the positive benefits of companion animal therapy. Unfortunately, companion animals are not always available. The Huggable is a new type of robotic companion being designed specifically for such cases. It features a full body “sensitive skin” for relational affective touch, silent, muscle-like, voice coil actuators, an embedded PC with data collection and networking capabilities. In this paper we briefly describe the Huggable and propose a live demonstration of the robot.
Non-iterative electromagnetic imaging of perfectly conducting screens from limited range far-field data

We propose a non-iterative multi-frequency algorithm for the imaging of arbitrarily shaped perfectly conducting screens from limited range far-field data. Based on the factorization of the Multi-Static Response (MSR) matrix collected in the far-field at multiple frequencies in Transverse Magnetic (TM) mode, the imaging problem can be solved through the simple analysis of corresponding eigenvectors. Numerical examples illustrate how the proposed algorithm behaves.
Functional pearl: getting a quick fix on comonads

A piece of functional programming folklore due to Piponi provides Löb's theorem from modal provability logic with a computational interpretation as an unusual fixed point. Interpreting modal necessity as an arbitrary Functor in Haskell, the "type" of Löb's theorem is inhabited by a fixed point function allowing each part of a structure to refer to the whole. However, Functor's logical interpretation may be used to prove Löb's theorem only by relying on its implicit functorial strength, an axiom not available in the provability modality. As a result, the well known loeb fixed point "cheats" by using functorial strength to implement its recursion. Rather than Functor, a closer Curry analogue to modal logic's Howard inspiration is a closed (semi-)comonad, of which Haskell's ComonadApply typeclass provides analogous structure. Its computational interpretation permits the definition of a novel fixed point function allowing each part of a structure to refer to its own context within the whole. This construction further guarantees maximal sharing and asymptotic efficiency superior to loeb for locally contextual computations upon a large class of structures. With the addition of a distributive law, closed comonads may be composed into spaces of arbitrary dimensionality while preserving the performance guarantees of this new fixed point. From these elements, we construct a small embedded domain-specific language to elegantly express and evaluate multidimensional "spreadsheet-like" recurrences for a variety of cellular automata.