Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal protein reserves and their influence on lactational performance in rats

To determine the contribution of tissue protein reserves to lactational performance, multiparous female Sprague-Dawley rats were mated, caged individually and offered a diet high in protein (215 g crude protein (N × 6·25; CP)/kg dry matter (DM);H) ad lib. until day 12 of gestation. Subsequently half the rats continued to receive diet H while the remainder were offered a diet low in protein (65 g CP/kg DM;L) until parturition. This treatment aimed to produce a difference in carcass protein at parturition. On day 1 of lactation females were allocated to either diet H or a low-protein diet (90 g CP/kg DM; L2) offered until day 13 of lactation, giving four lactation treatment groups HH, HL2, LH and LL2. Groups of females were slaughtered on days 2 and 12 of gestation and days 1 and 13 of lactation and carcass and major organs were analysed. Weight gain of standardized litters was used as an indicator of lactational performance. Maternal carcass protein contents at parturition were 43·5 (SE 1·2) and 38·7 (SE 0·8) g (P < 0·01) for diets H and L respectively. During lactation there was little change in carcass protein content of HH rats while LH rats appeared to replenish their depleted reserves. Food intake or lactational performance did not differ between these two groups. HL2 and LL2 rats lost carcass protein with HL2 rats losing more than LL2 rats (P < 0·05). Intake and lactational performance were reduced compared with that on diet H (P < 0.05) but for the first 6 d of lactation were both greater (P < 0·05) for diet HL2 than for diet LL2. All four groups showed a considerable loss of body fat during lactation which was not affected by diet. The ability of HL2 rats to catabolize more protein and consume more food allowed them to sustain a greater lactationai performance. Previous maternal protein depletion had no influence on lactationai performance as long as an adequate supply of dietary protein was provided.
Big Bird, Binders, and Bayonets: Humor and live-tweeting during the 2012 U.S. Presidential Debates

During the 2012 U.S. election cycle, social media analytics services were eager to demonstrate the efficacy of their tools to capture public opinion on Twitter. Graphics they produced to illustrate user sentiment regarding the candidates and issues were later reproduced by major news organizations. To better understand the particular practices that undergird such summary representations, we collected 35,247,043 tweets during the three televised presidential debates, nearly half of which were made up of retweets. Using a combination of quantitative content analysis and software-assisted close textual analysis, we examined the use of humor and sarcasm, 'astroturfing' by campaigns and other strategic actors, and the prevalence of retweeting 'bots. ' Although sentiment analysis systems rarely disclose their methodologies, the diverse practices we encountered in this corpus makes clear that large-scale computational methods must account for the local contexts within which tweets are produced if they are to report meaningful statistics.
What Increases Public Employees’ Turnover Intention?

This research examined the extent to which job motivation, social support, public service motivation (PSM), and burnout are related to turnover intention and whether burnout serves as a mediator for these relations. Using data collected from local revenue officers in South Korea, this research found that intrinsic motivation was significantly and negatively related to employees’ intention to leave their organization, whereas self-sacrifice (one of the PSM elements) was positively associated with turnover intention. In addition, the analyses revealed mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (burnout) on both intrinsic motivation and self-sacrifice turnover intention. These findings are relevant for public organizations that are concerned about managing employee turnover intention caused by public reforms dealing with changing environment.
The anti-CD20 antibody rituximab reduces the Th17 cell response.

OBJECTIVE Rituximab has been shown to be successful in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and this unexpected finding indicates that B cells have an important role in this disease. The present study was undertaken to investigate the mechanism of action of rituximab in RA. METHODS Twelve patients with active RA were treated with rituximab. Disease activity was evaluated using the 28-joint Disease Activity Score. Synovial biopsy samples obtained at baseline and 12 weeks after treatment initiation were analyzed by microarray, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy volunteers and from 4 patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia were stimulated with the Th17-inducing stimulus Candida albicans, and the response in the presence and absence of rituximab was examined. RESULTS In RA patients, rituximab reduced expression of retinoic acid-related orphan receptor γt and interleukin-22 (IL-22) and numbers of Th17-positive cells in synovial tissue, and this correlated with better clinical outcome. Rituximab did not affect tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), Th1 cell, or Treg cell responses. Rituximab strongly reduced in vitro IL-17 and IL-22 production induced by C albicans. This effect was not observed in PBMCs from patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia. CONCLUSION Rituximab reduced the local Th17 response in RA patients, whereas it did not influence Th1 cell, Treg cell, or TNFα responses. The decreased Th17 response was associated with reduced inflammation and better clinical outcome. Moreover, inhibition of the Th17 response by rituximab was lost in the absence of B cells, providing evidence that the effects of rituximab are due to B cell depletion. These data demonstrate an unexpected role of B cells in the development of Th17 responses, which could possibly lead to B cell-based strategies for the treatment of Th17-related autoimmune diseases.
Diagnostic accuracy of Heidelberg Retina Tomograph III classifications in a Turkish primary open‐angle glaucoma population

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Moorfields regression analysis (MRA) and the glaucoma probability score (GPS) in primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) and to measure the level of agreement between the two algorithms in classifying eyes as normal or abnormal in a Turkish population.
[Diagnosis and treatment of acute pancreatitis: are the guidelines accepted?].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Eight international guidelines exist for the diagnosis and treatment of acute pancreatitis, a disease that is often difficult to assess and treat, particularly when the necrotising variety of the disease is present. The knowledge of and compliance with these guidelines in Germany is unknown. METHOD In order to assess the knowledge and compliance with acute pancreatitis guidelines, a structured questionnaire was sent out to the 190 members of the ALGK (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitender Gastroenterologischer Krankenhausärzte), a professional organisation of gastroenterology chairmen, who, in their respective institutions, are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of acute pancreatitis. University hospitals were excluded to cover the entire severity spectrum of the disease and to avoid a referral bias. RESULTS The questionnaire was responded by 182 (96 %) members. To a large extent (acceptance > 2/3 of the consultants), guideline recommendations were complied with. There was, nevertheless, disagreement regarding the prophylactic use of antibiotics (acceptance < 2/3 of the consultants), as to when a contrast-enhanced computed tomography was indicated, and the timing of cholecystectomy for biliary pancreatitis. The choice of pain therapy for patients with acute pancreatitis also remained equivocal. CONCLUSION Based on the high response rate which excludes a non-responder bias, the results of our study reflect the current status of the diagnosis and therapy of acute pancreatitis in Germany and to what extent international guidelines are known and complied with. This study also highlights the need for additional clinical trials in areas of diagnostic or therapeutic uncertainty.
Efficient implementation of Randomized MPC for miniature race cars

This paper describes a data-driven Randomized Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach toward autonomous racing of miniature cars. The main challenge in autonomous racing is to drive as fast as possible, without actually exiting the track. Designing such controllers is a challenging task, since (i) the models of the cars are not entirely accurate, and (ii) the time to compute the control inputs is limited to tens of milliseconds. The current practice is to resort to standard MPC, where the safety-related constraints are tightened manually. In this paper, we propose an alternative method based on Stochastic MPC, which naturally introduces robustness by design. We approximate the Stochastic MPC problem by means of randomization, implemented as a sparse Randomized MPC problem. We show that the resulting quadratic program can be solved in the range of milliseconds. Moreover, the sparse Randomized MPC formulation can be interpreted as a standard MPC problem whose constraints are, based on collected data, automatically tightened. We show experimentally that the proposed controller can outperform currently implemented controllers. Our results suggest that Randomized MPC is an attractive alternative to standard controllers, due to its ability to introduce robustness without sacrificing performance.
Evidence from the surgeons: gesture control of image data displayed during surgery

ABSTRACT We gathered ethnographic evidence from surgeons about the concept of gesture-based control over the display of their patients’ radiographic scan data during surgery. This would give the surgeons direct access to their patients’ scan data without compromising their sterile working field and without needing to rely on other clinicians to interpret display instructions. Our approach involved interviewing surgeons and observing them in the operating theatre. We included evidence from earlier publications in this field and we used a grounded theory approach to analyse our data. Our findings address diversity across the surgical specialties, preoperative versus intraoperative use of the data, preferences for simple natural gestures, the role of another person controlling the display, broad system constraints and the willingness of surgeons to collaborate with their time and effort in this research.
Integer weight balancing in directed graphs in the presence of communication delays

A digraph with positive weights on its edges is weight-balanced if, for each node, the sum of the weights of the incoming edges equals the sum of the weights of the outgoing edges. Weight-balanced digraphs play an important role in a variety of cooperative control problems and, in this work, we propose an iterative distributed algorithm which solves the integer weight balancing problem in a given strongly connected digraph, in the presence of arbitrary (time-varying, inhomogeneous, but) bounded time delays that might affect communication transmissions. The algorithm is shown to converge after a finite number of iterations that we explicitly bound. Furthermore, we prove that the resulting weight balanced digraph is unique regardless of the specific delays that links suffer during the execution of the algorithm.
The Performance of Innovation: Managerial Roles

A primary goal of most R&D organizations is innovation. The principles of innovation are the essential building blocks for the organization's design and management, and differ from the often quoted principles of management in key ways. Applying the principles of innovation can help R&D and corporate managers to better organize and staff their R&D units by identifying the roles to be performed and the skills each role requires for effective performance.
Expression of chemotaxis- and angiogenesis-related factors in human monocytes following interaction with colon cancer cells is suppressed by low-dose lipopolysaccharide.

BACKGROUND We have previously reported that mRNA expression of chemotaxis- and angiogenesis-related factors in human monocytes increased following interaction with colon cancer cells. Recently, it was also reported that mRNA expression of the chemotaxis-related factor, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, in mouse macrophages following treatment with low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was significantly lower compared to that following treatment with high-dose LPS, and that low-dose LPS failed to activate the classical nuclear factor (NF)-κB pathway. In the present study, we examined changes in mRNA expression of chemotaxis- and angiogenesis-related factors in human monocytes following low-dose LPS treatment and subsequent interaction with colon cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS The human monocyte cell line THP-1 was treated with LPS and subsequently co-cultured with the human colon cancer cell line DLD-1. mRNA expression was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS mRNA expression of MCP-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-8 in THP-1 cells treated with low-dose LPS (100 pg/ml) decreased compared to untreated THP-1 cells after five days of co-culture with DLD-1 cells. CONCLUSION mRNA expression of chemotaxis- and angiogenesis-related factors in human monocytes following interaction with colon cancer cells is suppressed by prior treatment with low-dose LPS. Thus, low-dose LPS treatment of human monocytes may be useful for prevention and therapy of colon cancer.
Root signals and stomatal closure in relation to photosynthesis, chlorophyll a fluorescence and adventitious rooting of flooded tomato plants.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS An investigation was carried out to determine whether stomatal closure in flooded tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum) results from decreased leaf water potentials (psi(L)), decreased photosynthetic capacity and attendant increases in internal CO(2) (C(i)) or from losses of root function such as cytokinin and gibberellin export. METHODS Pot-grown plants were flooded when 1 month old. Leaf conductance was measured by diffusion porometry, the efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) was estimated by fluorimetry, and infrared gas analysis was used to determine C(i) and related parameters. KEY RESULTS Flooding starting in the morning closed the stomata and increased psi(L) after a short-lived depression of psi(L). The pattern of closure remained unchanged when psi(;L) depression was avoided by starting flooding at the end rather than at the start of the photoperiod. Raising external CO(2) concentrations by 100 micromol mol(-1) also closed stomata rapidly. Five chlorophyll fluorescence parameters [F(q)'/F(m)', F(q)'/F(v)', F(v)'/F(m)', non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and F(v)/F(m)] were affected by flooding within 12-36 h and changes were linked to decreased C(i). Closing stomata by applying abscisic acid or increasing external CO(2) substantially reproduced the effects of flooding on chlorophyll fluorescence. The presence of well-aerated adventitious roots partially inhibited stomatal closure of flooded plants. Allowing adventitious roots to form on plants flooded for >3 d promoted some stomatal re-opening. This effect of adventitious roots was not reproduced by foliar applications of benzyl adenine and gibberellic acid. CONCLUSIONS Stomata of flooded plants did not close in response to short-lived decreases in psi(L) or to increased C(i) resulting from impaired PSII photochemistry. Instead, stomatal closure depressed C(i) and this in turn largely explained subsequent changes in chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Stomatal opening was promoted by the presence of well-aerated adventitious roots, implying that loss of function of root signalling contributes to closing of stomata during flooding. The possibility that this involves inhibition of cytokinin or gibberellin export was not well supported.
A TeleMedicine Transfer Model for Sub-Saharan Africa

Given the documented benefits of telemedicine, especially in resource-constrained health-care contexts, we empirically examine the factors they contribute to successful transfer of telemedicine to Sub-Saharan Africa. The results indicate that policies specific to the advancement of ICT influence the country's advancement in ICT infrastructure and telemedicine capabilities. Likewise, the level of ICT infrastructure and the nature of the country's health services sector impact the telemedicine capabilities of that country. Additionally, telemedicine seems to be more valued in regions where resources for health-services provision are scarce, and its value tends to diminish as the resources become abundant. However, telemedicine seems unable to thrive where ICT infrastructure is scarce. This is an indication that the value of telemedicine to SSA is leveraged by leveraging ICT infrastructure in general and ICT for telemedicine, in particular.
Determination of carbon isotope ratios of methanol and acetaldehyde in air samples by gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry combined with headspace solid-phase microextraction

Isotopic signatures of atmospheric methanol and acetaldehyde have the potential to improve our ability to quantitatively assess their importance in atmospheric chemistry. However, isotopic measurements of atmospheric methanol and acetaldehyde and their individual source and sink processes have been limited. In this study, we examined gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry combined with headspace solid-phase microextraction to measure the carbon isotope ratios of methanol and acetaldehyde in air samples. The method enabled us to determine carbon isotope ratios with a precision (1 standard deviation) of±0.6 ‰ for 20 ml of air sample containing more than 3 ppm of methanol and±0.7 ‰ for 20 ml of air sample containing more than 2 ppm of acetaldehyde. Moreover, the applicability of this method to determine isotope ratios of methanol and acetaldehyde emitted from detached plant leaves was demonstrated.
Probabilistic normal distributions transform representation for accurate 3D point cloud registration

This paper presents a probabilistic normal distributions transform (NDT) representation which improves the accuracy of point cloud registration by using the probabilities of point samples. Since conventional NDT does not generate distributions in cells having fewer point samples than the number threshold, it would be failed to represent the environment if the point cloud is divided by high-resolution cells. Also, it can lead to incorrect estimations of pose variations. To solve the problem, we define the probability of a point sample and compute the mean and covariance based on the probability. Besides, we show that the generalization property of the probabilistic NDT objective function. The probabilistic NDT has two advantages. First, it generates distributions in all of the occupied cells regardless of the resolution of cells. Second, it reduces the degeneration effect by using modified covariance. The experimental results show that all of the occupied cells have distributions even if the point cloud is divided by high-resolution cells and that the probabilistic NDT improves the accuracy of NDT-based registration.
Knowledge, attitude and practices of childhood injuries and their prevention by primary caregivers in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION Childhood injuries are the leading cause of death for children between 5 to 14 years of age in Singapore. There have been no studies done on primary caregivers' knowledge, attitude and practices on childhood injuries and its prevention in Singapore. Thus there is a need to conduct this type of study in order to develop appropriate educational programmes. METHODS A cross-sectional nationwide study with a two-stage stratified random sampling was conducted to obtain a representative sample of the Singapore population. Families that had children younger than 15 years of age were selected for the study. Parents and caregivers were interviewed at their homes. RESULTS The primary caregivers had good knowledge of road safety but poor knowledge on home safety and first aid. The higher the education of the mother, the more likely it is that she would possess the correct knowledge and practice on childhood injuries and its prevention. The media plays an important role on information on child safety of the caregivers. Only 38 percent said they obtained information from doctors and other health personnel. CONCLUSION There is a need to educate parents and caregivers on home safety and first aid. Doctors and nurses should take a more active role in giving advice on child safety.
Party Organizations’ Campaign Strategies and the Electoral Context

What role do the party organizations play in electoral campaigns? While the literature looking at developed countries has emphasized the importance of party canvassing efforts by local party organizations during campaigns (i.e. Black 1984, Krassa 1988, Huckfeldt and Sprague 1992, Denver et. al. 2004, Karp et. al. 2008, Gorecki and Marsh 2012), most of the focus in studies on developing countries has been on parties’ local organizations as party machines that are involved in patron-client exchanges and vote buying (i.e. Ames 1994, Stokes 2005, Kitschelt and Wilkinson 2007, Stokes et. al. 2013). Although party organizations in developing countries also carry out canvassing during the campaign period, we do not have much detailed information on these campaign activities such as, for example, who the parties target in their visits. When the party machines are relatively more important or when the party systems are less institutionalized as in most developing countries or new democracies, do the canvassing efforts take a different shape than observed in developed countries?
Information Communication Technology in Teacher Education in an Emerging Developing Country

This study investigates the current situation of integration of ICT in teacher education in Vietnam, an emerging developing country. Exploratory multiple regression analysis addresses the importance of different influencing/constraining factors for the integration of ICT in teaching practice in teacher education. Even though most manipulative factors are not a major constraint, the use of ICT applications for teaching practice is limited, mostly replacing traditional teaching practice. The factors explaining the integration of ICT in teaching practice are ICT skills and computer confidence. Suggestions are made as to what approach to take to effectively integrate ICT in teacher education in Vietnam and other developing countries at the beginning of integration of ICT.
Observation of S=+1 Baryon Resonance in Photo-production from Neutron

The gamma n -> K+ K- n reaction on 12C has been studied by measuring both K+ and K- at forward angles. A sharp baryon resonance peak was observed at 1.54 +- 0.01 GeV with a width smaller than 25 MeV and a Gaussian significance of 4.6 sigma. The strangeness quantum number (S) of the baryon resonance is +1. It can be interpreted as a molecular meson-baryon resonance or alternatively as an exotic 5-quark state (uudd{s_bar}) that decays into a K+ and a neutron. The resonance is consistent with the lowest member of an anti-decuplet of baryons predicted by the chiral soliton model.