Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of an In Vivo and In Vitro Ileal Fermentation Method in a Growing Pig Model.

Background Substantial microbial fermentation may occur mainly in the lower small intestine (SI) of human adults, but there is no established methodology to determine this. Objective The study aimed to develop a combined in vivo and in vitro methodology for ileal fermentation based on the pig as an animal model for digestion in human adults. Methods Several aspects of a combined in vivo/in vitro ileal fermentation assay were evaluated. Male 9-wk-old pigs (n = 30; mean ± SD body weight: 23 ± 1.6 kg) were fed a human-type diet (143, 508, 45, 49, and 116 g/kg dry matter diet of crude protein, starch, total lipid, ash, and total dietary fiber) for 15 d. On day 15, pigs were killed, and the last third of the SI was collected to prepare an ileal digesta-based inoculum. Terminal jejunal digesta (last 50 cm of the second third of the SI) were collected as substrate for the assay to test the form of substrate (fresh or freeze-dried), origin (location in jejunum or SI) of the substrate, storage of the inoculum, incubation time (1.2-6.8 h), pH of the medium, and inoculum concentration (6-26 mg inoculum/100 mg substrate). Results The group of donor pigs used to prepare the inoculum, form of the substrate, origin of the substrate, origin of the inoculum (location in the SI), storage of the inoculum, incubation time, and inoculum concentration did not influence the in vitro ileal organic matter (OM) fermentability (P > 0.05). The in vitro ileal OM fermentability decreased when the pH of the medium increased from 5.5 to 7.5 (31% to 28%; P ≤ 0.05). Predicted (in vivo/in vitro) apparent ileal OM digestibility was similar to the value measured in vivo. Conclusions Thirty-percent of the terminal jejunal digesta OM was fermented in the ileum. Fiber fermentation in the ileum can be studied using the optimized in vivo/in vitro ileal fermentation method.
Sensory and objective characteristics of broiler meat from commercial broilers fed rendered spent hen meal.

The objective of the study was to determine sensory and objective characteristics of broiler breast and thigh meat from commercial broilers fed rendered spent hen meal (RSHM) from hatch to 42 d of age. Breast and thigh muscles from 90, 6-wk-old straight-run broilers (i.e., mixed male and female broilers) fed starter and grower diets consisting of either 0, 8, or 12% RSHM were evaluated for sensory characteristics, instrumental texture, and compositional profiles. The RSHM treatments had no adverse effects (P > 0.05) on juiciness, chicken flavor intensity, tenderness, or compositional profiles for the breast or thigh meats. Off-flavor scores for all treatments were above the threshold value, indicating that the RSHM imparted no off-flavors to the breast and thigh meats. Warner-Bratzler shear measurements were similar (P > 0.05) for breast meat from broilers in all treatments. No shear measurements were conducted for the thigh meat. It was concluded that RSHM can be incorporated into the diets of broilers at levels of up to 12% without causing objectionable sensory characteristics in the cooked broiler meat.
Universally Composable Secure Two and Multi-party Computation in the Corruptible Tamper-Proof Hardware Token Model

In this work we introduce the corruptible token model. This model generalizes the stateless tamper-proof token model introduced by Katz (EUROCRYPT ’07) and relaxes the trust assumption. Our improved model is motivated by the real-world practice of outsourcing hardware production to possibly untrusted manufacturers and allows tokens created by honest parties to be corrupted at the time of their creation. Assuming one-way functions, we show how to UC-securely realize the tamper-proof token functionality of Katz in the corruptible token model with n stateless tokens assuming that the adversary corrupts at most n − 1 of them. We then apply this transformation to existing two and MPC protocols to achieve a UC-secure 2PC/MPC protocol in the corruptible token model assuming only the existence of one-way functions. Finally, we further transform the above protocol to only use tokens of small size that take only short inputs. The technique in the last transformation can also be used to improve the assumption of UC-secure hardware obfuscation by Nayak et al. (NDSS ’17) from collisionresistant hash functions to one-way functions, which can then be transformed into a protocol with n corruptible tokens in our model. ∗Research supported in part by NSF grant 1619348, DARPA, US-Israel BSF grant 2012366, OKAWA Foundation Research Award, IBM Faculty Research Award, Xerox Faculty Research Award, B. John Garrick Foundation Award, Teradata Research Award, and Lockheed-Martin Corporation Research Award. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.
REVIEW: PART OF A SPECIAL ISSUE ON PLANT NUTRITION Nitrogen uptake, assimilation and remobilization in plants: challenges for sustainable and productive agriculture

†Background Productive agriculture needs a large amount of expensive nitrogenous fertilizers. Improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of crop plants is thus of key importance. NUE definitions differ depending on whether plants are cultivated to produce biomass or grain yields. However, for most plant species, NUE mainly depends on how plants extract inorganic nitrogen from the soil, assimilate nitrate and ammonium, and recycle organic nitrogen. Efforts have been made to study the genetic basis as well as the biochemical and enzymatic mechanisms involved in nitrogen uptake, assimilation, and remobilization in crops and model plants. The detection of the limiting factors that could be manipulated to increase NUE is the major goal of such research. †Scope An overall examination of the physiological, metabolic, and genetic aspects of nitrogen uptake, assimilation and remobilization is presented in this review. The enzymes and regulatory processes manipulated to improve NUE components are presented. Results obtained from natural variation and quantitative trait loci studies are also discussed. †Conclusions This review presents the complexity of NUE and supports the idea that the integration of the numerous data coming from transcriptome studies, functional genomics, quantitative genetics, ecophysiology and soil science into explanatory models of whole-plant behaviour will be promising.
The effect of different variables on in-plane radial permeability of natural fiber mats

There has been a vast growth in manufacturing of fiber reinforced plastics by means of liquid composite molding such as resin transfer molding and vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding processes. In these processes, compression of the porous media and pressure of the injected resin result in in-mold forces that need to be determined. Limited information exists regarding the processing parameters and extent of reinforcing potential natural fibers have in polymer matrices. Current study investigates the effect of different variables such as fiber volume fraction, shive content, fiber size, wax content, and resin viscosity on permeability of five different natural fiber mats. Flax fiber with low-, medium-, and high-shive content as well as hemp and kenaf fiber mats was selected for this study and an original experimental device was setup to measure the permeability of the mentioned fiber mats based on different variables. It was found that increasing fiber volume fraction will result in reduction of permeability of all mats. The presence of shive and larger fiber size increased the permeability. Higher wax content lowered the permeability. These competing factors could be used by manufacturers to produce a mat which had optimum permeability while still maintaining acceptable strength.
Breastfeeding Characteristics of Late-Preterm Infants in a Kangaroo Mother Care Unit.

OBJECTIVE To describe the breastfeeding characteristics of late-preterm infants (LPIs) in a kangaroo mother care (KMC) unit. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a 20-bed KMC unit, the breastfeeding of 73 purposively-selected LPIs' (mean gestational age: 34.8 weeks) was observed once-off, using the Preterm Infant Breastfeeding Behavior Scale. Participants' mean age was 9.5 days, mean number of days in the unit was 3.1 days, and mean number of days breastfeeding was 7.5 on observation. RESULTS Only 13.7% of participants were directly breastfeeding without supplementary naso- or orogastric feeding/cup-feeding and 86.3% received supplementary cup-feeding of expressed breast milk. Most participants did not exhibit obvious rooting (83.5%) and although most latched-on (97.3%), those who did, latched shallowly (93%). The mean longest sucking burst was 18.8 (standard deviation: 10.5) and approximately half the participants swallowed repeatedly (53.4%). The mean breastfeeding session duration was 17.8 minutes, but most participants breastfed for less than 10 minutes (76.7%). No statistically significant differences in breastfeeding characteristics were detected between participants of different chronological ages. A general trend toward more mature behaviors in participants' breastfeeding for more days was present for many breastfeeding characteristics. More infants exhibited the most mature behavior for each breastfeeding characteristic when the environment was quiet, rather than noisy and disturbing, except for depth of latching (quiet: 0%, disturbance: 15.2%). CONCLUSION LPIs in this sample presented with subtle breastfeeding difficulties, highlighting their need for breastfeeding support. Further research is required to examine the effect of KMC on breastfeeding in LPIs.
Dapagliflozin maintains glycaemic control while reducing weight and body fat mass over 2 years in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus inadequately controlled on metformin

Dapagliflozin, a highly selective inhibitor of sodium‐glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), reduces hyperglycaemia and weight in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by increasing urinary glucose excretion. Long‐term glycaemic control, body composition and bone safety were evaluated in patients with T2DM after 102 weeks of dapagliflozin treatment.
Camel whey protein improves lymphocyte function and protects against diabetes in the offspring of diabetic mouse dams

The prevalence of health problems in the offspring of pregnant diabetic mothers has recently been verified. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the influence of dietary camel whey protein (CWP), administered as a supplement to streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic pregnant mice, on the efficiency of the immune system of the offspring. Three groups of female mice (n = 10) were used: non-diabetic control mice, diabetic mice, and diabetic mice orally administered CWP during the pregnancy and lactation periods. We then tested the immune response of B and T cells in adult male offspring (n = 15 in each group) by using flow cytometry, western blotting, and ELISAs. Our data demonstrated that the offspring of diabetic dams exhibited several postpartum complications, such as significant aberrant overexpression of activating transcription factor-3 (ATF-3), significant elevation of the plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), marked decreases in the plasma levels of IL-2 and IL-7, significant inhibition of CCL21- and CXCL12-mediated chemotaxis of B- and T-lymphocytes, and a marked decrease in the proliferative capacity of antigen-stimulated B- and T-lymphocytes. Interestingly, administration of CWP to diabetic dams substantially restored the expression of ATF-3 and the levels of ROS, pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-2, and IL-7 in the offspring. Furthermore, the chemotaxis of B- and T-lymphocytes toward CCL21 and CXCL12 and the proliferative capacities of these lymphocytes were restored in the male offspring of diabetic mice administered CWP. Our data provide evidence of a protective role of CWP in decreasing the tendency of the offspring of diabetic mothers to develop diabetes and related complications.
Aberrations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene in 958 patients with diverse advanced tumors: implications for therapy.

BACKGROUND Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are associated with the response to EGFR inhibitors in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We sought to investigate EGFR aberrations in patients with diverse advanced cancers. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients referred to the phase I clinic were evaluated for the presence of EGFR mutations and response to therapy. RESULTS EGFR aberrations were detected in 34 of 958 patients (3.5%). Though EGFR mutations were most frequent in NSCLC (21 of 131, 16%), they were also present in a variety of other solid tumors (13 of 827 patients, 1.6%) including adrenocortical (1/10 patients), skin (1/24), breast (1/55), carcinoid (1/8), cholangiocarcinoma (1/20), head and neck (1/61), ovarian (1/84), parathyroid (1/1), salivary gland (1/20), renal (1/17), sarcoma (2/38), and thymic carcinomas (1/7). Of the 13 EGFR aberration-positive non-NSCLC patients (median number of prior systemic therapies = 3), 6 had treatment with an EGFR inhibitor. Two patients (diagnosis = parathyroid tumor and basal cell carcinoma) achieved stable disease (SD), lasting 6 and 7 months, respectively. CONCLUSION We found EGFR aberrations in 1.6% of a large group of patients with diverse tumors other than NSCLC, and treatment with an EGFR inhibitor could be associated with prolonged SD.
Effects of feeding vomitoxin contaminated wheat on the performance of broiler chickens.

Two experiments were conducted to ascertain the effect of feeding vomitoxin to meat-type chickens. In each experiment 360 day-old commercial chickens of the Shaver strain were housed in Petersime batteries for 28 days and fed diets containing 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60% of wheat containing 3.00 ppm of vomitoxin. Analysis indicated that the vomitoxin levels in the diets ranged from less than . 02 (control) to 1.87 ppm. Each diet was fed in either the all-mash or the crumbled form. There was no evidence of feed refusal or emesis nor were there any significant effects on mortality, body weight gain, live body weight, feed consumption, or feed conversion when these diets were fed. Subjecting the feeds to the pelleting crumbling process had no effect on the level of vomitoxin found in the finished feed. No organ damage from feeding vomitoxin was evident.
Tobacco‐attributable burden of cancer according to socioeconomic position in France

Smoking is a major preventable cause of cancers and is increasingly concentrated among the most deprived individuals leading to increasing socioeconomic inequalities in the incidence of cancers linked to smoking. We aimed to estimate the tobacco‐attributable cancer burden according to socioeconomic position in France. The analysis was restricted to cancer sites for which tobacco smoking was recognized as a risk factor. Cancer cases by sex, age group and European Deprivation Index (EDI) among people aged 30–74 between 2006 and 2009 were obtained from cancer registries covering ∼20% of the French population. The tobacco‐attributable burden of cancer according to EDI was estimated applying the population attributable fraction (PAF) computed with the Peto‐Lopez method. The PAF increased from 56% in the least deprived EDI quintile to 70% in the most deprived EDI quintile among men and from 26% to 38% among women. In total, 28% of the excess cancer cases in the four most deprived EDI quintiles in men and 43% in women could be prevented if smoking in these 4 EDI quintiles was similar to that of the least deprived EDI quintile. A substantial smoking‐attributable burden of cancer by socioeconomic position was observed in France. The results highlight the need for policies reducing tobacco consumption. More comprehensive interventions integrating the various dimensions of health determinants and proportionate according to socioeconomic position may essentially contribute to the reduction of socioeconomic inequalities in cancer.
Initial Cell Adhesion on Well-Defined Surface by Polymer Brush Layers with Varying Chemical Structures

To understand cellular responses at the interface between biological system and artificial materials, we considered several surface properties of the materials. Controlled surface properties were achieved for preparation of well-defined polymer brush substrates with varying chemical structures, which were prepared by surface-initiated atom transfer polymerization. The substrates were covered with hydrophilic polymer brush layers with anionic groups, cationic groups, and zwitterionic groups as well as nonionic hydroxyl groups. In addition, surface covered with hydrophobic fluoroalkyl groups was prepared. Initial cell adhesion was examined using human cervical adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line, as a model cell, and the cell adhesion onto the polymer brush substrates was evaluated related with cell adhesive protein adsorption. The number and morphology of adherent cells were clearly dependent on the surface ζ-potentials of polymer brush substrates. In contrast, no significant correlation was observed with .
Lignin Degradation:A Microbial Approach

Lignin is the most structurally complex carbohydrate consisting of various bilogically stable linkages. It has been estimated that lignin constitutes 30-35% of the earth's non-fossil organic carbon. Lignin degradation plays an important role in carbon recycling and biofuel production. Industrial waste treatment through chemical approaches is not only expensive but also toxic to environment. Lignin degrading enzymes from microbes contribute a major role in the degradation of industrial effluents. Fungi and bacteria are good sources of effluent hydrolyzing enzymes such as lignin peroxidase, laccase, manganese peroxidase etc. However, there are very few research activities regarding role of microbes in lignin degradation. Lignin hydrolysis using various microbes with eco-friendly approach is a challenge for researchers globally. Therefore, in order to reduce the adverse effect of industrial effluent on environment, the quest for inexpensive, sustainable and eco-friendly approach is indispensable. The current review focuses to enlighten a comprehensive and broad analysis of lignin degradation ability of various fungal and bacterial sources using their ligninolytic machinery system.
A simultaneously bidirectional inductively coupled link in a 0.13‐µm CMOS technology

A simultaneously bidirectional inductively coupled link has been developed to provide higher signaling bandwidth for a given inductively coupled channel. Two types of echo signals, that is, the resistive and inductive echo signals, are canceled without an inductive replica load to save silicon area. The resistive echo signal is canceled with a replica driver driving a resistive replica load, while the inductive echo signal is canceled by deliberately controlling the timing of a receiver comparator. The prototype implemented in a 0.13‐µm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology occupies 0.019 mm2 including an on‐chip channel inductor and shows 9.1‐pJ/b energy efficiency at 3.0‐Gbps signaling bandwidth, that is, 1.5 Gbps in each signaling direction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aortic root segmentation in 4D transesophageal echocardiography

The Aortic Valve (AV) is an important anatomical structure which lies on the left side of the human heart. The AV regulates the flow of oxygenated blood from the Left Ventricle (LV) to the rest of the body through aorta. Pathologies associated with the AV manifest themselves in structural and functional abnormalities of the valve. Clinical management of pathologies often requires repair, reconstruction or even replacement of the valve through surgical intervention. Assessment of these pathologies as well as determination of specific intervention procedure requires quantitative evaluation of the valvular anatomy. 4D (3D + t) Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) is a widely used imaging technique that clinicians use for quantitative assessment of cardiac structures. However, manual quantification of 3D structures is complex, time consuming and suffers from inter-observer variability. Towards this goal, we present a semiautomated approach for segmentation of the aortic root (AR) structure. Our approach requires user-initialized landmarks in two reference frames to provide AR segmentation for full cardiac cycle. We use ‘coarse-to-fine’ B-spline Explicit Active Surface (BEAS) for AR segmentation and Masked Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) method for AR tracking. Our method results in approximately 0.51 mm average localization error in comparison with ground truth annotation performed by clinical experts on 10 real patient cases (139 3D volumes).
Dietary addition of cellular metabolic intermediates and carcass fat deposition in broilers.

Ninety-six 1-day-old male broilers were fed a diet containing 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10% of a 1:1 mixture of pyruvic acid (PY) and dihydroxyacetone (DH) for ad libitum consumption for 42 days. Feed intake, body weight gain, and feed efficiency decreased linearly (P < .001) with increasing levels of PY and DH. There were no significant differences among treatments for abdominal fat percentage. Carcass chemical analysis revealed small but significant (P < .05) differences among dietary treatments for protein and fat percentages. In a second experiment, 192 1-day-old male broilers were fed diets containing 5% of PY, lactic acid (LA), citric acid (CI), DH, or glycerol (GY) or mixtures (1:1) of DH or GY in combination with each organic acid. Bird performance was impaired (P < .05) by PY or CI but not by DH or GY. Lactic acid reduced (P < .05) feed intake by 9% without affecting weight gain. Lactic acid plus DH, CI plus DH, and CI plus GY mixtures decreased (P < .05) bird performance but other combinations had no effect. Pyruvic acid or CI decreased abdominal fat and carcass lipid percentages. Dihydroxyacetone increased (P < .05) carcass lipid percentage and GY increased (P < .05) abdominal fat percentage. Lactic acid plus DH increased (P < .05) carcass lipid percentage. Only PY and CI decreased carcass fat deposition, but they also impaired broiler performance.
Femoral neck modularity: A bridge too far—Affirms

The use of femoral stems with dual-taper modularity in total hip arthroplasty offers increased flexibility in restoring hip-center anatomy. Independent of femoral fixation, the modular neck offers the surgeon additional options in recreating femoral version, correcting limb length, and altering offset. Additionally, proponents cite smaller incisions, less dissection, reduced impingement and dislocation, and ease of revision. However, adverse events associated with modular femoral neck usage, including local and systemic effects of corrosion, fracture, and complexities of revision, are now well documented. This review highlights the most current basic science and clinical literature regarding the complications associated with modular femoral necks and their mechanisms of failure.
Video streaming strategy based on feedback control loop theory in cloud platform

The main purpose of this paper is to run video games over the cloud while optimizing the synergy between the client and the server in order to increase player performances. One of the strengths of cloud gaming is elasticity which helps matching user's requirements with available allocated resources. Our major contribution is a new video streaming strategy based on the Feedback Control Loop theory which is designed to ensure an optimal usage of the player and the video quality. So we focus on how to automatically tune the video quality to meet with the available network resources and so increase the user's video quality. In our scheme, the server stores several streams at different quality and resolution then switches among them during the play back in order to match user bandwidth and CPU. Comparing our proposed approach to traditional streaming techniques shows its better performance in term of Frame Rate witch remains unchanged, while the resolution of the video matches the available bandwidth at the terminal.