Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of doxycycline in ostriches (Struthio camelus) at two different dose rates

A bioavailability and pharmacokinetics study of doxycycline was carried out on 30 healthy ostriches after a single intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM) and oral dose of 15 mg/kg body weight. The plasma doxycycline concentration was determined by HPLC/UV at 0 (pretreatment), 0.08, 0.25, 0.5 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 and 48 h after administration. The plasma concentration-time curves were examined using non-compartmental methods based on the statistical moment theory for only the higher dose. After IV administration, the elimination half-life (t1/2β), mean residence time (MRT), volume of distribution at the steady-state (Vss), volume of distribution (Vdarea) and total body clearance (ClB) were 7.67 ± 0.62 h, 6.68 ± 0.86 h, 0.86 ± 0.16 l/kg, 1.67 ± 0.52 l/kg and 2.51 ± 0.63 ml/min/kg, respectively. After IM and oral dosing, the mean peak plasma concentrations (Cmax) were 1.34 ± 0.33 and 0.30 ± 0.04 µg/ml, respectively, which were achieved at a post-administration time (tmax) of 0.75 ± 0.18, 3.03 ± 0.48 h, respectively. The t1/2β, Vdarea and ClB after IM administration were 25.02 ± 3.98 h, 23.99 ± 3.4 l/kg and 12.14 ± 1.71 ml/min/kg, respectively and 19.25 ± 2.53 h, 61.49 ± 7 l/kg and 40.19 ± 3.79 ml/min/kg after oral administration, respectively. The absolute bioavailability (F) of doxycycline was 5.03 and 17.52% after oral and IM administration, respectively. These results show that the dose data from other animals particularly mammals cannot be extrapolated to ostriches. Therefore, based on these results along with those reported in the literature, further studies on the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic, in vitro minimum inhibitory concentration values and clinical applications of doxycycline in ostriches are required.
Pathological tremor prediction using surface electromyogram and acceleration: potential use in ‘ON–OFF’ demand driven deep brain stimulator design

Objective. We present a proof of concept for a novel method of predicting the onset of pathological tremor using non-invasively measured surface electromyogram (sEMG) and acceleration from tremor-affected extremities of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET). Approach. The tremor prediction algorithm uses a set of spectral (Fourier and wavelet) and nonlinear time series (entropy and recurrence rate) parameters extracted from the non-invasively recorded sEMG and acceleration signals. Main results. The resulting algorithm is shown to successfully predict tremor onset for all 91 trials recorded in 4 PD patients and for all 91 trials recorded in 4 ET patients. The predictor achieves a 100% sensitivity for all trials considered, along with an overall accuracy of 85.7% for all ET trials and 80.2% for all PD trials. By using a Pearson’s chi-square test, the prediction results are shown to significantly differ from a random prediction outcome. Significance. The tremor prediction algorithm can be potentially used for designing the next generation of non-invasive closed-loop predictive ON–OFF controllers for deep brain stimulation (DBS), used for suppressing pathological tremor in such patients. Such a system is based on alternating ON and OFF DBS periods, an incoming tremor being predicted during the time intervals when DBS is OFF, so as to turn DBS back ON. The prediction should be a few seconds before tremor re-appears so that the patient is tremor-free for the entire DBS ON–OFF cycle and the tremor-free DBS OFF interval should be maximized in order to minimize the current injected in the brain and battery usage.
Carotenoid limitation of sexual coloration along an environmental gradient in guppies

Carotenoids produce most of the brilliant orange and yellow colours seen in animals, but animals cannot synthesize these pigments and must rely on dietary sources. The idea that carotenoids make good signals because they are a scarce limiting resource was proposed two decades ago and has become the leading hypothesis for the role of carotenoids in animal communication. To our knowledge, until now, however, there has been no direct evidence that carotenoids are a limiting resource in nature. We showed that carotenoid availability in the wild limits the expression of sexual coloration in guppies (Poecilia reticulata), a species in which females prefer males with brighter orange carotenoid–containing spots. Further, the degree of carotenoid limitation varies geographically along a replicated environmental gradient (rainforest canopy cover), which opens new avenues for testing signal evolution theory.
THE HONG KONG TOURIST SATISFACTION INDEX Haiyan

This study develops a tourist satisfaction assessment system based on a dual-model framework and demonstrates its general applicability. The first model concerns tourist satisfaction and its key antecedents and consequences. Structural equation modelling is employed to investigate the relationships amongst the constructs in the theoretical framework, and is then used as a basis for the computation of sectoral-level tourist satisfaction indexes. The second model is designed to estimate an aggregate service satisfaction index and an overall destination satisfaction index using a multiple indicator and multiple cause approach. The framework is applied to a large dataset that represents six tourism-related sectors and seven major source markets of inbound tourism to Hong Kong.
The routinization of innovation research: A constructively critical review of the state-of-the-science

Summary In this review we argue that facilitators of innovation at the individual, group, and organizational levels have been reliably identified, and that validated process models of innovation have been developed. However, a content analysis of selected research published between 1997 and 2002 suggests a routinization of innovation research, with a heavy focus on replication–extension, cross-sectional designs, and a single level of analysis. We discuss five innovative pathways for future work: Study innovation as an independent variable, across cultures, within a multi-level framework, and use meta-analysis and triangulation. To illustrate we propose a ‘distress-related innovation’ model of the relations between negatively connotated variables and innovation at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Imaginative writers, the reader will have noticed, dropped out of this [Soviet] history when it moved from the 1920’s into the period of Stalinism. Of course industrious typewriters continued to manufacture novels, plays and poems, but they no longer revealed authors in search of the authentic self and true community, as the works of Olesha and Babel had, not to speak of the pre-revolutionary masters. From 1930 to 1953 Stalin’s engineers of human souls typed out their works to formula. Their product has its fascinations, like mass-market fiction and popular drama in the West, but hardly for understanding the psychologies of high culture. They help one understand mass psychology in its relation with the authorities.
Occupational exposure to zoonotic agents among agricultural workers in Lombardy Region, northern Italy.

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted in Northern Italy with the aim of defining the risk of agricultural workers' contact with biological agents through the determination of serum antibodies against selected zoonotic agents. Immunity against tetanus was also investigated. METHODS Two groups of agricultural workers consisting of 153 animal breeders (exposed) and 46 non- breeders (controls) were included in the study. In a first group of 103 workers (89 exposed and 14 controls) the serum concentrations of antibodies against Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) were measured, whereas in the second group of 96 workers (64 exposed and 32 controls) the serum concentrations of antibodies against Leptospira spp. , Coxiella burnetii, Borrelia burgdorferi, Brucella spp. and Salmonella spp. were addressed. Imunization against tretanus was also studied in this group. RESULTS Animal breeders showed higher rates of IgG antibodies against Coxiella burnetii (50% vs. 31.2%), and Leptospira spp. (59.4% vs. 43.7%). Results of logistic regression analysis revealed that breeder workers showed a tendency to have higher prevalence of positivity for antibodies to Leptospira spp.and Coxiella burnetii than non-breeders (ORs ~ 3). Only one exposed subject showed antibodies against hepatitis E (none in controls), but when tested with another commercially available kit the percentage of anti HEV IgG positive subjects increased to 22.3% in the exposed, while none of the controls showed positive. None of the subjects showed antibodies against Salmonella spp. and Brucella spp. Italians and other European workers have better protection against tetanus (91%) compared to non-EU workers (81%). CONCLUSIONS The higher frequency of the presence of serum antibodies to zoonotic agents (e.g. Leptospira spp. and Coxiella burnetii) in animal breeders suggests that they are more exposed to biological agents than workers not involved in animal breeding activities. The risk of contact with HEV deserves further studies because the adoption of different assays can result in significantly different results. The promotion of immunization of agricultural workers might be a priority, in particular for migrants.
Racial Encounter: The Social Psychology of Contact and Desegregation

The political and legislative changes which took place in South Africa during the 1990s, with the dissolution of apartheid, created a unique set of social conditions. As official policies of segregation were abolished, people of both black and white racial groups began to experience new forms of social contact and intimacy for the first time. By examining the processes of intergroup contact which arose in South Africa following the removal of official ethnic divides, and supporting it with evidence from the US, Racial Encounter offers a social psychological account of desegregation. It begins with a critical analysis of the traditional theories and research models used to understand desegregation: the contact hypothesis and race attitude theory. It then proceeds by considering and analysing every day discourse, as central to an individual's conception and management of relationships and as a key site of ideological resistance to social change. This book will be of interest to social psychologists, students of intergroup relations and all those interested in post-apartheid South Africa
Redefining the term ‘ Reconfigurable-Chips ’ : Un solving the Rubik ’ s Cube

Taking inspiration from the brain, where dynamic reconfiguration of neuron inter-connectivity occurs continually during learning [1], the field of re-configurable computing emerged a few decades back. These systems have the ability to adapt and make substantial changes to the data path and control flow on the re-configurable fabric. But, these systems, in the true sense, do not physically displace the components on the chip to evolve into a more intelligent system. In this abstract, we break free from conventional thinking and propose a thought-provoking idea with a realistic model to design a true re-configurable chip. This chip is designed to adapt to a wide dimension of an application mix‟s needs. Moreover, we strike a communication-centric approach, rather than a traditional computation-centric one.
Functional translation of a calculus of capabilities

Reasoning about imperative programs requires the ability to track aliasing and ownership properties. We present a type system that provides this ability, by using regions, capabilities, and singleton types. It is designed for a high-level calculus with higher-order functions, algebraic data structures, and references (mutable memory cells). The type system has polymorphism, yet does not require a value restriction, because capabilities act as explicit store typings. We exhibit a type-directed, type-preserving, and meaning-preserving translation of this imperative calculus into a pure calculus. Like the monadic translation, this is a store-passing translation. Here, however, the store is partitioned into multiple fragments, which are threaded through a computation only if they are relevant to it. Furthermore, the decomposition of the store into fragments can evolve dynamically to reflect ownership transfers. The translation offers deep insight about the inner workings and soundness of the type system. If coupled with a semantic model of its target calculus, it leads to a semantic model of its imperative source calculus. Furthermore, it provides a foundation for our long-term objective of designing a system for specifying and certifying imperative programs with dynamic memory allocation.
Study on Properties of Protein Folding Conformation Network

Protein folding conformations take the form of networks, sets of conformations (vertices) joined together in pairs by links or edges. Protein folding conformation network is a complex network, and has scale-free property that many networks have in common. Understanding the scale-free property in the network of protein folding conformation, one can find the better conformation of protein folding which closes to nature. This paper constructs a complex network of protein folding conformation and analyzes its small world and scale-free properties in the network of protein folding conformation in order to study evolving process of protein structure and predict protein structure.
Raising The Bar For Vertex Cover: Fixed-parameter Tractability Above A Higher Guarantee

The standard parameterization of the V ertex C over problem (Given an undirected graph G and k ∈ N as input, does G have a vertex cover of size at most k? ) has the solution size k as the parameter. The following more challenging parameterization of V ertex C over stems from the observation that the size MM of a maximum matching of G lower-bounds the size of any vertex cover of G: Does G have a vertex cover of size at most MM + kμ? The parameter is the excess kμ of the solution size over the lower bound MM. Razgon and O'Sullivan (ICALP 2008) showed that this above-guarantee parameterization of V ertex C over is fixed-parameter tractable and can be solved in time O*(15kμ), where the O* notation hides polynomial factors. This was first improved to O*(9kμ) (Raman et al., ESA 2011), then to O*(4kμ) (Cygan et al., IPEC 2011, TOCT 2013), then to O*(2.618kμ) (Narayanaswamy et al., STACS 2012) and finally to the current best bound O*(2.3146kμ) (Lokshtanov et al., TALG 2014). The last two bounds were in fact proven for a different parameter: namely, the excess kλ of the solution size over LP, the value of the linear programming relaxation of the standard LP formulation of V ertex C over . Since LP ≥ MM for any graph, we have that kλ ≤ kμ for Y es instances. This is thus a stricter parameterization---the new parameter is, in general, smaller---and the running times carry over directly to the parameter kμ. We investigate an even stricter parameterization of V ertex C over , namely the excess kλ of the solution size over the quantity (2LP -- MM). We ask: Given a graph G and kλ ∈ N as input, does G have a vertex cover of size at most (2LP -- MM) + kλ? The parameter is kλ. It can be shown that (2LP -- MM) is a lower bound on vertex cover size, and since LP ≥ MM we have that (2LP -- MM) ≥ LP, and hence that kλ ≤ kλ holds for Y es instances. Further, (kλ -- [EQUATION]) could be as large as (LP -- MM) and---to the best of our knowledge---this difference cannot be expressed as a function of kλ alone. These facts motivate and justify our choice of parameter: this is indeed a stricter parameterization whose tractability does not follow directly from known results. We show that V ertex C over is fixed-parameter tractable for this stricter parameter k: We derive an algorithm which solves V ertex C over in time O*(3k), thus pushing the envelope further on the parameterized tractability of V ertex C over .
Genetic composition of social groups influences male aggressive behaviour and fitness in natural genotypes of Drosophila melanogaster

Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) describe how an individual's behaviour—which is influenced by his or her genotype—can affect the behaviours of interacting individuals. IGE research has focused on dyads. However, insights from social networks research, and other studies of group behaviour, suggest that dyadic interactions are affected by the behaviour of other individuals in the group. To extend IGE inferences to groups of three or more, IGEs must be considered from a group perspective. Here, I introduce the ‘focal interaction’ approach to study IGEs in groups. I illustrate the utility of this approach by studying aggression among natural genotypes of Drosophila melanogaster. I chose two natural genotypes as ‘focal interactants’: the behavioural interaction between them was the ‘focal interaction’. One male from each focal interactant genotype was present in every group, and I varied the genotype of the third male—the ‘treatment male’. Genetic variation in the treatment male's aggressive behaviour influenced the focal interaction, demonstrating that IGEs in groups are not a straightforward extension of IGEs measured in dyads. Further, the focal interaction influenced male mating success, illustrating the role of IGEs in behavioural evolution. These results represent the first manipulative evidence for IGEs at the group level.
Social network of the competing crowd

In this paper, we analyze the social network among competition participants at Kaggle.com. In particular, individuals, called members, are allowed to participate in various competition in teams. Each team may have one or more members. As a result, the relationship between teams and members may be represented as a bipartite graph. First, we project the bipartite graph into networks of teams, and members, respectively, and study their properties as one-mode social networks. We find that these social networks follow many of the typical characteristics of large-scale social networks. However, different from traditional social networks, given the competitive nature of the teams, we find a large number of connected components in these networks, which shows that players at this marketplace are densely but not widely connected. Then, we find meaningful statistics extended for bipartite networks, and compare them with such networks from other application domains. Similar to the literature, we find the need of investigating this raw graph in order to understand the relationship among players at the competing crowd better.
Quantitation of serum free light chains in combination with protein electrophoresis and clinical information for diagnosing multiple myeloma in a general hospital population.

BACKGROUND Serum free light chain (SFLC) measurements have recently come into use as an aid for diagnosing monoclonal gammopathy. We evaluated SFLC measurements in combination with serum protein electrophoresis (SPE) and clinical information for diagnosing multiple myeloma (MM) in a hospital population. METHODS We measured SFLCs in 3818 sera received for SPE over a 1-year period when patient symptoms or biochemical findings suggested myeloma-related tissue damage (n = 1067). We reviewed SPE and SFLC results from 489 patients together with their final diagnoses obtained from the hospital information technology department. RESULTS SFLC measurement, combined with SPE and clinical information, allowed identification of 95% of patients (38 of 40) with previously undiagnosed MM, macroglobulinemia, or primary amyloidosis. Additionally, we identified 45 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and 4 with plasmacytoma. Of patients followed at our hospital in whom SFLCs were not measured, only 1 patient was diagnosed with MM. This patient had anemia and was mistakenly not tested for SFLCs. An abnormal kappa/lambda ratio was found in 26 of 29 patients with MM but also in 36 of 203 patients with renal impairment, polyclonal immunoresponse, or other nonhematological diagnoses. None of the 203 patients with nonhematological disease had a kappa/lambda ratio <0.05 or >10. CONCLUSIONS The combined use of SPE, SFLC measurements, and clinical criteria allows MM to be efficiently diagnosed or excluded based on serum measurements only.
Biomedical Compounds from Marine organisms

The Ocean, which is called the ‘mother of origin of life’, is also the source of structurally unique natural products that are mainly accumulated in living organisms. Several of these compounds show pharmacological activities and are helpful for the invention and discovery of bioactive compounds, primarily for deadly diseases like cancer, acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS), arthritis, etc., while other compounds have been developed as analgesics or to treat inflammation, etc. The life-saving drugs are mainly found abundantly in microorganisms, algae and invertebrates, while they are scarce in vertebrates. Modern technologies have opened vast areas of research for the extraction of biomedical compounds from oceans and seas.
Inhibitor treatment in haemophilias A and B: summary statement for the 2006 international consensus conference

Summary. Participants in an international conference on the management of haemophilia patients with inhibitors developed a jointly authored summary of the findings and conclusions of the conference. Current knowledge of the genetic and immunologic mechanisms underlying inhibitor development was briefly summarized. Concerning the purported treatment‐related risk factors, conference participants commented on the limitations of the available evidence and the need for more rigorous prospective research in a fully genotyped population. Other clinical considerations discussed included the unproved utility of routine surveillance, the need for assay standardization, the management of acute bleeding and approaches to joint disease prophylaxis and immune tolerance induction (ITI). A number of issues were identified as needing further investigation in larger prospective studies, ideally through international cooperation. Such studies should enrol cohorts that have been scrupulously defined in terms of mutation status and treatment exposure. Finally, conference participants urged their colleagues to participate in the currently ongoing international trials of ITI.