Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of broiler live performance, carcass characteristics, and fatty acid composition of thigh meat when fed diets supplemented with neutralized sunflower soapstock or soybean oil

SUMMARY Two experiments were conducted to determine the influence of adding neutralized sunflower soapstock (NSS) or soybean oil (SO) to the broiler diet. In experiment 1, one hundred five 15-d-old Ross 308 broiler chickens were used to evaluate the AMEn of NSS by the difference method. In experiment 2, a completely randomized design was used to evaluate the effects of fat source and level on broiler live performance, carcass characteristics, and fatty acid composition of thigh meat. A 2 × 3 factorial arrangement with 2 types of fat (NSS and SO) at 3 levels of inclusion (2, 4, and 6%) was used with 5 replicates per treatment using total of 750 birds. The average AMEn of the NSS was determined as 8,530 kcal/kg. Performance of birds was unaffected by the dietary fat sources. Increasing the fat level from 2 to 6% improved the overall BW gain (P < 0.0001) and FCR (P < 0.001) of broilers, whereas feed intake was unaffected by different fat levels. Hot carcass yield and rib cage weight were higher for SO-fed birds than NSS-fed birds (P < 0.05). Wings and rib cage weights were higher in birds fed the 6% fat diet (P < 0.05). Leg quarter yield decreased with increased levels of fat inclusion (P < 0.01), whereas breast yield increased (P < 0.05). Dietary fat type modified fatty acids of thigh meat, resulting in significantly higher content of C14:0, C16:0, C16:1, C18:1, sum of saturated fatty acids, and sum of monounsaturated fatty acids in birds fed NSS diets, whereas C18:2, C18:3, C20:0, and sum of polyunsaturated fatty acid contents decreased with NSS inclusion (P < 0.05). Saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids significantly decreased and polyunsaturated fatty acids increased when dietary fat level increased (P < 0.0001). In conclusion, NSS can be included in broiler diets without any major differences in live performance by modifying the fatty acid profile of meat.
Caffeinated FPGAs: FPGA Framework for Training and Inference of Convolutional Neural Networks With Reduced Precision Floating-Point Arithmetic

Caffeinated FPGAs: FPGA Framework for Training and Inference of Convolutional Neural Networks With Reduced Precision Floating-Point Arithmetic Roberto DiCecco Master of Applied Science The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2018 This thesis presents a framework for performing training and inference of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) with reduced precision floating-point arithmetic. This work aims to provide a means for FPGA and machine learning researchers to use the customizability of FPGAs to explore the precision requirements of training CNNs with an open-source framework. This is accomplished through the creation of a High-Level Synthesis library with a Custom Precision Floating-Point data type that is configurable in both exponent and mantissa widths, with several standard operators and rounding modes supported. With this library a FPGA CNN Training Engine (FCTE) has been created along with a FPGA CNN framework FPGA Caffe, which is built on Caffe. FCTE has a peak performance of approximately 350 GFLOPs, and has been used to show that a mantissa width of 5 and exponent width of 6 is sufficient for training several models targeting the MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets.
Environmental control of community organisation on ocean-exposed sandy beaches

Models of faunal communities on open-coast beaches emphasise the primacy of environmental conditions in determining species richness and abundance. What remains unresolved under this ‘physical-control paradigm’ includes the following two aspects: (1) how habitat properties relate to structural traits of communities; and (2) how environmental conditions shape communities when habitat properties change over time. Here, we test these by modelling the relationship between a broad range of environmental drivers and assemblage structure. Our models draw on a sizeable dataset (15 600 cores collected over 4 years) of benthic invertebrates from beaches in eastern Australia; we also include a test of whether human disturbance (vehicles) alters the relationships between environmental predictors and faunal communities. A suite of physical factors, comprising habitat features (i.e. moisture level, grain size, beach slope) and wave parameters, explained variation in community structure. Novel aspects are the role of sea-surface temperature (SST) as a driver of biological structure on beaches, and that human impacts can override the sediment–animal relationships that are normally important. More generally, theoretical and empirical models of beach-community organisation should incorporate multiple environmental drivers, include broader structural aspect of assemblages, and recognise the role of human habitat alterations in shaping these fauna–environment links.
Evaluación de la fertilidad y eclosión en la codorniz japonesa

With the aim to study the effect of some non genetic factors on fertility and hatchability of quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) under two different reproduction systems (modalities of matching), three analyses of variance were realized assuming a binomial distribution of the data. There were used 2613 records for fertility (FE), 2178 for total hatchability (TH), and 1413 for fertile hatchability (FH) from a group of experimental quails. The effects of month of lay, generation, and type of matching were included for FE and for TH and FH were added egg weight, eggshell color and sheen. Water and food were offered ad libitum. The relation male: female was 1:3. Two modalities of reproduction were studied: rotary (rotating the male) and continuous (permanent presence of the male). Fertility, TH and FH averages were 78.7, 25.8, and 42.3%, respectively. The month of higher (P<0.01) fertility was March (91.1%), whereas November had the lowest (51.7%). The higher TH and FH (P<0.01) was in August (42.6 and 65.7%) and the lower TH and FH were observed in April (12.5 and 17.9%). There was higher fertility (P<0.01, 86.2%) in the eggs from continuous reproduction system. Eggs with higher TH (P<0.01) were those of brilliant eggshell (43.9%), dark color eggshell (48.0%) and intermediate weight (10.1 to 11.0 g; 44.0%). It can be concluded that the eggs of dark color, brilliant eggshell, and intermediate weight laid in the rainy months
Risks inherent in the digital surveillance economy: A research agenda

The digitisation of data about the world relevant to business has given rise to a new phase of digitalisation of business itself. The digitisation of data about people has linked with the notions of information society, surveillance society, surveillance state and surveillance capitalism, and given rise to what is referred to in this article as the digital surveillance economy. At the heart of this is a new form of business model that is predicated on the acquisition and consolidation of very large volumes of personal data, and its exploitation to target advertisements, manipulate consumer behaviour, and price goods and services at the highest level that each individual is willing to bear. In the words of the model’s architects, users are ‘bribed’ and ‘induced’ to make their data available at minimal cost to marketers. The digital surveillance economy harbours serious threats to the interests of individuals, societies and polities. That in turn creates risks for corporations. The new economic wave may prove to be a tsunami that swamps the social dimension and washes away the last five centuries’ individualism and humanism. Alternatively, institutional adaptation might occur, overcoming the worst of the negative impacts; or a breaking-point could be reached and consumers might rebel against corporate domination. A research agenda is proposed, to provide a framework within which alternative scenarios can be investigated.
Longevity of high producing dairy cows: a case study

In 2011, 4.19 million dairy cows produced 10.148 billion Euro worth of milk, which accounted for 43.3% of income from farm animals and 19.4% of total farm income in Germany (ADR 2012). Milk yield per lactation across all breeds was about 7,000 kg and total annual milk production was about 28 million tons, which covers the domestic demand and reflects the importance of milk and milk products for human nutrition in Germany.
Some effects of air temperature and humidity on crop and leaf photosynthesis, transpiration and resistance to gas transfer

SUMMARY Measurements of carbon dioxide exchange and transpiration were made, at various air temperatures, on wheat and barley using a field enclosure system. From these were derived the stomatal and mesophyll resistances to carbon dioxide transfer. Optimum temperatures for net CO2 uptake were about 24°C for wheat and barley. Above these optima, as temperature increased so net CO2 uptake rates decreased, because of increasing stomatal and mesophyll resistances; transpiration rates decreased in wheat but were constant in barley. In laboratory growth cabinets, wheat plants were subjected to different regimes of temperature and humidity. Optimum temperature for net CO2 uptake of individual leaves was 25°C. At constant humidity, a decline in net uptake rates above 25°C was associated with large increases in mesophyll resistance. At a constant 25°C, as the vapour pressure deficit (v.p.d. was increased above 1 k Pa (10 mb) v.p.d. the net uptake declined, with an increase in mesophyll resistance and a small increase in stomatal resistance. When the v.p.d. exceeded 1 k Pa at a temperature of 30°C, conditions that are experienced by field plants, then there were large increases in both mesophyll and stomatal resistances and the net uptake rates declined. Photo-respiration, as measured by CO2 uptake in oxygen-free air, was independent of temperature, but both dark respiration and CO2 compensation concentration increased with temperature.
CheriABI: Enforcing Valid Pointer Provenance and Minimizing Pointer Privilege in the POSIX C Run-time Environment

The CHERI architecture allows pointers to be implemented as capabilities (rather than integer virtual addresses) in a manner that is compatible with, and strengthens, the semantics of the C language. In addition to the spatial protections offered by conventional fat pointers, CHERI capabilities offer strong integrity, enforced provenance validity, and access monotonicity. The stronger guarantees of these architectural capabilities must be reconciled with the real-world behavior of operating systems, run-time environments, and applications. When the process model, user-kernel interactions, dynamic linking, and memory management are all considered, we observe that simple derivation of architectural capabilities is insufficient to describe appropriate access to memory. We bridge this conceptual gap with a notional abstract capability that describes the accesses that should be allowed at a given point in execution, whether in the kernel or userspace. To investigate this notion at scale, we describe the first adaptation of a full C-language operating system (FreeBSD) with an enterprise database (PostgreSQL) for complete spatial and referential memory safety. We show that awareness of abstract capabilities, coupled with CHERI architectural capabilities, can provide more complete protection, strong compatibility, and acceptable performance overhead compared with the pre-CHERI baseline and software-only approaches. Our observations also have potentially significant implications for other mitigation techniques.
Prevalence of HIV infection among children with TB and correlation of CD4 cell count level with types of TB

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the second most common cause of death from infectious diseases at the global level, being second only to HIV/AIDS. The present study has been undertaken to find out the prevalence of HIV infection among children with TB and correlation of CD4 cell count level with different types of TB.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in children below 12 years who were diagnosed as having TB, using the modified Kenneth Jones criteria (742 TB infected children) between 2008 and 2010. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the frequency, mean, median and standard deviation. The linear trend of proportions and trend of chi-square was used to find out the test of association.Results: The HIV prevalence rate among children with Tuberculosis was 9.7%. In TB/HIV coinfection, Pulmonary TB was 44 (61.1%), lymph node TB was 22 (30.6%), Central Nervous System TB was 4 (5.6%), abdominal TB was 1 (1.4%) and spine TB was (1.4%). Pulmonary TB was the most common type is the not significant, mild and advanced grade of immune suppression. CNS tuberculosis was the most common type in the severe grade of immune suppression. CNS TB occurred more commonly in children more than 60 months of age. Lymph node TB is the commonest type of tuberculosis in children with HIV coinfection less than 35 months of age.Conclusions: The prevalence of HIV among tuberculosis children was 9.7%. This prevalence rate indicates the need for routine screening of all newly diagnosed tuberculous children for HIV coinfection.
Immediate induction of APETALA1-like gene expression following a single short-day in Pharbitis nil

Pharbitis [Ipomoea] nil cv. Violet is an excellent model plant for the study of photoperiodic induction of flowering because it can be induced flowering by a single short-day. However there are few molecular-level studies of the induction of flowering in Pharbitis. To gain insight into the photoperiodic induction of flowering, we isolated an APETALA1-like gene (PnAP1), which showed high similarity to SQUAMOSA (SQUA) and AP1. PnAP1 expression at the shoot apex was induced only under flowering-inductive conditions, and PnAP1 expression was induced from 24 h after the start of the inductive dark period. Both night-break and low ambient temperature during the dark period effectively repressed PnAP1 expression and flowering. Timing of PnAP1 expression assessed through induced cotyledon removal indicated that the floral stimulus began to move from cotyledons 14 h after the start of the inductive dark period. The results indicate that floral transitions begin immediately after the inductive dark period and that PnAP1 is a good molecular marker of floral transition.
Intestinal dendritic cells increase T cell expression of α4β7 integrin

The integrin α4β7 binds to MAdCAM‐1 and contributes to homing of lymphocytes to gut and other mucosal tissues. In humans, the α4β7hi subset of circulating memory cellsappears to have been primed in mucosal tissues. The factors that determine whether α4β7lo naive cells become α4βhi or α4β7– cells upon differentiation are poorly understood but could include an influence of the activating antigen‐presenting cell. To address this point, the induction of α4β7 following activation of mouse cells with theAPC‐dependent stimulus soluble anti‐CD3 has been examined. Almost all mouse T cells freshly isolated from mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and peripheral (PLN; axillary, brachial and inguinal) lymph nodes stained only weakly for α4β7 but a subpopulation became α4β7hi upon activation with anti‐CD3 in a cell cycle‐ and accessory cell‐dependent manner. A small proportion (approximately 1.5 %) of the starting cells gave rise to α4β7hi cells after culture. A higher proportion of α4β7hi cells were generated in MLN than PLN cultures. Peyer's patch cultures gave intermediate values. In crossover experiments, MLN dendritic cells (DC) induced higher proportions and numbers of α4β7hi cells than PLN DC irrespective of the source of T cells. Therefore, in addition to their other immunoregulatory roles, DC have the potential to shape immune responses by influencing the homing of the lymphocytes they activate.
Activation of mammalian ribosomal gene transcription requires phosphorylation of the nucleolar transcription requires phosphorylation of the nucleolar trasnscription factor UBF

Abstract The nucleolar factor UBF is phosphorylated by casein kinase II (CKII) at serine residues within the C-terminal acidic domain which is required for transcription activation. To investigate the biological significance of UBF modification, we have compared the trans-activating properties of cellular UBF and recombinant UBF expressed in Escherichia coli. Using a variety of assays we demonstrate that unphosphorylated UBF is transcriptionally inactive and has to be phosphorylated at multiple sites to stimulate transcription. Examination of cDNA mutants in which the serine residues within the C-terminal domain were altered by site-directed mutagenesis demonstrates that CKII-mediated phosphorylations of UBF contribute to, but are not sufficient for, transcriptional activation. Besides CKII, other cellular protein kinases phosphorylate UBF at distinct sites in a growth-dependent manner. The marked differences in the tryptic peptide maps of UBF from growing and serum-starved cells suggest that alterations in the degree of UBF phosphorylation may modulate rRNA synthetic activity in response to extracellular signals.
Efeito do fogo na produção de frutos de Qualea parviflora Mart. (Vochysiaceae) em cerrado sensu stricto

RESUMO – Entre os muitos efeitos causados por queimadas nas especies arboreas nativas do Cerrado, a alteracao da producao de frutos tem destaque, pois implica diretamente na manutencao de populacoes locais. O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar o efeito de uma queimada prescrita na producao de frutos de Qualea parviflora Mart. em area de Cerrado sensu stricto em Brasilia, DF. Foram utilizadas duas areas de Cerrado sensu stricto, uma submetida a regime de queima bienal em agosto (queimada) e outra protegida contra a queima ha 14 anos (controle). Em cada area, 10 individuos reprodutivos foram selecionados e a sua producao de botoes florais, flores e frutos, acompanhada durante 22 meses. Dois meses apos uma queimada prescrita em 26 de agosto de 2008, a producao de estruturas reprodutivas foi maior na area queimada do que na area-controle. Contudo, a proporcao de botoes que geram flores e frutos (“fruit set”) foi a mesma nas duas areas. Na estacao reprodutiva seguinte, um ano apos a queima nao houve producao de inflorescencias na area queimada. No entanto, na area-controle a producao de frutos foi maior do que no periodo anterior. A ausencia de producao de flores nos individuos da area queimada um ano apos o fogo sugere que Q. parviflora pode necessitar de mais de um ano para retornar ao seu ciclo normal de reproducao, indicando que os efeitos de medio e de longo prazo devem ser considerados ao se usar o fogo como instrumento de manejo para reducao do combustivel em areas de Cerrado.
IRF-7: an antiviral factor and beyond

This review will summarize main characteristics and functions of IRF-7. IRF-7 and the highly homologous IRF-3 are two members of the IRF family of transcription factors that have emerged as crucial regulators of type I interferon (IFN) in response to pathogenic infections downstream pathogen recognition receptors. IRF-7 is also part of a positive-feedback regulatory loop essential for sustained IFN responses. Thus, tight regulation of its expression and activity is necessary to balance IFN-mediated beneficial effects and unwanted pathological consequences of IFN overproduction. Its role as an antiviral factor independent of IFN expression, and its involvement in other cellular functions beyond antiviral functions, including regulation of oncogenesis and metabolism, underscore its important role in the regulation of cellular homeostasis.
Iron-Deficiency Anemia

Iron is an important element in living systems as it participates in a series of metabolic processes including DNA synthesis and oxygen and electron transport. Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia globally being an important healthcare problem. If left untreated, iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) can cause significant morbidity and often is the result of a more serious underlying condition. Correcting iron deficiency and replenish - ing iron reserves are important objectives of a well-conducted treatment, but diagnosis should prompt further investigation to establish the cause for potential reversal. Age, tolerance, preferred route of administration, and severity of anemia are some of the patient’s characteristics which require an individualized approach.
The developmental regulator Gon4-like functions within the transcriptional networks that control B lymphopoiesis and CD4+ T cell responses

B and T lymphocytes are critical to the adaptive immune response against invading microorganisms. B and T cells develop in the bone marrow and thymus, respectively, and initiate a series of proliferative responses once they encounter their cognate antigen in the peripheral lymphoid organs. These developmental and functional processes are controlled by different networks of transcriptional regulators that repress and activate gene expression. Identifying proteins that activate or repress specific genes and integrating these proteins into their transcriptional networks is critical to understanding lymphocyte development and function. The study of B lymphopoiesis and CD4 T cell functional responses has greatly increased our understanding of how transcriptional regulators and other proteins cooperate to specify cell fates and responses. While many of the key components of these protein networks have been defined, several factors have yet to be described. Chemically induced random mutagenesis is a powerful tool for identifying genes that have critical biological functions. Justy mutant mice were generated by injecting wild-type mice with of N-Ethyl-N-Nitrosourea (ENU), a mutagen, which generated a unique point mutation in the mouse Gon4-like (Gon4l) gene. This mutation was found to specifically blunt B cell development and impair the functional responses of CD4 T cells. Given that the Gon4l protein contains domains implicated in transcriptional regulation and B lymphopoiesis and T cell responses are regulated transcriptionally, the aim of this project was to characterize T and B lymphocyte populations from Justy mice and provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the regulation of gene expression during these biological processes. The work presented in this dissertation demonstrates that the protein encoded by Gon4l is essential for B lymphopoiesis, likely through the repression of alternate lineage genes. This work also shows that in CD4 T cells, decreased Gon4l protein expression results in reduced levels of proliferation in response to exogenous IL-2
Constituents of Melaleuca quinquenervia Cav. Grown in Egypt

ABSTRACT A preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaf and stem of Melaleuca quinquenervia indicated the presence of hydrocarbons, fatty acids, cholesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, oleanolic acid, kampferol, quercetin, quercitrin and saponin glycosides.
The invertebrate Fauna associated with intertidal beds of the brown mussel Perna perita (L.) from Santos, Brazil

The present study represents a seasonal examination of two mussel beds subjected to different degrees of wave exposure at Una das Palmas (Bay of Santos, Brazil). This research evaluates the influence of several abiotic factors on the spatial arrangement of mussel beds, as well as effects of mussel bed structure on the composition of its associated fauna. Material, in sample areas of 100 cm2, was removed from the upper and lower levels of both beds, in winter and summer, during low and high tides. Density and biomass of the principal invertebrate groups were quantified. Similarity between samples was checked through cluster analysis based on Czekanowski and Morisita indices. Low water motion favoured sediment deposition in the protected station, producing a suitable substrate for the establishment of infauna. Epifauna and nestling species were dominant at the exposed station, which retained almost no sediment. Crustaceans, particularly Amphipoda, were numerically dominant at both sites, although Gastropoda.