Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
enetic selection for reduced somatic cell counts in sheep ilk : A review

Mastitis is an inflammation of the udder, mainly caused by bacteria, and leads to economic loss, due to discarded milk, reduced milk production, reduced milk quality and increased health costs in both dairy sheep and cattle. Selecting for increased genetic resistance to mastitis can be done directly or indirectly, with the indirect selection corresponding to a prediction of the bacteriological status of the udder based on traits related to the infection. The most frequently used indirect method is currently milk somatic cell count (SCC) or somatic cell score (SCS). This review reports the state of the art relating to the genetic basis of mastitis resistance in sheep and explores the opportunities to use SCC as selection criterion in a breeding programme to improve resistance to mastitis in sheep, discussing the actual situation and prospects for improvement. It has been stressed, in particular, that although it is unlikely that selection for mastitis resistance by the farmers on their own will be successful, there is good prospect for genetic improvement if reliable pedigree and performance recording is implemented across flocks, combined with breeding value estimation. To achieve this, a strong and well-structured organization to implement and support the programme is essential. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Use of Simultaneous Analyses to Guide Fossil‐Based Calibrations of Pinaceae Phylogeny

Uncertainties in the age and phylogenetic position of Pinaceae fossils present significant obstacles to our understanding of the timing of diversification in the family. We demonstrate that simultaneous phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast DNA (matK and rbcL) and nonmolecular characters that include both extant genera and a limited number of fossil taxa provide useful hypotheses for calibrating molecular trees. Root placements varied for Pinaceae, with Bayesian analyses recovering mutually monophyletic subfamilies Pinoideae and Abietoideae and parsimony analyses recovering Abietoideae as paraphyletic by placing the root between Cedrus and the remaining genera. The inferred phylogenetic positions of fossil taxa Pityostrobus bernissartensis as the sister group to Pinus and Pseudolarix erensis as the sister group to extant Pseudolarix were used to guide divergence‐time calibrations; these calibrations yielded an Early Cretaceous and an Early Jurassic age for crown‐group Pinaceae, respectively. The older age estimates based on Pseudolarix erensis are supported by weaker evidence from the fossil record but are consistent with recent reports of Early Cretaceous leaf fossils that appear to coincide with extant genera. There remains a great need to characterize the anatomy of extant and fossil species and to code additional nonmolecular characters.
The Malicious Insiders Threat in the Cloud

Cloud Computing, which once provided locally, has seen a technical and cultural shift of computing service provision to being provided remotely, and en masse, by third-party service providers. The data has now been placed under the protection of the service provider that was once placed under the security domain of the service user. Our data is no longer kept under our own watchful eyes as we have lost control over the protection of our own data at the hands of cloud service providers. While Cloud computing relieves various organizations from the burden of the data management and storage costs, security in general and the malicious insider threats in particular is the main concern in cloud environments. Insider threat has become a serious security issue within the organizations. The problem of insider threats has been analyzed in this research paper and work has been done towards the detection and conception of strategies to solve these malicious insider threats.
The progress and prospects of non-fullerene acceptors in ternary blend organic solar cells

The rapid development of organic solar cells (OSCs) based on non-fullerene acceptors has attracted increasing attention during the past few years, with a record power conversion efficiency of over 13% in a binary bulk heterojunction architecture. This exciting development also enables new possibilities for ternary OSCs to further enhance their efficiency and stability. This review summarizes very recent developments of ternary OSCs, with a focus on blends involving non-fullerene acceptors. We also highlight the challenges and perspectives for further development of ternary blend organic solar cells.
Suppression of microRNA-128 attenuates high glucose-induced podocyte apoptosis through activation of Nrf 2-ARE signaling pathway

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been emerging as critical regulators of podocyte apoptosis, which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. miR-128 has been suggested as an apoptosis-related miRNA involved in various pathological processes. However, the role of miR-128 in podocyte apoptosis induced by high glucose (HG) remains largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of mIiR-128 in HG-induced apoptosis. Our results showed that miR-128 expression was induced by HG in cultured podocytes in vitro. The suppression of miR-128 inhibited cell apoptosis and oxidative stress induced by HG. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) was identified as the functional target of miR-128 by a dual-luciferase activity reporter assay. The suppression of miR-218 can upregulate Nrf2 expression and activate the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway. However, Nrf2 knockdown markedly abrogated the protective effects of miR-128 suppression against HG in podocytes. In conclusion, our study suggests that the suppression of miR-128 alleviates HG-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in podocytes by activating the Nrf2-antioxidant response elements signaling pathway, providing a potential molecular target for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy.
An intelligent approach in delay tolerant network routing

Delay tolerant networks (DTNs) are wireless intermittent networks. DTNs have different applications such as wildlife tracking, military, and space searching. Conventional mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols are not efficient in these networks because of intermittency. DTNs use store-carry-forward (SCF) for data transferring. In SCF, nodes store the messages and carry them until finding appropriate nodes for forwarding. Message replication greatly helps to improve the delivery ratio while increasing overhead. This paper examines the use of intelligent routing to choose nodes that have more probability to reach their destination. This will help to increase the message delivery ratio while reducing overhead. The proposed method, SADTN, uses simulated annealing (SA), which has shown successful results in finding global minimal, to find the next hop. Comparison of the proposed method to previously implemented methods such as epidemic routing (ER) and Probabilistic ROuting Protocol using History of Encounters and Transitivity (PROPHET), which are usually used for evaluating other methods, shows increasing message delivery ratio and decreasing overhead in SADTN. Overhead in SADTN has on average fallen to 0.01484 of ER and 0.02325 of PROPHET. This is a great advantage of SADTN.
Induction of apoptosis by protein fraction isolated from the leaves of Mirabilis jalapa L on HeLa and Raji cell-line

SUMMARY The leaves of Mirabilis jalapa L contains protein fraction presumed ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP). RIP is a group of protein that has RNA N-glycosidase activity that is capable to inhibit protein synthesis. Protein fraction of the plant was shown to be cytotoxic on HeLa cell-line, however, the mechanism by which the protein kill the cells is not identified yet, whether trough apoptosis, necrosis, or other mechanism. This research aim to study the mechanism of cell death caused by the protein fraction isolated from the leaves of this plant on HeLa and Raji cell-line, as representative of different kind of cancer cells. Results showed that protein fraction isolated from the leaves of Mirabilis jalapa L was more cytotoxic to HeLa cell-line (LC50: 0.65 mg/ml) than to Raji cell-line (1.815 mg/ml) on 48 hours incubation time. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the death of HeLa cells caused by the protein fraction was due to induction of apoptosis, while on Raji cell-line was due to non-apoptosis way, presumably via necrosis.
Effect of water proofing admixture on the hydration of Portland cement

Water seepage is a major problem in construction industries particularly when the buildings are constructed in the damped environment. A large number of waterproofing compounds containing hydrophobic groups are used. Majority of such compounds block the pores at the outer surface but do not affect the pores inside. Due to percolation of water inside, the outer surface is ruptured in due course of time. Because of this, number of harmful ions enter inside and make the structure weak and less durable. In order to overcome this problem the effect of a water proofing agent with a brand name KIM (KRYSTOL INTERNAL MEMBRANE) on the hydration of cement has been studied. It is found that KIM has a retarding effect during the hydration. In the presence of KIM the setting times are increased, non-evaporable water contents and free lime are decreased. Heat evolution profile and X-ray diffraction studies have shown the retarding effect of KIM during cement hydration. Water percolation and expansion in the corrosive atmospheres are reduced whereas the compressive strength at 28 days is increased. Based on the results of the study the overall mechanism of action of KIM as waterproofing material in cement and concrete is also discussed.
Bone Markers in the Treatment of Cancer Related Bone Disease in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Bone metastases and treatment-induced osteoporosis are frequently the maincauses of morbidity in patients with malignancies. Monitoring the level of bone markers (markers of bone metabolism) has been fairly well mapped in osteoporosis, where medical procedures can be modified according to the kinetics of marker levels before an answer can be evaluated by densitometry and before the onset of fractures. In bone metastases the role of these levels is not clear. The metabolic markers of bone resorption under review in this set were s-Cross Laps (CTX) - a peptide that is a part of C - telopeptide, and N-terminal propeptide of collagen type 1 (P1NP). Material and methods: We monitored a group of 52 female patients with metastatic breastcancer. The patients received appropriate systemic treatment based on the immunohistochemistry of the tumor; the treatment consisted of hormone therapy or chemotherapy, and included parenteral bisphosphonates (ibandronate and zoledronic acid alternately). Routine biochemical tests and blood count done prior to the initiation of therapy also included taking laboratory markers of bone metabolism CTX and P1NP and measuring bone mineral density (according to T-score). These bone markers were then checked in three, six, nine and twelve months, and matched with the progress of the disease. Total monitoring time was fifteen months. Results: The patients in this set whose CTX value in the first sampling was less than 0.425 ran 8.5 times higher risk of death; the patients whose P1NP value reached more than 74 in the first collection ran 8.7 times higher risk of death. According to Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis for CTX, the significance level of p-value was 0.0452 and HR was 8.516 (95% CI 1.047 to 69.262), a difference which is not statistically significant. Regarding P1NP in Cox regression analysis, the significance level of p-value is 0.0433 and HR 8.673 (95% CI 1.067 to 70.520). Even this difference is therefore not statistically significant. When comparing the kinetics of marker levels, the difference is below statistical significance: p-value 0.6131 for P1NP and p-value 0.6357 for CTX. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm a correlation between the starting levels of CTX and P1NP with the overall survival rate, which corresponds to the other results presented in literature.
Color-assortative mating in a color-polymorphic lacertid lizard

Color polymorphisms are common in lizards, which provide an excellent model system to study their evolution and adaptive function. The lacertid genus Podarcis is particularly interesting because it comprises several polymorphic species. Previous studies with lacertid lizards have tried to explain the maintenance of color polymorphisms by correlational selection between color morphs and several phenotypic traits. Particular attention has been paid to their putative role as signals reflecting alternative reproductive strategies under frequency-dependent selection, but the relationship between mating patterns and color polymorphism has not been previously considered. In this study, we use longitudinal behavioral data obtained during six consecutive breeding seasons (2006–2011) in a free-ranging polymorphic population of Podarcis muralis lizards to examine the hypothesis that lizards mate assortatively by color. We provide spectrophotometric data that confirm the existence of discrete color morphs and show that morphs are ontogenetically stable once they develop fully in sexually mature individuals. We also present data on the year-to-year variation of relative morph frequencies. Finally, we provide evidence that, over a 6-year period, homomorphic male–female pairs in the wild were significantly more common than heteromorphic pairs. Taken together, our results suggest that color assortative mating may be involved in the maintenance of discrete color morphs in this and other lacertid species.
NFC-Based person-specific medical assistant for elderly and disabled people

For elderly and disabled people it is totally important to develop devices, which can support and aid them in their ordinary daily life. This d e man d s means and tools that extend independent living and promote improved health. In this work we will review the state of the art in the health assistant systems for elderly and people with disabilities. A smart nfcbased p e r s o n specific assistant system i s proposed. The ro le of this system is providing for elderly or disabled people personspecific medical assistance. The system has the ability of identifying its interaction partner using some biometric features. According to the recognized ID the system, first, adopts t o w a r d s t h e needs of recognized person. Second the system represents personspecific l ist of medicaments either visually, on screen, or acoustic, speaker. And third the system gives an alarm in the case of taking medicament either later or earlier a s normal t a k i n g time.
Measurement configuration optimization for dynamic metrology using Stokes polarimetry

As dynamic loading experiments such as a shock compression test are usually characterized by short duration, unrepeatability and high costs, high temporal resolution and precise accuracy of the measurements is required. Due to high temporal resolution up to a ten-nanosecond-scale, a Stokes polarimeter with six parallel channels has been developed to capture such instantaneous changes in optical properties in this paper. Since the measurement accuracy heavily depends on the configuration of the probing beam incident angle and the polarizer azimuth angle, it is important to select an optimal combination from the numerous options. In this paper, a systematic error propagation-based measurement configuration optimization method corresponding to the Stokes polarimeter was proposed. The maximal Frobenius norm of the combinatorial matrix of the configuration error propagating matrix and the intrinsic error propagating matrix is introduced to assess the measurement accuracy. The optimal configuration for thickness measurement of a SiO2 thin film deposited on a Si substrate has been achieved by minimizing the merit function. Simulation and experimental results show a good agreement between the optimal measurement configuration achieved experimentally using the polarimeter and the theoretical prediction. In particular, the experimental result shows that the relative error in the thickness measurement can be reduced from 6% to 1% by using the optimal polarizer azimuth angle when the incident angle is 45°. Furthermore, the optimal configuration for the dynamic metrology of a nickel foil under quasi-dynamic loading is investigated using the proposed optimization method.
How to insure the Poor ? – the Effects of Subsidized Micro-Health Insurance on Demand and Health Outcomes in Rural Burkina Faso October 2014

This paper evaluates the impact of a subsidy on Micro-health insurance offered in 41 villages in Burkina Faso. While all households were offered Micro-health insurance, a 50 per cent subsidy on the insurance premium was offered to only the 20 per cent least wealthy households in each village. Each household's wealth status was determined upfront through community wealth rankings that were carried out village by village. Combining the wealth ranking data with a rich household panel data set, the subsidy assignment rule allows us to use a sharp regression discontinuity design to identify causal effects of the subsidy on insurance take-up, household expenditure patterns, and health outcomes. We find, first, that the subsidy resulted in more than a doubling of insurance enrolment implying that poor households' price elasticity of demand for health insurance is large and equal to about -1.4. Second, we find that being eligible for the subsidy halves the probability that a household reported at least one lost day due to illness over a period of one month. We conclude that pricing of health-related micro-insurance products has large effects on both insurance take-up and household welfare in low-income contexts. JEL Codes: G22, I13, I38, O15;
Exploratory Study on Exercise Induced- Plasmatic Follistatin Kinetics: Proof of Concept

Background and objective: Follistatin is a protein that has been positively associated with increased myogenesis and decreased fat accumulation hence may be a potential target for preventing/treating obesity. Its expression is induced by exercise –which may, partly, explain the anti-obesity underlying metabolic pathways of physical activity-; however, not many studies have described its kinetics after performing validated exercise protocols that simultaneously evaluate the aerobic capacity. Thus we aimed to determine the plasmatic levels of exercise induced-follistatin and to correlate such with aerobic capacity. Materials and methods: After performing a treadmill stress test (Bruce protocol; with 3-minutes incremental velocity and inclination, until fatigue or reaching 85% maximal cardiac frequency), blood samples were drawn (at 1, 2, and 4 hours post-exercise) in order to asses follistatin kinetics. Results were correlated with maximum oxygen volume, calculated from protocol-validated equations. Results: 5 moderately active women volunteers were included (aged: 21 ± 0.7 years, weight: 54.7 ± 10.5 kg, VO2max: 57.4 ± 16.1 mL/ kg/ min). After stress test, a progressive decrease in the expression of follistatin during the first 2 hours was observed (m = -892); levels were found again increased at 4 hours. A negative correlation between aerobic capacity and exercise-induced follistatin levels were found. Conclusions: After exercise, follistatin levels exhibit a descending slope which, at 4 hours, again rises. The most relevant finding in this study was the negative correlation between aerobic capacity and follistatin expression, thus allowing the assumption that their metabolic and exercise-induced pathways may not be interrelated.
Release of biocides from urban areas into aquatic systems

Biocidal products are widely used in urban areas for material protection. Carbendazim and diuron are representatives for biocides in paints and plaster of facades. Factors influencing release of biocides and their fate in urban sewer systems are not well understood at present time. We therefore investigated several biocides at different scales: facades and roofs, effluent and sludge from wastewater treatment plants and receiving waters (project URBIC). Carbendazim, diuron and mecoprop were often detected in the different compartments. Bitumen sheets for roof waterproofing treated with the root protection agent mecoprop were investigated more specifically. Initial laboratory tests resulted in leaching rates differing by a factor of 100 between different products. The knowledge on leaching processes and occurrence of biocides from material protection products in urban water systems is a prerequisite for efficient implementation of technical measures or at-source controls.
Trial consultation: A new direction in applied psychology.

Increasingly, professional psychologists are faced with the challenge of the changing marketplace, and some choose to meet that challenge by forging new career paths. In this article, the field of trial consultation is reviewed with special emphasis on common tasks trial consultants undertake. It is argued that because of the large number of civil and criminal trials conducted annually and the comparatively small proportion of consultants, the field remains an untapped source of career options for psychologists who have many of the skills necessary to be successful trial consultants. Controversies concerning the effectiveness of trial consultation, ethical issues surrounding its use, and suggestions for appropriate training in the field are explored.
C O ] 2 3 Ju l 2 01 4 Expansion of Building-Like Complexes

Following Gromov, the coboundary expansion of building-like complexes is studied. In particular, it is shown that for any n ≥ 1, there exists a constant ǫ(n) > 0 such that for any 0 ≤ k < n the k-th coboundary expansion constant of any n-dimensional spherical building is at least ǫ(n).
The Meaning-Text Theory

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. The Meaning-Text Theory Sylvain Kahane
Dance Hit Song Prediction

Record companies invest billions of dollars in new talent around the globe each year. Gaining insight into what actually makes a hit song would provide tremendous benefits for the music industry. In this research we tackle this question by focussing on the dance hit song classification problem. A database of dance hit songs from 1985 until 2013 is built, including basic musical features, as well as more advanced features that capture a temporal aspect. A number of different classifiers are used to build and test dance hit prediction models. The resulting best model has a good performance when predicting whether a song is a ‘top 10’ dance hit versus a lower listed position.