Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MORFOMETRIA E COMPACTAÇÃO DA CROMATINA ESPERMÁTICA DE TOUROS NELORE DE ACORDO COM A IDADE E SUA INFLUÊNCIA NA PRODUÇÃO DE EMBRIÕES in vitro

The aim of this study was to evaluate chromatin condensation and sperm head morphometry of cryopreserved semen samples from Bos taurus indicus bulls of different ages and the influence of the degree of chromatin condensation on in vitro embryo production (IVP). A total of 40 animals kept in an Artificial Insemination Centre were divided into three groups: Young Group (1.8 to 2 years), Adult Group (3.5 to 7 years) and Senile Group (8 to 14.3 years). The ejaculates were frozen in accordance with established standards of the Artificial Insemination Centre. The thawed semen samples were evaluated with toluidine blue, which analyzes the chromatin condensation and sperm head morphometry simultaneosly, chromomicin A3 (CMA3) to analyze the protamination and in vitro embryo production to analyze the embryonic development. The toluidine blue was evaluated by optical microscopy and the CMA3 by flow cytometry. Semen analyses revealed that spermatozoa of young bulls had higher values of area (A), perimeter (P) and width (W) when compared to adults and senile (Young: A = 1848.5 ± 119.79, P = 10. 23 ± 0.29, W = 1.95 ± 0.1; Adults: A = 1672.9 ± 104.46, P = 9.86 ± 0.33, W = 1.81 ± 0.06; Senile: A = 1723.1 ± 124.41, P = 9.97 ± 0.33, W = 1.83 ± 0.09; P<0.0001) and had higher protamination deficiency when analyzed with CMA3 (Young: 1.57 ± 0.76, Adults: 1.09 ± 0.63, Senile: 0.90 ± 0.59, P<0.05). Variable size (A, P, W) and sperm protamination evaluated by CMA3 showed negative correlation with age and a positive with ellipticity (P<0.05). Spermatozoa with abnormal chromatin obtained larger area when compared to those with normal chromatin (P<0.0001). There was no significant difference in IVP using semen with higher and lower altered chromatin condensation, evidencing that the proportion of spermatozoa with abnormal chromatin (4 to 16.15%) did not affect the embryonic development. Our results indicate that sperm head of young bulls are larger when compared to adults and senile due to increased morphological and protamination defects assessed by CMA3. Abnormalities in chromatin condensation influence the size of the sperm head, increasing its morphometric dimensions and percentages of 4 to 16.15% in the sample do not affect embryonic development in IVP until D8.
Organizational Factors and Work-Life Balance among Policewomen in Sarawak: Emotion Based Coping Strategy as Mediator

Policing is an extremely demanding profession and woman have no choice for working hours which may lead to work-life imbalance. Thus using the suitable coping strategy is paramount to ensure work life balance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of emotion based coping strategy as mediator between the selected organizational factors (flexible working hour, organization support and self-management) on work life balance. A total of 110 policewomen in Kuching, Sarawak responded to the survey questionnaire. The finding shows that emotion based coping strategy mediate only the relationship between selfmanagement and work life balance. Thus, in order to assist policewomen to experience WLB, the organization should encourage policewoman to learn to have some ‘me time” besides providing support such as counselling and mentoring.
Application of strain echocardiography in valvular heart diseases

Echocardiographic strain imaging allows new insight into a complex cardiac mechanics and enables more precise evaluation of cardiac function. Hence, it has been shown to have clinical utility in a variety of valvular heart diseases. In particular, global longitudinal strain has been shown to be more sensitive to detect systolic dysfunction than left ventricular ejection fraction. In patients with valvular heart diseases, it provides both diagnostic and prognostic information in addition to standard echocardiographic and clinical parameters. In this review, we summarize current clinical application of strain echocardiography in patients with valvular heart diseases and discuss pathophysiological mechanisms that lead to respective findings in specific diseases.
A Feature-Based Cost Estimation Model for Wind Turbine Blade Spar Caps

A problem for wind turbine operators is decreasing prices for wind-generated electricity. Many turbines are approaching their rated 20-year lives. A more economically viable and sustainable solution that reduces Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and avoids expensive turbine replacement is retrofitting new spar caps blades. A new cost model assesses the feasibility of retrofitting 35 to 75 m turbines with GFRP (glass fiber reinforced polymer composite) and longer length CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced composite) spar caps. Spar cap cost scales with features such as mass, volume fraction and complexity. Organizational learning is a cost factor. Material and direct labor increase as proportions of total cost while tooling, capital, utilities, and indirect labor decrease. There is good agreement between a manufacturer and the model. Twenty-year turbines were compared with retrofitted spar caps over 25 years for LCOE. Same length GFRP and longer length CFRP spar cap retrofits decrease LCOE. Longer length CFRP spar caps decrease LCOE compared with GFRP retrofits over 25 years. CFRP material cost impacts CFRP retrofit feasibility. Retrofitted turbines must meet engineering, operational performance, and planning requirements criteria. Software algorithms may improve human learning and enable automatic updates from varying design and cost inputs, thereby increasing cost prediction accuracy.
Compact CRLH Leaky-Wave Antenna Using TE20-Mode Substrate-Integrated Waveguide for Broad Space Radiation Coverage

In this communication, a composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) based four-quadrant dual-beam scanning leaky-wave antenna is proposed and demonstrated using substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. The simultaneous use of dual-radiating sections of the TE20-mode SIW makes the structure quite compact with the enhancement in overall gain as compared to the TE10-mode SIW. In addition to this, the incorporation of interdigital slots on the top as well as the bottom plates of the waveguide enables the feature of CRLH media, resulting in full-space beam scanning. Based on the orientation of the electric field on the guiding structure, the top and bottom slots are orthogonally placed to each other. The unit cell characteristics and space harmonics are thoroughly investigated using the dispersion and Bloch impedance analysis. By tactfully tuning the design parameters, the balanced condition is obtained at the broadside frequency of 11.5 GHz. The radiated dual beam covers a four-quadrant scanning range of 248°, having the beam steering from –75° to 49° for both top and bottom halves of the space. The proposed antenna operates within 10–12.8 GHz with a peak gain of 18 dBi. The designed antenna is finally fabricated and tested, where the simulated responses are found in good agreement with the corresponding measured data.
Mating genes in Calonectria and evidence for a heterothallic ancestral state

The genus Calonectria includes many important plant pathogens with a wide global distribution. In order to better understand the reproductive biology of these fungi, we characterised the structure of the mating type locus and flanking genes using the genome sequences for seven Calonectria species. Primers to amplify the mating type genes in other species were also developed. PCR amplification of the mating type genes and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses were used to investigate the mating strategies and evolution of mating type in a collection of 70 Calonectria species residing in 10 Calonectria species complexes. Results showed that the organisation of the MAT locus and flanking genes is conserved. In heterothallic species, a novel MAT gene, MAT1-2-12 was identified in the MAT1-2 idiomorph; the MAT1-1 idiomorph, in most cases, contained the MAT1-1-3 gene. Neither MAT1-1-3 nor MAT1-2-12 was found in homothallic Calonectria (Ca.) hongkongensis, Ca. lateralis, Ca. pseudoturangicola and Ca. turangicola. Four different homothallic MAT locus gene arrangements were observed. Ancestral state reconstruction analysis provided evidence that the homothallic state was basal in Calonectria and this evolved from a heterothallic ancestor.
Timing of Onset, Burden, and Postdischarge Mortality of Persistent Critical Illness in Scotland, 2005–2014: A Retrospective, Population-Based, Observational Study

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: We aimed to understand the prevalence, timing of onset, resource use, and long-term outcomes of patients who developed persistent critical illness in a national dataset. Design: Retrospective cohort. Using a physiologic risk adjustment model from ICU admission, we examined the relative ability of acute (related to reason for ICU presentation) and antecedent (demographics, comorbidities) characteristics to discriminate hospital mortality models. Persistent critical illness was defined as the point during an ICU stay when, at the population-level, patients’ acute diagnoses and physiologic disturbance are no longer more accurate at discriminating who survives than are baseline demographics and comorbidity. We examined the change across ICU stay in the relative discrimination of those characteristics, and short-term (in-hospital and 30 d after admission) and medium-term (90 d after admission) survival. Finally, we analyzed the changes in the population definition of persistent critical illness over time. Setting: Patients admitted as level 3 to Scottish ICUs between 2005 and 2014. Patients: Seventy-two–thousand two-hundred fifty-three adult level 3 ICU admissions in 23 ICUs across Scotland. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: The onset of persistent critical illness, occurs at an average of 5.0 days (95% CI, 3.9–6.4 d) across this dataset. The crossing point increased across the decade, by an average of 0.36 days (95% CI, 0.22–0.50 d) per year. In this dataset, 24,425 (33.8%) remained in the ICU long enough to meet this greater than 5-day definition of persistent critical illness. The care of such patients involved 72.3% ICU days used by any level 3 patient; 46.5% of all Scottish ICU bed-days were after day 5. Although rates of 30 days after admission survival rose dramatically during the decade under study, these rates were similar for those with shorter or longer ICU stays, as were the rates of 90-day survival among those who survived at least 30 days. Conclusions: Persistent critical illness occurred in one in three ICU patients in Scotland. These minority of patients accounted for disproportionate hospital resources but did not have worse 30- or 90-day postadmission survival.
Complicaciones en embarazos logrados por reproducción asistida

Introduction: Pregnancies resulting from assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been documented to have a higher risk of adverse effects. Objective: To provide evidence on obstetric and perinatal complications associated with conceptions by ART versus spontaneous pregnancies. Method: Comprehensive review of original articles published between 2010 and 2018 addressing the most common obstetric and perinatal complications in pregnancies resulting from in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in comparison with spontaneous conceptions. Results: Thirty-seven original articles, which reported on 26 cohort studies and 11 case-control trials, were included. IVF and ICSI conceptions were associated with a larger number of obstetric and perinatal complications such as low birth weight, prematurity, low weight for gestational age, admission to the neonatal intensive care unit, congenital malformations, C-section and premature rupture of membranes, among others. Conclusions: Pregnancies by ART are associated with an increased risk of obstetric and perinatal complications in comparison with spontaneous conceptions. Further research is needed to determine which aspects result in higher risk.
A retrospective hospital based study on factors influencing the incidence of cleft lip and palate cases in Bihar region

Introduction: Cleft lip and palate are most common developmental anomaly of head and neck region affecting a great number of newborns worldwide. Further it gives rise to psychosocial and financial strain to the affected family especially in developing countries like India. The exact etiology and pathogenesis of cleft lip and palate is still an enigma and behave as a complex process involving several genetic and environmental factors. Objective: To assess the pattern of cleft lip and palate cases and to analyze if any relation to environmental factors present in Bihar region. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in Government Hospital of Patna, Bihar through evaluating the recorded medical files of cleft lip and palate cases of 5 years duration and self designed data forms were filled. Results: Results were obtained through analyzing the obtained data and were tabulated. Percentage and frequency was evaluated to assess the pattern of incidence of such anomalies. Conclusion: The present study is in favor of conceptualization of multifactorial theory involved in occurrence of cleft lip and palate. Furthermore, it also provides a baseline data for future reference which might help in conducting any researches on this particular area. Keywords: Cleft lip, Cleft palate, Factors, Incidence, Retrospective.
Molecular Analysis of Replication and Packaging Mechanism of Satellite Tobacco Mosaic Virus

Satellite tobacco mosaic virus (STMV) as the name implies is the satellite virus of the well characterized helper Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). This satellite virus is 18nm in diameter having a T1 symmetry encapsidating a positive sense genomic RNA of 1058nt in size whose 3' 150nt shares 65% homology with that of its Helper virus. Extensive Structural studies on STMV suggested that its coat protein interacts extensively with the stem-loops of the packaged genomic RNA and hence would be unstable to form virions without interacting with its genomic RNA internally. However invivo experiments to prove the same were not performed. Host range effects and the role of the positively charged amino acids at the N-terminal of its capsid protein on replication and packaging were not been studied yet on this Satellite virus (or in any other satellite virus). Chapter 1 of this dissertation describes T-DNA based agrotransformants of STMV to synthesize its genomic RNA in either (+) or (-) orientation when expressed ectopically in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The biological activity of ectopically expressed agrotransformants of STMV (+) or (-) transcripts was confirmed when co-expressed with TMV. Furthermore, progeny virions of STMV recovered from agroinfiltrations were indistinguishable from those recovered from mechanically inoculated plants. However, STMV virions assembled in N. benthamiana, but not in tobacco, efficiently packaged a variant form of the genomic RNA. Chapter 2 describes Individual substitution of the positively charged amino acids at the N-terminal region of its Coat protein to a neutrally charged amino acid Alanine affecting dramatically the replication and packaging of these mutant viruses. Chapter 3 describes Agrobacterium mediated transient expression of the three genomic RNA of Tomato Aspermy virus in N.benthamiana and by utilizing this system we demonstrate that expressed genomic RNA were biologically active and also induced symptoms in N.benthamiana.
Facing the future: the importance of substratum features for ecological engineering of artificial habitats in the rocky intertidal

Coastal defences are proliferating in response to climate change, leading to the creation of more vertical substrata. Efforts are being made to mitigate their impacts and create novel habitats to promote biodiversity. Little is known about the effect of aspect (i.e. north–south directionality) and inclination on intertidal biodiversity in artificial habitats. Artificial and natural habitats were compared to assess the role of aspect and substratum inclination in determining patterns of biodiversity at two tidal heights (high and mid). We also compared grazing activity between north- and south-facing surfaces in natural habitats to examine the potential for differential grazing pressure to affect community structure and functioning. Results were variable but some clear patterns emerged. Inclination had no effect on biodiversity or abundance. There was a general trend towards greater taxon richness and abundance on north-facing than south-facing substrata in natural and artificial habitats. On natural shores, the abundance and grazing activity of ‘southern’ limpets (i.e. Patella depressa) was greater on south-facing than north-facing substrata, with possible implications for further range-expansion. These results highlight the importance of incorporating shaded habitats in the construction of artificial habitats. These habitats may represent an important refuge from grazing pressure and thermal and desiccation stress in a warming climate.
Effect of leptin on metabolic hormones, energy metabolites, immunity and reproduction in farm animals -A review

Leptin is a 16 kDa protein hormone and it is synthesized primarily by white adipose tissue. It was discovered in 1994 and has been shown to be a potential regulator (inhibitor) of feed intake and could influence the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. Effects of leptin on the immune system such as enhanced cytokine production have also been documented. Leptin also involved in regulation of feeding behaviour, energy balance and fertility. The expression and secretion of leptin is highly correlated with body fat mass and adipocyte size. Plasma leptin positively correlated to glucose and insulin and negatively correlated to growth hormone, cortisol and NEFA levels. Cortisol and insulin are potent stimulators of leptin. Leptin circulates specifically bound to serum, which may regulate its half life and biological activity. Its peripheral effects include the regulation of insulin action secretion by pancreatic beta cells and its action, besides energy metabolism in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. Leptin is thought to be a metabolic signal that regulates effects of nutrition on reproductive functions. Leptin also plays a major role in haematopoiesis. There is growing interest in the role of leptin especially in the high-producing, early lactation dairy cow, as drastic changes in energy balance and endocrine physiology combined with immunosuppression and increases the incidence of reproductive and metabolic disorders. In this review, various aspects of leptin like synthesis, structure and it's role on metabolic hormone, energy metabolites, immunity and reproduction have been dealt with.
Food habits, schooling and predatory behaviour of the yellowmouth barracuda, Sphyraena viridensis

The yellowmouth barracuda is one of the most common coastal pelagic predator in the Azores archipe- lago which probably constitutes their northernmost range in the Eastern North Atlantic. The biology, behaviour and fee- ding ecology of this species is virtually unknown. Between 1997 and 1998, 100 individuals of S. viridensis were collected in the Azores islands. Their size ranged from 545 to 1190 mm (TL). Stomach contents were analysed and 66% of them contained food. Fish were the only prey observed. Juveniles of Trachurus picturatus were the dominant item identified, occurring in 82.2% of the stomachs containing food. Mean size of prey was correlated to the mean size of barracudas. Some 550 hours of behavioural observations were carried out. Different types of aggregations were observed with small groups and isolated individuals in winter conditions and big schools in summer, displaying several types of predatory behaviour.
HeartMath approach to self-regulation and psychosocial well-being

The ability to alter one’s emotional responses is central to overall well-being and effectively meeting the demands of life. In this article, we discuss the perspective that one’s ability to self-regulate the quality of feeling and emotion of one’s moment-to-moment experience influences our physiology and the reciprocal interactions between physiological, cognitive, and emotional systems. We outline the bi-directional communication pathways between the heart and brain, and how neural activity in these pathways affect the central processes of cognitive and emotional function and self-regulatory capacity. We discuss how self-induced positive emotions is reflected in the pattern of one’s heart’s rhythm, which in turn increases the coherence in bodily processes. This shift in the heart rhythm plays an important role in facilitating higher cognitive functions, creating emotional flexibility, and facilitating social connectedness. Over time, this establishes a new inner-baseline reference, resulting in improvements in attention, behaviour, and measures of health and wellness.
Influence of Tangential Displacement on the Adhesion Force between Gradient Materials

The influence of a tangential displacement on the strength of the adhesive contacts between gradient materials with different gradings of their properties has been studied. Variants with a controlled force (fixed load) and a controlled displacement (fixed grips) are considered. A relationship between the normal and tangential critical force components at which the contact is destroyed is obtained. It is valid within the whole interval of the gradient parameters, where the detachment criterium is obeyed. The optimal parameters at which the adhesive contact strength is maximum are determined. A case of detachment under the action of only the tangential force, i.e. when the normal force equals zero, is analyzed separately.
FPGA-Based Real-Time Implementation of Quadral-Duty Digital-PWM-Controlled Permanent Magnet BLDC Drive

Brushless dc (BLDC) motors are sparsely employed for domestic applications due to the mandatory cost inflation related to BLDC drive besides their numerous constructional advantages. Controllers involving lesser computational complexity, which ultimately leads to reduced-size application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the drive, are highly advantageous in addressing the issue. Recent state-of-the-art dual-duty digital pulsewidth modulation (DDDPWM) techniques are among such. However, the DDDPWM-based controller restricts the motor speed within a narrow range, and the motor suffers from inevitable speed and torque ripples. In this article, an advanced quadral-duty digital pulsewidth modulation (QDDPWM) technique has been proposed to drive the BLDC motor. The QDDPWM-technique-based BLDC motor drive can be controlled in a wider range of speed with reduced steady-state speed ripples, audible noise, and vibrations. The controller has been implemented in real-time using field-programmable gate array, which can also be fabricated in a reduced-size ASIC. Various dynamic and steady-state speeds, vibration responses, time response, and speed tracking ability have been examined and reported in this article. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is justified by the comparison of the real-time responses with the DDDPWM-algorithm-based BLDC motor drive.