Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE EFFECT OF ORGANIC SELENIUM SUPPLEMENTATION ON PRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE IN A LOCAL STRAIN OF CHICKEN. 2- IMMUNE SYSTEM AND SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN BANDARAH CHICKS AFFECTED BY ORGANIC SELENIUM.

The experiment was conducted to study productive, physiological and immunological parameters in Bandarah local chicks as affected by dietary organic selenium (Sel- Plex™). All chicks were used in the present work produced from females and males fed diets with 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg Se / kg diet in the form of selenium yeast (Sel-Plex™). Two hundred unsexed one- day old chicks (50 chicks per parental treatment group) of Bandarah chicks were placed in brooder at 4 pens and fed a basal diet supplemented with the same concentrations of organic selenium (Sel- Plex™) as the same of their parents until they were 12 weeks of age. The obtained results indicated that: 1- Selenium supplementation especially at 0.2 and 0.3 mg/ kg diet diet significantly (P≤0.05) increased live body weight of Bandarah chicks during the experimental period. Also, live body weight of males was significantly (P≤0.05) heavier than females. 2- Blood hemoglobin (Hb), red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), antibody responses against infectious bursal disease viruses (IBDV) and Triiodothyronine (T3) were significantly (P≤0.05) increased in groups fed selenium (Sel-Plex™) compared with the control group. While, serum thyroxine (T4) had not significantly influenced by selenium supplementation. All previous mentioned traits were not significantly affected by sex, except, WBCs in females which was significantly higher than those for males. Serum total protein, globulin and glutathione peroxidase concentrations significantly increased for groups fed 0.2 and 0.3 selenium compared with the control group. While, no significant effects on
Characterization of the Cytokine Immune Response in Children Who Have Experienced an Episode of Typical Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome

ABSTRACT The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and Shiga toxin together substantially contribute to the pathophysiology of typical hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). Both factors have been shown to be immune stimulators and could play a key role in the individual innate immune response, characterized by proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. By use of a whole blood stimulation model, we therefore compared the LPS- and superantigen-induced cytokine responses in children who had been having recovering from an acute episode of typical HUS for at least 6 months (group 1) with those in controls, who consisted of patients seen in the pediatric neurology outpatient department for routine examination (group 2). Samples were analyzed for cytokine protein levels and the levels of mRNA production. LPS stimulation revealed lower levels of interleukin 10 (IL-10) (P < 0.05) and increased levels of gamma interferon (P < 0.05) and increased ratios of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (P < 0.05 for the IL-1β/IL-10 ratio; P < 0.05 for the tumor necrosis factor alpha/IL-10 ratio) in group 1. In addition superantigen stimulation showed decreased IL-2 levels in group 1 (P < 0.01). Our results suggest an alteration of the cytokine response characterized by high proinflammatory cytokine levels and low anti-inflammatory cytokine levels as well as low levels of IL-2 production in children who have experienced an episode of typical HUS. We hypothesize that this altered immune response is not a residual effect of the infection but a preexisting characteristic of the patient. This could be one reason why individuals infected with EHEC are potentially predisposed to a systemic disease (HUS).
COMPLACENCY AS A CAUSAL FACTOR IN ACCIDENTS – FACT OR FALLACY ?

Complacency is often cited as a major contributor to accidents, where it is often seen as deviant behaviour by those at the sharp end. However, it is unclear whether there is an underlying psychological model of this phenomenon, making it difficult to develop an effective preventative strategy against it. Additionally, using a negative term such as ‘complacency’ may predispose investigators towards blaming an individual and result in a disproportionate focus on the immediate causes of accidents. This paper argues that rather than applying an ill-defined label such as complacency, it would be better to frame this behaviour in terms of the perception of, and tolerance to, risk. These concepts are readily understood, more grounded in theory and offer the opportunity to develop individual and collective strategies to mitigate its effects.
Electronic and Vibrational Dynamics of Hollow Au Nanocages Embedded in Cu2O Shells

We have synthesized hollow Au nanocages embedded within thick porous shells of cuprous oxide (Cu2O). The shell causes a significant redshift of the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au into the near‐IR. Electron–phonon coupling in the Au nanocage is 3–6 times faster in the core–shell structure due to the higher thermal conductivity of Cu2O compared to water. Coherent phonon oscillations within the Au lattice are characterized by a breathing mode of the entire structure for both bare and core–shell nanocages, an assignment made through the use of structural mechanics simulations. The experimental frequencies are obtained through simulations by selectively applying a force to the shell of the core–shell structure. We interpret this as rapid thermal expansion of the gold leading to a mechanical force that acts on the shell.
An ecological perspective of breastfeeding in an indigenous community.

PURPOSE To describe the sociocultural patterns that promote breastfeeding or weaning in the Ojibwe community, which has very low breastfeeding rates compared to the general population. DESIGN A focused ethnographic approach with an ecological framework provided community level data. Semi-structured interviews (N = 52) were conducted in an urban Ojibwe community and with three groups of women: health or social service providers, women currently breastfeeding, or people who acted as resources. METHODS Data were analyzed using an ethnographic approach. Group summaries were compiled and community-level patterns were identified. FINDINGS Four patterns were identified that encompassed the influences of (a) Ojibwe and mainstream cultures (traditions), (b) communication-related barriers from a variety of sources (mixed messages), (c) socioeconomic issues (life circumstances) and (d) social support (nurturing and supporting). CONCLUSIONS The values and practices of the studied group were not always congruent with those of the larger mainstream culture. Successful breastfeeding promotion and intervention programs based on culturally relevant perspectives are needed.
Evaluation of Areal Touch Feedback for Palpation Simulation

The effectiveness of the areal contact versus the point contact was experimented. We created virtual 3D cubic volumetric objects consisting of approximately 500,000 nodes. The object is placed on a plane so that the nodes at the bottom of the object are constrained. A user can interact with the object by pushing and pulling at the top surface of the object as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 (a) and (b) are the configurations of pulling up, and pushing down, respectively, in the middle of the top surface with the haptic interface. The square-shaped areal contact was made with the tactile display unit attached to the gimbals of Phantom TM haptic device. For a point-based contact, only the Phantom haptic device was used for interaction with the virtual object. We constructed two volumetric soft objects where four hard blocks, which represents tumors, are placed inside of each soft volume as illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows the top view of the test volume objects. The test object (a) is used for the experiment with the point haptic feedback only, while the test object (b) is used for the experiment with the area-based haptic feedback with the augmented tactile display. We asked 20 human subjects to explore the objects with the haptic interface device, one without the tactile display unit and the other with the tactile display unit. Their task was to locate the hard portions (i.e., tumors) inside the volume, and they were asked to draw the tumors they found on a piece of paper. Each subject drew what he/she visualized the tumor’s location and size solely with the touch feedback. All subjects did not have a pre-knowledge of the number of tumors that they can find. Figure 5 shows the representative drawings done by the subjects. We can observe that the area-based haptic interface gave a superior results compare to the one with the point-based interface. With the point-based interface, most subjects missed the tumor #4 which is relatively small in size. However, all of them were detected with the area-based haptic interface. In palpation, it is important to find not only the number of tumors but also a precise location and the size of the tumors. We defined the accuracy measures concerning the center location of the tumor and the actual size of the tumor. Table 2 and 3 shows the average errors computed against the accuracy measures. Although there seems to be an intrinsic source of error due to human perception, our results clearly demonstrates that areal haptic feedback provides a better visualization of the object.
Symmetric video multicast over multihop wireless network using Inter-/Intra-session network coding

In this paper, we consider symmetric video unicast/multicast over multi-hop wireless network with dense nodes, which could be applied on for example three-party video conference. We followed the cross-layer design framework, and focus on joint rate (application-layer) and flow (transport-layer) adaptation scheme to exploit the flexible rate provided by Scalable Video Coding (SVC). Intra-session and Inter-session network coding is applied, which improves the total video quality as demonstrated by simulation results.
Resistant hypertension

The disease burden attributable to arterial hypertension is substantial, accounting for or contributing to 62% of all strokes and 49% of all cases of heart disease, culminating in an estimated 7.1 million deaths a year; equivalent to 13% of total worldwide deaths. Although most cases of hypertension can be effectively treated with lifestyle changes or drugs, or both, hidden within this population lies a cohort at the extreme end of the cardiovascular risk spectrum—those with hypertension that is resistant to treatment. The aim of this review is to assist non-specialist practitioners in the overall management of patients with resistant hypertension by presenting a comprehensive exploration of the evidence on the recognition, evaluation, and treatment of the condition. What is resistant hypertension?
Clinical Trials of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement for Painful Chronic Pancreatitis - A Review

Painful chronic pancreatitis is a challenging problem for clinicians and patients. Many patients receive a therapeutic trial of pancreatic enzyme supplementation at some point in the course of their disease, but it is unclear what the expected outcome of such a trial should be and whether or not all patients should receive a trial of pancreatic enzymes. We searched PubMed for all studies of pancreatic enzyme supplementation for painful chronic pancreatitis from 1980 to the present. We also searched the references of identified manuscripts and requested additional information from study authors when necessary. Manuscripts were assessed for study design, bias, pain assessment, and pain management protocol. The results are described in full.
Collision Tolerance: Improving Channel Utilization with Correlatable Symbol Sequences in Wireless Networks

Packet corruption caused by collision is a critical problem that damages the performance of wireless networks. Traditional medium access control (MAC) protocols resort to collision avoidance to improve the efficiency of channel utilization. According to our investigation, however, collision avoidance causes time delay, which also hurts channel utilization, especially in the dense networks or intensive traffic. Discovering the ability to tolerate collisions with the correlatable preamble at the physical layer implementations of wireless networks, we propose CWM in this paper, a MAC protocol that advocates simultaneous accesses from multiple senders to a shared channel, allowing collisions instead of avoiding them. With the correlatable sequences, CWM addresses the challenges in achieving collision tolerance, such as precise sender alignment and control of the transmission concurrency. We implement the experiments on USRP verifying the feasibility of our protocol and implement CWM in 802.15. 4 networks and evaluate its performance with 100 nodes on MATLAB. The results demonstrate that our protocol significantly improves the spatial reuse of the wireless channel by at least 23% compared with the state-of-the-art protocols.
Simulazione e apprendimento: il ruolo dei modelli mentali

L’uso didatticamente efficace delle simulazioni per la scuola e la formazione richiede un’attenta considerazione dei meccanismi cognitivi dell’apprendimento. Le simulazioni didattiche piu interessanti non sono tanto quelle che pretendono di essere una copia della realta quanto quelle che promuovono negli studenti un processo di internazionalizzazine del modello simulato e di esternalizzazione e confronto dei propri modelli mentali. L’istruzione basata su modelli costituisce un nuovo e promettente paradigma per la progettazione e l’uso didattico delle simulazioni.
Antimicrobial Biomaterials and Their Potential Application in Ophthalmology

Infections associated with the use of intraocular, periocular, or orbital implants are associated with an increase in both morbidity and in the costs of ophthalmological surgery. This is due to an increased number of visits and the need for additional treatments, at a time when some conventional therapies are losing their efficacy, or even hospitalization. To avoid such consequences, the first step should be to prevent the biomaterials that form implants from being colonized by various microorganisms, either intraoperatively or postoperatively. To this end, several lines of research have emerged that aim at equipping implants with antimicrobial properties, some of which are described in this review.
Optimization of Sensor Node Locations in a Wireless Sensor Network

In this paper, a localization system for unknown emitter nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) system is presented. For this system, it is assumed that there are four anchor nodes with known locations and one or more unknown nodes which transmit RF signals that can be received by the four anchor nodes. The only available information to the system is the received signal strength indicator which is in general not very accurate. To obtain better estimated location of the sensor nodes, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) scheme that can be realized in real time is investigated in this paper. Both simulation and experimental results of the proposed approach are presented.
Corticotropin-releasing hormone and urocortin induce secretion of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) without change in tissue inhibitors of MMP-1 by cultured cells from human placenta and fetal membranes.

CONTEXT Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are essential for human parturition due to their degrading of the extracellular matrix. CRH and urocortin (Ucn) are thought to play a central role in the mechanisms controlling human pregnancy and parturition. OBJECTIVE, DESIGN, AND SETTING The aim of this study was to assess the effects of CRH and Ucn on MMP-9 and tissue inhibitors of MMP-1 (TIMP-1) protein and/or mRNA levels in vitro. Zymography, Western blotting, real-time RT-PCR, and culture/treatments of purified sycytiotrophoblast, chorion trophoblast, and amniotic epithelial cells from human placenta and fetal membranes were performed. RESULTS CRH and Ucn significantly increased MMP-9 protein secretion from cultured chorionic trophoblast, amnion epithelial, and syncytiotrophoblast cells (P < 0.01, compared with control, respectively), but there was no effect on TIMP-1 secretion and MMP-9 mRNA expression. Antalarmin (a CRH receptor type 1 antagonist) significantly blocked CRH- and Ucn-induced pro-MMP-9 secretion from three cell types (P < 0.01, compared with treatment with CRH and Ucn alone, respectively). Antisauvagine 30 (a CRH receptor type 2 antagonist) resulted in a significant reduction in CRH- and Ucn-induced secretion from chorionic trophoblast cells (P < 0.05) and syncytiotrophoblast cells (P < 0.01) compared with treatment with CRH and Ucn alone, respectively, but had no significant effect on amniotic epithelial cells. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that CRH and Ucn may play a role in the mechanisms controlling human parturition and preterm delivery not only by affecting myometrial contractility, but also by increasing local MMP activity in placenta and fetal membranes, thereby contributing to membrane rupture with the onset and progression of human labor.
A software environment for simulators suitable for complex biological analysis

In order to understand the function of biological elements and their interactions, computer analysis and simulation is an essential technique. For higher research efficiency, it is important to provide a system framework for constructing biological simulation systems that handle multiple phenomena. This paper proposes "DynaBioS", a comprehensive system framework for complex biological simulations. This framework consists of three main features, a component-based architecture, a customizable system operation, and an exchangeable model set. The system based on DynaBioS consists of a simulation core and system components. The system components are sub-simulators for individual functional factors and utility modules corresponding to specific information technologies. The simulation core manages and controls all components, in accordance with a simulation scenario and a simulation model. The DynaBioS makes it possible to implement different simulation systems by combining individual functional components, specific interactions and different simulation models. The versatility of DynaBioS is shown by two examples, a heart pumping simulator and a parameter optimization system for physiological models.
Formal quality criteria for websites do not guarantee complete health information of good quality: we need more attention to information on prognosis

the entire study period. Nevertheless, indirectly, the diagnostic specificity observed was poor*a finding also previously presented (3). More than half of the referred patients had a false-positive diagnosis. Moreover, in a considerable portion (40%) of the referred patients, pharyngeal status was not suggestive of PTA, indicating the need for improved training of primary-care physicians on the subject. Naturally, factors other than the probability of PTA can contribute to the referral behaviour of primarycare physicians, e.g., patients’ demands or poor response to antimicrobials when treating tonsillitis. Referral guidelines developed collaboratively by otolaryngologists and primary-care physicians have proved to decrease the number of unnecessary referrals and have been well accepted in primary care (4). This tool could also be useful in diagnosing and referring patients with a suspicion of PTA.
A Novel Fingerprints Identification System Based on The Edge Detection

This paper describes an efficient fingerprints identification technique which uses a gray level watershed method to find out the ridges present on a particular fingerprint image. Fingerprint system is an important biometric technique for personal identification. The metric used for performance of identification techniques are directly scanned fingerprints or inked impression of fingerprints. These parameters are applied to gray level water shed method. For better accuracy in matching the images 5 level decomposition of matching is performed. These parameters perform better in comparing the resultant fingerprints. When tested on a database of 7 images this system is faster and more accurate to analyze the fingerprints matching process.
Behavioural and hormonal responses to capture stress in the male red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis


We measured the behavioural and hormonal responses to capture stress in male red-sided garter snakes. Four hours of capture stress resulted in no suppression of mating behaviour relative to control individuals. In contrast, the same stress resulted in a significant increase in plasma levels of corticosterone and a significant decrease in plasma levels of testosterone. There was a significant negative correlation between plasma levels of corticosterone and testosterone in both control and capture-stress groups, suggesting that the increase in corticosterone directly drives the decrease in testosterone. While there was no relation between body size and initial plasma levels of the two steroids, longer individuals had a significantly greater increase in corticosterone following capture stress than did shorter individuals. Snakes display indeterminate growth, suggesting that older individuals have decreased sensitivity to negative feedback in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and thus hypersecrete glucocorticoids. These results suggest that male red-sided garter snakes have uncoupled their behavioural stress response from their hormonal stress response to maximize reproductive opportunities. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Optimism, positive affectivity, and salivary cortisol.

OBJECTIVES Research on stress and salivary cortisol has focused almost exclusively on the effects of negative psychological conditions or emotional states. Little attention has been drawn to the impact associated with positive psychological conditions, which have been shown recently to have significant influences on neuroendocrine regulation. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of optimism and positive affect on salivary cortisol with the effects of their negative counterparts controlled for. DESIGN Optimism and pessimism, and positive and negative affectivity were studied in relation to the diurnal rhythm of salivary cortisol in a group of 80 Hong Kong Chinese, who provided six saliva samples over the course of a day on two consecutive days. The separate effects of optimism and positive affect on two dynamic components of cortisol secretion, awakening response, and diurnal decline were examined. METHODS Optimism and pessimism were measured using the Chinese version of the revised Life Orientation Test while generalized affects and mood states were assessed by the Chinese Affect Scale. An enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay kit (EIA) developed for use in saliva was adopted for the biochemical analysis of cortisol. Testing of major group differences associated with positive psychological conditions was carried out using two-way (group by saliva collection time) ANOVAs for repeated measures with negative psychological conditions and mood states as covariates. RESULTS Participants having higher optimism scores exhibited less cortisol secretion in the awakening period when the effect of pessimism and mood were controlled. This effect was more apparent in men than in women who had higher cortisol levels in the awakening period. Optimism did not have similar effect on cortisol levels during the underlying period of diurnal decline. On the other hand, higher generalized positive affect was associated with lower cortisol levels during the underlying period of diurnal decline after the effects of negative affect and mood states had been controlled. Generalized positive affect did not significantly influence cortisol secretion during the awakening period. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that positive psychological resources including optimism and generalized positive affect had higher impact on cortisol secretion than their negative counterparts, and point to the need for increased attention to the potential contribution of positive mental states to well-being.