Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between lameness and production, feeding and milking attendance of Holstein cows milked with an automatic milking system

A longitudinal study involving 73 primiparous (PP) and 47 multiparous (MP) Holstein cows was conducted over an 8-month period to assess the associations between locomotion score (LCS) and milk production, dry matter intake (DMI), feeding behaviour, and number of visits to an automatic milking system (AMS). Twice weekly, all cows were locomotion scored (scale 1–5) by the same observer. Individual eating behaviour and individual feed consumption at each cow visit to the feed troughs, individual milk production, the time of milking, and the number of milkings for each cow were recorded for the day of locomotion scoring and the day before and after. Dependent variables, such as milk yield, DMI, etc. were modelled using a mixed-effects model with parity, LCS, days in milk (DIM), the exponential of −0·05 DIM, and the interaction between parity and LCS, as fixed effects and random intercepts and random slopes for the linear and the exponential of −0·05DIM effects within cow. LCS did not affect time of attendance at feed troughs, but affected the location that cows occupied in the feed troughs. The time devoted to eating and DMI decreased with increasing LCS. Milk production decreased with LCS>3. The number of daily visits to the AMS also decreased with increasing LCS. The cows with high LCS were fetched more often than the cows with low LCS. Overall, PP cows were more sensitive to the effects of increasing LCS than were MP cows. The decrease in milk production observed with increasing LCS seemed to be affected similarly by the decrease in DMI and by the decrease in number of daily visits to the AMS. A further economic loss generated by lame cows with AMS will be associated with the additional labour needed to fetch them.
Detection, Isolation, and Characterization of Acidophilic Methanotrophs from Sphagnum Mosses

ABSTRACT Sphagnum peatlands are important ecosystems in the methane cycle. Methane-oxidizing bacteria in these ecosystems serve as a methane filter and limit methane emissions. Yet little is known about the diversity and identity of the methanotrophs present in and on Sphagnum mosses of peatlands, and only a few isolates are known. The methanotrophic community in Sphagnum mosses, originating from a Dutch peat bog, was investigated using a pmoA microarray. A high biodiversity of both gamma- and alphaproteobacterial methanotrophs was found. With Sphagnum mosses as the inoculum, alpha- and gammaproteobacterial acidophilic methanotrophs were isolated using established and newly designed media. The 16S rRNA, pmoA, pxmA, and mmoX gene sequences showed that the alphaproteobacterial isolates belonged to the Methylocystis and Methylosinus genera. The Methylosinus species isolated are the first acid-tolerant members of this genus. Of the acidophilic gammaproteobacterial strains isolated, strain M5 was affiliated with the Methylomonas genus, and the other strain, M200, may represent a novel genus, most closely related to the genera Methylosoma and Methylovulum. So far, no acidophilic or acid-tolerant methanotrophs in the Gammaproteobacteria class are known. All strains showed the typical features of either type I or II methanotrophs and are, to the best of our knowledge, the first isolated (acidophilic or acid-tolerant) methanotrophs from Sphagnum mosses.
Pore size regulates cell and tissue interactions with PLGA–CaP scaffolds used for bone engineering

A common subject in bone tissue engineering is the need for porous scaffolds to support cell and tissue interactions aiming at repairing bone tissue. As poly(lactide‐co‐glycolide)–calcium phosphate (PLGA–CaP) scaffolds can be manufactured with different pore sizes, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pore diameter on osteoblastic cell responses and bone tissue formation. Scaffolds were prepared with 85% porosity, with pore diameters in the ranges 470–590, 590–850 and 850–1200 µm. Rat bone marrow stem cells differentiated into osteoblasts were cultured on the scaffolds for up to 10 days to evaluate cell growth, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and the gene expression of the osteoblast markers RUNX2, OSX, COL, MSX2, ALP, OC and BSP by real‐time PCR. Scaffolds were implanted in critical size rat calvarial defects for 2, 4, and 8 weeks for histomorphometric analysis. Cell growth and ALP activity were not affected by the pore size; however, there was an increase in the gene expression of osteoblastic markers with the increase in the pore sizes. At 2 weeks all scaffolds displayed a similar amount of bone and blood vessels formation. At 4 and 8 weeks much more bone formation and an increased number of blood vessels were observed in scaffolds with pores of 470–590 µm. These results show that PLGA–CaP is a promising biomaterial for bone engineering. However, ideally, combinations of larger (∼1000 µm) and smaller (∼500 µm) pores in a single scaffold would optimize cellular and tissue responses during bone healing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Biased Agonism at G Protein‐Coupled Receptors: The Promise and the Challenges—A Medicinal Chemistry Perspective

Historically, determination of G protein‐coupled receptor (GPCR) ligand efficacy has often been restricted to identifying the ligand as an agonist or antagonist at a given signaling pathway. This classification was deemed sufficient to predict compound efficacy at all signaling endpoints, including the therapeutically relevant one(s). However, it is now apparent that ligands acting at the same GPCR can stabilize multiple, distinct, receptor conformations linked to different functional outcomes. This phenomenon, known as biased agonism, stimulus bias, or functional selectivity offers the opportunity to separate on‐target therapeutic effects from side effects through the design of drugs that show pathway selectivity. However, the medicinal chemist faces numerous challenges to develop biased ligands, including the detection and quantification of biased agonism. This review summarizes the current state of the field of research into biased agonism at GPCRs, with a particular focus on efforts to relate biased agonism to ligand structure.
Re‐assessment of growth hormone secretion in young adult patients with childhood‐onset growth hormone deficiency

objective Patients with childhood‐onset GH deficiency (coGHD) need retesting in late adolescence or young adulthood to verify whether they need to continue GH treatment. For this purpose the Growth Hormone Research Society (GRS) recommends the insulin tolerance test (ITT), or as an alternative the arginine + growth hormone releasing hormone test (ARG + GHRH test) as a diagnostic tool in adolescents and adults. However, there are no standardized cut‐off levels based on normal GH secretion for determining GHD vs. GH sufficiency in young adults for the ITT, the ARG + GHRH test or the pyridostigmine + GHRH (PD + GHRH) test, a further new GH stimulation test.
Sensitivity of somatic mutations in human umbilical cord blood to maternal environments

To assess the potential effect of maternal environments on human embryonic/fetal somatic mutation, we measured the frequencies of hypoxanthine‐guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT, hprt gene), mutant T lymphocytes (Mf), and glycophorin A (GPA) variant erythrocytes (Vf) of both allele‐loss (ø/N) and allele‐loss‐and‐duplication (N/N) phenotypes in umbilical cord blood. The mean hprt Mf (1.40 ± 1.11 × 10−6, N = 66) and GPA Vf (ø/N 4.0 ± 2.2 × 10−6, N = 114; N/N 2.7 ± 2.0 × 10−6, N = 91) were significantly lower than those previously reported for adult populations. In addition, the hprt Mf was significantly higher than that of a published study of newborn cord blood samples from a geographically distant population (0.64 ± 0.41 × 10−6, N = 45, P < 0.01; t test, P < 0.01, Mann‐Whitney U test). An examination of the demographic data from these two populations led to the sampling of 10 additional newborns specifically matched to the published study for maternal socioeconomic status. The hprt Mf (0.70 ± 0.49 × 10−6) of this selected population was consistent with the published report and significantly lower than that of our initial population (P < 0.03, t test; P < 0.01, Mann‐Whitney U test). These results indicate that there is an environmental effect related to maternal socioeconomic status on the frequency of embryonic/fetal somatic mutations. Molecular analyses of hprt mutants from this cohort with elevated Mf revealed a significant decrease in the relative contribution of gross structural mutations to the overall Mf (25 of 38, 66% vs. 34 of 41, 83%, P = 0.024, x2 test), suggesting that the higher Mf resulted from an elevated level of “point” mutations. No individual maternal demographic or environmental factor was identified as contributing more significantly than other any factor to the observed variability in hprt Mf or GPA Vf. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ADL Classification Based on Autocorrelation Function of Inertial Signals

Recognition of human activities is one of the most promising research areas in artificial intelligence. This has come along with the technological advancement in sensing technologies as well as the high demand for applications that are mobile, context-aware, and real-time. In this paper, we use a smart watch to collect sensory data for 14 ADL activities. We collect three types of sensory signals: acceleration, angular velocity, and rotation displacement; each is a tri-axial signal. From each given signal we compute the autocorrelation function up to certain lag and take these computed values as representative features of the given signal. We then feed these features to a random-forest-based classifier for training and prediction. We experiment with different combinations of sensory data. The joint use of acceleration with angular velocity has achieved the best performance in prediction accuracy which reaches about 80% for the whole set of 14 activities.
Progressive, Seizure-Like, Spike-Wave Discharges Are Common in Both Injured and Uninjured Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for the Fluid Percussion Injury Model of Post-Traumatic Epilepsy

Variable-duration oscillations and repetitive, high-voltage spikes have been recorded in the electrocorticogram (ECoG) of rats weeks and months after fluid percussion injury (FPI), a model of traumatic brain injury. These ECoG events, which have many similarities to spike-wave-discharges (SWDs) and absence seizures, have been proposed to represent nonconvulsive seizures characteristic of post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). The present study quantified features of SWD episodes in rats at different time points after moderate to severe FPI, and compared them with age-matched control rats. Control and FPI-injured rats at 1 year of age displayed large-amplitude and frequent SWD events at frontal and parietal recording sites. At 3–6 months, SWDs were shorter in duration and less frequent; extremely brief SWDs (i.e., “larval”) were detected as early as 1 month. The onset of the SWDs was nearly always synchronous across electrodes and of larger amplitude in frontal regions. A sensory stimulus, such as a click, immediately and consistently stopped the occurrence of the SWDs. SWDs were consistently accompanied by behavioral arrest. All features of SWDs in control and experimental (FPI) rats were indistinguishable. None of the FPI-treated rats developed nonconvulsive or convulsive seizures that could be distinguished electrographically or behaviorally from SWDs. Because SWDs have features similar to genetic absence seizures, these results challenge the hypothesis that SWDs after FPI reflect PTE.
Inactivation of suppressor T cell activity by the nontoxic lipopolysaccharide of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides

Antibody responses of mice immunized with type III pneumococcal polysaccharide were examined with and without treatment with nontoxic lipopolysaccharide from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides (Rs-LPS). The results obtained were similar to those described previously for mice treated with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) except that lower amounts of Rs-LPS were needed. Both were without effect when given at the time of immunization with type III pneumococcal polysaccharide but elicited significant enhancement when given 2 to 3 days later. Such enhancement was T cell dependent and not due to polyclonal activation of immunoglobulin M synthesis by B cells. Treatment with either Rs-LPS or MPL abolished the expression but not induction of low-dose paralysis, a form of immunological unresponsiveness known to be mediated by suppressor T cells (Ts). The in vitro treatment of cell suspensions containing Ts with extremely small amounts of Rs-LPS or MPI completely eliminated the capacity of such cells to transfer suppression to other mice. These findings indicate that the immunomodulatory effects of both MPL and Rs-LPS are mainly the result of eliminating the inhibitors effects of Ts; this permits the positive effects of amplifier T cells to be more fully expressed, thereby resulting in an increased antibody response. The significance of these and other findings to the use of Rs-LPS as a pharmacotherapeutic agent for gram-negative bacterial sepsis is discussed.
Single-use flow sensor based on the differential pressure principle employing the radial expansion of a low-cost silicone tube

For the first time, we present a flow sensor based on the differential pressure principle consisting of exchangeable low-cost consumable parts, to minimize the risk of cross-contamination in medical applications, for example. In our case, the consumable component consists of two thin-walled elastic silicone tubes connected by a rigid capillary that can be exchanged easily and cost-effectively after use. We characterized the current flow sensor prototype in the range from 0 up to 50 μL/s for water and aqueous glycerin solutions with glycerol concentrations of 20 wt. -% and 60 wt. -% with known viscosities. The sensor showed a good consistency with the reference sensor, a linear correlation coefficient of minimal R(x,y) = 0.98 and a sensor resolution of 0.4 μL/s.
Step Tracking with Goals Increases Children's Weight Loss in Behavioral Intervention.

BACKGROUND This study examined the influence of step goals with pedometers to improve children's weight loss, physical activity, and psychosocial health during obesity treatment. METHODS Overweight and obese children ages 8-17 years (n = 105) participated in a 10-week family-based weight management intervention, including physical activity, nutrition, and behavioral modification. A quasi-experimental design was used to group eight cohorts into three conditions: no pedometer (n = 24), pedometer only (n = 25), and pedometer with step goals (i.e., 500 steps/day weekly increase above baseline; n = 56). Height and weight were measured at baseline and week 10 and used to calculate BMI. Analysis of covariance was performed to examine difference by condition for change in weight, BMI, and BMI z-score, controlling for age and baseline value. Differences in steps per day and psychosocial health were compared between the two pedometer conditions. RESULTS Participants were 12.4 ± 2.5 years of age, including 70% girls and 64% African Americans. The pedometer with goals condition significantly reduced BMI (p = 0.02) and BMI z-score (p = 0.01) compared with the no-pedometer group. The pedometer with goals condition significantly increased steps per day (+1185 ± 425 steps/day) compared with the pedometer-only condition (-162 ± 620 steps/day; p < 0.05). Both pedometer groups similarly increased in subjective health and quality of life. CONCLUSIONS Providing children with pedometers and individualized step goals was an effective approach to produce weight loss. Further work is needed to increase the strength of interventions to achieve clinically meaningful weight reduction for children with obesity.
INTEGRITAS SEBAGAI PEMODERASI PENGARUH KOMPLEKSITAS TUGAS TERHADAP KUALITAS AUDIT

The complexity of the audit is one of the things that is often experienced by auditors in performing audit tasks. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of task complexity on the quality of the audit and determine the integrity as a moderating influence on the quality of the audit task complexity. This research was conducted at the KAP in Bali and East Java. The data used in this study are primary data obtained by distributing questionnaires directly to the respondent. The samples used in this study amounted to 49 obtained by using purposive sampling method. Data analysis techniques used in this study are Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA). The results of this study stated that the complexity of the task negative effect on audit quality and integrity can moderate (weaken) the effect of the complexity of the task to audit quality.
Semantic priming increases left hemisphere theta power and intertrial phase synchrony.

Information is stored in distributed cortical networks, but it is unclear how distributed stores are synthesized into a unified percept. Activation of local circuits in the gamma range (30 < < 80 Hz), and distributed stores in the low theta range (3-5 Hz) may underlie perceptual binding. Words have a crucial role in semantic memory. Within memory, the activation of distributed semantic stores is facilitated by conceptually related previous items, termed semantic priming. We sought to detect event-related brain oscillations (EROs) sensitive to semantic activation and priming. Here, we show that low theta evoked power and intertrial phase locking (4-5 Hz) from 250-350 msec over left hemisphere language areas was greater to related than to unrelated words. Theta band event-related oscillations over left hemisphere language areas may provide a brain signature for semantic activation across distributed stores being facilitated by semantic priming.
Direct access to physical therapy for the patient with musculoskeletal disorders, a literature review

[Purpose] To present legislation comparing direct and referred access—or other measures—to physical therapy. The focus is on the management of the most burdensome musculoskeletal disorders in terms of regulations, costs, effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness. [Methods] Main biomedical databases and gray literature were searched ranging from a global scenario to the analysis of targeted geographical areas and specifically Italy and the Region Piedmont. [Results] legislation on Direct Access highlights inconsistencies among the countries belonging to World Confederation for Physical Therapy. Direct Access could be an effective, safe and efficient organization model for the management of patients with musculoskeletal diseases and seems to be more effective safer and cost effective. [Conclusion] Direct Access is a virtuous model which can help improve the global quality of physical therapy services. Further studies are required to confirm this approach and determine whether the findings of the present overview can be replicated in different countries and healthcare systems.
Design of ultra-wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna for target RCS imaging

A low profile tapered slot antipodal Vivaldi antenna has been designed for array-based UWB target RCS imaging system. The antenna design with dimensions of 100mm×40mm achieves satisfactory impedance matching and radiation across the frequency band from 2.8 to 40 GHz with more than 173% fractional bandwidth. Both simulation and measurement results show that good radiation characteristics have been realized in the whole band. The antipodal Vivaldi antenna has been used in a MIMO antenna array for target RCS imaging successfully. The quality of image validates the performance of the antipodal Vivaldi antenna.
Dengue Virus Inhibits Alpha Interferon Signaling by Reducing STAT2 Expression

ABSTRACT Alpha/beta interferon (IFN-α/β) is a key mediator of innate antiviral responses but has little effect on the established replication of dengue viruses, which are mosquito-borne flaviviruses of immense global health importance. Understanding how the IFN system is inhibited in dengue virus-infected cells would provide critical insights into disease pathogenesis. In a recent study analyzing the ability of individual dengue virus-encoded proteins to antagonize the IFN response, nonstructural (NS) protein 4B and possibly NS2A and NS4A were identified as candidate IFN antagonists. In monkey cells, NS4B appeared to inhibit both the IFN-α/β and IFN-γ signal transduction pathways, which are distinct but overlapping (J. L. Munoz-Jordan, G. G. Sanchez-Burgos, M. Laurent-Rolle, and A. Garcia-Sastre, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:14333-14338, 2003). For this study, we examined the effects of dengue virus on the human IFN system, using cell lines that were stably transfected with self-replicating subgenomic dengue virus RNA (replicons) and that expressed all of the dengue virus nonstructural proteins together. We show here that in replicon-containing cells dengue virus RNA replication and the replication of encephalomyocarditis virus, an IFN-sensitive virus, are resistant to the antiviral effects of IFN-α. The presence of dengue virus replicons reduces global IFN-α-stimulated gene expression and specifically inhibits IFN-α but not IFN-γ signal transduction. In cells containing replicons or infected with dengue virus, we found reduced levels of signal transducer and activator of transcription 2 (STAT2), which is a key component of IFN-α but not IFN-γ signaling. Collectively, these data show that dengue virus is capable of subverting the human IFN response by down-regulating STAT2 expression.
MS-325 EPIX.

EPIX is developing MS-325 (AngioMARK), an intravascular magnetic resonance contrast agent for use in the imaging of blood vessels and blood flow in patients with cardiovascular disease, including peripheral vascular disease (PVD). In June 1999, EPIX and Mallinckrodt began phase III trials of MS-325 for the detection of aortoiliac occlusive disease in patients with PVD or abdominal aortic aneurysm [328640]. NDAs for the peripheral and cardiac applications were expected in 1999 and 2000, respectively [275240], [325717]. MS-325 has also shown promise in demonstrating the presence of microscopic muscular dystrophy, as well as monitoring the effects of gene therapy in a mouse model of the disease [360974]. MS-325 is a stable complex of gadolinium and an organic chelating agent. It resembles approved agents in terms of stability, safety and elimination profile, but possesses novel chemical groups which allow it to bind reversibly to albumin. This retains the agent in the blood and, via a patented biophysical phenomenon, enhances the magnetic properties of the gadolinium ion approximately ten-fold.