Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Group Wise-Based Method for Calculating Human miRNA Functional Similarity

The measurement of human miRNA functional similarity is an important research for studying miRNA-related therapeutic strategy. Pair wise-based approaches using disease-miRNA associations have recently become a popular tool for inferring miRNA functional similarity. However, the miRNA functional similarity is vitally influenced by calculation of the disease semantic similarity in those methods. Moreover, integrating information content with hierarchical structure can improve calculation of the miRNA functional similarity. Therefore, we propose a group-wise method for inferring the miRNA functional similarity, named GMFS. First, the information content is computed by using disease MeSH descriptors to describe the specific of disease. Second, the acquirement of disease feature is based on the hierarchical structure as well as the information content of disease. Finally, the miRNA functional similarity is measured by using both miRNA-disease associations and the disease feature. To validate the effectiveness of the GMFS, we compare our method with several existing methods in terms of the average similarity of intra-family, inter-family, intra-cluster, and inter-cluster groups. The $p$ -values achieved by non-parametric test further indicate that the GMFS could have reliable miRNA similarity. Besides, the correlation between other biological information of the miRNA and the miRNA functional similarity is analyzed. The influence of the varying parameter is shown. We also demonstrate that the constructed network based on the miRNA functional similarity is a scale-free and small-world network. The superior performance on uncovering lymphoma-related miRNAs explains the ability of the GMFS inferring the miRNA functional similarity.
Preserved cognitive function after 12 months of treatment with rivastigmine in mild Alzheimer's disease in comparison with untreated AD and MCI patients

Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) have shown positive symptomatic effects on cognition, activities of daily living, and behavior in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Rivastigmine is a slowly reversible ChEI that inhibits acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase. We evaluated the effects of long‐term rivastigmine treatment on cognitive function and plasma levels of ChE activity, and the relationship between ChE activity and cognition. Patients with mild AD (n = 11) treated with rivastigmine for 12 months were compared with matched groups of untreated patients with AD (n = 21) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 22) representing the natural course of the pre‐clinical and very early stage of disease. For untreated AD patients, neuropsychological assessment was made at baseline and 12 months. Determination of ChE activity in plasma and assessment of global cognition, episodic memory, visuospatial ability, and attention were performed at 0 (baseline), 3, 6, and 12 months for treated AD patients and untreated MCI patients. At 12 months, cognitive function was slightly improved or maintained in mild AD patients treated with rivastigmine. In contrast, cognition was markedly worsened in untreated AD patients and unchanged or slightly worsened in untreated MCI patients. In the group of treated AD patients, there was a significant correlation between plasma ChE inhibition and cognition, particularly in relation to attention. This effect was most apparent at 3 months of treatment. In conclusion, a clear beneficial effect of rivastigmine was shown on cognitive function for patients with mild AD and plasma values of ChE inhibition were associated with attention.
The Centre for Market and Public Organisation Fatal Fluctuations? – Cyclicality in Infant Mortality in India Fatal Fluctuations? - Cyclicality in Infant Mortality in India Fatal Fluctuations? - Cyclicality in Infant Mortality in India

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO) is a leading research centre, combining expertise in economics, geography and law. Our objective is to study the intersection between the public and private sectors of the economy, and in particular to understand the right way to organise and deliver public services. The Centre aims to develop research, contribute to the public debate and inform policy-making. CMPO, now an ESRC Research Centre was established in 1998 with two large grants from The Leverhulme Trust. In 2004 we were awarded ESRC Research Centre status, and CMPO now combines core funding from both the ESRC and the Trust. Abstract This paper investigates the impact of macroeconomic shocks on infant mortality in India and investigates likely mechanisms. A recent OECD-dominated literature shows that mortality at most ages is pro-cyclical but similar analyses for poorer countries are scarce, and both income risk and mortality risk are greater in poor countries. This paper uses individual data on infant mortality for about 150000 children born in 1970-1997, merged by birth-cohort with a state panel containing information on aggregate income. Identification rests upon comparing the effects of annual deviations in income from trend on the mortality risks of children born at different times to the same mother, conditional upon a number of state-time varying covariates including rainshocks. I cannot reject the null that income shocks have no effect on mortality in urban households, but I find that rural infant mortality is counter-cyclical, the elasticity being about-0.46. This is despite the possibility that relatively high risk women avert birth or suffer fetal loss in recessions. It seems related to the fact that women's participation in the (informal) labour market increases in recessions, presumably, to compensate a decline in their husband's wages. Consistent with this but, in contrast to results for richer countries, antenatal and postnatal health-care decline in recessions. These effects are reinforced by pro-cyclicality in state health and development expenditure. Another interesting finding that is informative about the underlying mechanisms is that the effect of aggregate income on rural mortality is driven by non-agricultural income.
Urinary excretion of transferrin by non-insulin-dependent diabetics: a marker for early complications?

We measured concentrations of transferrin (TRF, in micrograms), and creatinine (Cr, in millimoles) in samples of untimed urine from 53 healthy subjects and 157 non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDD) subjects. The urinary TRF/Cr ratio was significantly higher in the NIDD group (P less than 0.001). If NIDD subjects are grouped according to their Alb/Cr ratio into normal albuminuria (Group A, Alb/Cr less than 2.5 mg/mmol), microalbuminuria (Group B, Alb/Cr 2.5-26.8 mg/mmol), and macroalbuminuria (Group C, Alb/Cr greater than 26.8 mg/mmol), the TRF/Cr ratios in all three groups exceeded those for healthy controls. Moreover, this ratio was higher in Group B than in Group A and higher in Group C than in Group B. The value for TRF/Cr was clearly abnormal (i.e., exceeded the 95th percentile value found in healthy subjects) in 61%, 95%, and 100% of Group A, B, and C subjects, respectively. The TRF/Cr ratio was significantly higher in those NIDD subjects with clinical retinopathy, and it correlated with arterial pressure. Evidently, TRF/Cr may be increased early in NIDD subjects, and it may be a sensitive marker for detecting development of complications of diabetes.
The Kernel-Adatron Algorithm: A Fast and Simple Learning Procedure for Support Vector Machines

Support Vector Machines work by mapping training data for classiication tasks into a high dimensional feature space. In the feature space they then nd a maximal margin hyperplane which separates the data. This hyperplane is usually found using a quadratic programming routine which is computation-ally intensive, and is non trivial to implement. In this paper we propose an adaptation of the Adatron algorithm for clas-siication with kernels in high dimensional spaces. The algorithm is simple and can nd a solution very rapidly with an exponentially fast rate of convergence (in the number of iterations) towards the optimal solution. Experimental results with real and artiicial datasets are provided.
Work Engagement and Its Relationship with Various Dimensions of Work-related Well-being in the Public Transport Industry

This study investigated work engagement and its relationship with various dimensions of employee well-being among Zimbabwean bus drivers (n = 283). The participants completed variety of scales on various dimensions of work-related well-being: job satisfaction, happiness, stress/burnout, job demands and resources; and work engagement viz: the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), Work-Related Flow inventory (WOLF), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) as well as the Job Demands-Resources Scale (JD-R). Data analysis consisted of correlations, multiple regressions and multivariate analysis of variance to determine, if relationship existed between various dimensions of work engagement, happiness, job satisfaction, burnout, job demands and resources, the influence of job demands and resources on work engagement, happiness, job satisfaction and burnout and to assess if differences existed between the variables. Findings contribute to an understanding of how job demands and resources impact on employee’s work engagement, job satisfaction, work happiness and burnout, as well as propose pathways on how to increase positive aspects of employee well-being.
A pro-inflammatory role for the Frizzled-8 receptor in chronic bronchitis

Rationale We have previously shown increased expression of the Frizzled-8 receptor of the Wingless/integrase-1 (WNT) signalling pathway in COPD. Here, we investigated if the Frizzled-8 receptor has a functional role in airway inflammation associated with chronic bronchitis. Methods Acute cigarette-smoke-induced airway inflammation was studied in wild-type and Frizzled-8-deficient mice. Genetic association studies and lung expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analyses for Frizzled-8 were performed to evaluate polymorphisms in FZD8 and their relationship to tissue expression in chronic bronchitis. Primary human lung fibroblasts and primary human airway epithelial cells were used for in vitro studies. Results Cigarette-smoke-exposure induced airway inflammation in wild-type mice, which was prevented in Frizzled-8-deficient mice, suggesting a crucial role for Frizzled-8 in airway inflammation. Furthermore, we found a significant genetic association (p=0.009) between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs663700 in the FZD8 region and chronic mucus hypersecretion, a characteristic of chronic bronchitis, in a large cohort of smoking individuals. We found SNP rs663700 to be a cis-eQTL regulating Frizzled-8 expression in lung tissue. Functional data link mesenchymal Frizzled-8 expression to inflammation as its expression in COPD-derived lung fibroblasts was regulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines in a genotype-dependent manner. Moreover, Frizzled-8 regulates inflammatory cytokine secretion from human lung fibroblasts, which in turn promoted MUC5AC expression by differentiated human airway epithelium. Conclusions These findings indicate an important pro-inflammatory role for Frizzled-8 and suggest that its expression is related to chronic bronchitis. Furthermore, our findings indicate an unexpected role for fibroblasts in regulating airway inflammation in COPD.
Epileptic Discharge Related Functional Connectivity Within and Between Networks in Benign Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes

Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is a common childhood epilepsy syndrome associated with abnormalities in neurocognitive domains, particularly during interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs). Here, we investigated the effects of IEDs on brain's intrinsic connectivity networks in 43 BECTS patients and 28 matched healthy controls (HCs). Patients were further divided into IED and non-IED subgroups based on simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings. Functional connectivity within and between five networks, corresponding to seizure origination and cognitive processes, were analyzed to measure IED effects. We found that patients exhibited increased connectivity within the auditory network (AN) and the somato-motor network (SMN), and decreased connectivity within the basal ganglia network and the dorsal attention network, suggesting that both transient and chronic seizure activity may disturb normal network organization. The IED group showed decreased functional connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) compared with the non-IED group and HCs, implying that the DMN was selectively impaired during epileptiform discharges associated with altered self-referential cognitive functions. Moreover, the IED group exhibited increased positive correlations between the AN and the SMN, which suggests a possible excessive influence of centrotemporal spiking on information processing in the auditory system. The association between epileptic activity and network dysfunctions highlights their importance in investigating the pathological mechanism underlying BECTS.
Structural Analysis of Major Species Barriers between Humans and Palm Civets for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infections

ABSTRACT It is believed that a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), was passed from palm civets to humans and caused the epidemic of SARS in 2002 to 2003. The major species barriers between humans and civets for SARS-CoV infections are the specific interactions between a defined receptor-binding domain (RBD) on a viral spike protein and its host receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). In this study a chimeric ACE2 bearing the critical N-terminal helix from civet and the remaining peptidase domain from human was constructed, and it was shown that this construct has the same receptor activity as civet ACE2. In addition, crystal structures of the chimeric ACE2 complexed with RBDs from various human and civet SARS-CoV strains were determined. These structures, combined with a previously determined structure of human ACE2 complexed with the RBD from a human SARS-CoV strain, have revealed a structural basis for understanding the major species barriers between humans and civets for SARS-CoV infections. They show that the major species barriers are determined by interactions between four ACE2 residues (residues 31, 35, 38, and 353) and two RBD residues (residues 479 and 487), that early civet SARS-CoV isolates were prevented from infecting human cells due to imbalanced salt bridges at the hydrophobic virus/receptor interface, and that SARS-CoV has evolved to gain sustained infectivity for human cells by eliminating unfavorable free charges at the interface through stepwise mutations at positions 479 and 487. These results enhance our understanding of host adaptations and cross-species infections of SARS-CoV and other emerging animal viruses.
Use of internet for academic purposes among students in Malaysian institutions of higher education

Students in institutions of higher learning should take advantage of information available on the Internet in their coursework. The Internet is also utilised for social and other non-academic functions. Hence, it is desirable, for students to strike a balance in the time spent online for academic and non-academic purposes. In this study, the durations spent on the Internet for academic and non-academic purposes were investigated based on a survey on 1675 students randomly selected from five different fields of study, viz. social sciences, sciences, engineering, agriculture and computer sciences. On average, the participants accessed the Internet 4.48 hours per day. There were also significant differences in the time spent using the Internet among students in different fields of study, with computer science students spending more time online (5.61 hours per day) than the others. In terms of Internet use for academic purposes, students in social sciences, agriculture and computer sciences scored the highest. In an analysis involving all the students in this study, the total time on the Internet was found to be weakly correlated with the time spent online specifically for academic purposes. For social science students, a low but significant positive correlation existed between the overall time spent online and the time spent on the Internet for academic research. In a similar analysis carried out for science students, a negative low correlation was observed. In the fields of agriculture, engineering and computer sciences, however, no correlation was found between Internet access duration and the use of the Internet for academic purposes. The very low correlations encountered above, even though statistically significant, showed that students who spent more time on the Internet did not make much greater use of it for academic purposes as compared with students who used the Internet less.
Building up or out? Disparate sequence architectures along an active rift margin—Corinth rift, Greece

Early Pleistocene synrift deltas developed along the southern Corinth rift margin were deposited in a single, dominantly lacustrine depocenter and were subject to the same climate-related base-level and sediment supply cyclicity. Two synrift deltas, just 50 km apart, show markedly different sequence geometry and evolution related to their location along the evolving border fault. In the west, strongly aggradational fan deltas (>600 m thick; 2–4 km radius) deposited in the immediate hanging wall of the active border fault comprise stacked 30–100 m thick stratal units bounded by flooding surfaces. Each unit evolves from aggradational to progradational with no evidence for abrupt subaerial exposure or fluvial incision. In contrast, in the central rift, the border fault propagated upward into an already deep lacustrine environment, locating rift-margin deltas 15 km into the footwall. The deltas here have a radius of >9 km and comprise northward downstepping and offlapping units, 50–200 m thick, that unconformably overlie older synrift sediments and are themselves incised. The key factors driving the marked variation in sequence stratigraphic architecture are: (1) differential uplift and subsidence related to position with respect to the border fault system, and (2) inherited topography that influenced shoreline position and offshore bathymetry. Our work illustrates that stratal units and their bounding surfaces may have only local (<10 km) extent, highlighting the uncertainty involved in assigning chronostratigraphic significance to systems tracts and in calculating base-level changes from stratigraphy where marked spatial variations in uplift and subsidence occur.
Interference by Huntingtin and Atrophin-1 with CBP-Mediated Transcription Leading to Cellular Toxicity

Expanded polyglutamine repeats have been proposed to cause neuronal degeneration in Huntington's disease (HD) and related disorders, through abnormal interactions with other proteins containing short polyglutamine tracts such as the transcriptional coactivator CREB binding protein, CBP. We found that CBP was depleted from its normal nuclear location and was present in polyglutamine aggregates in HD cell culture models, HD transgenic mice, and human HD postmortem brain. Expanded polyglutamine repeats specifically interfere with CBP-activated gene transcription, and overexpression of CBP rescued polyglutamine-induced neuronal toxicity. Thus, polyglutamine-mediated interference with CBP-regulated gene transcription may constitute a genetic gain of function, underlying the pathogenesis of polyglutamine disorders.
Approximating Layout Problems on Random Geometric Graphs

In this paper, we study the approximability of several layout problems on a family of random geometric graphs. Vertices of random geometric graphs are randomly distributed on the unit square and are connected by edges whenever they are closer than some given parameter. The layout problems that we consider are bandwidth, minimum linear arrangement, minimum cut width, minimum sum cut, vertex separation, and edge bisection. We first prove that some of these problems remain NP-complete even for geometric graphs. Afterwards, we compute lower bounds that hold, almost surely, for random geometric graphs. Then, we present two heuristics that, almost surely, turn out to be constant approximation algorithms for our layout problems on random geometric graphs. In fact, for the bandwidth and vertex separation problems, these heuristics are asymptotically optimal. Finally, we use the theoretical results in order to empirically compare these and other well-known heuristics.
Active vitamin D 3 , 1 , 25-( OH ) 2 D 3 , protects against macrovasculopathy in a rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus

To investigate the protective effect of the active form of vitamin D3, 1,25-(OH)2D3, on macrovasculopathy in rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 8-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control group, T2DM group, and treatment group. The T2DM model was established after 6 weeks by administering an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (30 mg/kg). 1,25-(OH)2D3 was administered by gavage to rats in the treatment group, and an equal volume of peanut oil was administered to rats in the T2DM group. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) cholesterols were measured in all rats. The morphology of the thoracic aorta was examined, and the expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), endothelin (ET), endothelial nitric oxide synthase
Coronally advanced flap versus the pouch technique combined with a connective tissue graft to treat Miller's class I gingival recession: a randomized controlled trial.

AIM The objective of this study was to compare two different periodontal plastic surgery procedures to treat Miller's class I recession: a coronally advanced flap(control group) versus the pouch technique (test group), both of which were associated with connective tissue graft. METHODS Forty consecutive patients were included, with 20 patients being allocated for each group. The level of recession coverage, the keratinized tissue (KT)quantity, gingival aesthetics (PES) and post-operative outcomes were assessed for a follow-up period of 6 months. RESULTS After 6 months, both techniques allowed for the excellent mean root coverage of 96.3 plus/minus 12.1% in the control group and of 91.3 plus/minus 17.6% in the test group.Complete root coverage was achieved in 89.5% (17/19) and 79% (15/19) of the recession cases in the control and the test groups respectively. A significant increase in KT height (p = 0.0011) was observed in the test group. A significant improvement in the pink aesthetic score was found in the two groups, but gingival texture displayed significantly better results in the test group (p < 0.0001). No significant difference between the two groups was found in terms of the morbidity outcomes. Pain killer consumption was similar in the two groups and significantly decreased over time. CONCLUSIONS Both surgical techniques are relevant in treating Miller's class I recession. The pouch technique seems to increase the height of KT better and provides good gingival-related aesthetic outcomes.