Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution Analysis of Simple Sequence Repeats in Plant Genome

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are widespread units on genome sequences, and play many important roles in plants. In order to reveal the evolution of plant genomes, we investigated the evolutionary regularities of SSRs during the evolution of plant species and the plant kingdom by analysis of twelve sequenced plant genome sequences. First, in the twelve studied plant genomes, the main SSRs were those which contain repeats of 1–3 nucleotides combination. Second, in mononucleotide SSRs, the A/T percentage gradually increased along with the evolution of plants (except for P. patens). With the increase of SSRs repeat number the percentage of A/T in C. reinhardtii had no significant change, while the percentage of A/T in terrestrial plants species gradually declined. Third, in dinucleotide SSRs, the percentage of AT/TA increased along with the evolution of plant kingdom and the repeat number increased in terrestrial plants species. This trend was more obvious in dicotyledon than monocotyledon. The percentage of CG/GC showed the opposite pattern to the AT/TA. Forth, in trinucleotide SSRs, the percentages of combinations including two or three A/T were in a rising trend along with the evolution of plant kingdom; meanwhile with the increase of SSRs repeat number in plants species, different species chose different combinations as dominant SSRs. SSRs in C. reinhardtii, P. patens, Z. mays and A. thaliana showed their specific patterns related to evolutionary position or specific changes of genome sequences. The results showed that, SSRs not only had the general pattern in the evolution of plant kingdom, but also were associated with the evolution of the specific genome sequence. The study of the evolutionary regularities of SSRs provided new insights for the analysis of the plant genome evolution.
GFAP‐expressing cells in the postnatal subventricular zone display a unique glial phenotype intermediate between radial glia and astrocytes

Neural stem cells in the adult subventricular zone (SVZ) derive from radial glia and express the astroglial marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Thus, they have been termed astrocytes. However, it remains unknown whether these GFAP‐expressing cells express the functional features common to astrocytes. Using immunostaining and patch clamp recordings in acute slices from transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) driven by the promoter of human GFAP, we show that GFAP‐expressing cells in the postnatal SVZ display typical glial properties shared by astrocytes and prenatal radial glia such as lack of action potentials, hyperpolarized resting potentials, gap junction coupling, connexin 43 expression, hemichannels, a passive current profile, and functional glutamate transporters. GFAP‐expressing cells express both GLAST and GLT‐1 glutamate transporters but lack AMPA‐type glutamate receptors as reported for dye‐coupled astrocytes. However, they lack 100 μM Ba2+‐sensitive inwardly rectifying K+ (KIR) currents expressed by astrocytes, but display delayed rectifying K+ currents and 1 mM Ba2+‐sensitive K+ currents. These currents contribute to K+ transport at rest and maintain hyperpolarized resting potentials. GFAP‐expressing cells stained positive for both KIR2.1 and KIR4.1 channels, two major KIR channels in astrocytes. Ependymal cells, which also derive from radial glia and express GFAP, display typical glial properties and KIR currents consistent with their postmitotic nature. Our results suggest that GFAP‐expressing cells in concert with ependymal cells can perform typical astrocytic functions such as K+ and glutamate buffering in the postnatal SVZ but display a unique set of functional characteristics intermediate between astrocytes and radial glia. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On the Independence of Compliance and Reliance: Are Automation False Alarms Worse Than Misses?

Objective: Participants performed a tracking task and system monitoring task while aided by diagnostic automation. The goal of the study was to examine operator compliance and reliance as affected by automation failures and to clarify claims regarding independence of these two constructs. Background: Background data revealed a trend toward nonindependence of the compliance-reliance constructs. Method: Thirty-two undergraduate students performed the simulation that presented the visual display while dependent measures were collected. Results: False alarm—prone automation hurt overall performance more than miss-prone automation. False alarm—prone automation also clearly affected both operator compliance and reliance, whereas miss-prone automation appeared to affect only operator reliance. Conclusion: Compliance and reliance do not appear to be entirely independent of each other. Application: False alarms appear to be more damaging to overall performance than misses, and designers must take the compliance-reliance constructs into consideration.
Ceramide Generation by the Reaper Protein Is Not Blocked by the Caspase Inhibitor, p35*

The Reaper (Rpr) gene encodes a 65-amino acid protein that induces apoptosis in Drosophila by an unknown mechanism. A previous study reported that Rpr expression induced generation of the lipid second messenger ceramide and through use of the peptide caspase inhibitorN-benzyloxycarbonyl-VAD-fluoromethylketone(zVAD.fmk) ordered ceramide generation downstream of caspases in SL2 cells (Pronk, G. J., Ramer, K., Amiri, P., and Williams, L. T. (1996)Science 271, 808–810). The present study re-evaluates these events in SL2 cells transfected with cDNA for Rpr, with or without the baculovirus caspase inhibitor p35, under the control of the metallothionein promoter. Following copper addition, Rpr protein was detected at 1.5 h and maximal at 2.5 h. Ceramide generation and caspase activation occurred nearly simultaneously, each detectable at 2–2.5 h and maximal at 6 h. Ceramide levels increased from a base line of 5 pmol/nmol lipid phosphorus to a maximum of 10 pmol/nmol lipid phosphorus. Identical increases in ceramide were detected using the enzymatic 1,2-diacylglycerol kinase assay or the non-enzymatico-phthalaldehyde derivatization high pressure liquid chromatography assay. In contrast, diacylglycerol levels were not increased by Rpr expression. Apoptosis, first detected at 4 h, was maximal at 16 h. Co-expression of p35 did not affect Rpr-induced ceramide generation, whereas caspase activation and apoptosis were abolished. In contrast, zVAD.fmk inhibited ceramide generation and apoptosis. These data show that Rpr-induced ceramide generation is upstream or independent of p35-inhibitable caspases and demonstrate differences in the actions of peptide and p35 caspase inhibitors.
Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset

Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and periods. This paper studies the effect of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product markets, agriculture, and trade for 150 countries over the period 1960-2004. Democracy has a positive and significant impact on the adoption of economic reforms but there is scarce evidence that economic reforms foster democracy. Our results are robust to the inclusion of a large variety of controls and estimation strategies.
Touchscreen interventions and the well-being of people with dementia and caregivers: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Background: Dementia can have significant detrimental impacts on the well-being of those with the disease and their carers. A range of computer-based interventions, including touchscreen-based interventions have been researched for use with this population in the hope that they might improve psychological well-being. This article reviews touchscreen-based interventions designed to be used by people with dementia (PWD), with a specific focus in assessing their impact on well-being. Method: The data bases, PsycInfo, ASSIA, Medline, CINAHL, and Cochrane Reviews were searched for touchscreen-based interventions designed to be used by PWD with reported psychological well-being outcomes. Methodological quality was assessed using Pluye and Hong's (2014) Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) checklist. Results: Sixteen papers were eligible. They covered 14 methodologically diverse interventions. Interventions were reported to be beneficial in relation to mental health, social interaction, and sense of mastery. Touchscreen interventions also reportedly benefit informal carers in relation to their perceived burden and the quality of their relationships with the people they care for. Key aspects included the user interface, provision of support, learning style, tailored content, appropriate challenge, ergonomics, and users’ dementia progression. Conclusions: Whilst much of the existing research is relatively small-scale, the findings tentatively suggest that touchscreen-based interventions can improve the psychological well-being of PWD, and possibilities for more rigorous future research are suggested.
The Effect of Age and Native Speaker Status on Intelligibility

We investigate whether listener age or native speaker status has the biggest impact on the intelligibility of a synthetic New Zealand English voice. The paper presents findings from a speech intelligibility experiment based on a reminding task involving 67 participants. There were no significant differences in the results due to age (young and old adults), however there was for native speaker status. The nonnative listeners performed significantly worse than the native listeners in the synthetic speech condition although no differences were found in the natural speech condition. We argue that despite the fact that aging impacts on speech perception, the older native listeners were able to draw on their in depth language model to help them parse the synthetic speech. The non-native speakers do not have such an in depth model to assist them.
PARM-1 Is an Endoplasmic Reticulum Molecule Involved in Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Induced Apoptosis in Rat Cardiac Myocytes

To identify novel transmembrane and secretory molecules expressed in cardiac myocytes, signal sequence trap screening was performed in rat neonatal cardiac myocytes. One of the molecules identified was a transmembrane protein, prostatic androgen repressed message-1 (PARM-1). While PARM-1 has been identified as a gene induced in prostate in response to castration, its function is largely unknown. Our expression analysis revealed that PARM-1 was specifically expressed in hearts and skeletal muscles, and in the heart, cardiac myocytes, but not non-myocytes expressed PARM-1. Immunofluorescent staining showed that PARM-1 was predominantly localized in endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In Dahl salt-sensitive rats, high-salt diet resulted in hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and subsequent heart failure, and significantly stimulated PARM-1 expression in the hearts, with a concomitant increase in ER stress markers such as GRP78 and CHOP. In cultured cardiac myocytes, PARM-1 expression was stimulated by proinflammatory cytokines, but not by hypertrophic stimuli. A marked increase in PARM-1 expression was observed in response to ER stress inducers such as thapsigargin and tunicamycin, which also induced apoptotic cell death. Silencing PARM-1 expression by siRNAs enhanced apoptotic response in cardiac myocytes to ER stresses. PARM-1 silencing also repressed expression of PERK and ATF6, and augmented expression of CHOP without affecting IRE-1 expression and JNK and Caspase-12 activation. Thus, PARM-1 expression is induced by ER stress, which plays a protective role in cardiac myocytes through regulating PERK, ATF6 and CHOP expression. These results suggested that PARM-1 is a novel ER transmembrane molecule involved in cardiac remodeling in hypertensive heart disease.
Weighted maximum likelihood denoising with iterative and probabilistic patch-based weights

Image denoising is an important problem in image processing since the noise makes difficult their visual or automatic interpretation. Hence, a well-adapted preprocessing step is required to denoise the images before analyzing them. The paper presents a new approach for image denoising when an uncorrelated noise model is provided. The proposed filter is a generalization of the non local means algorithm introduced by Buades et al. [1], which performs an average of the values of similar pixels (pixels with similar neighborhoods). The definition of the filter is more general since it is based on a weighted maximum likelihood estimation with patch-based weights adapted to a noise model (without restriction to additive white Gaussian noise). We also propose to extend the non local means to an iterative scheme similar to the expectation-maximization approach [2] which seems especially relevant for low signal to noise ratio images. The experiments are realized on the “Lena” image, corrupted by a strong additive white Gaussian noise, and on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, corrupted by a multiplicative speckle noise.
Protein synthesis in pulmonary, cardiac, and skeletal muscle in acute hypertension induced by aortic constriction in the rat.

OBJECTIVE The aim was to investigate nucleic acid composition and rates of protein synthesis in cardiopulmonary tissues and skeletal muscle in response to hypertension induced by aortic constriction. METHODS After five days of abdominal aortic constriction, protein, RNA, and DNA contents were measured in the lung, the left and right atria, the left and right ventricles, and gastrocnemius muscle from young male Wistar rats weighing 120-140 g. Rates of protein synthesis were also measured in these tissues with L[4-3H]phenylalanine. RESULTS Aortic constriction significantly increased the right atrial weight and in contrast reduced the lung weight, compared to pair fed and sham operated controls. The wet weights of all other tissues were unaffected. The concentrations of right atrial proteins, RNA, and DNA were also significantly reduced though total protein, RNA, and DNA contents were unaltered. The left ventricular RNA concentration increased and there were variable alterations in protein and DNA composition. The protein, RNA, and DNA compositions of the other tissues showed patterned responses, which included reductions in lung and skeletal muscle DNA concentrations, reductions in the skeletal muscle RNA/DNA ratio, and a decrease in the lung protein/DNA ratio. In response to aortic constriction there were increases in the left ventricular fractional rate of protein synthesis in mixed, high salt (myofibrillar), and low salt (sarcoplasmic) fractions. Rates of protein synthesis in all other regions of the heart, lung and skeletal muscle were not significantly changed. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that in abdominal aortic constriction, the left ventricles display early adaptive responses without any concomitant change in mass. Those regions of the rat cardiopulmonary system which are not directly exposed to the acute pressure overloading, ie, right atrium, lungs, and skeletal muscle, also show disturbances.
Psychosocial impacts of cleft : a review of the literature

Background: A cleft of the lip and / or palate (CLP) is one of the most commonly occurring congenital conditions, with a global estimated incidence of 1 in 700 births. The long term care of patients with a cleft condition involves many years of multidisciplinary therapy, treatment and surgical interventions at both fixed and varying time points. As well as the physical component of this complex condition, consideration must also be given to the emotional and psychosocial implications that may arise from this long term treatment commitment. Objectives: This review investigated the psychosocial impacts of cleft and recommended actions reported in the literature across three physical and psychologically significant developmental age cohorts. It sought to address questions of whether people with a cleft are at increased risk of developing psychosocial problems, what psychosocial problems are developed within each age group, and what recommendations and trialled interventions were indicated to address these problems. Results: Overall, the literature reports that the majority of children, adolescents and adults with CLP do not appear to experience major psychological disorders, however, they are at a higher risk of developing specific psychosocial problems in four key areas: self-esteem and self-worth; social inhibition and isolation; depression and anxiety, and appearance dissatisfaction. Conclusion: Results indicated an abundance of tools for attempting measurement of psychosocial problems with equally abundant recommendations for further verification study but very few definitive recommendations for intervention strategies or outcomes from trialled intervention strategies.
Associations Between Obesity Indicators and Blood Pressure in Chinese Adult Twins

Obesity is associated with blood pressure (BP), but the associations between different obesity indicators and BP have not reached agreement. Besides, both obesity and BP are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Whether they share the same genetic or environmental etiology has not been fully understood. We therefore analyzed the relationship between different obesity indicators and BP components as well as the genetic and environmental contributions to these relationships in a Chinese adult twin sample. Twins aged 18–79 years (n = 941) were included in this study. Body mass index (BMI) was used as the index of general obesity, whereas waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were used as the indicators of central obesity. BP components included systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Linear regression models and bivariate structural equation models were used to examine the relation of various obesity indicators with BP components, and genetic or environmental influences on these associations, respectively. A strong association of BP components with BMI—and a somewhat weaker association with WC, WHtR, and WHR—was found in both sexes, independent of familial factors. Of these phenotypic correlations between obesity indicators and BP components, 60–76% were attributed to genetic factors, whereas 24–40% were attributed to unique environmental factors. General obesity was most strongly associated with high BP in Chinese adult twins. There were common genetic backgrounds for obesity and BP, and unique environmental factors also played a role.
Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on the Evaluation of Stable Chest Pain Patients: Insights From the PROMISE (Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain) Trial

Background The impact of diabetes mellitus on the clinical presentation and noninvasive test (NIT) results among stable outpatients presenting with symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease (CAD) has not been well described. Methods and Results The PROMISE (Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain) trial enrolled 10 003 patients with known diabetic status, of whom 8966 were tested as randomized and had interpretable NIT results (1908 with diabetes mellitus, 21%). Differences in symptoms and NIT results were evaluated using logistic regression. Patients with diabetes mellitus (versus without) were similar in age (median 61 versus 60 years) and sex (female 54% versus 52%), had a greater burden of cardiovascular comorbidities, and had a similar likelihood of nonchest pain symptoms (29% versus 27%). The Diamond‐Forrester/Coronary Artery Surgery Study score predicted that patients with diabetes mellitus (versus without) had similar likelihood of obstructive CAD (low 1.8% versus 2.7%; intermediate 92.3% versus 92.6%; high 5.9% versus 4.7%). Physicians estimated patients with diabetes mellitus to have a higher likelihood of obstructive CAD (low to very low: 28.3% versus 40.1%; intermediate 63.9% versus 55.9%; high to very high 7.8% versus 4.0%). Patients with diabetes mellitus (versus without) were more likely to have a positive NIT result (15% versus 11%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.23; P=0.01). Conclusions Stable chest pain patients with and without diabetes mellitus have similar presentation and pretest likelihood of obstructive CAD; however, physicians perceive that patients with diabetes mellitus have a higher pretest likelihood of obstructive CAD, an assessment supported by increased risk of a positive NIT. Further evaluation of diabetes mellitus's influence on CAD assessment is required. Clinical Trial Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01174550.
Area optimization of lightweight lattice-based encryption on reconfigurable hardware

Ideal lattice-based cryptography gained significant attraction in the last years due to its versatility, simplicity and performance in implementations. Nevertheless, existing implementations of encryption schemes reported only results trimmed for high-performance what is certainly not sufficient for all applications in practice. To the contrary, in this work we investigate lightweight aspects and suitable parameter sets for Ring-LWE encryption and show optimizations that enable implementations even with very few resources on a reconfigurable hardware device. Despite of this restriction, we still achieve reasonable throughput that is sufficient for many today's and future applications.
Polyphenolic Profile and Antioxidant Activities of Nigella Sativa Seed Extracts In Vitro and In Vivo

Nigella sativa L. is an aromatic plant belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. It has been used traditionall y, especially in the middle East and India, for the treatment of asthma, cough, bronchitis, headache, rheumatism, fever, influenza and eczema. Several biological activities have been reported in Nigella sativa seeds, including antioxidant. In this context we tried to estimate the antioxidant activity of various extracts prepared f rom Nigella sativa seeds, methanolic extract (ME), chloroformic extrac t (CE), hexanic extract (HE : fixed oil), ethyl acetate extract (EA ) water extract (WE). The Folin-Ciocalteu assay showed that CE and EAE contained high level of phenolic compounds 81.31 and 72. 43μg GAE/mg of extract respectively. Similarly, the CE and EAE exh ibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity, with IC 50 values of 106. 56μg/ml and 121. 62μg/ml respectively. In addition, CE and H E showed the most scavenging activity against superoxide radical generated in the PMS-NADH-NBT system with respective IC 50 values of 361.86 μg/ml and 371.80 μg/ml, which is comparable to the activity of the standard antioxidant BHT (344.59 μg/ml). Ferrous io n chelating capacity assay showed that WE, EAE and ME are the m ost active with 40.57, 39.70 and 22.02 mg EDTA-E/g of extract. The inhibition of linoleic acid/ß-carotene coupled oxidation was e stimated by ßcarotene bleaching assay, this showed a highest rel ative antioxidant activity with CE and EAE (69.82% of inhibition). Th e antioxidant activities of the methanolic extract and the fixed oil are confirmed by an in vivo assay in mice, the daily oral administration of me thanolic extract (500 and 800 mg/kg/day) and fixed oil (2 an d 4 ml/kg/day) during 21 days, resulted in a significant enhanceme nt of the blood total antioxidant capacity (measured by KRL test) a nd the plasmatic antioxidant capacity towards DPPH radical. Keywords—Antioxidant Capacity, Chelating, Phenolic Compounds, Nigella Sativa, Scavenger