Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
barx1 represses joints and promotes cartilage in the craniofacial skeleton

The evolution of joints, which afford skeletal mobility, was instrumental in vertebrate success. Here, we explore the molecular genetics and cell biology that govern jaw joint development. Genetic manipulation experiments in zebrafish demonstrate that functional loss, or gain, of the homeobox-containing gene barx1 produces gain, or loss, of joints, respectively. Ectopic joints in barx1 mutant animals are present in every pharyngeal segment, and are associated with disrupted attachment of bone, muscles and teeth. We find that ectopic joints develop at the expense of cartilage. Time-lapse experiments suggest that barx1 controls the skeletal precursor cell choice between differentiating into cartilage versus joint cells. We discovered that barx1 functions in this choice, in part, by regulating the transcription factor hand2. We further show that hand2 feeds back to negatively regulate barx1 expression. We consider the possibility that changes in barx1 function in early vertebrates were among the key innovations fostering the evolution of skeletal joints.
Development of leg-wheel hybrid quadruped “AirHopper” design of powerful light-weight leg with wheel

This paper proposes a new leg-wheel hybrid jumping robot ldquoAirHopperrdquo. AirHopper is expected to overcome uneven terrain, which is difficult to move around for ordinary vehicles which carry supplies for disaster areas or isolated districts. To acquire high mobility and jumping, AirHopper consists of the following mechanisms. 1) 4 legs that are widely spread like a spider for stability, 2) active wheels on its feet which are driven by built-in motors and transmissions, 3) 2 decoupled pneumatic cylinders per leg and a built-in piston that drive 4-bar linkage leg mechanism. In this paper, we proposed the design of a powerful light weight leg-wheel mechanism, and verified its validity. AirHopper jumped 850 mm vertically, and landed on the ground softly by means of controlling in-cylinder pressure. Running jump motion was also achieved.
PRISMA: PRoximal Iterative SMoothing Algorithm

Motivated by learning problems including max-norm regularized matrix completion and clustering, robust PCA and sparse inverse covariance selection, we propose a novel optimization algorithm for minimizing a convex objective which decomposes into three parts: a smooth part, a simple non-smooth Lipschitz part, and a simple non-smooth non-Lipschitz part. We use a time variant smoothing strategy that allows us to obtain a guarantee that does not depend on knowing in advance the total number of iterations nor a bound on the domain.
Risk of deep vein thrombosis following a single negative whole-leg compression ultrasound: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

CONTEXT In patients with suspected lower extremity deep vein thrombosis (DVT), compression ultrasound (CUS) is typically the initial test to confirm or exclude DVT. Patients with an initial negative CUS result often require repeat CUS after 5 to 7 days. Whole-leg CUS may exclude proximal and distal DVT in a single evaluation. OBJECTIVE To determine the risk of venous thromboembolism after withholding anticoagulation in patients with suspected lower extremity DVT following a single negative whole-leg CUS result. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, LILACS, Cochrane, and Health Technology Assessments databases were searched for articles published from January 1970 through November 2009. Supplemental searches were performed of Internet resources, reference lists, and by contacting content experts. STUDY SELECTION Included studies were randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies of patients with suspected DVT and a negative whole-leg CUS result who did not receive anticoagulant therapy, and were followed up at least 90 days for venous thromboembolism events. DATA EXTRACTION Two authors independently reviewed and extracted data regarding a single positive or negative whole-leg CUS result, occurrence of venous thromboembolism during follow-up, and study quality. RESULTS Seven studies were included totaling 4731 patients with negative whole-leg CUS examinations who did not receive anticoagulation. Of these, up to 647 patients (13.7%) had active cancer and up to 725 patients (15.3%) recently underwent a major surgery. Most participants were identified from an ambulatory setting. Venous thromboembolism or suspected venous thromboembolism-related death occurred in 34 patients (0.7%), including 11 patients with distal DVT (32.4%); 7 patients with proximal DVT (20.6%); 7 patients with nonfatal pulmonary emboli (20.6%); and 9 patients (26.5%) who died, possibly related to venous thromboembolism. Using a random-effects model with inverse variance weighting, the combined venous thromboembolism event rate at 3 months was 0.57% (95% confidence interval, 0.25%-0.89%). CONCLUSION Withholding anticoagulation following a single negative whole-leg CUS result was associated with a low risk of venous thromboembolism during 3-month follow-up.
Two years of Denosumab and teriparatide administration in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis (The DATA Extension Study): a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Current osteoporosis medications increase bone mineral density (BMD) modestly and reduce, but do not eliminate, fracture risk. Attempts to improve efficacy by administering anabolic agents and bisphosphonates concomitantly have been unsuccessful. Conversely, 12 months of concomitant denosumab and teriparatide therapy increases BMD more than either drug alone. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine whether 24 months of combined denosumab and teriparatide will increase hip and spine BMD more than either individual agent. DESIGN Preplanned continuation of the Denosumab and Teriparatide Administration (DATA) randomized controlled trial in which postmenopausal osteoporotic women received teriparatide (20 μg daily), denosumab (60 mg every 6 months), or both medications for 24 months. PARTICIPANTS Participants were 94 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. OUTCOME MEASURES Lumbar spine, femoral neck, total hip, and distal radius BMD and serum markers of bone turnover were measured. RESULTS At 24 months, lumbar spine BMD increased more in the combination group (12.9 ± 5.0%) than in either the teriparatide (9.5 ± 5.9%, P = .01) or denosumab (8.3 ± 3.4%, P = .008) groups. Femoral neck BMD also increased more in the combination group (6.8 ± 3.6%) than in either the teriparatide (2.8 ± 3.9%, P = .003) or denosumab (4.1 ± 3.8%, P = .008) groups. Similarly, total hip BMD increased more in the combination group (6.3 ± 2.6%) than in the teriparatide (2.0 ± 3.0%) or denosumab (3.2 ± 2.5%) groups (P < .001 for both). Although spine and hip BMD continued to increase in the second year in all groups, these year 2 increases did not differ among groups. Serum C-telopeptide and N-terminal propeptide of type 1 procollagen were equally suppressed in the denosumab and combination groups, whereas osteocalcin decreased more in the denosumab group than in the combination group, a difference that persisted, but lessened, in the second year of therapy. CONCLUSIONS Two years of concomitant teriparatide and denosumab therapy increases BMD more than therapy with either medication alone and more than has been reported with any current therapy. The combination of these agents may prove to be an important treatment option in patients at high risk of fracture.
Misinterpretation of the Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale by patients with panic disorder during ergospirometry challenge

Introduction The most widely used instrument to measure perceived exertion or exercise intensity is the Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale. Panic attacks are aversive experiences that may be triggered by bodily sensations such as palpitations, breathlessness or dizziness due to increasing autonomic distress, prior sensitisation to panic and fear conditioning. The consequence is catastrophic interpretation of bodily sensations of arousal in general, which can lead to misinterpretation of exertion or exercise intensity. Purpose To verify the effectiveness of the Borg’s RPE Scale as a measure of perceived effort in panic disorder subjects. Methods The study enrolled 72 subjects: the control group (C, healthy sedentary subjects, n=30) and patients with panic disorder (PD, n=42). All subjects were submitted to an ergospirometry challenge. Perceived exertion RPE scores and heart rate at 90% VO2max were compared between groups. Results Patients with PD showed lower levels of maximal oxygen consumption, when compared with C group [VO2max (mL/kg/min): PD=29.42±6.50xC=34.51±5.35; Student's t-test=−3.51; p <0.05]. Furthermore, among PD subjects, the maximum heart rate during ergospirometry challenge was lower than expected [predict max HR (bpm)=200.85±6.33xheart rate test (bpm)=178.86±7.28; Z=−5.64; p<0.05]. Perceived exertion, as measured by RPE, was also overestimated in relation to heart rate at 90% of maximum oxygen consumption compared with controls (RPE90%VO2max: PD=18.93±0.55xC=16.67±0.60; U=8.00; Z=7.42; p<0.05). Conclusions The present study findings suggest that the Borg’s RPE Scale may not be an appropriate measure of subjective exertion among subjects with panic disorder performing a cardiopulmonary exercise test.
Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk-Taking?

We investigate whether individuals' experiences of macro-economic outcomes have long-term effects on their risk attitudes, as often suggested for the generation that experienced the Great Depression. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances from 1964-2004, we find that individuals who have experienced low stock-market returns throughout their lives report lower willingness to take financial risk, are less likely to participate in the stock market, and, conditional on participating, invest a lower fraction of their liquid assets in stocks. Individuals who have experienced low bond returns are less likely to own bonds. All results are estimated controlling for age, year effects, and a broad set of household characteristics. Our estimates indicate that more recent return experiences have stronger effects, but experiences early in life still have significant influence, even several decades later. Our results can explain, for example, the relatively low stock-market participation of young households in the early 1980s, following the disappointing stock-market returns in the 1970s, and the relatively high participation of young investors in the late 1990s, following the boom years in the 1990s. In the aggregate, investors' lifetime stock-market return experiences predict aggregate stock-price dynamics as captured by the price-earnings ratio.
Directional and color preference in adult zebrafish: Implications in behavioral and learning assays in neurotoxicology studies

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a useful vertebrate model organism for neurological studies. While a number of behavior and learning assays are recently reported in the literature for zebrafish, many of these assays are still being refined. The initial purpose of this study was to apply a published T‐maze assay for adult zebrafish that measures how quickly an organism can discriminate between different color stimuli after receiving reinforcement to measure learning in a study investigating the later life impacts of developmental Pb exposure. The original results were inconclusive as the control group showed a directional and color preference. To assess directional preference further, a three‐chambered testing apparatus was constructed and rotated in several directions. The directional preference observed in males was alleviated by rotating the arms pointing west and east. In addition, color preference was investigated using all combinations of five different colors (orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). With directional preference alleviated results showed that both male and female zebrafish preferred colors of shorter wavelengths. An additional experiment tested changes in color preference due to developmental exposure to Pb in adult male zebrafish. Results revealed that Pb‐exposed males gained and lost certain color preferences compared to control males and the preference for short wavelengths was decreased. Overall, these results show that consideration and pretesting should be completed before applying behavioral and learning assays involving adult zebrafish to avoid innate preferences and confounding changes in neurotoxicology studies and that developmental Pb exposure alters color preferences in adult male zebrafish. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
THE EFFECT OF CALCIUM APPLICATIONS ON KIWIFRUIT QUALITY PRESERVATION DURING STORAGE

It is well know that calcium increase the storage capacity of many fruits. This study investigated the effect of foliar calcium application, as well as postharvest application on the storage behaviour of kiwifruits cv. ́Hayward’. Three applications of 0.03% CaCl2 or CaO were made in June, July and September. After harvest half of the fruits from the sprayed vines were dipped in a solution of 2% CaCl2; the other half did not have any treatment. All fruit were then stored at 0oC and relative humidity of about 90-95%. Foliar application of CaCl2 appeared to be more effective in keeping fruit quality through storage than CaO. Kiwifruit dipped in 2% CaCl2 postharvest maintained higher firmness through storage than undipped fruit mainly in large sized fruits, but soluble solids content was not affected.
The effect of story grammars on creative self-efficacy and digital storytelling

Previous studies have proposed that the grammars may serve as a rule-based scaffolding to facilitate story comprehension in storytelling activities. Such scaffoldings may inform students of crucial story elements and possible transitions among different elements. However, how these scaffoldings may influence story creation/writing activities is still not very clear. This study aims to understand and explore the relationship among rule-based scaffoldings, creative self-efficacy and storytelling products. By gathering the stories developed by 53 sixth graders and their creative self-efficacy in a quasi-experiment setting, this study investigated whether providing these rule-based scaffoldings may influence their performance and creative self-efficacy. The results of this study indicated that with these rule-based scaffoldings, students produced better storytelling products in terms of content quality. However, the presence of story grammar rules also limited the students' freedom of creative thinking, and thus reduced the creative self-efficacy level at the early stage of learning to create stories. Such findings support that the rule-based scaffolding may be more helpful in facilitating storytelling in the idea exploration phase than in the generation phase. Educators may need to be cautious regarding the time point at which rule-based scaffoldings would be most effectively integrated with learning activities.
Functional analysis of a mammalian odorant receptor subfamily

Phylogenetic analysis groups mammalian odorant receptors into two broad classes and numerous subfamilies. These subfamilies are proposed to reflect functional organization. Testing this idea requires an assay allowing detailed functional characterization of odorant receptors. Here we show that a variety of Class I and Class II mouse odorant receptors can be functionally expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Receptor constructs included the N‐terminal 20 residues of human rhodopsin and were co‐expressed with Gαolf and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator to allow electrophysiological measurement of receptor responses. For most mouse odorant receptors tested, these conditions were sufficient for functional expression. Co‐expression of accessory proteins was required to allow functional surface expression of some mouse odorant receptors. We used this assay to examine the receptive ranges of all members of the mouse odorant receptor 42 (MOR42) subfamily. MOR42‐1 responded to dicarboxylic acids, preferring a 10–12 carbon chain length. MOR42‐2 responded to monocarboxylic acids (7–10 carbons). MOR42‐3 responded to dicarboxylic acids (8–10 carbons) and monocarboxylic acids (10–12 carbons). Thus, the receptive range of each receptor was unique. However, overlap between the individual receptive ranges suggests that the members of this subfamily form one contiguous subfamily receptive range, suggesting that odorant receptor subfamilies do constitute functional units.
Subtle cueing for visual search in head-tracked head worn displays

Goal-oriented visual search in augmented reality can be facilitated by using visual cues to call attention to a target. However, traditional use of explicit cues can degrade visual search performance due to scene distortion, occlusion and addition of visual clutter. In contrast, Subtle Cueing has been previously proposed as an alter-native to explicit cueing, but little is known about how well it works for head-tracked head worn displays (HWDs). We investigated the effect of Subtle Cueing for head-tracked head worn displays, using visual search research methods in simulated augmented reality environments. Our user study found that Subtle Cueing improves visual search performance, and serves as a feasible cueing mechanism for AR environments using HWDs.
The impact of housing improvement and socio-environmental factors on common childhood illnesses: a cohort study in Indigenous Australian communities

Background Improvements in health are an important expected outcome of many housing infrastructure programs. The authors aimed to determine if improvement in the notoriously poor housing infrastructure in Australian Indigenous communities results in reduction in common childhood illness and to identify important mediating factors in this relationship. Methods The authors conducted a prospective cohort study of 418 children aged 7 years or younger in 10 Australian Indigenous communities, which benefited most substantially from government-funded housing programs over 2004–2005. Data on functional and hygienic state of houses, reports of common childhood illness and on socio-economic conditions were collected through inspection of household infrastructure and interviews with children's carers and householders. Results After adjustment for a range of potential confounding variables, the analysis showed no consistent reduction in carers' reporting of common childhood illnesses in association with improvements in household infrastructure, either for specific illnesses or for these illnesses in general. While there was strong association between improvement in household infrastructure and improvement of hygienic condition of the house, there were only marginal improvements in crowding. Conclusions High levels of household crowding and poor social, economic and environmental conditions in many Australian Indigenous communities appear to place major constraints on the potential for building programs to impact on the occurrence of common childhood illness. These findings reinforce the need for building programs to be supported by a range of social, behavioural and community-wide environmental interventions in order for the potential health gains of improved housing to be more fully realised.
Peer Coaches to Improve Diabetes Outcomes in Rural Alabama: A Cluster Randomized Trial

PURPOSE It is unclear whether peer coaching is effective in minority populations living with diabetes in hard-to-reach, under-resourced areas such as the rural South. We examined the effect of an innovative peer-coaching intervention plus brief education vs brief education alone on diabetes outcomes. METHODS This was a community-engaged, cluster-randomized, controlled trial with primary care practices and their surrounding communities serving as clusters. The trial enrolled 424 participants, with 360 completing baseline and follow-up data collection (84.9% retention). The primary outcomes were change in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), systolic blood pressure (BP), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), body mass index (BMI), and quality of life, with diabetes distress and patient activation as secondary outcomes. Peer coaches were trained for 2 days in community settings; the training emphasized motivational interviewing skills, diabetes basics, and goal setting. All participants received a 1-hour diabetes education class and a personalized diabetes report card at baseline. Intervention arm participants were also paired with peer coaches; the protocol called for telephone interactions weekly for the first 8 weeks, then monthly for a total of 10 months. RESULTS Due to real-world constraints, follow-up was protracted, and intervention effects varied over time. The analysis that included the 68% of participants followed up by 15 months showed only a significant increase in patient activation in the intervention group. The analysis that included all participants who eventually completed follow-up revealed that intervention arm participants had significant differences in changes in systolic BP (P = .047), BMI (P = .02), quality of life (P = .003), diabetes distress (P = .004), and patient activation (P = .03), but not in HbA1c (P = .14) or LDL-C (P = .97). CONCLUSION Telephone-delivered peer coaching holds promise to improve health for individuals with diabetes living in under-resourced areas.
Optical Absorption and Scattering Phenomena in 'Jubileum' Plums in Relation to Their Colour Properties

Absorption and scattering of laser light pulse passing through the fruit determine among others, the optical properties of the product. Efforts have been made in the recent past to utilize innovative techniques such as time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS) to study the quality aspects of different fruit such as nectarines. These optical properties have been well related to firmness, sugars, acids and other quality attributes. TRS measurements were performed on 'Jubileum' plums at two different wavelengths: 670 nm and 758 nm. The fruit were harvested in Norway and brought to Italy under protected conditions. After sorting the fruit by size, TRS measurements were made and the fruit were randomized for different examinations of quality aspects. It was observed that the absorption coefficient μ a ) increased for both wavelengths as ripening progressed towards the melting stage of the fruit. The μ a values at 670 nm were higher than those at 758 nm. The higher rate in the μ a was distinguishable from the third day onwards as the fruit ripened. Similarly, it was interesting to note that the internal colour measured after destructing the fruit related well with the TRS absorption coefficient (μ a ), i.e., a decrease in the CIE L * (towards darker region) and b * (towards blue) value along with an increase in a * (towards red) from third day of storage.