Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive genotyping of 9 Y‐chromosome specific STR loci using circulatory fetal DNA in maternal plasma by multiplex PCR

Human Y‐Chromosome specific STR (Y‐STR) has now become a useful loci in casework. However, noninvasive genotyping of multiple Y‐STR loci and its application in prenatal genetic diagnosis haven't been reported. The purpose of this study is to develop a Y‐STR multiplex PCR amplification system that is suitable for the amplification of short‐sized templates of circulatory male fetal DNA and use the established multiplex in noninvasive prenatal genetic diagnosis and its further applications in forensic casework.
Local field potential measurement with low-power area-efficient neural recording amplifier

Local field potential (LFP) has been of growing interest in interpreting specific motor activities and higherlevel cognitive functions for neurophysiological investigation. LFP denote the neural activity recorded from the ensemble of neurons which carry information in the frequency range of 1-200 Hz. The requirements on the electronics of an amplifier sensor used to measure LFP signals is very stringent, especially with respect to size and power consumption. This work presents an ultra-low power, low noise, area-efficient CMOS neural recording amplifier for LFP recording application. A neural preamplifier implemented with an all weak inversion region OTA achieves 31.7 dB of gain consuming 68.35 nW of power and has an input referred noise of 5.62 μVrms over 100 Hz of bandwidth. With the large input capacitor integrated on-chip the single channel neural amplifier occupies 0.098 mm2 of chip area.
The spectroscopy of cathode spot of pulsed vacuum arc discharge in a wide range of current

The aim of the experiment was the dynamics of the emission spectra of single vacuum arc cathode spots with focus on the dependence on arc current. A thin capillary tube was used as cathode that was filled with gallium-indium alloy liquid at room temperature. Vacuum arc discharges with current amplitudes between 10 and 150 A were powered by a low voltage RC-circuit with ~3 μs time constant. The discharge was ignited by the impact of a short-duration focused laser beam at the cathode. Momentary light emission from laser ablation plasma was used as a time marker. The temporal evolution of spectra was recorded by combination of a spectrograph (Spectra Pro SP-2300) with a streak camera (Hamamatsu C10910). The spectral range 410-440 nm was analyzed containing a Ga I resonant atomic line at 417 nm as well as lines from single and double charged ions at 425-426 nm (Ga II) and 438 nm (Ga III). In agreement with earlier publications at first the light emission from double charged ionic lines appears and reaches the maximum, then consistently the single-charged ionic lines, and the neutral atomic line follow. An increase of the current amplitude causes an increase of the percentage of light emission from double-charged ion line, but a relative decrease of neutral atomic line intensity.
Elevating tensor rank increases anisotropy in brain areas associated with intra‐voxel orientational heterogeneity (IVOH): a generalised DTI (GDTI) study

Rank‐2 tensors are unable to represent multi‐modal diffusion associated with intra‐voxel orientational heterogeneity (IVOH), which occurs where axons are incoherently oriented, such as where bundles intersect or diverge. Under this condition, they are oblate or spheroidally shaped, resulting in artefactually low anisotropy, potentially masking reduced axonal density, myelinisation and integrity. Higher rank tensors can represent multi‐modal diffusion, and suitable metrics such as generalised anisotropy (GA) and scaled entropy (SE) have been introduced. The effect of tensor rank was studied through simulations, and analysing high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data from two volunteers, fit with rank‐2, rank‐4 and rank‐6 tensors. The variation of GA and SE as a function of rank was investigated through difference maps and region of interest (ROI)‐based comparisons. Results were correlated with orientation distribution functions (ODF) reconstructed with q‐ball, and with colour‐maps of the principal and second eigenvectors. Simulations revealed that rank‐4 tensors are able to represent multi‐modal diffusion, and that increasing rank further has a minor effect on measurements. IVOH was detected in subcortical regions of the corona radiata, along the superior longitudinal fasciculus, in the radiations of the genu of the corpus callosum, in peritrigonal white matter and along the inferior fronto‐occipital and longitudinal fascicula. In these regions, elevating tensor rank increased anisotropy. This was also true for the corpus callosum, cingulum and anterior limb of the internal capsule, where increasing tensor rank resulted in patterns that, although mono‐modal, were more anisotropic. In these regions the second eigenvector was coherently oriented. As rank‐4 tensors have only 15 distinct elements, they can be determined without acquiring a large number of directions. By removing artefactual underestimation of anisotropy, their use may increase the sensitivity to pathological change. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A longitudinal study of pregnancy outcome following idiopathic recurrent miscarriage.

Recurrent miscarriage is a difficult clinical problem occurring in approximately 1-2% of fertile women. Following investigation, most cases fail to reveal an identifiable cause and are therefore classified as idiopathic. The aim of this study was to identify important gestational milestones for pregnancy success prediction in women following idiopathic recurrent miscarriage. A total of 325 consecutive patients with idiopathic recurrent miscarriage was involved in a prospective longitudinal observational study. Patients were identified from a miscarriage database of 716 patients. Preconceptual presentation and investigation excluded patients from the study sample with known associations of recurrent pregnancy loss, such as antiphosholipid syndrome, oligomenorrhoea, mid-trimester loss and other rare causes, e.g. abnormal parental karyotype. Following early presentation in a subsequent pregnancy, all patients followed a standard clinic protocol including fetal viability ultrasonography on a fortnightly basis throughout the first trimester. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed for pregnancy outcome. Out of 325 idiopathic cases, 70% (n = 226) conceived, with a 75% success rate. Of 55 miscarriages, longitudinal assessment showed that six losses occurred following detection of fetal cardiac activity (3%). Data from this large study group have enabled accurate prediction of future pregnancy success and have established important gestational milestones for women with idiopathic recurrent miscarriage.
Long-term efficacy of posteroventral pallidotomy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Article abstract The authors describe results of unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy (PVP) in 89 patients with PD. At 3 months after surgery, 81.9% of the patients reported marked or moderate improvement in their parkinsonian symptoms. Postoperative Unified PD Rating Scale “off” state mean total motor score improved by 35.5% and the mean activities of daily living score by 33.7% (p < 0.001). Improvements in parkinsonian symptoms were maintained in both “off” and “on” states in 62 patients at 12 months after PVP and in 41 patients who were followed for 18 months or longer (mean 26.6 months).
Neonatal Period: Body Composition Changes in Breast-Fed Full-Term Newborns

Background: Weight loss during initial days of life in healthy infants is known to consist of loss of both body solids and total body water. However, the nature of these body composition changes needs further investigation. Objective: To investigate the nature of changes in body composition that accompany weight loss during the first days of life in healthy term newborns. Methods: Body composition of healthy full-term newborns was assessed using air-displacement plethysmography. Cross-sectional (n = 262) and longitudinal samples (n = 28) were assessed during the first 4 and 5 days after delivery, respectively. Results: In the cross-sectional sample, mean body weight decreased significantly through day 4 (p < 0.001), mean fat mass (FM) and %FM decreased significantly (p = 0.005 and p = 0.031, respectively) by day 3. There was a significant decrease in mean fat-free mass on days 3 and 4 (p = 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). In the longitudinal sample, there was a significant decrease in mean body weight, FM and %FM (p < 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.013, respectively) by day 4. On day 5 there was a significant increase in mean body weight, FM and %FM (p < 0.001, p = 0.024, p = 0.036, respectively) when compared to day 4. There was no significant difference in mean FM and %FM values between day 1 and day 5. Conclusions: These results indicate that body composition changes are constituted by a reduction in both fat and fat free mass. However, a greater %FM is lost and consequently regained by day 5 when compared to fat-free mass.
Bifrontal ECT for drug-induced psychosis in Parkinson's disease

Psychosis has been documented to occur during treatment for idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). This case report describes an elderly male who developed psychosis during the course of treatment for idiopathic PD. He was treated with clozapine but experienced significant adverse effects without clinical improvement. He was prescribed bifrontal electroconvulsive therapy (BF-ECT). Here, we report the efficacy of BF-ECT in treating psychosis and motor symptoms in PD, without producing cognitive side effects in an elderly male.
Impact of Tropical SST on Stratospheric Planetary Waves in the Southern Hemisphere

AbstractThe impact of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) on stratospheric planetary waves in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) is investigated in austral spring using observed SST and reanalysis data for the past three decades. Maximum covariance analysis indicates that the tropical SST and the SH stratospheric planetary wave activity are primarily coupled through two modes. The leading two modes show the La Nina–like and the central-Pacific El Nino–like SST anomalies in their positive polarities, respectively, which each are related to enhanced stratospheric planetary wave activity. These two modes also introduce phase shifts to the stratospheric stationary planetary waves: a westward shift is seen for La Nina and an eastward shift for warm SST anomalies is seen in the central Pacific. The Eliassen–Palm fluxes associated with the two modes indicate that the anomalous stratospheric wave activity originates in the troposphere and propagates upward over the mid–high latitudes, so that the linkages between tr.
Power of metabolomics in biomarker discovery and mining mechanisms of obesity

Obesity, the prevalence of which is increasing rapidly worldwide, is recognized as a risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease and renal disease. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying it have not been well characterized. Fortunately, metabolomics – the systematic study of metabolites, which are small molecules generated by the process of metabolism – has been important in elucidating the pathways underlying obesity. Small‐molecule metabolites have an important role in biological system and represent attractive candidates to understand obesity phenotypes. Metabolomic analysis is a valid and powerful tool with which to further define the mechanisms. Recent attention has focused on identifying biomarkers that would propose a better non‐invasive way to detect or visualize obesity and prevent its events. The discovery of the biomarkers has become a key breakthrough towards a better molecular understanding of obesity. Thus, this review covers how recent metabolomic studies have advanced biomarker discovery and the elucidation of mechanisms underlying obesity and its comorbidities. The importance of identifying metabolic markers and pathways of disease‐associated intermediate phenotypes is also emphasized. These biomarkers would be applicable as diagnostic tools in a personalized healthcare setting and may also open door to biomarker discovery, disease diagnosis and novel therapeutic avenues.
DISSECTION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES UNDERLYING GRAIN YIELD IN MAIZE BY EXAMINING GENETIC IMPROVEMENT AND HETEROSIS

Maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield in the USA has increased by about 100 kg ha-1 year-1 or 2% year-1 from the start of large-scale adoption of hybrids by maize growers in the late 1930s until the first decade of the 21st century and about 75% of the yield improvement has been attributed to genetic gain. Yield improvement has been associated with increased stress tolerance and het- erosis, but the nature of the enhanced stress tolerance re- mains elusive and heterosis does not appear to be related to rate of yield improvement per se since the introduction of commercial hybrids. Yield improvement is the result of changes in underlying physiological processes and we have examined the physiological component processes that are associated with genetic gain and heterosis in maize. Changes in two important processes appear to be involved in both genetic improvement in grain yield and in yield differences between hybrids and their parental in- bred lines. First, sustaining leaf photosynthesis during the grain-filling period appears to be a major contributor to increases in dry matter accumulation. Second, increased partitioning to the kernels during the sensitive period of kernel number determination appeared to be the major factor in the increase in kernel number. Two 'processes' that have influenced genetic improvement and heterosis differently are maximum leaf area per plant and harvest index. Genetic gain is not associated with a change in harvest index because the increase in kernel number and the increase in dry matter accumulation during the grain- filling period have been proportional, whereas in hetero- sis the increase in kernel number is much greater relative to increase in dry matter accumulation during the grain- filling period.
Proteomic Analysis of Detergent-resistant Membrane Microdomains in Trophozoite Blood Stage of the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum*

Intracellular pathogens contribute to a significant proportion of infectious diseases worldwide. The successful strategy of evading the immune system by hiding inside host cells is common to all the microorganism classes, which exploit membrane microdomains, enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids, to invade and colonize the host cell. These assemblies, with distinct biochemical properties, can be isolated by means of flotation in sucrose density gradient centrifugation because they are insoluble in nonionic detergents at low temperature. We analyzed the protein and lipid contents of detergent-resistant membranes from erythrocytes infected by Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly human malaria parasite. Proteins associated with membrane microdomains of trophic parasite blood stages (trophozoites) include an abundance of chaperones, molecules involved in vesicular trafficking, and enzymes implicated in host hemoglobin degradation. About 60% of the identified proteins contain a predicted localization signal suggesting a role of membrane microdomains in protein sorting/trafficking. To validate our proteomic data, we raised antibodies against six Plasmodium proteins not characterized previously. All the selected candidates were recovered in floating low-density fractions after density gradient centrifugation. The analyzed proteins localized either to internal organelles, such as the mitochondrion and the endoplasmic reticulum, or to exported membrane structures, the parasitophorous vacuole membrane and Maurer's clefts, implicated in targeting parasite proteins to the host erythrocyte cytosol or surface. The relative abundance of cholesterol and phospholipid species varies in gradient fractions containing detergent-resistant membranes, suggesting heterogeneity in the lipid composition of the isolated microdomain population. This study is the first report showing the presence of cholesterol-rich microdomains with distinct properties and subcellular localization in trophic stages of Plasmodium falciparum.
Why targeting the microbiome is not so successful: can randomness overcome the adaptation that occurs following gut manipulation?

Abstract The microbiome is explored as a potential target for therapy of bowel and systemic diseases. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has demonstrated efficacy in Clostridium difficile infection. However, clinical results regarding other diseases are modest, despite the abundant research on the microbiome over the last decade. Both high rate variability of the microbiome and adaptation to gut manipulations may underlie the lack of ultimate effects of FMT, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and antibiotics, which are aimed at restoring a healthier microbiome. The present review discusses the inherent variability of the microbiome and multiple factors that affect its diversity, as possible causes of the adaptation of the gut microbiome to chronic manipulation. The potential use of randomness is proposed, as a means of overcoming the adaptation and of restoring some of the inherent variability, with the goal of improving the long-term efficacy of these therapies.
A population-based study of the 22q11.2 deletion: phenotype, incidence, and contribution to major birth defects in the population.

OBJECTIVES Although several studies describe the 22q11.2 deletion, population-based data are scant. Such data are needed to evaluate properly the impact, distribution, and clinical presentation of the deletion in the population. Our goals were to assess the population-based birth prevalence of the 22q11.2 deletion and its associated phenotype and its impact on the occurrence of heart defects. METHODS We evaluated data on infants who were born from 1994 through 1999 to women who resided in metropolitan Atlanta. We matched records from the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (a population-based registry with active case ascertainment), the Sibley Heart Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Division of Medical Genetics at Emory University. We used birth certificate data for the denominators of the rates. RESULTS We identified 43 children with laboratory-confirmed 22q11.2 deletion among 255 849 births. The overall prevalence was 1 in 5950 births (95% confidence interval: 1 in 4417 to 1 in 8224 births). The prevalence was between 1 in 6000 and 1 in 6500 among whites, blacks, and Asians and 1 in 3800 among Hispanics. Most affected children (81%) had a heart defect, and many (1 in 3) had major extracardiac defects (other than velopalatal anomalies), including anomalies of the central nervous system. Overall, the deletion contributed to at least 1 of every 68 cases of major heart defects identified in the total birth cohort and, in particular, to 1 of every 2 cases diagnosed with interrupted aortic arch type B, 1 of every 5 with truncus arteriosus, and 1 of every 8 with tetralogy of Fallot. CONCLUSIONS The 22q11.2 deletion was common in this birth population. The clinical phenotype included a wide and variable spectrum of major cardiac and extracardiac anomalies. From these population-based data, one can estimate that at least 700 affected infants are born annually in the United States. Population-based estimates such as these should be useful to medical professionals and policy makers in planning for the optimal care of people with the 22q11.2 deletion.
Oral Rivaroxaban for the Treatment of Symptomatic Venous Thromboembolism in 400 Patients With Active Cancer: A Single-Center Experience

Purpose: To study the safety and efficacy of rivaroxaban—a direct oral anticoagulant—use in patients with active cancer and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Patients and Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 400 patients with active cancer and associated VTE, defined as deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism. This single-center study was carried out from January 2012 to June 2015. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety, using the incidence of recurrent symptomatic VTE and major bleeding, respectively, throughout the treatment with rivaroxaban. Results: Of the 400 patients enrolled, 223 (55.8%) were female. A total of 362 (90.5%) patients had solid tumors and 244 (61%) had metastatic disease. A total of 302 (75.5%) received initial parenteral therapy with enoxaparin (median: 3, mean: 5.6, standard deviation [SD]: 6.4 days) followed by rivaroxaban. Ninety-eight patients (24.5%) were treated with on label rivaroxaban treatment. Recurrence rates were 3.25% with major bleeding occurring in 5.5% during the anticoagulant therapy (median: 118, mean: 163.9, SD: 159.9 days). Conclusion: Rivaroxaban can be an attractive alternative for the treatment of cancer-associated thrombosis.
Origin of Tc suppression and magnetic ordering in PrBa2Cu3O7- delta.

The magnetic 4f excitation spectrum of PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ was measured by use of inelastic neutron scattering in a study of the ground-state properties of praseodynium. We analyzed the sepctra in terms of crystals-field transition lines of a trivalent Pr ion. The absolute widths of the magnetic transition lines were found to be enhanced compared with those in stable RB 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ compounds, where R is a rare-earth element
A Detection Algorithm for Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) Transmission using Poly-Diagonalization and Trellis Decoding

A MIMO detection algorithm utilizing poly- diagonalization and tail-biting trellis is proposed. Linear MIMO detection, such as zero-forcing or minimum mean squared error (MMSE) equalization, is basically a channel diagonalization technique, where interferences from other data streams are decoupled for the separate decoding. It is well known, however, that such decoders suffer from noise enhancement, which causes considerable performance degradation. In this paper, we propose poly-diagonalization of the channel matrix in zero-forcing and MMSE senses. The idea behind poly-diagonalization is to allow interferences partially in order to alleviate the noise enhancement and, then, to use post trellis decoding for the joint detection utilizing the poly-diagonal structure of the effective channel. Under the proposed framework, the zero-forcing and the MMSE equalizer can be regarded as special cases of poly-diagonalization, i.e., of the first order. The proposed scheme can provide a tradeoff between the complexity and performance by choosing an appropriate order of poly-diagonalization. According to the simulation results, considerable gain can be obtained even with the second order, i.e., bi-diagonalization, for which the decoding complexity is far less than that of the maximum likelihood decoding.
Analyzing Stock Market Movements Using Twitter Sentiment Analysis

In this paper we investigate the complex relationship between tweet board literature (like bullishness, volume, agreement etc) with the financial market instruments (like volatility, trading volume and stock prices). We have analyzed sentiments for more than 4 million tweets between June 2010 to July 2011 for DJIA, NASDAQ-100 and 13 other big cap technological stocks. Our results show high correlation (up to 0.88 for returns) between stock prices and twitter sentiments. Further, using Grangerâs Causality Analysis, we have validated that the movement of stock prices and indices are greatly affected in the short term by Twitter discussions. Finally, we have implemented Expert Model Mining System (EMMS) to demonstrate that our forecasted returns give a high value of Rsquare (0.952) with low Maximum Absolute Percentage Error (MaxAPE) of 1.76% for Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).