Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen‐cycling genes in upper Mississippi river sediment with mussel assemblages

We investigated the impact of native freshwater mussel assemblages (order Unionoida) on the abundance and composition of nitrogen‐cycling genes in sediment of an upper Mississippi river habitat. We hypothesized that the genomic potential for ammonia and nitrite oxidation would be greater in the sediment with mussel assemblages, presumably due to mussel biodeposition products, namely ammonia and organic carbon. Regardless of the presence of mussels, upper Mississippi river sediment microbial communities had the largest genomic potential for nitrogen fixation followed by urea catabolism, nitrate metabolism, and nitrate assimilation, as evidenced by analysis of nitrogen cycling pathway abundances. However, genes encoding nitrate and nitrite redox reactions, narGHI and nxrAB, were the most abundant functional genes of the nitrogen cycling gene families. Using linear discriminant analysis (LDA), we found nitrification genes were the most important biomarkers for nitrogen cycling genomic potential when mussels were present, and this presented an opposing effect on the abundance of genes encoding nitric oxide reduction. The genes involved in nitrification that increased the most were amoA associated with comammox Nitrospira and nxr homologs associated with Nitrospira. On the other hand, the most distinctive biomarkers of microbial communities without mussels were norB and nrfA, as part of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium pathways, respectively. Ultimately, this research demonstrates the impact of native mollusks on microbial nitrogen cycling in an aquatic agroecosystem.
Effect of training level on growth and yield of Capsicum (Capsicum annuum L) hybrid buffalo under natural ventilated polyhouse

An experiment was carried out to study the Effect of training level on growth and yield of Capsicum (Capsicum annuum L) hybrid buffalo under natural ventilated polyhouse during September, 2016 to February, 2017 at Hi-Tech Horticulture, R.P.C.A. U Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar. There were three levels of training level viz. P1 (two shoots), P2 (three shoots) and P3 ((four shoots). The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. Among the different training level, the maximum plant height (132.23 cm), number of leaf (119.61), leaf area (99.95 dm2), number of branches (8.93), number of flower per plant (11.41), number of days for fruit set (66.75 days), number of fruit per plant (20.31), yield per plant (3.20 kg), yield (95.01t/ha), and B:C ratio (6.21) was recorded under P3(four shoots) rest of treatments. maximum fruit weight was recorded under P1, and least number of days to first harvest, early flower initiation as well as 50 per cent flowering was recorded under training level P1 (two shoots). maximum fruit weight(175.91 g) was recorded under P1, and least number of days to first harvest (89.36 days), early flower initiation as well as 50 per cent flowering (52.71 days) was recorded under training level P1 (two shoots)
Profiling and bioinformatics analyses reveal differential expression of circular RNA in tongue cancer revealed by high‐throughput sequencing

Circular RNAs (circRNA) are special noncoding RNAs. They are widely present, but with unknown functions. Recent studies have shown that many endogenous circRNAs have sponge function to absorb microRNAs (miRNA). They can regulate target gene messenger RNA expression and play important roles in many biological processes. However, expression profile and function of circRNAs in human tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) have not been reported. High‐throughput sequencing was performed to identify and annotate from three TSCC tissues and adjacent tissues. A separate set (n = 20) of human TSCCs and corresponding adjacent tissues were subjected to reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) for validation of circRNAs expression profile. Gene Ontology (GO) functional analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, and circRNA‐miRNA network analysis were also performed to predict the function of circRNA in TSCC. A total of 12 156 circRNAs were identified and annotated, most of the circRNAs were novel ( n = 6231) and exonic (62.09%). Statistical analysis revealed 322 differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs. RT‐PCR results showed that circRNA expression in TSCC was higher than that in adjacent tissues. GO functional analysis, KEGG pathway analysis, and circRNA‐miRNA network analysis all showed that circRNAs correlated with tumor development and progression to a certain extent. The current study is the first to systematically characterize and annotate circRNA expression in TSCC, the majority were novel circRNAs. Some host genes of the DE circRNAs were involved in tumor signaling pathway and had complicated correlations with tumor‐relevant miRNAs, indicating that circRNAs might be promoted development and progression of TSCC.
The genus Mercuria Boeters, 1971 in Morocco: first molecular phylogeny of the genus and description of two new species (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea, Hydrobiidae)

Abstract The western Palearctic freshwater snail genus Mercuria (Caenogastropoda: Hydrobiidae) comprises 26 species primarily distributed in lowland localities of Western Europe and North Africa. Although this genus in North Africa has received considerable attention in terms of species discoveries through morphological descriptions, its distribution and phylogenetic patterns remain unknown. Based on morphological and mitochondrial DNA (mtCOI) evidence, this study examines the three Mercuria species (M.bakeri, M.tingitana, and M.targouasensis) from Morocco identified so far. Besides expanding on information regarding the anatomy of these species, two new species (M.midarensissp. n. and M.tensiftensissp. n.) are described for this region and phylogenetic relationships inferred between these species and the European M.emiliana and M.similis. All Moroccan and European species were recovered as independent entities according to these phylogenetic inferences (uncorrected p-distances 2.8–8.5%) and DNA barcode data. Moroccan Mercuria species clustered with M.emiliana from Spain, although basal relationships within this clade were not well supported. Given that factors such as the season when specimens are collected, habitat type, and parasites could be responsible for the remarkable intraspecific variation observed in shell and penis morphology, it is proposed that the most efficient approach to delimit and identify Mercuria species is to combine morphological descriptions with genetic data.
A New Ratio Mask Representation for CASA-Based Speech Enhancement

In the computational auditory scene analysis method, the ideal ratio mask or alternatively the ideal binary mask is the key point to reconstruct the enhanced signal. The ratio mask in its Wiener filtering or its square root form is currently considered. However, this kind of ratio mask overlooked one important issue. It does not exploit the inter-channel correlation (ICC) in the noisy speech, noise, and clean speech spectra. Thus, in this paper, we first propose a novel ratio mask representation by utilizing the ICC. In this way, we adaptively reallocate the power ratio of the speech and noise during the construction of ratio mask, thus, more speech and noise components are retained and masked at the same time, respectively. Second, the channel-weight contour based on the equal loudness hearing attribute is adopted to revise this new ratio mask in each Gammatone filterbank channel. Finally, the revised ratio mask is effectively used to train a five-layer structured deep neural network. Experiments show that the proposed ratio mask performs better than the conventional ratio mask representation and other series of enhancement algorithms in terms of speech quality, intelligibility, and spectral distortion under different signal to noise ratio conditions using six types of noises.
Bioprocessing of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Their Derivatives: Toward Cell-Free Therapeutics

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have attracted tremendous research interest due to their ability to repair tissues and reduce inflammation when implanted into a damaged or diseased site. These therapeutic effects have been largely attributed to the collection of biomolecules they secrete (i.e., their secretome). Recent studies have provided evidence that similar effects may be produced by utilizing only the secretome fraction containing extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are cell-derived, membrane-bound vesicles that contain various biomolecules. Due to their small size and relative mobility, they provide a stable mechanism to deliver biomolecules (i.e., biological signals) throughout an organism. The use of the MSC secretome, or its components, has advantages over the implantation of the MSCs themselves: (i) signals can be bioengineered and scaled to specific dosages, and (ii) the nonliving nature of the secretome enables it to be efficiently stored and transported. However, since the composition and therapeutic benefit of the secretome can be influenced by cell source, culture conditions, isolation methods, and storage conditions, there is a need for standardization of bioprocessing parameters. This review focuses on key parameters within the MSC culture environment that affect the nature and functionality of the secretome. This information is pertinent to the development of bioprocesses aimed at scaling up the production of secretome-derived products for their use as therapeutics.
One-Board Design and Simulation of Double-Layer Perceptron Based on Metal-Oxide Memristive Nanostructures

Design and training principles have been proposed and tested for an artificial neural network based on metal-oxide thin-film nanostructures possessing bipolar resistive switching (memristive) effect. Experimental electronic circuit of neural network is implemented as a double-layer perceptron with a weight matrix composed of 32 memristive devices. The network training algorithm takes into account technological variations of the parameters of memristive devices. Despite the limited size of weight matrix the developed neural network model is scalable and capable of solving nonlinear classification problems. The learning and functionality of the network are demonstrated by using its computer model for the classification of activity propagation directions in simulated neuronal culture.
Dendritic Cell Cancer Therapy: Vaccinating the Right Patient at the Right Time

Immune checkpoint inhibitors propelled the field of oncology with clinical responses in many different tumor types. Superior overall survival over chemotherapy has been reported in various metastatic cancers. Furthermore, prolonged disease-free and overall survival have been reported in the adjuvant treatment of stage III melanoma. Unfortunately, a substantial portion of patients do not obtain a durable response. Therefore, additional strategies for the treatment of cancer are still warranted. One of the numerous options is dendritic cell vaccination, which employs the central role of dendritic cells in activating the innate and adaptive immune system. Over the years, dendritic cell vaccination was shown to be able to induce an immunologic response, to increase the number of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and to provide overall survival benefit for at least a selection of patients in phase II studies. However, with the success of immune checkpoint inhibition in several malignancies and considering the plethora of other treatment modalities being developed, it is of utmost importance to delineate the position of dendritic cell therapy in the treatment landscape of cancer. In this review, we address some key questions regarding the integration of dendritic cell vaccination in future cancer treatment paradigms.
Unthresholded Recurrence Plots Analysis for Degradation Assessment of Power Cables Insulation

Underground power cables have been widely used in transmission and distribution power systems, especially in urban areas. During their operating conditions, power cables are subjected to thermal, mechanical and electrical stresses. These stresses lead to accelerate the degradation process of the insulation material. In this paper, we present a novel methodology in the field that could be used to detect degradation level of power cables insulation due to thermal aging. In light of this, cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and polyvinyl chloride based compound (PVC, class B or PVC/B) were chosen as the studied materials. Thermal aging tests were performed at different aging temperatures (80, 100, 120 and 140 °C). Thereafter, the alternative bulk current through the aged samples was recorded at different aging stages and under AC applied voltage of 12 kV. For the aim to better analyze in-depth the obtained current waveforms, unthresholded recurrence plots (UTRPs) technique is introduced in order to extract features from the AC bulk current and reveal its characteristics. The obtained results show that the proposed method could be used as an assessment tool for current analysis and thermal degradation monitoring of insulation materials used in extruded power cables.
Prospective Cohort Analysis of DRG Stimulation for Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Pain Following Lumbar Discectomy

Surgical lumbar discectomy is a commonly performed routine spinal procedure that is usually undertaken to alleviate lumbar radicular symptoms caused by a herniated intervertebral disc. Surgical lumbar discectomy can also lead to chronic postsurgical leg and/or back pain (failed back surgery syndrome [FBSS]), a condition that can be refractory to conventional medical management. Early clinical results on the use of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation for FBSS have supported the use of this treatment alternative.
Long non-coding RNA MALAT1 and microRNA-499a expression profiles in diabetic ESRD patients undergoing dialysis: a preliminary cross-sectional analysis

Abstract Background: Circulating non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been implicated in health and disease. This study aimed to evaluate the serum expression profile of microRNA-499a (miR-499a) and its selected bioinformatically predicted partner long-ncRNA MALAT1 (metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1) in diabetes-related end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and to correlate the expressions with the patients' clinicolaboratory data. Subjects and methods: Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was applied in diabetics with and without ESRD (n = 90 for each). Results: Serum MALAT1 expression levels were increased in the ESRD group relative to diabetics without ESRD with median (quartile) values of 10.5 (1.41–126.7) (p < .001). However, miR-499a levels were decreased in more than half of ESRD patients with a median of 0.96 (0.13–3.14). Both MALAT1 and miR-499a expression levels were inversely correlated in the ESRD patient-group. Conclusions: MALAT1 up-regulation and miR-499 down-regulation might be involved in diabetic nephropathy-related ESRD pathogenesis. Functional validation studies are warranted to confirm the MALAT1/miR-499a partnership.
Short communication: Single-step genomic evaluation of milk production traits using multiple-trait random regression model in Chinese Holsteins.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prediction performance of the single-step genomic BLUP method using a multi-trait random regression model in genomic evaluation for milk production traits of Chinese Holsteins, and investigate how parameters w, τ, and ω used in the construction of the combined relationship matrix (H) affected prediction accuracy and bias. A total of 2.8 million test-day records from 0.2 million cows were available for milk, protein, and fat yields. Pedigree information included 0.3 million animals and 7,577 of them were genotyped with medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism marker panels. Genotypes were imputed into Geneseek Genomic Profiler HD (GeneSeek, Lincoln, NE) including 77K markers. A reduced data set for evaluating models was extracted from the full data set by removing test-day records from the last 4 yr. Bull and cow validation populations were constructed for each trait. We evaluated the prediction performance of the multiple-trait multiple-lactation random regression single-step genomic BLUP (RR-ssGBLUP) models with different values of parameters w, τ, and ω in the H matrix, taking consideration of inbreeding. We compared RR-ssGBLUP with the multiple-trait multiple-lactation random regression model based on pedigree and genomic BLUP. De-regressed proofs for 305-d milk, protein, and fat yields averaged over 3 lactations, which were calculated from the full data set, were used for posteriori validations. The results showed that RR-ssGBLUP was feasible for implementation in breeding practice, and its prediction performance was superior to the other 2 methods in the comparison, including prediction accuracy and unbiasedness. For bulls, RR-ssGBLUP models with w0. 05τ2. 0ω1. 0,w0. 05τ2. 5ω1. 0, and w0. 1τ1. 6ω0. 4 achieved the best performance for milk, protein, and fat yields, respectively. For cows, the RR-ssGBLUP with w0.2τ1. 6ω0. 4 performed the best for all 3 traits. The H matrix constructed with larger τ and smaller ω gave better convergence in solving mixed model equations. Among different RR-ssGBLUP models, the differences in validation accuracy were small. However, the regression coefficient indicating prediction bias varied substantially. The increase of w and τ, and decrease of ω, led to an increase in the regression coefficient. The results demonstrated RR-ssGBLUP is a good alternative to the multi-step approach, but the optimal choice of parameters should be found via preliminary validation study to achieve the best performance.
Servant Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior in Chinese High-Tech Firms: A Moderated Mediation Model of Meaningful Work and Job Autonomy

Scholars acknowledge the critical role of employee innovative work behavior (IWB) in facilitating organizational innovation in high-tech industries. However, the current knowledge is far from complete to paint a clear picture of how to evoke employee IWB in the Chinese high-tech industry. Many Chinese high-tech firms face a challenge moving from hierarchy-based leadership toward more employee-centered leadership styles, as the styles have different effects on employees’ IWB. This perspective may complement and sharpen the incomplete picture. Drawing on a dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation, this study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model that examines the hypothesized positive influence of servant leadership on employee IWB via meaningful work as well as the moderating role of job autonomy in this process. We collected data (N = 288) from three Chinese high-tech firms and found that employees’ perceptions of meaningful work mediate the relationship between servant leaders and IWB. We also found that this mediating relationship is conditional on the moderating role of job autonomy in the path from servant leadership to meaningful work. The results further show that the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee IWB via meaningful work exists only when job autonomy is high.
2-D Human Pose Estimation from Images Based on Deep Learning: A Review

H150 pose estimation is an important research topic in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence. This paper focuses on the state-of-art progress of 2-D human pose estimation methods based on deep learning. According to the neural network structure, these methods are classified as single CNN method, Multi-stage CNN method, Multi-branch CNN method, Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) method and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) method. We summarize and analyze their attributes and performance. The future development direction is also prospected.
Lung Metastasis in Pediatric Thyroid Cancer: Radiological Pattern, Molecular Genetics, Response to Therapy, and Outcome

Context Lung metastases are common in pediatric thyroid cancer (TC). We present an analysis of a series of lung metastases in pediatric TC. Patients and Methods Data from 20 patients (16 females, 4 males; median age, 14.5 years; range 10 to 18 years) were analyzed. The tumors included differentiated TC in 19 patients and poorly differentiated TC in 1 patient. Results Lung metastasis presented with three distinct radiological patterns: lung uptake on diagnostic radioactive iodine whole body scan (DxWBS) only in 3 patients (15%); lung uptake on DxWBS and CT scan as micrometastases (≤1 cm) in 16 patients (80%); and lung uptake on DxWBS and CT scan as macrometastases (>1 cm) in 1 patient (5%). Iodine-131 therapies were administered to all patients (median, three; range one to eight) with a median cumulative administered activity of 317.5 mCi (range, 109 to 682 mCi). None of the patients achieved a complete response but the biochemical response was substantial. During a median follow-up period of 8.2 years (range, 0.75 to 16.3 years), 1 patient (5%) died, 1 patient (5%) had a biochemically incomplete response, 2 patients (10%) had an indeterminate response, 1 patient (5%) had progressive structural disease, and 14 patients (70%) had stable structural disease. Mutational testing of 10 of 20 tumors revealed only two PIK3CA mutations in a single tumor. Conclusions Lung metastases are common in pediatric TC and present most frequently with bilateral radioiodine-avid micrometastases. Known single point mutations in adult TC are rare in pediatric TC. The biochemical response to iodine-131 can be substantial but resolution of structural abnormalities is rare.
Approaches, Progress, and Challenges to Hepatitis C Vaccine Development

Risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection vary, and there were an estimated 1.75 million new cases worldwide in 2015. The World Health Organization aims for a 90% reduction in new HCV infections by 2030. An HCV vaccine would prevent transmission, regardless of risk factors, and significantly reduce the global burden of HCV-associated disease. Barriers to development include virus diversity, limited models for testing vaccines, and our incomplete understanding of protective immune responses. Although highly effective vaccines could prevent infection altogether, immune responses that increase the rate of HCV clearance and prevent chronic infection may be sufficient to reduce disease burden. Adjuvant envelope or core protein and virus-vectored nonstructural antigen vaccines have been tested in healthy volunteers who are not at risk for HCV infection; viral vectors encoding nonstructural proteins are the only vaccine strategy to be tested in at-risk individuals. Despite development challenges, a prophylactic vaccine is necessary for global control of HCV.