Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development and characterization of marker‐free and transgene insertion site‐defined transgenic wheat with improved grain storability and fatty acid content

Summary Development of marker‐free and transgene insertion site‐defined (MFTID) transgenic plants is essential for safe application of transgenic crops. However, MFTID plants have not been reported for wheat (Triticum aestivum). Here, we prepared a RNAi cassette for suppressing lipoxygenase (LOX) gene expression in wheat grains using a double right border T‐DNA vector. The resultant construct was introduced into wheat genome via Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation, with four homozygous marker‐free transgenic lines (namely GLRW‐1, ‐3, ‐5 and ‐8) developed. Aided by the newly published wheat genome sequence, the T‐DNA insertion sites in GLRW‐3 and GLRW‐8 were elucidated at base‐pair resolution. While the T‐DNA in GLRW‐3 inserted in an intergenic region, that of GLRW‐8 inactivated an endogenous gene, which was thus excluded from further analysis. Compared to wild ‐type (WT) control, GLRW‐1, ‐3 and ‐5 showed decreased LOX gene expression, lower LOX activity and less lipid peroxidation in the grains; they also exhibited significantly higher germination rates and better seedling growth after artificial ageing treatment. Interestingly, the three GLRW lines also had substantially increased contents of several fatty acids (e.g., linoleic acid and linolenic acid) in their grain and flour samples than WT control. Collectively, our data suggest that suppression of grain LOX activity can be employed to improve the storability and fatty acid content of wheat seeds and that the MFTID line GLRW‐3 is likely of commercial value. Our approach may also be useful for developing the MFTID transgenic lines of other crops with enhanced grain storability and fatty acid content.
Active Sensing Methods of Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC): Comparative Study in Frequency Domain

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are soft transducers that bend in response to low-voltage input, and generate voltage in response to deformations. Their potential applications include compliant locomotion systems, small-scale robotics, energy harvesting and biomedical instrumentation. The materials are inherently compliant, simple to shape, simple to miniaturize and simple to integrate into a system. Compared to actuation, IPMC sensing has not been intensively studied. The existing reports focus on the sensing phenomenon, but provide insufficient characterization for implementation purposes. This work aims to address this gap by studying and comparing the frequency responses and noise dynamics of different IPMC active sensing signals, i.e. voltage, charge and current. These characteristics are experimentally identified by mechanically exciting IPMC samples, and simultaneously measuring the respective signals and material deformations. The results provide a systematic comparison between different implementations of active sensing with IPMCs, and give insights into their strengths and limitations.
Current Measurement Issues of a High Frequency GaN Inverter in the MHz Order for Magnetic Characterization

Nowadays, there is a great interest in the industry for outstanding magnetic materials with low-loss properties. Moreover, with the introduction of novel Wide Bandgap devices, higher frequency operation has been demanded from these novel magnetic materials. Thereby, magnetic characterization for obtaining the iron loss behavior is essential. However, when a magnetic material is experimentally characterized, it is important to select a suitable measurement device, especially when a semiconductor inverter is powering the magnetic material and it is driven at a high switching frequency. Usually measurement devices have a good response in magnitude, but there is not a clear understanding about how their phase response at high frequencies measurements affects the characterization. Consequently, if the phase characteristics of a measurement device is not well-know, it is likely that the iron loss characterization will not be accurate. This paper studies the measurement issues when an iron loss characterization procedure is conducted. This study is carried out with the comparison of using clamp type current probes and high precision shunt resistors at high switching frequency excitations with a GANFET inverter. In addition, an experimental evaluation of iron losses at several switching frequencies is presented. As a result, the phase characteristics of several sensors was obtained, and it was possible to identify the inaccuracies that they can generate at a high frequency measurement.
Unsupervised Anomalous Trajectory Detection for Crowded Scenes

We present an improved clustering based, unsu-pervised anomalous trajectory detection algorithm for crowded scenes. The proposed work is based on four major steps, namely, extraction of trajectories from crowded scene video, extraction of several features from these trajectories, independent mean-shift clustering and anomaly detection. First, the trajectories of all moving objects in a crowd are extracted using a multi feature video object tracker. These trajectories are then transformed into a set of feature spaces. Mean shift clustering is applied on these feature matrices to obtain distinct clusters, while a Shannon Entropy based anomaly detector identifies corresponding anomalies. In the final step, a voting mechanism identifies the trajectories that exhibit anomalous characteristics. The algorithm is tested on crowd scene videos from datasets. The videos represent various possible crowd scenes with different motion patterns and the method performs well to detect the expected anomalous trajectories from the scene.
Road Traffic Noise at the Residence, Annoyance, and Cognitive Function in Elderly Women

The detrimental effects of traffic noise on cognition in children are well documented. Not much is known about the health effects in adults. We investigated the association of residential exposure to road traffic noise and annoyance due to road traffic noise with cognitive function in a cohort of 288 elderly women from the longitudinal Study on the influence of Air pollution on Lung function, Inflammation and Aging (SALIA) in Germany. Residential noise levels—weighted 24-h mean (LDEN) and nighttime noise (LNIGHT)—were modeled for the most exposed facade of dwellings and dichotomized at ≥50 dB(A). Traffic noise annoyance (day and night) was estimated by questionnaire. Cognitive function was assessed using the Consortium to Establish a Registry on Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD-Plus) Neuropsychological Assessment Battery. The modeled noise levels were associated with impaired total cognition and the constructional praxis domain, independently of air pollution. Self-reported noise annoyance was associated with better performance in semantic memory and constructional praxis domains. This finding should be interpreted with caution since we could not control for potential confounding by hearing loss. Noise levels and annoyance were associated, but their health effects seemed mutually independent.
Effects of Diethyl Phosphate, a Non-Specific Metabolite of Organophosphorus Pesticides, on Serum Lipid, Hormones, Inflammation, and Gut Microbiota

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) can be metabolized to diethyl phosphate (DEP) in the gut environment, which may affect the immune and endocrine systems and the microbiota. Correlations between OPs and diseases have been established by epidemiological studies, mainly based on the contents of their metabolites, including DEP, in the serum or urine. However, the effects of DEP require further study. Therefore, in this study, adult male rats were exposed to 0.08 or 0.13 mg/kg DEP for 20 weeks. Serum levels of hormones, lipids, and inflammatory cytokines as well as gut microbiota were measured. DEP significantly enriched opportunistic pathogens, including Paraprevotella, Parabacteroides, Alloprevotella, and Helicobacter, leading to a decrease in interleukin-6 (IL-6). Exposure to the high dose of DEP enriched the butyrate-producing genera, Alloprevotella and Intestinimonas, leading to an increase in estradiol and a resulting decrease in total triglycerides (TGs) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C); meanwhile, DEP-induced increases in peptide tyrosine‒tyrosine (PYY) and ghrelin were attributed to the enrichment of short-chain fatty acid-producing Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Lactobacillus. These findings indicate that measuring the effects of DEP is not a proxy for measuring the effects of its parent compounds.
Management and Results of Ectopic Pregnancy Adapted by Clinical Guidelines: Two Years Experience of University Hospital in Turkey

Ectopic pregnancy is defined as the fertilized ovum implants in a location outside the endometrial cavity, remains to be an important cause of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide and is a health problem with incidence ranges between 0.25% and 2% of all pregnancies. In our study, in Izmir Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2011 to 2013, 96 cases with diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy managed by the adapted RCOG’s Guide were analyzed retrospectively. The data were analyzed as follows: age, the history of operation, smoking, the presence of intrauterine device, blood groups, hemoglobin, platelets, values of B-hCG, the diagnostic interval, intra-abdominal free fluid and/or acute abdomen, the method of treatment and the success of treatment.
Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Danish 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale among hospital staff

Objectives: The 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10) is a brief instrument measuring resilience in adults. The scale has shown sound psychometric properties in different populations and cultures. Our objectives were to cross-culturally adapt the CD-RISC 10 into Danish and to establish the psychometric properties of the Danish version in terms of internal consistency, construct validity and longitudinal validity. Methods: The CD-RISC 10 was translated using established guidelines. Employees (N=272) at hospitals in the Central Denmark Region completed questionnaires at baseline and three months follow-up. Questionnaires included the translated Danish version of the CD-RISC 10 and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and construct and longitudinal validity by correlating CD-RISC 10 and PSS-10 baseline scores and change scores from baseline to follow-up. Results: The Danish CD-RISC 10 provides acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.87). Analysis of construct validity revealed a negative correlation with the PSS-10 at baseline (r=−.63 [95%CI: −.70; −.55], p<.0001). Analysis of longitudinal validity similarly demonstrated a negative correlation on change scores from baseline to follow-up (r=−.51 [95%CI: −.62; −.39], p<.0001). Conclusions: The scale has acceptable psychometric properties as an instrument for measuring resilience in a Danish-speaking population.
Antibiotic exposure at the site of infection: principles and assessment of tissue penetration

ABSTRACT Introduction: Since the majority of bacterial infections occur at sites outside the bloodstream, antibiotic tissue concentrations are of significant relevance to optimize treatment. The aim of this review is to aid the clinician in choosing optimal regimens for the treatment of extravascular infections. Areas covered: We discuss the principles of antibiotic tissue penetration and assess different approaches to obtain data on this subject. Finally, we present tissue penetration data for several relevant groups of antibiotic agents in a number of extravascular sites. Data were obtained from an extensive literature search in PubMed until February 2019. Expert opinion: There is still a long way to go before reliable information about tissue penetration of antibiotics is sufficiently available to serve as a basis for the design of optimal strategies for drug and dose selection. At this moment, there is a lack of robust data on tissue penetration, where both the sampling and measurement techniques as well as the relationship between tissue concentrations and clinical outcome of antibiotic treatment have to be better defined.
Network Coding Based Multiple Fault Tolerance Scheme in P2P Cloud Storage System

Cloud storage systems are designed to provide reliable storage services and reduce the cost by utilizing the storage space efficiently. However, cloud storage systems suffer from loss of data whenever an unexpected failure occurs. This work focuses on providing network coding benefits in robust cloud storage system. We design a system model for multiple-cloud storage and multiple node failures. Further, the storage system provides authentication for users and minimizes the update operation. We have carried out our work considering trade-off between repair bandwidth and cloud storage capacity and comparing with RAID-6. The proposed approach provides protection (fault tolerance) against unexpected failure using erasure and regenerating codes.
Handedness Matters for Motor Control But Not for Prediction

Visual Abstract Skilled motor behavior relies on the ability to control the body and to predict the sensory consequences of this control. Although there is ample evidence that manual dexterity depends on handedness, it remains unclear whether control and prediction are similarly impacted. To address this issue, right-handed human participants performed two tasks with either the right or the left hand. In the first task, participants had to move a cursor with their hand so as to track a target that followed a quasi-random trajectory. This hand-tracking task allowed testing the ability to control the hand along an imposed trajectory. In the second task, participants had to track with their eyes a target that was self-moved through voluntary hand motion. This eye-tracking task allowed testing the ability to predict the visual consequences of hand movements. As expected, results showed that hand tracking was more accurate with the right hand than with the left hand. In contrast, eye tracking was similar in terms of spatial and temporal gaze attributes whether the target was moved by the right or the left hand. Although these results extend previous evidence for different levels of control by the two hands, they show that the ability to predict the visual consequences of self-generated actions does not depend on handedness. We propose that the greater dexterity exhibited by the dominant hand in many motor tasks stems from advantages in control, not in prediction. Finally, these findings support the notion that prediction and control are distinct processes.
Polyomavirus BK and JC infections in well matched Finnish kidney transplant recipients

Since 2003, only one case of polyomavirus‐associated nephropathy (PVAN) has occurred in our clinic despite screening protocols. In contrast to BK virus, the role of JC virus in PVAN is unclear. We studied the incidence and impact of polyomavirus BK and JC viruria and PVAN in well‐matched Finnish kidney transplant recipients. All Helsinki University Hospital kidney transplant recipients between 2004 and 2006 were prospectively followed (n = 163). Patients with a 12‐month protocol‐biopsy taken and polyomavirus urinary secretion screened by PCR were studied (n = 68). Cyclosporine‐based triple‐drug immunosuppression was usually used. BK or JC viruria was detected in 18 (27%) and 14 (21%) patients after transplantation respectively. Persistent BK or JC viruria was found in 5 (7%) and 9 (13%) patients. No cases of PVAN were diagnosed from protocol biopsies or from biopsies taken for clinical indications. A positive BK or JC viruria or persistent viruria was not associated with reduced renal function at follow‐up, histopathologic changes in 12‐month protocol biopsies, or acute rejections. The incidence of BK and JC viruria was similar to what has been previously reported, but no cases of polyomavirus‐associated nephropathy were seen in our well‐matched kidney transplant population.
Effects of Sympathetic and Vagal Nerves on Recovery Properties of the Endocardium and Epicardium of the Canine Left Ventricle

The purpose of this study was to determine if autonomic nerve interventions exerted quantitatively dissimilar effects on recovery properties of endocardium compared with epicardium. Effective refractory periods (ERP) were measured by the extrastimulus technique in the endocardium and epicardium of the canine left ventricular anterior wall. The basic train and premature stimuli were administered to the endocardium and overlying epicardium via different poles on the same multipolar needle electrode, using cathodal stimuli. Sympathetic augmentation produced via bilateral carotid arterial occlusion or electrical stimulation of right, left, and both sympathetic nerves shortened ERP. Bilateral sympathetic denervation prolonged ERP. The changes in ERP of the endocardium were no different than were changes in the ERP of overlying epicardium. In separate studies, electrical stimulation of the cervical vagi prolonged ERP similarly in epicardium and endocardium. Pacing at slower rates or physostigmine administration potentiated the ERP prolongation in endocardium similar to epicardium. Augmented sympathetic tone produced by carotid occlusion also potentiated prolongation of ERP by vagal stimulation. The percent change in endocardial sites was slightly but significantly less than in epicardial sites. ERP prolongation due to vagal stimulation was attenuated markedly after sympathectomy and abolished with both propranolol and atropine. We conclude that, in the normal anterior left ventricular myocardium of the dog, sympathetic augmentation shortens ERP in epicardial sites equivalent to that in the underlying endocardial sites, that vagal nerve stimulation prolongs ERP in epicardial sites equal to or slightly greater than in the underlying endocardial sites, and that vagal stimulation antagonizes background sympathetic activity. Circ Res 46: 100-110, 1980
Forkhead transcription factor FoxF2 is expressed in mesodermal tissues involved in epithelio‐mesenchymal interactions

The growing family of forkhead transcription factors plays many important roles during embryonic development. In this study we have used in situ hybridization to explore the expression pattern of the forkhead transcription factor gene FoxF2 (FREAC‐2, LUN) during mouse and rat embryogenesis, postnatal development, and in adult tissues. We demonstrate that FoxF2 is expressed in the mesenchyme adjacent to the epithelium in alimentary, respiratory, and urinary tracts, similar to FoxF1 (FREAC‐1, HFH‐8). FoxF2 mRNA was also observed in organs that do not express FoxF1 during embryogenesis, e.g., in the central nervous system, eye, ear, and limb buds. In organs that express both FoxF2 and FoxF1, these transcription factors may have similar functions in epithelio‐mesenchymal crosstalk, but the fact that FoxF2 is more widely expressed than FoxF1 suggests that FoxF2 also has an independent role as a developmental regulator. Dev Dyn;218:136–149. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Asymmetry of Velocity Increments in Fully Developed Turbulence and the Scaling of Low-Order Moments.

A study is made of the scaling of the positive part (PP) and the negative part (NP) of velocity increments in turbulent pipe flow and in simulated homogeneous turbulence in a box. For moment orders above unity, the moments of NP are larger than those of PP for all separation distances, and the scaling exponents for PP are larger than those for NP. For moment orders below unity, the absolute value of the velocity increment and of NP, as well as PP, possess scaling exponents which vary linearly with the moment order q, though apparently greater than qy3. [S0031-9007(96)00976-3] PACS numbers: 47.27. Ak, 47.27. Jv The velocity fluctuation usx; td in a turbulent flow is a large scale feature and nonuniversal. Kolmogorov [1] introduced the so-called structure functions to study universal properties. Specializing to the velocity component u in the direction x, one defines (for integer q) the structure functions as Sqsr d; k D u q l;k f u s x 1 r d 2 u s xdg q l . (1) It is expected that the structure functions in the inertial range [2] scale as some power of the separation distance r; that is, Sq , r z
Nanomelanin Potentially Protects the Spleen from Radiotherapy-Associated Damage and Enhances Immunoactivity in Tumor-Bearing Mice

Radiotherapy side-effects present serious problems in cancer treatment. Melanin, a natural polymer with low toxicity, is considered as a potential radio-protector; however, its application as an agent against irradiation during cancer treatment has still received little attention. In this study, nanomelanin particles were prepared, characterized and applied in protecting the spleens of tumor-bearing mice irradiated with X-rays. These nanoparticles had sizes varying in the range of 80–200 nm and contained several important functional groups such as carboxyl (-COO), carbonyl (-C=O) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups on the surfaces. Tumor-bearing mice were treated with nanomelanin at a concentration of 40 mg/kg before irradiating with a single dose of 6.0 Gray of X-ray at a high dose rate (1.0 Gray/min). Impressively, X-ray caused mild splenic fibrosis in 40% of nanomelanin-protected mice, whereas severe fibrosis was observed in 100% of mice treated with X-ray alone. Treatment with nanomelanin also partly rescued the volume and weight of mouse spleens from irradiation through promoting the transcription levels of splenic Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α). More interestingly, splenic T cell and dendritic cell populations were 1.91 and 1.64-fold higher in nanomelanin-treated mice than those in mice which received X-ray alone. Consistently, the percentage of lymphocytes was also significantly greater in blood from nanomelanin-treated mice. In addition, nanomelanin might indirectly induce apoptosis in tumor tissues via activation of TNF-α, Bax, and Caspase-3 genes. In summary, our results demonstrate that nanomelanin protects spleens from X-ray irradiation and consequently enhances immunoactivity in tumor-bearing mice; therefore, we present nanomelanin as a potential protector against damage from radiotherapy in cancer treatment.
The effects of weight loss and metformin on cognition among breast cancer survivors: Evidence from the Reach for Health study

Breast cancer survivors experience problems with cognition that interfere with daily life and can last for years. In the general population, obesity and diabetes are risk factors for cognitive decline, and weight loss can improve cognition; however, the impact of intentional weight loss on cancer survivors' cognition has not been tested. We investigated the impact of weight loss and metformin on changes in cognitive function in a sample of breast cancer survivors.