Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-Analysis of the QTLome of Fusarium Head Blight Resistance in Bread Wheat: Refining the Current Puzzle

Background: Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a worldwide devastating disease of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Genetic resistance is the most effective way to control FHB and many QTL related to this trait have been mapped on the wheat genetic map. This information, however, must be refined to be more efficiently used in breeding programs and for the advance of the basic research. The objective of the present study was to in-depth analyze the QTLome of FHB resistance in bread wheat, further integrating genetic, genomic, and transcriptomic data, aiming to find candidate genes. Methods: An exhaustive bibliographic review on 76 scientific papers was carried out collecting information about QTL related to FHB resistance mapped on bread wheat. A dense genetic consensus map with 572,862 loci was generated for QTL projection. Meta-analysis could be performed on 323 QTL. Candidate gene mining was carried out within the most refined loci, containing genes that were cross-validated with publicly available transcriptional expression data of wheat under Fusarium infection. Most highlighted genes were investigated for protein evidence. Results: A total of 556 QTL were found in the literature, distributed on all sub-genomes and chromosomes of wheat. Meta-analysis generated 65 meta-QTL, and this refinement allows one to find markers more tightly linked to these regions. Candidate gene mining within the most refined meta-QTL, meta-QTL 1/chr. 3B, harvested 324 genes and transcriptional data cross-validated 10 of these genes, as responsive to FHB. One is of these genes encodes a Glycosiltransferase and the other encodes for a Cytochrome P450, and these such proteins have already been verified as being responsible for FHB resistance, but the remaining eight genes still have to be further studied, as promising loci for breeding. Conclusions: The QTLome of FHB resistance in wheat was successfully assembled and a refinement in terms of number and length of loci was obtained. The integration of the QTLome with genomic and transcriptomic data has allowed for the discovery of promising candidate genes for use in breeding programs.
Placebo Effect in the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety

The aim of this review is to evaluate the placebo effect in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Antidepressants are supposed to work by fixing a chemical imbalance, specifically, a lack of serotonin or norepinephrine in the brain. However, analyses of the published and the unpublished clinical trial data are consistent in showing that most (if not all) of the benefits of antidepressants in the treatment of depression and anxiety are due to the placebo response, and the difference in improvement between drug and placebo is not clinically meaningful and may be due to breaking blind by both patients and clinicians. Although this conclusion has been the subject of intense controversy, the current article indicates that the data from all of the published meta-analyses report the same results. This is also true of recent meta-analysis of all of the antidepressant data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the process of seeking drug approval. Also, contrary to previously published results, the new FDA analysis reveals that the placebo response has not increased over time. Other treatments (e.g., psychotherapy and physical exercise) produce the same benefits as antidepressants and do so without the side effects and health risks of the active drugs. Psychotherapy and placebo treatments also show a lower relapse rate than that reported for antidepressant medication.
Reduced Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder Patients

Background: Neuroimaging studies have shown that the high synchrony of spontaneous neural activity in the homotopic regions between hemispheres is an important functional structural feature of normal human brains, and this feature is abnormal in the patients with various mental disorders. However, little is known about this feature in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). This study aimed to further analyze the underlying neural mechanisms of OCD and to explore whether clinical characteristics are correlated with the alerted homotopic connectivity in patients with OCD. Methods: Using voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) during resting state, we compared 46 OCD patients and 46 healthy controls (HCs) matched for age, gender, and education level. A partial correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between altered VMHC and clinical characteristics in patients with OCD. Results: Patients with OCD showed lower VMHC than HCs in fusiform gyrus/inferior occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, postcentral gyrus/precentral gyrus, putamen, and orbital frontal gyrus. A significant positive correlation was observed between altered VMHC in the angular gyrus/middle occipital gyrus and illness duration in patients. Conclusions: Interhemispheric functional imbalance may be an essential aspect of the pathophysiological mechanism of OCD, which is reflected not only in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) loop but also elsewhere in the brain.
The Prehistoric Indian Ayurvedic Rice Shashtika Is an Extant Early Domesticate With a Distinct Selection History

Fully domesticated rice is considered to have emerged in India at approximately 2000 B.C., although its origin in India remains a contentious issue. The fast-growing 60-days rice strain described in the Vedic literature (1900–500 B.C.) and termed Shashtika (Sanskrit) or Njavara (Dravidian etymology) in Ayurveda texts including the seminal texts Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita (circa 660–1000 B.C.) is a reliable extant strain among the numerous strains described in the Ayurveda literature. We here report the results of the phylogenetic analysis of Njavara accessions in relation to the cultivars belonging to the known ancestral sub-groups indica, japonica, aromatic, and aus in rice gene pool and the populations of the progenitor species Oryza rufipogon using genetic and gene genealogical methods. Based on neutral microsatellite markers, Njavara produced a major clade, which comprised of minor clades corresponding to the genotypic classes reported in Njavara germplasm, and was distinct from that were produced by the ancestral sub-groups. Further we performed a phylogenetic analysis using the combined sequence of 19 unlinked EST-based sequence tagged site (STS) loci with proven potential in inferring rice phylogeny. In the phylogenetic tree also the Njavara genotypic classes were clearly separated from the ancestral sub-groups. For most loci the genealogical analysis produced a high frequency central haplotype shared among most of the rice samples analyzed in the study including Njavara and a set of O. rufipogon accessions. The haplotypes sharing pattern with the progenitor O. rufipogon suggests a Central India–Southeast Asia origin for Njavara. Results signify that Njavara is genetically distinct in relation to the known ancestral sub-groups in rice. Further, from the phylogenetic features together with the reported morphological characteristics, it is likely that Njavara is an extant early domesticate in Indian rice gene pool, preserved in pure form over millennia by the traditional prudence in on-farm selection using 60-days maturity, because of its medicinal applications.
Influence of Anthropogenically-Forced Global Warming and Natural Climate Variability in the Rainfall Changes Observed Over the South American Altiplano

Changes in the summer rainfall and 200-hPa zonal winds (U200) in the South American Altiplano are studied from 1902 to 2018 using three different reanalysis datasets and simulations from 14 climate models of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). No significant trend in rainfall was identified from GPCC reanalysis data over that period. On the other hand, regional U200 trends estimated from 20C and ERA20C reanalyses and from CMIP5 Historical simulations are significant and positive over the 1902-2005 period. However, the trends seem to be dependent on the reanalysis dataset and period considered. While no significant U200 trend is detected in simulations forced only by external natural sources, the mean trend is positive and significant in simulations forced only by the increment of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, a signal associated with the anthropogenic forcing of climate change has been detected in U200 trends in the Altiplano, but it is weak as compared with the internal climate variability. Singular value decomposition analyses based on both reanalyzed and simulated data were performed to describe the co-variability between rainfall in the Altiplano, regional U200 and global sea surface temperature (SST). The analysis confirms that negative rainfall anomalies in the Altiplano, associated with positive U200 anomalies, are related with positive SST anomalies mainly in the tropical Pacific-Indian Oceans. Simulations can reproduce observed relationships and confirm that natural variability explains the observed year-to-year variability. Simulations also confirm that anthropogenic forcing is a necessary condition to explain the positive trends detected in the co-variability between tropical SST and regional U200 anomalies. However, the large influence exerted by the South American Monsoon over the region can also affect sign and magnitude of the changes in the Altiplano. No significant relationship was found from CMIP5 simulations between poleward displacements of the global Hadley cell and regional U200 changes. Instead, South American Hadley cell displacements are significantly correlated with regional U200 changes. The latter might be an additional evidence of the combined influence of both tropical surface ocean and South America Monsoon on the circulation changes in the Altiplano in the global warming context.
Electrical Characterization of High Performance Fine Pitch Interconnects in Silicon-Interconnect Fabric

The Silicon-Interconnect Fabric (Si-IF) is a highly scalable platform for heterogenous integration of dielets using a fine interconnect pitch (? 10 µm) and small inter-dielet spacing (? 100 µm) [1]. In our fine-pitch integration scheme, short links on Si-IF (? 500 µm) are used for inter-dielet communication, reducing the latency (? 35 ps) and energy /bit (? 0.04 pJ/b) [2]. In this paper, we demonstrate the excellent transfer characteristics of the Si-IF links, verified experimentally. The measured insertion loss in these short Si-IF links (? 500 µm) is ? 2 dB for frequencies up to 30 GHz. Further, the transfer characteristics show only a single pole, demonstrating an RC-link behavior. We show that assemblies on Si-IF have 16-25X lower parasitic inductance, and 6-40X lower parasitic capacitance compared to assemblies on interposers and PCBs. We illustrate that using the Simple Universal Parallel intERface for chips (SuperCHIPS) protocol [2] for data transfer, data rates of ? 10 Gbps/link are realizable at an energy/bit of ? 0.04 pJ/b. Subsequently, due to the high interconnect density, the overall bandwidth/mm is ? 8 Tbps/mm. This corresponds to an improvement of 120-300X in bandwidth/mm and a reduction of 100-500X in energy/bit compared to a conventional PCB-based integration.
Different geospatial information behaviors of new domestic and international graduate students

This paper presents the findings from an online survey investigating how new students seek geospatial information in an unfamiliar environment. By surveying 149 new graduate students at University of Maryland, College Park, this study identifies the geospatial information needs and information sources used during their adjustment in new environments, and examines the factors that may affect different geospatial information behaviors (GIBs) of new students, such as populousness of students’ countries of origin on campus, gender, age, and program level (Master's, PhD). Findings include (1) international students’ greater emphases on survival‐related geospatial information; (2) gender differences in the importance of navigational and transportation information and frequency of using navigational information sources during adjustment; (3) significant differences among socio‐national and demographic groups for geospatial information needs and for the use of information sources. The findings are discussed in ways to further our understanding of new students’ GIB in unfamiliar environments and inform further research in human information behavior.
Interconnection Process Using Laser and Hybrid Underfill for LED Array Module on PET Substrate

Flexible displays and electronics are emerging technology. A PET substrate is one the strong candidate substrate materials for the applications, however, its low thermal stability limited its penetration depth in the market. We propose the interconnection process using laser and hybrid underfill as a technical solution to prevent the thermal deformation of a PET film during the interconnection process. The LED module array is successfully fabricated on a PET substrate using laser and hybrid underfill. The process features a very short cycle time and tiling process for the high throughput.
Physical Activity and Trajectories of Cardiovascular Health Indicators During Early Childhood

This prospective cohort study examines the longitudinal effects of physical activity on cardiovascular fitness, arterial stiffness, and blood pressure over 3 years during early childhood. BrightcoveDefaultPlayer10.1542/6138665548001PEDS-VA_2018-2242 Video Abstract OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular disease prevention should begin in childhood. However, the influence of physical activity on cardiovascular health in early childhood is unknown. Our purpose in this study was to determine the effect of physical activity on trajectories of cardiovascular health indicators during early childhood. METHODS: This prospective, observational cohort study (Health Outcomes and Physical Activity in Preschoolers) enrolled 418 3- to 5-year-olds with annual assessments for 3 years. Total physical activity (TPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured over 7 days via accelerometry. Cardiovascular health indicators included cardiovascular fitness (exercise time on a maximal treadmill test [treadmill time] and 1-minute heart rate recovery), resting arterial stiffness (whole-body pulse wave velocity and carotid β stiffness index), and seated systolic blood pressure. Data were analyzed by using linear mixed-effects modeling; effects are reported as unstandardized estimates (Est). RESULTS: There were main effects of TPA and MVPA on treadmill time (Est = 0.004 [P = .005] and 0.008 [P = .001], respectively) and heart rate recovery (Est = 0.05 [P < .001] and 0.08 [P < .001], respectively). There was a main effect of TPA on pulse wave velocity (Est = −0.001; P = .02) and an MVPA × time interaction (Est = −0.002; P = .01). For carotid β stiffness index, the effect of a TPA × time interaction was not significant (Est = −0.002; P = .051); however, there was a significant MVPA × time interaction (Est = −0.003; P = .03). MVPA was associated with a slower rate of change in systolic blood pressure for girls (Est = 0.06; P = .009). CONCLUSIONS: Children who engage in higher levels of physical activity during early childhood have better cardiovascular health indicators, with more intense physical activity (ie, MVPA) attenuating the stiffening of arteries.
The effect of ketorolac buccal infiltration on postoperative endodontic pain: a prospective, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial was to evaluate the effect of ketorolac buccal infiltration of on postendodontic pain of patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis in mandibular first/second molars. METHOD AND MATERIALS Sixty patients meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated. After receiving a standard inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) followed by a buccal infiltration injection with lidocaine, half of the participants randomly received a supplemental buccal infiltration of 30 mg/mL ketorolac tromethamine and the other half received a buccal infiltration of normal saline adjacent to the periapical region of the tooth being treated. Afterwards, all participants received a single-visit root canal treatment. Pre- and postoperative (immediately after treatment, and at 2, 4, 6, and 24 hours) pain levels were evaluated via Heft-Parker visual analog scale (HP-VAS). Analgesic consumption was also recorded. The data were statistically analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and Friedman tests. The significance level was set at P < . 05. RESULTS There was a significant difference in postoperative pain between the two groups in overall evaluations and in each time interval (P < .001 and P = .043 respectively). Of those patients receiving ketorolac, 60% (18/30) did not require any analgesic consumption up to 24 hours postoperatively, whereas this number was 43% (13/30) for the placebo group. CONCLUSION Ketorolac buccal infiltration could reduce the postoperative pain experienced by patients requiring endodontic treatment diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis.
Investigating Raw Wave Deep Neural Networks for End-to-End Speaker Spoofing Detection

Recent advances in automatic speaker verification (ASV) lead to an increased interest in securing these systems for real-world applications. Malicious spoofing attempts against ASV systems can lead to serious security breaches. A spoofing attack within the context of ASV is a condition in which a (potentially harmful) person successfully masks as another, to the ASV system already known person by falsifying or manipulating data. While most previous work focuses on enhanced, spoof-aware features, end-to-end models can be a potential alternative. In this paper, we investigate the training of a raw wave front-ends for deep convolutional, long short-term memory (LSTM) and vanilla neural networks, which are analyzed for their suitability toward spoofing detection, regarding the influence of frame size, number of output neurons, and sequence length. A joint convolutional LSTM neural network (CLDNN) is proposed, which outperforms previous attempts on the BTAS2016 dataset (0.82% $\rightarrow$ 0.19% HTER), placing itself as the current state-of-the-art model for the dataset. We show that end-to-end approaches are appropriate for the important replay detection task and show that the proposed model is capable of distinguishing device-invariant spoofing attempts. Regarding the ASVspoof2015 dataset, the end-to-end solution achieves an equal error rate (EER) of 0.00% for the S1-S9 conditions. We show that the end-to-end approach based on a raw waveform input can outperform common cepstral features, without the use of context-dependent frame extensions. In addition, a cross-database (domain mismatch) scenario is also evaluated, which shows that the proposed CLDNN model trained on the BTAS2016 dataset achieves an EER of 25.7% on the ASVspoof2015 dataset.
Spatiotemporal Regulation of Rho GTPases in Neuronal Migration

Neuronal migration is essential for the orchestration of brain development and involves several contiguous steps: interkinetic nuclear movement (INM), multipolar–bipolar transition, locomotion, and translocation. Growing evidence suggests that Rho GTPases, including RhoA, Rac, Cdc42, and the atypical Rnd members, play critical roles in neuronal migration by regulating both actin and microtubule cytoskeletal components. This review focuses on the spatiotemporal-specific regulation of Rho GTPases as well as their regulators and effectors in distinct steps during the neuronal migration process. Their roles in bridging extracellular signals and cytoskeletal dynamics to provide optimal structural support to the migrating neurons will also be discussed.
Altered Movement Biomechanics in Chronic Ankle Instability, Coper, and Control Groups: Energy Absorption and Distribution Implications.

CONTEXT Patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI) exhibit deficits in neuromuscular control, resulting in altered movement strategies. However, no researchers have examined neuromuscular adaptations to dynamic movement strategies during multiplanar landing and cutting among patients with CAI, individuals who are ankle-sprain copers, and control participants. OBJECTIVE To investigate lower extremity joint power, stiffness, and ground reaction force (GRF) during a jump-landing and cutting task among CAI, coper, and control groups. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 22 patients with CAI (age = 22.7 ± 2.0 years, height = 174.6 ± 10.4 cm, mass = 73.4 ± 12.1 kg), 22 ankle-sprain copers (age = 22.1 ± 2.1 years, height = 173.8 ± 8.2 cm, mass = 72.6 ± 12.3 kg), and 22 healthy control participants (age = 22.5 ± 3.3 years, height = 172.4 ± 13.3 cm, mass = 72.6 ± 18.7 kg). INTERVENTION(S) Participants performed 5 successful trials of a jump-landing and cutting task. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Using motion-capture cameras and a force plate, we collected lower extremity ankle-, knee-, and hip-joint power and stiffness and GRFs during the jump-landing and cutting task. Functional analyses of variance were used to evaluate between-groups differences in these dependent variables throughout the contact phase of the task. RESULTS Compared with the coper and control groups, the CAI group displayed (1) up to 7% of body weight more posterior and 52% of body weight more vertical GRF during initial landing followed by decreased GRF during the remaining stance and 22% of body weight less medial GRF across most of stance; (2) 8.8 W/kg less eccentric and 3.2 W/kg less concentric ankle power, 6.4 W/kg more eccentric knee and 4.8 W/kg more eccentric hip power during initial landing, and 5.0 W/kg less eccentric knee and 3.9 W/kg less eccentric hip power; and (3) less ankle- and knee-joint stiffness during the landing phase. Concentric power patterns were similar to eccentric power patterns. CONCLUSIONS The CAI group demonstrated altered neuromechanics, redistributing energy absorption from the distal (ankle) to the proximal (knee and hip) joints, which coincided with decreased ankle and knee stiffness during landing. Our data suggested that although the coper and control groups showed similar landing and cutting strategies, the CAI group used altered strategies to modulate impact forces during the task.
Addressee and Response Selection for Multilingual Conversation

Developing conversational systems that can converse in many languages is an interesting challenge for natural language processing. In this paper, we introduce multilingual addressee and response selection. In this task, a conversational system predicts an appropriate addressee and response for an input message in multiple languages. A key to developing such multilingual responding systems is how to utilize high-resource language data to compensate for low-resource language data. We present several knowledge transfer methods for conversational systems. To evaluate our methods, we create a new multilingual conversation dataset. Experiments on the dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.