Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unraveling the Molecular Basis of the Dystrophic Process in Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy LGMD-R12 by Differential Gene Expression Profiles in Diseased and Healthy Muscles

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R12 (LGMD-R12) is caused by two mutations in anoctamin-5 (ANO5). Our aim was to identify genes and pathways that underlie LGMD-R12 and explain differences in the molecular predisposition and susceptibility between three thigh muscles that are severely (semimembranosus), moderately (vastus lateralis) or mildly (rectus femoris) affected in this disease. We performed transcriptomics on these three muscles in 16 male LGMD-R12 patients and 15 age-matched male controls. Our results showed that LGMD-R12 dystrophic muscle is associated with the expression of genes indicative of fibroblast and adipocyte replacement, such as fibroadipogenic progenitors and immune cell infiltration, while muscle protein synthesis and metabolism were downregulated. Muscle degeneration was associated with an increase in genes involved in muscle injury and inflammation, and muscle repair/regeneration. Baseline differences between muscles in healthy individuals indicated that muscles that are the most affected by LGMD-R12 have the lowest expression of transcription factor networks involved in muscle (re)generation and satellite stem cell activation. Instead, they show relative high levels of fetal/embryonic myosins, all together indicating that muscles differ in their baseline regenerative potential. To conclude, we profiled the gene expression landscape in LGMD-R12, identified baseline differences in expression levels between differently affected muscles and characterized disease-associated changes.
Extent of Knowledge and Adoption of System of Rice Intencification (SRI) Cultivation Practices among Rice Growers in Kohima District of Nagaland, India

Rice is life for millions of people in the world, particularly in developing countries. Unfortunately in India, the productivity of rice is already very low and the area for growing rice cannot be increased further. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI), developed by Fr. Henri de Laulanie during eighties in Madagascar, offers opportunities for improving rice production in a variety of situations around the world. SRI was promoted under the “Integrated Cereal Development Programme-Rice”. Rice is also the main staple food of people in the North Eastern Region of India. The demand for rice is growing with ever-increasing population. It is the most water intensive crops and requires about 3000-5000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice. Nagaland is also one of the states where SRI is cultivated by the rice farmers. It is one of the most important crops of the North Eastern states and SRI has been highly cultivated by farmers in Kohima district of Nagaland. It has the highest production and area. The present study is an effort to study the profile of farmers’ already practicing SRI method of rice cultivation which would certainly help to develop suitable extension strategies to reach the slow adopters thus reducing the time gap and increasing the adoption rate. While worldwide SRI started three decades ago, its knowledge is still evolving and several issues with regard to various components that are involved in its implementation still need some investigation. The finding of the study can help to analyze the factors influencing it and the constraints faced by the farmers thus enlisting strategies to the rice farmers to overcome it. The study was conducted in Jakhama, Kohima village and Kezocha block of Kohima district of Nagaland. A total number of 120 respondents from 4 villages were selected through random sampling based on maximum area under system of rice intensification production. Data was collected with the help of pre-structured interview schedule. The descriptive research design was used for the present research study. The socio-economic variables selected for the study were age, education, family size, family type, land holding, annual income, farm experience, extension contact, social participation, mass media exposure and sources of information utilization resources The study revealed that majority of the system of rice intensification cultivators belonged to middle aged group, had medium level of annual income with medium size of land holding. Majority of them had medium year of farming experience, use of sources of information and medium level of extension contact. It was observed that the majority of the respondents had medium level of knowledge and adoption of recommended system of rice intensification practices among rice growers.
Impact of Magnetic Field on Corona Discharge Behavior of Mineral Oil Under AC Voltage

This article reports an experimental investigation of the impact of magnetic field on corona discharge activity in mineral oil, using both ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) and fluorescence techniques under ac voltage. The results show that corona inception voltage (CIV) increased under ac voltage with varying harmonic frequencies without considering any phase shift and reduced marginally under magnetic field. In addition, the impact of the magnetic field shifted the dominating frequency of the UHF signal (0.9 GHz) obtained under ac voltage toward lower frequencies (0.3 and 0.6 GHz). Under high magnetic fields, the parameters such as rise time, fall time, and pulsewidth of the fluorescence signal increased in its magnitude compared to its effect without a magnetic field. Also, using both the UHF sensor and the fluorescence sensor, there was no clear difference in the phase-resolved partial discharge (PRPD) pattern caused by corona discharge (with and without magnetic field). Furthermore, the number of discharges is observed to be high under the impact of harmonic ac voltages with third- and seventh-order containing total harmonic distortions (THDs) of 4% and 40%.
Financial Distress Prediction of Cooperative Financial Institutions—Evidence for Taiwan Credit Unions

In response to relatively little evidence on the determinants of the financial distress in cooperative financial institutions (e.g., Credit Unions), this paper proposes a distress indicator of Merton Distance to default (Merton DD), which was constructed with a z-score, possessed improved predictive capability, but reducing equity volatility. This model possesses the advantages of both hazard and modified Merton DD model, which could timely reflect market volatility and predict when distress would occur. As a demonstration, we applied this model to forecast the financial distress of credit unions in Taiwan. The results can provide more information to researchers.
Efficient QAM Signal Detector for Massive MIMO Systems via PS/DPS-ADMM Approaches

In this paper, we design two efficient quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal detectors for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems via the penalty-sharing alternating direction method of multipliers (PS-ADMM). The content of the paper is summarized as follows: first, we transform the maximum-likelihood detection model to a non-convex sharing optimization problem for massive MIMO-QAM systems, where a high-order QAM constellation is decomposed to a sum of multiple binary variables, integer constraints are relaxed to box constraints, and quadratic penalty functions are added to the objective function to result in a favorable integer solution; second, a customized ADMM algorithm, called PS-ADMM, is presented to solve the formulated non-convex optimization problem. In the implementation, all variables in each vector can be solved analytically and in parallel; and third, in order to solve the penalty-sharing distributively, we improve the proposed PS-ADMM algorithm to a distributed one, named DPS-ADMM. In the end, performance analyses of the proposed two algorithms, including convergence properties and computational cost, are provided. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.
Student Housing Satisfaction at a South African University

Universities worldwide have seen an expansion of students. We surveyed 1,193 students at the University of the Free State and conducted interviews and focus groups to better understand the factors that contribute to housing satisfaction. Satisfaction depended on a range of environmental factors, particularly noise levels, rules, security, privacy, and the standard of maintenance, rather than on the norms and standards that relate to design issues. The on-campus respondents were doing better academically and socially.
Developing a GDOT Pavement Marking Handbook Using Field Test Deck Evaluation and Long-term Performance Analysis

This research project comprehensively reviewed the state departments of transportation’s (DOTs) practices on selecting and inspecting pavement marking materials (PMMs) and evaluated pavement marking retroreflectivity data collected on the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Test Deck and the National Transportation Product Evaluation Program (NTPEP) test decks. A methodology was developed to enhance the reliability of pavement marking retroreflectivity analysis by systematically identifying and removing retroreflectivity data with irregular variability, such as inconsistent retroreflectivity along the same section, as well as irregular temporal jumps in retroreflectivity. Statistical models were further developed to predict the retroreflectivity and expected service life of selected PMMs. Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) was then conducted to calculate the expected life-cycle cost of each type of material. Results of the comprehensive review and data analysis were finally integrated into a Pavement Marking Handbook for GDOT to have a standardized and consistent reference for selecting and inspecting PMMs. An interactive tutorial was also developed to enhance the content of the Handbook through interactive means such as images, videos, and user inputs.
Improving flood impact estimations

A reliable estimation of flood impacts enables meaningful flood risk management and rapid assessments of flood impacts shortly after a flood. The flood in 2021 in Central Europe and the analysis of its impacts revealed that these estimations are still inadequate. Therefore, we investigate the influence of different data sets and methods aiming to improve flood impact estimates. We estimated economic flood impacts to private households and companies for a flood event in 2013 in Germany using (a) two different flood maps, (b) two approaches to map exposed objects based on OpenStreetMap and the Basic European Asset Map, (c) two different approaches to estimate asset values, and (d) tree-based models and Stage-Damage-Functions to describe the vulnerability. At the macro scale, water masks lead to reasonable impact estimations. At the micro and meso-scale, the identification of affected objects by means of water masks is insufficient leading to unreliable estimations. The choice of exposure data sets is most influential on the estimations. We find that reliable impact estimations are feasible with reported numbers of flood-affected objects from the municipalities. We conclude that more effort should be put in the investigation of different exposure data sets and the estimation of asset values. Furthermore, we recommend the establishment of a reporting system in the municipalities for a fast identification of flood-affected objects shortly after an event.
Revision of the genus Georissus (Coleoptera, Hydrophiloidea, Georissidae) of Japan

Japanese species of the genus Georissus are revised. Seven species, including two new, G. (Neogeorissus) takahashii sp. nov. and G. (Ne.) satoi sp. nov. are recognized. Georissus (Neogeorissus) sakaii Satô, 1972 and G. (Ne.) katsuoi Nakane, 1995 are synonymized with G. (Ne.) japonicus Satô, 1972. Based on the type series and additional specimens, three subgenera and seven species are (re)described with SEM micrographs of the external morphology and figures of male and female genitalia. The terminology of some structures of the head and the pronotum are redefined for convenience of taxonomy. A key to the Japanese species is also given.
Myrmecochorous plants and their ant seed dispersers through successional stages in temperate cove forests

Anthropogenic disturbance can decrease woodland diversity in the species‐rich herbaceous layer of eastern deciduous forests, and ant‐dispersed (myrmecochorous) plants may be particularly affected due to their limited ability to re‐colonise secondary forests. Consequently, we predicted that myrmecochorous plants and their keystone seed‐dispersing ants would increase with time since the last disturbance, as reflected by young, middle or mature forest successional stage. Specifically, we hypothesized that myrmecochore abundance and richness would be relatively lowest in the youngest forests, moderate in middle‐aged forests and highest in mature forests. We also hypothesized that experimentally introducing ant bait in a regular pattern, as might be expected from intact species‐rich myrmecochore communities, would elicit greater ant foraging interest than intermittent baiting, as might be expected in recently disturbed depauperate myrmecochore communities. We found the highest myrmecochore plant abundance in mature forests, but we found the same for herbaceous plants overall. Moreover, regular and intermittent bait offerings elicited similar overall ant responses. The observational results suggested that myrmecochorous plants respond to forest successional stage as do other woodland plants, and our experimental results suggest that disrupted seed delivery by myrmecochores did not affect Aphaenogaster abundance or foraging behaviour. As such, the myrmecochore communities studied here appeared as resilient as other woodland herbs, and seed‐dispersing ants did not appear dependent on myrmecochore plant communities. Indeed, given the relatively high myrmecochore richness and abundance across our study sites, forest type (e.g., rich cove forest) might better predict myrmecochore success than successional stage.
Bidirectional Associations between Parental Non-Responsive Feeding Practices and Child Eating Behaviors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Prospective Studies

Background: Parental non-responsive feeding practices and child eating behaviors both play significant roles in childhood obesity. However, their longitudinal relationships are less clear. This systematic review aimed to examine their bidirectional associations. Methods: A systematic search of five databases was conducted from inception to February 2022. Data synthesis was performed using a semi-quantitative and quantitative approach. Results: A total of 14 studies with 15348 respondents were included. A total of 94 longitudinal effects from 14 studies of parental non-responsive feeding practices on child eating behaviors were investigated, and 19 statistically significant effects were discovered. Seventy-seven longitudinal effects from nine studies of child eating behaviors on parental feeding practices were examined, with fifteen being statistically significant. The pooled results of meta-analysis showed five statistically significant associations: parental restrictive feeding positively predicted child enjoyment of food (β = 0.044; 95% CI: 0.004, 0.085); use of food as a reward positively predicted child emotional eating (β = 0.09; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.15); child food responsiveness positively predicted restrictive feeding (β = 0.04; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.06); use food as a reward (β = 0.06; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.10). In addition, the pooled effects showed that child satiety responsiveness negatively predicted restrictive feeding (β = −0.05; 95% CI: −0.08, −0.01). Conclusions: The bidirectional relationships between parental non-responsive feeding practices and child eating behaviors are inconsistent and a few showed statistical significance. Theory-driven longitudinal studies using validated instruments and controlling for potential confounders are needed to unveil their relationships and provide evidence for obesity prevention interventions.
“Immigration Knocks on the Door . . . We Are Stuck . . .”: A Multilevel Analysis of Undocumented Youth’s Experiences of Racism, System Failure, and Resistance in Policy and School Contexts

Background/Context: Undocumented youth navigate unwelcoming federal, state, and local contexts in the United States. Although previous research shows the significant impact of immigration policy and enforcement on educational outcomes and social-emotional well-being, this study sheds light on the multiple, intersecting policy, and school contexts that hinder social and educational mobility. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to elicit Latinx undocumented immigrant youth experiences in a southern state to contribute to evolving research on their experiences in K-12 schools. In addition, the purpose was to understand how undocumented youth (a) talk about the policies that impact their daily lives, (b) perceive the organizational-level structures that exist to support them in school and community contexts, and (c) articulate a sense of belonging through their community and school interactions in relation to processes of racialization and its impact on immigration status. Conceptually, the paper uses a multilevel, interactional framework to show the impact of racialization of Latinx undocumented immigrants in policy, school, and community, and relational contexts. Research Design: The study is a 3-year critical ethnography of two Title I high schools in the U.S. South that maintains particularly restrictive policies toward immigrants. Fieldwork from two school sites and interviews with 63 undocumented youth, and relevant personnel deepen our understanding of their status of illegality—specifically how their material lives are impacted by policy and institutional-level dynamics and constraints. Conclusions/Recommendations: The author shows how youth voice through ethnographic evidence counteracts anti-immigrant policies and criminalization of Latinx immigrants; youth critique social policy and institutions that seek to limit their progress in society. The implications for policymakers, educators, and school-based personnel is significant Although legal status may impose certain limitations on undocumented students’ educational opportunities, their educational trajectories are still highly determined by school structures. Knowing this, educators can respond effectively to ensure educational rights and equitable educational practice.
Heart-Brain 346-7 Score: the development and validation of a simple mortality prediction score for carbon monoxide poisoning utilizing deep learning

Abstract Introduction Acute mortality from carbon monoxide poisoning is 1–3%. The long-term mortality risk of survivors of carbon monoxide poisoning is doubled compared to age-matched controls. Cardiac involvement also increases mortality risk. We built a clinical risk score to identify carbon monoxide-poisoned patients at risk for acute and long-term mortality. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis. We identified 811 adult carbon monoxide-poisoned patients in the derivation cohort, and 462 adult patients in the validation cohort. We utilized baseline demographics, laboratory values, hospital charge transactions, discharge disposition, and clinical charting information in the electronic medical record in Stepwise Akaike’s Information Criteria with Firth logistic regression to determine optimal parameters to create a prediction model. Results In the derivation cohort, 5% had inpatient or 1-year mortality. Three variables following the final Firth logistic regression minimized Stepwise Akaike’s Information Criteria: altered mental status, age, and cardiac complications. The following predict inpatient or 1-year mortality: age > 67, age > 37 with cardiac complications, age > 47 with altered mental status, or any age with cardiac complications and altered mental status. The sensitivity of the score was 82% (95% confidence interval: 65–92%), the specificity was 80% (95% confidence interval: 77–83%), negative predictive value was 99% (95% confidence interval: 98-100%), positive predictive value 17% (95% confidence interval: 12–23%), and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.81 (95% confidence interval: 0.74–0.87). A score above the cut-off point of −2.9 was associated with an odds ratio of 18 (95% confidence interval: 8–40). In the validation cohort (462 patients), 4% had inpatient death or 1-year mortality. The score performed similarly in the validation cohort: sensitivity was 72% (95% confidence interval: 47–90%), specificity was 69% (95% confidence interval: 63–73%), negative predictive value was 98% (95% confidence interval: 96–99%), positive predictive value was 9% (95% confidence interval: 5–15%) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.70 (95% confidence interval: 60%–81%). Conclusions We developed and validated a simple, clinical-based scoring system, the Heart-Brain 346-7 Score to predict inpatient and long-term mortality based on the following: age > 67, age > 37 with cardiac complications, age > 47 with altered mental status, or any age with cardiac complications and altered mental status. With further validation, this score will hopefully aid decision-making to identify carbon monoxide-poisoned patients with higher mortality risk.
An Overview of Highly Porous Titanium Processed via Metal Injection Molding in Combination with the Space Holder Method

In the past two decades, titanium foams have attracted greater interest from the biomedical industry due to their excellent chemical and mechanical biocompatibility when used as biomimetic implants. The porous structure plays an important role in bone adhesion to an implant, allowing its growth into the component. Moreover, the voids reduce the elastic modulus, promoting greater compatibility with the bone, avoiding the stress shielding effect. In this regard, metal injection molding is an attractive process for titanium foams manufacturing due to the high microstructural control and the possibility of producing, on a large scale, parts with complex near-net-shaped structures. In this review, recent discoveries and advantages regarding the processing of titanium powders and alloys via metal injection molding combined with the space holder method are presented. This approach can be used to obtain foams with high biocompatibility with the human body at a microstructural, chemical, and mechanical level.
Auditory and haptic feedback to train basic mathematical skills of children with visual impairments

ABSTRACT Physical manipulatives, such as rods or tiles, are widely used for mathematics learning, as they support embodied cognition, enable the execution of epistemic actions, and foster conceptual metaphors. Counting them, children explore, rearrange, and reinterpret the environment through the haptic channel. Vision generally complements physical actions, which makes using traditional manipulatives limited for children with visual impairments (VIs). Digitally augmenting manipulatives with feedback through alternative modalities might improve them. We specifically discuss conveying number representations to children with VIs using haptic and auditory channels within an environment encouraging exploration and supporting active touch counting strategies while promoting reflection. This paper presents LETSMath, a tangible system for training basic mathematical skills of children with VIs, developed through Design-Based Research with three iterations in which we involved 19 children with VIs and their educators. We discuss how the system may support training skills in the composition of numbers and the impact that the different system features have on slowing down the interaction pace to trigger reflection, on understanding, and on incorporation.