Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long Non-Coding RNAs Associated with Ribosomes in Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells: From RNAs to Microproteins

Ribosome profiling reveals the translational dynamics of mRNAs by capturing a ribosomal footprint snapshot. Growing evidence shows that several long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) contain small open reading frames (smORFs) that are translated into functional peptides. The difficulty in identifying bona-fide translated smORFs is a constant challenge in experimental and bioinformatics fields due to their unconventional characteristics. This motivated us to isolate human adipose-derived stem cells (hASC) from adipose tissue and perform a ribosome profiling followed by bioinformatics analysis of transcriptome, translatome, and ribosome-protected fragments of lncRNAs. Here, we demonstrated that 222 lncRNAs were associated with the translational machinery in hASC, including the already demonstrated lncRNAs coding microproteins. The ribosomal occupancy of some transcripts was consistent with the translation of smORFs. In conclusion, we were able to identify a subset of 15 lncRNAs containing 35 smORFs that likely encode functional microproteins, including four previously demonstrated smORF-derived microproteins, suggesting a possible dual role of these lncRNAs in hASC self-renewal.
Heme Peroxidases at Unperturbed and Inflamed Mucous Surfaces

In our organism, mucous surfaces are important boundaries against the environmental milieu with defined fluxes of metabolites through these surfaces and specific rules for defense reactions. Major mucous surfaces are formed by epithelia of the respiratory system and the digestive tract. The heme peroxidases lactoperoxidase (LPO), myeloperoxidase (MPO), and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) contribute to immune protection at epithelial surfaces and in secretions. Whereas LPO is secreted from epithelial cells and maintains microbes in surface linings on low level, MPO and EPO are released from recruited neutrophils and eosinophils, respectively, at inflamed mucous surfaces. Activated heme peroxidases are able to oxidize (pseudo)halides to hypohalous acids and hypothiocyanite. These products are involved in the defense against pathogens, but can also contribute to cell and tissue damage under pathological conditions. This review highlights the beneficial and harmful functions of LPO, MPO, and EPO at unperturbed and inflamed mucous surfaces. Among the disorders, special attention is directed to cystic fibrosis and allergic reactions.
Watch For Failing Objects: What Inappropriate Compliance Reveals About Shared Mental Models In Autonomous Cars

This paper evaluates Banks et al.’s Human-AI Shared Mental Model theory by examining how a self-driving vehicle’s hazard assessment facilitates shared mental models. Participants were asked to affirm the vehicle’s assessment of road objects as either hazards or mistakes in real-time as behavioral and subjective measures were collected. The baseline performance of the AI was purposefully low (<50%) to examine how the human’s shared mental model might lead to inappropriate compliance. Results indicated that while the participant true positive rate was high, overall performance was reduced by the large false positive rate, indicating that participants were indeed being influenced by the Al’s faulty assessments, despite full transparency as to the ground-truth. Both performance and compliance were directly affected by frustration, mental, and even physical demands. Dispositional factors such as faith in other people’s cooperativeness and in technology companies were also significant. Thus, our findings strongly supported the theory that shared mental models play a measurable role in performance and compliance, in a complex interplay with trust.
A Flight Dynamics Helicopter UAV Model For A Single Pitch-Lag-Flap Main Rotor: Model Extensions

The current model includes only the main and tail rotor modules, this to allow for an incremental model validation procedure. We present hereunder some candidate model extensions that could potentially be added in the future, to increase the model representativity and validity. These additions exclude aeroelasticity aspects, but include issues on the fuselage, tail, further comments on the tail rotor, ground effects, engine control and transmission, fuel slosh, and atmospheric disturbances.
Assessing the potential of virtual worlds for Navy Training and Education: cognitive learning processes and outcomes in the virtual school house (VSH)

14. ABSTRACT This study assessed the role of cognitive factors and processes on the performance and satisfaction outcomes of training conducted in the Submarine Learning Center’s (SLC) virtual schoolhouse (VSH). Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center provided a setting to test the VSH and conduct this study. In each of three test sessions, 12 students were trained, divided between the VSH and face-to-face (FTF) setting. NPS researchers conducted observations and administered pre-, mid-and post-training surveys to students in both the VSH and FTF setting. VSH students and instructors also participated in post-training interviews. Findings show that training in virtual environments can be successful. Students in the VSH performed as well as, and in some instances better, than students in the FTF setting. Findings suggest that training in virtual environments must be supported through instructor and student preparation specific to the virtual environment. Additionally, training outcomes can likely be improved, and perhaps exceed those of FTF training, through attention to the design of the learning system and training activities. The VSH provided some specific advantages including, the potential to support life-work balance, unique learning tools and spaces
The Value of Reducing Cancer Risks at Contaminated Sites: Are More Heavily Exposed People Willing to Pay More?

We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people’s tastes for cancer risk reductions and income in the context of public programs that would provide for remediation at abandoned industrial contaminated sites. Our survey was self-administered using the computer by persons living in the vicinity of an important contaminated site on the Italian National Priority List. The value of a prevented case of cancer is €2.6 million, but this figure does vary with income, perceived exposure to contaminants, and opinions about priorities that should be pursued by cleanup programs.
Numerical analysis of surface waves on a grounded dielectric plane using the finite difference time domain method

In this paper, the FDTD method is used to analyze the electromagnetic behavior of surface waves on a grounded dielectric plane. Dispersion characteristics, scattering from plane truncations, excitation and interference on a microstrip right angle bend are discussed. The knowledge of these fundamental properties is essential if one wishes to optimize the electrical performance of packages and interconnects with respect to surface wave crosstalk and radiation losses.
The Diagnostic Value of Anthropometric Characteristics of Ilium for Sex Estimation Using Pelvic Radiographs

Background: Sex estimation is an essential part of forensic identification. This study was conducted on the Iranian people to determine pelvic bones anthropometric characteristics. Methods: Radiography of 180 pelvic bones (90 males and 90 females) was studied. We measured the height of ilium, inter-acetabular distance, acetabular diameter, the greatest breadth of the pelvis, breadth of pelvic inlet, and the presence of the beaklike bony extension in both sexes. Results: We found a significant difference between men and women regarding their mean height of ilium, acetabular diameter, inter-acetabular distance, breadth of the pelvic inlet in all studied X-rays. The highest accuracy for sex estimation was related to the height of ilium (77%). The prevalence of the beaklike bony extension was 43% in the studied population, 70% in males and 18% in females. Conclusion: When human skeletal remains containing pelvic bones are available, standard radiographic images along with other findings can be helpful in predicting the sex.
Sequence learning attenuates cortical responses in both frontal and perceptual cortices in early infancy

Prior work has found that the frontal lobe is involved in higher-order sequential and statistical learning in young infants. Separate lines of work have found evidence of modulation of posterior sensory cortices during and after learning tasks. How do these processes relate? Here, we build evidence the infant frontal lobe was modulated during sequential learning and ask whether posterior perceptual cortices show corresponding modulation. First, replicating and extending past work, we found evidence of frontal lobe involvement in this task. Second, consistent with our hypotheses, we found that there is a corresponding attenuation of neural responses in the posterior perceptual cortices (temporal and occipital) to predictable compared to unpredictable audiovisual sequences. This study provides convergent evidence that the frontal lobe is crucial for higher-level learning in young infants but that it likely works as part of a large, distributed network of regions to modulate infant neural responses during learning. Overall, this work challenges the view that the infant brain is not dynamic and disconnected, lacking in long-range neural connections. Instead, this paper reveals patterns of a highly dynamic and interconnected infant brain that change rapidly as a result of new, learnable experiences.
Leadership as Communicative Practice: The Discursive Construction of Leadership and Team Identity in a New Zealand Rugby Team

In sports teams, the way in which leaders such as coaches and captains communicate with players is vital to the success of the team. However, despite extensive psychological and sociological research on sport, it has rarely been a site of linguistic research. Like many sports, rugby has many traditions and ideologies that influence the way in which teams form identities. This thesis explores the way in which leadership is enacted and group identity forged through communicative practice in a New Zealand rugby team. Using authentic interactions collected using an ethnographic methodology, an analysis is presented of how discourse strategies are negotiated within the team, establishing practices that signify membership of communities of practice (CofPs) and creating identities for individuals as leaders. Leadership discourse is itself viewed as a sociolinguistic practice and defines one of the CofPs within the team. Using the concepts of front and back-stage (Goffman 1959; Richards 2006) to describe different conceptual spaces in which interactions occur, I suggest that discourse in the rugby team is a spatialised practice; the performance of a particular style of leadership constructs the space in which it takes place as public or private, with each contributing to an effective leadership performance. The construction of leadership identity is analysed in terms of stance and indexicality, linking locally constructed identities and discourse strategies to macro identity categories and socio-cultural ideologies. One of the ways in which this is examined is through the role of ritual and formulaic language in the team, showing that while communicative practice is negotiated in the back stage, in the front stage its performance serves to construct team identity while aiming to motivate the players. Furthermore, the structural nature of the game of rugby (i.e. players’ positional requirements) is examined in relation to the different communicative strategies adopted by positionally segregated groups. It is suggested that these groups, although institutionally defined, create meaning for themselves as CofPs by negotiating a shared way of communicating in enacting their role in the team. In sum, this research uses CofP theory to examine how leaders emerge through their linguistic practices. Furthermore, it locates leadership as a spatialised practice and examines how leaders influence the discursive construction of group identity. Finally, the analysis also makes a valuable contribution to the field of sociolinguistic research on sport, a small yet growing area.
Exogenous calcium reduces boron toxicity by regulating efficient antioxidant system and boron forms in trifoliate rootstock

Abstract Boron (B) toxicity is a major limiting factor for crop production, and calcium (Ca) has been reported to alleviate B toxicity. However, mechanisms of Ca alleviating B toxicity in trifoliate rootstock are not clear. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted on trifoliate seedlings to explore the underneath mechanisms. We included two B (10 and 100 µM) and three Ca levels (0, 1.23 and 2.46 mM) to explore the effect of supplementary Ca supply on mitigating B toxicity in order to gain a better understanding of tolerance mechanism in citrus production. The results showed that Ca (2.46 mM) application significantly increased root dry weight and fresh weight by 32.26% and 24.60% under B toxicity condition, respectively. Meanwhile, the root growth was improved with a greater proportion of new roots. The supply of Ca did not reduce the total absorption of B, however, lowered the R-value of B and reduced its utilization efficiency in cell walls. Moreover, Ca also triggered the antioxidant enzyme system to scavenge reactive oxygen species and reduced malondialdehyde content. Nevertheless, total soluble protein did not show any significant effect. Taken together it could be concluded that Ca application can mitigate B toxicity by maintaining antioxidant enzyme system and free B concentration, thereby reducing the utilization efficiency of B in cell wall for avoiding excessive accumulation of B in cells.
Aerodynamic modelling of multistage compressor flow fields Part 1: Analysis of rotor-stator-rotor aerodynamic interaction

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate improved numerical techniques for predicting flows through multistage compressors. The vehicle chosen for this study was the Pennsylvania State University Research Compressor (PSRC). The PSRC facility consists of a 3 1/2-stage axial flow compressor which shares design features which are consistent with embedded stages of modern gas turbine engine axial flow compressors. In Part 1 of this two-part paper, several computational fluid dynamics techniques were applied to predict both steady and unsteady flows through the PSRC facility. Interblade row coupling via a circumferentially averaged mixing-plane approach was employed for steady flow analysis. A mesh density sensitivity study was performed to define the minimum mesh requirements necessary to achieve reasonable agreement with the experimental data. Time-dependent flow predictions were performed using a time-dependent interblade row coupling technique. These calculations evaluated the aerodynamic interactions occurring between rotor 2, stator 2 and rotor 3 for the PSRC rig.
Transcriptional and Mutational Profiling of B-Other Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia for Improved Diagnostics

Simple Summary Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common malignancy in children. Based on the genetic characteristics of the tumor, patients are risk-stratified and treated with different treatment intensities. However, in a proportion of cases, known as B-other, no genetic alterations relevant for risk stratification are found with routine diagnostic procedures. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing, a comprehensive and cutting-edge method, of 185 children with B-other leukemia and analyzed gene fusions, expression profiles and mutations. Furthermore, we validated our findings using commonly used diagnostic techniques. Our results identified a subgroup of cases clustering with known leukemia subtypes, e.g., DUX4-positive, and subgroups characterized by mutations in PAX5 and IKZF1, resulting in more cases being assigned to a defined subgroup. Moreover, we identified new fusion partners of ETV6, IKZF1 and PAX5. Our data demonstrate the applicability and technical considerations for the use of RNA sequencing to personalize genetic diagnostics in pediatric leukemia. Abstract B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) is the most common cancer in children, and significant progress has been made in diagnostics and the treatment of this disease based on the subtypes of BCP-ALL. However, in a large proportion of cases (B-other), recurrent BCP-ALL-associated genomic alterations remain unidentifiable by current diagnostic procedures. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing and analyzed gene fusions, expression profiles, and mutations in diagnostic samples of 185 children with BCP-ALL. Gene expression clustering showed that a subset of B-other samples partially clusters with some of the known subgroups, particularly DUX4-positive. Mutation analysis coupled with gene expression profiling revealed the presence of distinctive BCP-ALL subgroups, characterized by the presence of mutations in known ALL driver genes, e.g., PAX5 and IKZF1. Moreover, we identified novel fusion partners of lymphoid lineage transcriptional factors ETV6, IKZF1 and PAX5. In addition, we report on low blast count detection thresholds and show that the use of EDTA tubes for sample collection does not have adverse effects on sequencing and downstream analysis. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the applicability of whole-transcriptome sequencing for personalized diagnostics in pediatric ALL, including tentative classification of the B-other cases that are difficult to diagnose using conventional methods.
New insights into arginine and arginine-sparing effects of guanidinoacetic acid and citrulline in broiler diets

SUMMARY Chickens have a high dietary Arg requirement compared to mammalians as they have an incomplete urea cycle and therefore cannot synthesise Arg. Arginine is important for protein synthesis and is also involved in immunity being converted to nitric oxide (NO) at the macrophage level. Nitric oxide is secreted as a free radical during an immune response and is toxic to bacteria, intracellular parasites and also has strong anti-viral and anti-cancer properties. Also, NO serves as a regulating factor for intestinal blood flow, integrity, secretion, and epithelial cell migration. As Arg is a limiting factor for NO synthesis, the increased availability of Arg following dietary supplementation of Arg and/or its metabolites could increase the NO production and subsequent immune status in birds. Such improvements on bird health may become useful for antibiotic growth promoter-free poultry production. The Arg requirement in birds has received special interest due to its large variation in different dietary conditions. Growing evidence suggests that increasing the dietary Arg level and Arg to Lys ratio above currently accepted levels may be necessary to maximise the productive potential of modern broiler strains due to the modulatory effect of Arg on energy and protein metabolism. Also, literature evidence has indicated that crystalline Arg, guanidinoacetic acid (GAA), and citrulline (Cit) can provide Arg activity in chicken diets and are all commercially available. Furthermore, the use of Cit could escape the degradation of enzyme arginase in the intestine and liver resulting in higher Arg levels in the bloodstream and NO production compared to Arg supplementation. The addition of GAA may also provide additional benefits on increasing creatine level and energy metabolism in broiler chickens compared to Arg. This paper will provide new insights into Arg and Arg-sparing effects of GAA and Cit in the broiler diets with a special focus on the supplementation of Arg in reduced protein diets.
Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells from acute myelogenous leukemiapatients exhibit aberrant gene expression profiles and secreted protein levels

Purpose: In hematopoietic malignancies, bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) are believed to promote tumor development through cellular and molecular abnormalities. However, there are several discrepancies among BMSCs in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML-MSCs) and healthy individuals (HD-MSCs) . Our aim was to analyze the differences in gene and protein levels between AML-MSCs and HD-MSCs, and to explore the role of AML-MSCs in the tumor microenvironment.Methods: We obtained MSCs from leukemia patients and healthy individuals and identified them by flow cytometry and differentiation. Transcriptome sequencing was performed on MSCs from leukemia patients and healthy individuals and label-free proteomics analysis was conducted on cultured supernatants of MSCs. Finally, we analyzed the results for bioinformatics analysis.Results: MSCs were preliminarily isolated and identified from AML patients and healthy controls. Through bioinformatics analysis, AML-MSCs and HD-MSCs showed great differences in Gene expression profiles and protein expression profiles of MSCs culture supernatants. Notably, inhibition of PI3K-Akt signal pathway can attenuate chemotherapy resistance of AML cells induced by MSC to AraC.Conclusions: Together, our findings suggest that Gene expression profiles and secreted protein levels of MSCs culture supernatants differed significantly between AML-MSCs and HD-MSCs, which should greatly facilitate the understanding of the role of MSCs in driving the development of acute myeloid leukemia and exploring new therapeutic strategies in future.
A Preliminary Investigation into Learning Behaviors in Complex Environments for Human-in-the-Loop Cyber-Physical Systems

The field of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is increasingly recognizing the importance of integrating Human Factors for Human-in-the-loop CPS (HiLCPS) developments. This is because psychological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of humans can be used to predict human-machine interactions. The goal of this pilot study is to collect initial data to determine whether driving and eye tracking metrics can provide evidence of learning for a CPS project. Six participants performed a series of 12 repeated obstacle avoidance tasks in manual driving. Lane deviations and fixation-related eye data were recorded for each trial. Overall, participants displayed either conservation/safe or aggressive/risky in their lateral position with respect to the obstacle during successive trials. Also, eye tracking metrics were not significantly affected by trial number, but observational trends suggest their potential for aiding in understanding adjustments humans make in learning. Results can inform predictive modeling algorithms that can anticipate and mitigate potential problems in real-time.
Using learning style knowledge to enhance student learning and skill development : a case study of hospitality education at a Thai university

The knowledge of how individuals learn differently is integrated into many higher educational courses in Western countries. In Thailand there is still a need for hospitality teachers to understand students' different ways of learning so that they can effectively facilitate student learning and skill development in higher education. This research was concerned with identifying the dominant learning styles of hospitality students in Thailand, using a case study approach. The study aimed to understand students' learning styles in order to assist teachers in improving and developing effective and appropriate instructional methods within the teaching and learning process of the hospitality program at the Thai university selected for the case study.