Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA Expression during Bovine Oocyte Maturation and Fertilization

Successful fertilization and subsequent embryo development rely on complex molecular processes starting with the development of oocyte competence through maturation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that function as gene regulators in many biological systems, including the oocyte and embryo. In order to further explore the roles of miRNAs in oocyte maturation, we employed small RNA sequencing as a screening tool to identify and characterize miRNA populations present in pools of bovine germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes, metaphase II (MII) oocytes, and presumptive zygotes (PZ). Each stage contained a defined miRNA population, some of which showed stable expression while others showed progressive changes between stages that were subsequently confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Bta-miR-155, bta-miR-222, bta-miR-21, bta-let-7d, bta-let-7i, and bta-miR-190a were among the statistically significant differentially expressed miRNAs (p < 0.05). To determine whether changes in specific primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) transcripts were responsible for the observed miRNA changes, we evaluated pri-miR-155, -222 and let-7d expression. Pri-miR-155 and -222 were not detected in GV oocytes but pri-miR-155 was present in MII oocytes, indicating transcription during maturation. In contrast, levels of pri-let-7d decreased during maturation, suggesting that the observed increase in let-7d expression was likely due to processing of the primary transcript. This study demonstrates that both dynamic and stable populations of miRNAs are present in bovine oocytes and zygotes and extend previous studies supporting the importance of the small RNA landscape in the maturing bovine oocyte and early embryo.
Coherence of human EEG Signals during crossmodal integration of natural stimuli PICS

_____________________________________________________________________3 Introduction __________________________________________________________________4 Which stimuli? _____________________________________________________________________ 7 Which methodological approach? ______________________________________________________ 8 Which analytical tools? ______________________________________________________________ 9 Hypotheses_______________________________________________________________________ 10 Methods_____________________________________________________________________12 Participants______________________________________________________________________ 12 Stimuli__________________________________________________________________________ 12 Experimental Paradigm____________________________________________________________ 16 Data Acquisition__________________________________________________________________ 17 Experimental Set-up ______________________________________________________________ 18 Preprocessing ____________________________________________________________________ 19 Independent Component Analysis___________________________________________________________ 20 Frequency Analysis _______________________________________________________________ 23 Power Spectral Density Analysis_____________________________________________________ 24 Coherence _______________________________________________________________________ 25 Excursus: Visualization of coherences _______________________________________________________ 27 Results______________________________________________________________________29 Independent Component Analysis ___________________________________________________ 30 Frequency Analysis _______________________________________________________________ 34 Power Analysis ___________________________________________________________________ 35 Coherence Analysis _______________________________________________________________ 39 Discussion___________________________________________________________________48 Evaluation and Discussion of the Present Set-Up _______________________________________ 49 Definition of Frequency Ranges _____________________________________________________ 51 Spatial Scale _____________________________________________________________________ 51 Timescale _______________________________________________________________________ 52 Extension to Cross-frequency Analysis________________________________________________ 53 Alternatives to Coherence Measurements _____________________________________________ 54 Adequacy of ICA in Coherence Analysis ______________________________________________ 56 Extension to Analysis of the Source Space _____________________________________________ 58 Proposal for a Future Experimental Design Cross-Modal Integration in Perception of Camouflage Pictures __________________________________________________________60
Self-Evaluating Compilation Applied to Loop Unrolling

A device for ultrasonic broaching of a group of holes in articles made from hard and brittle materials by means of a wire tool which is fed periodically by a discrete feeding mechanism as the wires wear out, the holder of the wire tool being fashioned as plates of which one is provided with slots, each slot accomodating one wire.
De Novo Sequencing and Homology Searching‡‡*

In proteomics, de novo sequencing is the process of deriving peptide sequences from tandem mass spectra without the assistance of a sequence database. Such analyses have traditionally been performed manually by human experts, and more recently by computer programs that have been developed because of the need for higher throughput. Although powerful, de novo sequencing often can only determine partially correct sequence tags because of imperfect tandem mass spectra. However, these sequence tags can then be searched in a sequence database to identify the exact or a homologous peptide. Homology searches are particularly useful for the study of organisms whose genomes have not been sequenced. This tutorial will present background important to understanding de novo sequencing, suggestions on how to do this manually, plus descriptions of computer algorithms used to automate this process and to subsequently carryout homology-based database searches. This Tutorial is part of the International Proteomics Tutorial Programme (IPTP 1).
Applying the Method of Small-shuffle Surrogate Data: Testing for Dynamics in fluctuating Data with Trends

We describe a method for identifying dynamics in irregular time series (short term variability). The method we propose focuses attention on the flow of information in the data. We can apply the method even for irregular fluctuations which exhibit long term trends (periodicities): situations in which previously proposed surrogate methods would give erroneous results. The null hypothesis addressed by our algorithm is that irregular fluctuations are independently distributed random variables (in other words, there is no short term dynamics). The method is demonstrated for numerical data generated by known systems, and applied to several actual time series.
Prospects for e-grammars and endangered languages corpora

Grammars,in the sense of comprehensive descriptions of the structural properties of a language, havebeenatthecoreoflinguisticssinceitsverybeginning. Allstudiesthataimtounderstandthepatterns and limits of the variability of the human speech faculty need thorough accounts ofmore languages than just the few which are more well known (Zaefferer 1998). Grammarsare the principal component of the so-called
Use of Pseudomonas biofilm susceptibilities to assign simulated antibiotic regimens for cystic fibrosis airway infection.

OBJECTIVES Increasing evidence indicates that Pseudomonas aeruginosa grows as a biofilm in the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In contrast, the bacterial inoculum used in conventional susceptibility testing is composed of planktonic cells. As a prelude to a clinical trial of biofilm susceptibility testing in CF, simulated antibiotic regimens based on either biofilm or conventional susceptibility testing of CF patient isolates were compared. PATIENTS AND METHODS Biofilm and conventional susceptibilities were determined for P. aeruginosa isolate sets from 40 CF patients. An algorithm was used to assign simulated regimens of two anti-pseudomonal antibiotics for each patient/susceptibility method dataset. For agents with equivalent activity, the algorithm included a drug selection hierarchy, the rationale for which was suppression of chronic infection. Substitution of an alternative hierarchy, based on treatment of acute exacerbation, was used to evaluate the robustness of the regimen assignments. RESULTS For both drug-ranking schemes, all 40 simulated regimens based on conventional susceptibilities included a beta-lactam antibiotic. In contrast, based on biofilm testing, only 43% of chronic regimens and 65% of acute regimens included a beta-lactam. Moreover, the conventional and biofilm regimens assigned to individual patients were discordant, with only 20% and 40% of chronic and acute regimens, respectively, consisting of drugs in the same two mechanistic classes by both methods. CONCLUSIONS Biofilm susceptibility testing of CF P. aeruginosa isolate sets leads to different antibiotic assignments than conventional testing, with no single two-drug regimen predicted to provide optimal anti-biofilm activity against the majority of isolate sets.
Design of Tunable Ultrasonic Receivers for Efficient Powering of Implantable Medical Devices with Reconfigurable Power Loads.

Miniaturized ultrasonic receivers are designed for efficient powering of implantable medical devices with reconfigurable power loads. Design parameters that affect the efficiency of these receivers under highly variable load conditions, including piezoelectric material, geometry, and operation frequency, are investigated. Measurements were performed to characterize electrical impedance and acoustic-to-electrical efficiency of ultrasonic receivers for off-resonance operation. Finally, we propose, analyze, and demonstrate adaptive matching and frequency tuning techniques using two different reconfigurable matching networks for typical implant loads from 10 μW to 1 mW. Both simulations and measurements show a significant increase in total implant efficiency (up to 50 percentage points) over this load power range when operating off-resonance with the proposed matching networks.
Towards the evolution of indirect communication for social robots

This paper presents preliminary investigations on the evolution of indirect communication between two agents. In the future, behaviours of robots in the RoboCup1 competition should resemble the behaviours of the human players. One common trait of this behaviour is the indirect communication. Within the human-robot-interaction, indirect communication can either be the principal or supporting method for information exchange. This paper summarises previous work on the topic and presents the design of a self-organised system for gesture recognition. Although, preliminary results show that the proposed system requires further feature extraction improvements and evaluations on various public datasets, the system is capable of performing classification of gestures. Further research is required to fully investigate potential extensions to the system that would be able to support real indirect communication in human-robot interaction scenarios.
Shadowed fading in body-to-body communications channels in an outdoor environment at 2.45 GHz

In this paper a number of outdoor body-to-body communication channels at 2.45 GHz which are deemed to be susceptible to shadowed fading are analyzed. The newly proposed shadowed κ-μ model is used to characterize these channels. Its probability density function is shown to provide an improved fit to the distribution of the signal fading compared to established models such as lognormal, Nakagami and Rice.
Factors associated with stunting in healthy children aged 5 years and less living in Bangui (RCA)

Stunting remains a major public health concern worldwide. Although its global prevalence is slowly decreasing, the actual number of affected children is still rising in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the Central African Republic (CAR), about one third of all children below the age of five are stunted. Stunting is correlated with many long-term consequences, including poor cognitive development and a higher rate of morbidity and mortality, making stunting a major contributor to poverty. In CAR, little is known about the factors that contribute to stunting. This study aimed at analysing, in a cross-sectional study, the main factors associated with stunting in a group of 414 children recruited between December 2011 and November 2013, aged five years or less and living in Bangui. For all children, demographic, socio-economic and anthropometric data were recorded and asymptomatic enteropathogen carriage was assessed in stool samples using classical microbiological assays. The study group had a mean age of 14.2±10 months. Fifty-eight percent (292/414) were boys, and 36 percent (148/414) exhibited stunted growth. Of the stunted children, 51% (75/148) showed a moderate delay in linear growth for their age group [height-for-age z-score (HAZ) between -2 and -3 SD] while 49% (73/148) presented a severe delay (HAZ < -3). Factors significantly associated with stunting included gender (aOR: 1.67; 95% CI: 1.07; 2.62 for boys compared to girls) and age (aOR of 3.98 (95% CI: 2.45; 6.46) for toddlers and aOR 4.42 (95% CI: 2.36; 8.28) for children compared to infants). Most importantly, we identified being overweight [weight-for-height z-score (WHZ) > 2 SD; aOR: 3.21; 95% CI: 1.50; 6.90 of overweight compared to normal weight] as also being significantly associated with stunting. This is the first study showing that even in the poorest countries of the world there is an association of stunting with being overweight.
Smart Handbag as a Wearable Public Display - Exploring Concepts and User Perceptions

Wearable computing has so far focused mostly on systems employing small displays, or no displays at all. In contrast, we explore the possibilities of a smart handbag that functions as a wearable public display, focusing on user perceptions of different design concepts. Our prototype smart handbag explores functionalities such as: changing the bag's appearance to match clothing, displaying textual information, creating a see-though perception enabling items inside the bag to be seen, and enabling interaction with items inside the bag. We report on the findings from a wizard-of-Oz based user study, which included the users walking in public with the smart handbag. The smart handbag concepts were positively received, especially from the utilitarian point of view, but issues related to privacy were raised. Key insights are e.g. the creation of a 'handbag mode' for smartphones placed within the smart handbag and the importance of evaluating such wearables in real-world contexts.
Sylvain Fourmaux

Extreme laser peak intensities can be produced with current laser technology, using both the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique (Strickland & Mourou, 1985) and Ti:Sapphire amplification crystals (Le Blanc et al., 1993). Laser systems using this technology are commercially providing instantaneous power in excess of 100 TW with a laser pulse duration ∼30 fs and energy per pulse of several Joules. By focusing these pulses to a few μm spot size, high intensity laser matter interaction studies are now routinely performed at peak intensities of 1018 − 1020 W/cm2. For fundamental physics research, increased laser intensities enhances current interaction processes and can lead to new and more efficient interaction regimes. A peak intensity above 1022 W/cm2 has already been reported by Yanovski et al. (Yanovsky et al., 2008) and a facility such as the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) (Gerstner, 2007) envisions peak intensities in the range of 1023 W/cm2 which are needed for experiments on radiation reaction effects (Zhidkov et al., 2002). For applications development, recent progress of laser systems combining high intensity and high repetition rate have attracted considerable interest for the production of solid target based secondary sources where high mean brightness is required. In high field science, this includes bright x-ray sources (Chen et al., 2004; Schnürer et al., 2000; Teubner et al., 2003; Thaury et al., 2007), high energy particle acceleration (Fritzler et al., 2003; Steinke et al., 2010; Zeil et al., 2010) and nuclear activation (Grillon et al., 2002; Magill et al., 2003). To illustrate this interest for high peak intensities, recently published scaling laws for laser based proton acceleration on thin film solid targets (Fuchs et al., 2006) have shown that an important increase of the on target laser intensity is necessary to reach the expected energy required for biomedical application in the proton therapy field (60 250 MeV). Moreover, intensities greater than 1020 W/cm2 will allow access to the non collisional shock acceleration regime where >100 MeV maximum energy protons could be produced (Silva et al., 2004). For currently available peak intensities (1018 − 1020 W/cm2 range), where the field strength is sufficient to accelerate particle to relativistic energies, the laser pulse contrast ratio (LPCR) is a crucial parameter to take into consideration. Considering the laser pulse intensity temporal profile, the LPCR is the ratio between its maximum (peak intensity) and any fixed delay before it. A low contrast ratio can greatly modify the dynamics of energy coupling between the Laser Pulse Contrast Ratio Cleaning in 100 TW Scale Ti: Sapphire Laser Systems 7
Risk factors for new‐onset diabetes mellitus following liver transplantation and impact of hepatitis c infection : An observational multicenter study

New‐onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) remains a common complication of liver transplantation (LT). We studied incidence and risk factors in 211 French patients who had undergone a primary LT between 6 and 24 months previously. This is a cross‐sectional and retrospective multicenter study. Data were collected on consecutive patients at a single routine post‐LT consultation. Demographic details, immunosuppressive regimens, familial and personal histories, hepatitis status, and cardiovascular risk were analyzed to compare those who developed NODM (American Diabetes Association/World Health Organization criteria) with the others. The overall incidence of NODM was 22.7%: 24% in tacrolimus (Tac)‐treated patients (n = 175; 82.9%) and 16.7% in cyclosporine‐treated patients (n = 36; 17.1%). A total of 81% of the cases were diagnosed within 3 months of LT (M3). Among hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐infected (HCV(+)) patients, NODM incidence was 41.7% whereas among those patients negative for this virus (HCV(−)), the incidence was only 18.9% (P = 0.008). In Tac‐treated patients, the incidence of NODM in the HCV(+) patients was significantly higher than in the HCV(−) patients (46.7% and 19.3%, respectively, P = 0.0014). Only 1 of 6 (16.7%) of the HCV(+) patients developed NODM on cyclosporine. Other independent pretransplantation risk factors for NODM included impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and a maximum lifetime body‐mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2. In conclusion, emergence of NODM after LT is related to risk factors that can be detected prior to the graft, like maximum lifetime BMI, IFG, and HCV status. Tac induced a significantly higher incidence of NODM in the HCV(+) compared to the HCV(−) patients. The treatment should therefore be tailored to the patient's risk especially in case of HCV infection. Liver Transpl 13:136–144, 2007. © 2006 AASLD.
Perception of risk, feelings of vulnerability and effects on driving behaviour in women drivers across the lifespan.

Sustained driving in older age has implications for quality of life and mental health. Studies have shown that despite the recognised importance of driving in maintaining health and social engagement, many women give up driving prematurely or adopt self-imposed restrictive driving practices. Emotional responses to driving have been implicated in these decisions. This research examined the effect of risk perception and feelings of vulnerability on women’s driving behaviour across the lifespan. It also developed and tested a modified theory of planned behaviour intervention to positively affect driving habits. The first two studies (N=395) used quantitative analysis to model driving behaviours affected by risk perception and feelings of vulnerability, and established that feelings of vulnerability do indeed affect women’s driving behaviour, specifically resulting in increases in driving avoidance and the adoption of maladaptive driving styles. Further, that self-regulation, conceptualised as avoidance, is used by drivers across the lifespan. Qualitative analysis of focus group data (N=48) in the third study provided a deeper understanding of the variations in coping behaviours adopted by sub-groups of drivers and extended the definition of self-regulation to incorporate adaptive coping strategies. The next study (N=64) reported the construction and preliminary validation of the novel self-regulation index (SRI) to measure wider self-regulation behaviours using an objective measure of driving behaviour, a simulated driving task. The understanding gained from the formative research was used in the final study, an extended theory of planned behaviour intervention to promote wider self-regulation behaviour, measured using the previously validated self-regulation index. The intervention achieved moderate success with changes in affective attitude and normative beliefs as well as self-reported behaviour. The results offer promise for self-regulation, incorporating a spectrum of planning and coping behaviours, to be used as a mechanism to assist drivers in achieving their personal mobility goals whilst promoting safe driving.
Pelvic organ prolapse contributes to sexual dysfunction: a cross‐sectional study

Objective. To evaluate the effect of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) on female sexual dysfunction. Design. Cross‐sectional, observational study. Setting. Gynecological outpatient and urogynecological university clinics in Greece. Population. One hundred and one women with POP seen in the urogynecology clinic (study group) and 70 women without POP seen in the gynecology outpatient department (control group). Methods. Women with and without POP completed a condition‐specific sexual dysfunction questionnaire (DYSQ) comprising four domains: sexual behavior; physical problems other than urinary incontinence; urinary incontinence problems; and satisfaction. Pelvic organ prolapse was assessed by the International Continence Society Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification System grading system. The primary outcome of the study was the assessment of sexual function by DYSQ in women with and without POP. Main outcome measures. We compared sexual function in women with and without POP and evaluated the extent of the effect of various grades of POP on sexual function. Results. One hundred and seventy‐one women were recruited, 101 in the POP group and 70 in the control group. The total and factor‐specific DYSQ scores in the POP group were worse than those in the control group (p < 0.001) but did not seem to worsen with an increasing grade of prolapse. Linear regression showed that the best model to describe the DYSQ score includes the presence of POP and years of menopause. These variables explain 15.6% of the total variability in DYSQ scores. Conclusions. The presence of prolapse only partly explains impaired sexual functioning in women with POP. Sexual dysfunction is related to the presence of POP and not the grade of POP.