Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic analyses of the inheritance and expressivity of autonomous endosperm formation in Hieracium with different modes of embryo sac and seed formation

Background and Aims Apomixis, or asexual seed formation, in polyploid Hieracium subgenus Pilosella species results in clonal progeny with a maternal genotype. An aposporous embryo sac forms mitotically from a somatic cell, without prior meiosis, while embryo and endosperm formation is fertilization independent (autonomous). The latter two developmental components are tightly linked in Hieracium. Recently, two plants, AutE196 and AutE24, were identified from two different crosses. Both form embryo sacs via the sexual route by undergoing meiosis, and embryo development requires fertilization; however, 18 % of embryo sacs can undergo autonomous endosperm (AutE) formation. This study investigated the qualitative and quantitative inheritance of the AutE trait and factors influencing phenotype expressivity. An additional focus was to identify the linkage group bearing the AutE locus in AutE196. Methods Crosses and cytology were used to examine the inheritance of AutE from AutE24 and AutE196, and to reintroduce apomictic components into AutE plants, thereby changing the ploidy of developing embryo sacs and increasing the dosage of AutE loci. Markers from a Hieracium apomict linkage map were examined within a backcrossed AutE196 mapping population to identify the linkage group containing the AutE196 locus. Key Results Qualitative autonomous endosperm in the AutE24 line was conferred by a single dominant locus, and the trait was transmitted through male and female gametes in AutE196 and AutE24. Expressivity of the trait did not significantly increase when AutE loci from AutE196 and AutE24 were both present in the progeny, within embryo sacs formed via apospory, or sexually derived embryo sacs with increased ploidy. It remains unclear if these are identical loci. Conclusions The qualitative trait of autonomous endosperm formation is conferred by single dominant loci in AutE196 and AutE24. High expressivity of autonomous endosperm formation observed in apomicts requires additional genetic factors. Potential candidates may be signals arising from fertilization-independent embryo formation.
Supportive Supervision and Staff Intent to Turn Over in Long-Term Care Homes

Background and Objectives To examine the association between supervisory support and intent to turn over among personal support workers (PSWs) employed in long-term care (LTC) homes in Ontario, Canada, by assessing whether the association is mediated by job satisfaction and the potential confounding effect of happiness. Research Design and Methods Cross-sectional survey data of 5,645 PSWs working within 398 LTC homes in Ontario, Canada, were obtained and analysed through a series of multilevel regression models. Results Overall, analyses support the assertion that the effect of supervisory support on intent to turn over is partially mediated by job satisfaction. However, happiness may act as an effect modifier rather than as a confounder. Discussion and Implications These results reinforce the importance of supportive supervision for PSWs working in LTC homes and highlight the multifaceted role of nurses in LTC, who traditionally provide the majority of PSW supervision. Nurses must be equipped with competencies and skills that reflect the complex organisational environments in which they work. However, these results must also be interpreted in context with the limitations of cross-sectional data; future research should incorporate prospective data collection and clarify the potential role of happiness.
Nordic fathers’ willingness to participate during pregnancy

Abstract Objective: This study aims to illuminate expectant first-time fathers’ experiences of participation during pregnancy in three Nordic countries. Background: Fathers’ participation in pregnancy is associated with improved health for the family as a whole. Research so far has primarily explored fathers’ participation in pregnancy within health care settings. It is important to know more about how fathers today engage in all aspects of pregnancy. Methods: Content analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews with 31 first time fathers from Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Interviews were undertaken when their partner was pregnant 30 weeks or more. Results: Data analysis resulted in the main category ‘Willingness to participate’ and the two generic categories: ‘Being beside the “bump”’ and ‘Cementing the partnership’. ‘Being beside the “bump”’ was supported by the subcategories: ‘Visualising the unborn child’, ‘Being included in the rites of motherhood,’ ‘Lacking full control’, ‘Compensating for lack of embodiment’ and ‘Adopting an active father role’. ‘Cementing the partnership’ encompassed the subcategories: ‘Strengthening the partner relationship’, ‘Meeting the professionals, ‘Sharing experiences with peers’ and ‘Protecting their child and their partner’. Conclusion: Fathers wanted to participate and be responsible from the beginning of pregnancy. Fathers’ participation in pregnancy involves a wide range of activities and strategies both within the domestic and the professional care-giving sphere. Health care professional’s approaches to the father-to-be can enhance or reduce experiences of inclusion in antenatal care.
Antidepressant Use and Cognitive Outcomes in Very Old Women

Background Antidepressant use is very common in the elderly, but the effects of antidepressants on cognition in the elderly are controversial with some studies suggesting harm and others protection. We aimed to investigate the association between different antidepressant use and change in cognition and risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia in very old women. Methods We examined 1,234 community-dwelling women (mean age 83.2 years) from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. Baseline antidepressant use was reported and verified by medication containers, and medications were coded with computerized dictionary. Cognitive status (normal, MCI, or dementia) was adjudicated by an expert clinical panel 5 years later. Change in a short-form Mini-Mental State Examination and Trails B were evaluated over 5 years. Results Eleven per cent of the women were taking antidepressants. Users of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) had the greatest cognitive decline over 5 years, after adjustment for demographics, medical comorbidities, benzodiazepine use, and baseline cognition. Multivariable logistic regression shows that the users of SSRIs were more than twice (OR = 2.69, 95% CI = 1.64-4.41) and trazodone users more than three times (3.48, 1.12-10.81) as likely to develop MCI or dementia compared with the nonusers. Further adjustment for baseline cognition or depressive symptoms did not appreciably alter the results, and the association remained after excluding women with high depressive symptoms. The use of tricyclic antidepressants or other antidepressants was not significantly associated with cognitive outcomes. Conclusions The use of antidepressants, especially SSRIs and trazodone, was associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment 5 years later among the oldest old women.
Direct fluorescent labeling for efficient biological assessment of inhalable particles

Abstract Labeling of aerosol particles with a radioactive, magnetic, or optical tracer has been employed to confirm particle localization in cell compartments, which has provided useful evidence for correlating toxic effects of inhaled particles. However, labeling requires several physicochemical steps to identify functionalities of the inner or outer surfaces of particles, and moreover, these steps can cause changes in size, surface charge, and bioactivity of the particles, resulting in misinterpretations regarding their toxic effects. This study addresses this challenging issue with a goal of introducing an efficient strategy for constantly supplying labeled aerosol particles in a single-pass configuration without any pre- or post-physicochemical batch treatments of aerosol particles. Carbon black (CB, simulating combustion-generated soot) or calcium carbonate (CC, simulating brake-wear fragments) particles were constantly produced via spark ablation or bubble bursting, respectively. These minute particles were incorporated with fluorescein isothiocyanate-poly(ethylene glycol) 2-aminoethyl ether acetic acid solution at the orifice of a collison atomizer to fabricate hybrid droplets. The droplets successively entered a diffusion dryer containing 254-nm UV irradiation; therefore, the droplets were dynamically stiffened by UV to form fluorescent probes on particles during solvent extraction in the dryer. Particle size distributions, morphologies, and surface charges before and after labeling were measured to confirm fluorescence labeling without significant changes in the properties. In vitro assays, including confocal imaging, were conducted to confirm the feasibility of the labeling approach without inducing significant differences in bioactivity compared with untreated CB or CC particles.
Glutamine metabolism via glutaminase 1 in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease

Background Metabolism of glutamine by glutaminase 1 (GLS1) plays a key role in tumor cell proliferation via the generation of ATP and intermediates required for macromolecular synthesis. We hypothesized that glutamine metabolism also plays a role in proliferation of autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) cells and that inhibiting GLS1 could slow cyst growth in animal models of ADPKD. Methods Primary normal human kidney and ADPKD human cyst-lining epithelial cells were cultured in the presence or absence of two pharmacologic inhibitors of GLS1, bis-2-(5-phenylacetamido-1,2,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)ethyl sulfide 3 (BPTES) and CB-839, and the effect on proliferation, cyst growth in collagen and activation of downstream signaling pathways were assessed. We then determined if inhibiting GLS1 in vivo with CB-839 in the Aqp2-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl and Pkhd1-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl mouse models of ADPKD slowed cyst growth. Results We found that an isoform of GLS1 (GLS1-GAC) is upregulated in cyst-lining epithelia in human ADPKD kidneys and in mouse models of ADPKD. Both BPTES and CB-839 blocked forskolin-induced cyst formation in vitro. Inhibiting GLS1 in vivo with CB-839 led to variable outcomes in two mouse models of ADPKD. CB-839 slowed cyst growth in Aqp2-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl mice, but not in Pkhd1-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl mice. While CB-839 inhibited mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and MEK activation in Aqp2-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl, it did not in Pkhd1-Cre; Pkd1fl/fl mice. Conclusion These findings provide support that alteration in glutamine metabolism may play a role in cyst growth. However, testing in other models of PKD and identification of the compensatory metabolic changes that bypass GLS1 inhibition will be critical to validate GLS1 as a drug target either alone or when combined with inhibitors of other metabolic pathways.
Spatio-temporal fisher vector coding for surveillance event detection

We present a generic event detection system evaluated in the Surveillance Event Detection (SED) task of TRECVID 2012. We investigate a statistical approach with spatio-temporal features applied to seven event classes, which were defined by the SED task. This approach is based on local spatio-temporal descriptors, called MoSIFT and generated by pair-wise video frames. A Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) is learned to model the distribution of the low level features. Then for each sliding window, the Fisher vector encoding [improvedFV] is used to generate the sample representation. The model is learnt using a Linear SVM for each event. The main novelty of our system is the introduction of Fisher vector encoding into video event detection. Fisher vector encoding has demonstrated great success in image classification. The key idea is to model the low level visual features as a Gaussian Mixture Model and to generate an intermediate vector representation for bag of features. FV encoding uses higher order statistics in place of histograms in the standard BoW. FV has several good properties: (a) it can naturally separate the video specific information from the noisy local features and (b) we can use a linear model for this representation. We build an efficient implementation for FV encoding which can attain a 10 times speed-up over real-time. We also take advantage of non-trivial object localization techniques to feed into the video event detection, e.g. multi-scale detection and non-maximum suppression. This approach outperformed the results of all other teams submissions in TRECVID SED 2012 on four of the seven event types.
Effect of increasing the price of sugar-sweetened beverages on alcoholic beverage purchases: an economic analysis of sales data

Background Taxing soft-drinks may reduce their purchase, but assessing the impact on health demands wider consideration on alternative beverage choices. Effects on alcoholic drinks are of particular concern, as many contain similar or greater amounts of sugar than soft-drinks and have additional health harms. Changes in consumption of alcoholic drinks may reinforce or negate the intended effect of price changes for soft-drinks. Methods A partial demand model, adapted from the Almost Ideal Demand System, was applied to Kantar Worldpanel data from 31 919 households from January 2012 to December 2013, covering drink purchases for home consumption, providing ~6 million purchases aggregated into 11 groups, including three levels of soft-drink, three of other non-alcoholic drinks and five of alcoholic drinks. Results An increase in the price of high-sugar drinks leads to an increase in the purchase of lager, an increase in the price of medium-sugar drinks reduces purchases of alcoholic drinks, while an increase in the price of diet/low-sugar drinks increases purchases of beer, cider and wines. Overall, the effects of price rises are greatest in the low-income group. Conclusion Increasing the price of soft-drinks may change purchase patterns for alcohol. Increasing the price of medium-sugar drinks has the potential to have a multiplier-effect beneficial to health through reducing alcohol purchases, with the converse for increases in the price of diet-drinks. Although the reasons for such associations cannot be explained from this analysis, requiring further study, the design of fiscal interventions should now consider these wider potential outcomes.
Social Relationship Development between Human and Robot through Real-time Face Identification and Emotional Interaction

We developed an interactive humanoid robotic platform with a real-time face learning algorithm for user identification and an emotional episodic memory to combine emotional experiences with users so that the robot can differentiate its reactions to users according to the emotional history. In this video, it is demonstrated how a robot can develop a social relationship with humans through the face identification and emotional interaction.
The curvelet transform for fusion of very high resolution multispectral and panchromatic images

This paper presents a novel image fusion method, suitable for pan-sharpening of multispectral (MS) bands, based on multi-resolution analysis (MRA). The low-resolution MS bands are sharpened by injecting high-pass directional details extracted from the high-resolution panchromatic (Pan) image by means of the curvelet transform, which is a non-separable MRA, whose basis function are directional edges with progressively increasing resolution. The advantage with respect to conventional separable MRA, either decimated or not, is twofold: directional detail coefficients matching image edges may be preliminarily soft-thresholded to achieve denoising better than in the separable wavelet domain; modeling of the relationships between high-resolution detail coefficients of MS bands and of the Pan image is more fitting, being carried out in a directional wavelet domain. Experiments carried out on a very-high resolution MS + Pan QuickBird image show that the proposed curvelet method quantitatively outperforms state-of-the art image fusion methods, in terms of geometric, radiometric, and spectral fidelity.
Characterization of Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels in Human Neural Progenitor Cells

Background Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels are among the earliest ion channels to appear during brain development, suggesting a functional requirement for progenitor cell proliferation and/or differentiation. We tested this hypothesis, using human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) as a model system. Methodology/Principal Findings In proliferating hNPCs a broad spectrum of Kv channel subtypes was identified using quantitative real-time PCR with a predominant expression of the A-type channel Kv4.2. In whole-cell patch-clamp recordings Kv currents were separated into a large transient component characteristic for fast-inactivating A-type potassium channels (IA) and a small, sustained component produced by delayed-rectifying channels (IK). During differentiation the expression of IA as well as A-type channel transcripts dramatically decreased, while IK producing delayed-rectifiers were upregulated. Both Kv currents were differentially inhibited by selective neurotoxins like phrixotoxin-1 and α-dendrotoxin as well as by antagonists like 4-aminopyridine, ammoniumchloride, tetraethylammonium chloride and quinidine. In viability and proliferation assays chronic inhibition of the A-type currents severely disturbed the cell cycle and precluded proper hNPC proliferation, while the blockade of delayed-rectifiers by α-dendrotoxin increased proliferation. Conclusions/Significance These findings suggest that A-type potassium currents are essential for proper proliferation of immature multipotent hNPCs.
A Simulation Study of Propofol Effect-Site Concentration for Appropriate Sedation in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Brain MRI: Pharmacodynamic Analysis

Purpose We aimed to establish the propofol effect-site concentration (Ce) for appropriate sedation by pharmacodynamic analysis and to determine the propofol Ce during occurrence of sedation-related side effects in pediatric patients undergoing brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods In 50 pediatric patients scheduled for brain MRI, sedation was induced with 2.0 mg/kg propofol; additional propofol doses were 0.5–1 mg/kg. Propofol Ce was simulated by inputting the propofol administration profiles of patients into a pediatric compartmental model (Choi model). The relationship between propofol Ce and probabilities of sedation and recovery were analyzed using a sigmoidal Emax model. The simulated propofol Ce for sedation-related side effects was investigated. Population model parameters were estimated using the Nonlinear Mixed-Effects Modelling software. Results The mean values of propofol Ce50 for sedation during the preparation, scanning, and recovery phases were 1.23, 0.43, and 0.39 µg/mL. The simulated propofol Ce values during oxygen desaturation (SpO2 <90%) (3 patients; 6%), hypotension (16 patients; 32%), and bradycardia (12 patients; 24%) were 3.01±0.04, 2.05±0.63, and 2.41±0.89 µg/mL, respectively. Conclusion The required propofol Ce50 for applying monitors during the preparation phase before the start of MRI was higher than the propofol Ce50 required during the scanning phase. During low-intensity stimulation phases, such as scanning, propofol bolus dose should be strictly titrated not to exceed the propofol Ce that can lead to oxygen desaturation because of the relatively low propofol Ce (Ce95, 1.43 µg/mL) required for sedation in most patients.
Role of personalized medication training in improving efficacy and adherence to a topical therapy in psoriatic patients

Abstract Background: Poor adherence to topical therapy, defined as the degree to which patients use medication as prescribed by their healthcare provider, represents a frequent cause of poor treatment outcomes. Objective: To evaluate the impact of individualized medication training on efficacy, adherence and patient satisfaction to 4 weeks of a topical therapy in psoriasis. Methods: All enrolled psoriatic patients were given a prescription for calcipotriol/betamethasone dipropionate gel once daily and were randomly assigned to one of the two following groups with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Patients in group 1 and group 2 underwent an initial visit, including the physical examination and provision of information by the dermatologist. Patients in group 2 also received an additional 20 min of individualized medication training. Efficacy, adherence and patient satisfaction were evaluated after 4 weeks of treatment. Results: We enrolled 104 consecutive patients with psoriasis: patients in group 2, who were trained, had a significant improvement at week 4 in BSA, PASI, dPGA and higher PPQ score, and were more adherent compared to those in group 1 who were not trained. Conclusion: Individualized medication training on the correct application of a topical therapy from a healthcare professional may improve patients’ adherence, treatment tolerability and clinical outcomes.
A Speedy Calibration Method Using Riemannian Geometry Measurement and Other-Subject Samples on A P300 Speller

P300 spellers are among the most popular brain–computer interface paradigms, and they are used for many clinical applications. However, building the classifier for identifying event-related potential (ERP) responses, i.e., calibrating the P300 speller, is still a time-consuming and user-dependent problem. This paper proposes a novel method to reduce calibration times significantly. In the proposed method, a small number of ERP epochs from the current user were used to build a reference epoch. Based on this reference, the Riemannian distance measurement was used to select similar ERP samples from an existing data pool, which contained other-subject ERP responses. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machine, and stepwise LDA were trained as ERP classifiers on the selected database and then were used to identify the user-attended character. With only 12 s of EEG data to calibrate, an average character recognition accuracy for 55 subjects of up to 87.82% was obtained. The LDA that built on other-subject samples that were selected by Riemannian distance outperformed the other classifiers. Compared with other state-of-the-art studies, this method significantly reduces P300 speller calibration times, while maintaining the character recognition accuracy.