Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PsRobot: a web-based plant small RNA meta-analysis toolbox

Small RNAs (smRNAs) in plants, mainly microRNAs and small interfering RNAs, play important roles in both transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation. The broad application of high-throughput sequencing technology has made routinely generation of bulk smRNA sequences in laboratories possible, thus has significantly increased the need for batch analysis tools. PsRobot is a web-based easy-to-use tool dedicated to the identification of smRNAs with stem-loop shaped precursors (such as microRNAs and short hairpin RNAs) and their target genes/transcripts. It performs fast analysis to identify smRNAs with stem-loop shaped precursors among batch input data and predicts their targets using a modified Smith–Waterman algorithm. PsRobot integrates the expression data of smRNAs in major plant smRNA biogenesis gene mutants and smRNA-associated protein complexes to give clues to the smRNA generation and functional processes. Besides improved specificity, the reliability of smRNA target prediction results can also be evaluated by mRNA cleavage (degradome) data. The cross species conservation statuses and the multiplicity of smRNA target sites are also provided. PsRobot is freely accessible at http://omicslab.genetics. ac.cn/psRobot/.
Adaptability of innate motor patterns and motor control mechanisms

Abstract The following factors underlying behavioral plasticity are discussed: (1) reflex adaptability and its role in the voluntary control of movement, (2) degrees of freedom and motor equivalence, and (3) the problem of the discrete organization of motor behavior. Our discussion concerns a variety of innate motor patterns, with emphasis on the wiping reflex in the frog. It is proposed that central regulation of stretch reflex thresholds governs voluntary control over muscle force and length. This suggestion is an integral part of the equilibrium-point hypothesis, two versions of which are compared. Kinematic analysis of the wiping reflex in the spinal frog has shown that each stimulated skin site is associated with a group of different but equally effective trajectories directed to the target site. Such phenomena reflect the principle of motor equivalence -the capacity of the neuronal structures responsible for movement to select one or another of a set of possible trajectories leading to the goal. Redundancy of degrees of freedom at the neuronal level as well as at the mechanical level of the body's joints makes motor equivalence possible. This sort of equivalence accommodates the overall flexibility of motor behavior. An integrated behavioral act or a single movement consists of dynamic components. We distinguish six components for the wiping reflex, each associated with a certain functional goal, specific body positions, and motor-equivalent movement patterns. The nervous system can combine the available components in various ways in forming integrated behavioral sequences. The significance of command neuronal organization is discussed with respect to (1) the combinatory strategy of the nervous system and (2) the relation between continuous and discrete forms of motor control. We conclude that voluntary movements are effected by the central nervous system with the help of the mechanisms that underlie the variability and modifiability of innate motor patterns.
Practice in focus: A hermeneutic approach to research ethics

Summary This article argues that the interpretative and negotiating approach of hermeneutic ethics can inform research into the experiences of people with learning disability more usefully than bioethics. Terms and ideas are defined; philosophers and researchers who have employed them are described; arguments for and against the proposition are considered; it concludes by summarizing the position and its implications. Two final reflections pose questions researchers may find it fruitful to consider, or to discuss with users, carers and professionals.
Spaces and places for disrupting thinking about inclusive education in Hard Times

This paper sets out to read closely the National Curriculum Statutory Inclusion Statement in England (2007) alongside Hard Times to see if Dickens offers any insights into ethical responsibility and conceptualisations of inclusive education. I begin by presenting some of the meanings and associated problems of the term ‘inclusive education’ held by academics, activists and practitioners in the field before introducing my approach. I argue that evidence of three logocentric discourses, the technical curriculum perspective, ableist normativity and developmentalism can be detected within the language of the Inclusion Statement. I present a historical account of their provenance and links to population improvement discourses in the past before introducing Derrida's ideas about différance and deferral. Deconstructive reading of the Inclusion Statement reveals the sorts of technical thinking, hierarchisation, naming, norm-referencing and age-related expectations identified in the logocentric discourses described earlier. The story of Hard Times garnishes insights into the idea of inclusion throughout the paper with the main focus on the novel emerging in the final section, when the circus community is likened to the arrivants – those unexpected visitors who transgress the established order to create space for new, more responsible thinking about education.
Random Sequence Multisets for Synchronous Code-Division Multiple-Access Channels

The effect of using randomly selected sequence multisets for the uplink of a synchronous code-division multiple-access channel is considered. A tight lower bound on the expected value of the sum capacity over the ensemble of randomly selected sequence multisets is given. For large systems, the sum rate penalty for using randomly selected multisets is shown to be at most 1 nat and to vanish as the number of users becomes large, compared to the sequence length.
Self-Evaluation of Cognitive Therapy Performance: Do Therapists Know How Competent They Are?

Abstract The quality control of therapy in routine clinical practice depends to a large degree on the ability of therapists to evaluate accurately their own performance in administering therapy. However, the literature in many fields casts doubt on the accuracy of people's self-evaluations. This study aimed to examine the accuracy of therapists' judgments about their own competence in cognitive therapy. Twenty-two therapists rated a tape of one of their cognitive therapy sessions from the middle of therapy using the Cognitive Therapy Scale (CTS) and provided information about their profession and their training in cognitive therapy. An independent expert rater, blind to all information about the therapist, also rated these tapes on the CTS. Therapists were coded as Competent or Less Competent on the basis of the observer-rated CTS score. Whilst there was a significant correlation between self-ratings and expert ratings of competence, therapists significantly over-rated their competence relative to the expert rater. Less competent therapists over-rated their own competence to a greater degree than therapists who met criteria for competence. The finding that therapists, especially less competent therapists, over-rate their competence in cognitive therapy has serious implications for ensuring effective practice of cognitive therapy in routine clinical situations.
GeneTrail—advanced gene set enrichment analysis

We present a comprehensive and efficient gene set analysis tool, called ‘GeneTrail’ that offers a rich functionality and is easy to use. Our web-based application facilitates the statistical evaluation of high-throughput genomic or proteomic data sets with respect to enrichment of functional categories. GeneTrail covers a wide variety of biological categories and pathways, among others KEGG, TRANSPATH, TRANSFAC, and GO. Our web server provides two common statistical approaches, ‘Over-Representation Analysis’ (ORA) comparing a reference set of genes to a test set, and ‘Gene Set Enrichment Analysis’ (GSEA) scoring sorted lists of genes. Besides other newly developed features, GeneTrail's statistics module includes a novel dynamic-programming algorithm that improves the P-value computation of GSEA methods considerably. GeneTrail is freely accessible at http://genetrail.bioinf. uni-sb.de
Improved synthesis method for network-based control

A less conservative stability analysis condition for closed-loop delayed linear systems subjected to uncertain, bounded, non-differentiable, additive time delays is presented. The obtained stability condition is applied to the problem of networked control system robust design in the presence of network-induced delays and data packet dropouts. Illustrative examples are provided to show the advantage and applicability of the developed results in this case.
Novel Phenotypic Outcomes Identified for a Public Collection of Approved Drugs from a Publicly Accessible Panel of Assays

Phenotypic assays have a proven track record for generating leads that become first-in-class therapies. Whole cell assays that inform on a phenotype or mechanism also possess great potential in drug repositioning studies by illuminating new activities for the existing pharmacopeia. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) pharmaceutical collection (NPC) is the largest reported collection of approved small molecule therapeutics that is available for screening in a high-throughput setting. Via a wide-ranging collaborative effort, this library was analyzed in the Open Innovation Drug Discovery (OIDD) phenotypic assay modules publicly offered by Lilly. The results of these tests are publically available online at www.ncats. nih.gov/expertise/preclinical/pd2 and via the PubChem Database (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) (AID 1117321). Phenotypic outcomes for numerous drugs were confirmed, including sulfonylureas as insulin secretagogues and the anti-angiogenesis actions of multikinase inhibitors sorafenib, axitinib and pazopanib. Several novel outcomes were also noted including the Wnt potentiating activities of rotenone and the antifolate class of drugs, and the anti-angiogenic activity of cetaben.
Optimized, Automated Striatal Uptake Analysis Applied to SPECT Brain Scans of Parkinson's Disease Patients

Reliable quantitative dopamine transporter imaging is critical for early and accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Image quantitation is made difficult by the variability introduced by manual interventions during the quantitative processing steps. A fully automated objective striatal analysis (OSA) program was applied to dopamine transporter images acquired from PD subjects with early symptoms of suspected parkinsonism and compared with manual analysis by a trained image-processing technologist. Methods: A total of 101 123I-β-CIT SPECT scans were obtained of subjects recruited to participate in the Query-PD Study. Data were reconstructed and then analyzed according to a package of scripts (OSA) that reorients the SPECT brain volume to the standard geometry of an average scan, automatically locates the striata and occipital structures, locates the caudate and putamen, and calculates the background-subtracted striatal uptake ratio (V3″). The striatal uptake ratio calculated by OSA was compared with manual analysis by a trained image-processing technologist. Several parameters were varied in the automated analysis, including the number of summed transverse slices and the size and separation of the regions of interest applied to the caudate and putamen to determine the optimum OSA analysis. The parameters giving V3″ with the closest correlation to the manual analysis were accepted as optimal. Results: The optimal comparison between the V3″ obtained by the human analyst and that obtained by the automated OSA analysis yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.96. Conclusion: Our optimized OSA delivers V3″ evaluations that closely correlate with a similar evaluation manually applied by a highly trained image-processing technologist.
Automatic Emotion Recognition Based on EEG and ECG Signals While Listening to Quranic Recitation Compared with Listening to Music

Relaxation and calmness are two emotions that people continually seek. One popular method people frequently use to reduce their tension and pressure levels is listening to various types of relaxing music. However, the Quran is composed of Allah's words, which were ultimately given for the benefit of humanity. Muslims strongly believe that listening to or reading the Quran brings them comfort, pleasure and confidence that would otherwise elude them, however, scientific evidence is still required to prove that this belief has a scientific basis. Recently, researchers have used electrophysiology to explore the relationships between electrical phenomena and body processes. This research aims to study and analyse the electrical activity of people's brains and hearts when listening to Quranic recitation compared with listening to relaxing music. Two types of electrophysiology readings are used in this research: electroencephalograms (EEGs) and electrocardiograms (ECGs). An EEG measures brain electrical activity, and an ECG measures heart electrical activity. EEG and ECG data were collected from twenty-five subjects. Then, machine learning algorithms were applied to the EEG and ECG signals. The result showed that Quranic recitation demonstrated a positive transformation of the subjects' emotions: from negative precursor emotions to calmness and happiness conditions denoted by a positive valence for the EEG and ECG signals. In contrast, relaxing music showed a positive transformation with regard to the valence in the EEG analysis, however, with respect to the ECG music data analysis, the results revealed a negative transformation for most of the music tracks.
Professional Development in Residence: Developing reflection on science teaching and learning

Abstract This paper reports an investigation into a school-based professional development program. The program was designed to be responsive to the needs of the science teachers involved through a collaborative approach to observation and discussion of their classroom teaching and their students' learning. The school-based professional development program was developed in accord with much of the research literature related to professional development and change. The participants regarded the program as worthwhile, valuable and meaningful to their practice, so much so, that they adapted it to suit their changing needs. The interesting aspect of the research is how, despite obvious acceptance, enthusiasm and ownership by the participants, the impetus for change dramatically diminished when the external support ceased. It appears as though the nature of teachers' work and their workplace itself creates demands which continually affect those involved in change despite their best intentions.
Verbal and Nonverbal Predictors of Spelling Performance

Verbal and nonverbal predictors of spelling performance in Grades 1-12 were investigated using the national norming data from a standardized spelling test. Verbal variables included number of letters, phonemes, syllables, digraphs, blends, silent markers, r-controlled vowels, and the proportion of grapheme-phoneme correspondence. The nonverbal variable was word concreteness. Word frequency was also included. Results showed that only three variables were consistently strong predictors of spelling performance: proportion of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, number of syllables, and word concreteness. Results are theoretically interpreted in terms of Dual Coding Theory and stages of spelling development. Instructional implications include increased attention to word concreteness in teaching and testing spelling.
Parental Warmth, Control, and Involvement in Schooling

This study explored the relationship between Baumrind’s parenting prototypes and the academic achievement, judged by grade point average (GPA), of Korean American adolescents. It also examined the relative contribution to youth’s academic achievement of perceived maternal and paternal warmth and control and involvement in schooling. Approximately 74% of the sample youth did not fit any of Baumrind’s types, raising questions about their usefulness for ethnic research. Analysis of the remaining 26% showed that youth raised by authoritative and permissive fathers (but not mothers) performed better than youth raised by authoritarian fathers. Youth raised by authoritative fathers, however, did not perform significantly better than youth raised by permissive fathers. An analysis of perceived parental warmth and control exposed a positive correlation between perceived maternal and paternal warmth (but not control) and adolescents’ GPA as well as a moderator effect of perceived maternal control. Moreover, perceived paternal (but not maternal) involvement in schooling partially mediated the relationship between fathers’ reported warmth and adolescents’ GPA.
Modeling and Design of Full-Bridge Three-Port Converters for Renewable Power Systems

A systematic method for deriving three-port converters (TPCs) from the fullbridge converter (FBC) is proposed in this paper. The proposed method splits the two switching legs of the FBC into two switching cells with different sources and allows a DC bias current in the transformer. By using this systematic method, a novel full-bridge TPC (FB-TPC) is developed for renewable power System applications which feature simple topologies and control, a reduced number of devices, and single-stage power conversion between any two of the three ports. The proposed FB-TPC consists of two bidirectional ports and an isolated output port. The primary circuit of the converter functions as a buckboost converter and provides a power flow path between the ports on the primary side. The FB-TPC can adapt to a wide source voltage range, and tight control over two of the three ports can be achieved while the third port provides the power balance in the system. Furthermore, the energy stored in the leakage inductance of the transformer is utilized to achieve zero-voltage switching for all the primary-side Switches. The FB-TPC is analyzed in detail with operational principles, design considerations, and a pulse width modulation scheme (PWM), which aims to decrease the dc bias of the transformer. Experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed FB-TPC. The topology generation concept is further extended, and some novel TPCs, dual-input, and multiport converters are presented.
A Blue Straggler Binary with Three Progenitors in the Core of a Globular Cluster?

We show that the X-ray source W31 in the core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae is physically associated with the bright blue straggler BSS 7. The two sources are astrometrically matched to 0. ″061, with a chance coincidence probability of less than 1%. We then analyze optical time-series photometry obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and find that BSS 7 displays a 1.56 day periodic signal in the I band. We also construct a broadband (far-ultraviolet through far-red) spectral energy distribution for BSS 7 and fit this with single and binary models. The binary model is a better fit to the data, and we derive the corresponding stellar parameters. All of our findings are consistent with BSS 7 being a detached binary consisting of a blue straggler primary with an X-ray-active, upper-main-sequence companion. The formation of such a system would necessarily involve at least three stars, which is consistent with recent N-body models in which blue stragglers often form via multiple encounters that can involve both single and binary stars. However, we cannot yet entirely rule out the possibility that BSS 7 descended directly from a binary system via mass transfer. The system parameters needed to distinguish definitively between these scenarios may be obtainable from time-resolved spectroscopy.
Developing a Conceptual Framework for Measuring Future Career Intention of Hotel Interns

Many hotel management students show negative attitudes toward entering the hotel industry. Such attitudes are likely the result of a negative internship experience that may cause a young person to quickly turn away from the industry. At present, work–life balance is recognized as one of the top five important challenges in human resource management. Additionally, different hotel job characteristics would lead to different internship experiences. This article aims to establish a conceptual framework by reviewing the extensive literature on the study of the interrelationship of internship core job characteristics and work–life balance toward general job satisfaction and future career intention of hotel interns.
Projective techniques for brand image dimensionality and using various techniques to investigate and improve the brand personality

This paper is an attempt to study the effectiveness of projective techniques in exploring the brand image of ego-sensitive brands, possessing minimal functional differentiation. The paper examines four finest perfume brands. Two metaphor based personification methods-mood-boards and job-sorting are employed to study the association that the participants have with the brands. Both the methods are open ended assignments to decipher how participants think or feel about the research object in question. The study analyses the congruent validity of the two methods and differences in their ability to personify the chosen brands of deu. Both the methods yielded almost similar outcomes, thereby reiterating that the two methods possess congruent validity. The latter part of the paper analyses the brand personality characteristics that were connected to the celebrities and jobs thus connected, as identified in the mood-boards and job-sorting exercise respectively. SWOCC Brand Personality Scale, which is a further elaboration of Aaker’s brand personality research, was used to provide a list of the personality characteristics. The study however faces a limitation of the failure of the translation from the projective results into personality scores dimensions. This raises a serious concern if it is at all possible to validly translate overall projective data into analytical scores and if it is so then what would be the ideal procedure to do this.
Progressive Approach to Relational Entity Resolution

This paper proposes a progressive approach to entity resolution (ER) that allows users to explore a trade-off between the resolution cost and the achieved quality of the resolved data. In particular, our approach aims to produce the highest quality result given a constraint on the resolution budget, specified by the user. Our proposed method monitors and dynamically reassesses the resolution progress to determine which parts of the data should be resolved next and how they should be resolved. The comprehensive empirical evaluation of the proposed approach demonstrates its significant advantage in terms of efficiency over the traditional ER techniques for the given problem settings.