Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association Mapping Reveals Novel Stem Rust Resistance Loci in Durum Wheat at the Seedling Stage

Wheat stem rust rapidly evolves new virulence to resistance genes. Recently emerged races in East Africa, such as TTKSK (or Ug99), possess broad virulence to durum cultivars, and only a limited number of genes provide resistance. An association mapping (AM) study conducted on 183 durum wheat accessions has allowed us to identify 41 quantitative trait loci (QTLs; determination coefficient [R2] values from 1.1 to 23.1%) for seedling resistance to one or more of four highly virulent stem rust races: TRTTF, TTTTF, TTKSK (Ug99), and JRCQC, two of which (TRTTF and JRCQC) were isolated from Ethiopia. Among these loci, 24 are novel, while the remaining 17 overlapped with loci previously shown to provide field resistance in Ethiopia and/or chromosome regions known to harbor designated stem rust resistance designated loci (Sr). The identified loci were either effective against multiple races or race specific, particularly for race JRCQC. Our results highlight that stem rust resistance in durum wheat is governed in part by loci for resistance across multiple races, and in part by race‐specific ones (23 and 18, respectively). Collectively, these results provide useful information to improve the effectiveness of marker‐assisted selection towards the release of durum wheat cultivars with durable stem rust resistance.
Data representation in sentiment analysis task

Sentiment analysis, or opinion mining, refers to the task of exctracting subjective information contained within text materials. The basic form of sentiment analysis is polarity classification. Intuitively, it aims to determine whether a piece of text expresses a positive sentiment or not with respect to a given subject. This process is already used in the industry. It has applications in a wide range of sectors such as marketing, online sales, or opinion forecasting. The technics of sentiment analysis have gained popularity thanks to the essort of modern social networks websites and the ever growing amount of labeled data. Most industrial applications use traditionnal classification algorithm combined with refined data representations such as Logistic Regression or Random Forest. Even with not so complex classifiers, industrial applications achieve great score on classification tasks. This is mainly due to the effort put in preprocessing and representing input data. We thus discuss how refined representations of text materials can lead to great performances.
Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship skills in professionals in software engineering training: An approach to the academy and bodies of knowledge context

Bodies of Knowledge (BOK) contain the most relevant knowledge for a discipline. BOK must embody the consensus reached by the community for which a specific BOK will be applied. This consensus is a prerequisite for the adoption of the BOK by the community. In this context, at the level of higher education, especially in the field of software engineering, the academic world shows a significant enthusiasm for the development of various competencies related to entrepreneurship and innovation, focusing on both the promotion of opportunities and the strengthening of existing connections between university and software industry. The reality is that one of the main challenges in software engineering is to find the correct entrepreneurship competencies that should be promoted when training professionals, once the latter have finished their studies and started working in either the national or international software industry. In this sense, this paper is aimed at generating innovation and entrepreneurship skills in professionals in software engineering training. These competences are based on BOK principles.
Three-dimensional flow over a conical afterbody containing a centered propulsive jet - A numerical simulation

The supersonic flow field over a body of revolution incident to the free stream is simulated numerically on a large, array processor (the CDC Cyber 205). The configuration is composed of a cone-cylinder forebody followed by a conical afterbody from which emanates a centered, supersonic propulsive jet. The free-stream Mach number is 2, the jet-exit Mach number is 2.5, and the jet-to-free-stream static pressure ratio is 3. Both the external flow and the exhaust are ideal air at a common total temperature. The thin-layer approximation to the time-dependent, compressible, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using an implicit finite-difference algorithm. The data base, of 5 million words, is structured in a 'pencil' format so that efficient use of the array processor can be realized. The computer code is completely vectorized to take advantage of the data structure. Turbulence closure is achieved using an empirical algebraic eddy-viscosity model. The configuration and flow conditions correspond to published experimental tests and the computed solutions are consistent with the experimental data.
Oral Magnesium Supplementation and Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of oral magnesium supplementation in the improvement of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components. This is a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that enrolled 198 individuals with MetS and hypomagnesemia who were randomly allocated to receive either 30 mL of magnesium chloride 5% solution, equivalent to 382 mg of elemental magnesium (n = 100), or placebo solution (n = 98), daily for 16 weeks. Serum magnesium levels <1.8 mg/dL defined hypomagnesemia. At final conditions, a total of 48 (48%) and 76 (77.5%) individuals had MetS in the magnesium and placebo groups (P = 0.01), respectively. At baseline, percent of individuals with 3, 4, and 5 criteria of MetS in the magnesium group were 60.0%, 37.0%, and 3.0%, respectively, and in the control group 55.1%, 35.7%, and 9.2%, respectively. Between basal and final conditions, changes in the components of MetS were significantly higher in the magnesium than placebo groups: -3.6 ± 3.3 mmHg, P = 0.001 for systolic blood pressure; -5.5 ± 1.7 mmHg, P = 0.005 for diastolic blood pressure; -12.4 ± 3.6 mg/dL, P < 0.005 for fasting glucose; -61.2 ± 24 mg/dL, P = 0.003 for triglycerides; and 0.9 ± 0.4 mg/dL, P = 0.06 for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Magnesium supplementation improves MetS by reducing blood pressure, hyperglycemia, and hypertriglyceridemia.
Blockade of Endothelin-1 Receptor Type B Ameliorates Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance in a Mouse Model of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with insulin resistance (IR) and glucose intolerance. Elevated endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels have been observed in OSA patients and in mice exposed to intermittent hypoxia (IH). We examined whether pharmacological blockade of type A and type B ET-1 receptors (ETA and ETB) would ameliorate glucose intolerance and IR in mice exposed to IH. Subcutaneously implanted pumps delivered BQ-123 (ETA antagonist; 200 nmol/kg/day), BQ-788 (ETB antagonist; 200 nmol/kg/day) or vehicle (saline or propyleneglycol [PG]) for 14 days in C57BL6/J mice (10/group). During treatment, mice were exposed to IH (decreasing the FiO2 from 20.9% to 6%, 60/h) or intermittent air (IA). After IH or IA exposure, insulin (0.5 IU/kg) or glucose (1 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally and plasma glucose determined after injection and area under glucose curve (AUC) was calculated. Fourteen-day IH increased fasting glucose levels (122 ± 7 vs. 157 ± 8 mg/dL, PG: 118 ± 6 vs. 139 ± 8; both p < 0.05) and impaired glucose tolerance (AUCglucose: 19,249 ± 1105 vs. 29,124 ± 1444, PG AUCglucose: 18,066 ± 947 vs. 25,135 ± 797; both p < 0.05) in vehicle-treated animals. IH-induced impairments in glucose tolerance were partially ameliorated with BQ-788 treatment (AUCglucose: 21,969 ± 662; p < 0.05). Fourteen-day IH also induced IR (AUCglucose: 7185 ± 401 vs. 8699 ± 401; p < 0.05). Treatment with BQ-788 decreased IR under IA (AUCglucose: 5281 ± 401, p < 0.05) and reduced worsening of IR with IH (AUCglucose: 7302 ± 401, p < 0.05). There was no effect of BQ-123 on IH-induced impairments in glucose tolerance or IR. Our results suggest that ET-1 plays a role in IH-induced impairments in glucose homeostasis.
A Revision Control System for Image Editing in Collaborative Multimedia Design

Revision control is a vital component in the ​collaborative development of artifacts such as software code and multimedia. While revision control has been widely deployed for text files, very few attempts to control the versioning of binary files can be found in the literature. This can be inconvenient for graphics applications that use a significant amount of binary data, such as images, videos, meshes, and animations. Existing strategies such as storing whole files for individual revisions or simple binary deltas, respectively consume significant storage and obscure semantic information. To overcome these limitations, in this paper we present a revision control system for digital images that stores revisions in form of graphs. Besides, being integrated with Git, our revision control system also facilitates artistic creation processes in common image editing and digital painting workflows. A preliminary user study demonstrates the usability of the proposed system.
Candidate Genes for Yellow Leaf Color in Common Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and Major Related Metabolic Pathways according to Transcriptome Profiling

The photosynthetic capacity and efficiency of a crop depends on the biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments and chloroplast development. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of chloroplast development and chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis in common wheat because of its huge and complex genome. Ygm, a spontaneous yellow-green leaf color mutant of winter wheat, exhibits reduced Chl contents and abnormal chloroplast development. Thus, we searched for candidate genes associated with this phenotype. Comparative transcriptome profiling was performed using leaves from the yellow leaf color type (Y) and normal green color type (G) of the Ygm mutant progeny. We identified 1227 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in Y compared with G (i.e., 689 upregulated genes and 538 downregulated genes). Gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses indicated that the DEGs were involved in Chl biosynthesis (i.e., magnesium chelatase subunit H (CHLH) and protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (POR) genes), carotenoid biosynthesis (i.e., β-carotene hydroxylase (BCH) genes), photosynthesis, and carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms. We also identified heat shock protein (HSP) genes (sHSP, HSP70, HSP90, and DnaJ) and heat shock transcription factor genes that might have vital roles in chloroplast development. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the relevant DEGs confirmed the RNA-Seq results. Moreover, measurements of seven intermediate products involved in Chl biosynthesis and five carotenoid compounds involved in carotenoid-xanthophyll biosynthesis confirmed that CHLH and BCH are vital enzymes for the unusual leaf color phenotype in Y type. These results provide insights into leaf color variation in wheat at the transcriptional level.
Why Students Fail in History: A Minor Case Study in Malaysia and Solutions from Cognitive Psychology Perspective

The importance of History in fostering effective citizenship is beyond question. Hard as students study History, some of them fail to achieve higher grades. Hence, History seems to create problems for many students. The current research is a minor case study aimed to examine the causal factors that induce to a poor achievement in History and provide study strategies accordingly to enhance students’ achievement in the subject. The sample consisted of 2 participants from government secondary schools. The participants obtained poor grades in History. After interviewing the participants, the findings shows that: (i) pay less attention, (ii) poor study skills, and (iii) poor time management were the causal factors of poor performance in History. Therefore, five learning strategies – (i) paying attention, (ii) rehearsal (revision), (iii) elaboration-based learning techniques, (iv) mnemonics, and (v) comprehensive approach – are recommended as remedies for the low History achievement. The applications of the above-mentioned remedies are discussed across a variety of History topics. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016. v7n1p517
Syngeneic Transplantation of Olfactory Ectomesenchymal Stem Cells Restores Learning and Memory Abilities in a Rat Model of Global Cerebral Ischemia

Stem cells are considered as promising tools to repair diverse tissue injuries. Among the different stem cell types, the “olfactory ectomesenchymal stem cells” (OE-MSCs) located in the adult olfactory mucosa stand as one of the best candidates. Here, we evaluated if OE-MSC grafts could decrease memory impairments due to ischemic injury. OE-MSCs were collected from syngeneic F344 rats. After a two-step global cerebral ischemia, inducing hippocampal lesions, learning abilities were evaluated using an olfactory associative discrimination task. Cells were grafted into the hippocampus 5 weeks after injury and animal's learning abilities reassessed. Rats were then sacrificed and the brains collected for immunohistochemical analyses. We observed significant impairments in learning and memory abilities following ischemia. However, 4 weeks after OE-MSC grafts, animals displayed learning and memory performances similar to those of controls, while sham rats did not improve them. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that grafts promoted neuroblast and glial cell proliferation, which could permit to restore cognitive functions. These results demonstrated, for the first time, that syngeneic transplantations of OE-MSCs in rats can restore cognitive abilities impaired after brain injuries and provide support for the development of clinical studies based on grafts of OE-MSCs in amnesic patients following brain injuries.
Cardio metabolic Risk Factors in Obese Subjects

Numerous studies have demonstrated the association between obesity and increased risk and prevalence of cardiometabolic conditions, particularly type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study was conducted to determine if obese subjects have a higher risk and an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors compared to controls. Body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose and lipids were determined in 150 obese subjects and 157 healthy controls. The prevalence and risk of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, impaired fasting glucose, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome were evaluated. Obese subjects had a higher prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, impaired fasting glucose, type 2diabetes and metabolic syndrome and a 2- to 8-fold higher risk of having cardiometabolic comorbidities than controls. The prevalence and risk of cardiometabolic risk factors were higher in obese subjects compared to controls. Lifestyle changes can bring about weight loss and reduce the risk and prevalence of cardiometabolic complications in obese individuals.
Biochemical Properties of a Decoy Oligodeoxynucleotide Inhibitor of STAT3 Transcription Factor

Cyclic STAT3 decoy (CS3D) is a second-generation, double-stranded oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) that mimics a genomic response element for signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), an oncogenic transcription factor. CS3D competitively inhibits STAT3 binding to target gene promoters, resulting in decreased expression of proteins that promote cellular proliferation and survival. Previous studies have demonstrated antitumor activity of CS3D in preclinical models of solid tumors. However, prior to entering human clinical trials, the efficiency of generating the CS3D molecule and its stability in biological fluids should be determined. CS3D is synthesized as a single-stranded ODN and must have its free ends ligated to generate the final cyclic form. In this study, we report a ligation efficiency of nearly 95 percent. The ligated CS3D demonstrated a half-life of 7.9 h in human serum, indicating adequate stability for intravenous delivery. These results provide requisite biochemical characterization of CS3D that will inform upcoming clinical trials.
Nrf2 Deficiency Unmasks the Significance of Nitric Oxide Synthase Activity for Cardioprotection

The transcription factor nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is a key master switch that controls the expression of antioxidant and cytoprotective enzymes, including enzymes catalyzing glutathione de novo synthesis. In this study, we aimed to analyze whether Nrf2 deficiency influences antioxidative capacity, redox state, NO metabolites, and outcome of myocardial ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. In Nrf2 knockout (Nrf2 KO) mice, we found elevated eNOS expression and preserved NO metabolite concentrations in the aorta and heart as compared to wild types (WT). Unexpectedly, Nrf2 KO mice have a smaller infarct size following myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury than WT mice and show fully preserved left ventricular systolic function. Inhibition of NO synthesis at onset of ischemia and during early reperfusion increased myocardial damage and systolic dysfunction in Nrf2 KO mice, but not in WT mice. Consistent with this, infarct size and diastolic function were unaffected in eNOS knockout (eNOS KO) mice after ischemia/reperfusion. Taken together, these data suggest that eNOS upregulation under conditions of decreased antioxidant capacity might play an important role in cardioprotection against I/R. Due to the redundancy in cytoprotective mechanisms, this fundamental antioxidant property of eNOS is not evident upon acute NOS inhibition in WT mice or in eNOS KO mice until Nrf2-related signaling is abrogated.
Assessing the Impact of a Parental Modeling Physical Acitivity Intervention on Child Physical Activity and Obesity Levels

Introduction. Childhood obesity is a worldwide epidemic, caused in large part by insufficient physical activity (PA). The majority of children in the United States are not meeting PA guidelines. As PA is inversely associated with weight status, interventions aiming to increase preschoolers’ individual PA levels have proven effective in reducing body mass index (BMI) and preventing the development of childhood obesity. Research suggests PA interventions in preschoolers are more effective when parents are involved. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a parental modeling PA intervention on children’s PA levels and weight status as measured by BMI. It was hypothesized that the intervention would result in increased PA levels for children and help them to maintain or decrease their BMI. Methods. This study included 23 parent-child dyads, each randomly placed into either a control (n=8) or intervention (n=15) group. In the children, height and weight were measured and BMI and BMI z-scores were calculated pre- and post-intervention. The children also wore an ActiGraph activity monitor for one week pre- and post-intervention. Minutes spent in sedentary behavior, light-, moderate-, and vigorous-intensity PA was determined using ActiLife software. The control group parents were asked to maintain their PA levels for the intervention period (2 months). The intervention group parents were provided educational material, a PA logbook, and weekly motivational phone calls with an intervention coach in aims of increasing their PA alone and with their child. Data analyses were conducted on the children’s data using the intention-to-treat method. Results. A 2 (group) by 2 (visit) ANCOVA found no differences between group (control vs intervention) and visit (pre vs post) for any PA level after adjusting for wear time (p>.05). Furthermore, a 2 by 2 ANOVA found no differences BMI z-score by group and visit (p>.05). Boys had higher sedentary time than girls (p=0.049); no other sex-related PA differences were found (p>0.05). Conclusion. The intervention did not change PA levels or BMI z-scores in preschool aged children, though they were going in the expected direction. Further investigation is necessary to truly assess the impact a parental modeling intervention has on child PA levels and weight status.
Meiosis Leads to Pervasive Copy-Number Variation and Distorted Inheritance of Accessory Chromosomes of the Wheat Pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici

Abstract Meiosis is one of the most conserved molecular processes in eukaryotes. The fidelity of pairing and segregation of homologous chromosomes has a major impact on the proper transmission of genetic information. Aberrant chromosomal transmission can have major phenotypic consequences, yet the mechanisms are poorly understood. Fungi are excellent models to investigate processes of chromosomal transmission, because many species have highly polymorphic genomes that include accessory chromosomes. Inheritance of accessory chromosomes is often unstable and chromosomal losses have little impact on fitness. We analyzed chromosomal inheritance in 477 progeny coming from two crosses of the fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. For this, we developed a high-throughput screening method based on restriction site-associated DNA sequencing that generated dense coverage of genetic markers along each chromosome. We identified rare instances of chromosomal duplications (disomy) in core chromosomes. Accessory chromosomes showed high overall frequencies of disomy. Chromosomal rearrangements were found exclusively on accessory chromosomes and were more frequent than disomy. Accessory chromosomes present in only one of the parents in an analyzed cross were inherited at significantly higher rates than the expected 1:1 segregation ratio. Both the chromosome and the parental background had significant impacts on the rates of disomy, losses, rearrangements, and distorted inheritance. We found that chromosomes with higher sequence similarity and lower repeat content were inherited more faithfully. The large number of rearranged progeny chromosomes identified in this species will enable detailed analyses of the mechanisms underlying chromosomal rearrangement.
A Novel N-Retry Transactional Memory Model for Multi-Thread Programming

Transaction memory (TM) is a programming friendly technology for thread synchronization in parallel pro- gramming paradigm. Transaction memory maintains Atomic- ity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability (ACID) characters of transactions. When data conflicts in multi-thread paradigm, the transaction has to be aborted, rolled back, and executed again and again until the transaction commits successfully. Although such infinitely retrying strategy of TM has only one exit and the programming flow of applications is very simple, its parallel efficiency is not high enough. In this paper, we proposed a new transaction memory model for parallel programming. When the transaction aborts N times for the reason of data conflict, we will append this transaction to the tail of task queue. We implement this N-retry TM model in software and hardware transaction memory platform. The experimental results show that the proposed TM model can reduce 40% of transaction aborts, and improve the parallel performance 25% on software TM platform and 11% on hardware TM platform.
Incidence and cost of medication harm in older adults following hospital discharge: a multicentre prospective study in the UK

Polypharmacy is increasingly common in older adults, placing them at risk of medication‐related harm (MRH). Patients are particularly vulnerable to problems with their medications in the period following hospital discharge due to medication changes and poor information transfer between hospital and primary care. The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence, severity, preventability and cost of MRH in older adults in England postdischarge.