Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does cognitive dysfunction correlate with neurofilament light polypeptide levels in the CSF of patients with multiple sclerosis?

Objective To investigate whether neurofilament light polypeptide (NfL) level in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), currently a prognostic biomarker of neurodegeneration in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), may be a potential biomarker of cognitive dysfunction in MS. Methods This observational case–control study included patients with MS. CSF levels of NfL were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cognitive function was measured with the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS) battery and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT3), standardized to the Greek population. Results Of 39 patients enrolled (aged 42.7 ± 13.6 years), 36% were classified as cognitively impaired according to BICAMS z-scores (–0.34 ± 1.13). Relapsing MS was significantly better than progressive forms regarding BICAMS z-score (mean difference [MD] 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54, 2.24), Symbol Digit Modality Test score (MD 1.73; 95% CI 0.46, 3.0) and Greek Verbal Learning Test (MD 1.77; 95% CI 0.82, 2.72). An inversely proportional association between CSF NfL levels and BICAMS z-scores was found in progressive forms of MS (rp = –0.944). Conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence for an association between CSF NfL levels and cognition in progressive forms of MS, which requires validation in larger samples.
An Unknown Words Recognition Method for Micro-blog Short Text Based on Improved FP-Growth

Unknown word recognition is one of the important research contents of natural language processing. However, there are still problems such as sparse data, corpus noise, and various forms of expressions for the identification of micro-blog short words. This paper proposes an unknown words recognition method POS-FP (Frequent Pattern growth with part- of-speech)for micro-blog short text. Firstly, the candidate unknown words are obtained by combing the N-grams model and frequent item sets. Then the unknown word is filtered and verified by the improved mutual information, information entropy and context dependence. Finally, the open verification method is used to obtain final unknown word. Experiments show that the algorithm improved the unknown word recognition for micro-blog short texts.
Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Crosstalk between the Abscisic Acid and Jasmonic Acid Signaling Pathways in Rice-Mediated Defense against Nilaparvata lugens

The brown planthopper (BPH) impacts both rice yield and quality. The exogenous application of abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) has been previously shown to induce rice resistance to BPH; however, the regulation of rice-mediated defense by these plant growth regulators is unclear. We applied exogenous JA and ABA to rice and analyzed molecular responses to BPH infestation. Nine RNA libraries were sequenced, and 6218 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were generated and annotated. After ABA + BPH and JA + BPH treatments, 3491 and 2727 DEGs, respectively, were identified when compared with the control (BPH alone). GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the expression of several JA pathway genes (OsAOS2, encoding allene oxide synthase; OsOPR, 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductase; and OsACOX, acy1-CoA oxidase) were significantly up-regulated after ABA + BPH treatment. Furthermore, exogenous JA increased the expression of genes involved in ABA synthesis. Meanwhile, the expression levels of genes encoding WRKY transcription factors, myelocytomatosis protein 2 (MYC2) and basic leucine zippers (bZIPs) were up-regulated significantly, indicating that ABA and JA might function together to increase the expression of transcription factors during the rice defense response. The DEGs identified in this study provide vital insights into the synergism between ABA and JA and further contribute to the mechanistic basis of rice resistance to BPH.
lncRNA‐ATB promotes viability, migration, and angiogenesis in human microvascular endothelial cells by sponging microRNA‐195

The atherosclerosis in the arterial system of the extremities is considered as the major pathogenesis of peripheral arterial disease. The present work aimed to explore the potential role of long noncoding RNA activated by tumor growth factor‐β (lncRNA‐ATB) on the dysfunction of endothelial cells. Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC‐1) were transfected with lncRNA‐ATB expressing vectors, and then the formation of tubes and expression of proteins associated with angiogenesis were analyzed using microscope and reverse transcription‐quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR)/Western blot analysis. Cell viability, migration, and microRNA‐195 (miR‐195) expression were examined by Cell Counting Kit‐8 assay, modified Boyden chambers, Western blot analysis, and RT‐qPCR. The interaction between lncRNA‐ATB and miR‐195 was determined by RT‐qPCR, dual‐luciferase reporter assay, and biotin‐avidin pull‐down assay. Finally, expression of key kinases in the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways was determined by Western blot analysis. We found vascular tubulogenesis was induced spontaneously when HMEC‐1 cells were cultured in Matrigel‐coated plates. lncRNA‐ATB overexpression increased cell viability, migration and formation of tubes, along with upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2), MMP‐9, and vascular endothelial growth factor. Then, we found lncRNA‐ATB worked as a molecular sponge for miR‐195, and the effects of lncRNA‐ATB on HMEC‐1 cells were reversed by miR‐195 overexpression while were augmented by miR‐195 inhibition. Phosphorylated levels of key kinases in the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways were increased by lncRNA‐ATB via miR‐195. In conclusion, lncRNA‐ATB enhanced cell viability, migration and angiogenesis in HMEC‐1 cells through sponging miR‐195. Moreover, the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways were activated by lncRNA‐ATB via miR‐195.
High-threshold primary afferent supply of spinal lamina X neurons.

The spinal grey matter region around the central canal, lamina X, is critically involved in somatosensory processing and visceral nociception. Although several classes of primary afferent fibers terminate or decussate in this area, little is known about organization and functional significance of the afferent supply of lamina X neurons. Using the hemisected ex-vivo spinal cord preparation, we show that virtually all lamina X neurons receive primary afferent inputs, which are predominantly mediated by the high-threshold Aδ fibers and C fibers. In two-thirds of the neurons tested, the inputs were monosynaptic, implying a direct targeting of the population of lamina X neurons by the primary nociceptors. Beside the excitatory inputs, 48% of the neurons also received polysynaptic inhibitory inputs. A complex pattern of interactions between the excitatory and inhibitory components determined the output properties of the neurons, one-third of which fired spikes in response to the nociceptive dorsal root stimulation. In this respect, the spinal grey matter region around the central canal is similar to the superficial dorsal horn, the major spinal nociceptive-processing area. We conclude that lamina X neurons integrate direct and indirect inputs from several types of thin primary afferent fibers and play an important role in nociception.
Development of Irinotecan Liposome Armed with Dual-Target Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and Anti-Fibroblast Activation Protein-Specific Antibody for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common causes of death in Taiwan. Previous studies have shown that more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cells presented epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) cell marker, and this marker is thought to be important as it is related to activation of cancer cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and cancer progression. Moreover, tumor-associated fibroblasts were involved in tumor proliferation and progression. In this study, we fabricated an anti-EGFR and anti-fibroblast activation protein bispecific antibody-targeted liposomal irinotecan (BS−LipoIRI), which could specifically bind to pancreatic cancer cells and tumor-associated fibroblasts. The drug encapsulation efficiency of BS−LipoIRI was 80.95%, and the drug loading was 8.41%. We proved that both pancreatic cancer cells and fibroblasts could be targeted by BS−LipoIRI, which showed better cellular uptake efficacy compared to LipoIRI. Furthermore, an in vivo mouse tumor test indicated that BS−LipoIRI could inhibit pancreatic cancer growth up to 46.2% compared to phosphate-buffered saline control, suggesting that BS−LipoIRI could be useful in clinical cancer treatment.
Predicting CRISPR/Cas9 Repair Outcomes by Attention-Based Deep Learning Framework

As a simple and programmable nuclease-based genome editing tool, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been widely used in target-gene repair and gene-expression regulation. The DNA mutation generated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated double-strand breaks determines its biological and phenotypic effects. Experiments have demonstrated that CRISPR/Cas9-generated cellular-repair outcomes depend on local sequence features. Therefore, the repair outcomes after DNA break can be predicted by sequences near the cleavage sites. However, existing prediction methods rely on manually constructed features or insufficiently detailed prediction labels. They cannot satisfy clinical-level-prediction accuracy, which limit the performance of these models to existing knowledge about CRISPR/Cas9 editing. We predict 557 repair labels of DNA, covering the vast majority of Cas9-generated mutational outcomes, and build a deep learning model called Apindel, to predict CRISPR/Cas9 editing outcomes. Apindel, automatically, trains the sequence features of DNA with the GloVe model, introduces location information through Positional Encoding (PE), and embeds the trained-word vector matrixes into a deep learning model, containing BiLSTM and the Attention mechanism. Apindel has better performance and more detailed prediction categories than the most advanced DNA-mutation-predicting models. It, also, reveals that nucleotides at different positions relative to the cleavage sites have different influences on CRISPR/Cas9 editing outcomes.
Construction of optimal space-time mappings for automatic parallelization of loop nests with static control flow

The article considers problems of affine scheduling and spatial distribution for programs composed of loop nests with static control flow as multi-objective optimization problems in context of data locality optimization. The presented methods, based on polyhedral model, construct space-time mappings to expose parallelism while minimizing data reuse latency in time domain and data reuse distance in space domain. Finding Pareto-optimal solution is reduced to solving of integer linear programming problem. The methods allow to specify subjective preferences more precisely in contrast to classic methods relying on lexicographic optimization. Application of the methods is illustrated with parallelization of LV-decomposition algorithm.
Gender Differences and Relationship of 2D:4D-Ratio, Mental Toughness and Dark Triad Traits among Active Young Adults

Simple Summary There is evidence that the exposure to more testosterone and less estrogen hormones before birth, that is, in utero, has a physiological impact on the relation between the index finger (2D) and the ring finger (4D). This relation is called the 2D:4D-ratio. A lower 2D:4D-ratio mirrors a longer ring finger (4D), relative to the index finger (2D); a higher 2D:4D-ratio mirrors a shorter ring finger (4D), relative to the index finger (2D). A higher exposure to testosterone and a lower exposure to estrogen hormones are associated with a lower 2D:4D-ratio. Further, a higher exposure to androgen hormones is associated with higher masculine traits. In the present study, we assessed 460 physically active young male and female adults. We showed that (1) males had lower 2D:4D ratios than females. Next, (2) active females and males had similar personality and mental toughness traits. (3) Females with more “dark” personality traits had a higher ability to perform consistently under stress and pressure; such females were mentally tougher. (4) Males with lower 2D:4D-ratios were mentally tougher. Overall, there is evidence that prenatal exposure to androgen hormones and personality traits in adulthood appear to be related, though, in a different fashion between male and female adults. Abstract There is consistent evidence that prenatal exposures to higher testosterone and lower estrogen concentrations during the first trimester of embryonal and fetal development are associated with a lower 2D:4D-ratio, which is to say: The index finger (2D) is shorter, compared to the ring finger (4D). Compared to non-active, athletes show lower 2D:4D ratios. However, athletes also report specific personality traits such as mental toughness, assertiveness, and competitive behavior. Here, we tested if 2D:4D-ratios were related to specific personality traits. We further investigated possible gender differences. A total of 460 active young adults (mean age: 24.81 years; 67% females) completed a series of self-rating questionnaires covering sociodemographic information and traits of the dark triad and mental toughness. Participants also provided a scan of their right palm hand to measure and calculate 2D:4D-ratios. t-tests, Pearson’s correlations, and multiple regression analysis were performed to analyze data. Compared to male participants, female participants had a higher 2D:4D-ratio. Female and male participants did not differ as regards dark triad traits and mental toughness traits. Irrespective of gender, and based on correlational computations, 2D:4D-ratios were unrelated to the dark triad (DT) and mental toughness (MT) scores. Higher DT scores were modestly associated with higher MT scores among females, but not among males. Lower 2D:4D-ratios were associated with higher constancy scores and the male gender. The constancy and male gender appeared to be associated with lower 2D:4D-ratios.
Characteristics of Isolated DC–DC Converter With Class Phi-2 Inverter Under Various Load Conditions

The development and application of gallium nitride–heterojunction field-effect transistor (GaN–HFET) has been actively researched. Because GaN–HFETs have advantages in high-frequency operation, it is possible to downsize power converters by increasing the switching frequency. As the switching frequency rises, the switching loss increases in proportion to the frequency; therefore, application of a soft-switching method is needed to decrease the losses and heat generation. The resonant power conversion circuits represented by the class Phi-2 inverter have soft-switching feature; therefore, these circuits realize low-switching-loss operation even in high-frequency regions. However, the operation of these resonant circuits depends on the load conditions, generally. Thus, it is important to investigate the characteristics of the inverter for various load conditions. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of the non-isolated and isolated class Phi-2 inverters by changing the load resistance and the duty ratio of the boost circuit connecting after the class Phi-2 circuit, which is operated at 13.56 MHz. We also developed a protection system during abnormal operations such as an open circuit. From experimental results, the class Phi-2 inverter has superior characteristics under various load conditions and changes. Moreover, we confirmed the effectiveness of the abnormal operation stop system.
The Impact of Various Weather Conditions on Vertical FSO Links

Free-Space Optics (FSO) can be applied to establish a link between unmanned aerial vehicles and ground stations. Different weather conditions have various impacts on the FSO link performance which leads to the signal loss. In this paper, we analyze the impact of various weather conditions to the data rate. In the first part of the paper we summarize the general concept of the FSO communication with its features. The second part presents different losses of the FSO link and influences of weather conditions on a vertical FSO link. Further, obtained analytical results are shown and discussed in the third part.
Telematics in Automobile-Analysis of How Telematics Works and Issues Related to the System

: This paper presents Telematics and uses of Telematics in cars. At that point, it clarifies how this framework works. It likewise addresses the preferred standpoint and hindrance of the framework. This paper likewise incorporates the issues identified with the telematics framework. At last, it will see contextual investigation and finish up this paper
Lignocellulose Extraction from Sisal Fiber and Its Use in Green Emulsions: A Novel Method

Regenerated lignocellulose nanofibrils (RLCNFs) have recently piqued the interest of researchers due to their widespread availability and ease of extraction. After dewaxing, we treated sisal fiber with alkali, followed by heating and agitation, to obtain RLCNFs, which were then vacuum oven-dried. We used a variety of characterization techniques, including XRD, SEM, and FT-IR, to assess the effects of the alkali treatment on the sisal fiber. Various characterizations demonstrate that lignocellulose fibrils have been successfully regenerated and contaminants have been removed. In addition, employing the RLCNFs as a stabilizer, stable Pickering emulsions were created. The effects of RLCNF concentration in the aqueous phase and water-to-oil volume ratio on stability were studied. The RLCNFs that have been produced show promise as a stabilizer in Pickering emulsions.
First Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Observation of Epimeletic Behavior in Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins

Simple Summary In this study, we reported a case of epimeletic behavior in Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin. Using a combination of drone and conventional photography, we were able to comprehensively document individual body condition, swimming pattern, and group behavior during the epimeletic event. Our research highlighted the application of drones in wildlife research to provide important insights into the health, behavior, and ecology of free-ranging populations. Abstract Epimeletic behavior has been reported in various species of cetaceans and sometimes in wild populations during vessel-based surveys. Epimeletic behavior in cetaceans involves complex social interactions which have been described using observational and acoustic studies. The recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology allowed its application in wildlife research and frequently in cetaceans in conjunction with vessel-based surveys. This article is the first report of intraspecific epimeletic behavior of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Hong Kong waters using a combination of UAV- and vessel-based photography. Using both techniques, we were able to observe and qualitative analyze the individual body condition, group behavior, and swimming pattern during the epimeletic event. This study highlighted that UAVs can be used to observe the complex social behaviors and interactions of cetaceans from the aerial angle while keeping a minimal level of disturbance to the animals. Aerial footage can also be quantitatively analyzed to provide further insights on the group behaviors of cetaceans. The application allows efficient assessment of health, behavior, and ecology of wild animals, offering valuable opportunities for researchers working on free-ranging populations.
The entrepreneurial motivations, cognitive factors, and barriers to become a fashion entrepreneur: A direction to curriculum development for fashion entrepreneurship education

ABSTRACT Research in the field of entrepreneurship education has been studied extensively, but fashion domain-based entrepreneurship has been neglected and does not have nearly the same amount of extant literature. This study focused on the role of individual characteristics in the process of pursuing fashion entrepreneurship. A qualitative research method was employed to collect data through the use of an online open-ended questionnaire. A total of 133 fashion majors who are interested in being fashion entrepreneurs after graduation were recruited from a large university in the United States. The analysis using Nvivo 11 identifies entrepreneurial motivations, cognitive factors, and barriers to start and operate fashion businesses, and necessary training and assistance college fashion students prefer to receive. This paper contributes to the current literature by providing empirical evidence to the entrepreneurial motivation theory in a more specific fashion entrepreneurship context, and the direction for the development of fashion entrepreneurship curriculum based on the point view of college students from fashion majors.
Long-read direct RNA sequencing by 5’-Cap capturing reveals the impact of Piwi on the widespread exonization of transposable elements in locusts

ABSTRACT The large genome of the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) genome accumulates massive amount of accumulated transposable elements (TEs), which show intrinsic transcriptional activities. Hampering the ability to precisely determine full-length RNA transcript sequences are exonized TEs, which produce numerous highly similar fragments that are difficult to resolve using short-read sequencing technology. Here, we applied a 5ʹ-Cap capturing method using Nanopore long-read direct RNA sequencing to characterize full-length transcripts in their native RNA form and to analyze the TE exonization pattern in the locust transcriptome. Our results revealed the widespread establishment of TE exonization and a substantial contribution of TEs to RNA splicing in the locust transcriptome. The results of the transcriptomic spectrum influenced by Piwi expression indicated that TE-derived sequences were the main targets of Piwi-mediated repression. Furthermore, our study showed that Piwi expression regulates the length of RNA transcripts containing TE-derived sequences, creating an alternative UTR usage. Overall, our results reveal the transcriptomic characteristics of TE exonization in the species characterized by large and repetitive genomes.
Particle Filtering Based Visual Attention Model for Moving Target Detection

visual attention is important research in the field of compute vision, which is widely used in target detection and target tracking. In this paper, a method of moving object detection based on visual attention model and particle filter is proposed. Firstly, the particle weight calculation process is established by using Bayesian theory and visual bidirectional (top-down/bottom-up)fusion method; then, note that the model uses the target motion attention and the target color attention as inputs, and uses the importance sampling, particle weight calculation, resampling, and particle saliency map processing to calculate the saliency of the moving target; Finally, the distribution of particles determines the position of the target. Through testing in different scenes and videos, it is concluded that this method is more accurate and efficient than the traditional method for moving target detection.