Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topical Gentamicin 0.1% Promotes Collagen 7 Expression in Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa

Background: Currently, there is no cure for epidermolysis bullosa (EB) but few studies have explored the role of aminoglycosides in promoting collagen 7 expression in recessive dystrophic EB (RDEB). Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients aged >1 year with a confirmed diagnosis of dystrophic EB (DEB) were advised to apply 0.1% w/w gentamicin cream in a collagen base (Derbriment GTM) twice daily on a representative area on right lower limb (RLL) and paraffin gauze dressings on the corresponding opposite side on the left lower limb (LLL). Skin lesions were evaluated clinically during the 12-week treatment period at the end of which a repeat skin biopsy was sent for immunofluorescence antigen mapping (IFM). Results: Twelve patients with DEB were recruited but only eight completed the study and were analyzed. The mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of the study cohort increased from 2765 ± 1732.07 (263–4845) at baseline to 5412.75 ± 3937.64 (2100–13536) at 12 weeks; a 95.75% (range 5.34%–775.14%) increase in the MFI of collagen 7 from baseline (P = 0.06). Among patients with a known termination codon mutation (n = 3), the percentage increase in MFI was greater among patients with known premature termination codon (PTC) mutations compared to those with unknown mutations. The clinical severity did not change significantly in terms of the mean number of blisters, erosions, and scarring during the study period. None of the parents reported any adverse effect. Conclusions: Topical gentamicin 0.1% w/w is a safe and effective way to promote the expression of COL7A1 in DEB patients, especially those carrying PTC mutations.
Principles of developing physical test methods for disposable consumer products

Abstract Strength, softness, and absorbency have been identified as the key attributes for disposable consumer products such as tissue, towel and diapers. These attributes are generally evaluated subjectively by users. Although subjective evaluation may be necessary for developing such consumer products, it is time-consuming and expensive. More importantly, it seldom provides guidance or direction regarding process control or product development. The main reason is because subjective evaluation is performed after the fact (ex post facto), not before the event (not ex ante). Accordingly, it has been desirable to develop physical test methods to predict in-use performance of a consumer product. In developing physical test methods to link with subjective evaluation, reliable and relevant subjective data is necessary. Developing physical test methods for softness of hygiene paper has been extremely challenging. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a feasibility of developing physical test methods which can be highly related to subjective evaluation. To this end, it is hypothesized that tissue softness mainly consists of bulk softness and surface softness. It is assumed that the bulk softness should be determined from bulk stiffness which is defined as the slope between the two specified points in a load-elongation curve from tensile testing. It is also assumed that the surface softness should be determined from the surface properties (roughness and friction) from a surface tester (e. g., Model: KES-SESRU. Kato Tech, Japan). It is suggested that the principles used here for developing physical test methods for tissue softness should be also applicable to other physical properties such as strength and absorbency.
Genomics enters the deep learning era

The tremendous amount of biological sequence data available, combined with the recent methodological breakthrough in deep learning in domains such as computer vision or natural language processing, is leading today to the transformation of bioinformatics through the emergence of deep genomics, the application of deep learning to genomic sequences. We review here the new applications that the use of deep learning enables in the field, focusing on three aspects: the functional annotation of genomes, the sequence determinants of the genome functions and the possibility to write synthetic genomic sequences.
Platology: A Digital Twin Ontology Suite for the Complete Lifecycle of Infrastructure

The construction industry will have to presentcompelling solutionsto achieve the UN societal development goals (SDG). A digital twin has the potential to revolutionize the design, construction, and performance of civil infrastructureassets across the environment.This paper proposes an ontology mappingthe physical objects with required attributes aiming toaugment builtinfrastructure developmentthroughout theircomplete lifecycle in the context of cyber-physical synchronicity of the digital twin paradigm. This research is conducted within the frameworkof the H2020 project ASHVIN, aiming to develop a real-time Digital Twin forthe Design, Construction,and Operationphase of the infrastructure. The proposed “Platology”ontology suite will encompassphysical assets and processes of aninfrastructure’slifecycleand the possibility for accurate version, configuration, and state managementto form a bidirectional communication path between the physical and the virtual.
Effects of Nitrogen Addition on Soil Carbon-Fixing Microbial Diversity on Different Slopes in a Degraded Alpine Meadow

Autotrophic carbon-fixing bacteria are a major driver of carbon sequestration and elemental cycling in grassland ecosystems. The characteristics of the response of carbon-fixing bacterial communities to nitrogen (N) addition in degraded alpine meadows are unclear. In this study, it was investigated that the effects of N addition in three levels [they are low (LN), middle (MN), and high (HN) with N supplement of 2, 5, and 10 g N⋅m–2⋅a–1, respectively] on soil carbon-fixing bacteria on different slopes in a degraded alpine meadow in the Yellow River on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The results showed that there were significant differences in the abundance of some low abundance genera of carbon-fixing bacteria on the same slope (P < 0.05), but the differences in the abundance of various phyla and dominant genera were not significant. MN on gentle slopes significantly reduced the Chao1 index and observed species (P < 0.05), whereas N addition on steep slopes had no significant effect on the diversity. The abundance of the Cyanobacteria phylum and 28 genera of identified carbon-fixing bacteria differed significantly between slopes (P < 0.05), and observed species of carbon-fixing bacteria were significantly higher on steep slopes than on gentle slopes (P < 0.05). Factors affecting the carbon-fixing bacteria community structure include slope, N addition, ammoniacal nitrogen (N-NH4+), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), soil water content (SWC), pH, soil C:N ratio, and microbial C:N ratio. Slope, N addition, soil physicochemical properties, microbial biomass, and stoichiometric ratio did not significantly affect the carbon-fixing bacteria diversity. Thus, the effect of exogenous N addition on carbon-fixing bacteria in degraded alpine meadows was dependent on slope conditions, and the response of carbon-fixing bacteria abundance and species number to N addition on gently slope sites was threshold-limited.
Earth construction: bird teaching

: - The paradigm of earth being a traditional and a modern building material has been related to the fact that it is natural, ecological, recycled, abundant and economic. Among the traditional Portuguese building techniques, earth construction was always one very common. The construction built with these techniques must be preserved. In this context, the main objective of this research work is to give a contribution on the material properties characterization and, in particular, for the development of adequate rehabilitation and strengthening techniques for this type of construction, based upon a biomimetics study focused on the andorinha-dos-beirais nest. A structural numerical model of a nest using a finite element computer analysis program was done in order to understand the structural behavior of this kind of natural structures. In order to identify a possible occurrence of a certain agglutination phenomenon during the building process of the nest by the birds, an experimental identification/characterization study of nest’s material using samples taken in Vila Real area was carried out. The identification of the elementary chemical and the mineralogical compositions of the material were done by the scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) and by the X-ray diffraction analysis, respectively. The identification/characterization of the organic composition was done using the colorimetric method, being the protein components detected by the biuret method and the polysaccharides/sugars components by the total sugar method. The identification of the type of polysaccharides/sugars and their amount was done by the anion-exchange chromatography method. In order to verify if the addition of polysaccharides/sugars into the nest’s material results in an improvement of the mechanical properties, in particular, of its compressive strength, mechanical tests were carried out on cubic specimens, The results show that there is a strong possibility of the bird andorinha-dos-beirais adds a certain amount of glucose into the clay material during the building process of the nest, which may increase the quality of this raw material.
Grapevine recovery after fire and a first look at rapid damage assessment with satellite imagery

There is increasing scientific consensus that climate change is one of the underlying causes of the prolonged dry and hot conditions that have increased the risk of extreme fire weather inmany countries around the world. In December 2019, a bushfire occurred in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, where 25,000 hectares were burnt, and in vineyards and surrounding areas various degrees of scorching and infrastructure damage occurred. The ability to coordinate and plan recovery after a fire event relies on robust and timely data. The current practice for measuring the scale and distribution of fire damage is to walk or drive the vineyard and score individual vines based on visual observation. The process is time consuming, subjective, or semi-quantitative at best. After the December 2019 fires, it took many months to access properties and estimate the area of vineyard damaged. This study compares the rapid assessment and mapping of fire damage using high-resolution satellite imagery with more traditional ground-based measures. Correlations between ground visual fire damage assessments and postfire NDVI (-­0.347 to -0.084) and VARIgreen (-0.333 to 0.074) satellite imagery were significant but showed no correlation to a weak negative correlation. Canopy growth, vine fertility and starch concentrations were tracked in the two seasons following the fire event to assess vine recovery. Canopy health in the seasons following the fires correlated to the severity of the initial fire damage. Severely damaged vines had reduced canopy growth, were infertile or had very low fertility as well as lower starch concentrations in buds and canes during dormancy, which reduced productivity in the seasons following the bushfire event. In contrast, vines that received minor-moderate damage were able to recover within 1-2 years. Tools that rapidly and affordably capture the extent and severity of damage over large vineyard area will allow producers, government and industry bodies to manage decisions in relation to fire recovery planning, coordination and delivery, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their response.
Small-Area SAR ADCs With a Compact Unit-Length DAC Layout

This brief presents four small-area SAR ADCs with a resolution from 8 to 11 bits. Two area-saving techniques are utilized. First, the DAC layout is implemented with custom designed unit-length capacitors, which are optimized for each resolution to minimize the chip area. Second, dynamic logic is applied to the 8-bit design to further reduce the number of transistors and save area. Fabricated in 65 nm CMOS, the 8/9/10/11-bit SAR ADCs only occupy <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$20\times 21\,\,\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$20\times 36\,\,\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$36\times 36\,\,\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$36\times 36\,\,\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. At 10 MHz sampling rate, their measured ENOB is 7.5, 8.3, 9.1 and 9.8 bits with an SFDR of 65.4 dB, 67.4 dB, 78.0 dB and 76.5 dB, respectively. Compared to prior-art, these designs achieve the smallest areas for the achieved ENOBs.
Barriers to Seeking Mental Help and Interventions to Remove Them in Medical School during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives of Students

Medical students are at increased risk for psychological morbidity but the majority of those with mental health problems do not seek professional care. We aimed to uncover the viewpoints of medical students regarding barriers and facilitators to using university mental health services and their attitudes and preferences towards online counselling. Four semi-structured focus groups were conducted (n = 26, mean age = 21.8, ±1.88, 73% males). After reaching data saturation, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and content-analysed by two independent coders. Intrapersonal barriers emerged to be perceived low risk, excessive self-reliance, lack of belief in the effectiveness of service, lack of openness. Interpersonal factors were the following: assumed long waiting list, insufficient provision of service information, fear of exposure, and not being familiar with the counsellor and the process. Extrapersonal barriers such as insurance problems, the number of available sessions, adverse sociocultural attitudes, fear of stigmatisation were identified. Students suggested that the university should provide psychoeducation and routine screening, apply social marketing and stigma reduction campaigns, improve information flow, and offer not only personal but also online video counselling to target removing these barriers. The results provide a reference for the redesign of mental health services to facilitate their access by students. Implications and limitations are discussed.
Evaluation of two therapeutic patient education programs for prevention of diabetic foot ulcers

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the effects of two education programs on patients’ understanding of the disease, self-efficacy, locus of control, and application of prevention behaviors for foot ulcer. Methods: In four centers that manage patients with diabetes and grade 2 or 3 neuropathy, the first arm of patients (G1 = 53) participated in a “standard” program usually managed in each center, and those in the second arm (G2 = 56) in a “new” program. The patients completed four questionnaires at inclusion (T0) and six months after the education (T1). Occurrence of a new foot ulcer and care behaviors were collected at T1. Z-test was used to compare mean scores for each questionnaire and Fisher’s exact test for percentages (p = 0.05). Results: There was no significant difference between groups G1 and G2 in terms of scores for each questionnaire at T0 and T1. Group G2 showed a significant change in score between T0 and T1 for understanding the disease (p = 0.04) and prevention behaviors (p = 0.01). For the sample as a whole (n = 109), there was a significant improvement between T0 and T1 for two questionnaires: understanding of disease (p This study reinforces the importance of devoting time during education to patients’ understanding of the disease and involving relatives to improve foot ulcer prevention behaviors.
Assessing the Antecedents and Consequences of Experience Value in Online Education: A Quantitative Approach

The experience value of online education is a hot topic in both theoretical and practical circles, but research on its mechanism of action is limited. Therefore, this study systematically investigates the relationship between brand image, experience value, and continuance intention through a theoretical analysis of brand image, and discusses the boundary role of effective commitment in it. In this study, 475 users were used to conduct structural equation modeling analysis. The results of the study found that experience value had a positive and significant effect on user continuance intention under the significant influence of brand image, but affective commitment did not play a positive moderating role in the relationship between experience value and continuance intention. This study examines the mechanism of the antecedents and consequences of experience value, and provides a new direction for the construction of online education and the development of online education and marketing strategies.
Experimental investigation of activated carbon nanoflakes produced by thermal and chemical activation processes

Abstract Activated carbon has a huge demand for its broad applications in batteries, supercapacitors, wastewater treatment, etc. Activated carbon possesses a porous morphology, which facilitates its enhanced thermal stability, and surface area. Researchers employing agro-waste have focused on meeting the high demand of low-cost activated carbon production. This paper reports coconut-shell-derived activated carbon prepared by the thermal and chemical activation processes. The prepared samples are investigated for their structural, morphological, elemental composition, electrochemical properties, and functional groups. The prepared samples evidenced the amorphous nature, and some graphitic disordered, as confirmed by the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman investigations. The morphological analysis demonstrated the formation of a nanoflakes-like structure; however, another sample prepared with chemical activation endorsed the porous carbon nanostructures. Furthermore, we have examined electrochemical properties and explored.
Genomic Strategies for Understanding the Pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Recent breakthroughs in sequencing technology and technological developments have made it easier to analyze the entire human genome than ever before. In addition to disease-specific genetic mutations and chromosomal aberrations, epigenetic alterations in individuals can also be analyzed using genomics. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) caused by genetic and/or environmental factors. More than a thousand genes associated with ASD have been identified which are known to be involved in brain development. However, it is difficult to decode the roles of ASD-associated genes without in vitro and in vivo validations, particularly in the process of brain development. In this review, we discuss genomic strategies for understanding the pathological mechanisms underlying ASD. For this purpose, we discuss ASD-associated genes and their functions, as well as analytical strategies and their strengths and weaknesses in cellular and animal models from a basic research perspective.
The effect of social capital on individual happiness in Indonesia

This study examines how social capital affects the well-being of individuals in Indonesia. Happiness determinants use several aspects of social capital at the same time: trust, information channels, civic participation, especially political participation. In addition, this estimation also takes into account other socio-demographic factors. The researchers found that trust, information channels, and political participation have a significant impact on the well-being of Indonesian. Individual trust and sociable gatherings to leave a child to a close-neighbor within a few hours have a positive effect on the individual’s well-being. By using IFLS data, a logistic model is used to test whether some indicators of social capital affect individual’s well-being. A positive correlation between social capital and happiness may suggest that public policies toward increasing social capital both at the individual and aggregate level may have complementary effects on raising individual’s well-being. It is important to support the government`s efforts in improving the community’s happiness which in turn can encourage development policies` effectiveness.
Method for producing c-glycoside derivative and synthetic intermediate thereof

It is intended to provide a method for producing a C-glycoside derivative at high yield and low cost, which conforms to environmental protection and is industrially applicable. The C-glycoside derivative is useful for treating and preventing diabetes mellitus such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1 diabetes) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes), and also various diabetes-related diseases including insulin-resistant diseases and obesity. ® KIPO & WIPO 2009
Partial measures of time-series interdependence

The paper deals with a statistical analysis aiming at quantitative characterization in the frequency domain of the strength of one-way cffcts and reciprocity between a pair of series in the presence of a third series, suggesting a unified frequency-domain method of statistical estimation and testing for the proposed partial measures of interdependency. In particular, the paper provides an estimation procedure of those measures based on a numerical canonical factori:;;-;ation method of spectral densities and proposes Monte Carlo Wald tests for those measures. The method is applicable to data generated by the stationary multivariate ARMA process. JEL classification: C12, C13, C32, C53
Electric Vehicles for Distribution System Load Pickup Under Stressed Conditions: A Network Equilibrium Approach

We investigate the potential effects of electric vehicles (EVs) on reducing the load shedding in heavily loaded distribution systems (DSs). Given proper incentives, a considerable number of EVs could provide vital support to holding the load and improving operational flexibility. We propose a network equilibrium model that integrates market clearing in DSs and traffic flow balance in transportation systems. This model captures the decentralized interactions between key stakeholders in transportation and distribution networks as well as the spatial distribution of EV traffic in response to endogenously determined incentive signals. To mitigate the computational challenges brought by the non-convex network equilibrium model, we develop an equivalent convex reformulation with guaranteed global convergence. Numerical studies are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and computational performance. The proposed method could provide a fundamental tool for analyzing interdependent transportation and distribution networks coupled by charging facilities and EVs.