Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 10.13µJ/Classification 2-Channel Deep Neural Network Based SoC for Negative Emotion Outburst Detection of Autistic Children

An electroencephalogram (EEG)-based non-invasive 2-channel neuro-feedback SoC is presented to predict and report negative emotion outbursts (NEOB) of Autistic patients. The SoC incorporates area-and-power efficient dual-channel Analog Front-End (AFE), and a deep neural network (DNN) emotion classification processor. The classification processor utilizes only the two-feature vector per channel to minimize the area and overfitting problems. The 4-layers customized DNN classification processor is integrated on-sensor to predict the NEOB. The AFE comprises two entirely shared EEG channels using sampling capacitors to reduce the area by 30%. Moreover, it achieves an overall integrated input-referred noise, NEF, and crosstalk of 0.55 µVRMS, 2.71, and −79 dB, respectively. The 16 mm2 SoC is implemented in 0.18 um 1P6M, CMOS process and consumes 10.13 μJ/classification for 2 channel operation while achieving an average accuracy of >85% on multiple emotion databases and real-time testing.
A Guideline for Reporting Mediation Analyses of Randomized Trials and Observational Studies: The AGReMA Statement.

Importance Mediation analyses of randomized trials and observational studies can generate evidence about the mechanisms by which interventions and exposures may influence health outcomes. Publications of mediation analyses are increasing, but the quality of their reporting is suboptimal. Objective To develop international, consensus-based guidance for the reporting of mediation analyses of randomized trials and observational studies (A Guideline for Reporting Mediation Analyses; AGReMA). Design, Setting, and Participants The AGReMA statement was developed using the Enhancing Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) methodological framework for developing reporting guidelines. The guideline development process included (1) an overview of systematic reviews to assess the need for a reporting guideline; (2) review of systematic reviews of relevant evidence on reporting mediation analyses; (3) conducting a Delphi survey with panel members that included methodologists, statisticians, clinical trialists, epidemiologists, psychologists, applied clinical researchers, clinicians, implementation scientists, evidence synthesis experts, representatives from the EQUATOR Network, and journal editors (n = 19; June-November 2019); (4) having a consensus meeting (n = 15; April 28-29, 2020); and (5) conducting a 4-week external review and pilot test that included methodologists and potential users of AGReMA (n = 21; November 2020). Results A previously reported overview of 54 systematic reviews of mediation studies demonstrated the need for a reporting guideline. Thirty-three potential reporting items were identified from 3 systematic reviews of mediation studies. Over 3 rounds, the Delphi panelists ranked the importance of these items, provided 60 qualitative comments for item refinement and prioritization, and suggested new items for consideration. All items were reviewed during a 2-day consensus meeting and participants agreed on a 25-item AGReMA statement for studies in which mediation analyses are the primary focus and a 9-item short-form AGReMA statement for studies in which mediation analyses are a secondary focus. These checklists were externally reviewed and pilot tested by 21 expert methodologists and potential users, which led to minor adjustments and consolidation of the checklists. Conclusions and Relevance The AGReMA statement provides recommendations for reporting primary and secondary mediation analyses of randomized trials and observational studies. Improved reporting of studies that use mediation analyses could facilitate peer review and help produce publications that are complete, accurate, transparent, and reproducible.
The transcription factor zinc fingers and homeoboxes 2 alleviates NASH by transcriptional activation of phosphatase and tensin homolog

NASH, which is a common clinical condition predisposing to advanced liver diseases, has become a worldwide epidemic. A large and growing unmet therapeutic need for this condition reflects incomplete understanding of its pathogenesis. In the current study, we identified a transcription factor, zinc fingers and homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2), in hepatocytes as a protective factor against steatohepatitis.
Effect of dietary leucine supplementation on skeletal muscle fiber type transformation in weaning piglets

Abstract To investigate the effects of dietary leucine supplementation on muscle fiber type transformation in weaning piglets, 54 21-day-old male DLY (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) weaned piglets were randomly divided into control, 0.25% and 0.5% leucine groups. The experiment lasted for 42 d. The results showed that dietary supplementation of 0.25% leucine significantly increased the protein expressions of slow MyHC, myoglobin and Troponin I-SS and the mRNA expressions of MyHC I, MyHC IIa, Tnni1, Tnnc1, Tnnt1 and myoglobin, while decreased the protein level of fast MyHC and the mRNA level of MyHC IIb in longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. Furthermore, 0.25% leucine significantly increased succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) activity and decreased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. In addition, our data found that 0.25% leucine significantly increased serum adiponectin (AdipoQ) concentration, and the protein levels of AdipoQ, adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1), phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) and PPAR-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) and the mRNA levels of AdipoQ, AdipoR1 and AMPKα2. Together, our findings indicate that leucine promotes porcine skeletal muscle fiber type transformation from fast-twitch to slow-twitch, and the effect may be mediated by AdipoQ-AMPK-PGC-1α signaling pathway.
Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the epidemiology of soccer muscle injuries in Italian Serie A professional football players.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence that COVID-19 lockdown had on the epidemiology of soccer musculoskeletal injuries during 2019/2020 Italian First Football League Serie A in professional football players. METHODS In this retrospective study we analyzed records from media-based platform (Trasfermarkt, https://www.transfermarkt.com), describing the epidemiology of muscle injuries before and after the first COVID-19 lockdown phases in Italian professional football players. We also classified the severity of the injury as the number of missing days from participation. RESULTS We assessed a lower prevalence of post-lockdown injuries, albeit showing a similar injury rate at 1000 game-hours (pre-lockdown: 16.9 [13.0-20.7], post-lockdown: 15.5 [9.9-21.1]; RR: 0.92 [0.46-1.8]). All risk ratios for injury rate were not significantly different (p> .05) between pre- and post-lockdown. CONCLUSIONS The incidence of muscle injuries has not significantly changed after the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italian professional soccer players. Recognizing injury rates might be crucial for physician to evaluate adequate preventive measures.
Security Analysis for Dynamic State Estimation of Power Systems With Measurement Delays

This article is centered on the cybersecurity research of dynamic state estimation for power systems with measurement delays. Relying on mixed measurements from phasor measurement units (PMUs) and remote terminal units (RTUs), a delayed measurement model is constructed. A modified state estimator based on the Kalman filter (KF) is designed, which can obtain the optimal estimated states under measurement delays. Moreover, the measurement data transmitted from the sensor to the estimator are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Especially, false data-injection (FDI) attacks are frequently encountered in the power system state estimation (PSSE) process. In the case of measurement delays, an FDI attack strategy is designed to interfere with the state estimator and evade detection by the chi-square detector. By utilizing the attacked estimated information and the uncorrupted measurement information, two measurement residual vectors are designed. According to these two residual vectors, a chi-square-based attack detection method is proposed, which has the ability to detect the attack without being affected by the delayed measurements. The proposed KF algorithm and attack detection method are implemented on an IEEE 14-bus system and they are confirmed to be effective and feasible.
Dissection of quantitative trait loci in the Lachancea waltii yeast species highlights major hotspots

Abstract Dissecting the genetic basis of complex trait remains a real challenge. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has become a model organism for studying quantitative traits, successfully increasing our knowledge in many aspects. However, the exploration of the genotype–phenotype relationship in non-model yeast species could provide a deeper insight into the genetic basis of complex traits. Here, we have studied this relationship in the Lachancea waltii species which diverged from the S. cerevisiae lineage prior to the whole-genome duplication. By performing linkage mapping analyses in this species, we identified 86 quantitative trait loci (QTL) impacting the growth in a large number of conditions. The distribution of these loci across the genome has revealed two major QTL hotspots. A first hotspot corresponds to a general growth QTL, impacting a wide range of conditions. By contrast, the second hotspot highlighted a trade-off with a disadvantageous allele for drug-free conditions which proved to be advantageous in the presence of several drugs. Finally, a comparison of the detected QTL in L. waltii with those which had been previously identified for the same trait in a closely related species, Lachancea kluyveri was performed. This analysis clearly showed the absence of shared QTL across these species. Altogether, our results represent a first step toward the exploration of the genetic architecture of quantitative trait across different yeast species.
New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase–Producing Enterobacterales Bacteria, Switzerland, 2019–2020

Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) bacteria are a critical global health concern; New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM) enzymes account for >25% of all CPE found in Switzerland. We characterized NDM-positive CPE submitted to the Swiss National Reference Center for Emerging Antibiotic Resistance during a 2-year period (January 2019–December 2020) phenotypically and by using whole-genome sequencing. Most isolates were either Klebsiella pneumoniae (59/141) or Escherichia coli (52/141), and >50% were obtained from screening swabs. Among the 108 sequenced isolates, NDM-1 was the most prevalent variant, occurring in 56 isolates, mostly K. pneumoniae (34/56); the next most prevalent was NDM-5, which occurred in 49 isolates, mostly E. coli (40/49). Fourteen isolates coproduced a second carbapenemase, predominantly an OXA-48-like enzyme, and almost one third of isolates produced a 16S rRNA methylase conferring panresistance to aminoglycosides. We identified successful plasmids and global lineages as major factors contributing to the increasing prevalence of NDMs in Switzerland.
The transcription regulator BrsR serves as a network hub of natural competence protein–protein interactions in Streptococcus mutans

Significance Streptococcus mutans is one of the primary species associated with human dental caries, which affects the vast majority of adults worldwide. Like most streptococci, S. mutans is naturally competent and employs this ability to augment its adaptive evolution, ensuring its persistence within the oral microbiome. To increase the ecological benefit provided by natural competence, S. mutans has also evolved a poorly understood mechanism to coordinately regulate natural competence with its bacteriocin production ability. Here, we reveal the molecular mechanisms supporting this coordination. The current study illustrates how unrecognized posttranslational regulatory abilities may be found among a highly diverse pool of proteins not normally associated with genetic regulation. These hidden abilities are likely critical for the proper control of genetic networks. Genome evolution is an essential and stringently regulated aspect of biological fitness. For bacteria, natural competence is one of the principal mechanisms of genome evolution and is frequently subject to multiple layers of regulation derived from a plethora of environmental and physiological stimuli. Here, we present a regulatory mechanism that illustrates how such disparate stimuli can be integrated into the Streptococcus mutans natural competence phenotype. S. mutans possesses an intriguing, but poorly understood ability to coordinately control its independently regulated natural competence and bacteriocin genetic pathways as a means to acquire DNA released from closely related, bacteriocin-susceptible streptococci. Our results reveal how the bacteriocin-specific transcription activator BrsR directly mediates this coordination by serving as an anti-adaptor protein responsible for antagonizing the proteolysis of the inherently unstable, natural competence-specific alternative sigma factor ComX. This BrsR ability functions entirely independent of its transcription regulator function and directly modulates the timing and severity of the natural competence phenotype. Additionally, many of the DNA uptake proteins produced by the competence system were surprisingly found to possess adaptor abilities, which are employed to terminate the BrsR regulatory circuit via negative feedback. BrsR–competence protein heteromeric complexes directly inhibit nascent brsR transcription as well as stimulate the Clp-dependent proteolysis of extant BrsR proteins. This study illustrates how critical genetic regulatory abilities can evolve in a potentially limitless variety of proteins without disrupting their conserved ancestral functions. These unrecognized regulatory abilities are likely fundamental for transducing information through complex genetic networks.
Telehealth in Primary Healthcare: A Portrait of its Rapid Implementation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: This study documents the adoption of telehealth by various types of primary healthcare (PHC) providers working in teaching PHC clinics in Quebec during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also identifies the perceived advantages and disadvantages of telehealth. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted between May and August 2020. The e-survey was completed by 48/50 teaching primary care clinics representing 603/1,357 (44%) PHC providers. Results: Telephone use increased the most, becoming the principal virtual modality of consultation, during the pandemic. Video consultations increased, with variations by type of PHC provider: between 2% and 16% reported using it “sometimes. ” The main perceived advantages of telehealth were minimizing the patient's need to travel, improved efficiency and reduction in infection transmission risk. The main disadvantages were the lack of physical exam and difficulties connecting with some patients. Conclusion: The variation in telehealth adoption by type of PHC provider may inform strategies to maximize the potential of telehealth and help create guidelines for its use in more normal times.
Knockdown of Uridine Diphosphate Glucosyltransferase 86Dg Enhances Susceptibility of Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) to Artemisia vulgaris (Asterales: Asteraceae) Essential Oil

Abstract Uridine diphosphate glucosyltransferases (UGTs), which are phase II detoxification enzymes, are found in various organisms.These enzymes play an important role in the detoxification mechanisms of plant allelopathy and in insects. Artemisia vulgaris L. (Asterales: Asteraceae: Artemisia) essential oil has strong contact toxicity to Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) larvae. However, the effect of A. vulgaris essential oil on UGTs is unclear. In this study, A. vulgaris essential oil was shown to significantly induce the expression of the TcUgt86Dg transcript. Furthermore, treatment of TcUgt86Dg-silenced individuals with A. vulgaris essential oil resulted in higher mortality than for the control individuals, indicating that TcUgt86Dg is involved in detoxification of A. vulgaris essential oil in T. castaneum. The developmental expression profile showed that the expression of TcUgt86Dg in late adults was higher than in other developmental stages. Furthermore, the expression profile in adult tissues revealed higher expression of TcUgt86Dg in the head, antenna, fat body, and accessory gland than in other tissues. These data show that TcUgt86Dg may be involved in the metabolism of exogenous toxins by T. castaneum; thus, our results have elucidated one possible mechanism of resistance to A. vulgaris essential oil and provide a theoretical basis for a control scheme for T. castaneum.
The Work of Impossibility in Brazil

This article describes Brazil’s late twentieth-century religious transformation through the lens of an Amazonian settler family whom I call the Solanhas. Accounts of various Solanha members’ shifting religious and political commitments elucidate how the perceived impossibility of constant human (as opposed to divine) friendship, a perception that also applies to the limitations of kinship, is implicated in the move from an encompassing Catholicism to an intensifying secularity. In foregrounding problems of friendship and kinship, the ethnography begins from a different premise than most studies of secularity. Anthropologists have tended to describe secularity as a condition secured by political/state secularism, which manages and produces distinctions between religion and politics. Drawing on the work of Marilyn Strathern and others, I show that relations, especially kinship and friendship, are more vital than secularism in animating distinctions among religion(s) and politics. I argue that if secularity is to be grasped more fully, the flow of all conceptual and interpersonal relations, and especially kinship and friendship in all their instability, must be brought into view. An anthropologically informed approach to secularity, and ultimately to history, should emphasize the irresolvable challenges of relating, as these challenges will remain key elements of life, knowledge, and ultimately of change in these mutable times.
From ‘traitors’ to ‘saviours’: A longitudinal analysis of Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies’ practice of digital diaspora diplomacy

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen the emergence of relational approaches to diplomacy that centre on diplomats' use of social media to foster relationships with foreign publics. Yet social media may also prove useful in building relationships with diasporas, now viewed by some states as ‘saviours' who may contribute to the economic prosperity of origin countries. This article sought to examine how Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies employ social media when communicating with diasporas. The article proposes a conceptual framework for digital diaspora diplomacy which consists of relationship building, community strengthening and relationship leveraging. An analysis of 830 Facebook posts, published in 2016 and 2020, suggests that evaluated embassies use social media to interact with Facebook followers, respond to online criticism, publicise offline events and publish information that is of interest to diasporas. Thus, African embassies may be able to leverage diasporic ties towards the improvement of their nation’s socio-economic status.
Controlling the topology of mammalian mitochondrial DNA

The genome of mitochondria, called mtDNA, is a small circular DNA molecule present at thousands of copies per human cell. MtDNA is packaged into nucleoprotein complexes called nucleoids, and the density of mtDNA packaging affects mitochondrial gene expression. Genetic processes such as transcription, DNA replication and DNA packaging alter DNA topology, and these topological problems are solved by a family of enzymes called topoisomerases. Within mitochondria, topoisomerases are involved firstly in the regulation of mtDNA supercoiling and secondly in disentangling interlinked mtDNA molecules following mtDNA replication. The loss of mitochondrial topoisomerase activity leads to defects in mitochondrial function, and variants in the dual-localized type IA topoisomerase TOP3A have also been reported to cause human mitochondrial disease. We review the current knowledge on processes that alter mtDNA topology, how mtDNA topology is modulated by the action of topoisomerases, and the consequences of altered mtDNA topology for mitochondrial function and human health.
Influence of fashion blogs on technology-driven behaviour of millennial

ABSTRACT Digital technologies have changed millennials’ consumer behaviour from traditional to innovative perspectives in the context of the Pakistani fashion industry. The study aimed to investigate the influence of fashion blogs on millennial consumer purchasing behaviour. The study adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by considering; perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, ikperceived social influence, perceived influencer credibility, and fashion innovativeness as research variables. A Survey of 300 responses was collected through convenience sampling. The study findings indicated that attitude towards fashion blogs, perceived usefulness, perceived social influence, and perceived influencer credibility were significant predictors of the purchase intention of millennials. The study will help marketers and managers to develop appropriate strategies to improve the purchasing behaviour of fashion consumers.
The specious interaction of time and numerosity perception

Magnitude information is essential to create a representation of the external environment and successfully interact with it. Duration and numerosity, for example, can shape our predictions and bias each other (i.e. the greater the number of people queuing, the longer we expect to wait). While these biases suggest the existence of a generalized magnitude system, asymmetric effects (i.e. numerosity affecting duration but not vice versa) challenged this idea. Here, we propose that such asymmetric integration depends on the stimuli used and the neural processing dynamics they entail. Across multiple behavioural experiments employing different stimulus presentation displays (static versus dynamic) and experimental manipulations known to bias numerosity and duration perceptions (i.e. connectedness and multisensory integration), we show that the integration between numerosity and time can be symmetrical if the stimuli entail a similar neural time-course and numerosity unfolds over time. Overall, these findings support the idea of a generalized magnitude system, but also highlight the role of early sensory processing in magnitude representation and integration.