Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Canonical Processing of Arabidopsis pri-miR319a/b/c Generates Additional microRNAs to Target One RAP2.12 mRNA Isoform

Arabidopsis miR319a/b/c primary transcripts are unusual due to the presence of a long stem and loop structure containing functional miR319a/b/c molecules. In our experiments carried out using high throughput sequencing (HTS), we have shown that additional microRNAs (miRNAs), miR319a.2/b.2/c.2 are generated from the upper part of the same hairpin structure. We have also found cognate miRNAa.2*/b.2*/c.2* to be present in the HTS results with a considerably lower number of reads. Northern hybridization revealed that miR319b.2 is mainly expressed in 35-day-old plant rosette leaves, as well as in stem and inflorescences of 42- and 53-day-old plants. Moreover, it carries multiple signatures of a functional miRNA, including as follows: (i) its biogenesis is HYL1-dependent; (ii) it is incorporated in a substantial amount into RISC complexes containing AGO1, AGO2, or AGO4 protein; (iii) 24 nt-long species of miR319b.2 have been found in inflorescences to be more abundant than 21 nt miR319b.2 species; (iv) it is present in various ratios to miR319b during plant development, which suggests the existence of a regulatory mechanism responsible for its biogenesis/processing; (v) there is an observed cross-species conservation of the miR319a/b/c stem nucleotide sequence extending beyond mature miRNA region; and (vi) all evidence suggests that intron-containing RAP2.12 mRNA isoform is the target for miR319b.2. All these features prompt us to claim miR319b.2 as a functional miRNA molecule.
Mining Sequential Risk Patterns From Large-Scale Clinical Databases for Early Assessment of Chronic Diseases: A Case Study on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic diseases have been among the major concerns in medical fields since they may cause a heavy burden on healthcare resources and disturb the quality of life. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for early assessment on chronic diseases by mining sequential risk patterns with time interval information from diagnostic clinical records using sequential rules mining, and classification modeling techniques. With a complete workflow, the proposed framework consists of four phases namely data preprocessing, risk pattern mining, classification modeling, and post analysis. For empiricasl evaluation, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework with a case study on early assessment of COPD. Through experimental evaluation on a large-scale nationwide clinical database in Taiwan, our approach can not only derive rich sequential risk patterns but also extract novel patterns with valuable insights for further medical investigation such as discovering novel markers and better treatments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work addressing the issue of mining sequential risk patterns with time-intervals as well as classification models for early assessment of chronic diseases.
Activation of ATP‐sensitive potassium channels facilitates the function of human endothelial colony‐forming cells via Ca2+/Akt/eNOS pathway

Accumulating data, including those from our laboratory, have shown that the opening of ATP‐sensitive potassium channels (KATP) plays a protective role in pulmonary vascular diseases (PVD). As maintainers of the endothelial framework, endothelial colony‐forming cells (ECFCs) are considered excellent candidates for vascular regeneration in cases of PVD. Although KATP openers (KCOs) have been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on endothelial cells, the impact of KATP on ECFC function remains unclear. Herein, this study investigated whether there is a distribution of KATP in ECFCs and what role KATP play in ECFC modulation. By human ECFCs isolated from adult peripheral blood, KATP were confirmed for the first time to express in ECFCs, comprised subunits of Kir (Kir6.1, Kir6.2) and SUR2b. KCOs such as the classical agent nicorandil (Nico) and the novel agent iptakalim (Ipt) notably improved the function of ECFCs, promoting cell proliferation, migration and angiogenesis, which were abolished by a non‐selective KATP blocker glibenclamide (Gli). To determine the underlying mechanisms, we investigated the impacts of KCOs on CaMKII, Akt and endothelial nitric oxide synthase pathways. Enhanced levels were detected by western blotting, which were abrogated by Gli. This suggested an involvement of Ca2+ signalling in the regulation of ECFCs by KATP. Our findings demonstrated for the first time that there is a distribution of KATP in ECFCs and KATP play a vital role in ECFC function. The present work highlighted a novel profile of KATP as a potential target for ECFC modulation, which may hold the key to the treatment of PVD.
Cortisol, estradiol-17β, and progesterone secretion within the first hour after awakening in women with regular menstrual cycles

Cortisol concentration in both serum and saliva sharply increases and reaches a peak within the first hour after waking in the morning. This phenomenon is known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and is used as an index of hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis function. We examined whether ovarian steroid concentrations increased after awakening as with the CAR in the HPA axis. To do this, cortisol, estradiol-17β (E2), and progesterone (P4) concentrations were determined in saliva samples collected immediately upon awakening and 30 and 60 min after awakening in women with regular menstrual cycles and postmenopausal women. We found that both E2 and P4 concentrations increased during the post-awakening period in women with regular menstrual cycles, but these phenomena were not seen in any postmenopausal women. The area under the E2 and P4 curve from the time interval immediately after awakening to 60 min after awakening (i.e. E2auc and P4auc) in women with regular menstrual cycles were greater than those in the postmenopausal women. E2 and P4 secretory activity during the post-awakening period was influenced by the phase of the menstrual cycle. E2auc in the peri-ovulatory phase and P4auc in the early to mid-luteal phase were greater than in the menstrual phase. Meanwhile, cortisol secretory activity during the post-awakening period was not influenced by menstrual status or the phase of menstrual cycle. These findings indicate that, as with the CAR in the HPA axis function, ovarian steroidogenic activity increased after awakening and is closely associated with menstrual status and phase of menstrual cycle.
Estado psicológico de los postulantes a cirugía bariatrica

Los o bjetivos de este estudio se centran en describir aspectos psicologicos de los postulantes a cirugia bariatrica. Metodologia : estudio descriptivo lineal de 294 personas que asistieron a evaluacion psicologica pre-quirurgica en el CQO desde el ano 2005 a marzo del 2011. Material y Metodos : se administro una e ntrevista semiestructurada para la recoleccion de las variables sociodemograficas y aplicaron pruebas psicologicas como EAT 26; Cuestionario de Calidad de vida SF36; Escala de Ansiedad de Hamilton; Inventario de Depresion de Beck. De la revision de historias clinicas se obtuvieron medidas antropometricas. A nalisis de datos : se determinaron porcentajes de las variables socio- demograficas y obtuvieron medias de las medidas antropometricas e indicadores psicologicos. Se estudiaron las asociaciones entre dichas variables e indicadores de ansiedad, depresion y desorden alimentario a traves de la prueba “t” siendo significativa una p< 0.05. Se utilizo el programa estadistico SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 11,5. Resultados : los postulantes presentan trastornos de ansiedad mayor, depresion leve y no presentan desorden alimentario. Existe una relacion significativa entre: “IMC y depresion” e “IMC y nivel de escolaridad”. Conclusion : el tratamiento psicologico es esencial en los postulantes a cirugia bariatrica para asegurar un buen pronostico postquirurgico.
MSVM-based classifier for cardiac arrhythmia detection

In this paper, the most authentic and efficacious method for cardiac arrhythmia classification using Multiclass Support Vector Machine (MSVM) is presented. The authors have considered classification of 6 beat types such as normal sinus rhythm (N), Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC), Right Bundle Branch Block (RBBB), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB), Tachycardia (TA) and Bradycardia (BR) by implementing MSVM classifier. Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel with 5 fold cross validation and zero offset value is used for adjusting kernel values. A total of 24 ECG records are used to collect different types of beats. To feed the classifier the features adopted where QRS complex, RR interval, R amplitude, S amplitude and T amplitude. The MSVM classifier performance is measured in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The classifier demonstrates its effectiveness and is found to be highly accurate in ECG classification.
Establishment of Reference Ranges for Cortisol in Neonates, Infants, Children and Adolescents

Cortisol was determined in the sera of 687 normal, healthy probands between the ages of 5 days and 18 years (neonates, infants, children and adolescents), using a fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) on the TDx from Abbott Laboratories. The proband collective was divided into 9 age groups and each group into males and females. In accordance with the recommendations of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, the 95% scatter range was taken as the reference range. Only a few reference groups showed a normal Gaussian distribution. In addition to the 50th percentile, the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles were determined for all reference groups. Minimal and maximal values were also determined. The U-test of Mann & Whitney was used to test for significant differences between the individual reference groups. Groups showing no significant differences were combined, and reference ranges were finally calculated for cortisol in the serum of normal, healthy neonates, infants, children and adolescents. The serum cortisol concentration showed a significant increase with age. In the 14-15 years age group, there was also a significant difference between males and females.
Experimental investigation of mapping and navigation based on certainty grids using sonar sensors

SUMMARY A mapping and navigation system based on certainty grids for an autonomous mobile robot operating in unknown environment is described. The system uses sonar range data to build a map of the robot's surroundings. The range data from sonar sensor are integrated into a probability map that is composed of two dimensional grids which contain the probabilities of being occupied by the objects in the environment. A Bayesian model is used to estimate the uncertainty of the sensor information and to update the existing probability map with new range data. The resulting two dimensional map is used for path planning and navigation. In this paper, the Bayesian updating model which was successfully simulated in our earlier work is implemented on a mobile robot and is shown to be valid in the real world by experiment.
Web-assisted Instruction (WAI) as a Promising Solution in Developing Countries in Higher Education: A Case Study in an Omani Governmental College

The rising expectations for changing traditional classrooms, where chalk and talk as well as desks and texts are predominant, were accelerating because of the explosion of knowledge and the growing demands of the workforce ( Roschelle et al . 2000 ). Accordingly, if the goal then is to educate and qualify every student, schools are challenged to create a way to move toward what is termed "student-centric" model and give every student a chance to learn and interact. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the effectiveness of technology integration (namely, web-assisted instruction) on students’ achievement and attitudes in a Middle Eastern college. It was also the purpose of the study to examine whether WAI disrupted traditional teaching and encouraged educators to integrate it as a powerful means of instruction. The main focus of the study was to propose WAI as a solution to address the diverse learning styles in the class. Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory was used as the theoretical framework to investigate if WAI was disruptive to teaching methodologies and the way educators and administrators perceive innovations. The research design was the pretest – posttest control group design and the study was conducted in a governmental gulf college. The participants were 54 students from level 1 foundation English distributed in two classes; experimental and control. Both classes were pre-tested and post-tested at the beginning and both were given a survey at the end of the fall semester 2011. Findings of the study substantiated the theory and revealed that freshman students who took a Core Course using WAI achieved higher test scores than those in the traditional class. It was also found that students in the experimental class reported positive preference and attitudes for technology integration in their class, and students in the control class reported a great desire to have technology integrated in their class. Keywords: web-assisted instruction, achievement, disruptive innovations, attitude, higher education.
MAXIMUM LIFETIME DATA GATHERING AND AGGREGATION IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

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Defining iron-deficiency anemia in public health terms: a time for reflection.

This paper provides a historical context for this meeting, which aimed to examine critically the way we have defined iron-deficiency anemia as a public health problem. The terms and concepts used to define the problem are reviewed first, followed by estimates of the global prevalence of the problem from 1985 to 2000. It is argued that recent estimates are not credible and that we must redefine the problem in terms that are important, measurable and addressable. This meeting was designed to take first steps toward that goal, namely, to identify the causal factors (e.g., iron deficiency vs. iron-deficiency anemia vs. severe anemia from any cause) that link iron-deficiency anemia to important health outcomes and to estimate the magnitude of their effects in public health terms.
The Perception of Walking Speed in a Virtual Environment

Studies of locomotion in virtual environments assume that correct geometric principles define the relationship between walking speed and environmental flow. However, we have observed that geometrically correct optic flow appears to be too slow during simulated locomotion on a treadmill. Experiment 1 documents the effect in a head-mounted display. Experiment 2 shows that the effect is eliminated when the gaze is directed downward or to the side, or when the walking speed is slow. Experiment 3 shows that the effect is unchanged by stride length. Experiment 4 verifies that the effect is not attributable to image jitter. The change in perceived speed from straight ahead to side or down gaze coincides with a shift from expanding optic flow to lamellar flow. Therefore, we hypothesize that lamellar flow is necessary for accurate speed perception, and that a limited field of view eliminates this cue during straight-ahead gaze.
Asynchronous multimedia multihop wireless networks

Personal communications and mobile computing will require a wireless network infrastructure which is fast deployable, possibly multihop, and capable of multimedia service support. The first infracture of this type was the packet radio network (PRNET), developed in the 70's to address the battlefield and disaster recovery communication requirements. PRNET was totally asynchronous and was based on a completely distributed architecture. It handled datagram traffic reasonably well, but did not offer efficient multimedia support. Recently, under the WAMIS and Glomo ARPA programs several mobile, multimedia, multihop (M/sup 3/) wireless network architectures have been developed, which assume some form of synchronous, time division infrastructure. The synchronous time frame leads to efficient multimedia support implementations. However, it introduces more complexity and is less robust in the face of mobility and channel fading. In this paper; we examine the impact of synchronization on wireless M/sup 3/ network performance. First, we introduce MACA/PR, an asynchronous network based on the collision avoidance MAC scheme employed in the IEEE 802.11 standard. There, we evaluate and compare several wireless packet networks ranging from the total asynchronous PRNET to the synchronized cluster TDMA network. We examine the tradeoffs between time synchronization and performance in various traffic and mobility environments.
An Analysis of Cross-Cultural Behaviors for Military Advisors in the Middle East

Abstract : Five-hundred-sixty-five externally sourced Transition Team advisors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan completed a survey to help identify the cross-cultural behaviors critical to advisor effectiveness in the current operating environment. Results indicated role modeling, establishing credibility with one's counterpart, and being respectful were among the most frequent and important advisor behaviors. Results also suggested that a command of common words and greetings in the native language was valuable, but that advisors were able to communicate without significant proficiency in the counterpart's language given the availability of competent interpreters.
Eigenvalue Analysis-Based Approach for POL-SAR Image Classification

A novel polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POL-SAR) image classification approach is proposed in this paper by exploiting coherency matrix eigenvalues for polarimetric information representation and understanding. The approach consists of two parts. Initially, the statistical distributions of eigenvalue for homogeneous areas are analyzed by taking eigenvalues as the features of polarimetric information. The Bayesian classification method is applied to verify the feasibility of distinguishing different homogeneous areas. As a result, this method can work well those pixels with the similar scatter mechanism by using different polarimetric intensity information from eigenvalues. But this process cannot adequately distinguish those pixels with similar eigenvalues distribution. So, an eigenvalues-based local operator is defined to overcome the insufficient of the similar pixels by introducing a similar measure and eigenvalues-based texture information. After all pixels are classified by Bayesian classification, if the similarity of the pixel is larger than the given threshold, this pixel will be further classified by support vector machine using texture information. The proposed method is tested on three POL-SAR datasets, in which the average classification accuracy of eight categories for the Flevoland data from our method reaches nearly 90%.
Advanced Maternal Age and Adverse Perinatal Outcome

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of maternal age on perinatal and obstetric outcome in women aged 40–44 years and those 45 years or older and to estimate whether adverse outcome was related to intercurrent illness and pregnancy complications. METHODS: National prospective, population-based, cohort study in women aged 40–44 years and those 45 years or older and in a control group of women aged 20–29 years who delivered during the period 1987–2001. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated after adjustments for significant malformations, maternal pre-existing diseases, and smoking. Main outcome measures were perinatal mortality, intrauterine fetal death, neonatal death, preterm birth, and preeclampsia. RESULTS: During the 15-year period, there were 1,566,313 deliveries (876,361 women were 20–29 years of age, 31,662 were 40–44 years, and 1,205 were ≥ 45 years). Perinatal mortality was 1.4%, 1.0%, and 0.5% in women 45 years or older, 40–44, and 20–29 years, respectively. Adjusted OR for perinatal mortality was 2.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5–4.0) in women aged 45 years or older, compared with 1.7 (95% CI 1.5–1.9) in women 40–44 years. Adjusted OR for intrauterine fetal death was 3.8 (95% CI 2.2–6.4) in women aged 45 years or older, compared with 2.1 (95% CI 1.8–2.4) in women 40–44 years. Preterm birth, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia were more common among women 40–44 years of age and those 45 years or older. Perinatal mortality was increased in women with intercurrent illness or pregnancy complications compared with women without these conditions, but there was no evidence that these factors became more important with increasing age. CONCLUSION: Perinatal mortality, intrauterine fetal death, and neonatal death increased with age. There was also an increase in intercurrent illnesses and pregnancy complications with increasing age, but this did not entirely explain the observed increase in perinatal mortality with age. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-3
Past, present and future influences of functional magnetic resonance imaging on the development of psychology: A review of the literature

Neuroimaging has become increasingly important for psychology, especially in the studies of cognitive functions, and the past two decades have seen an enormous increase in functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) research. fMRI is one of the best neuroimaging methods ever devised, merging high spatial resolution with relatively high temporal resolution. fMRI has contributed significantly to integrating cognitive psychology and neuroscience into the interdisciplinary field of cognitive neuroscience. The capabilities of fMRI are being expanded to other fields as well, like social psychology, leading to the even more interdisciplinary field of social cognitive neuroscience. Although fMRI still has some limitations regarding temporal resolution and statistics, new insights in how to overcome these limitations look promising. In the near future, the capabilities of fMRI will probably be expanded even more, yielding new discoveries in even more fields of psychology. fMRI has expanded the boundaries of psychology, leading to new interdisciplinary fields of research in psychology, and psychology itself has promoted the development of fMRI by applying it to new experimental paradigms.
Comparative UAV and Field Phenotyping to Assess Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Hybrid and Conventional Barley

With the commercialization and increasing availability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) multiple rotor copters have expanded rapidly in plant phenotyping studies with their ability to provide clear, high resolution images. As such, the traditional bottleneck of plant phenotyping has shifted from data collection to data processing. Fortunately, the necessarily controlled and repetitive design of plant phenotyping allows for the development of semi-automatic computer processing tools that may sufficiently reduce the time spent in data extraction. Here we present a comparison of UAV and field based high throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) using the free, open-source image analysis software FIJI (Fiji is just ImageJ) using RGB (conventional digital cameras), multispectral and thermal aerial imagery in combination with a matching suite of ground sensors in a study of two hybrids and one conventional barely variety with ten different nitrogen treatments, combining different fertilization levels and application schedules. A detailed correlation network for physiological traits and exploration of the data comparing between treatments and varieties provided insights into crop performance under different management scenarios. Multivariate regression models explained 77.8, 71.6, and 82.7% of the variance in yield from aerial, ground, and combined data sets, respectively.