Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Carriers of Thalassemia and Hemoglobinopathies in Ethnic Groups’ Pregnant Women and Spouses at the Antenatal Clinic Mae Fah Luang Hospital, Chiang Rai (2552 – 2556 B.E.)

Background: Thalassemia is globally the most widespread genetic disease commonly found in Thailand causing chronic anemia in humans. It is caused by a genetic defect that leads to abnormal or no globin chain synthesis in the hemoglobin molecule. However, survey for prevalence of these disorders has never been conducted in ethnic groups at Mae Fah Luang District, Chiang Rai, Thailand. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study aimed to determine the prevalence of carriers of thalassemia and hemoglobinopathies in ethnic groups’ pregnant women and their spouses who attended in 1 st antenatal clinic during 1 st January 2552 to 31 st December 2556 B.E. at Mae Fah Luang Hospital, Mae Fah Luang District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. There were 2,731 pregnant women and 370 spouses recruited into the study. Secondary data of sex, age, races, One-tube osmotic fragility test (OFT), Dichlorophenol indophenol precipitation (DCIP), Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and Hemoglobin (Hb) typing were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Results: The prevalence of carriers of thalassemia and hemoglobinopathies among ethnic pregnant women to be 37.5%, their spouses 28.7% and the overall prevalence was estimated to be 33.1%. Hemoglobin E trait was predominantly observed in both pregnant women (15%) and spouses (12.5%). However, considerable amount of samples were not identified in this study and they could be of other types of thalassemia/hemoglobinopathies. The Shan/Tai-Yai ethnic group had the highest prevalence of thalassemia and hemoglobinopathies (19.3%) whilst the lowest prevalence was among Haw/Chinese Yunnan (1.2%). Conclusion: The prevalence of thalassemia and hemoglobinopathies in ethnic groups of Mae Fah Luang District was considerably high among ethnic groups. Therefore, it is important to establish the thalassemia screening program in pregnant women and spouses with the aim to prevent and control this disease in ethnic groups in Mae Fah Luang District.
Information Inequality for Estimation of Transfer Functions: main results

Abstract In this paper we derive a canonical lower bound for the autocovariance function of any unbiased transfer-function estimator. As a generalization of the Cramer-Rao bound, the Cramer-Rao kernel that we define can be derived without parametrizing the model set. The Cramer-Rao kernel is thus one of the cornerstones for experiment design formulations that do not depend on the choice of coordinates.
White Pheasant Production : Evaluation of Brooding Space , Phase Feeding Method and Carcass Composition

Two experiments were conducted during a growout of male and female white pheasants to evaluate brooding space needed the first 6 wk and appropriate phase feeding strategies in the growing-finishing stages of growth. One-day-old chicks were placed into brooder pens with stocking rates of 150, 200 or 250 chicks/pen. Individual body weight and feed conversions for each pen were measured at 3 and 6 wk of age and litter moisture was measured at 3 wk. Birds were separated by gender at 6 wk and fed a common grower diet to 12 wk of age. At 12 wk, approximately half of the birds of each gender were fed either the grower diet or a finisher diet containing about 5 percentage units less crude protein than the grower diet. Body weight and feed conversion were measured on a pen basis at 12 wk for all birds, 17 wk for cockerels and 20 wk for hens. At market age, a sample of birds from each pen was selected to measure carcass yield and proximate analysis. There were no effects on body weight, coefficient of variation of body weight within pen, or feed conversion in the brooding period. High stocking density (250 chicks/pen) increased litter moisture at 3 wk. There were no dietary treatment effects on growth performance or carcass traits for either gender in the growing-finishing phases. The results showed that dietary protein could be reduced by 23% in a finisher diet fed after 12 wk of age to white pheasants.
A seeded fuzzy C-means based approach to automatic cup-to-disc ratio measurement

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes irreversible vision loss. Retinography is done manually by the ophthalmologist and is the cheapest, least invasive and most effective way to diagnose glaucoma. The ratio between the diameter of the outer part of the Optic Disc (OD) and the cup (internal part) called CDR (cup-to-disc ratio) is an important indicator of glaucoma presence in patients. This paper proposes a semiautomatic approach that includes the segmentation of OD and cup regions. The proposed approach consists of four stages. The first stage consists of preprocessing the retinal image, in order to remove blood vessels and a possible influence in the segmentation stage. In the second stage we apply the Seeded Fuzzy C-means algorithm to segment the preprocessed image in order to indentify cup and OD. The third step involves the application of a post-processing so that non-segmented regions are filled. Finally, the last step calculates the value of the CDR associated with the retinal image. To verify the applicability of the proposed approach, we carried out tests in two public image databases: DRISHTI-GS and RIM-ONE r3. The results obtained illustrate the feasibility of applying the approach in order to effectively assist ophthalmologists in the segmentation of cup and OD, as well as the calculation of the CDR.
Evolución diferencial con memoria de parámetros para la optimización de mecanismos de cuatro barras

Resumen. L-SHADE es un algoritmo basado en evoluci´on diferencial que adapta autom´aticamente los par´ametros relacionados con la mu-taci´on ( F ) y la cruza ( CR ) a trav´es de una memoria de par´ametros, y adem´as controla el tama˜no de la poblaci´on ( NP ) usando una fun-ci´on lineal. En este trabajo se incorpora una estrategia de manejo de restricciones a L-SHADE con el ﬁn de optimizar tres casos de estudio de un mecanismo de cuatro barras y se llama C-LSHADE a este nuevo enfoque. En la experimentaci´on
Divergent Responses of Forest Soil Microbial Communities under Elevated CO2 in Different Depths of Upper Soil Layers

ABSTRACT Numerous studies have shown that the continuous increase of atmosphere CO2 concentrations may have profound effects on the forest ecosystem and its functions. However, little is known about the response of belowground soil microbial communities under elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) at different soil depth profiles in forest ecosystems. Here, we examined soil microbial communities at two soil depths (0 to 5 cm and 5 to 15 cm) after a 10-year eCO2 exposure using a high-throughput functional gene microarray (GeoChip). The results showed that eCO2 significantly shifted the compositions, including phylogenetic and functional gene structures, of soil microbial communities at both soil depths. Key functional genes, including those involved in carbon degradation and fixation, methane metabolism, denitrification, ammonification, and nitrogen fixation, were stimulated under eCO2 at both soil depths, although the stimulation effect of eCO2 on these functional markers was greater at the soil depth of 0 to 5 cm than of 5 to 15 cm. Moreover, a canonical correspondence analysis suggested that NO3-N, total nitrogen (TN), total carbon (TC), and leaf litter were significantly correlated with the composition of the whole microbial community. This study revealed a positive feedback of eCO2 in forest soil microbial communities, which may provide new insight for a further understanding of forest ecosystem responses to global CO2 increases. IMPORTANCE The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has continuously been increasing since the industrial revolution. Understanding the response of soil microbial communities to elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) is important for predicting the contribution of the forest ecosystem to global atmospheric change. This study analyzed the effect of eCO2 on microbial communities at two soil depths (0 to 5 cm and 5 to 15 cm) in a forest ecosystem. Our findings suggest that the compositional and functional structures of microbial communities shifted under eCO2 at both soil depths. More functional genes involved in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling were stimulated under eCO2 at the soil depth of 0 to 5 cm than at the depth of 5 to 15 cm.
'Her shape' intervention programme for obese women with high breast adiposity.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Nutrition and physical activity interventions is beneficial in reversing obesity. However far too little attention has been paid to the effect of these interventions on breast tissues. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the effect of a home-based dietary and physical activity intervention (the Her Shape Program) on metabolic parameters, blood biomarkers and adiposity at the breast. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A randomized controlled study was conducted on obese women with high breast adiposity (<0.1 Sm-1), aged 40-60 years in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Subjects were assigned to intervention (n=16) and control group (n=15). Intervention group received a home based health education package with close monitoring weekly, personal diet consultation and physical training in group. Assessment was ascertained at three time points; baseline, weeks 8 and 16. Outcome measures were the energy intake, physical activity, body composition, blood tests, blood biomarkers and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) quantitative values. Analyses were done using 2-way repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS All subjects completed the program without any drop-out. The HSI group had 100% compliance towards the intervention program; their energy intake was reduced for approximately 35% and their activity score was increased for approximately 11%. A significant interaction effect was found in body weight, body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol/HDL, vitamin C intake and matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) (p<0.05). Interestingly, their EIT extremum values were also significantly increased indicating a reduction of breast adiposity. The intervention program was successful in improving body composition, physical activities, MMP9 and breast adipose tissue composition.
Alimentary Tract Transcriptome Analysis of the Tea Geometrid, Ectropis oblique (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

Abstract Ectropis oblique Prout (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is one of the main pests that damages the tea crop in Southeast Asia. To understand the molecular mechanisms of its feeding biology, transcriptomes of the alimentary tract (AT) and of the body minus the AT of E. oblique were successfully sequenced and analyzed in this study. A total of 36,950 unigenes from de novo sequences were assembled. After analysis using six annotation databases (e.g., Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome, and NCBI nr), a series of putative genes were found for this insect species that were related to digestion, detoxification, the immune system, and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) receptors. From this series of genes, 21 were randomly selected to verify the relative expression levels of transcripts using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. These results will provide an invaluable genomic resource for future studies on the molecular mechanisms of E. oblique, which will be useful in developing biological control strategies for this pest.
Coffee , CYP 1 A 2 Genotype , and Risk of Myocardial Infarction

EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES EXAMINing the association between coffee consumption and risk of myocardial infarction (MI) have been inconclusive. Coffee is a major source of caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine), which is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world and has been implicated in the development of cardiovascular diseases such as acute MI. However, coffee contains a number of other chemicals that have variable effects on the cardiovascular system. Because of the strong collinearity between caffeine intake and coffee consumption in many populations, it is not clear whether caffeine alone affects the risk of MI or whether other chemicals found in coffee may be responsible. Furthermore, the association between coffee consumption and unhealthy lifestyle factors suggests that previous associations might have been due to residual confounding. Caffeine is metabolized primarily by cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) in the liver through an initial N-demethylation. CYP1A2 accounts for approximately 95% of caffeine metabolism and demonstrates wide variability in enzyme activity between individuals. An A→C substitution at position 734 (CYP1A2*1F) in the CYP1A2 gene decreases enzyme inducibility as measured by the ratio of plasma or urinary caffeine to caffeine metabolites after a dose of caffeine, resulting in impaired caffeine metabolism. Carriers of the variant CYP1A2*1F allele are “slow” caffeine metabolizers, whereas individuals who are homozygous for the CYP1A2*1A allele are “rapid” caffeine metabolizers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether CYP1A2 genotype modifies the association between intake of caffeinated coffee and risk of nonfatal MI.
SPEED: Secure Provable Erasure for Class-1 IoT Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of embedded devices that sense and manage our environment in a growing range of applications. Large-scale IoT systems such as smart cities require significant investment in both equipment and personnel. To maximize return on investment, IoT platforms should support multiple third-party applications and adaptation of infrastructure over time. Realizing the vision of shared IoT platforms demands strong security guarantees. That is particularly challenging considering the limited capability and resource constraints of many IoT devices. In this paper, we present SPEED, an approach to secure erasure with verifiability in IoT. Secure erasure is a fundamental property when it comes to share an IoT platform with other users which guarantees the cleanness of a device's memory at the beginning of the application deployment as well as at the time of releasing the underlying IoT device. SPEED relies on two security primitives: memory isolation and distance bounding protocol. We evaluate the performance of SPEED by implementing it on a simple bare-metal IoT device belongs to Class-1. Our evaluation results show a limited overhead in terms of memory footprint, time, and energy consumption.
Expression of Murine Leukemia Virus Envelope Protein Is Sufficient for the Induction of Apoptosis

ABSTRACT The generation of cytopathic effects by murine leukemia viruses (MLVs) in different cell types correlates with the ability of the virus to induce thymic lymphoma. We showed that the induction of apoptosis in mink epithelial cells by mink cell focus-forming (MCF) MLV infection results in the accumulation of high levels of both unintegrated viral DNA and the envelope precursor polyprotein (gPr80env). Comparisons of envelope protein expression levels of plasmid clones of the env gene of the MCF13 and noncytopathic NZB-9 MLV strains demonstrated that the accumulation of MCF13 gPr80env results in endoplasmic reticulum stress and is sufficient for the induction of apoptosis.
Task-based programming in COMPSs to converge from HPC to big data

Task-based programming has proven to be a suitable model for high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Different implementations have been good demonstrators of this fact and have promoted the acceptance of task-based programming in the OpenMP standard. Furthermore, in recent years, Apache Spark has gained wide popularity in business and research environments as a programming model for addressing emerging big data problems. COMP Superscalar (COMPSs) is a task-based environment that tackles distributed computing (including Clouds) and is a good alternative for a task-based programming model for big data applications. This article describes why we consider that task-based programming models are a good approach for big data applications. The article includes a comparison of Spark and COMPSs in terms of architecture, programming model, and performance. It focuses on the differences that both frameworks have in structural terms, on their programmability interface, and in terms of their efficiency by means of three widely known benchmarking kernels: Wordcount, Kmeans, and Terasort. These kernels enable the evaluation of the more important functionalities of both programming models and analyze different work flows and conditions. The main results achieved from this comparison are (1) COMPSs is able to extract the inherent parallelism from the user code with minimal coding effort as opposed to Spark, which requires the existing algorithms to be adapted and rewritten by explicitly using their predefined functions, (2) it is an improvement in terms of performance when compared with Spark, and (3) COMPSs has shown to scale better than Spark in most cases. Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both frameworks, highlighting the differences that make them unique, thereby helping to choose the right framework for each particular objective.
A cross-sectional study: serum CCL3/MIP-1α levels may reflect lumbar intervertebral disk degeneration in Han Chinese people

Background The macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), also named chemokine cytokine ligand 3 (CCL3), has been detected in nucleus pulposus and increased following cytokine stimulation. Objective The current study was performed to explore the relationship between serum CCL3/MIP-1α levels with lumbar intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD). Patients and methods A total of 132 disk degeneration patients confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging and 126 healthy controls were enrolled in the current study. Radiological evaluation of the IDD was conducted using a 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner for entire lumbar vertebra region. Degeneration of intervertebral disk was assessed by Schneiderman criteria. Serum CCL3/MIP-1α levels were investigated using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The Visual Analog Scale scores and Oswestry Disability Index index were recorded for clinical severity. Results Elevated concentrations of CCL3 in serum were found in IDD patients compared with asymptomatic volunteers. The case group included 49 IDD patients with grade 1, 42 with grade 2, and 41 with grade 3. Grade 3 and 2 had significantly higher CCL3 concentrations in serum compared with those with grade 1. The serum CCL3 levels were positively related to the degree of disk degeneration. In addition, the serum CCL3 levels also demonstrated a significant correlation with the clinical severity determined by Visual Analog Scale scores and Oswestry Disability Index index. Conclusion Serum CCL3 may serve as a biomarker of IDD.
Effect of antibiotic therapy on the density of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in the stool of colonized patients.

BACKGROUND Colonization and infection with vancomycin-resistant enterococci have been associated with exposure to antibiotics that are active against anaerobes. In mice that have intestinal colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci, these agents promote high-density colonization, whereas antibiotics with minimal antianaerobic activity do not. METHODS We conducted a seven-month prospective study of 51 patients who were colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci, as evidenced by the presence of the bacteria in stool. We examined the density of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in stool during and after therapy with antibiotic regimens and compared the effect on this density of antianaerobic agents and agents with minimal antianaerobic activity. In a subgroup of 10 patients, cultures of environmental specimens (e.g., from bedding and clothing) were obtained. RESULTS During treatment with 40 of 42 antianaerobic-antibiotic regimens (95 percent), high-density colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci was maintained (mean [+/-SD] number of organisms, 7.8+/-1.5 log per gram of stool). The density of colonization decreased after these regimens were discontinued. Among patients who had not received antianaerobic antibiotics for at least one week, 10 of 13 patients who began such regimens had an increase in the number of organisms of more than 1.0 log per gram (mean increase, 2.2 log per gram), whereas among 10 patients who began regimens of antibiotics with minimal antianaerobic activity, there was a mean decrease in the number of enterococci of 0.6 log per gram (P=0.006 for the difference between groups). When the density of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in stool was at least 4 log per gram, 10 of 12 sets of cultures of environmental specimens had at least one positive sample, as compared with 1 of 9 sets from patients with a mean number of organisms in stool of less than 4 log per gram (P=0.002). CONCLUSIONS For patients with vancomycin-resistant enterococci in stool, treatment with antianaerobic antibiotics promotes high-density colonization. Limiting the use of such agents in these patients may help decrease the spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
Diversity and Vertical Distribution of Microbial Eukaryotes in the Snow, Sea Ice and Seawater Near the North Pole at the End of the Polar Night

Our knowledge about the microorganisms living in the high Arctic Ocean is still rudimentary compared to other oceans mostly because of logistical challenges imposed by its inhospitable climate and the presence of a multi-year ice cap. We have used 18S rRNA gene libraries to study the diversity of microbial eukaryotes in the upper part of the water column (0–170 m depth), the sea ice (0–1.5 m depth) and the overlying snow from samples collected in the vicinity of the North Pole (N88°35′, E015°59) at the very end of the long polar night. We detected very diverse eukaryotes belonging to Alveolata, Fungi, Amoebozoa, Viridiplantae, Metazoa, Rhizaria, Heterokonta, and Telonemia. Different alveolates (dinoflagellates and Marine Alveolate Groups I and II species) were the most abundant and diverse in gene libraries from water and sea ice, representing 80% of the total number of clones and operational taxonomic units. Only contaminants and/or species from continental ecosystems were detected in snow, suggesting wind- and animal- or human-mediated cosmopolitan dispersal of some taxa. By contrast, sea ice and seawater samples harbored a larger and more similar inter-sample protist diversity as compared with snow. The North Pole was found to harbor distinctive eukaryotic communities along the vertical gradient with an unparalleled diversity of core dinoflagellates, largely dominant in libraries from the water column, as compared to other oceanic locations. In contrast, phototrophic organisms typical of Arctic sea ice and plankton, such as diatoms and prasinophytes, were very rare in our samples. This was most likely due to a decrease of their populations after several months of polar night darkness and to the presence of rich populations of diverse grazers. Whereas strict phototrophs were scarce, we identified a variety of likely mixotrophic taxa, which supports the idea that mixotrophy may be important for the survival of diverse protists through the long polar night.