Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Degraded’ RNA profiles in Arthropoda and beyond

The requirement for high quality/non-degraded RNA is essential for an array of molecular biology analyses. When analysing the integrity of rRNA from the barnacle Lepas anatifera (Phylum Arthropoda, Subphylum Crustacea), atypical or sub-optimal rRNA profiles that were apparently degraded were observed on a bioanalyser electropherogram. It was subsequently discovered that the rRNA was not degraded, but arose due to a ‘gap deletion’ (also referred to as ‘hidden break’) in the 28S rRNA. An apparent excision at this site caused the 28S rRNA to fragment under heat-denaturing conditions and migrate along with the 18S rRNA, superficially presenting a ‘degraded’ appearance. Examination of the literature showed similar observations in a small number of older studies in insects; however, reading across multiple disciplines suggests that this is a wider issue that occurs across the Animalia and beyond. The current study shows that the 28S rRNA anomaly goes far beyond insects within the Arthropoda and is widespread within this phylum. We confirm that the anomaly is associated with thermal conversion because gap-deletion patterns were observed in heat-denatured samples but not in gels with formaldehyde-denaturing.
Lipoprotein(a): more interesting than ever after 50 years

Purpose of review Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease; we highlight the most recent research initiatives that have sought to define Lp(a)-dependent pathogenicity as well as pharmacologic approaches to lowering Lp(a). Recent findings Recent large-scale meta-analyses have confirmed elevated Lp(a) concentrations to be a moderate but consistent prospective coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factor. The Mendelian randomization approach has also associated LPA variants with Lp(a) concentration and CHD risk. Discoveries linking Lp(a) to oxidized phospholipid burden have implicated a proinflammatory role for Lp(a) hinting at a new mechanism underlying the association with CHD risk, which adds to previous atherogenic and thrombogenic mechanisms. Most existing Lp(a)-lowering drug treatments almost always show simultaneous effects on other lipoproteins, making it difficult to assign any clinical outcome specifically to the effects of Lp(a) lowering. Early experiments with antisense oligonucleotides targeting apolipoprotein(a) mRNA seem to indicate the pleiotropic effects of Lp(a) reduction on LDL and HDL in mice. The mechanism linking Lp(a) concentration with concentrations of other blood lipids remains unknown but may provide an insight into Lp(a) metabolism. Summary Despite the wealth of epidemiologic evidence supporting Lp(a) concentration as a CHD risk factor, the lack of a definitive functional mechanism involving an Lp(a)-dependent pathway in CHD pathogenesis has limited the potential clinical connotation of Lp(a). However, the application of novel technologies to the long-standing mysteries of Lp(a) biology seems to provide the opportunity for expanding our understanding of Lp(a) and its complex role in cardiovascular health.
Inhalant abuse: An exploratory study

Background: Inhalants are being abused by large numbers of people throughout the world, particularly children and adolescents. It is also an often overlooked form of ubstance abuse in adolescents. Aims: The current study explored the inhalant abuse among adolescents seeking treatment from a tertiary care drug de-addiction clinic. Settings and Design: The study was conducted at a tertiary level multispecialty hospital. Materials and Methods: The current study was a chart review of the cases with inhalant abuse/dependence presenting to the clinic over a 1-year period. All the treatment records of the de-addiction clinic were reviewed, and information was gathered regarding patients with inhalant abuse/dependence. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics with frequency distribution was carried out by using SPSS version 10.0. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 16.24 years (SD±1.9 years; range 12–18 years). Twenty-two percent of the subjects were illiterate. Forty percent of the adolescents had a family history of alcohol use problems and 48% that of tobacco use. The mean age of the initiation of inhalant use was 11.6 years (SD±2.17 years). It varied from 9 to 18 years. Forty percent of the adolescents had made a previous abstinence attempt. Conclusions: The findings provide important information on an underresearched area in psychiatry.
Efficient Silhouette Extraction with Dynamic Viewpoint

A novel approach is proposed that extends the classical background subtraction method to extract silhouettes from videos in real time with dynamic viewpoint variation caused by camera movement. First, manifold learning is used to model the background under viewpoint variations. Then, for each new frame, the background image corresponding to the same viewpoint is synthesized on the fly by examining the local neighborhood on the manifold, and the silhouette is extracted via background subtraction. An extension is also presented to generate stabilized silhouettes at any fixed viewpoint within the training range. Experiments show that our approach can efficiently extract accurate silhouettes in complex situations while maintaining a low noise level.
Robots in space - a survey

The paper tries to outline the state of the art in space robotics. It discusses the technologies used in ROTEX, the first remotely controlled space robot which flew with the shuttle Columbia in April 1993, but it also gives a review of the major space robot projects envisioned by different nations for the next decade. The mechatronics and dynamics aspects of space robots including free-flying systems are briefly discussed. Broader attention is given to the telerobotic and teleoperational control loop structures, including predictive delay-compensating graphics simulation. The paper finally tries to emphasize that by task-level programming (involving 'learning by showing' on a high level) future space robots will be powerful tools for scientists and ground operators which are not robot specialists. The tele-sensor programming concept of ROTEX was a first step in this direction. We plead for flying a variety of space robot systems in the near future in order to enhance experience with and confidence in thes.
Negotiating multiple barriers: health workers' access to counselling, testing and treatment in Malawi

Abstract Malawi is facing a severe HIV and AIDS epidemic with an estimated 12% of its population living with the virus. Health workers are on the front lines of the HIV epidemic and they face the risk of HIV infection in both their personal and professional lives. This mixed method study aimed to explore the enablers and barriers to HIV counselling and testing and antiretroviral therapy by health workers in Malawi. After qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with health workers in the Mchinji and Nsanje districts, a survey questionnaire was constructed and administered to 906 health workers in eight districts in Malawi. A majority (76%) of health workers surveyed reported having undergone HIV testing and counselling, of whom 74% reported repeat testing. A striking result of the study is that 22% of health workers reported testing after occupational exposure to HIV. The proportions of respondents reporting that they tested after experiencing symptoms, or self-testing for HIV were 11% each. The in-depth interviews and the survey revealed multiple challenges that health workers face to accessing HIV testing, counselling and treatment, including fear of a positive result, fear of stigma and lack of confidentiality. Additional barriers included health workers' personal acquaintance with those conducting testing, along with their perception of being “role models” which could exacerbate their fears about confidentiality. Given health workers' critical role in HIV delivery in Malawi, there is need to develop solutions to help health workers overcome these barriers.
Cloud based Privacy Preserving Data Mining with Decision Tree

Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) aims at performing data mining among multiple parties, and at the meantime, no single party suffers the threat of releasing private data to any others. Nowadays, cloud service becomes more and more popular. However, how to deal with privacy issues of cloud service is still developing. This paper is one of the first researches in cloud server based PPDM. We propose a novel protocol that the cloud server performs data mining in encrypted databases, and our solution can guarantee the privacy of each client. This scheme can protect client from malicious users. With aid of a hardware box, the scheme can also protect clients from untrusted cloud server. Another novel feature of this solution is that it works even when the database from different parties are overlapping.
Congenital megalourethra in monochorionic twins: a case report.

Introduction Significant penile urethra dilatation (megalourethra) in neonates has frequently been described in association with other anomalies, and is considered to be part of a more diffuse mesodermal abnormality. Subsequent to documentation of the first antenatally diagnosed case (Benacerraf et al., 1989), prenatally detected megalourethra has rarely been seen in isolation (Jones et al., 2002). Frequently associated anomalies include prune belly syndrome (PBS) (Fisk et al., 1990), VACTERL association (Krapp et al., 2002), and imperforate anus (Wu et al., 1995), among others. Congenital megalourethra is generally associated with poor neonatal outcomes, highlighting the importance of prenatal detection (Sepulveda et al., 2005; Amsalem et al., 2011). Megalourethra is generally not regarded as a genetic disorder. It has only been described once before in a monozygotic twin pregnancy, where the twins were discordant for the anomaly (Pollock, 1965). This report describes a case in which both fetuses of a monochorionic twin pregnancy present with megalourethra and anal imperforation.
Actionable Rules: Issues and New Directions

Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) is the process of extracting previously unknown, hidden and interesting patterns from a huge amount of data stored in databases. Data mining is a stage of the KDD process that aims at selecting and applying a particular data mining algorithm to extract an interesting and useful knowledge. It is highly expected that data mining methods will find interesting patterns according to some measures, from databases. It is of vital importance to define good measures of interestingness that would allow the system to discover only the useful patterns. Measures of interestingness are divided into objective and subjective measures. Objective measures are those that depend only on the structure of a pattern and which can be quantified by using statistical methods. While, subjective measures depend only on the subjectivity and understandability of the user who examine the patterns. These subjective measures are further divided into actionable, unexpected and novel. The key issues that faces data mining community is how to make actions on the basis of discovered knowledge. For a pattern to be actionable, the user subjectivity is captured by providing his/her background knowledge about domain. Here, we consider the actionability of the discovered knowledge as a measure of interestingness and raise important issues which need to be addressed to discover actionable knowledge. Keywords— Data Mining Community, Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), Interestingness, Subjective Measures, Actionability.
Hybrid Origin of SIV in Chimpanzees

The ancestry of HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus–1) has been traced to SIVcpz (simian immunodeficiency virus) infecting chim-panzees ( Pan troglodytes )] in west central Africa ( [1][1] ), but the origin of SIVcpz itself remains unknown. Species-specific strains of SIV have been identified in
Polylactic acid (PLA) based green composites reinforced pineapple leaf fibres: evaluation of processing and tensile performance

This paper reports on a study of the compression moulding and the vacuum forming of unidirectional pineapple leaf fibres/polylactic acid composites and the influence of process variables on the tensile properties of the material. The characterisation of the micro and meso structures of the pineapple leaf fibres is reported. The effect of consolidation temperature on the fibre thermal stability and the tensile properties of the composites is investigated. The results show that vacuum forming was found to be preferable process with high stiffness modulus and UTS of the composites, compared to compression moulding. The insignificant detrimental effect of 165oC high consolidation temperature was observed. Finally, the fibre thermal degradation seems to dominate the composite tensile performance over its interfacial quality between the fibre and the matrix.
Morphing Simple Polygons

Abstract. In this paper we investigate the problem of morphing (i.e., continuously deforming) one simple polygon into another. We assume that our two initial polygons have the same number of sides n , and that corresponding sides are parallel. We show that a morph is always possible through an interpolating simple polygon whose n sides vary but stay parallel to those of the two original ones. If we consider a uniform scaling or translation of part of the polygon as an atomic morphing step, then we show that O(n log n) such steps are sufficient for the morph. Furthermore, the sequence of steps can be computed in O(n log n) time.
Causes of status epilepticus

Status epilepticus (SE) is the most extreme form of epilepsy. It describes a prolonged seizure that may occur in patients with previous epilepsy or in acute disorders of the central nervous system. It is one of the most common neurologic emergencies, with an incidence of up to 41 per 100,000 per year and an estimated mortality is 20%. The three major determinants of prognosis are the duration of SE, patient age, and the underlying cause. Common and easily recognized causes of SE include cerebrovascular disorders, brain trauma, infections, and low antiepileptic drug levels in patients with epilepsy. Less common causes present a clinical and diagnostic challenge, but are major determinants of prognosis. Among them, inflammatory causes and inborn errors of metabolism have gained wide interest; recent insights into these causes have contributed to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of SE and its appropriate treatment. This review focuses on the different etiologies of SE and emphasizes the importance of prompt recognition and treatment of the underlying causes.
Evolving immune circuits are generated by flexible, motile, and sequential immunological synapses

The immune system is made up of a diverse collection of cells, each of which has distinct sets of triggers that elicit unique and overlapping responses. It is correctly described as a ‘system’ because its overall properties (e.g. ‘tolerance’, ‘allergy’) emerge from multiple interactions of its components cells. To mobilize a response where needed, the majority of the cells of the system are obligatorily highly motile and so must communicate with one another over both time and space. Here, we discuss the flexibility of the primary immunological synapse (IS) with respect to motility. We then consider the primary IS as an initiating module that licenses ‘immunological circuits’: the latter consisting of two or more cell‐cell synaptic interactions. We discuss how two or three component immunological circuits interact might with one another in sequence and how the timing, stoichiometry, milieu, and duration of assembly of immunological circuits are likely to be key determinants in the emergent outcome and thus the system‐wide immune response. An evolving consideration of immunological circuits, with an emphasis on the cell‐cell modules that complement T‐antigen‐presenting cell interaction, provides a fundamental starting point for systems analysis of the immune response.
Human apoA-I expression in CETP transgenic rats leads to lower levels of apoC-I in HDL and to magnification of CETP-mediated lipoprotein changes1

Plasma cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) has a profound effect on neutral lipid transfers between HDLs and apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins when it is expressed in combination with human apoA-I in HuAI/CETP transgenic (Tg) rodents. In the present study, human apoA-I-mediated lipoprotein changes in HuAI/CETPTg rats are characterized by 3- to 5-fold increments in the apoB-containing lipoprotein-to-HDL cholesterol ratio, and in the cholesteryl ester-to-triglyceride ratio in apoB-containing lipoproteins. These changes occur despite no change in plasma CETP concentration in HuAI/CETPTg rats, as compared with CETPTg rats. A number of HDL apolipoproteins, including rat apoA-I and rat apoC-I are removed from the HDL surface as a result of human apoA-I overexpression. Rat apoC-I, which is known to constitute a potent inhibitor of CETP, accounts for approximately two-thirds of CETP inhibitory activity in HDL from wild-type rats, and the remainder is carried by other HDL-bound apolipoprotein inhibitors. It is concluded that human apoA-I overexpression modifies HDL particles in a way that suppresses their ability to inhibit CETP. An apoC-I decrease in HDL of HuAI/CETPTg rats contributes chiefly to the loss of the CETP-inhibitory potential that is normally associated with wild-type HDL.
Cascade of Care for Hepatitis C Virus Infection Within the US Veterans Health Administration.

OBJECTIVES We measured the quality of HCV care using a cascade of HCV care model. METHODS We estimated the number of patients diagnosed with chronic HCV, linked to HCV care, treated with HCV antivirals, and having achieved a sustained virologic response (SVR) in the electronic medical record data from the Veterans Health Administration's Corporate Data Warehouse and the HCV Clinical Case Registry in 2013. RESULTS Of the estimated 233,898 patients with chronic HCV, 77% (181,168) were diagnosed, 69% (160,794) were linked to HCV care, 17% (39,388) were treated with HCV antivirals, and 7% (15,983) had achieved SVR. CONCLUSIONS This Cascade of HCV Care provides a clinically relevant model to measure the quality of HCV care within a health care system and to compare HCV care across health systems.
A two-coil mutual inductance technique to study the conductivity of metal and measurement of the superconducting transient temperature

We develop a two-coil mutual inductance setup to measure the physical properties of matter like conductivity, local magnetic field and skin depth of metal. We consider the accuracy of measurements of the complex conductivity of different materials like metal, superconductor with a two-coil mutual inductance technique. We measure conductivity of Copper with temperature using a two-coil mutual inductance technique and estimate the temperature coefficient of Cu is 3.99×10-3/0C. We also study how to optimize this measurement with respect to designing coil like dipole-diploe or dipole-quadrupole. We observe the superconducting transition of BaFe1.70 Co0.30As2 around 25.5 K. We have designed our two-coil mutual bridge in such a way that it minimizes the stray field from the source coil.We develop a two-coil mutual inductance setup to measure the physical properties of matter like conductivity, local magnetic field and skin depth of metal. We consider the accuracy of measurements of the complex conductivity of different materials like metal, superconductor with a two-coil mutual inductance technique. We measure conductivity of Copper with temperature using a two-coil mutual inductance technique and estimate the temperature coefficient of Cu is 3.99×10-3/0C. We also study how to optimize this measurement with respect to designing coil like dipole-diploe or dipole-quadrupole. We observe the superconducting transition of BaFe1.70 Co0.30As2 around 25.5 K. We have designed our two-coil mutual bridge in such a way that it minimizes the stray field from the source coil.
Atypical Resting‐State Functional Connectivity of Affective Pain Regions in Chronic Migraine

Chronic migraineurs (CM) have painful intolerances to somatosensory, visual, olfactory, and auditory stimuli during and between migraine attacks. These intolerances are suggestive of atypical affective responses to potentially noxious stimuli. We hypothesized that atypical resting‐state functional connectivity (rs‐fc) of affective pain‐processing brain regions may associate with these intolerances. This study compared rs‐fc of affective pain‐processing regions in CM with controls.
Optimizing TCP performance with hybrid ARQ and scheduler

Third generation wireless systems typically employ adaptive coding and modulation, scheduling, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) techniques to provide high speed packet data service on the downlink. One important consideration in designing such a system is algorithm for the selection of coding and modulation schemes based on the channel quality of the link. We propose a systematic approach to optimize the mapping between signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SIlSR) and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to maximize the throughput that takes into account the type of HARQ scheme employed. Extensive simulation results comparing performance of the proposed methods to conventional methods are presented.
Concussion is confusing us all

It is time to stop using the term concussion as it has no clear definition and no pathological meaning. This confusion is increasingly problematic as the management of ‘concussed’ individuals is a pressing concern. Historically, it has been used to describe patients briefly disabled following a head injury, with the assumption that this was due to a transient disorder of brain function without long-term sequelae. However, the symptoms of concussion are highly variable in duration, and can persist for many years with no reliable early predictors of outcome. Using vague terminology for post-traumatic problems leads to misconceptions and biases in the diagnostic process, producing uninterpretable science, poor clinical guidelines and confused policy. We propose that the term concussion should be avoided. Instead neurologists and other healthcare professionals should classify the severity of traumatic brain injury and then attempt to precisely diagnose the underlying cause of post-traumatic symptoms.
Psychrophilic proteases dramatically reduce single-cell RNA-seq artifacts: a molecular atlas of kidney development

Single-cell RNA-seq is a powerful technique. Nevertheless, there are important limitations, including the technical challenges of breaking down an organ or tissue into a single-cell suspension. Invariably, this has required enzymatic incubation at 37°C, which can be expected to result in artifactual changes in gene expression patterns. Here, we describe a dissociation method that uses a protease with high activity in the cold, purified from a psychrophilic microorganism. The entire procedure is carried out at 6°C or colder, at which temperature mammalian transcriptional machinery is largely inactive, thereby effectively ‘freezing in’ the in vivo gene expression patterns. To test this method, we carried out RNA-seq on 20,424 single cells from postnatal day 1 mouse kidneys, comparing the results of the psychrophilic protease method with procedures using 37°C incubation. We show that the cold protease method provides a great reduction in gene expression artifacts. In addition, the results produce a single-cell resolution gene expression atlas of the newborn mouse kidney, an interesting time in development when mature nephrons are present yet nephrogenesis remains extremely active. Summary: A new method using a protease that works in the cold for cell dissociation dramatically reduces single-cell RNA-seq artifacts, allowing more accurate determination of gene expression in the newborn mouse kidney.