Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between Dietary Pulses Alone or with Other Legumes and Cardiometabolic Disease Outcomes: An Umbrella Review and Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

ABSTRACT To update the European Association for the Study of Diabetes clinical practice guidelines for nutrition therapy, we conducted an umbrella review and updated systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) of prospective cohort studies of the association between dietary pulses with or without other legumes and cardiometabolic disease outcomes. We searched the PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases through March 2019. We included the most recent SRMAs of prospective cohort studies and new prospective cohort studies published after the census dates of the included SRMAs assessing the relation between dietary pulses with or without other legumes and incidence and mortality of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) [including coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke], diabetes, hypertension, and/or obesity. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Risk estimates were pooled using the generic inverse variance method and expressed as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs. The overall certainty of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. Six SRMAs were identified and updated to include 28 unique prospective cohort studies with the following number of cases for each outcome: CVD incidence, 10,261; CVD mortality, 16,168; CHD incidence, 7786; CHD mortality, 3331; MI incidence, 2585; stroke incidence, 8570; stroke mortality, 2384; diabetes incidence, 10,457; hypertension incidence, 83,284; obesity incidence, 8125. Comparing the highest with the lowest level of intake, dietary pulses with or without other legumes were associated with significant decreases in CVD (RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85, 0.99), CHD (RR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.99), hypertension (RR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.97), and obesity (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.81, 0.94) incidence. There was no association with MI, stroke, and diabetes incidence or CVD, CHD, and stroke mortality. The overall certainty of the evidence was graded as “low” for CVD incidence and “very low” for all other outcomes. Current evidence shows that dietary pulses with or without other legumes are associated with reduced CVD incidence with low certainty and reduced CHD, hypertension, and obesity incidence with very low certainty. More research is needed to improve our estimates. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03555734.
Inshore Ship Change Detection Based on Spatial-Temporal Saliency

Automatical inshore ship change detection in optical remote sensing images is meaningful for a wide range of applications, but still a challenging task. In this paper, a visual search inspired model is proposed for inshore ship change detection. The proposed model achieves inshore ship change information extraction based on spatial-temporal saliency detection which mimics visual search mechanism. Experimental results performed on a Google Earth optical remote sensing image data set demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in terms of visual and objective evaluations.
Congenital cardiac malformations in congenital hypothyroid patients in Isfahan

BACKGROUND: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) often seems to be associated with other congenital abnormalities, mostly cardiac in nature. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cardiac malformations in patients with CH diagnosed during CH screening program in Isfahan. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, cardiac malformations were determined in CH patients were compared to controls using echocardiography. The association between cardiac malformations and mean T4 and TSH concentrations, etiology of CH according to radiologic findings and permanent and transient CH were studied in CH patients. RESULTS: Overall, 96 and 59 subjects were included in the case and control groups, respectively. Cardiac malformations were present in 30.2% (n = 29) and 15.2% (n = 9) of case and control groups, respectively; i.e. a higher prevalence in CH patients than in controls (P = 0.03). The prevalence of cardiac malformations without patent foramen oval was 6.25% (n = 6) in CH patients and 1.7% (n = 1) in control group (P = 0.1). There was no significant association between the presence of cardiac malformations and the aforementioned variables. CONCLUSIONS: High prevalence of cardiac malformations in CH patients strongly suggests the potential involvement of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of CH. This emphasizes on the necessity of genetic studies involving CH patients.
ER‐aminopeptidase 1 determines the processing and presentation of an immunotherapy‐relevant melanoma epitope

Dissecting the different steps of the processing and presentation of tumor‐associated antigens is a key aspect of immunotherapies enabling to tackle the immune response evasion attempts of cancer cells. The immunodominant glycoprotein gp100209‐217 epitope, which is liberated from the melanoma differentiation antigen gp100PMEL17, is part of immunotherapy trials. By analyzing different human melanoma cell lines, we here demonstrate that a pool of N‐terminal extended peptides sharing the common minimal epitope is generated by melanoma proteasome subtypes. In vitro and in cellulo experiments indicate that ER‐resident aminopeptidase 1 (ERAP1)—but not ERAP2—defines the processing of this peptide pool thereby modulating the T‐cell recognition of melanoma cells. By combining the outcomes of our studies and others, we can sketch the complex processing and endogenous presentation pathway of the gp100209‐217‐containing epitope/peptides, which are produced by proteasomes and are translocated to the vesicular compartment through different pathways, where the precursor peptides that reach the endoplasmic reticulum are further processed by ERAP1. The latter step enhances the activation of epitope‐specific T lymphocytes, which might be a target to improve the efficiency of anti‐melanoma immunotherapy.
A compact CPW fed dual band antenna for INSAT and SATCOM applications

This paper presents a coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed dual band patch antenna for Indian Satellite (INSAT) and X band SATCOM applications. The final antenna design is built from four successive stages which mainly focus toward the miniaturization in terms of frequency of operation while maintaining a constant overall dimension. The antenna is modeled on a single sided low cost FR4 substrate. The proposed design exhibits dual band (4.5 GHz and 8 GHz) operation due to mutual coupling between the ground and enclosing of ground around the radiating element. The fixed dimension of antenna in all the stages is 28 × 22 × 1.6 mm3. The proposed design is fabricated on a single side material and the prototype is tested for its return loss (|S11| < -10 dB). The compact antenna exhibits good return loss (dB), VSWR, peak gain, impedance and acceptable radiation pattern that makes the antenna operate for INSAT and SATCOM applications.
Design of a RF Mixer for Frequency Band shifter

In this paper, a RF mixer is designed to improve the performance of Frequency Band Shifter by improving the throughput. A low cost single balanced down-conversion diode based passive RF mixer design simulation is presented. This RF mixer will down-convert the RF band 2.45-5.8 GHz to 900-950 MHz. It provides measured average conversion loss of -13 dB, LO-RF isolation of -23 dB and LO-IF isolation of 90 dB and noise figure of 6 dB. The proposed mixer can be utilized for the design of cost effective components for different applications such as Wi-Fi, GSM module etc.
Effect of empagliflozin on brachial artery shear stress and endothelial function in subjects with type 2 diabetes: Results from an exploratory study

Empagliflozin reduces the risk of cardiovascular mortality in subjects with type 2 diabetes. We demonstrated that empagliflozin increases blood viscosity and carotid shear stress and decreases carotid wall thickness. Shear stress is the force acting on the endothelial surface and modulates arterial function. The current study evaluates the influence of empagliflozin on brachial artery shear stress and endothelial function compared to incretin-based therapy. The study is a nonrandomized, open, prospective cohort study including 35 subjects with type 2 diabetes administered empagliflozin or incretin-based therapy. Shear stress was calculated with a validated formula, and endothelial function was evaluated using the flow-mediated dilation technique. Both treatments resulted in comparable reductions in blood glucose and glycated haemoglobin. Brachial artery shear stress significantly increased exclusively in the empagliflozin group (61 ± 20 vs 68 ± 25 dynes/cm2, p = 0.04), whereas no significant difference was detected in the incretin-based therapy group (60 ± 20 vs 55 ± 12 dynes/cm2, p = not significant). Flow-mediated dilation significantly increased in the empagliflozin group (4.8 ± 4.5% vs 8.5 ± 5.6%, p = 0.03). Again, no change was detected in the incretin-based therapy group (5.1 ± 4.5% vs 4.7 ± 4.7%, p = not significant). The present findings demonstrate the beneficial effect of empagliflozin on shear stress and endothelial function in subjects with type 2 diabetes independent of the hypoglycaemic effect.
Investigating the Deformation History and Failure Mechanism of Heifangtai Loess Landslide, China with Multi-Source Sar Data

Multi-source Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) datasets are used to investigate the deformation history and failure mechanism of small-scale loess landslide in the Heifangtai loess terrace, Gansu province, China. A total of 65 SAR datasets acquired by L-band ascending ALOS/PALSAR, X-band descending TerraSAR-X and C-band descending Sentinel-1A/B covering the different periods of Heifangtai terrace are fully exploited. In addition, groundwater level data are also involved to analyze the failure mechanism of loess landslide. The displacements occurred during the past eleven years were quantitatively identified for firstly by InSAR technique. The results show that three slopes, failed on October 1, 2017 had large cumulative deformations from January 2016 to November 2016. The acceleration dates of the deformation for the three slopes were successfully captured by Sentinel-1A/B data. Furthermore, the result shows that the magnitude of the landslide deformation is closely correlated to the groundwater level variation.
CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Multiplex Genome Editing of JAGGED Gene in Brassica napus L.

Pod shattering resistance is an essential component to achieving a high yield, which is a substantial objective in polyploid rapeseed cultivation. Previous studies have suggested that the Arabidopsis JAGGED (JAG) gene is a key factor implicated in the regulatory web of dehiscence fruit. However, its role in controlling pod shattering resistance in oilseed rape is still unknown. In this study, multiplex genome editing was carried out by the CRISPR/Cas9 system on five homoeologs (BnJAG.A02, BnJAG.C02, BnJAG.C06, BnJAG.A07, and BnJAG.A08) of the JAG gene. Knockout mutagenesis of all homoeologs drastically affected the development of the lateral organs in organizing pod shape and size. The cylindrical body of the pod comprised a number of undifferentiated cells like a callus, without distinctive valves, replum, septum, and valve margins. Pseudoseeds were produced, which were divided into two halves with an incomplete layer of cells (probably septum) that separated the undifferentiated cells. These mutants were not capable of generating any productive seeds for further generations. However, one mutant line was identified in which only a BnJAG.A08-NUB-Like paralog of the JAG gene was mutated. Knockout mutagenesis in BnJAG.A08-NUB gene caused significant changes in the pod dehiscence zone. The replum region of the mutant was increased to a great extent, resulting in enlarged cell size, bumpy fruit, and reduced length compared with the wild type. A higher replum–valve joint area may have increased the resistance to pod shattering by ~2-fold in JAG mutants compared with wild type. Our results offer a basis for understanding variations in Brassica napus fruit by mutating JAG genes and providing a way forward for other Brassicaceae species.
NuMA1 promotes axon initial segment assembly through inhibition of endocytosis

Axon initial segments (AISs) initiate action potentials and regulate the trafficking of vesicles between somatodendritic and axonal compartments. Torii et al. show that NuMA1 is transiently located at the AIS and promotes rapid AIS assembly by inhibiting the endocytosis of neurofascin-186.
Visualization of isofrequency contours of guided modes in all-dielectric hyperbolic-like metasurface

We designed a SOI-based all-dielectric anisotropic metasurface which supports both hyperbolic-like and elliptic dispersion regimes of guided modes. We employ back focal plane microscope with solid immersion lens for visualization of isofrequency contours in visible and near infrared ranges and reconstruct the full dispersion ω (kx, ky)
Postseismic Deformation Following the April 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, Earthquake Sequence Detected With InSAR

We present postseismic deformation following the Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake sequence in April, 2016 detected with InSAR during ~2 years. We process ALOS- 2/PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-1 SAR images that were acquired right after the mainshock. We detected concentrated deformations along the source faults, Futagawa and Hinagu faults, as well as off-fault deformations. We found LOS displacement consistent with right lateral motion of Futagawa and Hinagu faults, which implies afterslip of causative faults. Displacements locally exceed 10 cm during 2 years. We observe various patterns of temporal evolution of LOC changes. LOS decayed with time constant of about 200 days in a part, while LOS changes accelerated in summer of 2016 in other area. LOS changes also appear to correlate to geology.
Multimodal-Temporal Fusion: Blending Multimodal Remote Sensing Images to Generate Image Series With High Temporal Resolution

This paper aims to tackle a general but interesting cross-modality problem in remote sensing community: can multimodal images help to generate synthetic images in time series and improve temporal resolution? To this end, we explore multimodal-temporal fusion, in which we attempt to leverage the availability of additional cross-modality images to simulate the missing images in time series. We propose a multimodal-temporal fusion framework, and mainly focus on two kinds of information for the simulation: intra-modal cross-modality information and inter-modal temporal information. To exploit the cross-modality information, we adopt available paired images and learn a mapping between different modality images using a deep neural network. Considering temporal dependency among time-series images, we formulate a temporal constraint in the learning to encourage temporal consistent results. Experiments are conducted on two cross-modality image simulation applications (SAR to visible and visible to SWIR), and both visual and quantitative results demonstrate that the proposed model can successfully simulate missing images with cross-modality data.
Space-Time Coverage Scenarios for A Global Snow Satellite Constellation

Seasonal snow on land is an important factor in water resources, natural disasters, water security, and weather and climate. While many types of sensors are sensitive to snow water equivalent or snow depth, no single sensor type works across the range of snow conditions and confounding factors (primarily forests and complex terrain) experienced globally. An attractive potential solution is to leverage existing and planned satellites with applicable sensors in a distributed spacecraft mission configuration. In this paper, we examine the basic question of the spatial-temporal coverage achievable by various combinations of satellites and sensors. The results will inform discussions on the advantages of specific future sensors, sensor parameters, as well as requirements for algorithms and models to help bridge the space-time gaps.
Integrating Wavelet Coefficients and CNN for Recognizing Handwritten Characters

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based image recognition has shown significant progress in recent years. It has achieved state-of-art results in field of pattern recognition. The proposed work uses convolutional network for Hindi handwritten character recognition. In traditional CNN, the raw images are fed as input to the network, which along with relevant information also contain redundant data. This redundant data makes feature extraction complex and increases the training time of the network. To improve the feature learning capacity of CNN, this work integrates wavelets and convolutional network for recognizing Hindi characters. The wavelet coefficients in three directions i.e. horizontal, vertical and diagonal are extracted from raw images and fed as input to the network. These coefficients are trained independently on different networks and the extracted features are merged at dense layer. The proposed framework outperforms the traditional CNN as demonstrated by experiments. It achieves significant results in much lesser time as compared to traditional CNN.
LVTSCR with High Holding Voltage for ESD Protection in 55nm CMOS Process

A effective method to enhance the holding voltage of LVTSCR for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection applications has been proposed and verified in a 55 nm epitaxial CMOS process. The proposed method improves the holding voltage by removing the STI in NW and adjusting the NMOS gate length. In addition, it can provide an good robustness for ESD protection. Measured results show that the holding voltage can be improved 66% approximately.
Network planning of uplink all-optical passive FSO/OF C-RAN fronthaul

Though the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is promising to allow for the necessary densification of radio networks in future systems, their utility relies on the availability of high-bandwidth reliable fronthaul links. In this paper, we propose a new all-optical fronthaul architecture in which user signals are forwarded over radio-over-free-space-optics (RoFSO) fronthaul that is passively coupled to an optical fiber (OF) for transport to a central office. We develop tools to plan such a network to optimize the outage probability while considering the coverage area, the density of the radio units (RUs), and the signal gain at the RUs. Each of these parameters can be designed to maintain an upperbound of the outage probability. Analytical expressions of the outage probability of the fronthaul network as well as the optimum RU gain are obtained. For a realistic design, clipping noise, atmospheric scintillation, and the effect of different weather conditions are considered for the RoFSO links, while nonlinear interference is modeled in the OF link. Given a required outage probability and density of RUs, the tools developed here can give the coverage area as well as optimum values for transmitted optical power and gain to balance the impact of all impairments.
Design and Simulation of Low-power Conditional-Discharging Flip Flop

In this seminal, a low-power conditional discharging-flip flop (Modified CD-FF) has been presented. A clock-pulse by single feedback through scheme is proposed for use in the Modified CD-FF. Two inverters in clock-pulse generator circuit have been removed to optimize delay in clock path. In this low-power circuit design, the clock pulse is designed by a single inverter and pass-transistor logic (PTL). The proposed circuit (MCD-FF) reduces the additional switching activity of certain internal nodes as well as generates less glitch in the output with a lesser transistor count. As a consequence, the width of transistor is increased to manage the delay for clock pulse. Overall performances of circuit design provides better optimized area, delay and power consumption (average power) than earlier flip flop designs compared to 90nm technology.
NPP-Based Evaluation of Ecological Assets in China’s Ecological Conservation Redline Area

Delineating ecological conservation redline (ECR) is a new action plan of ecological protection in China, which could protect China’s ecological security and strengthen construction of ecological civilization. Considering that there is no quantitative assessment of ecological benefits arising from ECR delineation, we chose a typical ECR area (Dongying City, in Shandong Province) as study area, using NPP-based ecological assets evaluation model to evaluate the value of different ecological assets types in ECR areas in order to obtain total value of ecological assets and identify the changes in ecological assets. The total value of ecological assets in ECR areas of Dongying City was 365.79×107 yuan, accounting for 20.77% of total value of ecological assets of natural resources in Dongying city. ECR delineation has significant impact on maintaining ecological assets value of natural resources. We believe that ecological assets evaluation model based on NPP is a feasible calculating method for ecological compensation.
A Predictive Model for Predicting Students Academic Performance

predicting students’ academic performance in advance is of great importance for parents, management of higher education institutions and the student itself. Selection of a right academic program at right time can save time, efforts and resources of both parents and educational institutions. To achieve this goal, an intelligent decision support system (IDSS) is essential to predict students’ performance prior to their admissions in any academic program or getting promoted to the higher classes in an academic program. Scope of this work is to first identify key features, influencing students’ performance, and then develop an accurate predication model for prediction of their performance, prior to taking admission in an intended program or deciding to continue for higher classes and semesters in the same program or to quit the program at this stage. In this study, first, a subjective method is used for identification of academic and socio-economic features to develop the prediction model and then a decision tree-based algorithm, Logistic Model Trees (LMT), is adopted to learn the intrinsic relationship between the identified features and students’ academic grades. The proposed model is trained and tested on a real-world dataset of 1,021 records, collected from examination database of the University of Peshawar. Simulation of the results is performed in Weka 3.8 environment with its default parameters and 10-folds cross validation setting. The proposed system achieved predictive accuracy of 83.48%,which guides parents, management of higher education institutions and students itself to decide whether they should go forward or quit this program at this stage.