Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CRISPR for Crop Improvement: An Update Review

The availability of genome sequences for several crops and advances in genome editing approaches has opened up possibilities to breed for almost any given desirable trait. Advancements in genome editing technologies such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) has made it possible for molecular biologists to more precisely target any gene of interest. However, these methodologies are expensive and time-consuming as they involve complicated steps that require protein engineering. Unlike first-generation genome editing tools, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing involves simple designing and cloning methods, with the same Cas9 being potentially available for use with different guide RNAs targeting multiple sites in the genome. After proof-of-concept demonstrations in crop plants involving the primary CRISPR-Cas9 module, several modified Cas9 cassettes have been utilized in crop plants for improving target specificity and reducing off-target cleavage (e.g., Nmcas9, Sacas9, and Stcas9). Further, the availability of Cas9 enzymes from additional bacterial species has made available options to enhance specificity and efficiency of gene editing methodologies. This review summarizes the options available to plant biotechnologists to bring about crop improvement using CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing tools and also presents studies where CRISPR/Cas9 has been used for enhancing biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Application of these techniques will result in the development of non-genetically modified (Non-GMO) crops with the desired trait that can contribute to increased yield potential under biotic and abiotic stress conditions.
A Failure to Launch: Regulatory Modes and Boredom Proneness

Boredom is a ubiquitous human experience characterized as a state of wanting but failing to engage with the world. Individuals prone to the experience of boredom demonstrate lower levels of self-control which may be at the heart of their failures to engage in goal-directed, meaningful behaviors. Here we develop the hypothesis that distinct self-regulatory profiles, which in turn differentially influence modes of goal pursuit, are at the heart of boredom proneness. Two specific regulatory modes are addressed: Locomotion, the desire to ‘just do it,’ an action oriented mode of goal-pursuit, and Assessment, the desire to ‘do the right thing,’ an evaluative orientation toward goal pursuit. We present data from a series of seven large samples of undergraduates showing that boredom proneness is negatively correlated with Locomotion, as though getting on with things acts as a prophylactic against boredom. This ‘failure to launch’ that we suggest is prevalent in the highly boredom prone individual, could be due to an inability to appropriately discriminate value (i.e., everything is tarred with the same gray brush), an unwillingness to put in the required effort to engage, or simply a failure to get started. In contrast, boredom proneness was consistently positively correlated with the Assessment mode of self-regulation. We suggest that this association reflects a kind of rumination that hampers satisfying goal pursuit.
Prevalence of Chronic Constipation and Its Associated Factors in Pars Cohort Study: A Study of 9000 Adults in Southern Iran

BACKGROUND Chronic constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders. It has negative effects on the patients’ quality of life, and their productivity, and results in a high economic burden on the healthcare services. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of chronic constipation and its associated factors in pars cohort study (PCS). METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted on the baseline data of the PCS. Data gathering was done by structured questionnaire and physical examination. A total of 9264 subjects aged between 40 and 75 years were enrolled in the PCS. Diagnosis of chronic constipation was done using Rome IV criteria. Multivariable binary logistic regression was applied for data analysis. RESULTS A total of 752 (8.1%) participants were diagnosed as having chronic constipation (9.3% of female and 6.7% of male participants). Older age (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.31-1.83), physical activity (OR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.46-0.68), opium consumption (OR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.63-2.60) , anxiety (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.15-1.65), depression (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.01-1.48), back pain or arthralgia (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.14-1.67), insomnia (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.36-1.93) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.28-1.78) were associated with the prevalence of constipation in the multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION Chronic constipation was a common problem in the PCS population. Decreasing modifiable risk factors associated with constipation such as opium consumption and physical inactivity can reduce its prevalence and decrease burden of the disease.
Beyond Heuristics: Learning Visualization Design

In this paper, we describe a research agenda for deriving design principles directly from data. We argue that it is time to go beyond manually curated and applied visualization design guidelines. We propose learning models of visualization design from data collected using graphical perception studies and build tools powered by the learned models. To achieve this vision, we need to 1) develop scalable methods for collecting training data, 2) collect different forms of training data, 3) advance interpretability of machine learning models, and 4) develop adaptive models that evolve as more data becomes available.
On Two-Dimensional Rangefinding Using a ∼1 nJ/∼100 ps Laser Diode Transmitter and a CMOS SPAD Matrix

A potentially compact 2-D range profiler for noncooperative targets with a distance range of >10 m is demonstrated. A laser diode utilizing enhanced gain switching is used as a transmitter to provide short, high-energy optical pulses (∼1 nJ/140 ps). Cylindrical lenses spread the laser beam in one dimension and collimate the beam in the other dimension to illuminate a line shaped field of view of about 45°. A similarly shaped field of view for the detector is realized with a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector matrix. Compared with a flash 3-D rangefinder, the 2-D rangefinding scheme relaxes the SPAD and time-to-digital converter design requirements, increases the signal irradiance at the detector, can have better tolerance for background illumination, and it can be sufficient or advantageous in some applications. The distance measurement precision to each direction is inherently within a few centimeters (FWHM) since the laser pulse width and SPAD detector jitter both correspond with an optical pulse back-and-forth flight time of about a centimeter. Demonstration measurements show >15 Hz line rate and a lateral resolution of about 5 mrad to noncooperative targets at distances of more than 10 m.
Fast Witness Counting

We study the witness-counting problem: given a set of vectors $V$ in the $d$-dimensional vector space over $\mathbb{F}_2$, a target vector $t$, and an integer $k$, count all ways to sum-up exactly $k$ different vectors from $V$ to reach $t$. The problem is well-known in coding theory and received considerable attention in complexity theory. Recently, it appeared in the context of hardware monitoring. Our contribution is an algorithm for witness counting that is optimal in the sense of fine-grained complexity. It runs in time $\mathcal{O}^*(2^d)$ with only a logarithmic dependence on $m=|V|$. The algorithm makes use of the Walsh-Hadamard transform to compute convolutions over $\mathbb{F}_2^d$. The transform, however, overcounts the solutions. Inspired by the inclusion-exclusion principle, we introduce correction terms. The correction leads to a recurrence that we show how to solve efficiently. The correction terms are obtained from equivalence relations over $\mathbb{F}_2^d$. We complement our upper bound with two lower bounds on the problem. The first relies on $\# ETH$ and prohibits an $2^{o(d)}$-time algorithm. The second bound states the non-existence of a polynomial kernel for the decision version of the problem.
Microbiota Composition in Upper Respiratory Tracts of Healthy Children in Shenzhen, China, Differed with Respiratory Sites and Ages

The upper respiratory tract (URT) is home to various microbial commensals, which function as competitors to pathogens and help train the immune system. However, few studies have reported the normal microbiota carriage in the URT of healthy Chinese children. In this study, we performed a 16S rDNA gene sequencing analysis of 83 anterior nares (ANs), 60 nasopharynx (NP), and 97 oropharynx (OP) samples from 98 healthy children in Shenzhen, China (≤12 years of age). The microbiota in ANs and NP is the same at different ages and typical species in these sites include Moraxella, Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, Streptococcus, and Dolosigranulum. By contrast, the OP is primarily colonized by Streptococcus, Prevotella, Neisseria, Veillonella, Rothia, Leptotrichia, and Haemophilus. Streptococcus and Rothia keep low abundance in OP microbiota of children ≤1 year old, whereas Prevotella, Neisseria, Haemophilus, and Leptotrichia amass significantly in individuals >1 year old. This work furnishes an important reference for understanding microbial dysbiosis in the URT of Chinese paediatric patients.
Governing autonomous vehicles: emerging responses for safety, liability, privacy, cybersecurity, and industry risks

ABSTRACT The benefits of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are widely acknowledged, but there are concerns about the extent of these benefits and AV risks and unintended consequences. In this article, we first examine AVs and different categories of the technological risks associated with them. We then explore strategies that can be adopted to address these risks, and explore emerging responses by governments for addressing AV risks. Our analyses reveal that, thus far, governments have in most instances avoided stringent measures in order to promote AV developments and the majority of responses are non-binding and focus on creating councils or working groups to better explore AV implications. The US has been active in introducing legislations to address issues related to privacy and cybersecurity. The UK and Germany, in particular, have enacted laws to address liability issues; other countries mostly acknowledge these issues, but have yet to implement specific strategies. To address privacy and cybersecurity risks strategies ranging from introduction or amendment of non-AV specific legislation to creating working groups have been adopted. Much less attention has been paid to issues such as environmental and employment risks, although a few governments have begun programmes to retrain workers who might be negatively affected.
Promoting well-being through group drumming with mental health service users and their carers

ABSTRACT Purpose: Music has been linked with well-being across clinical and community settings. Yet, research has focused on assessment of single dimensions of well-being and on the typical receiver of support services. Acknowledging the burden that a caring role encompasses and integrating recent proposals for a multifaceted definition of well-being, we explore the extent to which group drumming interventions translate into multidimensional well-being change for both mental health service users and carers. Method: Thirty-nine participants engaged in one of a series of community drumming programmes were assessed via semi-structured interviews (n = 11) and focus groups (n = 28) at the end of each programme. Data were analysed using IPA. Results and Conclusion: Emotional, psychological and social dimensions of well-being emerged for both patients and carers, accounted for through six themes: (1) hedonia: positive affect and pleasant physical effects of drumming; (2) agency: initiative and sense of control; (3) accomplishment: non-specific and in relation to musical goals; (4) engagement, through focus and flow; (5) a redefinition of self, through self-awareness, construction of a positive identity, self-prospection and incorporation of a musical identity; and (6) social well-being, through connectedness and positive relationships. The potential of such interventions for clinical contexts is discussed.
Eunomia: Scaling Concurrent Index Structures Under Contention Using HTM

Hardware transactional memory (HTM) is an emerging hardware feature. HTM simplifies the programming model of concurrent programs while preserving high and scalable performance. With the commercial availability of HTM-capable processors, HTM has recently been adopted to construct efficient concurrent index structures. However, with the expansion of data volume and user amount, data management systems have to process workloads exhibiting high contention; meanwhile, according to our experiments, the conventional HTM-base concurrent index structures fail to provide scalable performance under highly-contented workloads. Such performance pathology strictly constrains the usage of HTM on data management systems. In this paper, we first conduct a thorough analysis on HTM-based concurrent index structures, and uncover several reasons for excessive HTM aborts incurred by both false and true conflicts under contention. Based on the analysis, we advocate Eunomia, a design pattern for HTM-based concurrent index structure which contains several principles to improve HTM performance, including splitting HTM regions with version-based concurrency control to reduce HTM working sets, partitioned data layout to reduce false conflicts, proactively detecting and avoiding conflicting requests, and adaptive concurrency control strategy. To validate their effectiveness, we apply such design principles to construct a scalable concurrent B+Tree and a skip list using HTM. Evaluation using key-value store and database benchmarks on a 20-core HTM-capable multi-core machine shows that Eunomia leads to substantial speedup under high contention, while incurring small overhead under low contention.
Effect of Drying Conditions on Nutritional Quality and In Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Traditional Doenjang

Doenjang, a major traditional Korean condiment, is often dried to reduce volume and thereby shipping cost while increasing shelf life. However, changes of nutritional and sensory properties of doenjang during processing have not been well understood. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate how drying processes influence the nutritional and chemical properties of doenjang. When two drying methods, hot air drying and freeze drying were compared from the nutritional point of view, air-dried doenjang at 60°C or lower showed similar quality parameters including sensory scores, proximate composition, antioxidant capacity, amino acid composition, amino nitrogen, and acid value to freeze-dried doenjang. In contrast, the sample dried at 80°C and 100°C showed lower quality parameters than the freeze-dried one. Ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP), total phenolics content, amino acid composition, and acid value were shown to reflect the sensory and physical properties of dried doenjang. In particular, the FRAP value of dried doenjang was sensitively responsive to drying temperatures and may be utilized as an early biomarker for quality deterioration of dried doenjang.
Increased skin blood flow during low intensity vibration in human participants: Analysis of control mechanisms using short-time Fourier transform

Aim Investigate the immediate effect of low intensity vibration on skin blood flow and its underlying control mechanisms in healthy human participants. Materials and methods One-group pre-post design in a university laboratory setting. Nine adults underwent two bouts of 10-minute vibration (30Hz, peak acceleration 0.4g). Outcome measures include skin blood flow, and skin temperature on the right foot. To examine the control mechanisms underlying the vibration-induced blood flow response, SHORT-TIME Fourier analyses were computed to obtain the spectral densities for three frequency bands: metabolic (0.0095–0.02Hz), neurogenic (0.02–0.06Hz), and myogenic (0.06–0.15Hz). Non-parametric Friedman’s tests were computed to compare changes of the outcome measures and control mechanisms over the course of vibration. Results Vibration increased skin blood flow during both bouts of vibration, however the effect did not last after vibration was terminated. Myogenic spectral density increased during both bouts of vibration, whereas the metabolic and neurogenic spectral densities increased only during the 2nd bout of vibration. Interestingly, only the metabolic spectral density remained elevated after vibration ended. Conclusion Low intensity vibration produced acute increases in skin blood flow mediated in part by vascular control mechanisms of myogenic origin. Further investigation is warranted to determine whether low intensity vibration induces similar increases in skin blood flow in populations prone to developing chronic non-healing wounds, such as spinal cord injury and diabetes.
First Hop Mobile Offloading of DAG Computations

In recent years, Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) has been proposed to increase battery lifetime of mobile devices. However, offloading on Cloud infrastructures may be infeasible for latency critical applications, due to the geographical distribution of Cloud data centers that increases offloading time. In this paper, we investigate the use of Mobile Edge Cloud Offloading (MECO), namely offloading to a heterogeneous computing infrastructure featuring both Cloud and Edge nodes, where Edge nodes are geographically closer to the mobile device. We evaluate improvements of MECO in comparison with MCC for objectives such as applications' runtime, mobile device battery lifetime and cost for the user. Afterwards, we propose the Edge Cloud Heuristic Offloading (ECHO) approach to find a trade-off solution between the aforementioned objectives, according to user's preferences. We evaluate our approach by simulating offloading of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) representing mobile applications through the use of Monte-Carlo simulations. The results show that (1) MECO can reduce application runtime by up to 70.7% and cost by up to 70.6% in comparison to MCC and (2) ECHO allows user to select a trade-off solution with at most 18% MAPE for runtime, 16% for cost and 0.5% for battery lifetime, according to user's preferences.
A Wireless Implantable Sensor Design With Subcutaneous Energy Harvesting for Long-Term IoT Healthcare Applications

In this paper, a wireless implantable sensor prototype with subcutaneous solar energy harvesting is proposed. To evaluate the performance of a flexible solar panel under skin, ex-vivo experiments are conducted under natural sunlight and artificial light sources. The results show that the solar panel covered by a 3 mm thick porcine flap can output tens of microWatts to a few milliWatts depending on the light conditions. The subcutaneous solar energy harvester is tested on different body parts, which suggests the optimal position for the harvester to implant is between neck and shoulder. A wireless implantable system powered by the subcutaneous energy harvester is presented, which consists of a power management circuit, a temperature sensor, and a Bluetooth low energy module. An application is developed for data visualization on mobile devices, which can be a gateway for future IoT-based healthcare applications. The entire device is embedded in a transparent silicone housing (38 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 32 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 4 mm), including a 7 mAh rechargeable battery for energy storage. The average power consumption of the implants is about <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$30~\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in a 10 min operation cycle. With the subcutaneous solar energy harvester, the self-powered operation of the implantable sensor prototype is demonstrated by long-term experimental results. Two worst-case scenarios (no exposure to light and battery depletion) are considered with ex-vivo experiment simulations.
Prognostic significance of lymph node metastasis and lymphadenectomy in early-stage ovarian carcinosarcoma

Background The role that lymph node dissection (LND) plays in the management of ovarian carcinosarcoma (OCS) is unclear due to its rarity. This study investigated lymph node metastasis (LNM) prevalence in women with early OCS and effects of LND and LNM on survival. Methods Data of women diagnosed with OCS, whose primary tumor was confined to ovaries (American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC] T1) or pelvic cavity (AJCC T2), between 1988 and 2010 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients were classified into lymphadenectomy (LND [+]) and no lymphadenectomy (LND [−]) groups. Results A total of 363 women were included. The prevalence of LNM was 9.6% in AJCC T1 and 16.3% in AJCC T2. Multivariate analysis showed that LND and AJCC T categories were independent prognostic variables, irrespective of cancer-specific survival (CSS) or overall survival (OS). Subgroup analysis by AJCC T categories revealed that LND (+) group in AJCC T2 had a better survival outcome compared to LND (−) group (CSS, HR [95% CI] = 0.61 [0.43–0.87]; OS, HR [95% CI] = 0.59 [0.42–0.83]). There was no survival difference between groups in AJCC T1 (CSS, HR [95% CI] = 0.96 [0.56–1.65]; OS, HR [95% CI] = 0.88 [0.56–1.38]). Multivariate analysis was further carried out in LND (+) group and demonstrated that LNM and AJCC T2 had poor CSS and OS. Subgroup analysis by AJCC T categories showed that worse survival was observed in LNM (+) group compared to LNM (−) group in AJCC T2 (CSS, HR [95% CI] = 3.62 [1.50–8.73]; OS, HR [95% CI] = 3.71 [1.59–8.68]) but not in AJCC T1 (CSS, HR [95% CI] = 1.78 [0.50–6.37]; OS, HR [95% CI] = 1.97 [0.61–6.39]). Conclusion Regional lymphadenectomy should be performed in patients with AJCC T2 OCS. LND and LNM were not significantly associated with prognosis in AJCC T1 while LNM had a trend toward worse survival.
Immunosensor for Pancreatic Cancer Based on Electrospun Nanofibers Coated with Carbon Nanotubes or Gold Nanoparticles

We report the fabrication of immunosensors based on nanostructured mats of electrospun nanofibers of polyamide 6 and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) coated either with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) or gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), whose three-dimensional structure was suitable for the immobilization of anti-CA19-9 antibodies to detect the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA19-9. Using impedance spectroscopy, the sensing platform was able to detect CA19-9 with a detection limit of 1.84 and 1.57 U mL–1 for the nanostructured architectures containing MWCNTs and AuNPs, respectively. The high sensitivity achieved can be attributed to the irreversible adsorption between antibodies and antigens, as confirmed with polarization-modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy. The adsorption mechanism was typical Langmuir–Freundlich processes. The high sensitivity and selectivity of the immunosensors were also explored in tests with blood serum from patients with distinct concentrations of CA19-9, for which the impedance spectra data were processed with a multidimensional projection technique. The robustness of the immunosensors in dealing with patient samples without suffering interference from analytes present in biological fluids is promising for a simple, effective diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at early stages.