Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adiponectin Ameliorates Hyperglycemia-Induced Retinal Endothelial Dysfunction, Highlighting Pathways, Regulators, and Networks

Background The pathophysiology of diabetic retinopathy (DR) is multifaced. A low level of circulating adiponectin (APN) in type 2 diabetes is associated with microvasculature complications, and its role in the evolution of DR is complex. Aim This study is designed to explore the potential impact of APN in the pathogenesis of DR, linking the changes in cellular and biological processes with the pathways, networks, and regulators involved in its actions. Methods Human microvascular retinal endothelial cells (HMRECs) were exposed to 30mM glucose (HG) and treated with globular adiponectin (30μg/mL) for 24 hours. The cells were evaluated for reactive oxidative stress (ROS) and apoptosis. RT-PCR profile arrays were utilized to evaluate the profile of genes involved in endothelial functions, angiogenesis, extracellular matrix, and adhesion molecules for hyperglycemic HMRECs treated with adiponectin. In addition, the barrier function, leukocyte migration, and angiogenesis were evaluated. The differential expressed genes (DEGs) were outlined, and bioinformatic analysis was applied. Results Adiponectin suppresses ROS production and apoptosis in HMRECs under HG conditions. Adiponectin improved migration and barrier functions in hyperglycemic cells. The bioinformatic analysis highlighted that the signaling pathways of integrin, HMGB1, and p38 AMPK, are mainly involved in the actions of APN on HMRECs. APN significantly affects molecular functions, including the adhesion of cells, chemotaxis, migration of WBCs, and angiogenesis. STAT3, NFKB, IKBKB, and mir-8 are the top upstream regulators, which affect the expressions of the genes of the data set, while TNF and TGFB1 are the top regulators. Conclusion Adiponectin significantly counteracts hyperglycemia at various cellular and molecular levels, reducing its impact on the pathophysiological progression towards DR in vitro using HMRECs. Adiponectin ameliorates inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and endothelial barrier dysfunction using a causal network of NFBk complex, TNF, and HMGB1 and integrin pathways.
Application of an Improved LSTM Model to Emotion Recognition

The rise of artificial intelligence technology has promoted the development of human-computer interaction and other fields. In human-computer interaction, in order to enable the machine to accurately perceive and understand the user’s emotion in real time, thereby improving the service quality of the machine, user emotion recognition has been widely studied. In real life, because voice output not only is convenient, but also contains rich emotional information, human-computer interaction is mainly carried out in the form of voice. Speech carries a wealth of linguistic, paralinguistic, and nonlinguistic information that is essential for human-computer interaction. Understanding language information alone will not allow a computer to fully comprehend the speaker’s purpose. For computers to behave like humans, speech recognition systems must be able to process nonverbal information, such as the emotional state of the speaker. As a result, developing machine understanding of human emotions requires speech-based emotion recognition. This paper proposes an improved long short-term memory network (ILSTM) for emotion recognition. Because the initial LSTM only analyzes the preceding moment’s input, it will miss out on a lot of information for the full context scene. In this way, all the features in the speech segment can be extracted. In order to be able to select the feature that can express emotion the most among the many features, this paper also introduces the attention mechanism. Experiments are carried out on public datasets, and the experimental results show that the ILSTM used in this paper is very effective in classifying speech emotion data and the classification accuracy can reach more than 0.6. This fully shows that this research can be applied to actual products and has certain feasibility and reference value.
Identification and Analysis of miRNAs and siRNAs in <i>Botrytis cinerea</i>

Small RNAs in Botrytis cinerea were analyzed via high-throughput sequencing on BGISEQ-500 platform. A total of 8 novel miRNAs and 110 novel siRNAs were predicted. Sequence information, construction, length distribution, base bias and expression levels of miRNAs and siRNAs were determined as well. Through GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, the miRNA target genes are mostly located in membrane and organelle, possessed binding and catalytic activities, and involved in signal transduction and carbohydrate metabolism. The results will provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the developmental and pathogenic mechanisms of B. cinerea at the transcriptional level.
How Much do Households Spend on Professional Higher Education in India? Results from a National Survey

We find very little evidence of household investment in professional higher education in India that has seen the highest participation of the private sector. This article examines the variability of household expenditure on professional higher education in India and its relationship with socioeconomic and institutional factors. We find that households in India spend close to half of their annual income per child for accessing professional higher education. The study confirms the presence of a pro-male bias in household expenditure on professional higher education with an additional preference among poor households. Students enrolled in private institutions have spent significantly higher than those enrolled in public-funded institutions, and interestingly, this gap is not only due to the difference in the payment of fees but also due to expenses in non-fee items. The findings from this analysis have important policy insights which would contribute towards making professional higher education equitable and inclusive in India as aimed in the National Education Policy 2020.
All-optical Fredkin gate using silicon nitride microring resonator

We study an all-optical Fredkin gate consisting of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a phase modulator based on silicon nitride ring resonators. Our study proposes an accurate, deterministic, and energy-efficient all-optical Fredkin gate utilizing the Kerr effect for optical computing. We firstly derive the mathematical model of the proposed controlled-swap gate from the Lugiato-Lefever equation taking into account the third-order optical nonlinearity. In addition, the mechanism of thermo-optical effect in the silicon nitride ring cavity is also included. The phase modulator built by the ring resonator with third-order nonlinearity can introduce a π phase shift to the signal when the Fredkin Gate is in the swap mode. However, it does not affect the overall phase shift of the parallel operation. Besides, the pump power introduces a phase shift to the signal by altering the intensity-dependent refractive index inside the micro-ring cavity. It dominates the switching of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer via cross-phase modulation. Moreover, we investigate the conditions of optical bistability for the silicon nitride cavities that can lead to the malfunctioning of the performance of the Fredkin gate. Lastly, we optimize the Fredkin gate performance by the pump power, pump detuning, and signal-pump wavelength difference sweeps.
Soil Chemical and Enzyme Activity after Irrigation with Diluted Winery Wastewater in the Vineyard at Stellenbosch, Western Cape Province

 Abstract - This study assessed the effect of diluted WWW and raw water on soil chemical parameters including pH, potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na), and soil enzyme activities including β-glucosidase, phosphatase, and urease, where different summer catch crops were cultivated over one season. The experimental design was a complete randomized block design (CRBD) with 3 replications. After the application of diluted WWW and raw water over one season, there was a significant impact in soil pH in the 0-15 cm soil layer. In the 15-30 cm soil layer, the significant impact was on soil pH and K. Results showed that irrigation with either diluted WWW or raw water had no significant effect on the three soil enzymes throughout the study period. Thus, irrigation with diluted WWW may not adversely affect soil microbial population, ecosystem, and nutrient
Differences in Diagnosis and Management of Hypertensive Urgencies and Emergencies According to Italian Doctors from Different Departments Who Deal With Acute Increase in Blood Pressure—Data from Gear (Gestione Dell’emergenza e Urgenza in ARea Critica) Study

Background: Diagnosis and treatment of hypertension emergency (HE) and urgency (HU) may vary according to the physicians involved and the setting of the treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in management of HE and HU according to the work setting of the physicians. Methods: The young investigators of the Italian Society of Hypertension developed a 23-item questionnaire spread by email invitation to the members of Italian Scientific societies involved in the field of emergency medicine and hypertension. Results: Six-hundred and sixty-five questionnaires were collected. No differences emerged for the correct definitions of HE and HU or for the investigation of possible drugs that may be responsible for an acute increase in BP. The techniques used to assess BP values (p < 0.004) and the sizes of cuffs available were different according to the setting. Cardiologists more frequently defined epistaxis (55.2% p = 0.012) and conjunctival hemorrhages (70.7%, p < 0.0001) as possible presentation of HE, and rarely considered dyspnea (67.2% p = 0.014) or chest pain (72.4%, p = 0.001). Intensive care (IC) unit doctors were more familiar with lung ultrasound (50% p = 0.004). With regard to therapy, cardiologists reported the lowest prescription of i.v. labetalol (39.6%, p = 0.003) and the highest of s.l. nifedipine (43.1% p < 0.001). After discharge, almost all categories of physicians required home BP assessment or referral to a general practitioner, whereas hypertensive center evaluation or ambulatory BP monitoring were less frequently suggested. Conclusion: Management and treatment of HE and HU may be different according to the doctor’s specialty. Educational initiatives should be done to standardize treatment protocols and to improve medical knowledge.
The Short-Term Reliability of the Conceptualised ‘Combat Readiness Assessment’

Abstract: Background Military fitness testing has historically assessed individual fitness components. Fitness assessments of this nature do not adequately monitor the physical requirements of military operations. The development of a more combat-specific fitness test would enhance accuracy in assessing the soldiers’ readiness for the demands of war. This study aimed to assess the short-term reliability of the conceptualised ‘Combat Readiness Assessment’ (CRA) following a single familiarisation trial with 21 male phase-two British Army Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer (REME) recruits (age (years) 19.7 ± 2.5) split into two groups (N = 11 and 10) to conform with recruit availability. The CRA was designed to be a multifaceted fitness assessment aimed at replicating the physical demands of a combat situation for military personnel. Methods: Three repeated assessments of the CRA were completed over a 10-day period (trial one as a familiarisation) to assess the short-term reliability of the CRA post familiarisation. The CRA was completed carrying a 4 kg rifle (SA80 A2) and involved a 400 m (M) run wearing an 11 kg backpack (removed after the 400 M) followed by weighted carries, sprints, casualty drags and agility tasks. Completion time (seconds) was recorded to assess performance. Intraclass correlations (ICCs) (2,1) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), the standard error of the measurement (SEM) and the coefficient of variation (CV) were calculated for completion time for trials 1-3 (T1-3) and 2-3 (T2-3) to assess reliability post-familiarisation. Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) was calculated for T1-2 and T2-3. Descriptive statistics were calculated for completion time for T1-3 and T2-3. Results: The reliability following a familiarisation trial from T1-3 (ICC: 0.75; SEM: 7.1 s; CV: 9.97%) to T2-3 (ICC: 0.88; SEM: 6.4 s; CV: 10.05%) increased. Mean trial time decreased post familiarisation from T1-3 (210.9 ± 21.03 s) to T2-3 (206.3 ± 20.73 s). Conclusions: These findings are inconclusive regarding the short-term reliability of the CRA. The small sample size resulted in wide 95% confidence intervals associated with the ICCs, making the true ICC value hard to determine. The ICCs and MAPE suggest that the reliability of the CRA increased following a familiarisation trial, but this requires further research with a larger cohort to determine with confidence.
Selecting the Best Part From Multiple Laplacian Autoencoders for Multi-View Subspace Clustering

The multi-view subspace clustering attracts much attention in recent years. Most methods follow the framework of fusing the affinity graph learned in each view. In this framework, both the fusion strategy and built graph of each view are very important. In this paper, we propose novel methods for multi-view subspace clustering to address these two aspects. On the one hand, we adopt the autoencoders with Laplacian regularization to construct the affinity graph in each view. Compared with previous work employing the autoencoders, the Laplacian term in our method can guide the learned latent representation favoring affinity extraction. Besides, we also discuss the reasons for adding Laplacian regularization. On the other hand, we propose a novel fusion strategy distinguished from the related literature. If the affinity graph of some view is not extracted well, the performance of previous fusion strategies will be seriously affected. Since our strategy can choose the best part from each affinity graph, it can overcome this limitation to some extent. Extensive experimental results on multiple benchmark data sets confirm the effectiveness of our method.
A Novel Methodology for Partial Shading Diagnosis Using the Electrical Parameters of Photovoltaic Strings

Partial shading (PS) is inevitable during the outdoor operation of photovoltaic (PV) arrays. If not addressed appropriately, PS events will significantly reduce the output power and induce other severe issues, such as hot spotting. In addition, maintenance strategies should be designed according to the specific PS patterns, which are different from the measures for faults, for example, short circuiting. In this article, a novel PS diagnosis methodology is proposed to detect and classify shadings in PV strings, for which only electrical parameters are used. The impact of two common types of shading, static shading and variable shading, was studied in detail. The volatility and periodicity of the time series were utilized to achieve real-time monitoring instead of current–voltage measurements. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology was validated through experimental tests conducted on a PV system at Southeast University, China. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively differentiate PS events from other faults and realize shading classification. Moreover, the application scenario for each technique was further illustrated through extensive tests, making the diagnosis and maintenance more efficient.
A Speech-based intelligent inquiry system for Olympic information

Along with Beijing 2008 Olympic Games approaching,people pay more attention to Olympic Games.Based on the great demand of Olympic Games information,we proposed a speech-based intelligent inquiry system for the information of Olympic Games.The system synthesizes many kinds of technologies including speech recognition,speech synthesis,natural language understanding,intelligent human-computer interaction techniques,etc.These technologies can help user retrieve information on athlete,Olympic events,medals,scores and so on from Olympic database through speech query.In speech recognition and question understanding,we present a novel method which combines both rule-based and statistics-based natural language understanding together.This method can improve the accuracy of speech recognition and question understanding by using domain-specific knowledge and limited grammar.The experiment result shows that the method we proposed is practical and the system we developed have a good performance in the inquiry process of Olympic Games Knowledge database.
Weibo users perception of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese social networking service (Weibo): sentiment analysis and fuzzy-c-means model

Background: Over the last decade, social media analysis tools have been used to monitor public sentiment and communication methods for public health emergencies such as the Ebola and Zika epidemics. Research articles have indicated that many outbreaks and pandemics could have been promptly controlled if experts considered social media data. With the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic statement and various governments government action on the disease, various sentiments regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have spread across the world. Therefore, sentiment analyses in studying pandemics, such as COVID-19, are important based on recent events. Methods: The Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) method was used to extract keywords from the 850,083 content of Weibo from January 24, 2020, to March 31, 2020. Then the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to perform topic analysis on the keywords. Finally, the fuzzy-c-means method was used to divide the content of Weibo into seven categories of emotions: fear, happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger, and good. And the changes in emotion were tracked over time. Results: The results indicated that people showed “surprise” overall (55.89%);however, with time, the “surprise” decreased. As the knowledge regarding the COVID-19 increased, the “surprise” of the citizens decreased (from 59.95% to 46.58%). Citizens’ feelings of “fear” and “good” increased as the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 increased (“fear”: from 15.42% to 20.95% “good”: 10.31% to 18.89%). As the number of infections was suppressed, the feelings of “fear” and “good” diminished (“fear”: from 20.95% to 15.79% “good”: from 18.89% to 8.46%). Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that people’s feelings were analyzed regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in three stages over time. In the beginning, people’s emotions were primarily “surprised”;however after the outbreak, people’s “surprise” decreased with increasing knowledge. At the end of the phase, I of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s “fear” and “good” feelings were diminished as the epidemic was suppressed. People’s interest shifted from China to other countries and their concern about the situation in other countries. © Journal of Medical Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved.
Latinx immigrant parents’ views on learning and collaboration in the early childhood classroom (Opiniones de los padres y las madres latinos inmigrantes sobre el aprendizaje y la colaboración en las aulas de educación preescolar)

ABSTRACT Latinx immigrant parents indicated that the type of pedagogical practices they prefer or value for their children’s education in early childhood classrooms emphasize opportunities for children to help each other, collaborate and contribute, make choices and take responsibility in their learning. In a study using video-cued ethnography, parents indicated that they believe that children need these meaningful experiences to be part of society and convivencia. The parents’ preferred pedagogical practices align with facets of the Learning by Observing and Pitching In to family and community endeavours.
Quality of Life of Gynaeoncology Patients and Family Caregivers

The quality of life of both gynaeoncology patients and their family caregivers is affected by disease. This was a cross-sectional study of gynaeoncology patients and their caregivers in a gynaeoncology clinic and ward in a tertiary centre from 1 November 2017 until 30 April 2018. EQ-5D-5L and SF-36 questionnaires were used for the assessment of quality of life. Sociodemographic characteristics and the quality of life of both patients and caregivers were studied. There were 176 patients approached and 7 patients declined to participate in the study, giving the response rate of 95.9%. A total of 169 patients were recruited and consented to this study. Whereas, for SF-36, five domains that were physical functioning, role limitation due to physical health, energy, pain, and general health were statistically significant between both groups (p < 0.05). Factors that favoured a high quality of life in patients were an early stage of cancer and the absence of comorbidities. While for caregivers, being single or educated was associated with a better quality of life. In our study, we found that the quality of life of gynaeoncology patients was lower than their caregivers based on EQ-5D-5L and SF-36 questionnaires.
The BCC7 Protein Contributes to the Toxoplasma Basal Pole by Interfacing between the MyoC Motor and the IMC Membrane Network

T. gondii is a eukaryotic parasite that has evolved a stage called tachyzoite which multiplies in host cells by producing two daughter cells internally. These nascent tachyzoites bud off their mother and repeat the division process until the expanding progenies escape to settle and multiply in other host cells. Over these intra- and extra-cellular phases, the tachyzoite maintains an essential apicobasal polarity that emerges through a unique bidirectional budding process of the elongating cells. This process requires the assembly of several molecular complexes that, at the nascent pole, encompass structural and myosin motor elements. To characterize a recently identified basal pole marker named BCC7 with respect to the posterior myosin J and myosin C motors, we used conventional biochemistry as well as advanced proteomic and in silico analysis in conjunction with live and super resolution microscopy of transgenic fluorescent tachyzoites. We document that BCC7 forms a ribbed ring below which myosin C motor entities distribute regularly. In addition, we identified—among 13 BCC7 putative partners—two novel and five known members of the inner membrane complex (IMC) family which ends at the apical side of the ring. Therefore, BCC7 could assist the stabilization of the IMC plaques and contribute to the parasite biomechanical properties.
Comparison of 3D Scanner Systems for Craniomaxillofacial Imaging

Two-dimensional photographs are the standard for assessing craniofacial surgery clinical outcomes despite lacking three-dimensional (3D) depth and shape. Therefore, 3D-scanners have been gaining popularity in various fields of plastic and reconstructive surgery, including craniomaxillofacial surgery. Head shapes of eight adult volunteers were acquired with four 3D scanners: 1.5T Avanto MRI, Siemens; 3dMDface System, 3dMD Inc.; M4D Scan, Rodin4D; and Structure Sensor, Occipital Inc. Accuracy was evaluated as percentage of data within a range of 2 mm from the 3DMDface System reconstruction, by surface-to-surface root mean square distances (RMS), and with facial distance maps. Precision was determined with RMS. Relative to the 3dMDface System, accuracy was highest for M4D Scan (90% within 2 mm; RMS of 0.71 mm ± 0.28 mm), then Avanto MRI (86%; 1.11 mm ± 0.33 mm), and Structure Sensor (80%; 1.33 mm ± 0.46). M4D Scan and Structure Sensor precision were 0.50 mm ± 0.04 mm and 0.51 mm ± 0.03 mm. Clinical and technical requirements govern scanner choice, however, 3dMDface System and M4D Scan provide high-quality results. It is foreseeable that compact, hand-held systems become more popular in the near future.