A bioinformatic and transcriptomic approach to identifying positional candidate genes without fine mapping: an example using rice root-growth QTLs

Fine mapping can accurately identify positional candidate genes for quantitative trait loci (QTLs) but can be time consuming, costly, and, for small-effect QTLs with low heritability, difficult in practice. We propose an alternative approach, which uses meta-analysis of original mapping data to produce a relatively small confidence interval for target QTLs, lists the underlying positional candidates, and then eliminates them using whole-genome transcriptomics. Finally, sequencing is conducted on the remaining candidate genes allowing identification of allelic variation in either expression or protein sequence. We demonstrate the approach using root-growth QTLs on chromosomes 2, 5, and 9 of the Bala × Azucena rice mapping population. Confidence intervals of 10.5, 9.6, and 5.4 cM containing 189, 322, and 81 genes, respectively, were produced. Transcriptomics eliminated 40% of candidate genes and identified nine expression polymorphisms. Sequencing of 30 genes revealed that 57% of the predicted proteins were polymorphic. The limitations of this approach are discussed

Cost-of-Illness Analysis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Iran

Diabetes is a worldwide high prevalence chronic progressive disease that poses a significant challenge to healthcare systems. The aim of this study is to provide a detailed economic burden of diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its complications in Iran in 2009 year.This is a prevalence-based cost-of-illness study focusing on quantifying direct health care costs by bottom-up approach. Data on inpatient hospital services, outpatient clinic visits, physician services, drugs, laboratory test, education and non-medical cost were collected from two national registries. The human capital approach was used to calculate indirect costs separately in male and female and also among different age groups.The total national cost of diagnosed T2DM in 2009 is estimated at 3.78 billion USA dollars (USD) including 2.04±0.28 billion direct (medical and non-medical) costs and indirect costs of 1.73 million. Average direct and indirect cost per capita was 842.6±102 and 864.8 USD respectively. Complications (48.9%) and drugs (23.8%) were main components of direct cost. The largest components of medical expenditures attributed to diabetes's complications are cardiovascular disease (42.3% of total Complications cost), nephropathy (23%) and ophthalmic complications (14%). Indirect costs include temporarily disability (335.7 million), permanent disability (452.4 million) and reduced productivity due to premature mortality (950.3 million).T2DM is a costly disease in the Iran healthcare system and consume more than 8.69% of total health expenditure. In addition to these quantified costs, T2DM imposes high intangible costs on society in terms of reduced quality of life. Identification of effective new strategies for the control of diabetes and its complications is a public health priority

Fine-mapping of qRL6.1, a major QTL for root length of rice seedlings grown under a wide range of NH4+ concentrations in hydroponic conditions

Root system development is an important target for improving yield in cereal crops. Active root systems that can take up nutrients more efficiently are essential for enhancing grain yield. In this study, we attempted to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) involved in root system development by measuring root length of rice seedlings grown in hydroponic culture. Reliable growth conditions for estimating the root length were first established to renew nutrient solutions daily and supply NH4+ as a single nitrogen source. Thirty-eight chromosome segment substitution lines derived from a cross between ‘Koshihikari’, a japonica variety, and ‘Kasalath’, an indica variety, were used to detect QTL for seminal root length of seedlings grown in 5 or 500 μM NH4+. Eight chromosomal regions were found to be involved in root elongation. Among them, the most effective QTL was detected on a ‘Kasalath’ segment of SL-218, which was localized to the long-arm of chromosome 6. The ‘Kasalath’ allele at this QTL, qRL6.1, greatly promoted root elongation under all NH4+ concentrations tested. The genetic effect of this QTL was confirmed by analysis of the near-isogenic line (NIL) qRL6.1. The seminal root length of the NIL was 13.5–21.1% longer than that of ‘Koshihikari’ under different NH4+ concentrations. Toward our goal of applying qRL6.1 in a molecular breeding program to enhance rice yield, a candidate genomic region of qRL6.1 was delimited within a 337 kb region in the ‘Nipponbare’ genome by means of progeny testing of F2 plants/F3 lines derived from a cross between SL-218 and ‘Koshihikari’

IIFNet: A Fusion-Based Intelligent Service for Noisy Preamble Detection in 6G

In this article, we present our vision of preamble detection in a physical random access channel for next-generation (Next-G) networks using machine learning techniques. Preamble detection is performed to maintain communication and synchronization between devices of the Internet of Everything and next-generation nodes. Considering the scalability and traffic density, Next-G networks have to deal with preambles corrupted by noise due to channel characteristics or environmental constraints. We show that when injecting 15 percent random noise, the detection performance degrades to 48 percent. We propose an informative instance-based fusion Network (IIFNet) to cope with random noise and to improve detection performance simultaneously. A novel sampling strategy for selecting informa-tive instances from feature spaces has also been explored to improve detection performance. The proposed IIFNet is tested on a real dataset for preamble detection that was collected with the help of a reputable commercial company

A secure data sharing scheme in Community Segmented Vehicular Social Networks for 6G

The use of aerial base stations, AI cloud, and satellite storage can help manage location, traffic, and specific application-based services for vehicular social networks. However, sharing of such data makes the vehicular network vulnerable to data and privacy leakage. In this regard, this paper proposes an efficient and secure data sharing scheme using community segmentation and a blockchain-based framework for vehicular social networks. The proposed work considers similarity matrices that employ the dynamics of structural similarity, modularity matrix, and data compatibility. These similarity matrices are then passed through stacked autoencoders that are trained to extract encoded embedding. A density-based clustering approach is then employed to find the community segments from the information distances between the encoded embeddings. A blockchain network based on the Hyperledger Fabric platform is also adopted to ensure data sharing security. Extensive experiments have been carried out to evaluate the proposed data-sharing framework in terms of the sum of squared error, sharing degree, time cost, computational complexity, throughput, and CPU utilization for proving its efficacy and applicability. The results show that the CSB framework achieves a higher degree of SD, lower computational complexity, and higher throughput

Rakennusaikainen paloturvallisuus

Rakennusala kuuluu edelleen korkean riskin toimialoihin. Jatkuvasti muuttuvat olosuhteet ja riskialttiit työvaiheet itsessään aiheuttavat paljon tapaturmia, mutta työmaalla tehtävät tulityöt sekä siellä varastoitavat palovaaralliset aineet ovat myös suuria riskitekijöitä henkilö- ja paloturvallisuuden kannalta. Tässä opinnäytetyössä tutkittiin laajasti paloturvallisuuden kannalta tärkeitä asioita suunnittelusta toteutukseen, ja sen tarkoitus on opastaa rakennuttajaa ja päätoteuttajaa huomioimaan rakennusaikainen paloturvallisuus jokapäiväisessä tekemisessä uudiskohteissa. Aihetta käsiteltiin suurilta osin alan kirjallisuuden avulla, mutta myös haastatteluiden ja omakohtaisten kokemusten perusteella. Työssä käsiteltiin paloturvallisuuden lisäksi yleisesti työturvallisuutta sekä pelastustoimintaa ja yhteistyötä pelastusviranomaisen kanssa. Lisäksi työssä keskitytään paljon myös tulitöiden turvallisuusjohtamiseen ja tulityölupamenettelyyn. Työn perusteella paloturvallisuuteen pystytään parhaiten vaikuttamaan hyvällä suunnittelulla ja johtamisella sekä tarkalla valvonnalla. Suunnitelmiin, kuten alue-, palontorjunta-, pelastus-, jätehuolto-, sähköistys- ja valaistussuunnitelman sekä myös henkilöstötilojen suunnitelmien laadintaan ja päivittämiseen tulisi kiinnittää riittävästi huomioita. Työnjohdolla tulisi olla selkeät vastuualueet työntekijöiden perehdytyksessä, ohjauksessa, johtamisessa ja valvonnassa. Työturvallisuuden ylläpitäminen on pitkälti työntekijöiden ja työnjohdon vastuulla, joten työntekijöiden ohjaukseen ja valvontaan tulee panostaa riittävästi. Tulitöissä tehdyt laiminlyönnit ovat yleisin syy tulipalojen aiheuttajaksi, ja siksi tulityöt tulisi suunnitella ja toteuttaa tarkasti.Construction is a very high-risk industry. Constantly changing conditions and work itself cause a great deal of accidents. Especially hot work and flammable materials stored in the work site are major risk factors for personnel and fire safety. This thesis deals broadly with issues relevant to fire safety from design to implementation. It is intended as a guide for the main developer, on how to manage fire safety in construction sites. The subject was studied from literature and interviews, but also some points were made based on personal experiences. In addition to fire safety, this thesis also focused on general work safety and working with emergency personnel. There is also information about hot work management and hot work permits. Based on this thesis, the main points to achieve good fire safety at a construction site are decent planning, leadership and supervision. The foremen should have specific areas of responsibility in employee orientation, guidance, management and supervision. The main cause of fires at construction sites is negligence in hot work caused by employees, mostly reflecting problems in planning, leadership and supervision