Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution of the b-adrenoreceptors in vertebrates

The study of the evolutionary history of genes related to human disease lies at the interface of evolution and medicine. These studies provide the evolutionary context on which medical researchers should work, and are also useful in providing information to suggest further genetic experiments, especially in model species where genetic manipulations can be made. Here we studied the evolution of the b-adrenoreceptor gene family in vertebrates with the aim of adding an evolutionary framework to the already abundant physiological information. Our results show that in addition to the three already described vertebrate b-adrenoreceptor genes there is an additional group containing cyclostome sequences. We suggest that b-adrenoreceptors diversified as a product of the two whole genome duplications that occurred in the ancestor of vertebrates. Gene expression patterns are in general consistent across species, suggesting that expression dynamics were established early in the evolutionary history of vertebrates, and have been maintained since then. Finally, amino acid polymorphisms that are associated to pathological conditions in humans appear to be common in non-human mammals, suggesting that the phenotypic effects of these mutations depend on epistatic interaction with other positions. The evolutionary analysis of the b-adrenoreceptors delivers new insights about the diversity of these receptors in vertebrates, the evolution of the expression patterns and a comparative perspective regarding the polymorphisms that in humans are linked to pathological conditions. 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Mechanism of Synchronization in Frequency Dividers

We investigate the mechanism leading to synchronization in injection-locked frequency dividers using methods of asymptotic analysis. We introduce a response function which allows for qualitative evaluation and intuitive interpretation of the locking phenomenon. We show that the linear asymptotic approximation predicts the locking intervals with high accuracy for a class of models and parameter sets reported in the literature. The accuracy of the approach is evaluated by comparing the theoretical prediction with numerical results. We use phase space analysis to study the case where the limit cycle is dominated by a strongly anharmonic oscillation.
Effects of EcoCare ® Feed on mineral excretion of pigs during the finishing phase

We have previously reported that EcoCare® Feed reduced N and P excretion of finishing pigs without affecting growth performance or carcass traits. To determine mineral excretion, eighty crossbred (D x (L x Y)) pigs (30 kg BW) were blocked by BW and sex, and randomly allotted to 1 of 2 dietary treatments. Pigs were housed in an environmentally-controlled building with 4 identical rooms (20 pigs/room, 2 rooms/trt). Each room contained a shallow pit, pull plug system. A fortified corn-soybean meal-based diet served as the control. The test diet (EcoCare®, EC) was similar to the control diet except that CP and available P were reduced (~2.6% units for CP; ~0.11% unit for avail. P) with additions of Lys, Thr, Met, EC Pak (containing phytase) and EC premix. To maintain similar Ca:P ratio, Ca content of the EC diet was reduced. The EC premix provided approximately 20% less Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mn than the mineral premix used in the control diet. All trace minerals were included in an inorganic form with the exception of Se. Pigs and feeders were weighed at each phase change, and pit volume was measured. Feed and pit samples were collected for mineral analysis. On d 0 and 122, 6 and 24 pigs (6/room), respectively, were ground to estimate initial and final body composition. There was no difference (P > 0.10) in initial or final ash or mineral concentration; thus, accretion was similar (P > 0.10) for pigs fed the control or EC diet. The intake of minerals was reduced (P < 0.05) for pigs fed EC. The excretion (g/d) of Ca (7.44 vs. 4.51), P (8.2 vs. 5.7), K (18.4 vs. 14.6), Mg (2.91 vs. 2.55), S (2.12 vs. 1.79), Fe (0.433 vs. 0.343), Zn (0.247 vs. 0.205), Cu (0.026 vs. 0.020), and Mn (0.080 vs. 0.064) was reduced (P < 0.05) for pigs fed EC compared to those fed the control. In general, the excretion of minerals as a % of intake was reduced (P < 0.05) for pigs fed EC. These results suggest that EcoCare® Feed reduced mineral excretion without affecting mineral accretion or growth performance.
Identification of the limitations on recombinant gene expression in CHO cell lines with varying luciferase production rates

Mammalian cell lines are currently employed as one of the main cellular factories for the expression of recombinant protein‐based drugs. The establishment of high‐producing cell lines typically begins with a heterogeneous starter population of cells, from which the highest producing cells are selected via empirical approaches. This approach is time consuming, and is likely to encounter natural upper limits imposed by the inherent biology of the cell lines in question. In an attempt to understand both the nature of the variability in populations of cells transfected with recombinant protein encoding DNA and the natural mechanisms of productivity limitation, we developed protocols for the detailed investigation of gene expression pathways in such cell lines. This novel approach was then applied to a set of clonal CHOK1 cell lines producing recombinant luciferase with varying productivities. Our results show that the initial limitation in these cell lines is at the transcriptional level, however in the highest producing cell line post‐translational mechanisms affecting both protein turnover and protein folding become severely limiting. The implications for the development of strategies to engineer cells for enhanced recombinant protein production levels are discussed. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 1593–1602. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Music Theory Inspired Policy Gradient Method for Piano Music Transcription

This paper presents a novel approach for transcribing polyphonic piano music to a symbolic form by incorporating reward rules based on classical music theory using Reinforcement Learning (RL). We use convolutional recurrent neural networks (CRNNs) to predict both the onset and the pitch of piano notes. Our RL transcriber model predicts pitch onset events and utilizes a policy gradient method that incorporates rewards based on music theory. Our pitch prediction is conditioned on the onset of notes and also incorporates music theory based rewards. We believe that good piano music conforms to rules from classical music theory. Thus, penalized heavily according to these rules in the inference procedure, the RL transcriber can be significantly less susceptible to noises that come with the audio recordings. As a result, our technique achieved a 10% relative improvement compared with the state-of-the-art methods on the MAPS dataset [8].
L G ] 2 6 M ay 2 01 9 Enhancing ML Robustness Using Physical-World Constraints

Recent advances in Machine Learning (ML) have demonstrated that neural networks can exceed human performance in many tasks, including vision. While generalizing well over natural inputs, neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial inputs. An adversarially perturbed input is “similar” to the original input, but misclassified by the model. Existing defenses against adversarial inputs have largely been detached from the real world. They focus on lp-norm bounded adversaries that perturb ML inputs in the digital space. In the real world, however, attackers can generate adversarial perturbations that have a large lp-norm in the digital space. These perturbations, while misinterpreted by ML models, can be indiscernible to humans. These defenses also come at a cost to accuracy, making their applicability questionable in the real world. To defend models against such a powerful adversary, we can leverage one constraint on its power: the perturbation should not change the human’s perception of the physical information; the physical world places some constraints on the space of possible attacks. Two questions follow: how to extract and model these constraints? and how to design a classification paradigm that leverages these constraints to improve robustness accuracy trade-off? We observe that an ML model is typically a part of a larger system with access to different input modalities. Utilizing these modalities, we introduce invariants that limit the attacker’s action space. We design a hierarchical classification paradigm that enforces these invariants at inference time. We find that applying invariants to the classification task makes robustness and accuracy feasible together. As a case study, we implement and evaluate our proposal in the context of the real-world application of road sign classification because of its applicability to autonomous driving. With access to different input modalities, such as LiDAR, camera, and location we show how to extract invariants and develop a hierarchical classifier. Our results on the KITTI University of Wisconsin-Madison Google
Cracking Problems in Low-Voltage Chip Ceramic Capacitors

Cracking remains the major reason of failures in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) used in space electronics. Due to a tight quality control of space-grade components, the probability that as manufactured capacitors have cracks is relatively low, and cracking is often occurs during assembly, handling and the following testing of the systems. Majority of capacitors with cracks are revealed during the integration and testing period, but although extremely rarely, defective parts remain undetected and result in failures during the mission. Manual soldering and rework that are often used during low volume production of circuit boards for space aggravate this situation. Although failures of MLCCs are often attributed to the post-manufacturing stresses, in many cases they are due to a combination of certain deviations in the manufacturing processes that result in hidden defects in the parts and excessive stresses during assembly and use. This report gives an overview of design, manufacturing and testing processes of MLCCs focusing on elements related to cracking problems. The existing and new screening and qualification procedures and techniques are briefly described and assessed by their effectiveness in revealing cracks. The capability of different test methods to simulate stresses resulting in cracking, mechanisms of failures in capacitors with cracks, and possible methods of selecting capacitors the most robust to manual soldering stresses are discussed.
An acute bout of housework activities has beneficial effects on executive function

Purpose Although acute bouts of exercise reportedly have beneficial effects on executive function, inactive people may find it difficult to start exercising. In this study, we focused on housework activities (HAs) that generate a sense of accomplishment and require a mild intensity of physical activity. We examined the impact of an acute bout of HA on executive function and oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) flow to related cortical regions. Materials and methods Twenty-five participants (age, 18–21 years; mean, 19.88±0.60 years; six males and 19 females) underwent two experiments, ie, HA and control experiments, which were conducted on different days. Participants vacuumed a dirty floor in the HA experiment and mimicked the same motion with an unplugged vacuum cleaner on a clean floor in the control experiment. Results Heart rate recorded during the experiments showed no significant difference in the intensity of physical activity between control and HA groups. A questionnaire revealed a sense of accomplishment after completing the HA experiment. Participants performed the Stroop color–word task (SCWT) pre- and post-experiments; cortical hemodynamic changes were simultaneously monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Variation in Stroop interference scores for SCWT total response between pre- and post-experiments was signifi-cantly higher in the HA group than in the control group, and that for SCWT correct response showed a similar trend. Variation in the Stroop interference score for oxy-Hb flow to the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (R-VLPFC) showed the same trend. Conclusion Thus, HAs may have a greater beneficial effect on executive function than other physical activities through the activation of PFC, including R-VLPFC.
Unrelated donor peripheral blood stem cell transplants incorporating pre‐transplant in‐vivo Alemtuzumab are not associated with any increased risk of significant acute or chronic graft‐versus‐host disease

There is little information published comparing peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) with bone marrow (BM) as the stem cell source in the long‐term outcome in recipients of T‐cell depleted (TCD) unrelated donor (UD) transplants. We present retrospective outcome data on 306 recipients of myeloablative, human leucocyte antigen‐matched UD allografts using pre‐transplant in‐vivo Alemtuzumab. Transplants were performed between 2000 and 2007 for chronic myeloid leukaemia in first chronic phase and acute leukaemia in first or second complete remission; 184 patients received BM and 122 PBSC. The median age was 28·9 years (<1–58) and the median follow‐up was 48 months. Overall survival at 8 years was 53%. The incidence of acute graft‐versus‐host disease (GvHD) was significantly higher in PBSC (65%) than BM recipients (49%; P = 0·012). This represented only grade 1 GvHD with no difference in grade II–IV aGvHD (BM 23% PBSC 24%). The incidence of chronic GvHD, either overall (BM 47%, PBSC 49%) or extensive (BM 15%, PBSC 13%) was not increased with PBSC. The incidence of relapse, non‐relapse mortality and survival were not significantly different. Whilst accepting the limitations of retrospective analyses, we suggest the increased risk of GvHD in recipients of PBSC in T‐replete transplants is offset by in‐vivo Alemtuzumab, and that either stem cell source can be used with good outcomes in this setting.
Fiscal Policy and Wealth Inequality Over the Business Cycle A Heterogeneous Agent Real Business Cycle Model

This paper extends the Krusell and Smith (1998) heterogeneous agent real business cycle model to examine how the wealth distribution responds to government consumption shocks over business cycle frequencies. The main contribution of the paper is that it is, to my knowledge, the first to model how the entire wealth distribution responds to policy shocks at this frequency. Until now, the literature has tended to use heterogeneity to relax the assumption of representative agents, and not to model the dynamics of wealth or income inequality in detail. The algorithm developed by Winberry (2016a) is used to solve the model. This algorithm is faster than other methods for solving heterogeneous agent models and approximates the entire wealth distribution. This enables me to construct three-dimensional plots of the evolution of the asset distribution in response to shocks, as well as obtain impulse response functions for the higher moments of the distribution. Other methods such as Krusell and Smith (1998) approximate the distribution using only the mean, which precludes them from offering such detailed descriptions of the dynamics of wealth and income inequality. The model finds that government consumption shocks result in increases in wealth inequality above steady-state, and the response of wealth inequality is twice as persistent as the government consumption shock. The stylised nature of the model might call into question the robustness of this key finding. I therefore analyse the same question using a mixed-frequency vector-autoregression and find that in the data, government consumption shocks also result in persistent increases in wealth inequality above steady-state.
PEDIATRIC AND CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE Original Studies Angiojet Rheolytic Thrombectomy in Infants Following Cardiac Surgery

Objectives: To present our experience with the Angiojet thrombectomy system for percutaneous thrombectomy in infants following cardiac surgery. Background: Arterial and venous thrombosis after pediatric cardiac surgery is life threatening, particularly in infants. The best method for treating these patients has not been determined. Angiojet rheolytic thrombectomy (Possis Medical, Minneapolis, MN) is a percutaneous method of thrombus removal with proven safety and efficacy in adults. Methods: We reviewed the medical records and angiograms of all procedures in which Angiojet thrombectomy was used in infants following cardiac surgery at our institution during the years 2005 through 2007. Results: Ten procedures were performed in eight infants. The procedure was performed a mean of 23 days from surgery. The mean age was 74 days with a mean weight of 4.3 kg. All patients had life or limb threatening thrombosis. Indications for thrombectomy included severe cyanosis, chronic pleural effusions secondary to extensive venous thrombosis, and acute iliac artery thrombosis. Thrombus was evacuated from pulmonary arteries in four patients, systemic veins in two patients, a surgical aorto-pulmonary shunt in two patients, and an iliac artery in one patient. Balloon angioplasty following thrombectomy was performed in eight procedures (80%), and stents were placed in addition to angioplasty in two procedures. All patients had significant improvement in flow across the affected area. There was one major complication and three minor complications with no procedural-related deaths. Survival to discharge from the hospital was 62.5%. Conclusion: Angiojet thrombectomy is an effective treatment for life-threatening postoperative thrombosis in infants following cardiac surgery. VC 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Author ' s personal copy

In slightly alkaline solution (pH 8) Cd(II) ion and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (H2P4−) form a kinetically labile complex (HOCdP5−), in which the metal center is located out of the ligand plane, due to the effects of the axial hydroxo ligand and the relatively large radius of Cd2+. Both acidification and irradiation at the Soret-band can result in the dissociation of the axial ligand, reducing the out-of-plane distance of the metal center and the distortion of the macrocycle (CdP4−). Besides, irradiation of both types of metalloporphyrins promotes an irreversible ligand-to-metal charge transfer leading to the oxidative degradation of the coordinated porphyrin at both the Soretand the Q-bands. Under the same conditions, in the case of the octabromo derivative of this water-soluble porphyrin (H2BrP4−), the distorted structure accelerates the formation of the corresponding complex with cadmium(II) compared to its reaction with the parent, unbrominated ligand. The structure of this porphyrin (HOCdBrP5−), similarly to the free base and CdBrP4− (formed via acidification of irradiation of HOCdBrP5−), strongly distorted by the Br substituents significantly affects the characteristic features of the absorption and emission spectra, red-shifting the position of the main bands of these porphyrins compared to those of the unbrominated species. Also the emission quantum yields and lifetimes are dramatically diminished by bromination. Deviating from the unbrominated species, photodegradation of the brominated derivatives proved to be very oxygen sensitive. Besides, CdBrP4− is transformed into a new porphyrin derivative upon both Soretand Q-band irradiation. DFT calculations of the geometrical structures and the absorption bands show good correlations with the observed photophysical and photochemical properties, due to the drastic distortions of the macrocyclic ligand. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 Theoretical Background 2 . 1 Motivational affordances and continued use of fitness apps

Lacking regular physical activity is a prevailing issue of our society causing high costs in health care, productivity losses, and million deaths. To counteract this problem, fitness apps are increasingly considered as a means to motivate individuals towards more physical activity. However, many people discontinue their fitness app use. User stories point to a ‘darker side’ of fitness apps indicating adverse effects on users’ competence feelings leading to fitness app discontinuance. To better understand the positive and detrimental motivational effects, this paper draws on self-determination theory and motivational affordances explicating how self-monitoring, rewards, and social recognition affordances of fitness apps affect competence needs and fitness app continuance decisions in consequence. Empirical validation with 283 fitness app user reveals the positive and negative motivational effects. Thereby, this study contributes to research with a motivation-based explanation of fitness app continuance, explicates the ‘darker side’ of fitness apps, and explains the need-relevant characteristics of motivational affordances. The results guide the application and tailoring of motivational affordances in fitness apps.
Credit Scoring in SME Asset-Backed Securities: An Italian Case Study

We investigate the default probability, recovery rates and loss distribution of a portfolio of securitised loans granted to Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). To this end, we use loan level data information provided by the European DataWarehouse platform and employ a logistic regression to estimate the company default probability. We include loan-level default probabilities and recovery rates to estimate the loss distribution of the underlying assets. We find that bank securitised loans are less risky, compared to the average bank lending to small and medium enterprises.
Urinary DAP metabolite levels in Thai farmers and their families and exposure to pesticides from agricultural pesticide spraying

Introduction We conducted a biomarker study to characterise exposure to pesticides among farmers and their families in Thailand to assess the relative importance of the dermal exposure route and to identify important factors that determine exposure levels within farmers' families. Methods Sixteen farmers' families (eight vegetable and eight fruit farmers) participated in the study. Three morning spot urine samples were collected during a pesticide spraying week. Spot samples were grouped by individual and analysed for dialkylphosphate (DAP) metabolites and creatinine. Additional information on exposure and lifestyle was collected by means of questionnaires. Dermal exposure was assessed using a semi-quantitative observational method (DREAM). Results Urinary DAP levels varied 20-fold between farmers, with average (geometric mean) levels of 51.1 μg/g for vegetable and 122.2 μg/g for fruit farmers. A moderate correlation (rs∼0.45) was found between loge-transformed DREAM scores and DAP levels. Farmers' urinary metabolite levels were not correlated with those of their spouses (rs∼−0.30) or children (rs∼−0.00) collected on the same days. Detectable spouses' DAP levels were on average (geometric mean) 13.0 μg/g and those of children 7.6 μg/g. Discussion Farmers in Thailand as well as their families are exposed to pesticides in the spraying season and dermal exposure is an important route. The main route of exposure for farmers' families seems to be through transfer from the farmer to family members or contamination of the home environment, rather than family members helping or playing on the farm. Showering or washing immediately after pesticide spraying greatly reduces the potential exposure of family members to pesticide residues.