Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome Stability by DNA Polymerase β in Neural Progenitors Contributes to Neuronal Differentiation in Cortical Development

DNA repair is crucial for genome stability in the developing cortex, as somatic de novo mutations cause neurological disorders. However, how DNA repair contributes to neuronal development is largely unknown. To address this issue, we studied the spatiotemporal roles of DNA polymerase β (Polβ), a key enzyme in DNA base excision repair pathway, in the developing cortex using distinct forebrain-specific conditional knock-out mice, Emx1-Cre/Polβfl/fl and Nex-Cre/Polβfl/fl mice. Polβ expression was absent in both neural progenitors and postmitotic neurons in Emx1-Cre/Polβfl/fl mice, whereas only postmitotic neurons lacked Polβ expression in Nex-Cre/Polβfl/fl mice. We found that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) were frequently detected during replication in cortical progenitors of Emx1-Cre/Polβfl/fl mice. Increased DSBs remained in postmitotic cells, which resulted in p53-mediated neuronal apoptosis. This neuronal apoptosis caused thinning of the cortical plate, although laminar structure was normal. In addition, accumulated DSBs also affected growth of corticofugal axons but not commissural axons. These phenotypes were not observed in Nex-Cre/Polβfl/fl mice. Moreover, cultured Polβ-deficient neural progenitors exhibited higher sensitivity to the base-damaging agent methylmethanesulfonate, resulting in enhanced DSB formation. Similar damage was found by vitamin C treatment, which induces TET1-mediated DNA demethylation via 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Together, genome stability mediated by Polβ-dependent base excision repair is crucial for the competence of neural progenitors, thereby contributing to neuronal differentiation in cortical development. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT DNA repair is crucial for development of the nervous system. However, how DNA polymerase β (Polβ)-dependent DNA base excision repair pathway contributes to the process is still unknown. We found that loss of Polβ in cortical progenitors rather than postmitotic neurons led to catastrophic DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) during replication and p53-mediated neuronal apoptosis, which resulted in thinning of the cortical plate. The DSBs also affected corticofugal axon growth in surviving neurons. Moreover, induction of base damage and DNA demethylation intermediates in the genome increased DSBs in cultured Polβ-deficient neural progenitors. Thus, genome stability by Polβ-dependent base excision repair in neural progenitors is required for the viability and differentiation of daughter neurons in the developing nervous system.
School Teachers’ Vocal Use, Risk Factors, and Voice Disorder Prevalence: Guidelines to Detect Teachers with Current Voice Problems

Teachers’ voice problems are widely recognized as a consequence of their work. The measurement of vocal demands and risk factors is essential for adjusting occupational safety and health services to this population’s needs. Objectives: To correlate vocal behavior and symptomatology with risk factors and voice disorders, and to further analyze gender influence on these variables. Subjects and Methods: 282 kindergarten and elementary education teachers were surveyed in a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire. For the purpose of this study, voice disorder prevalence was estimated based on the presence of a vocal effort plus 2 frequent symptoms. Results: 81.5% of teachers reported some degree of vocal effort; more than 60% of subjects evidenced frequent throat paresthesias or vocal fatigue at the end of a working day, and about 55% reported hoarseness. Voice disorder prevalence was 59%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender, time required to alleviate vocal symptoms, perceived general state of health, prolonged use of the voice, and pupils’ indiscipline significantly increased the odds of having vocal problems. Conclusions: Voice disorders affected most teachers and had a multifactorial nature. Vocal health care is particularly necessary for those subjects reporting vocal effort and more than 2 frequent symptoms.
Data-based Tuning of PI Controllers for Vertical Three-Tank Systems

This paper suggests the application of Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) as a data-based control technique to parameter tuning of PI controllers dedicated to vertical three-tank systems. The level control in the first two tanks is carried out using a multivariable control system structure which consists of two control loops, one for each level. The two PI controllers in these control loops are first tuned in terms of the Modulus Optimum method. New IFT algorithms are proposed in order to ensure the performance improvement of level control systems by means of six steps assisted by experiments. The experimental results show the strong performance improvement obtained after few iterations of IFT algorithms in terms of a model reference tracking optimization problem.
On the study of multiple backups and primary-backup link sharing for dynamic service provisioning in survivable WDM mesh networks

Survivability is a very important issue in telecom networks. Many previous works discuss availability-guaranteed and service-differentiated provisioning for survivable network design. Our work makes two new contributions. First, our work proposes a novel provisioning algorithm to explore the effect of link sharing among primary and backup paths. Second, the solution approach applies multi-backup protection scheme for those services which have extremely high availability requirements (relative to the network component availabilities). We develop a mathematical model to quantify a connection's availability with N (Nges1) backup paths with k-link (kges1) sharing between primary and backup paths. Based on the model, we propose a provisioning algorithm for dynamic connections with differentiated availability requirements. A connection can be either unprotected, or protected with N backup paths. The algorithm intelligently explores link sharing among primary and backup paths of a connection to target availability guarantee and resource efficiency. The illustrative numerical examples show that our scheme achieves better performance in both availability satisfaction and network resource utilization, compared to a traditional availability-constrained 1+1 provisioning strategy.
Nano-MgO/AB decorated separator to suppress shuttle effect of lithium–sulfur battery

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are regarded as one of the most promising energy storage systems owing to their high specific energy, low cost and eco-friendliness. However, significant capacity fading caused by the shuttle of soluble polysulfides from the cathode to the anode significantly hampers their practical application. Here, we designed a nano-MgO/acetylene black (AB) decorated functional separator to suppress the shuttle of polysulfide intermediates, which can remarkably improve the electrochemical performance of Li–S batteries. Nano-MgO with the aid of the AB conductive network exhibits superior adsorption to polysulfides due to the synergistic effect of excellent chemisorption and improved electron conductivity. The electrochemical performance of the Li–S battery highly depends on the relative amount of nano-MgO and AB in the composite coating on the separator. A battery with the optimal decorated separator (MgO-25 separator, nano-MgO and acetylene black in the weight ratio 1 : 3) exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 1238 mA h g−1 with high coulombic efficiency (∼97%) and retains a high capacity of 875 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. This study promotes the understanding of the synergistic effect of the polysulfide adsorbent and the conductive agent on the suppression of the shuttle effect, and provides a way to design polysulfide-blocking barriers for Li–S batteries.
Morphological, thermal and bioactivity evaluation of electrospun PCL/β-TCP fibers for tissue regeneration

1Laboratório de Biocerâmica – BIOCERAM, Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia – ICT, Universidade Federal de São Paulo – UNIFESP, São José dos Campos, SP, Brasil 2Laboratório de Tecnologia de Polímeros e Biopolímeros – TecPBio, Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia – ICT, Universidade Federal de São Paulo – UNIFESP, São José dos Campos, SP, Brasil 3Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Materiais Avançados – LIMAV, Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, Universidade Federal do Piauí – UFPI, Teresina, PI, Brasil
Ecological constraint and the evolution of sexual dichromatism in darters

It is not known how environmental pressures and sexual selection interact to influence the evolution of extravagant male traits. Sexual and natural selection are often viewed as antagonistic forces shaping the evolution of visual signals, where conspicuousness is favored by sexual selection and crypsis is favored by natural selection. Although typically investigated independently, the interaction between natural and sexual selection remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate whether sexual dichromatism evolves stochastically, independent from, or in concert with habitat use in darters, a species‐rich lineage of North American freshwater fish. We find the evolution of sexual dichromatism is coupled to habitat use in darter species. Comparative analyses reveal that mid‐water darter lineages exhibit a narrow distribution of dichromatism trait space surrounding a low optimum, suggesting a constraint imposed on the evolution of dichromatism, potentially through predator‐mediated selection. Alternatively, the transition to benthic habitats coincides with greater variability in the levels of dichromatism that surround a higher optimum, likely due to relaxation of the predator‐mediated selection and heterogeneous microhabitat dependent selection regimes. These results suggest a complex interaction of sexual selection with potentially two mechanisms of natural selection, predation and sensory drive, that influence the evolution of diverse male nuptial coloration in darters.
Optimization of exposure factors for X-ray radiography non-destructive testing of pearl oyster

One of the processes in pearl oyster cultivation is detecting the pearl nucleus to gain information whether the pearl nucleus is still attached in the shell or vomited. The common tool used to detect pearl nucleus is an X-ray machine. However, an X-ray machine has a drawback that is the energy used is higher than that used by digital radiography. The high energy make the resulted image is difficult to be analysed. One of the advantages of digital radiography is the energy used can be adjusted so that the resulted image can be analysed easily. To obtain a high quality of pearl image using digital radiography, the exposure factors should be optimized. In this work, optimization was done by varying the voltage, current, and exposure time. Then, the radiography images were analysed using Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR). From the analysis, it can be determined that the optimum exposure factors are 60 kV of voltage, 16 mA of current, and 0.125 s of exposure time which result in CNR of 5.71.
Composite image formation in z‐shimmed functional MR imaging

A challenge in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is to develop imaging methods that are highly sensitive to microscopic field inhomogeneities [the blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) effect] and minimally sensitivity to macroscopic fields. z‐Shimming compensates for the through‐plane dephasing that arises in gradient‐echo images due to magnetic field inhomogeneities. To date, an analysis of the formation of composite images from multiple z‐shim acquisitions has not been presented. This work compares three strategies for forming composite images, one of which is introduced for the first time, against the nominal image acquisition. True‐versus false‐positive rates of activation detection are considered, in addition to the time efficiency of the methods. It is shown that z‐shimming can provide uniform spatial sensitivity, resulting in increased activation detectability, in many cases outperforming the nominal imaging approach. Time efficiency is shown to be dependent on field uniformity. Theory, computer simulations, and results from fMRI studies are used to demonstrate the performance of these methods. Magn Reson Med 42:110–117, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The acceptance of information technology innovations in hospitals: differences between early and late adopters

The increasing maturity of information technologies (IT) in hospitals and their infrastructure development is improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. In these circumstances, an investigation of the diffusion of IT in this context would provide some insight into adopters’ behaviours and further the diffusion of IT in the near future. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an investigation of the diffusion of IT’s innovations in hospitals. Technology acceptance model and innovation diffusion theory have been applied in this research trying to find factors that permit an effective discrimination between early and late adopters. The differences in characteristics between these two categories are assessed and implications based on the research findings are discussed.
Episodic Logic: Natural Logic + Reasoning

There are two extreme stances in mechanizing natural language inference. One seeks to reformulate a raw message so as to conform with the syntax and semantics of some formal logical system (such as FOL) suited for reliable, potentially deep general reasoning. The other uses what has become known as Natural Logic—an easy but shallow way of treating natural language itself as logic and reasoning directly on this level. Finding the right balance between these opposing stances is one of the key tasks in advancing the ability of machines to understand human language, and thus, for example, extract knowledge inferentially from text. In this paper, we provide arguments and evidence that EPILOG, a general reasoner for the natural language-like Episodic Logic, can be equipped with the knowledge needed for effective Natural Logic-like inference while also providing greater generality.
Giant Piezoelectric Response in Superionic Polar Semiconductor

A lead‐free piezoelectric material whose performance is comparable to that of market‐dominant lead‐based ones has been strongly desired for the development of environmentally friendly piezoelectric devices. In spite of intensive research activities, however, few effective alternatives have been found due to severe requirements such as the absence of conducting carriers screening the electric polarization. Here, a polar semiconductor, AgCrSe2, is demonstrated as a promising piezoelectric material even with a finite conductivity. The inverse piezoelectric effect for AgCrSe2 single crystals, of which carrier density can be tuned by subtle nonstoichiometry, is studied as a model material at room temperature. Although the inverse piezoelectric effect of the AgCrSe2 crystals tends to be suppressed as resistivity becomes lower, the maximum piezoelectric coefficients (d33) reach 100–1000 pC N−1, comparable to those reported for typical piezoelectric BaTiO3 and lead‐based perovskites. The large piezoelectric response in AgCrSe2 is attributed to the large polarizability inherent to the intercalated Ag+ ions acting as ionic carriers. The present results demonstrate that superionic polar semiconductors have a potential to be high‐performance lead‐free piezoelectric materials overcoming the screening effect by the enhanced polarizability.
Determination of the Mahalanobis matrix using nonparametric noise estimations

In this paper, the problem of an optimal transformation of the input space for function approximation problems is addressed. The transformationis defined determining the Mahalanobis matrix that minimizesthe variance of noise. To compute variance of the noise, a nonparametricestimator called the Delta Test paradigm is used. The proposed approachis illlustrated on two different benchmarks.
Longitudinal Associations between Endogenous Melatonin Production and Reported Sleep Duration from Childhood to Early Adulthood

Background/Aims: The study objective was to assess longitudinal associations between melatonin secretion and reported sleep duration from childhood to early adulthood. Methods: In the frame of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study, 24-hour melatonin secretion and average daily sleep duration were determined once during childhood (4–< 11 years), adolescence (11–<16 years) and early adulthood (16–19 years) in 52 participants (23 males/29 females) aged 4–19 years. The associations between (1) melatonin secretion and sleep duration in childhood (cross-sectional); (2) melatonin secretion in childhood and sleep duration in early adulthood (prospective), and (3) changes in melatonin secretion and concurrent changes in sleep duration from childhood to early adulthood (concurrent) were analyzed. Results: Melatonin secretion was associated with sleep duration in childhood (cross-sectional, 3.5 min/day/10 µg 6-hydroxymelatonin sulfate (6-OHMS)/day, p = 0.009) and tended to predict sleep duration in early adulthood (prospective, 9.8 min/day/10 µg 6-OHMS/day, p = 0.09). An individual increase in melatonin secretion between childhood and early adulthood was associated with a concurrent increase in sleep duration (concurrent, 6.9 min/day/10 µg 6-OHMS/day, p = 0.046). Conclusion: Our observational data suggest that pineal production of melatonin in childhood is correlated with alterations in sleep duration until early adulthood. Nevertheless, this observational evidence needs to be verified in clinical studies.
δ-Protocadherin Function: From Molecular Adhesion Properties to Brain Circuitry

ii Acknowledgments. v Vita . vi List of Tables . x List of Figures . xi Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 The Cadherin Superfamily and Adhesion . 3 Neural Circuitry, Neurodevelopmental Disease, and the δ-Protocadherins . 19 Pcdh19 Female Epilepsy . 25 Zebrafish as a Neurodevelopmental Model . 30 Multidisciplinary Approach to a Fundamental Question . 34 Chapter 2: Protocadherins Control the Modular Assembly of Neuronal Columns in the Zebrafish Optic Tectum . 40 Abstract . 40 Introduction . 41 Results and Discussion . 42 Materials and Methods . 48
Unveiling the Micronome of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important class of endogenous non-coding single-stranded small RNAs (21–24 nt in length), which serve as post-transcriptional negative regulators of gene expression in plants. Despite the economic importance of Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava) only 153 putative cassava miRNAs (from multiple germplasm) are available to date in miRBase (Version 21), and identification of a number of miRNAs from the cassava EST database have been limited to comparisons with Arabidopsis. In this study, mature sequences of all known plant miRNAs were used as a query for homologous searches against cassava EST and GSS databases, and additional identification of novel and conserved miRNAs were gleaned from next generation sequencing (NGS) of two cassava landraces (T200 from southern Africa and TME3 from West Africa) at three different stages post explant transplantation and acclimatization. EST and GSS derived data revealed 259 and 32 miRNAs in cassava, and one of the miRNA families (miR2118) from previous studies has not been reported in cassava. NGS data collectively displayed expression of 289 conserved miRNAs in leaf tissue, of which 230 had not been reported previously. Of the 289 conserved miRNAs identified in T200 and TME3, 208 were isomiRs. Thirty-nine novel cassava-specific miRNAs of low abundance, belonging to 29 families, were identified. Thirty-eight (98.6%) of the putative new miRNAs identified by NGS have not been previously reported in cassava. Several miRNA targets were identified in T200 and TME3, highlighting differential temporal miRNA expression between the two cassava landraces. This study contributes to the expanding knowledge base of the micronome of this important crop.
Equilibrium policies when preferences are time inconsistent

This paper characterizes differentiable and subgame Markov perfect equilibria in a continuous time intertemporal decision problem with non-constant discounting. Capturing the idea of non commitment by letting the commitment period being infinitesimally small, we characterize the equilibrium strategies by a value function, which must satisfy a certain equation. The equilibrium equation is reminiscent of the classical Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation of optimal control, but with a non-local term leading to differences in qualitative behavior. As an application, we formulate an overlapping generations Ramsey model where the government maximizes a utilitarian welfare function defined as the discounted sum of successive generations' lifetime utilities. When the social discount rate is different from the private discount rate, the optimal command allocation is time inconsistent and we retain subgame perfection as a principle of intergenerational equity. Existence of multiple subgame perfect equilibria is established. The multiplicity is due to the successive governments' inability to coordinate their beliefs and we single out one of them as (locally) renegotiation-proof. Decentralization can be achieved with both age and time dependent lump sum transfers and, long term distorting capital interest income taxes/subsidy.
Quantum spacetime fluctuations and primary state diffusion

Non-differentiable fluctuations in spacetime on a Planck scale introduce stochastic terms into the equations for quantum states, resulting in a proposed new foundation for an existing alternative quantum theory: primary state diffusion (PSD). Planck-scale stochastic spacetime structure results in quantum fluctuations, whilst larger-scale curvature is responsible for gravitational forces. The gravitational field and the quantum fluctuation field are the same, differing only in scale. The quantum mechanics of small systems, classical mechanics of large systems and the physics of quantum experiments are all derived dynamically, without any prior division into classical and quantum domains, and without any measurement hypothesis. Unlike the earlier derivation of PSD, the new derivation, based on a stochastic spacetime differential geometry, has essentially no free parameters. However, many features of this structure remain to be determined. The theory is falsifiable in the laboratory, and critical matter interferometry experiments, to distinguish it from ordinary quantum mechanics, might be feasible within the next decade.
Using local Iraqi Bacillus isolate to reduce water salinity

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) has been created for expelling water saltiness, power generation, and wastewater administration. The MDC comprised of three chambers (anode, center desalination, and cathode). Were tested ability of type locally isolated bacteria Bacillus spp.in produce electricity to water desalination. In recent study results showed that a remove where the salinity recorded 4000 ppm at room temperature at the voltages of 0.6 volts and less salinity at room temperature at 0.2 volts was 200 ppm. Recent results highlight the need to reduce time for reduce salinity decreased from 3500 ppm to 500 ppm the eleventh day at a voltage of 0.5 volts that depended on type of substrate.