Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HTT-DB: Horizontally transferred transposable elements database

MOTIVATION Horizontal transfer of transposable (HTT) elements among eukaryotes was discovered in the mid-1980s. As then, >300 new cases have been described. New findings about HTT are revealing the evolutionary impact of this phenomenon on host genomes. In order to provide an up to date, interactive and expandable database for such events, we developed the HTT-DB database. RESULTS HTT-DB allows easy access to most of HTT cases reported along with rich information about each case. Moreover, it allows the user to generate tables and graphs based on searches using Transposable elements and/or host species classification and export them in several formats. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION This database is freely available on the web at http://lpa.saogabriel. unipampa.edu. br:8080/httdatabase. HTT-DB was developed based on Java and MySQL with all major browsers supported. Tools and software packages used are free for personal or non-profit projects. CONTACT bdotto82@gmail.com or gabriel.wallau@gmail.com.
The Increase in Phosphorylation Levels of Serine Residues of Protein HSP70 during Holding Time at 17°C Is Concomitant with a Higher Cryotolerance of Boar Spermatozoa

Boar-sperm cryopreservation is not usually performed immediately after semen collection, but rather a holding time (HT) of 4 h–30 h at 17°C is spent before starting this procedure. Taking this into account, the aim of this study was to go further in-depth into the mechanisms underlying the improving effects of HT at 17°C on boar-sperm cryotolerance by evaluating the effects of two different HTs (3 h and 24 h) on overall boar-sperm function and survival before and after cryopreservation. Given that phospho/dephosphorylation mechanisms are of utmost importance in the overall regulation of sperm function, the phosphorylation levels of serine residues (pSer) in 30 different sperm proteins after a 3 h- or 24 h-HT period were also assessed. We found that a HT of 24 h contributed to a higher sperm resistance to freeze-thawing procedures, whereas mini-array protein analyses showed that a HT of 24 h induced a significant (P<0.05) increase in pSer (from 100.0±1.8 arbitrary units in HT 3 h to 150.2±5.1 arbitrary units in HT 24 h) of HSP70 and, to a lesser extent, in protein kinases GSK3 and total TRK and in the cell-cycle regulatory protein CDC2/CDK1. In the case of HSP70, this increase was confirmed through immunoprecipation analyses. Principal component and multiple regression analyses indicated that a component explaining a percentage of variance higher than 50% in sperm cryotolerance was significantly correlated with pSer levels in HSP70. In addition, from all the parameters evaluated before freeze-thawing, only pSer levels in HSP70 resulted to be able to predict sperm cryotolerance. In conclusion, our results suggest that boar spermatozoa modulate its function during HT, at least partially, by changes in pSer levels of proteins like HSP70, and this is related to a higher cryotolerance.
Open-circuit fault tolerant bridgeless boost rectifier

In this paper, a bridgeless boost rectifier with open circuit fault tolerant capability is proposed. The proposed converter is based on a H-bridge rectifier configuration. It possesses a redundancy feature such that only two out of four switches require to be functional to ensure the continuity of the converter operation with power factor correction (PFC). A detailed analysis of the converter operation under all open circuit faults of the switches are presented. In order to achieve smooth input current waveform, a PWM controller is proposed and developed which combines a conventional average current mode PFC controller with several logic gates and a phase detector. An experimental prototype is developed and tested to verify the converter performance.
Rural versus urban academic hospital mortality following stroke in Canada

Introduction Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Canada. While stroke care has improved dramatically over the last decade, outcomes following stroke among patients treated in rural hospitals have not yet been reported in Canada. Objectives To describe variation in 30-day post-stroke in-hospital mortality rates between rural and urban academic hospitals in Canada. We also examined 24/7 in-hospital access to CT scanners and selected services in rural hospitals. Materials and methods We included Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) data on adjusted 30-day in-hospital mortality following stroke from 2007 to 2011 for all acute care hospitals in Canada excluding Quebec and the Territories. We categorized rural hospitals as those located in rural small towns providing 24/7 emergency physician coverage with inpatient beds. Urban hospitals were academic centres designated as Level 1 or 2 trauma centres. We computed descriptive data on local access to a CT scanner and other services and compared mean 30-day adjusted post-stroke mortality rates for rural and urban hospitals to the overall Canadian rate. Results A total of 286 rural hospitals (3.4 million emergency department (ED) visits/year) and 24 urban hospitals (1.5 million ED visits/year) met inclusion criteria. From 2007 to 2011, 30-day in-hospital mortality rates following stroke were significantly higher in rural than in urban hospitals and higher than the Canadian average for every year except 2008 (rural average range = 18.26 to 21.04 and urban average range = 14.11 to 16.78). Only 11% of rural hospitals had a CT-scanner, 1% had MRI, 21% had in-hospital ICU, 94% had laboratory and 92% had basic x-ray facilities. Conclusion Rural hospitals in Canada had higher 30-day in-hospital mortality rates following stroke than urban academic hospitals and the Canadian average. Rural hospitals also have very limited local access to CT scanners and ICUs. These rural/urban discrepancies are cause for concern in the context of Canada’s universal health care system.
Textile/Polypyrrole Composites for Sensory Applications

Electrically conductive woven, knitted, and nonwoven composite fabrics are prepared by in situ chemical polymerization of pyrrole using suitable oxidant and dopant. These composite fabrics show surface resistivity in the range ~1 to 2 kΩ. These composite fabric can alter their resistivity with various stimuli such as mechanical strain, pH, and humidity. So, in the present study, their response to pH, humidity, and mechanical strain is investigated. For all fabrics, similar behaviour has been observed regarding pH versus resistivity. The resistance of the composite fabric increases with the increase of alkalinity of pH. However, as bending strain increases, resistance steeply decreases for cotton fabrics, steeply increases for polyester fabrics, and initially decreases and then increases for wool fabrics. Regarding humidity sensitivity, sigmoid curves have been obtained for all kinds of fabrics.
LEDs: Sources and Intrinsically Bandwidth-Limited Detectors

The increasing demand for light emitting diodes (LEDs) is driven by a number of application categories, including display backlighting, communications, signage, and general illumination. Nowadays, they have also become attractive candidates as new photometric standards. In recent years, LEDs have started to be applied as wavelength-selective photo-detectors as well. Nevertheless, manufacturers’ datasheets are limited about LEDs used as sources in terms of degradation with operating time (aging) or shifting of the emission spectrum as a function of the forward current. On the contrary, as far as detection is concerned, information about spectral responsivity of LEDs is missing. We investigated, mainly from a radiometric point of view, more than 50 commercial LEDs of a wide variety of wavelength bands, ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (NIR). Originally, the final aim was to find which LEDs could better work together as detector-emitter pairs for the creation of self-calibrating ground-viewing LED radiometers; however, the findings that we are sharing here following, have a general validity that could be exploited in several sensing applications.
CoqIOA : a formalization of IO automata in the Coq proof assistant

Implementing distributed systems correctly is difficult. Designing correct distributed systems protocols is challenging because designs must account for concurrent operation and handle network and machine failures. Implementing these protocols is challenging as well: it is difficult to avoid subtle bugs in implementations of complex protocols. Formal verification is a promising approach to ensuring distributed systems implementations satisfy their specifications, but verification is challenging and time-consuming. Unfortunately, current approaches to mechanically verifying distributed systems in proof assistants using deductive verification do not allow for compositional reasoning, which could greatly reduce the effort required to implement verified distributed systems by enabling reuse of code and proofs. We present CoqIOA, a framework for reasoning about distributed systems in a compositional way. CoqIOA builds on the theory of input/output automata to support specification, proof, and composition of systems within the proof assistant. The framework’s implementation of the theory of IO automata, including refinement, simulation relations, and composition, are all machine-checked in the Coq proof assistant. An evaluation of CoqIOA demonstrates that the framework enables compositional reasoning about distributed systems within the proof assistant.
American Journal of Epidemiology Original Contribution Effect of Supplemental Folic Acid in Pregnancy on Childhood Asthma: a Prospective Birth Cohort Study

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the timing, dose, and source of folate during pregnancy on childhood asthma by using data from an Australian prospective birth cohort study (n ¼ 557) from 1998 to 2005. At 3.5 years and 5.5 years, 490 and 423 mothers and children participated in the study, respectively. Maternal folate intake from diet and supplements was assessed by food frequency questionnaire in early (<16 weeks) and late (30–34 weeks) pregnancy. The primary outcome was physician-diagnosed asthma, obtained by maternal-completed questionnaire.
Wnt and CDK-1 regulate cortical release of WRM-1/β-catenin to control cell division orientation in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos

Significance Cellular asymmetry, or polarity, is essential for development and tissue homeostasis. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the conserved Wnt signal transduction pathway orients the cell division axis and polarizes the EMS blastomere to promote endoderm fate. This work provides a mechanism for how the Wnt/β-catenin pathway integrates spatial and temporal cues important for the cell division axis. We show that CDK-1 phosphorylates and promotes the release of cortical β-catenin, which brings Wnt signaling under cell cycle control and facilitates spindle rotation. Cell cycle control of developmental decisions may be particularly important in embryos or tissues that undergo rapid cell divisions and patterning. In early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, the Wingless/int (Wnt)- and Src-signaling pathways function in parallel to induce both the division orientation of the endomesoderm (EMS) blastomere and the endoderm fate of the posterior EMS daughter cell, called E. Here, we show that, in addition to its role in endoderm specification, the β-catenin–related protein Worm armadillo 1 (WRM-1) also plays a role in controlling EMS division orientation. WRM-1 localizes to the cortex of cells in both embryos and larvae and is released from the cortex in a Wnt-responsive manner. We show that WRM-1 cortical release is disrupted in a hypomorphic cyclin-dependent protein kinase 1 (cdk-1) mutant and that WRM-1 lacking potential CDK-1 phosphoacceptor sites is retained at the cortex. In both cases, cortical WRM-1 interferes with EMS spindle rotation without affecting endoderm specification. Finally, we show that removal of WRM-1 from the cortex can restore WT division orientation, even when both Wnt- and Src-signaling pathways are compromised. Our findings are consistent with a model in which Wnt signaling and CDK-1 modify WRM-1 in a temporal and spatial manner to unmask an intrinsic polarity cue required for proper orientation of the EMS cell division axis.
The MIT SUMMIT Speech Recognition System: A Progress Report

Recently, we initiated a project to develop a phonetically-based spoken language understanding system called SUMMIT. In contrast to many of the past efforts that make use of heuristic rules whose development requires intense knowledge engineering, our approach attempts to express the speech knowledge within a formal framework using well-defined mathematical tools. In our system, features and decision strategies are discovered and trained automatically, using a large body of speech data. This paper describes the system, and documents its current performance.
An improved version of Chubanov's method for solving a homogeneous feasibility problem

We deal with a recently proposed method of Chubanov [A polynomial projection algorithm for linear feasibility problems. Math. Program. 153 (2015), pp. 687–713] for solving linear homogeneous systems with positive variables. Some improvements of Chubanov's method and its analysis are presented. We propose a new and simple cut criterion and show that the cuts defined by the new criterion are at least as sharp as in [1]. The new cut criterion reduces the iteration bound for his Basic Procedure by a factor 5, without changing the order of its strongly polynomial complexity. Our Modified Main Algorithm is in essence the same as Chubanov's Main Algorithm, except that it uses our Modified Basic Procedure as a subroutine. It is shown that it has time complexity, just as in [1]. Some promising computational results are presented, in comparison with the optimization package Gurobi.
Can Strategic Risk Management Contribute to Enterprise Risk Management? A Strategic Management Perspective

Within the discipline of enterprise risk management (ERM), strategic risk management (SRM) has become a subject of increasing interest to practitioners and academics. To our knowledge, the term “strategic risk management” first appeared in the management literature in 1985 and 1986 (Jammine, 1985; Figenbaum & Thomas, 1986) and in the academic finance literature in 1990 (Rawls and Smithson, 1990), although early usage of the term did not clearly relate to later conceptions. The phrase has been in use even longer than ERM (Bromiley, McShane, Nair, and Rustambekov, 2014). Even with this longevity, the meaning of the term remains unclear, with confusion increasing with the advent of ERM. For example, does SRM mean the management of a specific category of risks known as “strategic risks” (AICPCU, 2013) or does SRM mean strategic actions/responses taken to mitigate major uncertainties facing the enterprise? Can any type of risk potentially become a strategic risk, or are only certain types of risk strategic? Is SRM a separate type of risk management or a subset of ERM?
An Acquisition Scheme Based on a Matched Filter for Novel Communication and Navigation Fusion Signals

In order to enhance the positioning capability of terrestrial networks, a novel communication and navigation fusion signal is proposed. The novel signal multiplexes the communication and navigation signal in the same frequency band, and the navigation system is superimposed on the original communication system. However, the application of pseudorandom noise (PRN) sequences in the navigation system is limited by the communication clock period. Taking the application of PRN sequences limited by the clock period as objects, the present study analyzes truncated PRN (TPRN) sequences. PRN sequences with a TPRN sequence as the navigation signal can overcome the communication system clock period limitation. Then, a matched filter algorithm with double detection (MFADD) is proposed to acquire the novel signal. The matched filter method is applied to the proposed algorithm to determine the start code phase of TPRN. Monte Carlo simulations and real data tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for the designed signal.
hMRE 11 : genomic structure and a null mutation identified in a transcript protected from nonsense-mediated mRNA decay

We showed recently that mutation of the hMRE11 gene identified a new ataxia telangiectasia-like disorder (ATLD). In this report we describe the genomic organization of the hMRE11 gene and the analysis of a promoter region that appears to direct the divergent transcription of hMRE11 and the adjacent gene. The characterization of the genomic organization of the hMRE11 gene allowed us to determine the basis of an apparent null hMRE11 allele present in the mother and two patients in one of our two ATLD families. Polymorphic markers in the hMRE11 gene, including the promoter region, provided evidence that the mutated maternal allele was not deleted. An exon by exon search revealed the presence of a missense mutation in exon 15, the effect of which was to create a premature termination codon. Transcripts derived from the mutant allele were found to be subject to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Therefore, this allele was effectively null, because little if any mRNA from it was available for translation. The ATLD patients carrying this protein-truncating hMRE11 mutation have survived because the null allele they inherited from their mother is present with a missense mutation inherited from their father, which is expressed as normal levels of partially functional MRE11 protein. The mutation in the maternal hMRE11 allele of family 2 was also identified in a further unrelated Italian family with ATLD and also found to be subject to NMD.
A synergy of agent components: social comparison for failure detection

1 Overview Recently, encouraging progress has been made in integrating independent components in complete agents for real-world environments. While such systems demonstrate component integration, they often do not explicitly utilize synergistic interactions, which allow each component to function beyond its original capabilities because of the presence of other components. This abstract presents an implemented illustration of such explicit component synergy and its usefulness in dynamic multi-agent environments. In such environments, agents often have three important abilities: (a) collaboration with other agents (teamwork), (b) monitoring the agent's own progress (execution monitoring), and (c) modeling other agents' beliefs/goals (agent-modeling). Generally, these capabilities are independently developed, and are integrated in a single system such that each component operates independently of the others, e.g., monitoring techniques do not take into account the modeled plans of other agents, etc. In contrast, we highlight a synergy between these three agent components that results in significant improvement in capabilities of each component: (a) The collaboration component constrains the search space for the agent-modeling component via maintenance of mutual beliefs and facilitates better modeling, (b) the modeling and collaboration components enable SOCFAD (Social Comparison for Failure Detection), a novel execution monitoring technique which uses other agents to detect and diagnose failures (the focus of this abstract), and (c) the monitoring component, using SOCFAD, detects failures in individual performance that affect coordination, and allows the collaboration component to replan. SOCFAD addresses the well known problem of agent execution monitoring in complex dynamic environments, e.g., [4]. This problem is exacerbated in multi-agent environments due to the added requirements for coordination. The complexity and unpredictability of these environments causes an explosion of state space complexity, which inhibits the ability of any designer to enumerate the correct response in each possible state in advance. For instance, it is generally difficult to predict when communication message will get lost, sensors return unreliable answers, etc. The agents are therefore presented with countless opportunities for failure, and must autonomously detect them and recover. To detect failures, an agent must have information about the ideal behavior expected of it. This ideal is compared to the agent's actual behavior to detect discrepancies indicating possible failure. Previous approaches to this problem (e.g., [4]) have focused on the designer or planner supplying the agent with redundant information, either in the form of explicitly specified execution-monitoring conditions, or a model of the agent itself which may be used for comparison. …
Performance improvement of digital variable band hysteresis current control using dual processor microcontroller

In this paper digital implementation of variable band hysteresis current control for grid connected inverter is presented. The current control technique is implemented in both single processor TMS320F28377S and dual processor TMS320F28377D microcontroller. The step by step implementation of variable band hysteresis current control is explained in detail with flowcharts. Experimental evaluation of grid connected inverter with variable band hysteresis current control technique using both single processor and dual processor is presented. Improvement in the inverter output current THD using dual processor implementation over single processor is experimentally analyzed.
Forebrain‐Specific Transgene Rescue of 11β‐HSD1 Associates with Impaired Spatial Memory and Reduced Hippocampal Brain‐Derived Neurotrophic Factor mRNA Levels in Aged 11β‐HSD1 Deficient Mice

Mice lacking the intracellular glucocorticoid‐regenerating enzyme 11β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β‐HSD1) are protected from age‐related spatial memory deficits. 11β‐HSD1 is expressed predominantly in the brain, liver and adipose tissue. Reduced glucocorticoid levels in the brain in the absence of 11β‐HSD1 may underlie the improved memory in aged 11β‐HSD1 deficient mice. However, the improved glucose tolerance, insulin sensitisation and cardioprotective lipid profile associated with reduced peripheral glucocorticoid regeneration may potentially contribute to the cognitive phenotype of aged 11β‐HSD1 deficient mice. In the present study, transgenic mice with forebrain‐specific overexpression of 11β‐HSD1 (Tg) were intercrossed with global 11β‐HSD1 knockout mice (HSD1KO) to examine the influence of forebrain and peripheral 11β‐HSD1 activity on spatial memory in aged mice. Transgene‐mediated delivery of 11β‐HSD1 to the hippocampus and cortex of aged HSD1KO mice reversed the improved spatial memory retention in the Y‐maze but not spatial learning in the watermaze. Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA levels in the hippocampus of aged HSD1KO mice were increased compared to aged wild‐type mice. Rescue of forebrain 11β‐HSD1 reduced BDNF mRNA in aged HSD1KO mice to levels comparable to aged wild‐type mice. These findings indicate that 11β‐HSD1 regenerated glucocorticoids in the forebrain and decreased levels of BDNF mRNA in the hippocampus play a role in spatial memory deficits in aged wild‐type mice, although 11β‐HSD1 activity in peripheral tissues may also contribute to spatial learning impairments in aged mice.
Do environmental pollutants increase obesity risk in humans?

Obesity has become a global epidemic and threat to public health. A good understanding of the causes can help attenuate the risk and spread. Environmental pollutants may have contributed to the rising global obesity rates. Some research reported associations between chemical pollutants and obesity, but findings are mixed. This study systematically examined associations between chemical pollutants and obesity in human subjects.