Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semantic Memory Impairment for Biological and Man-Made Objects in Individuals With Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment or Late-Life Depression

Objective: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and late-life depression (LLD) both increase the risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD). Very little is known about the similarities and differences between these syndromes. The present study addresses this issue by examining the nature of semantic memory impairment (more precisely, object-based knowledge) in patients at risk of developing AD. Methods: Participants were 17 elderly patients with aMCI, 18 patients with aMCI plus depressive symptoms (aMCI/D+), 15 patients with LLD, and 29 healthy controls. All participants were aged 55 years or older and were administered a semantic battery designed to assess semantic knowledge for 16 biological and 16 man-made items. Results: Overall performance of aMCI/D+ participants was significantly worse than the 3 other groups, and performance for questions assessing knowledge for biological items was poorer than for questions relating to man-made items. Conclusion: This study is the first to show that aMCI/D+ is associated with object-based semantic memory impairment. These results support the view that semantic deficits in aMCI are associated with concomitant depressive symptoms. However, depressive symptoms alone do not account exclusively for semantic impairment, since patients with LLD showed no semantic memory deficit.
Exopolysaccharides Produced by Intestinal Bifidobacterium Strains Act as Fermentable Substrates for Human Intestinal Bacteria

ABSTRACT Eleven exopolysaccharides (EPS) isolated from different human intestinal Bifidobacterium strains were tested in fecal slurry batch cultures and compared with glucose and the prebiotic inulin for their abilities to act as fermentable substrates for intestinal bacteria. During incubation, the increases in levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) were considerably more pronounced in cultures with EPS, glucose, and inulin than in controls without carbohydrates added, indicating that the substrates assayed were fermented by intestinal bacteria. Shifts in molar proportions of SCFA during incubation with EPS and inulin caused a decrease in the acetic acid-to-propionic acid ratio, a possible indicator of the hypolipidemic effect of prebiotics, with the lowest values for this parameter being obtained for EPS from the species Bifidobacterium longum and from Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum strain C52. This behavior was contrary to that found with glucose, a carbohydrate not considered to be a prebiotic and for which a clear increase of this ratio was obtained during incubation. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that EPS exerted a moderate bifidogenic effect, which was comparable to that of inulin for some polymers but which was lower than that found for glucose. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA gene fragments using universal primers was employed to analyze microbial groups other than bifidobacteria. Changes in banding patterns during incubation with EPS indicated microbial rearrangements of Bacteroides and Escherichia coli relatives. Moreover, the use of EPS from B. pseudocatenulatum in fecal cultures from some individuals accounted for the prevalence of Desulfovibrio and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, whereas incubation with EPS from B. longum supported populations close to Anaerostipes, Prevotella, and/or Oscillospira. Thus, EPS synthesized by intestinal bifidobacteria could act as fermentable substrates for microorganisms in the human gut environment, modifying interactions among intestinal populations.
Germ-line epigenetic modification of the murine Avy allele by nutritional supplementation

Environmental effects on phenotype can be mediated by epigenetic modifications. The epigenetic state of the murine Avy allele is highly variable, and determines phenotypic effects that vary in a mosaic spectrum that can be shifted by in utero exposure to methyl donor supplementation. We have asked if methyl donor supplementation affects the germ-line epigenetic state of the Avy allele. We find that the somatic epigenetic state of Avy is affected by in utero methyl donor supplementation only when the allele is paternally contributed. Exposure to methyl donor supplementation during midgestation shifts Avy phenotypes not only in the mice exposed as fetuses, but in their offspring. This finding indicates that methyl donors can change the epigenetic state of the Avy allele in the germ line, and that the altered state is retained through the epigenetic resetting that takes place in gametogenesis and embryogenesis. Thus a mother's diet may have an enduring influence on succeeding generations, independent of later changes in diet. Although other reports have suggested such heritable epigenetic changes, this study demonstrates that a specific mammalian gene can be subjected to germ-line epigenetic change.
Draft Genome Sequence of the Obligate Halophilic Bacillus sp. Strain NSP22.2, Isolated from a Seasonal Salt Marsh of the Great Rann of Kutch, India

ABSTRACT Here, we report the 4.0-Mbp draft genome of an obligate halophile, Bacillus sp. strain NSP22.2, isolated from a seasonal salt marsh of the Great Rann of Kutch, India. To understand the mechanism(s) of obligate halophilism and to isolate the relevant gene(s), the genome of Bacillus sp. NSP22.2 was sequenced.
Necessary Conditions of the Wave Packet Frames with Several Generators

The main goal of this paper is to consider the necessary conditions of wave packet systems to be frames in higher dimensions. The necessary conditions of wave packet frames in higher dimensions with several generators are established, which include the corresponding results of wavelet analysis and Gabor theory as the special cases. The existing results are generalized to the case of several generators and general lattices.
Facilitators and Barriers to Implementation of an Evidence-Based Parenting Intervention to Prevent Child Maltreatment

The prevention of child maltreatment via parenting interventions requires implementation on a broad scale, which is facilitated by drawing on a multidisciplinary array of service workers located in multiple settings. This underscores the importance of understanding factors that impact worker implementation of evidenced-based parenting and family support interventions. This study involved structured interviews with 174 service providers from several disciplines who had been trained previously in the delivery of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. These follow-up interviews, conducted an average of about 2 years after professional in-service training, provided the basis for examining predictors of sustained program use. Predictors examined included facilitators and barriers to program use, as well as organizational and provider-level characteristics such as attitudes toward evidence-based interventions. Highlighting the importance of a systems–contextual perspective on implementation, several provider and organization-level characteristics significantly predicted program use including provider self-confidence after training, fit of program with ongoing duties, availability of posttraining support, and perceived benefit of intervention for children and families. Implications for prevention and implementation science are discussed in view of the challenges inherent in the field of child maltreatment.
Developmental regulation of caste‐specific characters in social‐insect polyphenism

Summary Phenotypes of organisms are not determined completely genetically, but vary according to environmental factors (phenotypic plasticity). Some organisms express several discrete adaptive phenotypes (polyphenism). Social insects possess a few types of individuals (castes) in their colonies, to which specific tasks are allocated. Here, I review studies on caste polyphenism in ants and termites, in terms of the developmental mechanisms of caste‐specific characters, such as alate wings and soldier mandibles. In ants, the developmental fate of caste is probably determined by the pattern‐formation genes in the early stage of postembryonic development, but apoptotic degeneration occurs in the wing primordia of future workers. As apoptotic wing degeneration has been observed in two phylogenetically distant groups of ants, this phenomenon is suggested to be conserved in many ant species. On the other hand, all termite species possess distinct sterile soldiers with specific morphologies suitable for defense. Recent studies using molecular techniques isolated genes related to soldier differentiation and analyzed the expression profiles of those genes in order to understand the mechanism of caste differentiation and the link between molecular and social evolution. In this review, I focus on these studies, in terms of the alteration of body plan in response to environmental signals, and discuss the evolutionary process of the interaction between ontogeny and environment.
Investigations in Automatic Humor Recognition

Humor is an essential but important part of personal communication. It is a great challenge to understand the mechanism of humor in human language and create computational models to recognize and generate humor. In this paper, we define a new concept called Contextual Knowledge. Based on this concept, we design a sample but effective feature which alleviates the lack of contextual knowledge in humor recognition. Furthermore, humor belongs to human cognition, so we design two features from a human centered perspective to capture the emotionality and subjectivity in humorous texts. Experimental results prove the validity of the proposed features. And the accuracy of humor recognition has improved substantially.
Caracterização de Padrões de Despacho horário de Produção Ibérica de Electricidade

Nesta dissertacao vao ser estudados os padroes de producao de energia na Peninsula Iberica tendo em consideracao as diferentes variaveis consideradas no despacho do Mercado Iberico de eletricidade. Este estudo sera feito recorrendo a ferramentas matematicas de clustering que nos permitirao encontrar os diferentes padroes de producao de energia e posteriormente caracteriza-los.
Genetic Linkage and Cotransfer of a Novel,vanB-Containing Transposon (Tn5382) and a Low-Affinity Penicillin-Binding Protein 5 Gene in a Clinical Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Isolate

ABSTRACT Mechanisms for the intercellular transfer of VanB-type vancomycin resistance determinants and for the almost universal association of these determinants with those for high-level ampicillin resistance remain poorly defined. We report the discovery of Tn5382, a ca. 27-kb putative transposon encoding VanB-type glycopeptide resistance in Enterococcus faecium. Open reading frames internal to the right end of Tn5382 and downstream of thevanXB dipeptidase gene exhibit significant homology to genes encoding the excisase and integrase of conjugative transposon Tn916. The ends of Tn5382 are also homologous to the ends of Tn916, especially in regions bound by the integrase enzyme. PCR amplification experiments indicate that Tn5382 excises to form a circular intermediate inE. faecium. Integration of Tn5382 in the chromosome of E. faecium C68 has occurred 113 bp downstream of the stop codon for the pbp5 gene, which encodes high-level ampicillin resistance in this clinical isolate. Transfer of vancomycin, ampicillin, and tetracycline resistance from C68 to anE. faecium recipient strain occurs at low frequency in vitro and is associated with acquisition of a 130- to 160-kb segment of DNA that contains Tn5382, the pbp5 gene, and its putative repressor gene, psr. The interenterococcal transfer of this large chromosomal element appears to be the primary mechanism for vanB operon spread in northeast Ohio. These results expand the known family of Tn916-related transposons, suggest a mechanism for vanB operon entry into and dissemination among enterococci, and provide an explanation for the nearly universal association of vancomycin and high-level ampicillin resistance in clinical E. faecium strains.
Synchronization by Asynchronous Mobile Robots with Limited Visibility

A mobile robot system consists of anonymous mobile robots, each of which autonomously performs sensing, computation, and movement according to a common algorithm, so that the robots collectively achieve a given task. There are two main models of time and activation of the robots. In the semi-synchronous model (SSYNC), the robots share a common notion of time; at each time unit, a subset of the robots is activated, and each performs all three actions (sensing, computation, and movement) in that time unit. In the asynchronous model (ASYNC), there is no common notion of time, the robots are activated at arbitrary times, and the duration of each action is arbitrary but finite. In this paper, we investigate the problem of synchronizing ASNYC robots with limited sensing range, i.e., limited visibility. We first present a sufficient condition for an ASYNC execution of a common algorithm ${\cal A}$ to have a corresponding SSYNC execution of ${\cal A}$; our condition imposes timing constraints on the activation schedule of the robots and visibility constraints during movement. Then, we prove that this condition is necessary (with probability $1$) under a randomized ASYNC adversary. Finally, we present a synchronization algorithm for luminous ASYNC robots with limited visibility, each equipped with a light that can take a constant number of colors. Our algorithm enables luminous ASYNC robots to simulate any algorithm ${\cal A}$, designed for the (non-luminous) SSYNC robots and satisfying visibility constraints.
CD133+ and Nestin+ Glioma Stem-Like Cells Reside Around CD31+ Arterioles in Niches that Express SDF-1α, CXCR4, Osteopontin and Cathepsin K

Poor survival of high-grade glioma is at least partly caused by glioma stem-like cells (GSLCs) that are resistant to therapy. GSLCs reside in niches in close vicinity of endothelium. The aim of the present study was to characterize proteins that may be functional in the GSLC niche by performing immunohistochemistry on serial cryostat sections of human high-grade glioma samples. We have found nine niches in five out of five high-grade glioma samples that were all surrounding arterioles with CD31+ endothelial cells and containing cellular structures that were CD133+ and nestin+. All nine niches expressed stromal-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α), its receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), osteopontin and cathepsin K. SDF-1α plays a role in homing of CXCR4+ stem cells and leukocytes, whereas osteopontin and cathepsin K promote migration of cancer cells and leukocytes. Leukocyte-related markers, such as CD68, macrophage matrix metalloprotease-9, CD177 and neutrophil elastase were often but not always detected in the niches. We suggest that SDF-1α is involved in homing of CXCR4+ GSLCs and leukocytes and that cathepsin K and osteopontin are involved in the migration of GSLCs out of the niches.
Elimination of voltage harmonics in a stand-alone DFIG using a PI-R controller in the fundamental reference frame

This paper develops a harmonic compensation approach for the stator output voltage of a stand-alone doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) feeding a nonlinear (diode rectifier) load. This load type is characterized by a nonsinusoidal stator voltage consisting of severe harmonic components, fifth and seventh ones, which deteriorate the performance of other loads connected to the DFIG. The aim of the proposed compensation method is to eliminate these harmonics in order for the DFIG to deliver a pure sinusoidal stator voltage. To this end, the proposed compensation method is investigated in the fundamental synchronous rotating reference frame based on a proportional integral (PI) plus a resonant current controller, which is tuned at sixth resonant frequency. Therefore, the proposed control scheme has capability of eliminating both fifth and seventh harmonics without decomposing 5th negative sequence and 7th positive sequence components of the measured rotor current. The whole control scheme is implemented in the rotor-side converter (RSC). The proposed method was tested by simulations and experiments with 2.2kW DFIG feeding a nonlinear load to verify the feasibility and effectiveness in terms of harmonic compensation performance.
RANGE AND MOVEMENTS OF FEMALE HEAVISIDE'S DOLPHINS (CEPHALORHYNCHUS HEAVISIDII), AS DETERMINED BY SATELLITE-LINKED TELEMETRY

Abstract Heaviside's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii) is a coastal delphinid with a limited inshore distribution off the west coast of southern Africa. Knowledge of its habitat usage is an essential precursor to assessing its potential vulnerability to fisheries interactions. Six Heaviside's dolphins (1 male and 5 females) were fitted with satellite-linked transmitters in 2004, and tracked for up to 54 days. The 5 tags fitted to female dolphins transmitted continuously, allowing for analysis of movements at a fine temporal scale. Four dolphins showed an initial avoidance of the capture site by moving over a wider area in the first 2–5 days posttagging than later in the deployment period. All dolphins had used their full home ranges (determined as 100% minimum convex polygons) 5–20 days before tag failure, suggesting measured home ranges were stable at this temporal scale. Home-range estimates using local convex hulls ranged from 301.9 to 1,027.6 km2 (90% isopleths) and 875.9 to 1,989.6 km2 using the 100% isopleths and scaled positively with body size but varied in shape, usage, and number of core-use areas. Although the distance from shore and depth at which individual dolphins moved varied greatly, all dolphins showed a strong onshore–offshore diurnal movement pattern, generally being closest inshore between 0600 h and noon, and farthest offshore between 1500 h and 0500 h. This pattern is assumed to be related to the movements of their principal prey, juvenile shallow-water hake (Merluccius capensis), which migrate into the upper water column at night. Movements inshore may be associated with rest, socializing, and predator avoidance.
Análise comparativa entre controlador GPC-T e MPC-LMI com Anti-Windup LMI aplicado em conversor Boost CCTE

Thalita B. S. Moreira∗, Rosana C. B. Rego∗, Clauson S. N. Rios†, Fabricio G. Nogueira ‡ e Marcus V. S. Costa∗ ∗Pós Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, Mossoró, Brasil †Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará Fortaleza, Brasil ‡Pós Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica Universidade Federal do Ceará Fortaleza, Brasil thalita_brenna@hotmail.com, rosana.rego@ufersa.edu. br, clauson.rios@gmail.com, fnogueira@ufc.br, marcus.costa@ufersa.edu. br
Different Proposals to Matrix Multiplication Based on FPGAS

Matrix multiplication is a typical operation in different engineering areas, such as signal or image processing. This paper makes a brief description about some matrix multiplication proposals when working in FPGAs (field programmable gate array). Thanks to their low prices and low costs, currently these devices are used in many and different applications. There are some alternative methods that optimize execution time to carry out this operation under FPGAs. The internal structure of these devices allows parallel execution of matrix multiplication. However, a systolic structure needs many internal resources such as embedded multipliers and often it cannot be used because of the low number of embedded multipliers in the used device. This structure is commonly used in FPGAs for small size matrices. However our proposed alternatives allow an efficient multiplication of matrices of sizes as big as 512 times 512 elements. The study done in this work compares the delay and area consumed of different matrix multiplication algorithms.
An 80-120 GHz Sub-Harmonically Pumped Image-Reject Integrated Circuit Mixer

An 80-120 GHz, sub-harmonically pumped image reject mixer (SHPIRM) was developed and tested. An IF hybrid was integrated with the design to produce a fully monolithic image reject mixer chip. The circuit was fabricated using CSIRO's planar GaAs Schottky diode process and the RF performance was measured between 75 and 110 GHz. Throughout the 75-110 GHz band, 11-16 dB of conversion loss and better than 12 dB of image rejection was obtained.
The Substantia Nigra is an Important Site for the Containment of Seizure Generalization in the Kindling Model of Epilepsy

Summary: To investigate the role of the substantia nigra (SN) in kindling, electrical stimulation of the SN was delivered at various times before or after stimulation of the amygdala (AM) or pyriform cortex during or after kindling in rats. The results were as follows: (a) Ipsilateral SN stimulation delivered prior to each AM kindling stimulation for 14 days significantly retarded the appearance of Stage 4 and 5 seizures and shortened the afterdischarge (AD) duration, (b) Bilateral SN prestimulation blocked seizure generalization in some AM‐ or pyriform cortex‐kindled animals, prolonged the latency to bilateral forelimb clonus in others, and shortened the AD duration of the kindled seizure in a current intensity‐dependent fashion, (c) These effects were only partially antagonized by haloperidol, but were completely abolished by picrotoxin. The picrotoxin alone significantly reduced the latency, (d) Almost no effect was found when the SN stimulation was delivered after the onset of bilateral fore‐limb clonus. We conclude that the SN might be an important mediator of the early aspects of seizure generalization from limbic epileptic foci. The relative involvements of GABAergic 7‐aminobutyric acid and dopaminergic systems of the SN in this inhibitory function are discussed.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCOUNTING PROFESSION IN NIGERIA BEYOND 2020

The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will in doubt effectively facilitate the accounting profession in a way of streamlining the provision of its products and services in Nigeria beyond 2020. This study focused on the role of ICT in the development of accounting profession in Nigeria. In employing the survey research design, the opinions of 60 accountants was purposively drawn from the teaching and bursary staff of Delta State University, Abraka and the six banks operating in Abraka Metropolis using an instrument labelled role of ICT in Accounting Questionnaire (RIAQ). In analyzing the data collected, the chi-square statistic was used to test the extent to which ICT has benefited the accounting profession, while the regression analysis was used to test the relationship between ICT and job proficiency in the accounting profession. Summarily, the study found that there was a significant relationship (P<0.05) between the use of ICT and accounting proficiency. The study concluded that ICT is of great importance towards the development and attainment of both vision 2020 and accounting in Nigeria. It was recommended that there should be a continuous training of accounting professionals towards the acceptance and integration of ICT in accounting practice.