Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Desafios do investimento social privado para fortalecer redes territoriais de impacto social

O presente artigo trata dos desafios do investimento social privado (ISP) para fortalecer redes territoriais voltadas para o impacto social. A relevância do tema para o campo tem recebido significativo destaque, já que a busca por soluções sociais aos desafios contemporâneos se dá a partir da articulação e da atuação coletiva. Mobilizando bibliografia pertinente e relatos de prática, o artigo apresenta diálogos entre a teoria e a práxis que o conceito de rede pode encadear, aprofunda aspectos ambivalentes que a atuação em rede pode suscitar, elenca desafios comuns para o investidor e destaca recursos possíveis para atuação nessa agenda.
Appraisal of lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta L.) tuber yield partitioning and economics under different crop geometry south Konkan coastal region

Different species of yam are grown around the world especially in tropical region of Africa and Asia. Lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta L.) is one of the important yam species cultivated in Konkan region of Maharashtra. Field experiments were conducted at Central Experiment Station, Wakawali, Dapoli (M.S.) for three years from 2011-12 to 2013-14 to investigate the effect of different crop geometry on productivity and profitability of lesser yam. The treatment consisted of 6 crop geometry viz., S1 - 90 x 90 cm, S2 - 90 x 60 cm, S3 - 90 x 30 cm, S4 - 60 x 60 cm, S5 - 60 x 45 cm and S6 - 60 x 30 cm. The release variety “Konkan Kanchan” was used in this experiment. An uniform tuber size 100-150 g was planted on ridges and furrow method on ridges at per different spacing treatment. The recommended NPK @ 80: 60: 80 Kg. ha-1 was uniformly applied to all the spacing treatments. The pooled mean of three year indicated that the highest total tuber yield 31.29 t ha-1 was recorded by the spacing 60 x 30 cm, which was substantially and significantly superior over rest of the spacing. As regards the partitioning of tuber yield, the spacing of 90 x 30 cm produced significantly the highest bold size (> 200 g) tuber yield (8.43 t ha-1). However, 60 x 30 cm spacing treatment recorded significantly highest the medium (100-200 g), small (50-100 g) and very small (< 50g) category of tubers. The wider spacing 90 x 90 cm reported maximum tuber yield per plant (1.106kg) and average tuber weight (121.71 g). The economics of different spacing treatment was revealed that the spacing 90 x 30 cm realized the highest net returns of Rs. 3,66,619/- ha-1 and C:B ratio of 1: 2.21 in lesser yam.
Sound encoding in mutant mice with disrupted action potential generation

Auditory tasks like sound localization or speech recognition require reliable and temporally precise neuronal sound encoding. The neuronal code must accurately preserve signal properties such as intensity and timing. Electrophysiological recordings from single spiral ganglion neuron provide a detailed picture of how auditory sensory information is encoded. Analysis of the response pattern of the cochlear nucleus cells after receiving sensory information encoded at peripheral synapses gives insight into the auditory systems primary processing. Investigation of the response patterns of spiral ganglion neurons and cochlear nucleus cells after mutations in pre- and post-synaptic proteins of inner hair cell ribbon synapse helps to reveal a role of these proteins in synaptic transmission and sound encoding. The synaptic sound encoding and underlying primary mechanisms at the synapses in the central and peripheral auditory system were studied through a combination of in vivo electrophysiology, confocal and high-resolution STED microscopy, and psychophysiological behavioral experiments for the detection of silent gaps in noise and thresholds sensitivity. This thesis investigates the role of four proteins (WRB, otoferlin, sIV-spectrin, PSD-95) that are crucial for the action potential generation and neuronal sound encoding. WRB was found to regulate the otoferlin expression and localization and hence plays an essential role for inner hair cell exocytosis. Otoferlin was indicated to play a key role in synaptic vesicles replenishment. Its mutation was found to lead to the gap detection impairment in OtofI515T/I515T mice. The gap detection impairment was attributed to the stronger adaptation of acoustically evoked spiral ganglion neuron spike rates, as well as delayed recovery of the sound onset response in spiral ganglion neurons. A similar mechanism might underlie the speech comprehension difficulties in human patients carrying the same mutation. sIV-spectrin was found to be crucial for the action potential generation in spiral ganglion neuron. PSD-95 in spiral ganglion neuron was indicated to be essential for proper AMPA receptors clustering and their recycling at the post-synaptic membrane and hence plays a role in spikes generation and synaptic sound encoding.
The RNA-binding proteins CELF1 and ELAVL1 cooperatively control alternative splicing

ELAVL1 and CELF1 are two RNA-binding proteins involved in alternative splicing control. To address their functional relationships, we identify the differentially spliced mRNAs upon depletion of CELF1, ELAVL1, or both. These proteins control similar sets of genes with similar consequences on exon inclusion or skipping. The magnitude of the effect of the double depletion equals the sum of the magnitudes of the individual depletions, showing that CELF1 and ELAVL1 additively control their target RNAs. CELF1 and ELAVL1 regulated splicing events include ACSL4, WNK1, CD44, MICAL3, and JDP2. Using FRET, we find that CELF1 and ELAVL1 directly interact in cell nuclei. We demonstrate that the combined levels of CELF1 and ELAVL1 is a valuable biomarker in breast cancer, while their levels bring very limited information when taken individually. A “co-RNA splicing map” of CELF1 and ELAVL1 shows they repress alternative splice sites when bound nearby, but activate them when bound further away. Together, these data point to strong functional interactions between CELF1 and ELAVL1 to control alternative splicing with significant impacts in human pathology.
DEVELOPING THE BIOTECH METHOD FOR EFFECTIVE REPRODUCTION OF VALUABLE FISH SPECIES POPULATIONS

Artificial reproduction of sturgeons and salmonids has shortcomings resulting in a return of commercially raised breeders. These disadvantages primarily are the catch of Atlantic salmon producers in spawning beds, which causes detriment of natural reproduction, and low survival rate of farmed juveniles in nature. In order to increase the efficiency of commercial fish reproduction, we suggest the new methods which are based on fish-specific adaptations during marine feeding period, providing the greatest population productivity and survival. Our objective was the development of a biotechnology for effective farm reproduction of salmon Salmo salar (Linne, 1758) and sturgeon Acipenser stellatus (Pallas, 1771). First, three main effects have been experimentally established for commercial fish culture in brackish seawater close to critical salinity (4-8 ‰): the highest survival rate, prolongation of high reproductive quality of breeders, and acceleration of juvenile development and growth. Physio-biochemical analysis showed the minimal losses of hemoglobin and serum pro- tein in critical salinity medium, with maximum retention of salts in the blood and in ovarian fluids, apparently by optimizing water-salt balance of the body. The latter is achieved through optimal os- motic gradient between the inner and outer media close to critical salinity limits values. This energy-saving gradient ensures water-salt metabolism and homeostasis of the internal medium and thus the external medium (critical salinity) provides bio-stimulating effect that increases the body resistance. The maintenance of fish brood stocks in the critical range of seawater salinity (3.07-8 ‰) until pu- berty of producers is proposed by us as an effective method of reproducing populations of Sevruga and Baltic salmon. Then, the breeders naturally matured under specific range of the seawater salinity below a 3.06 ‰ threshold are used to obtain mature sex products. Fertilized eggs are incubated in fish-farm in river water where then larvae and juveniles grow. When recruits sign of readiness to migrate they are placed in seawater salinity 2.5-7 ‰ close to critical range and grow to viable stages. Results of comparative industrial tests of the new biotech reproduction of sturgeon and salmonids in sturgeon and salmon fish farms and in marine cages have shown the effectiveness and advantages of this method which allows preservation of high breeding quality Sevruga produc- ers up to 100 %, and a 5-7-fold growth enhancement of young salmon. This new method can help solving the common problems of rare and endangered populations of commercial fish species res- toration, which is in line with a fish farming trend of Conservation Aquaculture aimed at restoring natural environment.
Effectiveness of bioactive combinations of several plant substances to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp.

The use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) has been banned as feed additives in many countries, therefore the alternatives need to be found. An in vitro experiment was conducted to study the potential of combination of some plant extract to inhibit growth of pathogen bateria that normally occur in the poultry gastro intestinal tract.The combination of three plants bioactives (liquid smoke of cashew shells of Anacardium occidentaleor CLS, Phyllanthus niruri L. extract (EM), and Synzygium aromaticum extract (EDC) were formulated and evaluated for its effectiveness to inhibit growth of Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. in vitro.The mixtures (KE) were then made in 3 different concentrations, i.e. 100 % KE, 50% KE, and 25% KE and studied their effectiveness to inhibit growth of E. coli or Salmonella sp. using microplate reader method. The results showed that the higher the concentration of the bioactive combination (KE100) the higher the ability to inhibit the growth of E. coli or Salmonella sp. The combination of bioactive substances CAM, EM, and EDC more effectively than Zn-bacitracin antibiotics to inhibit the growth of E. coli and Salmonella sp. The optimum concentration of KE with the similar effectiveness as the AGP was 25%. It was concluded that the combination of CAM, EM, and EDC was able to inhibit the growth of E. coli and even capable to eliminate the presence of Salmonella sp. In the biological assay, a combination of CAM, EM, and EDC either extract or powder form, high dose, medium or low does not affect the weight of the spleen, bursa fabricius, and blood profile. The best combination of CAM, EM, and EDC extracts to decreases the total bacterial population and E. coli was middle dose ie 0.0625% (extract) and 0.625% (powder). Likewise for live weight gain that was a good dose of extract or powder form can replace antibiotics. It was concluded that combinations of CAM, EM, and EDC had potential as a substitute for AGP in poultry feed, especially chickens.
Vocalizations of the Ryukyu Scops Owl Otus elegans: individually recognizable and stable

ABSTRACT To identify individual birds based on vocalizations, it is necessary to first confirm that individuals produce distinct vocalizations that are stable over time. Using vocal features, I was able to estimate the Ryukyu Scops Owls population on Minami-daito Island in 2003–2012 and confirmed that it is possible to identify individuals over time. I analysed 20 hoots per individual male in 2005–2007. Using 11 hoot parameters, the discriminant function analyses (DFAs) achieved a 97.4% probability of correct classification. Using 31 marked males, I examined the vocal features of 118 series of hoots over 1–6 years. Each male’s vocal features remained essentially stable over time and the calls of 14.9% (13/87) males were wrongly identified as those of other males. Individual misidentifications were the result of subtle differences in spectral features, or imperceptible differences in frequency and duration. The typological features (to visually classify variation in spectrograms according to the shape of syllables in the owl species) of the sound spectrograms of the misclassified males were found to be consistent over several years. When considering the efficacy of the DFA as a tool for identifying individuals, we rely on their vocal features, but should examine the visible typological features.
Factors Affecting the Practice of Income-Smoothing Policy (An Applied Study on Sudanese Banks)

The study problem examined the factors that influence the tendency of the managements of Sudanese banks listed in the Khartoum Stock Exchange to practice the income smoothing policy. The study aimed to explore whether these banks practice the income-smoothing policy and thus to investigate the factors affecting their tendency to practice the income-smoothing policy. The Eckel model was used to classify banks as income-smoothing and non-income-smoothing. The appropriate statistical methods were applied to identify the effect of the following factors (size of the bank, financing structure, tax payments, the form of ownership, the management incentive and bonus plan, and level of profitability) on practicing the policy of income smoothing at the level of Sudanese banks listed in the Khartoum Stock Exchange. The study reached several findings including that the income smoothing policy is practiced at the level of Sudanese banks listed in Khartoum Stock Exchange. In addition, the tax payments represent the most crucial factor affecting the decision of Sudanese banks management to follow the income smoothing policy, followed by the factor of managements incentive and bonus plan, then the factor of the form of ownership. The study recommends reducing the income smoothing process in Sudanese banks by training auditors on the income smoothing policies that can be followed by Sudanese bank managements to influence the financial statements and the results of the business, and thus influence the beneficiaries' decisions as users of these financial statements.
In vivo anticancer activities of Ni (II)-Benzoin thiosemicarbazone complex [Ni(BTSC)2] against ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth, invasion and sometimes metastasis. In order to find out a new anticancer drug, Ni(II) complex with benzoin thiosemicarbazon was synthesized and characterized. Anticancer activities of Ni(BTSC)2 2 2 has been studied against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cells in Swiss albino mice by monitoring tumor cell growth inhibition, tumor weight measurement, survival time of tumor bearing Swiss albino mice. Hematological parameters were also studied in both normal and EAC bearing treated mice. The results were compared with those obtained with a standard anticancer drug bleomycin and the compound was found to possess pronounced anticancer effect. Maximum cell growth inhibition was found to be 77.15% after treatment with Ni(BTSC)2 at the dose of 8 mg/kg (i.p). About 69.56% enhancement of life span was found at 8 mg/kg (i.p). With the same dose Ni(BTSC)2 reduced the tumor weight by 52.17% at day 20. The hematological parameters (WBC, RBC, hemoglobin content and differential counts) were found to be significantly changed as compared to those of the normal mice. These parameters restored more or less towards normal when treated with the test compound.J. bio-sci. 23: 77-88, 2015
A Shannon entropy graph-based model to evaluate the operator mental workload involved in procedure-guided tasks

Recent studies showed that an increasing number of procedures are available in industrial processes, in fields such as maintenance and safety. In many cases, the complexity of a procedure requires a decision-making process to evaluate the correct choice to be adopted in a specific situation. To this concern, the operator is subject to the mental workload to identify the proper strategy to be applied for each case. In the scientific literature, a model that allows evaluating the task complexity of a procedur e, through the ‘Shannon Entropy’ applied to graphs, was proposed by J. Park. Similarly, the mental workload of an operator in performing cognitive-oriented tasks was studied by G. Salvendy. Consistently to these topics, the authors propose a new model to estimate the mental workload of an operator during the execution of cognitive-oriented tasks of safety or maintenance procedures. The model has been applied to a numerical simulation; results obtained showed how the complexity of cognitive-oriented tasks of safety or maintenance procedures allows affecting the mental workload. The model can be usefully adopted to design emergency (safety) or maintenance procedures by considering the expected mental workload of operators in performing cognitive-oriented tasks.
Are clearcut borders an effective tool for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) natural regeneration?

Aim of the study: To describe the effect of stand edge after clearcut on the process of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) natural regeneration along the edge-to-interior gradient. The density, height, horizontal structure and quality of natural regeneration was evaluated.Area of the study: Kokořínsko Protected Landscape Area, Northern Bohemia (Czech Republic). The study sites naturally host Scots pine Pinetum oligotrophicum with cover of Vaccinium myrtillus L. and Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. in the herbal storey.Material and methods: Two 40 × 40 m permanent research plots were situated at the forest edge, two adjacent plots were established within the forest stand as control plots. Differences in regeneration characteristics were tested by analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey HSD test. Interactions between regeneration characteristics and the distance from the edge were evaluated by Pearson correlation. The relationship between the top storey and natural regeneration was depicted by pair-correlation function. Principal components analysis was carried out to assess overall data structure.Main results: Generally, the further from the stand edge, the lower natural regeneration density (r ≤ -0.64, p<0.001), mean height (r ≤ -0.54, p<0.001) and the best-quality promising individuals (r = -0.40, p<0.05) were found, whereas significant influence on overall average pine quality was not observed. The highest regeneration density (15,250 pcs/ha) was reached at a distance of 5-10 m from the stand edge.Research highlights: The forest edge interior can become favourable location for natural regeneration and can be implemented into traditional regeneration approaches in pine regions.
Estratificación temporal de Aedes Aegypti basada en herramientas geoespaciales y aprendizaje automático

Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya are viral diseases whose vaccine for prevention does not exist yet and which, in recent years, have had an increase and impact on the population of the Argentine and Latin American region. Which is why they are a major concern for government health agencies. In recent years, systems have been generated to estimate the risk of transmission of viral diseases based on information from remote sensors, establishing relationships between the environmental conditions of the different zones and the abundance of the vector in them. This area of study is called Landscape Epidemiology. In the present work, on the one hand, software engineering techniques are used to extract the requirements and apply a development methodology according to the needs to implement a framework for the generation of machine learning models (ML) with the objective of estimating the abundance of Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya vectors. In turn, non-linear models are trained and evaluated to model mosquito populations. These have greater generalization capacity, in comparison with the models that are currently used for this purpose. It also presents an approach that solves the problem that a model trained with information from a single city is not able, in principle, to correctly estimate the abudance in other areas of the country. In this work we propose to solve the issue through a novel concept in the field of epidemiology, which establishes relations of “ closeness“ between regions taking into account their environmental characteristics: the Normalized Environmental Distance.
A Survey of ICN Content Naming and In-Network Caching in 5G and Beyond Networks

Internet usability is expanded form just human-to-human interactions toward different communication types, while the communication itself is shifting from the host-centric model to the content-centric paradigm. The 5G and beyond networks promise not only to support such changes but also to provide massive data exchange and connectivity with high reliability. The next-generation networking technologies are the key enabled for 5G that aim at building a new ecosystem. One promising piece of this ecosystem is the information-centric network (ICN), which is a future network architecture that tends to tackle the current host-centric model issues. It natively supports several features, including abstraction content naming and transparent in-network content caching that contribute to improve network performance, reduce traffic, and improve the latency. In this article, we first provide a potential road map by introducing different next-generation active technologies to enable the big picture of 5G, including mobile-edge computing (MEC), software-defined networking (SDN), and network function virtualization (NFV). Then, we discuss the need for ICN and its coexistence within this ecosystem. Later, we present an in-depth review of the recent content naming schemes and a comprehensive review of in-network content caching solutions. We classify these solutions into different classes based on the used technologies and their working principle. Finally, we highlight some research challenges and propose promising directions for the research community.
Performance of gene expression analyses using de novo assembled transcripts in polyploid species

Motivation Quality of gene expression analyses using de novo assembled transcripts in species experienced recent polyploidization is yet unexplored. Results Five plant species with various polyploidy history were used for differential gene expression (DGE) analyses. DGE analyses using putative genes inferred by Trinity performed similar to or better than Corset and Grouper in precision, but lower in sensitivity. In species that lack polyploidy event in the past few million years, DGE analyses using de novo assembled transcriptome identified 50–76% of the differentially expressed genes recovered by mapping reads to the reference genes. However, in species with more recent polyploidy event, the percentage decreased to 7–30%. In addition, 7–89% of differentially expressed genes from de novo assembly are contaminations. Gene co-expression network analyses using de novo assemblies vs. mapping to the reference genes recovered the same module that significantly correlated with treatment in one of the five species tested. Availability and Implementation Commands and scripts used in this study are available at https://bitbucket.org/lychen83/chen_et_al_2018_benchmark_dge/; Analysis files are available at Dryad doi: XXXXXX. Contact lychen83@qq.com Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online
Acetylcarnitine: The role in metabolic exibility and insulin sensitivity

The incidence of Type 2 diabetes is on the rise. This disease is characterised by the body not responding effectively to the hormone insulin (i.e. insulin resistance) and a reduced ability to switch between fat burning and glucose burning. As a result, blood glucose levels rise cannot be maintained properly and will therefore rise. By means of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), this dissertation demonstrated the importance of acetylcarnitine formation, which plays a key role in muscle energy metabolism, for maintaining glucose homeostasis. The main conclusion is that carnitine intake increases acetylcarnitine formation and improves the ability to switch between glucose burning and fat burning in muscles.