Core promoter short tandem repeats as evolutionary switch codes for primate speciation

Alteration in gene expression levels underlies many of the phenotypic differences across species. Because of their highly mutable nature, proximity to the +1 transcription start site (TSS), and the emerging evidence of functional impact on gene expression, core promoter short tandem repeats (STRs) may be considered an ideal source of variation across species. In a genome-scale analysis of the entire Homo sapiens protein-coding genes, we have previously identified core promoters with at least one STR of ≥6-repeats, with possible selective advantage in this species. In the current study, we performed reverse analysis of the entire Homo sapiens orthologous genes in mouse in the Ensembl database, in order to identify conserved STRs that have shrunk as an evolutionary advantage to humans. Two protocols were used to minimize ascertainment bias. Firstly, two species sharing a more recent ancestor with Homo sapiens (i.e. Pan troglodytes and Gorilla gorilla gorilla) were also included in the study. Secondly, four non-primate species encompassing the major orders across Mammals, including Scandentia, Laurasiatheria, Afrotheria, and Xenarthra were analyzed as out-groups. We introduce STR evolutionary events specifically identical in primates (i.e. Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, and Gorilla gorilla gorilla) vs. non-primate out-groups. The average frequency of the identically shared STR motifs across those primates ranged between 0.00005 and 0.06. The identified genes are involved in important evolutionary and developmental processes, such as normal craniofacial development (TFAP2B), regulation of cell shape (PALMD), learning and long-term memory (RGS14), nervous system development (GFRA2), embryonic limb morphogenesis (PBX2), and forebrain development (APAF1). We provide evidence of core promoter STRs as evolutionary switch codes for primate speciation, and the first instance of identity-by-descent for those motifs at the interspecies level. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Study of chemical and physical behavior cotton fabrics treated by corona discharge after several laundering

Cotton fabric because of finishing process has shrinkage behavior after laundering and for improving this problem, chemical agents utilize for anti-shrinkage. This temporary finishing can reduce shrinkagebut has many environmental problems. Corona discharge treatment has been used for cotton fabric, other fibers and polymers. This treatment can reduce costs and environmental impacts. In this study, cotton fabric was treated by corona discharge instrument at 2 - 40 passages and fabrics were washed with laundering method. After four times laundering, shrinkage behavior of corona discharge treated fabric as compared with un-treated fabric decrease. After 10 passages of corona discharge treatment,water, dye absorption and shrinkage are modified but after 14 passages, despite of shrinkage improvement, dyeing properties decrease

Thermal error modelling of a gantry-type 5-axis machine tool using a Grey Neural Network Model

This paper presents a new modelling methodology for compensation of the thermal errors on a gantry-type 5-axis CNC machine tool. The method uses a “Grey Neural Network Model with Convolution Integral” (GNNMCI(1, N)), which makes full use of the similarities and complementarity between Grey system models and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to overcome the disadvantage of applying either model in isolation. A Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) algorithm is also employed to optimise the proposed Grey neural network. The size of the data pairs is crucial when the generation of data is a costly affair, since the machine downtime necessary to acquire the data is often considered prohibitive. Under such circumstances, optimisation of the number of data pairs used for training is of prime concern for calibrating a physical model or training a black-box model. A Grey Accumulated Generating Operation (AGO), which is a basis of the Grey system theory, is used to transform the original data to a monotonic series of data, which has less randomness than the original series of data. The choice of inputs to the thermal model is a non-trivial decision which is ultimately a compromise between the ability to obtain data that sufficiently correlates with the thermal distortion and the cost of implementation of the necessary feedback sensors. In this study, temperature measurement at key locations was supplemented by direct distortion measurement at accessible locations. This form of data fusion simplifies the modelling process, enhances the accuracy of the system and reduces the overall number of inputs to the model, since otherwise a much larger number of thermal sensors would be required to cover the entire structure. The Z-axis heating test, C-axis heating test, and the combined (helical) movement are considered in this work. The compensation values, calculated by the GNNMCI(1, N) model were sent to the controller for live error compensation. Test results show that a 85% reduction in thermal errors was achieved after compensation

Sustainability of Underground Hydro-Technologies: From Ancient to Modern Times and toward the Future

An underground aqueduct is usually a canal built in the subsurface to transfer water from a starting point to a distant location. Systems of underground aqueducts have been applied by ancient civilizations to manage different aspects of water supply. This research reviews underground aqueducts from the prehistoric period to modern times to assess the potential of achieving sustainable development of water distribution in the sectors of agriculture and urban management, and provides valuable insights into various types of ancient underground systems and tunnels. The review illustrates how these old structures are a testament of ancient people’s ability to manage water resources using sustainable tools such as aqueducts, where the functionality works by using, besides gravity, only “natural” engineering tools like inverted siphons. The study sheds new light on human’s capability to collect and use water in the past. In addition, it critically analyzes numerous examples of ancient/historic/pre-industrial underground water supply systems that appear to have remained sustainable up until recent times. The sustainability of several underground structures is examined, correlated to their sound construction and regular maintenance. Moreover, several lessons can be learned from the analysis of ancient hydraulic works, particularly now, as many periodically hydrologic crises have occurred recently, overwhelmingly impacted by climate change and/or over-exploitation and degradation of available water resources

Sustainability of underground hydro-technologies: from ancient to modern times and toward the future

An underground aqueduct is usually a canal built in the subsurface to transfer water froma starting point to a distant location. Systems of underground aqueducts have been applied byancient civilizations to manage different aspects of water supply. This research reviews undergroundaqueducts from the prehistoric period to modern times to assess the potential of achieving sustainabledevelopment of water distribution in the sectors of agriculture and urban management, and providesvaluable insights into various types of ancient underground systems and tunnels. The review illustrateshow these old structures are a testament of ancient people's ability to manage water resources usingsustainable tools such as aqueducts, where the functionality works by using, besides gravity, only"natural" engineering tools like inverted siphons. The study sheds new light on human's capabilityto collect and use water in the past. In addition, it critically analyzes numerous examples ofancient/historic/pre-industrial underground water supply systems that appear to have remainedsustainable up until recent times. The sustainability of several underground structures is examined,correlated to their sound construction and regular maintenance. Moreover, several lessons canbe learned from the analysis of ancient hydraulic works, particularly now, as many periodicallyhydrologic crises have occurred recently, overwhelmingly impacted by climate change and/orover-exploitation and degradation of available water resources

An integrated approach to diagnosis and management of severe haemoptysis in patients admitted to the intensive care unit: a case series from a referral centre

BACKGROUND: Limited data are available concerning patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for severe haemoptysis. We reviewed a large series of patients managed in a uniform way to describe the clinical spectrum and outcome of haemoptysis in this setting, and better define the indications for bronchial artery embolisation (BAE). METHODS: A retrospective chart review of 196 patients referred for severe haemoptysis to a respiratory intermediate care ward and ICU between January 1999 and December 2001. A follow-up by telephone interview or a visit. RESULTS: Patients (148 males) were aged 51 (± sd, 16) years, with a median cumulated amount of bleeding averaging 200 ml on admission. Bronchiectasis, lung cancer, tuberculosis and mycetoma were the main underlying causes. In 21 patients (11%), no cause was identified. A first-line bronchial arteriography was attempted in 147 patients (75%), whereas 46 (23%) received conservative treatment. Patients who underwent BAE had a higher respiratory rate, greater amount of bleeding, persistent bloody sputum and/or evidence of active bleeding on fiberoptic bronchoscopy. When completed (n = 131/147), BAE controlled haemoptysis in 80% of patients, both in the short and long (> 30 days) terms. Surgery was mostly performed when bronchial arteriography had failed and/or bleeding recurred early after completed BAE. Bleeding was controlled by conservative measures alone in 44 patients. The ICU mortality rate was low (4%). CONCLUSION: Patients with evidence of more severe or persistent haemoptysis were more likely to receive BAE rather than conservative management. The procedure was effective and safe in most patients with severe haemoptysis, and surgery was mostly reserved to failure of arteriography and/or early recurrences after BAE

Application of an electronic nose coupled with fuzzy-wavelet network for the detection of meat spoilage

Food product safety is one of the most promising areas for the application of electronic noses. During the last twenty years, these sensor-based systems have made odour analyses possible. Their application into the area of food is mainly focused on quality control, freshness evaluation, shelf-life analysis and authenticity assessment. In this paper, the performance of a portable electronic nose has been evaluated in monitoring the spoilage of beef fillets stored either aerobically or under modified atmosphere packaging, at different storage temperatures. A novel multi-output fuzzy wavelet neural network model has been developed, which incorporates a clustering pre-processing stage for the definition of fuzzy rules. The dual purpose of the proposed modelling approach is not only to classify beef samples in the relevant quality class (i.e. fresh, semi-fresh and spoiled), but also to predict their associated microbiological population. Comparison results against advanced machine learning schemes indicated that the proposed modelling scheme could be considered as a valuable detection methodology in food microbiology

FINDbase: a worldwide database for genetic variation allele frequencies updated

Frequency of INherited Disorders database (FIND base; http://www.findbase.org) records frequencies of causative genetic variations worldwide. Database records include the population and ethnic group or geographical region, the disorder name and the related gene, accompanied by links to any related external resources and the genetic variation together with its frequency in that population. In addition to the regular data content updates, we report the following significant advances: (i) the systematic collection and thorough documentation of population/ethnic group-specific pharmacogenomic markers allele frequencies for 144 markers in 14 genes of pharmacogenomic interest from different classes of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters, representing 150 populations and ethnic groups worldwide; (ii) the development of new data querying and visualization tools in the expanded FINDbase data collection, built around Microsoft’s PivotViewer software (http://www.getpivot.com), based on Microsoft Silverlight technology (http://www.silverlight.net) that facilitates querying of large data sets and visualizing the results; and (iii) the establishment of the first database journal, by affiliating FINDbase with Human Genomics and Proteomics, a new open-access scientific journal, which would serve as a prime example of a non-profit model for sustainable database funding

The design and evaluation of travelling gun irrigation systems: enrolador software

Technical Paperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio