Sense-antisense pairs in mammals: functional and evolutionary considerations

Analysis of a catalog of S-AS pairs in the human and mouse genomes revealed several putative roles for natural antisense transcripts and showed that some are artifacts of cDNA library construction

Semantic-Functional Communications in Cyber-Physical Systems

This paper explores the use of semantic knowledge inherent in the cyber-physical system (CPS) under study in order to minimize the use of explicit communication, which refers to the use of physical radio resources to transmit potentially informative data. It is assumed that the acquired data have a function in the system, usually related to its state estimation, which may trigger control actions. We propose that a semantic-functional approach can leverage the semantic-enabled implicit communication while guaranteeing that the system maintains functionality under the required performance. We illustrate the potential of this proposal through simulations of a swarm of drones jointly performing remote sensing in a given area. Our numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method offers the best design option regarding the ability to accomplish a previously established task -- remote sensing in the addressed case -- while minimising the use of radio resources by controlling the trade-offs that jointly determine the CPS performance and its effectiveness in the use of resources. In this sense, we establish a fundamental relationship between energy, communication, and functionality considering a given end application

Low-Complexity Dynamic Directional Modulation: Vulnerability and Information Leakage

In this paper, the privacy of wireless transmissions is improved through the use of an efficient technique termed dynamic directional modulation (DDM), and is subsequently assessed in terms of the measure of information leakage. Recently, a variation of DDM termed low-power dynamic directional modulation (LPDDM) has attracted significant attention as a prominent secure transmission method due to its ability to further improve the privacy of wireless communications. Roughly speaking, this modulation operates by randomly selecting the transmitting antenna from an antenna array whose radiation pattern is well known. Thereafter, the modulator adjusts the constellation phase so as to ensure that only the legitimate receiver recovers the information. To begin with, we highlight some privacy boundaries inherent to the underlying system. In addition, we propose features that the antenna array must meet in order to increase the privacy of a wireless communication system. Last, we adopt a uniform circular monopole antenna array with equiprobable transmitting antennas in order to assess the impact of DDM on the information leakage. It is shown that the bit error rate, while being a useful metric in the evaluation of wireless communication systems, does not provide the full information about the vulnerability of the underlying system

Dinâmica da matéria orgânica sob sistemas de manejo no solo no município de Paragominas-PA.

Uma das características marcantes do plantio direto é o aumento do teor de matéria orgânica na camada superficial do solo com o decorrer do tempo de sua implantação. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a dinâmica da matéria orgânica sob sistemas de manejo em Paragominas-PA. O estudo foi executado na fazenda Juparanã, com delineamento de blocos ao acaso com quatro tratamentos, o T1 (plantio direto: soja/milho em rotação), T2 (plantio direto: milho/soja, em rotação), T3 (plantio convencional: soja/milho) e T4 (plantio convencional: monocultivo de soja) com três repetições. Foram coletadas amostras deformadas, na camadas: 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-30 e 30-50 cm. A MO, foi analisada no Laboratório de Solos da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental e as médias foram submetidas à análise de variância. Conclui-se que o plantio direto proporcionou ao longo do tempo aumento nos teores de matéria orgânica no solo, quando comparado ao de preparo convencional

The Implementation of Teleconsultations in a Physiotherapy Service During COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Case Report

Introduction: The Brazilian Council of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy regulated the use of teleconsultation during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating uncertainty about its use in Brazil. Objective: To describe the experience of teleconsultations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Four patients participated in the study with the following diagnoses: Parkinson’s disease, stroke, peripheral facial paralysis, and tibial plateau fracture. Patients underwent up to 10 physiotherapy sessions via digital tools.  The 5-A self-management tool (Assess, Advise, Agree, Assist, Arrange) guided the sessions. Results: The teleconsultation type varied between synchronous (n = 1; 25%); asynchronous (n = 2; 50%) and synchronous/asynchronous (n = 1; 25%). There was 75% (n = 3) adherence and one withdrawal (25%). As the benefits of teleconsultations, the patients pointed out the convenience, maintenance of the exercises, and contact with the professional. The reported limitations were the lack of the use of physiotherapeutic devices. Conclusion: Teleconsultations contribute to the continuity of physiotherapy treatment during social isolation. Adherence to treatment was facilitated by access to the technology and by offering patients the choice of teleconsultation type. &nbsp

Image classification understanding with model inspector tool

This paper proposes a novel method called U Analysis for interpreting the behavior of image classification models. The method allows the evaluation of the interdependence between patches of information in an image and their impact on the model’s classification performance. In addition, the paper introduces the Model Inspector tool that allows users to manipulate various visual features of an input image to understand better the model’s robustness to different types of information. This work aims to provide a more comprehensive framework for model interpretation and help researchers and practitioners better understand the strengths and weaknesses of deep learning models in image classification. We perform experiments with CIFAR-10 and STL-10 datasets using the ResNet architecture. The findings show that ResNet model trained with CIFAR-10 and STL-10 presents counter-intuitive feature interdependence, which is seen as a weakness. This work can contribute to developing even more advanced tools for analyzing and understanding deep learning models.EC - European Commission(UIDB/00319/2020)Supported by the doctoral Grant PRT/BD/154311/2022 financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and with funds from European Union, under MIT Portugal Progra

Transparent vs Translucent Multi-Band Optical Networking: Capacity and Energy Analyses

Multi-band optical fiber transmission is generally proposed for capacity upgrades in optical transport networks. To comprehensively assess the potential of multi-band transmission, key metrics such as the potential capacity increase, energy consumption, and the number of required interfaces must be evaluated for different transmission scenarios. We consider progressive spectral exploitation, starting from the C-band only and up to C+L+S+U-band transmission, for both transparent and translucent solutions that exploit optical signal regeneration. By considering accurate state-of-the-art physical layer models, we derive a networking performance metric that enables the comparison of different solutions in terms of capacity allocation and energy consumption. For a translucent network design, different regenerator placement algorithms are compared, with the aim of minimizing energy consumption. The proposed network-wide numerical analysis shows that, for spectral occupations exceeding the C+L-band, translucent solutions can significantly increase network capacity, while leading to a similar energy consumption per transmitted bit as in the transparent design case, but they require the deployment of additional line interfaces. Significantly, these results provide evidence that the transparent exploitation of an additional transmission band produces a capacity increment that is at least comparable to that of a translucent solution based on already-in-use bands. Since this is attained at the expense of fewer line interfaces, it is a key finding suggesting that extending the number of bands supported is a cost-effective approach to scaling the capacity of existing fiber infrastructures

Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis in São Paulo State, Brazil : a pilot study

Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common autosomal recessive hereditary diseases in the Caucasian population, with an incidence of 1:2000 to 1:3500 liveborns. More than 1000 mutations have been described with the most common being F508del. It has a prevalence of 23-55% within the Brazilian population. The lack of population-based studies evaluating the incidence of cystic fibrosis in São Paulo State, Brazil, and an analysis concerning the costs of implantation of a screening program motivated the present study. A total of 60,000 dried blood samples from Guthrie cards obtained from April 2005 to January 2006 for neonatal screening at 4 reference centers in São Paulo State were analyzed. The immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT)/IRT protocol was used with the cut-off value being 70 ng/mL. A total of 532 children (0.9%) showed IRT >70 ng/mL and a 2nd sample was collected from 418 (80.3%) of these patients. Four affected children were detected at two centers, corresponding to an incidence of 1:8403. The average age at diagnosis was 69 days, and 3 of the children already showed severe symptoms of the disease. The rate of false-positive results was 95.2% and the positive predictive value for the test was 8%. The cost of detecting an affected subject was approximately US$8,000.00 when this cystic fibrosis program was added to an existing neonatal screening program. The present study clearly shows the difficulties involved in cystic fibrosis screening using the IRT/IRT protocol, particularly in a population with no long-term tradition of neonatal screening421

(E)-1-Ethyl-4-oxo-N′-(4-pyridylmethyl­ene)-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carbo­hydrazide

In the title compound, C18H16N4O2, the plane defined by the ethyl C atoms and the attached N atom is inclined to the adjacent pyridine ring at an angle of 67.87 (16)°. The dihedral angle between the two heterocyclic rings is 3.33 (16)°. The mol­ecular conformation is stabilized by an intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond and the crystal structure by inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a one-dimensional structure