A decision making system using Deep Learning for earthquake prediction by means of electromagnetic precursors

The paper “A decision making system using Deep Learning for earthquake prediction by means of electromagnetic precursors”’ was submitted at the EMSEV 2018 International Workshop (Electro-Magnetic Studies of Earthquakes and Volcanoes-“Integrating Geophysical Observations from Ground to Space for Earthquake and Volcano Investigations”), it was accepted, it was presented and included in the conference proceeding

Differential roles of epigenetic changes and Foxp3 expression in regulatory T cell-specific transcriptional regulation

Naturally occurring regulatory T (Treg) cells, which specifically express the transcription factor forkhead box P3 (Foxp3), are engaged in the maintenance of immunological self-tolerance and homeostasis. By transcriptional start site cluster analysis, we assessed here how genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation or Foxp3 binding sites were associated with Treg-specific gene expression. We found that Treg-specific DNA hypomethylated regions were closely associated with Treg up-regulated transcriptional start site clusters, whereas Foxp3 binding regions had no significant correlation with either up- or down-regulated clusters in nonactivated Treg cells. However, in activated Treg cells, Foxp3 binding regions showed a strong correlation with down-regulated clusters. In accordance with these findings, the above two features of activation-dependent gene regulation in Treg cells tend to occur at different locations in the genome. The results collectively indicate that Treg-specific DNA hypomethylation is instrumental in gene up-regulation in steady state Treg cells, whereas Foxp3 down-regulates the expression of its target genes in activated Treg cells. Thus, the two events seem to play distinct but complementary roles in Treg-specific gene expression

The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome.

X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X's gene content, gene expression, and evolution

Deputy Director\u27s Comments

Abstract. Personal area networks such as home or small office LANs are usually more vulnerable to cyber-attacks than those with dedicated support staff and the ability to invest consistently in security defenses. In this paper we propose leveraging physical characteristics of these personal area networks in order to enable non-technical individuals to secure their networks or at least be aware that their devices have been compromised. Our proposal leverages records of location for mobile devices, proximity authentication, and individual homophily. In this work, we summarize previous studies on securing personal networks, proximity authentication, and software attestation. We then present a preliminary design for the detection of and recovery from infection for personal area networks. Limitations and future work are also discussed.

A Framework for Preserving User Privacy and Ensuring QoS in Location Based Services using Non-irreversible Algorithm

In this paper, we address the issue of preserving userprivacy in Location Based Services provisioning. This issueincludes two controversial requirements, namely the protectionof user’s location privacy, and the Location Based Services QoS.In this context, we propose a framework that implements a nonirreversiblealgorithm, meaning that we cannot discover user’sexact position based on provided services. The proposedalgorithm has been implemented and integrated in a mobileservices framework based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platfor