Showing papers by "Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais published in 2018"
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Gregory A. Roth1, Gregory A. Roth2, Degu Abate3, Kalkidan Hassen Abate4 +1025 more•Institutions (333)
TL;DR: Non-communicable diseases comprised the greatest fraction of deaths, contributing to 73·4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 72·5–74·1) of total deaths in 2017, while communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional causes accounted for 18·6% (17·9–19·6), and injuries 8·0% (7·7–8·2).
5,211 citations
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Christina Fitzmaurice1, Christina Fitzmaurice2, Christina Fitzmaurice3, Tomi Akinyemiju4 +177 more•Institutions (102)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the burden of 29 cancer groups over time to provide a framework for policy discussion, resource allocation, and research focus, and evaluate cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 countries and territories by age and sex using the Global Burden of Disease study estimation methods.
Abstract: Importance The increasing burden due to cancer and other noncommunicable diseases poses a threat to human development, which has resulted in global political commitments reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases. To determine if these commitments have resulted in improved cancer control, quantitative assessments of the cancer burden are required. Objective To assess the burden for 29 cancer groups over time to provide a framework for policy discussion, resource allocation, and research focus. Evidence Review Cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were evaluated for 195 countries and territories by age and sex using the Global Burden of Disease study estimation methods. Levels and trends were analyzed over time, as well as by the Sociodemographic Index (SDI). Changes in incident cases were categorized by changes due to epidemiological vs demographic transition. Findings In 2016, there were 17.2 million cancer cases worldwide and 8.9 million deaths. Cancer cases increased by 28% between 2006 and 2016. The smallest increase was seen in high SDI countries. Globally, population aging contributed 17%; population growth, 12%; and changes in age-specific rates, −1% to this change. The most common incident cancer globally for men was prostate cancer (1.4 million cases). The leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer (1.2 million deaths and 25.4 million DALYs). For women, the most common incident cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was breast cancer (1.7 million incident cases, 535 000 deaths, and 14.9 million DALYs). In 2016, cancer caused 213.2 million DALYs globally for both sexes combined. Between 2006 and 2016, the average annual age-standardized incidence rates for all cancers combined increased in 130 of 195 countries or territories, and the average annual age-standardized death rates decreased within that timeframe in 143 of 195 countries or territories. Conclusions and Relevance Large disparities exist between countries in cancer incidence, deaths, and associated disability. Scaling up cancer prevention and ensuring universal access to cancer care are required for health equity and to fulfill the global commitments for noncommunicable disease and cancer control.
4,621 citations
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King's College London1, University of Nottingham2, University of Naples Federico II3, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland4, Swansea University5, University of Calgary6, University of Melbourne7, Scripps Research Institute8, University of California, San Diego9, Nanjing Medical University10, University of Liverpool11, La Trobe University12, University College London13, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais14, University of Bath15, Queen Mary University of London16
TL;DR: The guidelines have been simplified for ease of understanding by authors, to make it more straightforward for peer reviewers to check compliance and to facilitate the curation of the journal's efforts to improve standards.
Abstract: This article updates the guidance published in 2015 for authors submitting papers to British Journal of Pharmacology (Curtis et al., 2015) and is intended to provide the rubric for peer review. Thus, it is directed towards authors, reviewers and editors. Explanations for many of the requirements were outlined previously and are not restated here. The new guidelines are intended to replace those published previously. The guidelines have been simplified for ease of understanding by authors, to make it more straightforward for peer reviewers to check compliance and to facilitate the curation of the journal's efforts to improve standards.
1,070 citations
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Christina Fitzmaurice1, Christina Fitzmaurice2, Tomi Akinyemiju3, Faris Lami4 +172 more•Institutions (95)
901 citations
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TL;DR: Some differences are identified compared to the previous overview regarding the recommendations for assessment of psychosocial factors, the use of some medications as well as an increasing amount of information regarding the types of exercise, mode of delivery, acupuncture, herbal medicines, and invasive treatments.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the recommendations regarding the diagnosis and treatment contained in current clinical practice guidelines for patients with non-specific low back pain in primary care. We also aimed to examine how recommendations have changed since our last overview in 2010. The searches for clinical practice guidelines were performed for the period from 2008 to 2017 in electronic databases. Guidelines including information regarding either the diagnosis or treatment of non-specific low back pain, and targeted at a multidisciplinary audience in the primary care setting, were considered eligible. We extracted data regarding recommendations for diagnosis and treatment, and methods for development of guidelines. We identified 15 clinical practice guidelines for the management of low back pain in primary care. For diagnosis of patients with non-specific low back pain, the clinical practice guidelines recommend history taking and physical examination to identify red flags, neurological testing to identify radicular syndrome, use of imaging if serious pathology is suspected (but discourage routine use), and assessment of psychosocial factors. For treatment of patients with acute low back pain, the guidelines recommend reassurance on the favourable prognosis and advice on returning to normal activities, avoiding bed rest, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and weak opioids for short periods. For treatment of patients with chronic low back pain, the guidelines recommend the use of NSAIDs and antidepressants, exercise therapy, and psychosocial interventions. In addition, referral to a specialist is recommended in case of suspicion of specific pathologies or radiculopathy or if there is no improvement after 4 weeks. While there were a few discrepancies across the current clinical practice guidelines, a substantial proportion of recommendations was consistently endorsed. In the current review, we identified some differences compared to the previous overview regarding the recommendations for assessment of psychosocial factors, the use of some medications (e.g., paracetamol) as well as an increasing amount of information regarding the types of exercise, mode of delivery, acupuncture, herbal medicines, and invasive treatments. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.
699 citations
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TL;DR: Although mHealth is growing in popularity, the evidence for efficacy is still limited and for some fields, its impact is not evident, the results are mixed, or no long-term studies exist.
Abstract: Background: Mobile phone usage has been rapidly increasing worldwide. mHealth could efficiently deliver high-quality health care, but the evidence supporting its current effectiveness is still mixed. Objective: We performed a systematic review of systematic reviews to assess the impact or effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) interventions in different health conditions and in the processes of health care service delivery. Methods: We used a common search strategy of five major scientific databases, restricting the search by publication date, language, and parameters in methodology and content. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) checklist. Results: The searches resulted in a total of 10,689 articles. Of these, 23 systematic reviews (371 studies; more than 79,665 patients) were included. Seventeen reviews included studies performed in low- and middle-income countries. The studies used diverse mHealth interventions, most frequently text messaging (short message service, SMS) applied to different purposes (reminder, alert, education, motivation, prevention). Ten reviews were rated as low quality (AMSTAR score 0-4), seven were rated as moderate quality (AMSTAR score 5-8), and six were categorized as high quality (AMSTAR score 9-11). A beneficial impact of mHealth was observed in chronic disease management, showing improvement in symptoms and peak flow variability in asthma patients, reducing hospitalizations and improving forced expiratory volume in 1 second; improving chronic pulmonary diseases symptoms; improving heart failure symptoms, reducing deaths and hospitalization; improving glycemic control in diabetes patients; improving blood pressure in hypertensive patients; and reducing weight in overweight and obese patients. Studies also showed a positive impact of SMS reminders in improving attendance rates, with a similar impact to phone call reminders at reduced cost, and improved adherence to tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus therapy in some scenarios, with evidence of decrease of viral load. Conclusions: Although mHealth is growing in popularity, the evidence for efficacy is still limited. In general, the methodological quality of the studies included in the systematic reviews is low. For some fields, its impact is not evident, the results are mixed, or no long-term studies exist. Exceptions include the moderate quality evidence of improvement in asthma patients, attendance rates, and increased smoking abstinence rates. Most studies were performed in high-income countries, implying that mHealth is still at an early stage of development in low-income countries. [JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2018;6(1):e23]
616 citations
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McMaster University1, University of Vermont Medical Center2, University of New Mexico3, McGill University4, King's College London5, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais6, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center7, State University of New York System8, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia9, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile10
TL;DR: These evidence-based guidelines from the American Society of Hematology intend to support patients, clinicians, and others in decisions about preventing VTE in medical inpatients and outpatients with minor injuries and long-distance travelers.
448 citations
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Vanderbilt University1, University of Wisconsin-Madison2, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center3, South China Agricultural University4, New York University5, Purdue University6, University of Ljubljana7, National University of Comahue8, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais9, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research10
TL;DR: It is argued that reductive evolution is a major mode of evolutionary diversification and chronicle the tempo and mode of genomic and phenotypic evolution across the subphylum, which is characterized by very low HGT levels and widespread losses of traits and the genes that control them.
356 citations
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TL;DR: A robust and efficient ALPR system based on the state-of-the-art YOLO object detector is presented, employing simple data augmentation tricks such as inverted License Plates and flipped characters for character segmentation and recognition.
Abstract: Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) has been a frequent topic of research due to many practical applications. However, many of the current solutions are still not robust in real-world situations, commonly depending on many constraints. This paper presents a robust and efficient ALPR system based on the state-of-the-art YOLO object detector. The Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are trained and fine-tuned for each ALPR stage so that they are robust under different conditions (e.g., variations in camera, lighting, and background). Specially for character segmentation and recognition, we design a two-stage approach employing simple data augmentation tricks such as inverted License Plates (LPs) and flipped characters. The resulting ALPR approach achieved impressive results in two datasets. First, in the SSIG dataset, composed of 2,000 frames from 101 vehicle videos, our system achieved a recognition rate of 93.53% and 47 Frames Per Second (FPS), performing better than both Sighthound and OpenALPR commercial systems (89.80% and 93.03%, respectively) and considerably outperforming previous results (81.80%). Second, targeting a more realistic scenario, we introduce a larger public dataset, called UFPR-ALPR dataset, designed to ALPR. This dataset contains 150 videos and 4,500 frames captured when both camera and vehicles are moving and also contains different types of vehicles (cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks). In our proposed dataset, the trial versions of commercial systems achieved recognition rates below 70%. On the other hand, our system performed better, with recognition rate of 78.33% and 35 FPS.
312 citations
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TL;DR: A global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends and a estimates of health-related SDG index values in countries assessed at the subnational level varied substantially, particularly in China and India, although scores in Japan and the UK were more homogeneous.
312 citations
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University of Basel1, University Hospital of Basel2, University of Paris3, Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University4, Aarhus University Hospital5, Hochschule Hannover6, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais7, Shanghai Jiao Tong University8, Université Paris-Saclay9, University of Rochester10, University of Liège11, University of Groningen12, Utrecht University13, Cardiovascular Institute of the South14, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia15, China-Japan Friendship Hospital16, Monash University17, University of Copenhagen18, Copenhagen University Hospital19, Medisch Spectrum Twente20, Vanderbilt University Medical Center21, McMaster University22
TL;DR: Widespread implementation of procalcitonin protocols in patients with acute respiratory infections has the potential to improve antibiotic management with positive effects on clinical outcomes and on the current threat of increasing antibiotic multiresistance.
Abstract: Summary Background In February, 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the blood infection marker procalcitonin for guiding antibiotic therapy in patients with acute respiratory infections. This meta-analysis of patient data from 26 randomised controlled trials was designed to assess safety of procalcitonin-guided treatment in patients with acute respiratory infections from different clinical settings. Methods Based on a prespecified Cochrane protocol, we did a systematic literature search on the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and Embase, and pooled individual patient data from trials in which patients with respiratory infections were randomly assigned to receive antibiotics based on procalcitonin concentrations (procalcitonin-guided group) or control. The coprimary endpoints were 30-day mortality and setting-specific treatment failure. Secondary endpoints were antibiotic use, length of stay, and antibiotic side-effects. Findings We identified 990 records from the literature search, of which 71 articles were assessed for eligibility after exclusion of 919 records. We collected data on 6708 patients from 26 eligible trials in 12 countries. Mortality at 30 days was significantly lower in procalcitonin-guided patients than in control patients (286 [9%] deaths in 3336 procalcitonin-guided patients vs 336 [10%] in 3372 controls; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0·83 [95% CI 0·70 to 0·99], p=0·037). This mortality benefit was similar across subgroups by setting and type of infection (p interactions >0·05), although mortality was very low in primary care and in patients with acute bronchitis. Procalcitonin guidance was also associated with a 2·4-day reduction in antibiotic exposure (5·7 vs 8·1 days [95% CI −2·71 to −2·15], p vs 22%, adjusted OR 0·68 [95% CI 0·57 to 0·82], p Interpretation Use of procalcitonin to guide antibiotic treatment in patients with acute respiratory infections reduces antibiotic exposure and side-effects, and improves survival. Widespread implementation of procalcitonin protocols in patients with acute respiratory infections thus has the potential to improve antibiotic management with positive effects on clinical outcomes and on the current threat of increasing antibiotic multiresistance. Funding National Institute for Health Research.
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Christopher J L Murray1, Charlton S K H Callender1, Xie Rachel Kulikoff1, Vinay Srinivasan1 +1092 more•Institutions (424)
TL;DR: This work estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods and used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data.
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University of Oxford1, Boston Children's Hospital2, Harvard University3, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation4, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro5, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais6, University of Birmingham7, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven8, University of London9, Pasteur Institute10, University of KwaZulu-Natal11, Instituto Adolfo Lutz12, University of São Paulo13, Federal University of São Paulo14, Public Health England15, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa16, University of California, Los Angeles17
TL;DR: It is shown that the age and sex distribution of human cases is characteristic of sylvatic transmission, which establishes a framework for monitoring YFV transmission in real time that will contribute to a global strategy to eliminate future YFFV epidemics.
Abstract: The yellow fever virus (YFV) epidemic in Brazil is the largest in decades. The recent discovery of YFV in Brazilian Aedes species mosquitos highlights a need to monitor the risk of reestablishment of urban YFV transmission in the Americas. We use a suite of epidemiological, spatial, and genomic approaches to characterize YFV transmission. We show that the age and sex distribution of human cases is characteristic of sylvatic transmission. Analysis of YFV cases combined with genomes generated locally reveals an early phase of sylvatic YFV transmission and spatial expansion toward previously YFV-free areas, followed by a rise in viral spillover to humans in late 2016. Our results establish a framework for monitoring YFV transmission in real time that will contribute to a global strategy to eliminate future YFV epidemics.
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TL;DR: This study focused on the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of environmentally friendly hydrogel membranes based on carboxymethyl cellulose for wound dressing and skin repair substitutes and demonstrated that superabsorbent hydrogels (SAP) were produced with swelling degree typically ranging from 100% to 5000%, which was significantly dependent on the concentration of CA crosslinker and the addition of PEG as network modifier.
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08 Jul 2018TL;DR: In this article, a robust and efficient ALPR system based on the state-of-the-art YOLO object detector was proposed, which achieved an accuracy of 93.53% and 47 Frames Per Second (FPS).
Abstract: Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) has been a frequent topic of research due to many practical applications. However, many of the current solutions are still not robust in real-world situations, commonly depending on many constraints. This paper presents a robust and efficient ALPR system based on the state-of-the-art YOLO object detector. The Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are trained and finetuned for each ALPR stage so that they are robust under different conditions (e.g., variations in camera, lighting, and background). Specially for character segmentation and recognition, we design a two-stage approach employing simple data augmentation tricks such as inverted License Plates (LPs) and flipped characters. The resulting ALPR approach achieved impressive results in two datasets. First, in the SSIG dataset, composed of 2,000 frames from 101 vehicle videos, our system achieved a recognition rate of 93.53% and 47 Frames Per Second (FPS), performing better than both Sighthound and OpenALPR commercial systems (89.80% and 93.03%, respectively) and considerably outperforming previous results (81.80%). Second, targeting a more realistic scenario, we introduce a larger public dataset1 dataset, designed to ALPR. This dataset contains 150 videos and 4,500 frames captured when both camera and vehicles are moving and also contains different types of vehicles (cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks). In our proposed dataset, the trial versions of commercial systems achieved recognition rates below 70%. On the other hand, our system performed better, with recognition rate of 78.33% and 35 FPS.The UFPR-ALPR dataset is publicly available to the research community at https://web.inf.ufpr.br/vri/databases/ufpr-alpr/ subject to privacy restrictions.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the degradation mechanisms of the prominent polymer encapsulant, ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymer (EVA), and the relationship of the stability of this material to the overall reliability of Si-based PV modules were addressed.
Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) modules are subject to climate-induced degradation that can affect their efficiency, stability, and operating lifetime. Among the weather and environment related mechanisms, the degradation mechanisms of the prominent polymer encapsulant, ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymer (EVA), and the relationships of the stability of this material to the overall reliability of Si-based PV modules were addressed. The EVA function and properties correlated to its deterioration factors as temperature, moisture, and ultraviolet radiation (UV) were discussed in this work. The main objective of this study is to review the literature on EVA encapsulation and its degradation, which promotes the loss in performance of the PV module. The deleterious effects on EVA such as photodegradation, moisture, delamination, bubble formation and potential induced degradation (PID), their relationship with the polymer structure, chemical, mechanical, optical and electrical properties are approaches carried out in this review. This paper also provides a brief review of the developing field of EVA composites technology aiming at higher performance materials.
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TL;DR: This paper formally introduces the qubit allocation problem and provides an exact solution to it, and provides a heuristic solution to qu bit allocation, which is faster than the current solutions already implemented to deal with this problem.
Abstract: In May of 2016, IBM Research has made a quantum processor available in the cloud to the general public. The possibility of programming an actual quantum device has elicited much enthusiasm. Yet, quantum programming still lacks the compiler support that modern programming languages enjoy today. To use universal quantum computers like IBM's, programmers must design low-level circuits. In particular, they must map logical qubits into physical qubits that need to obey connectivity constraints. This task resembles the early days of programming, in which software was built in machine languages. In this paper, we formally introduce the qubit allocation problem and provide an exact solution to it. This optimal algorithm deals with the simple quantum machinery available today; however, it cannot scale up to the more complex architectures scheduled to appear. Thus, we also provide a heuristic solution to qubit allocation, which is faster than the current solutions already implemented to deal with this problem.
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University of Copenhagen1, University of California, Berkeley2, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais3, Technical University of Denmark4, Armenian National Academy of Sciences5, University of Alaska Fairbanks6, University of Ottawa7, University of Oxford8, University of Washington9, AmeriCorps VISTA10, University of Oregon11, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro12, University of Western Ontario13, Simon Fraser University14, University of Magallanes15, University of Texas at Austin16, University of Cambridge17, University of São Paulo18, University of Tübingen19, Kansas State University20, University of Santiago de Compostela21, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign22, National Park Service23, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics24, Southern Methodist University25, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute26
TL;DR: Analysis of the oldest genomes suggests that there was an early split within Beringian populations, giving rise to the Northern and Southern lineages, and that the early population spread widely and rapidly suggests that their access to large portions of the hemisphere was essentially unrestricted, yet there are genomic and archaeological hints of an earlier human presence.
Abstract: Studies of the peopling of the Americas have focused on the timing and number of initial migrations. Less attention has been paid to the subsequent spread of people within the Americas. We sequenced 15 ancient human genomes spanning from Alaska to Patagonia; six are ≥10,000 years old (up to ~18× coverage). All are most closely related to Native Americans, including those from an Ancient Beringian individual and two morphologically distinct "Paleoamericans." We found evidence of rapid dispersal and early diversification that included previously unknown groups as people moved south. This resulted in multiple independent, geographically uneven migrations, including one that provides clues of a Late Pleistocene Australasian genetic signal, as well as a later Mesoamerican-related expansion. These led to complex and dynamic population histories from North to South America.
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TL;DR: Comparison of the statistical indices for the predicted and actual data indicate that the SVR-RBF model outperforms the MLFFNN and ANFIS-PSO models to predict the output power of the wind turbine.
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University of São Paulo1, Rio de Janeiro State University2, Universidade Federal de Goiás3, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul4, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais5, Federal University of São Paulo6, Federal Fluminense University7, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas8, Federal University of Maranhão9, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná10, Universidade Luterana do Brasil11, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul12, Universidade Estadual de Londrina13, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro14, Universidade Federal do Acre15
TL;DR: Parte 1: Diretriz Brasileira de Insuficiencia Cardiaca Cronica Cronica e Aguda.
Abstract: Parte 1: Diretriz Brasileira de Insuficiencia Cardiaca Cronica […] Diretriz Brasileira de Insuficiencia Cardiaca Cronica e Aguda
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TL;DR: Tupanvirus is a unique giant virus that has an unusually long tail and contains the largest translational apparatus of the known virosphere and their genetic analysis can provide insights into virus evolution.
Abstract: Here we report the discovery of two Tupanvirus strains, the longest tailed Mimiviridae members isolated in amoebae. Their genomes are 1.44–1.51 Mb linear double-strand DNA coding for 1276–1425 predicted proteins. Tupanviruses share the same ancestors with mimivirus lineages and these giant viruses present the largest translational apparatus within the known virosphere, with up to 70 tRNA, 20 aaRS, 11 factors for all translation steps, and factors related to tRNA/mRNA maturation and ribosome protein modification. Moreover, two sequences with significant similarity to intronic regions of 18 S rRNA genes are encoded by the tupanviruses and highly expressed. In this translation-associated gene set, only the ribosome is lacking. At high multiplicity of infections, tupanvirus is also cytotoxic and causes a severe shutdown of ribosomal RNA and a progressive degradation of the nucleus in host and non-host cells. The analysis of tupanviruses constitutes a new step toward understanding the evolution of giant viruses. Giant viruses are the largest viruses of the known virosphere and their genetic analysis can provide insights into virus evolution. Here, the authors discover Tupanvirus, a unique giant virus that has an unusually long tail and contains the largest translational apparatus of the known virosphere.
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Mohsen Naghavi1, Laurie B. Marczak1, Michael Kutz1, Katya Anne Shackelford1 +191 more•Institutions (112)
TL;DR: Between 195 000 and 276 000 firearm injury deaths globally in 2016 were estimated, the majority of which were firearm homicides, and there was variation among countries and across demographic subgroups.
Abstract: Importance Understanding global variation in firearm mortality rates could guide prevention policies and interventions. Objective To estimate mortality due to firearm injury deaths from 1990 to 2016 in 195 countries and territories. Design, Setting, and Participants This study used deidentified aggregated data including 13 812 location-years of vital registration data to generate estimates of levels and rates of death by age-sex-year-location. The proportion of suicides in which a firearm was the lethal means was combined with an estimate of per capita gun ownership in a revised proxy measure used to evaluate the relationship between availability or access to firearms and firearm injury deaths. Exposures Firearm ownership and access. Main Outcomes and Measures Cause-specific deaths by age, sex, location, and year. Results Worldwide, it was estimated that 251 000 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 195 000-276 000) people died from firearm injuries in 2016, with 6 countries (Brazil, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala) accounting for 50.5% (95% UI, 42.2%-54.8%) of those deaths. In 1990, there were an estimated 209 000 (95% UI, 172 000 to 235 000) deaths from firearm injuries. Globally, the majority of firearm injury deaths in 2016 were homicides (64.0% [95% UI, 54.2%-68.0%]; absolute value, 161 000 deaths [95% UI, 107 000-182 000]); additionally, 27% were firearm suicide deaths (67 500 [95% UI, 55 400-84 100]) and 9% were unintentional firearm deaths (23 000 [95% UI, 18 200-24 800]). From 1990 to 2016, there was no significant decrease in the estimated global age-standardized firearm homicide rate (−0.2% [95% UI, −0.8% to 0.2%]). Firearm suicide rates decreased globally at an annualized rate of 1.6% (95% UI, 1.1-2.0), but in 124 of 195 countries and territories included in this study, these levels were either constant or significant increases were estimated. There was an annualized decrease of 0.9% (95% UI, 0.5%-1.3%) in the global rate of age-standardized firearm deaths from 1990 to 2016. Aggregate firearm injury deaths in 2016 were highest among persons aged 20 to 24 years (for men, an estimated 34 700 deaths [95% UI, 24 900-39 700] and for women, an estimated 3580 deaths [95% UI, 2810-4210]). Estimates of the number of firearms by country were associated with higher rates of firearm suicide ( P R2 = 0.21) and homicide ( P R2 = 0.35). Conclusions and Relevance This study estimated between 195 000 and 276 000 firearm injury deaths globally in 2016, the majority of which were firearm homicides. Despite an overall decrease in rates of firearm injury death since 1990, there was variation among countries and across demographic subgroups.
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TL;DR: It is demonstrated that chiral spin textures are induced at graphene/ferromagnetic metal interfaces, and this work paves a path towards two-dimensional-material-based spin–orbitronics.
Abstract: The possibility of utilizing the rich spin-dependent properties of graphene has attracted much attention in the pursuit of spintronics advances. The promise of high-speed and low-energy-consumption devices motivates the search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. Here we demonstrate that chiral spin textures are induced at graphene/ferromagnetic metal interfaces. Graphene is a weak spin–orbit coupling material and is generally not expected to induce a sufficient Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction to affect magnetic chirality. We demonstrate that indeed graphene does induce a type of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction due to the Rashba effect. First-principles calculations and experiments using spin-polarized electron microscopy show that this graphene-induced Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction can have a similar magnitude to that at interfaces with heavy metals. This work paves a path towards two-dimensional-material-based spin–orbitronics.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore 2'°C-compliant CO2 emission scenarios estimating the effort needed in other sectors of the economy to compensate for the weakening of environmental governance, potentially resulting in higher deforestation emissions.
Abstract: In exchange for political support, the Brazilian government is signalling landholders to increase deforestation, putting the country’s contribution to the Paris Agreement at risk1. The President of Brazil has signed provisionary acts and decrees lowering environmental licensing requirements, suspending the ratification of indigenous lands, reducing the size of protected areas and facilitating land grabbers to obtain the deeds of illegally deforested areas2. This could undermine the success of Brazil’s CO2 emission reductions through control of deforestation in the previous decade. Integrated assessment models are tools to assess progress in fulfilling global efforts to curb climate change3,4. Using integrated assessment models developed for Brazil, we explore 2 °C-compliant CO2 emission scenarios estimating the effort needed in other sectors of the economy to compensate for the weakening of environmental governance, potentially resulting in higher deforestation emissions. We found that the risk of reversals of recent trends in deforestation governance could impose a burden on other sectors that would need to deploy not yet mature technologies to compensate for higher emissions from land-use change. The abandonment of deforestation control policies and the political support for predatory agricultural practices make it impossible to meet targets consistent with Brazil’s contribution to a 2 °C world.
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TL;DR: The current knowledge regarding the role of TLRs in neurodegeneration is revised and summarized with the focus on the possible functions of these receptors in microglia.
Abstract: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a group of receptors widely distributed in the organism. In the central nervous system, they are expressed in neurons, astrocytes, and microglia. Although their involvement in immunity is notorious, different papers have demonstrated their roles in physiological and pathological conditions, including neurodegeneration. There is increasing evidence of an involvement of TLRs, especially TLR2, 4, and 9 in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this sense, their expression in microglia might modulate the activity of these cells, which in turn, lead to protective or deleterious effects over neurons and other cells. Therefore, TLRs might mediate the link between inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. However, further studies have to be performed to elucidate the role of the other TLRs in these diseases and to further prove and confirm the pathophysiological role of all TLRs in neurodegeneration. In this paper, we revise and summarize the current knowledge regarding the role of TLRs in neurodegeneration with the focus on the possible functions of these receptors in microglia.
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TL;DR: It is concluded that alterations of the gut microbiota, specifically a depletion of Clostridia, reprogram host metabolism to perform lactate fermentation, thus supporting Salmonella infection.
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TL;DR: The results demonstrated that the GMDH model for all time intervals can successfully predict the time-series wind speed data with a high accuracy and the combination of ANfIS models with PSO and GA algorithms can increase the prediction accuracy of the ANFIS model forall time intervals.
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TL;DR: A throughout study on the meaning, characteristics, and dynamic growth of GitHub stars is provided and a list of recommendations to open source project managers and GitHub users and Software Engineering researchers is provided.
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National Museum of Natural History1, University of Warwick2, University of Exeter3, University of the West Indies4, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute5, University of São Paulo6, University of Copenhagen7, University of Washington8, University of York9, University of Oxford10, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais11, University of Tarapacá12, Norwegian University of Science and Technology13, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária14
TL;DR: Genomic, linguistic, archaeological, and paleoecological data suggest that the southwestern Amazon was a secondary improvement center for partially domesticated maize, responsible for the diversity and biogeography of modern South American maize.
Abstract: Domesticated maize evolved from wild teosinte under human influences in Mexico beginning around 9000 years before the present (yr B.P.), traversed Central America by ~7500 yr B.P., and spread into South America by ~6500 yr B.P. Landrace and archaeological maize genomes from South America suggest that the ancestral population to South American maize was brought out of the domestication center in Mexico and became isolated from the wild teosinte gene pool before traits of domesticated maize were fixed. Deeply structured lineages then evolved within South America out of this partially domesticated progenitor population. Genomic, linguistic, archaeological, and paleoecological data suggest that the southwestern Amazon was a secondary improvement center for partially domesticated maize. Multiple waves of human-mediated dispersal are responsible for the diversity and biogeography of modern South American maize.
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27 Sep 2018
TL;DR: The main contribution of this work is to introduce techniques for representing and reasoning about states in model-free deep reinforcement learning agents via relational inductive biases, which can offer advantages in efficiency, generalization, and interpretability.
Abstract: We introduce an approach for augmenting model-free deep reinforcement learning agents with a mechanism for relational reasoning over structured representations, which improves performance, learning efficiency, generalization, and interpretability. Our architecture encodes an image as a set of vectors, and applies an iterative message-passing procedure to discover and reason about relevant entities and relations in a scene. In six of seven StarCraft II Learning Environment mini-games, our agent achieved state-of-the-art performance, and surpassed human grandmasterlevel on four. In a novel navigation and planning task, our agent’s performance and learning efficiency far exceeded non-relational baselines, it was able to generalize to more complex scenes than it had experienced during training. Moreover, when we examined its learned internal representations, they reflected important structure about the problem and the agent’s intentions. The main contribution of this work is to introduce techniques for representing and reasoning about states in model-free deep reinforcement learning agents via relational inductive biases. Our experiments show this approach can offer advantages in efficiency, generalization, and interpretability, and can scale up to meet some of the most challenging test environments in modern artificial intelligence.