Search results for "ERC"
showing 10 items of 18589 documents
Cohesive Model for the Simulation of Crack Initiation and Propagation in Mixed-Mode I/II in Composite Materials
2019
A cohesive element able to connect and simulate crack growth between independently modeled finite element subdomains with non-matching meshes is proposed and validated. The approach is based on penalty constraints and has several advantages over conventional FE techniques in disconnecting two regions of a model during crack growth. The most important is the ability to release portion of the interface that are smaller than the local finite element length. Thus, the growth of delamination is not limited to advancing by releasing nodes of the FE model, which is a limitation common to the methods found in the literature. Furthermore, it is possible to vary the penalty parameter within the cohes…
A continuous genome assembly of the corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops)
2018
Material suplementar disponível online em: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygeno.2018.04.009. The wrasses (Labridae) are one of the most successful and species-rich families of the Perciformes order of teleost fish. Its members display great morphological diversity, and occupy distinct trophic levels in coastal waters and coral reefs. The cleaning behaviour displayed by some wrasses, such as corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops), is of particular interest for the salmon aquaculture industry to combat and control sea lice infestation as an alternative to chemicals and pharmaceuticals. There are still few genome assemblies available within this fish family for comparative and functional studies, despi…
Next-generation sequencing: big data meets high performance computing
2017
The progress of next-generation sequencing has a major impact on medical and genomic research. This high-throughput technology can now produce billions of short DNA or RNA fragments in excess of a few terabytes of data in a single run. This leads to massive datasets used by a wide range of applications including personalized cancer treatment and precision medicine. In addition to the hugely increased throughput, the cost of using high-throughput technologies has been dramatically decreasing. A low sequencing cost of around US$1000 per genome has now rendered large population-scale projects feasible. However, to make effective use of the produced data, the design of big data algorithms and t…
A new parallel pipeline for DNA methylation analysis of long reads datasets
2017
Background DNA methylation is an important mechanism of epigenetic regulation in development and disease. New generation sequencers allow genome-wide measurements of the methylation status by reading short stretches of the DNA sequence (Methyl-seq). Several software tools for methylation analysis have been proposed over recent years. However, the current trend is that the new sequencers and the ones expected for an upcoming future yield sequences of increasing length, making these software tools inefficient and obsolete. Results In this paper, we propose a new software based on a strategy for methylation analysis of Methyl-seq sequencing data that requires much shorter execution times while…
Topographic Independent Component Analysis reveals random scrambling of orientation in visual space
2017
Neurons at primary visual cortex (V1) in humans and other species are edge filters organized in orientation maps. In these maps, neurons with similar orientation preference are clustered together in iso-orientation domains. These maps have two fundamental properties: (1) retinotopy, i.e. correspondence between displacements at the image space and displacements at the cortical surface, and (2) a trade-off between good coverage of the visual field with all orientations and continuity of iso-orientation domains in the cortical space. There is an active debate on the origin of these locally continuous maps. While most of the existing descriptions take purely geometric/mechanistic approaches whi…
Dynamic large-scale network synchronization from perception to action
2018
Sensory-guided actions entail the processing of sensory information, generation of perceptual decisions, and the generation of appropriate actions. Neuronal activity underlying these processes is distributed into sensory, fronto-parietal, and motor brain areas, respectively. How the neuronal processing is coordinated across these brain areas to support functions from perception to action remains unknown. We investigated whether phase synchronization in large-scale networks coordinate these processes. We recorded human cortical activity with magnetoencephalography (MEG) during a task in which weak somatosensory stimuli remained unperceived or were perceived. We then assessed dynamic evolutio…
The Active Inference Approach to Ecological Perception: General Information Dynamics for Natural and Artificial Embodied Cognition
2018
The emerging neurocomputational vision of humans as embodied, ecologically embedded, social agents – who shape and are shaped by their environment – offers a golden opportunity to revisit and revise ideas about the physical and information-theoretic underpinnings of life, mind, and consciousness itself. In particular, the active inference framework (AIF) makes it possible to bridge connections from computational neuroscience and robotics/AI to ecological psychology and phenomenology, revealing common underpinnings and overcoming key limitations. AIF opposes the mechanistic to the reductive, while staying fully grounded in a naturalistic and information theoretic foundation, using the princi…
Hyperosmolarity and Benzalkonium Chloride Differently Stimulate Inflammatory Markers in Conjunctiva-Derived Epithelial Cells in vitro
2017
Tear hyperosmolarity is known to cause ocular surface inflammation in dry eye syndrome. Benzalkonium chloride (BAK), an eyedrop preservative, is known to induce dry eye in long-term-treated patients. Analyzing the modulation of the proinflammatory potential of hyperosmolarity in the presence of BAK on the conjunctiva could give new insights into the effect of this preservative on the disease. In a hyperosmolar model on a conjunctiva-derived cell line, and in the presence of BAK, we evaluated key inflammatory markers [CCL2, IL-8, IL-6, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1] as well as the osmoprotectant element nuclear factor of activated T…
Healthy lifestyle and eating perceptions: correlations with weight and low-fat and low-sugar food consumption in adolescence
2017
Background: Low-fat and low-sugar foods, marketed as health promoters, offer an interesting avenue for consumers to pursue a healthier life. Despite the relevance of educating adolescents about the...
Serratus anterior contraction during resisted arm extension (GravityFit) assessed by MRI
2019
Background: Scapular stabilization is a common focus of shoulder rehabilitation. Objective: Examine contraction of serratus anterior during a bilateral arm extension exercise with axial compression using an exercise device (GravityFit) by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: MRI was performed under two conditions: rest and static arm extension with axial compression. Load was set at 20% of age, sex and weight estimated bench press one-repetition maximum. A T2-weighted sequence was used to collect 14 axial images of the upper thoracic spine and shoulder bilaterally. Mean muscle length and thickness were calculated for the whole muscle and in equidistant subregions of the muscle in its …