1,089 research outputs found
GENOME-WIDE ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR NETWORKS IN MYELOID DIFFERENTIATION AND ACUTE MYELOID LEUKAEMIA
No full textOne of the most frequent genetic abnormalities underlying the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 8 and 21 which results in the generation of a chimeric gene that encodes for the AML1/ETO fusion protein. AML1/ETO has the capacity to block myeloid differentiation, thus leading to the accumulation of immature precursor cells. The fusion protein functions as an aberrant DNA binding transcription factor, therefore altering the normal gene expression profile of the cell. Moreover, it interacts with a number of other transcription factors involved in myeloid differentiation.
In this thesis, a murine haematopoietic stem/precursor cell line was exploited to study AML1/ETO functions. The binding pattern of AML1/ETO was investigated by ChIP-sequencing and correlated to the binding profiles of AML1, PU.1 and C/EBPα transcription factors. The distribution of three histone marks (H3K4me1, H3K4me3 and H3K27ac) upon expression of AML1/ETO was also analysed. The results showed that AML1/ETO expression is associated with modifications in the binding profile of the three transcription factors and in the distribution of chromatin marks, that changes in gene expression are associated with such modifications, and more rarely, with AML1/ETO binding. High-throughput profiling of miRNAs expression revealed the presence of two miRNAs up-regulated by AML1/ETO, miR-322* and miR-351, which are likely candidates for having a role in the block of differentiation, since their inhibition restores the ability of AML1/ETO-expressing cells to differentiate. Analysis of the AML1/ETO-associated gene expression profile predicted a modulation of the cell motility and cell localization. To further explore these functions, in vitro migration assays and in vivo homing experiments were performed. These assays confirmed that AML1/ETO endows the cell with an enhanced motility and an impaired homing of cells to haematopoietic organs.
Bioinformatics analysis of AML1/ETO target genes and their regulatory regions revealed that a modification in the intensity of AML1, PU.1 and C/EBPα binding correlates with changes in gene expression. Sequence analysis showed that STAT6 and other STAT factors could synergize with AML1/ETO in the regulation of gene expression.
Taken together, these results describe how AML1/ETO expression influences its target genes and how the three transcription factors included in the study, chromatin modifications, microRNAs, and putative co-regulators are involved in such regulation. In addition, alterations in cell motility and localization, functions not yet described for AML1/ETO, were identified
Credit, Endogenous Collateral and Risky Assets: A DSGE Model
No full textWe propose a new Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with credit frictions and a banking sector. LTV ratios are assumed to be influenced by systemic and idiosyncratic risk. The model also features endogenous balance sheet choices and a novel formulation of the capital ratio, in which assets are risk-weighted by risk-sensitivity measures. We find that the presence of endogenous LTV ratios exacerbates the procyclicality of lending. Moreover, the model captures the role played by prudential regulatory frameworks in affecting business cycle fluctuations and restoring macroeconomic and financial stability. Our findings highlight the scope for coordination between monetary and macro-prudential policies
Euphorbia ×lomi produced considerable amount of flower racemes after exposure to Mediterranean winter temperatures
No full textPoysean (Euphorbia ×lomi Rauh, a spurge natural hybrid of E. milii Des Moulins × E. lophogona Lamarck) is widely grown in south-eastern Asian countries, where winter minimum temperatures are above 20°C. Poysean was recently proposed for indoor uses in Mediterranean countries thanks to its great size inflorescences and long-lasting flowering. In addition, this spurge has a very high ability to withstand long water shortage, high summer temperature and can be easily propagated by cutting. However, little is known about its ability to withstand the minimum winter temperatures of the Mediterranean areas. An outdoor experiment was performed to evaluate poysean tolerance to the winter temperatures of the thermo-Mediterranean climate and its potential use as ornamental crop for outdoor stands and window box. Two genotypes of E. ×lomi ('Nguen Muang', NM; and 'Soi Budsarin', SB) were grown at 2 or 3 plants pot-1 in window boxes during 26 months. Number of flower racemes (cyathia) and leaves plant-1, plant height, and pot ornamental value were measured monthly. No differences were observed in scores from the panel members. On average, NM showed 36% lower number of flower racemes, but 30% higher panel score than SB. During winter, NM showed a higher number of flower racemes plant-1 than SB. Few effects of plant density on flower racemes and panel test score were found and these were mostly in magnitude. The present data suggest that Euphorbia ×lomi is still able to survive and produce flower racemes during winter in the thermo Mediterranean climate and it is suitable as an ornamental plant for open-air stands and window box and likely for xeriscaping and green roofs
Design Criteria and Experimental Tests of a PM Linear Electrical Generator for the Exploitation of Sea Waves Energy
No full textA discretized enriched technique to enhance machine learning performance in credit scoring
No full textThe automated credit scoring tools play a crucial role in many financial environments, since they are able to perform a real-time evaluation of a user (e.g., a loan applicant) on the basis of several solvency criteria, without the aid of human operators. Such an automation allows who work and offer services in the financial area to take quick decisions with regard to different services, first and foremost those concerning the consumer credit, whose requests have exponentially increased over the last years. In order to face some well-known problems related to the state-of-the-art credit scoring approaches, this paper formalizes a novel data model that we called Discretized Enriched Data (DED), which operates by transforming the original feature space in order to improve the performance of the credit scoring machine learning algorithms. The idea behind the proposed DED model revolves around two processes, the first one aimed to reduce the number of feature patterns through a data discretization process, and the second one aimed to enrich the discretized data by adding several meta-features. The data discretization faces the problem of heterogeneity, which characterizes such a domain, whereas the data enrichment works on the related loss of information by adding meta-features that improve the data characterization. Our model has been evaluated in the context of real-world datasets with different sizes and levels of data unbalance, which are considered a benchmark in credit scoring literature. The obtained results indicate that it is able to improve the performance of one of the most performing machine learning algorithm largely used in this field, opening up new perspectives for the definition of more effective credit scoring solutions
New Laboratory Practices for Saia PLC - Measurement of Energy Consumption in Buildings<br>
No full textCílem práce je vytvořit novou laboratorní úlohu demonstrující jednu z možností sledování spotřeby elektrické energie. Úloha je založena na propojení čtyř typů elektroměrů od firmy SAIA pomocí komunikačního protokolu S-Bus, M-Bus, ModBus a Impuzním výstupem s programovatelným automatem (PLC) SAIA PCD2 M5540. Teoretická část popisuje trh s přístroji s možností dálkové komunikace mezi vodoměry, elektroměry, kalorimetry a plynoměry. Praktická část je zaměřena na realizaci zapojení elektroměrů, vytvoření programu v prostředí PG5 a realizaci vizualizace pomocí Web serveruThe goal of this work is to create a new laboratory task which demonstrates one of many possibilites how to watch a consumption of electric energy. The task is based on a connection of four types of electometers from SAIA company with a help of communication protocol S-Bus, M-Bus, ModBus and impulse output with programmable machine (PLC) SAIA PCD2 M5540. The theoretical part describes a market with devices which have remote communication possibility between water meters, electrometers, calorimeters and gas meters. The practical part focuses on a realization of electrometers connection, a program creation in PG5 environment and a realization of a visualisation with a help of a Web Server.Ústav automatizace a řídicí technikyobhájen
Modelling of soil organic carbon in the Mediterranean area: A systematic map
No full textA general feature of soil health is the sustainment of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and its stock. Digital soil mapping (DSM) development allowed for the implementation of soil properties mapping at various spatial and time scales. However, many of these studies were made in temperate or cold environments from central and northern Europe or United States or in stably arid ecosystems of Australia. Geographical information on the SOC are often fragmented, and this does not allow for a comparison on SOC regional variability in contrasting areas. Here a systematic research of peer-reviewed papers in the Web of science (WoS) and Scopus databases was carried out to highlight knowledge gaps in SOC studies in the Mediterranean area. The systematic searches identified 500 articles in WoS and 750 in Scopus, but only few of them were eligible as ad hoc studies. Regarding WoS, after screening, 150 studies were further analysed for inclusion in the map and only 128 included in the final map (1995-2018). From Scopus, only 104 studies were included in the map (1995-2017). Of all the countries around the Mediterranean Basin, report studies on SOC are available for 15 countries, only. Data gaps identified included the absence of long-term monitoring networks in the south of Europe, a scarcity of information from countries on the eastern coast of the Adriatic and Mediterranean sea and almost lack of detailed information on SOC models and maps from north Africa. Model exportation built in neighbourhood countries (e.g. from Sicily, Italy, to northern Tunisia, or Andalusia, Spain, to northern Morocco) are strongly needed
A combined entropy-based approach for a proactive credit scoring
No full textLenders, such as credit card companies and banks, use credit scores to evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers and, therefore, mitigating losses due to bad debt. Within the financial technology domain, an ideal approach should be able to operate proactively, without the need of knowing the behavior of non-reliable users. Actually, this does not happen because the most used techniques need to train their models with both reliable and non-reliable data in order to classify new samples. Such a scenario might be affected by the cold-start problem in datasets, where there is a scarcity or total absence of non-reliable examples, which is further worsened by the potential unbalanced distribution of the data that reduces the classification performances. In this paper, we overcome the aforementioned issues by proposing a proactive approach, composed of a combined entropy-based method that is trained considering only reliable cases and the sample under investigation. Experiments done in different real-world datasets show competitive performances with several state-of-art approaches that use the entire dataset of reliable and unreliable cases
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