Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnetoreception in eusocial insects: an update

Behavioural experiments for magnetoreception in eusocial insects in the last decade are reviewed. Ants and bees use the geomagnetic field to orient and navigate in areas around their nests and along migratory paths. Bees show sensitivity to small changes in magnetic fields in conditioning experiments and when exiting the hive. For the first time, the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles found in eusocial insects, obtained by magnetic techniques and electron microscopy, are reviewed. Different magnetic oxide nanoparticles, ranging from superparamagnetic to multi-domain particles, were observed in all body parts, but greater relative concentrations in the abdomens and antennae of honeybees and ants have focused attention on these segments. Theoretical models for how these specific magnetosensory apparatuses function have been proposed. Neuron-rich ant antennae may be the most amenable to discovering a magnetosensor that will greatly assist research into higher order processing of magnetic information. The ferromagnetic hypothesis is believed to apply to eusocial insects, but interest in a light-sensitive mechanism is growing. The diversity of compass mechanisms in animals suggests that multiple compasses may function in insect orientation and navigation. The search for magnetic compasses will continue even after a magnetosensor is discovered in eusocial insects.
MMS/FEEPS Observations of Electron Microinjections Due to Kelvin‐Helmholtz Waves and Flux Transfer Events: A Case Study

The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) suite onboard the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observes dispersive and repetitive fluxes of high‐energy (50–400 keV) electrons within the Pc5 frequency band (2–8 MHz) in the dusk to midnight region of Earth's magnetotail. These microinjections are a new phenomenon in this region of the magnetosphere, presently poorly understood, but clearly a new signature that remotely senses large‐scale magnetospheric boundary dynamics. It is therefore important to understand their properties and driver mechanisms. Here we have combined global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and particle tracing results with the MMS EPD Fly's Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS) observations to investigate possible origins and source regions of the electron microinjections. Our simulation results suggest that the electron microinjections, observed in the dusk to premidnight sector, are associated with Kelvin‐Helmholtz waves (KHWs) and flux transfer events (FTEs). Energetic electrons launched from a limited range of locations near the postnoon dusk magnetopause and at times when KHWs and FTEs pass by that region have drift paths that connect with MMS and thus create time‐dependent microinjection electron signatures. Test‐particle tracing results in the magnetohydrodynamic fields also support the field‐aligned nature of electron microinjections observed by MMS. Though identifying the mechanism by which KHWs and FTEs might periodically inject electrons is beyond the scope of this work, our study does identify these duskside magnetopause boundary phenomena as likely agents of microinjection origins.
Developmental Function in Toddlers With Sickle Cell Anemia

BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive impairment occurs in children and adults with sickle cell anemia, but little is known about neurodevelopment in very young children. We examined the neurodevelopmental status of infants participating in the Pediatric Hydroxyurea Phase III Clinical Trial (Baby Hug) to determine relationships with age, cerebral blood flow velocity, and hemoglobin concentration. METHODS: Standardized measures of infant neurodevelopment were administered to 193 infants with hemoglobin SS or hemoglobin S-β0 thalassemia between 7 and 18 months of age at the time of their baseline evaluation. Associations between neurodevelopmental scores and age, family income, parent education, hemoglobin concentration, and transcranial Doppler velocity were examined. RESULTS: Mean functioning on the baseline neurodevelopment scales was in the average range. There were no mental development scores <70 (impaired); 22 children had scores in the clinically significant range, 11 with impaired psychomotor scores and 11 with problematic behavior rating scores. Significantly poorer performance was observed with older age at baseline. Behavior rating scores were an average of 2.82 percentile points lower per month of age, with similar patterns observed with parent report using adaptive behavior scales. Parent-reported functional abilities and hemoglobin were negatively associated with higher transcranial Doppler velocities. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas overall functioning was in the normal range, behavioral and adaptive function was poorer with older age, even in this very young group of children. Explanatory mechanisms for this association between poorer developmental function and older age need to be identified.
Globalization and the Fiscal Autonomy of the State

This paper investigates the fiscal consequences of various measures of policy liberalization designed to increase the global integration of developing countries. Its principal conclusions are that globalization has further accentuated the fiscal constraints facing states, and that there is a cumulative process of causation between liberal policies and the fiscal constraint. These conclusions imply that the fiscal basis of constructive state action to promote human development and solve distributive conflict is now more limited than before. Even if there are significant long-run benefits to globalization (this remains a controversial claim), the transition to greater global integration in developing countries requires strong public action and a stable fiscal base. The push to globalization can and has been premature from this viewpoint. Globalization and human development are not orthogonal to each other. There are significant tradeoffs between them mediated especially through the fisc. Developing country governments are especially constrained by the paucity of tax and expenditure instruments which conflicts with accepted canons of economic efficiency and `good' macroeconomic policy which globalization is supposed to enforce. States must retain the autonomy from global market forces necessary to pursue nationally and politically determined tradeoffs. Not just international financial institutions but also states as policy-makers, have played an essential determining role in this process of external integration. Hence, it appears as something of a paradox that states are seen as helpless in the face of the forces of globalization. The paradox dissolves once it is recognized that the global arena of policy has both powerful and weak players, countries able to take advantage of the global marketplace and those vulnerable to its compulsions, individual countries and various collectivities of nations, active agents of change and passive onlookers. The fiscal autonomy of states has been trimmed, in part, by states acting autonomously and powerfully.
The Geographical Distribution and Burden of Trachoma in Africa

Background There remains a lack of epidemiological data on the geographical distribution of trachoma to support global mapping and scale up of interventions for the elimination of trachoma. The Global Atlas of Trachoma (GAT) was launched in 2011 to address these needs and provide standardised, updated and accessible maps. This paper uses data included in the GAT to describe the geographical distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa. Methods Data assembly used structured searches of published and unpublished literature to identify cross-sectional epidemiological data on the burden of trachoma since 1980. Survey data were abstracted into a standardised database and mapped using geographical information systems (GIS) software. The characteristics of all surveys were summarized by country according to data source, time period, and survey methodology. Estimates of the current population at risk were calculated for each country and stratified by endemicity class. Results At the time of writing, 1342 records are included in the database representing surveys conducted between 1985 and 2012. These data were provided by direct contact with national control programmes and academic researchers (67%), peer-reviewed publications (17%) and unpublished reports or theses (16%). Prevalence data on active trachoma are available in 29 of the 33 countries in Africa classified as endemic for trachoma, and 1095 (20.6%) districts have representative data collected through population-based prevalence surveys. The highest prevalence of active trachoma and trichiasis remains in the Sahel area of West Africa and Savannah areas of East and Central Africa and an estimated 129.4 million people live in areas of Africa confirmed to be trachoma endemic. Conclusion The Global Atlas of Trachoma provides the most contemporary and comprehensive summary of the burden of trachoma within Africa. The GAT highlights where future mapping is required and provides an important planning tool for scale-up and surveillance of trachoma control.
Time‐Lapse Photometric Stereo and Applications

This paper presents a technique to recover geometry from time‐lapse sequences of outdoor scenes. We build upon photometric stereo techniques to recover approximate shadowing, shading and normal components allowing us to alter the material and normals of the scene. Previous work in analyzing such images has faced two fundamental difficulties: 1. the illumination in outdoor images consists of time‐varying sunlight and skylight, and 2. the motion of the sun is restricted to a near‐planar arc through the sky, making surface normal recovery unstable. We develop methods to estimate the reflection component due to skylight illumination. We also show that sunlight directions are usually non‐planar, thus making surface normal recovery possible. This allows us to estimate approximate surface normals for outdoor scenes using a single day of data. We demonstrate the use of these surface normals for a number of image editing applications including reflectance, lighting, and normal editing.
Effect of the multifunctional proteins RPA, YB‐1, and XPC repair factor on AP site cleavage by DNA glycosylase NEIL1

DNA glycosylases are key enzymes in the first step of base excision DNA repair, recognizing DNA damage and catalyzing the release of damaged nucleobases. Bifunctional DNA glycosylases also possess associated apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) lyase activity that nick the damaged DNA strand at an abasic (or AP) site, formed either spontaneously or at the first step of repair. NEIL1 is a bifunctional DNA glycosylase capable of processing lesions, including AP sites, not only in double‐stranded but also in single‐stranded DNA. Here, we show that proteins participating in DNA damage response, YB‐1 and RPA, affect AP site cleavage by NEIL1. Stimulation of the AP lyase activity of NEIL1 was observed when an AP site was located in a 60 nt‐long double‐stranded DNA. Both RPA and YB‐1 inhibited AP site cleavage by NEIL1 when the AP site was located in single‐stranded DNA. Taking into account a direct interaction of YB‐1 with the AP site, located in single‐stranded DNA, and the high affinity of both YB‐1 and RPA for single‐stranded DNA, this behavior is presumably a consequence of a competition with NEIL1 for the DNA substrate. Xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C protein (XPC), a key protein of another DNA repair pathway, was shown to interact directly with AP sites but had no effect on AP site cleavage by NEIL1. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Atmospheric CO2 Observations Reveal Strong Correlation Between Regional Net Biospheric Carbon Uptake and Solar‐Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Recent studies have shown the promise of remotely sensed solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) in informing terrestrial carbon exchange, but analyses have been limited to either plot level (~1 km2) or hemispheric/global (~108 km2) scales due to the lack of a direct measure of carbon exchange at intermediate scales. Here we use a network of atmospheric CO2 observations over North America to explore the value of SIF for informing net ecosystem exchange (NEE) at regional scales. We find that SIF explains space‐time NEE patterns at regional (~100 km2) scales better than a variety of other vegetation and climate indicators. We further show that incorporating SIF into an atmospheric inversion leads to a spatial redistribution of NEE estimates over North America, with more uptake attributed to agricultural regions and less to needleleaf forests. Our results highlight the synergy of ground‐based and spaceborne carbon cycle observations.
Hierarchical Joint Max-Margin Learning of Mid and Top Level Representations for Visual Recognition

Currently, Bag-of-Visual-Words (BoVW) and part-based methods are the most popular approaches for visual recognition. In both cases, a mid-level representation is built on top of low-level image descriptors and top-level classifiers use this mid-level representation to achieve visual recognition. While in current part-based approaches, mid- and top-level representations are usually jointly trained, this is not the usual case for BoVW schemes. A main reason for this is the complex data association problem related to the usual large dictionary size needed by BoVW approaches. As a further observation, typical solutions based on BoVW and part-based representations are usually limited to extensions of binary classification schemes, a strategy that ignores relevant correlations among classes. In this work we propose a novel hierarchical approach to visual recognition based on a BoVW scheme that jointly learns suitable mid- and top-level representations. Furthermore, using a max-margin learning framework, the proposed approach directly handles the multiclass case at both levels of abstraction. We test our proposed method using several popular benchmark datasets. As our main result, we demonstrate that, by coupling learning of mid- and top-level representations, the proposed approach fosters sharing of discriminative visual words among target classes, being able to achieve state-of-the-art recognition performance using far less visual words than previous approaches.
A demographic approach to study effects of climate change in desert plants

Desert species respond strongly to infrequent, intense pulses of precipitation. Consequently, indigenous flora has developed a rich repertoire of life-history strategies to deal with fluctuations in resource availability. Examinations of how future climate change will affect the biota often forecast negative impacts, but these—usually correlative—approaches overlook precipitation variation because they are based on averages. Here, we provide an overview of how variable precipitation affects perennial and annual desert plants, and then implement an innovative, mechanistic approach to examine the effects of precipitation on populations of two desert plant species. This approach couples robust climatic projections, including variable precipitation, with stochastic, stage-structured models constructed from long-term demographic datasets of the short-lived Cryptantha flava in the Colorado Plateau Desert (USA) and the annual Carrichtera annua in the Negev Desert (Israel). Our results highlight these populations' potential to buffer future stochastic precipitation. Population growth rates in both species increased under future conditions: wetter, longer growing seasons for Cryptantha and drier years for Carrichtera. We determined that such changes are primarily due to survival and size changes for Cryptantha and the role of seed bank for Carrichtera. Our work suggests that desert plants, and thus the resources they provide, might be more resilient to climate change than previously thought.
Fluorocytometric analysis of induced sputum cells in an asthmatic population.

BACKGROUND Bronchial mucosal inflammation is the major pathogenic process in asthma. In the latest years, induced sputum (IS) examination has become an important non-invasive method of assessing airway inflammation. Flow cytometry has been recently applied to the study of IS though it is not exempt of methodological difficulties. The aim of the present study was to further study if the fluorocytometric analysis of IS could represent a reliable tool to assess the presence of bronchial activated lymphocytes in stable mild asthmatic patients. METHODS Induced sputa from controls and asthmatic patients were processed in isotonic 3mM dithiothreitol (DTT), a mucolytic agent required for cell dispersion. The individualized cells were then stained with monoclonal antibodies for three-colour flow-cytometric analysis. Total IgE and ECP were measured in serum and in the sputum fluid phase. RESULTS The cellularity of asthmatic sputa is enriched in eosinophils (mean, 26.63%) with respect to controls, but not in lymphocytes. However, lymphocytes from asthmatics show increased surface expression of activation markers (CD25 in T cells, CD23 in B cells). Surprisingly, no differences were observed in the detected levels of CD54 on IS lymphocytes and eosinophils between asthmatics and non-asthmatics. Furthermore, there was a significantly higher concentration of ECP and total IgE in the sputum from the asthmatic group. CONCLUSION Fluorocytometric analysis of induced sputum is a reliable non-invasive method for the study of bronchial immune cells. It could provide complementary information on activated cells in the bronchial mucosa even in non-smokers, mild and stable asthmatics and it is reasonable to speculate that it will be useful in monitoring the effect of the treatment in these patients.
Exploration of Sub-VT and Near-VT 2T Gain-Cell Memories for Ultra-Low Power Applications under Technology Scaling

Ultra-low power applications often require several kb of embedded memory and are typically operated at the lowest possible operating voltage (VDD) to minimize both dynamic and static power consumption. Embedded memories can easily dominate the overall silicon area of these systems, and their leakage currents often dominate the total power consumption. Gain-cell based embedded DRAM arrays provide a high-density, low-leakage alternative to SRAM for such systems; however, they are typically designed for operation at nominal or only slightly scaled supply voltages. This paper presents a gain-cell array which, for the first time, targets aggressively scaled supply voltages, down into the subthreshold (sub-VT) domain. Minimum VDD design of gain-cell arrays is evaluated in light of technology scaling, considering both a mature 0.18 μm CMOS node, as well as a scaled 40 nm node. We first analyze the trade-offs that characterize the bitcell design in both nodes, arriving at a best-practice design methodology for both mature and scaled technologies. Following this analysis, we propose full gain-cell arrays for each of the nodes, operated at a minimum VDD. We find that an 0.18 μm gain-cell array can be robustly operated at a sub-VT supply voltage of 400mV, providing read/write availability over 99% of the time, despite refresh cycles. This is demonstrated on a 2 kb array, operated at 1 MHz, exhibiting full functionality under parametric variations. As opposed to sub-VT operation at the mature node, we find that the scaled 40 nm node requires a near-threshold 600mV supply to achieve at least 97% read/write availability due to higher leakage currents that limit the bitcell’s retention time. Monte Carlo simulations show that a 600mV 2 kb 40 nm gain-cell array is fully functional at frequencies higher than 50 MHz.
End-to-end aggregate authentication of time-series data

We consider the problem of providing integrity of aggregate result in the presence of an untrusted data aggregator who may introduce errors into data fusion, causing the final aggregate result to far deviate from the true result determined by participating values. We proposes a construction that allows a group of participants to periodically upload authenticated data values to a data aggregator, such that the aggregator is able to derive an aggregate signature over the true aggregate result, but is unable to do so if any error is introduced into the aggregate result. To our knowledge, it is the first secure agggregate authentication scheme that achieves end-to-end security without resorting to additional communication or third parties. Our construction supports iterative aggregation thus it can be used in a networked environment where there exists multi-level of aggregators. Our construction is efficient in term of both computation and communication. Especially, the online computation cost of aggregate tag verification is constant and independent of the number of underlying individual signatures. We prove the security of our construction under the assumption of CDH problem.
Laparoscopic Myomectomy

: Myomectomy was performed by laparoscopy in 102 patients, according to a precise technique using the monopolar hook for the uterine incision and intraperitoneal sutures. Myomas were mostly removed through the suprapubic puncture site after fragmentation or by colpotomy. Conversion to laparotomy during the laparoscopic procedure was necessary in 2 cases. No complications were observed. A second-look laparoscopy was performed in 17 cases. Postoperative adhesions were noted in 2 cases. In our experience, operative laparoscopy has several advantages over laparotomy and the risk of complications is low in selected cases.
Pairing-based Ensemble Classier Learning using Convolutional Brain Multiplexes & Multi-view Brain Networks for Early Dementia Diagnosis

The majority of works using brain connectomics for dementia diagnosis heavily relied on using structural (diﬀusion MRI) and functional brain connectivity (functional MRI). However, how early dementia aﬀects the morphology of the cortical surface remains poorly understood. In this paper, we ﬁrst introduce multi-view morphological brain network architecture which stacks multiple networks, each quantifying a cortical attribute (e.g., thickness). Second, to model the relationship between brain views, we propose a subject-speciﬁc convolutional brain multiplex composed of intra-layers (brain views) and inter-layers between them by convolving two consecutive views. By reordering the intra-layers, we generate diﬀerent multiplexes for each subject. Third, to distinguish demented brains from healthy ones, we propose a pairing-based ensemble classiﬁer learning strategy , which projects each pair of brain multiplex sets onto a low-dimensional space where they are fused, then classiﬁed. Our framework achieved the best classiﬁcation results for the right hemisphere 90.8% and the left hemisphere 89.5%.
Effect of 10 years of biofertiliser use on soil quality and rice yield on an Inceptisol in Assam, India

In the present study, field experiments were performed over 10 consecutive years (2006–15) to assess the effects of biofertiliser and enriched biocompost on soil quality, total organic carbon (TOC) and rice yields in an Inceptisol. Experiments were conducted in a randomised block design with four replicates and five treatments: unfertilised control (T1); recommended doses of inorganic fertiliser (T2); biofertiliser with reduced (50%) inorganic N and P fertilisers (T3); reduced (50%) inorganic N and P fertilisers with 1 t ha–1 enriched biocompost (T4); and reduced (75%) inorganic N and P fertilisers with 2 t ha–1 enriched biocompost (T5). T3 improved soil chemical and biological properties with enhanced soil quality index (40%), total P (23%), total K (42%) and fungal (38%) and bacterial (44%) colony counts. T5 significantly improved the carbon pool index (29%) and available nutrients (N, P and K at rates of 37%, 22% and 10% respectively) and increased soil pH (11%), resulting in a higher sustainable yield index (39%) of rice. Fraction 2 (labile carbon) of TOC, total P, available K, microbial biomass carbon and phosphate-solubilising bacteria were key indicators to assess the suitability of these fertilisers in rice cultivation in north-east India.