Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climate Extreme Effects on the Chemical Composition of Temperate Grassland Species under Ambient and Elevated CO2: A Comparison of Fructan and Non-Fructan Accumulators

Elevated CO2 concentrations and extreme climate events, are two increasing components of the ongoing global climatic change factors, may alter plant chemical composition and thereby their economic and ecological characteristics, e.g. nutritional quality and decomposition rates. To investigate the impact of climate extremes on tissue quality, four temperate grassland species: the fructan accumulating grasses Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis, and the nitrogen (N) fixing legumes Medicago lupulina and Lotus corniculatus were subjected to water deficit at elevated temperature (+3°C), under ambient CO2 (392 ppm) and elevated CO2 (620 ppm). As a general observation, the effects of the climate extreme were larger and more ubiquitous in combination with elevated CO2. The imposed climate extreme increased non-structural carbohydrate and phenolics in all species, whereas it increased lignin in legumes and decreased tannins in grasses. However, there was no significant effect of climate extreme on structural carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and mineral contents and stoichiometric ratios. In combination with elevated CO2, climate extreme elicited larger increases in fructan and sucrose content in the grasses without affecting the total carbohydrate content, while it significantly increased total carbohydrates in legumes. The accumulation of carbohydrates in legumes was accompanied by higher activity of sucrose phosphate synthase, sucrose synthase and ADP-Glc pyrophosphorylase. In the legumes, elevated CO2 in combination with climate extreme reduced protein, phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg) contents and the total element:N ratio and it increased phenol, lignin, tannin, carbon (C), nitrogen (N) contents and C:N, C:P and N:P ratios. On the other hand, the tissue composition of the fructan accumulating grasses was not affected at this level, in line with recent views that fructans contribute to cellular homeostasis under stress. It is speculated that quality losses will be less prominent in grasses (fructan accumulators) than legumes under climate extreme and its combination with elevated CO2 conditions.
Repeated neonatal handling with maternal separation permanently alters hippocampal GABAA receptors and behavioral stress responses

Increasing evidence suggests that postnatal events, such as handling or maternal separation, can produce long-term changes in brain function. These are often expressed as changes in the profile of endocrine or behavioral responses to stress. Changes in γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABARs), which mediate the majority of fast synaptic inhibition in adult brain, have been proposed as one potential mediator of these behavioral effects. In the current article, we use a combination of single-cell electrophysiology and antisense mRNA amplification to demonstrate permanent molecular and functional differences in GABARs within hippocampal dentate granule neurons after as few as two episodes of neonatal handling with brief maternal separation. Adult animals that as pups experienced handling with maternal separation maintained a more immature GABAR phenotype and exhibited increased activity in response to swim stress. These findings demonstrate the exquisite sensitivity of the developing GABAergic system to even subtle environmental manipulations and provide an unique molecular mechanism by which postnatal handling with maternal separation may alter stress-related behavior.
Percutaneous and Minimally Invasive Techniques of Achilles Tendon Repair

Despite the controversy regarding the best treatment for an acute Achilles tendon rupture, percutaneous and minimally invasive techniques seem to offer good results in terms of low risks of rerupture and complications with satisfactory clinical and functional outcomes. A comparison between a percutaneous surgical technique and a minimally invasive one has not been reported in the literature. We consecutively evaluated 12 patients who had a modified Ma and Griffith percutaneous Achilles tendon repair and 12 patients who had a minimally invasive technique. The same semifunctional rehabilitation protocol was used after surgery in both groups. At a minimum followup of 24 months (mean, 33 months; range, 24-42 months), we observed no reruptures or major complications in either group. Both groups had similarly high values for the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society score. The two techniques allowed equivalent time for return to work and sports. In the group of patients treated with the modified Ma and Griffith suture only, the mean loss of calf circumference in the injured leg was greater, compared with the contralateral leg. The two groups were isokinetically similar. In this study, the percutaneous and minimally invasive techniques of repair of the Achilles tendon yielded essentially identical clinical and functional outcomes.Level of Evidence: Level III, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Improving the memory behavior of vertical filtering in the discrete wavelet transform

The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used in several image and video compression standards, in particular JPEG2000. A 2D DWT consists of horizontal filtering along the rows followed by vertical filtering along the columns. It is well-known that a straightforward implementation of vertical filtering (assuming a row-major layout) induces many cache misses, due to lack of spatial locality. This can be avoided by interchanging the loops. This paper shows, however, that the resulting implementation suffers significantly from 64K aliasing, which occurs in the Pentium 4 when two data blocks are accessed that are a multiple of 64K apart, and we propose two techniques to avoid it. In addition, if the filter length is longer than four, the number of ways of the L1 data cache of the Pentium 4 is insufficient to avoid cache conflict misses. Consequently, we propose two methods for reducing conflict misses. Although experimental results have been collected on the Pentium 4, the techniques are general and can be applied to other processors with different cache organizations as well. The proposed techniques improve the performance of vertical filtering compared to already optimized baseline implementations by a factor of 3.11 for the (5,3) lifting scheme, 3.11 for Daubechies' transform of four coefficients, and by a factor of 1.99 for the Cohen, Daubechies, and Feauveau 9/7 transform.
Microbial Communities of Lycaenid Butterflies Do Not Correlate with Larval Diet

Herbivores possess many counteradaptations to plant defenses, and a growing body of research describes the role of symbiotic gut bacteria in mediating herbivorous diets among insects. However, persistent bacterial symbioses have not been found in Lepidoptera, despite the fact that perhaps 99% of the species in this order are herbivorous. We surveyed bacterial communities in the guts of larvae from 31 species of lycaenid butterflies whose caterpillars had diets ranging from obligate carnivory to strict herbivory. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the bacterial communities of carnivorous and herbivorous caterpillars do not differ in richness, diversity, or composition. Many of the observed bacterial genera are commonly found in soil and plant surfaces, and we detected known homopteran endosymbionts in the guts of homopterophagous species, suggesting that larvae acquire gut bacteria from their food and environment. These results indicate that lycaenid butterflies do not rely on specific bacterial symbioses to mediate their diverse diets, and provide further evidence of taxonomically depauperate bacterial communities among Lepidoptera.
Disabilities Sports and Health Sciences

Trampoline-based therapies have demonstrated the potential to enhance motor skills in children with autism by promoting the development of control, stability, and muscle power. This research aimed to investigate the impact of different trampoline therapies on motor abilities competency, lower limb muscle power, and body mass index (BMI) in a group of 25 children with autism (aged 6.9 ± 2.3 years old). Respondents were separated into two groups to participate in the experiment: Group A consisted of six children who underwent a 20-week program, while Group B comprised eight children who received a 32-week program. Additionally, an 11-member control group received no treatment. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Ability-2 otherwise stated (BOT-2), the Standing Long Jump test, and Mass Index of Body (BMI) assessments was administered at three time points: baseline (T1), during the program (T2), and after the program (T3). The results showed that both experimental groups demonstrated significant improvements scores in BOT-2 and lengthy standing jump workout performance after 20 and 32 weeks of trampoline-based therapy, respectively, compared to the control group. However, there were no significant changes in mass index of body before and after the programs in any of the three groups. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that engaging in trampoline training for a minimum duration of 20 weeks could potentially serve as an efficacious therapeutic approach to enhance motor skills among children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Anaphylatoxins Activate Ca2+, Akt/PI3-Kinase, and FOXO1/FoxP3 in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium

Purpose The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a main target for complement activation in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The anaphylatoxins C3a and C5a have been thought to mostly play a role as chemoattractants for macrophages and immune cells; here, we explore whether they trigger RPE alterations. Specifically, we investigated the RPE as a potential immunoregulatory gate, allowing for active changes in the RPE microenvironment in response to complement. Design In vitro and in vivo analysis of signaling pathways. Methods Individual activities of and interaction between the two anaphylatoxin receptors were tested in cultured RPE cells by fluorescence microscopy, western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Main outcome measures Intracellular free calcium, protein phosphorylation, immunostaining of tissues/cells, and multiplex secretion assay. Results Similar to immune cells, anaphylatoxin exposure resulted in increases in free cytosolic Ca2+, PI3-kinase/Akt activation, FoxP3 and FOXO1 phosphorylation, and cytokine/chemokine secretion. Differential responses were elicited depending on whether C3a and C5a were co-administered or applied consecutively, and response amplitudes in co-administration experiments ranged from additive to driven by C5a (C3a + C5a = C5a) or being smaller than those elicited by C3a alone (C3a + C5a < C3a). Conclusion We suggest that this combination of integrative signaling between C3aR and C5aR helps the RPE to precisely adopt its immune regulatory function. These data further contribute to our understanding of AMD pathophysiology.
Complex Genetic Architecture Revealed by Analysis of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Chromosome Substitution Strains and F2 Crosses

Intercrosses between inbred lines provide a traditional approach to analysis of polygenic inheritance in model organisms. Chromosome substitution strains (CSSs) have been developed as an alternative to accelerate the pace of gene identification in quantitative trait mapping. We compared a classical intercross and three CSS intercrosses to examine the genetic architecture underlying plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) levels in the C57BL/6J (B) and A/J (A) mouse strains. The B × A intercross revealed significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for HDL on chromosomes 1, 4, 8, 15, 17, 18, and 19. A CSS survey revealed that many have significantly different HDL levels compared to the background strain B, including chromosomes with no significant QTL in the intercross and, in some cases (CSS-1, CSS-17), effects that are opposite to those observed in the B × A intercross population. Intercrosses between B and three CSSs (CSS-3, CSS-11, and CSS-8) revealed significant QTL but with some unexpected differences from the B × A intercross. Our inability to predict the results of CSS intercrosses suggests that additional complexity will be revealed by further crosses and that the CSS mapping strategy should be viewed as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, classical intercross mapping.
Products of in vitro cleavage and polyadenylation of simian virus 40 late pre-mRNAs

Formation of mRNA 3' termini involves cleavage of an mRNA precursor and polyadenylation of the newly formed end. Cleavage of simian virus 40 late pre-mRNA in a crude nuclear extract generated two RNAs, 5' and 3' half-molecules. These RNAs were unmodified and linear. The 5' half-molecule contained sequences upstream but not downstream of the poly(A) site and ended in a 3'-terminal hydroxyl. The 3' half-molecules comprised a family of RNAs, each of which contains only sequences downstream of the poly(A) site, and ends in a 5'-terminal phosphate. These RNAs differed only in the locations of their 5' terminus. The 3' terminus of the 5' half-molecule was the adenosine 10 nucleotides downstream of AAUAAA, at the +1 position. The 5' terminus of the longest 3' half-molecule was at +2. Thus, these two RNAs contain every nucleoside and phosphate of the precursor. The existence of these half-molecules demonstrates that endonucleolytic cleavage occurs near the poly(A) site. 5' half-molecules generated in the presence of EDTA (which blocks polyadenylation, but not cleavage) ended at the adenosine at position +1 of the precursor. When incubated in the extract under suitable conditions, they became polyadenylated. 5' half-molecules formed in 3'-dATP-containing reactions contained a single 3'-deoxyadenosine (cordycepin) residue added onto the +1 adenosine and were poor polyadenylation substrates. We infer that the +1 adenosine of the precursor becomes the first A of the poly(A) tract and provides a 3' hydroxyl group to which poly(A) is added posttranscriptionally.
Control of alternative splicing in immune responses: many regulators, many predictions, much still to learn

Most mammalian pre‐mRNAs are alternatively spliced in a manner that alters the resulting open reading frame. Consequently, alternative pre‐mRNA splicing provides an important RNA‐based layer of protein regulation and cellular function. The ubiquitous nature of alternative splicing coupled with the advent of technologies that allow global interrogation of the transcriptome have led to an increasing awareness of the possibility that widespread changes in splicing patterns contribute to lymphocyte function during an immune response. Indeed, a few notable examples of alternative splicing have clearly been demonstrated to regulate T‐cell responses to antigen. Moreover, several proteins key to the regulation of splicing in T cells have recently been identified. However, much remains to be done to truly identify the spectrum of genes that are regulated at the level of splicing in immune cells and to determine how many of these are controlled by currently known factors and pathways versus unknown mechanisms. Here, we describe the proteins, pathways, and mechanisms that have been shown to regulate alternative splicing in human T cells and discuss what is and is not known about the genes regulated by such factors. Finally, we highlight unifying themes with regards to the mechanisms and consequences of alternative splicing in the adaptive immune system and give our view of important directions for future studies.
Erythrocyte and iron profiles in soil-transmitted helminth-infected children in a rural area in Banten, Indonesia

BACKGROUND Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection, frequently caused by Ascaris lumbricoides , Trichuris trichiura , and hookworms ( Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus ), often gives rise to malabsorption of nutrients that form hemoglobin (Hb) thereby causing anemia. This study aimed to know the difference in erythrocyte profile in children with and without STH infections. METHODS This cross-sectional study involved 205 children from two Panimbang Jaya elementary schools in Pandeglang, Banten, Indonesia. Blood and stool samples were collected from a previous study conducted from November 2021 to May 2022. Erythrocyte parameters were Hb concentration, erythrocyte count, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular Hb (MCH), and red cell distribution width (RDW). The iron profile included serum iron, total iron-biding capacity (TIBC), and ferritin. Worm infestation was detected by direct stool microscopical examination. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 20.
Impact of Extensive Urbanization on Summertime Rainfall in the Beijing Region and the Role of Local Precipitation Recycling

In this study, we conducted nested high‐resolution simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with a single‐layer urban canopy model to investigate the impact of extensive urbanization on regional precipitation over the Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei region in China. The results showed that extensive urbanization decreased precipitation considerably over and downwind of Beijing city. The prevalence of impermeable urban land inhibits local evaporation that feeds moisture into the overlying atmosphere, decreasing relative humidity and atmospheric instability. The dynamic precipitation recycling model was employed to estimate the precipitation that originates from local surface evaporation and large‐scale advection of moisture. Results showed that about 11% of the urbanization‐induced decrease in total precipitation over the Greater Beijing Region and its surroundings was contributed by the decrease in local recycled precipitation, while the other part (89%) was due to decreasing large‐scale advected precipitation. Results suggest that the low evaporation from urban land surfaces not only reduces the supply of water vapor for local recycled precipitation directly but also decreases the convective available potential energy and hence the conversion efficiency of atmospheric moisture into rainfall. The urbanization‐induced variations in local recycled precipitation were found to be correlated with the net atmospheric moisture flux on a monthly time scale.
Salmon subsidize an escape from a size spectrum

A general rule in ecology is that the abundance of species or individuals in communities sharing a common energy source decreases with increasing body size. However, external energy inputs in the form of resource subsidies can modify this size spectrum relationship. Here, we provide the first test of how a marine resource subsidy can affect size spectra of terrestrial communities, based on energy derived from Pacific salmon carcasses affecting a forest soil community beside streams in western Canada. Using both species-based and individual approaches, we found size structuring in this forest soil community, and transient community-wide doubling of standing biomass in response to energy pulses from Pacific salmon carcasses. One group of species were clear outliers in the middle of the size spectrum relationship: larval calliphorid and dryomyzid flies, which specialize on salmon carcasses, and which showed a tenfold increase in biomass in their size class when salmon were available. Thus, salmon subsidize their escape from the size spectrum. These results suggest that using a size-based perspective of resource subsidies can provide new insights into the structure and functioning of food webs.
Digital Commons @ University of Digital Commons @ University of South Florida South Florida

[ 1 ] We have generated monthly resolved, stable isotope ( d 18 O and d 13 C) and Sr/Ca time series from a massive Porites coral from Rabaul (4 (cid:1) S, 152 (cid:1) E): a site located in the warmest sector of the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP). The coral d 18 O and Sr/Ca time series are well correlated to each other and positive excursions in both records coincide with times of ENSO warm phase events. These time series contain abundant interannual variability that exhibits the well-recognized pattern of low amplitude ENSO variation between (cid:1) 1920–1960 and high amplitude ENSO variation between 1880–1920 and 1960–1997. The ENSO-filtered coral d 18 O and Sr/Ca time series are well matched to each other (r = 0.73) and to similarly filtered coral d 18 O records from Papua New Guinea (r > 0.56). There is no long-term trend in the coral d 18 O record, but there is a long-term trend of increasing coral Sr/Ca from 1867 to 1997. This trend in coral Sr/Ca suggests a cooling of (cid:1) 0.7 (cid:1) C, which is rather unlikely and implies that factors other than SST may be influencing the coral Sr/Ca record. The trend in coral Sr/Ca is not an analytical artifact, nor a product of time varying riverine input, nor a product of skeletal diagenesis, nor the results of kinetic effects, but may reflect surface-water variability in Sr/Ca. Despite the presence of a nonclimatic trend in coral Sr/Ca, the Rabaul coral records contain abundant interannual-to multidecadal-scale variability, much of which is coherent with other proxy records from the WPWP and with instrumental records of ENSO variability.
Digital Commons @ University of Digital Commons @ University of South Florida South Florida

, Abstract Dike swarms are the fossil remains of regions of the crust that have undergone repeated magma injections. Volcanic earthquake swarms and geodetic measurements are, at least in part, a record of active injection of fluids (water, gas, or magma) into fractures. Here, we link these two ways of observing magmatic
SoK: The Evolution of Sybil Defense via Social Networks

Sybil attacks in which an adversary forges a potentially unbounded number of identities are a danger to distributed systems and online social networks. The goal of sybil defense is to accurately identify sybil identities. This paper surveys the evolution of sybil defense protocols that leverage the structural properties of the social graph underlying a distributed system to identify sybil identities. We make two main contributions. First, we clarify the deep connection between sybil defense and the theory of random walks. This leads us to identify a community detection algorithm that, for the first time, offers provable guarantees in the context of sybil defense. Second, we advocate a new goal for sybil defense that addresses the more limited, but practically useful, goal of securely white-listing a local region of the graph.
Onset Dynamics of Action Potentials in Rat Neocortical Neurons and Identified Snail Neurons: Quantification of the Difference

The generation of action potentials (APs) is a key process in the operation of nerve cells and the communication between neurons. Action potentials in mammalian central neurons are characterized by an exceptionally fast onset dynamics, which differs from the typically slow and gradual onset dynamics seen in identified snail neurons. Here we describe a novel method of analysis which provides a quantitative measure of the onset dynamics of action potentials. This method captures the difference between the fast, step-like onset of APs in rat neocortical neurons and the gradual, exponential-like AP onset in identified snail neurons. The quantitative measure of the AP onset dynamics, provided by the method, allows us to perform quantitative analyses of factors influencing the dynamics.