Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distinct neural progenitor pools in the ventral telencephalon generate diversity in striatal spiny projection neurons

Heterogeneous populations of neural progenitors in the embryonic lateral ganglionic eminence (LGE) generate all GABAergic spiny projection neurons (SPNs) found in the striatum. Here we investigate how this diversity in neural progenitors relates to diversity of adult striatal neurons and circuits. Using a combination of in utero electroporation to fluorescently pulse-label striatal neural progenitors in the LGE, brain slice electrophysiology, electrical and optogenetic circuit mapping and immunohistochemistry, we characterise a population of neural progenitors enriched for apical intermediate progenitors (aIPs) and a distinct population of other progenitors (OPs) and their neural offspring. We find that neural progenitor origin has subtle but significant effects on the properties of striatal SPNs. Although aIP and OP progenitors can both generate D1-expressing direct pathway as well as D2-expressing indirect pathway SPNs found intermingled in the striatum, the aIP derived SPNs are found in more medial aspects of the striatum, exhibit more complex dendritic arbors with higher spine density and differentially sample cortical input. Moreover, optogenetic circuit mapping of the aIP derived neurons show that they further integrate within striatal circuits and innervate both local D1 and D2 SPNs. These results show that it is possible to fluorescently pulse-label distinct neural progenitor pools within the LGE and provide the first evidence that neural progenitor heterogeneity can contribute to the diversity of striatal SPNs.
Isolation and Identification of Amylase-producing Bacteria from Soil in Nasinuan Community Forest, Maha Sarakham, Thailand

This study aimed to isolate and identify bacteria that can produce amylase enzyme from the unexplored Nasinuan Forest, Kantarawichai District, Mahasarakham Province, Thailand. Thirteen bacterial isolates with amylase-producing capacity on 1% starch agar were identified using 16S rRNA sequencing. Twelve bacteria were gram-positive, rod shaped and identified as Bacillus spp. and one bacterium with gram-negative and rod shaped character was Enterobacter cloacae. Their closest relatives were found in India, China, Korea, Indonesia, Argentina, Italy, Israel, USA, Argentina and South Africa. These bacteria were tested for specific amylase activity after 1-3 days enzyme induction with 1% starch at 37°C. The results showed the highest specific activity at day 2 incubation in the order: Bacillus cereus 3.5AL2 > 3.4AL1 > 1.4AL3 and thus 2-day enzyme induction was chosen for further analysis. Bacillus sp. 3.5AL2 was found to exhibit the highest specific amylase enzyme activity of 1.97 ± 0.41 U/mg protein at the optimal conditions of 60°C and pH 7.0 after 30 min incubation with 1% starch in 0.05 M PBS buffer. This amylase–producing bacterial strain offers great potential for applications in food and agricultural industries in Thailand.
Laminar-specific cortico-cortical loops in mouse visual cortex

Many theories propose recurrent interactions across the cortical hierarchy, but it is unclear if cortical circuits are selectively wired to implement looped computations. Using subcellular channelrhodopsin-2-assisted circuit mapping in mouse visual cortex, we compared feedforward (FF) or feedback (FB) cortico-cortical input to cells projecting back to the input source (looped neurons) with cells projecting to a different cortical or subcortical area (non-looped neurons). Despite having different laminar innervation patterns, FF and FB afferents showed similar cell-type selectivity, making stronger connections with looped neurons versus non-looped neurons in layer (L) 5 and L6, but not in L2/3. FB inputs preferentially innervated the apical tufts of looped L5 neurons, but not their perisomatic dendrites. Our results reveal that interareal cortical connections are selectively wired into monosynaptic excitatory loops involving L6 and the apical dendrites of L5 neurons, supporting a role of these circuit elements in hierarchical recurrent computations.
AN ARABIC FIGURES RECOGNITION MODEL BASED ON AUTOMATIC LEARNING OF LIP MOVEMENT

The need for an automatic speech to text conversion is continuously increasing, especially for people with special needs. Thus, automatic speech recognition techniques have been proposed to tackle such needs. The automatic recognition allows computers to identify words from lip movement, regardless of the visual source. It is known that visual speech recognition techniques improve the accuracy of word identification and shield the recognition system against acoustic noise. In this paper, we propose a hybrid voting model for automatic Arabic figures recognition based on visual perception of mouth-lip movement. The proposed model has been built for Arabic language, such that, it is able to extract Arabic figures from predefined Arabic lexicon. The predefined lexicon mainly contains the Arabic figures from zero to nine with different shapes. The model takes a video (or sequence of images) as an input, and outputs the corresponding Arabic figure for the frames extracted from the input video. Here, three techniques have been employed to extract effective visual features from mouth-lip movement. Such techniques are SURF (speeded up robust features), HoG (histogram of oriented gradient) and Haar feature extractor. The resultant features in each technique are fed separately into a classification model, namely, the hidden Markov model (HMM). The HMM identifies corresponding Arabic figure from a predefined lexicon based on input features. The final classification models that are produced from the three techniques have been grouped in a voting scheme to produce the final classification result (i.e. classification by voting). The proposed model in this paper has been tested on handcrafted data set of lip movement, and it has shown a promising result with improved accuracy of Arabic figures recognition.
SELF-EFFICACY DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA SISWA MADRASAH ALIYAH

Self-efficacy siswa turut berperan dalam menentukan keberhasilan siswa dalam belajar, termasuk belajar matematika. Aspek afektif seperti self-efficacy, berperan utama pada saat seseorang mengerjakan dan menggunakan matematika, karena untuk dapat menyelesaikan masalah matematika tidak cukup dengan hanya mengetahui cara mengerjakan, namun harus disertai dengan self-efficacy tentang kebenaran konsep dan prosedur yang dimilikinya. Penelitian ini dilakukan di dua kelompok siswa dengan menggunakan instrument berupa angket untuk mengukur self-efficacy siswa. Teknik pengumpulan data observasi juga dilakukan untuk mengetahui proses pembelajaran dari kedua kelompok tersebut. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kelompok siswa yang menggunakan pembelajaran aktif dan kooperatif mempunyai self-efficacy yang lebih tinggi. Kata Kunci: self-efficacy, matematika, pembelajaran kooperatif.
G protein-coupled potassium channels implicated in mouse and cellular models of GNB1 Encephalopathy

De novo mutations in GNB1, encoding the Gβ1 subunit of G proteins, cause a neurodevelopmental disorder with global developmental delay and epilepsy. Mice carrying a pathogenic mutation, K78R, recapitulate aspects of the disorder, including developmental delay and frequent spike-wave discharges (SWD). Cultured mutant cortical neurons display aberrant bursting activity on multi-electrode arrays. Strikingly, the antiepileptic drug ethosuximide (ETX) restores normal neuronal network behavior in vitro and suppresses SWD in vivo. In contrast, while valproic acid suppresses SWD, it does not restore normal network behavior, suggesting that ETX has mechanistic specificity for the effects of aberrant Gβ1 signaling. Consistent with this, we show that K78R is a gain-of-function of G protein-coupled potassium channel (GIRK) activation that is potently inhibited by ETX. This work suggests that altered Gβ1 signaling causes disease in part through effects on GIRK channels, illustrates the utility of cultured neuronal networks in pharmacological screening, and establishes effective pre-clinical models for GNB1 Encephalopathy.
Estimates of Genetic Parameters Using Populations in Faba Bean (Vicia Faba L.)

To improve yearlings and high potential yield of faba bean. Six populations P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 produced from three faba bean crosses , namely (Giza 429 x Giza 674), (Masr 1 x Giza 674) and (Giza 40 x Giza 402) ) were conducted during three successive winter seasons 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm. , Faculty of Agricultural, Al-Azhar University (Assiut Branch). Recorded six generations mean days to maturity, branches number, number of pods, plant height per plant, 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant were exposed to upgrade test, and six abistatic detection method parameters and estimates of m, d, h, I, j and l parameters. The epistasis genes effects were reveal by the results that cannot be ignored when creating new program of breeding to expand faba bean inhabitants of economic traits. And controls inherit all attributes and nonadditive gene effects study added, with a value greater than the influence of genes dominate one in most cases. Among other elements added impact can be solved, i.e. , stabilizer × additive (I) interaction type and was also great and form the chief part of the effects of gene. (H) and (l) the consultation if days to maturity in two crosses, crosses the plant height in three, number one, cross sections and reflects the pods number / plant, 100 seed weight in three crosses and seed yield / plant in two crosses, indicating the duplicate type of interaction is allelic in these qualities. Accidentally discovered a sign and magnitude.
When history matters: The overlooked role of priority effects in grassland overyielding

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments have shown that plant species and functional group richness are important drivers of grassland productivity, but the impact that plant order of arrival (i.e. priority effects) has on grassland overyielding and its drivers (complementarity and dominance effects) has been overlooked so far. Using species‐specific plant biomass data collected in mixture and monoculture plots of a grassland field experiment (Julich Priority Effect experiment) that manipulated the order of arrival of three plant functional groups (forbs, grasses and legumes), we quantified net biodiversity effects (overyielding) as well as complementarity and dominance effects in mixtures one and 2 years after sowing. In this experiment, priority effects were created by sowing one functional group 6 weeks before the two others. First, we tested whether plant order of arrival affected overyielding, complementarity and dominance effects. Second, we investigated whether the magnitude of net biodiversity, complementarity and dominance effects was dependent on the strength and direction of priority effects. We found that complementarity and dominance effects were affected by plant order of arrival during community assembly. In addition, we found that moving from negative to positive priority effects increased grassland overyielding, mainly via increased complementarity effects. These results highlight the need to combine biodiversity and assembly approaches in future ecosystem functioning research, as this will increase the predictive power of community ecology in conservation and ecological restoration. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Superior temporal sulcus hypoperfusion in children with autism spectrum disorder: an arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance study

Advances in neuroimaging techniques have significantly improved our understanding of the neural basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Several attempts have been made to label the main neuroimaging phenotype of ASD, mostly by anatomical and functional activation studies, but none of the frameworks have been without controversy. Over the past decade, a renewed interest for rest brain functioning has emerged in the scientific community, reflected on a large number of resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) studies, but results remain heterogeneous. It is possible today to investigate rest brain functioning by measuring rest cerebral blood flow (CBF) with MRI using arterial spin labeling (ASL). Here, we investigated rest CBF abnormalities using non-invasive ASL-MRI in 18 children with ASD without cognitive delay (10.4 ± 2.8 y) and 30 typically developing children (10.6 ± 3.0 y). Following quality control, images from a final sample of 12 children with ASD (11.2 ± 2.9 y) and 28 typically developing children (10.1 ± 2.5 y) were analyzed. Whole brain voxel-by-voxel analysis showed significant rest CBF decrease in temporal regions, mainly in the superior temporal sulcus (STS), in children with ASD. This hypoperfusion was individually detected in 83% of children with ASD. Finally, negative correlation was observed between ASD severity scores and rest CBF in the right posterior STS. Strikingly, despite the small sample studied here, our results are extremely similar to previous PET and SPECT findings describing decreased rest CBF in the same superior temporal regions at group and individual levels, as well as correlation with symptoms severity. The congruence between these results, with different methods and in different ASD profiles, reinforce the strength of rest functional abnormalities within these superior temporal regions in ASD and strongly indicates it might be a core characteristic of the disorder. Identifying a core dysfunctional region in ASD bears direct implications to the development of novel therapeutic interventions, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. In addition, if confirmed in a larger sample, rest temporal hypoperfusion could become a reliable brain imaging biomarker in ASD.
Phytochemistry and anti-bacterial activity of thirteen plants used in traditional medicine to treat typhoid fever in Benin

The objective of this study is to study the phytochemistry of the anti-bacterial activity of thirteen plants used in traditional medicine to treat typhoid fever in Benin. For this fact, we carried out the phytochemical screening, then the antibacterial activity was carried out by the micro-dilution method. The dosage of polyphenols was made on the extracts having exhibited good anti-salmonella activity. Phytochemical screening has revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins (gallic and catechic) and flavonoids for all plants, as for other secondary metabolites, they vary from one plant to another. For the forty-five [H2O, EtOH (96%), CH2Cl2-MeOH (V / V)] extracts, the extraction yield ranged from 3.3% to 23.78%; the CH2Cl2-MeOH extracts have the best yields followed by ethanolic extracts. The evaluation of the anti-salmonella activity of the forty-five extracts on seven strains of Salmonella (clinical isolate and reference) made it possible to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the active extracts following the biological screening. The ethanolic extract of Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides and CH2Cl2-MeOH from Azadirachta indica are the most active in inhibiting four types of salmonella with MICs ranging from 250 to 500 μg / mL. The determination of the polyphenol contents showed the richness of these plants in these compounds and we noticed that the activity of the extracts varies according to their content of flavonoids. The results obtained confirmed the anti-salmonella potential of certain plants at the concentration tested and constitute a scientific database for the research of phytomedicines.
Pathogens of bark beetles of the genus Ips (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae): review.

Some bark beetles of genus Ips occuring in Europe attack multiple tree hosts.  is probably explains why some of the bark beetle diseases have also more hosts. For example Gregarina typographi was known from all of six analysed species and Chytridiopsis typographi from midgut epithelium of ve species of the genus Ips. On the other hand there is only one known species-speci c pathogen Larssoniella typographi described in Ips duplicatus. At present, around twenty species of pathogens were described in bark beetle subfamily Scolytinae, out of which ten are known in the spruce bark beetle Ips typographus. For most pathogens, only rare information is available about in uence on beetles: on the vitality, fertility,  ight ability, hibernation, etc. Moreover, most experiments are conducted under laboratory conditions. In this paper we summarize the knowledge of pathogens (viruses, protozoa, fungi) and parasitic nematodes and give a comprehensive overview of detected pathogens in di erent species of genus Ips. Klíčová slova: rod Ips, mikrosporidie, gregariny, virus, populační hustota, předávání
Shelf life assessment of apple fruit coated with aloe vera gel and calcium chloride

An experiment was performed on effect of aloevera gel and calcium chloride coating on the shelf life of apple fruit. All the samples were stored for 75 days and analyzed at 15 days of storage interval. Sample T0 was used as a control (untreated), T1 with 10 percent aloevera gel coating, T2 with 20 percent aloevera gel coating, T3 with 2 percent calcium chloride, T4 with 10 percent aloevera gel and 2 percent calcium chloride coating and T5 with 20 percent aloevera gel and 2 percent calcium chloride coating. All the samples were analyzed both for physicochemical and organoleptic attributes that include total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid, titratable acidity, sugar/acid ratio, pH (Power of Hydrogen ion concentration), weight loss, firmness, decay index, color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability. Highest mean value for TSS was found in T0 (13.91) while the lowest mean value was found in T4 (12.62). Highest mean value for acidity was found in T4 (0.59) while lowest mean value was found in T0 (0.52). Highest mean value for sugar/acid ratio was found in T0 (27.95) while lowest mean value was found in T4 (21.72). Maximum pH value was showed by T0 (4.93) while minimum pH value was showed by T4 (4.34). Maximum Ascorbic Acid content was found in T4 (7.93) while minimum Ascorbic acid was found in T0 (6.82). Highest weight loss was found in T0 (10.08) while lowest mean value was found in T4 (5.41). Highest mean value for firmness was found in T4 (6.51) while minimum firmness was showed by T0 (5.85). Highest decay index was found in T0 (11.57) while lowest mean value was found in T4 (3.80). Maximum score for color was showed by T4 (7.08) while minimum score was observed in T0 (5.76). For flavor, maximum score was found in T4 (7.10) while minimum score was showed by T0 (5.78). Maximum score for texture was found in T4 (7.03) while minimum score was observed in T0 (5.83). Highest mean value for overall acceptability was found in T4 (7.06) while minimum value was recorded in T0 (5.75). Increase was observed in the physicochemical attributes that include TSS from 12.31 to 14.07°brix, sugar/acid ratio from 18.94 to 31.96, pH from 4.29 to 5.12, weight loss from 0.00 to 14.36% and decay index from 0.00 to 13.75%. Decrease was observed in titratable acidity from 0.65 to 0.44%, ascorbic acid from 8.46 to 5.40mg/100g and firmness from 6.41 to 5.43kg/cm. All the organoleptic attributes decreased during storage. Color decreased from 8.70 to 4.20, flavor from 8.63 to 4.11, texture from 8.66 to 4.33 and overall acceptability from 8.63 to 4.20. It was concluded that sample T4 with 10% aloe vera gel and 2% CaCl2 followed by T3 with 2% CaCl2 was considered as the best sample on the basis of physicochemical and organoleptic quality.
A survey on rainfall forecasting using artificial neural network

Rainfall has a great impact on agriculture and people's daily travel, so accurate prediction of precipitation is well worth studying for researchers. Traditional methods like numerical weather prediction (NWP) models or statistical models can't provide satisfied effect of rainfall forecasting because of nonlinear and dynamic characteristics of precipitation. However, artificial neural network (ANN) has an ability to obtain complicated nonlinear relationship between variables, which is suitable to predict precipitation. This paper mainly introduces background knowledge of ANN and several algorithms using neural network applied to precipitation prediction in recent years. It is proved that neural network can greatly improve the accuracy and efficiency of prediction.
Description of seed and pollen micromorphology and their taxonomic impact in some Solanum L. species

Seed micromorphology, of 17 species and pollen micromorphology of 16 species of Solanum L. (Solanaceae) were examined using both light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to determine the significance of seed coat features and pollen characteristics as taxonomic characters. The species, used in this study, represent three subgenera and 11 sections of Solanum in Egypt. Macro and micro-morphological characters including seed shape, size, colour, surface; hilum shape, size, position, level; seed coat appearance, cell wall; shape of pollen in polar and equatrorial view, colpus membrane and apices and exine ornamentation have been described and their taxonomic impacts have been outlined. Seed shape was either obovate or reniform and seed size ranged between 1.1and 3.8 mm in length and 0.9 to 3.1 mm in diameter. Four types of seed coat appearance have been described: reticulate, cerebelloid, striate and without conspicuous cell lumen and six types of pollen shape were found in the studied species: prolate, subprolate, spherical, prolate-spheroidal, oblate-spheroidal and perprolate. Pollen length in polar view ranged from 15 µ to 34 µ but in the equatorial view it ranged from 9.1 µ to 25 µ. Four types of exine ornamentation have been recognized: scabrate, psilate, granulate and verrucate. Nineteen characters of seed and pollen micromorphology features proved useful in the construction of a dichotomus indented systematic key for the examined species. The major remarks are the differentiation of S. melongena, S. schimperianum, S. forsskaolii and diphyllum by their reinform seed shape from the remaining species which have ovoid seed shape. Hairy seed surface distinguishes Solanum lycopersicum, S. seaforthianum, S. nigrum and S. vilosum. Seed coat colour, appearance and pollen shape were useful traits for the identification of other nine species.
Reliability of mismatch negativity event-related potentials in a multisite, traveling subjects study

Objective Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential (ERP) used to study schizophrenia and psychosis risk. MMN reliability from a multisite, traveling subjects study was compared using different ERP referencing, averaging, and scoring techniques. Methods Reliability of frequency, duration, and double (frequency+duration) MMN was determined from eight traveling subjects, tested on two occasions at eight EEG laboratory sites. Deviant-specific variance components were estimated for MMN peak amplitude and latency measures using different ERP processing methods. Generalizability (G) coefficients were calculated using two-facet (site, occasion), fully-crossed models and single-facet (occasion) models within each laboratory to assess MMN reliability. Results G-coefficients calculated from two-facet models indicated fair (0.4<G<=0.6) duration MMN reliability at electrode Fz, but poor (G<0.4) double and frequency MMN reliability. Single-facet G-coefficients averaged across laboratory resulted in improved reliability (G>0.5). Reliability of MMN amplitude was greater than latency, and reliability with mastoid referencing significantly outperformed nose-referencing. Conclusions EEG preprocessing methods have a significant impact on the reliability of MMN amplitude. Within site MMN reliability can be excellent, consistent with prior single site studies. Significance With standardized data collection and ERP processing, MMN can be reliably obtained in multisite studies, providing larger samples sizes within rare patient groups.