Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predispersal seed predation in native leguminous shrubs and trees in savannas of southern Botswana

Summary Seed predation by insects in the seed-crop of nine Acacia species, Dichrostachys cinerea, and Peltophorum africanum was examined in various tree savannas in Botswana. The degree of infestation varied strongly between and within species from 0% (P. africanum) to more than 80% (A. hebeclada, D. cinerea). Whereas in all Acacia species only one phytophagous hymenopteran (Oedaule sp.) was present, the number of bruchid species varied between one (Bruchidius sahlbergi on A. hebecluda, B. uberatus on A. nilotica) and eight species (Bruchidius div. spec., Caryedon sp., Spermophagus rufonotutus on A. tortilis). The life history of B. sahlbergi was studied in detail and lasted at least 100 days from egg to adult beetle. The life-span of adult beetles may extend to a further 57 days. Resume Des observations ont ete realisees sur les degâts d'insects dans les graines de neuf especes d'Acacia, de Dichrostachys cinerea et de Peltophorum africanum dans les savanes arborees du Botswana. Le taux d'infestation varie fortement aussi bien entre les especes que parmi les especes de 0% (P. africanum)a plus de 80% (A. hebeclada, C. cinerea). Alors que toutes les especes d'Acacia n'heberge qu'un seul Hymenoptere phytophage (Oedaule sp.), le nombre d'especes de Bruchidae observees varie de une (Bruchidius sahlbergi sur A. hebeclada, B. uberatus sur A. nilotica)a huit (Bruchidius div. spec., Caryedon sp., Spermophagus rufonotatus sur A. tortilis). Le cycle de developpement de B. sahlbergi a eteetudie et dure au moins une certaine de jours. La longevite des adultes de cette espece peut atteindre 57 jours.
Methods of Stellar Space-Density Analyses: A Retrospective Review

Stellar space density analyses, once a very active area of astronomical research, involved transforming counts of stars to given limiting magnitudes in selected areas of the sky into graphs of the number of stars per cubic parsec as a function of distance. Several methods of computing the transformation have been published, varying from manual spreadsheets to computer programs based on very sophisticated mathematical techniques for deconvolving integral equations. This paper revisits these techniques and compares the performance of seven of them published between 1913 and 2003 as applied to both simulated and real data.
The biology of an Antarctic rhodophyte, Palmaria decipiens: recent advances

Abstract Palmaria decipiens (Reinsch) R.W. Ricker (1987) represents one of the dominant rhodophyte species in Antarctic coastal ecosystems. Due to its high abundance in the intertidal and upper subtidal it plays a key role in ecosystem structure and function, providing habitat, food and shelter for a multitude of associated organisms. The physiology, reproductive strategy and life cycle of P. decipiens is considered as being well adapted to the Antarctic environment, which is characterized by permanent low water temperatures and a strong seasonality in light climate. With its obvious ecological significance and adaptive strategies P. decipiens was frequently studied as a typical representative of an endemic Antarctic macroalga. Here we provide an overview of the recent literature, summarizing the knowledge gained about the alga during the last 25 years. This review focuses on the species life cycle and physiological responses, such as temperature requirements, photosynthetic characteristics, pigment content and protective mechanisms with regard to enhanced ultraviolet radiation (UV-B radiation, 280–315 nm and UV-A radiation, 315–400 nm). The ecology of P. decipiens is reviewed focussing on grazing activity and abundance patterns. Since most studies on P. decipiens have been conducted at King George Island off the western Antarctic Peninsula this overview serves as a summary of baseline data from an ecosystem particularly prone to environmental change.
MediaPipe Hands: On-device Real-time Hand Tracking

We present a real-time on-device hand tracking pipeline that predicts hand skeleton from single RGB camera for AR/VR applications. The pipeline consists of two models: 1) a palm detector, 2) a hand landmark model. It's implemented via MediaPipe, a framework for building cross-platform ML solutions. The proposed model and pipeline architecture demonstrates real-time inference speed on mobile GPUs and high prediction quality. MediaPipe Hands is open sourced at https://mediapipe.dev.
Hydrodynamical instability with noise in the Keplerian accretion discs: modified Landau equation

Origin of hydrodynamical instability and turbulence in the Keplerian accretion disc as well as similar laboratory shear flows, e.g. plane Couette flow, is a long-standing puzzle. These flows are linearly stable. Here we explore the evolution of perturbation in such flows in the presence of an additional force. Such a force, which is expected to be stochastic in nature hence behaving as noise, could be result of thermal fluctuations (however small be), Brownian ratchet, grain–fluid interactions, feedback from outflows in astrophysical discs, etc. We essentially establish the evolution of nonlinear perturbation in the presence of Coriolis and external forces, which is modified Landau equation. We show that even in the linear regime, under suitable forcing and Reynolds number, the otherwise least stable perturbation evolves to a very large saturated amplitude, leading to nonlinearity and plausible turbulence. Hence, forcing essentially leads a linear stable mode to unstable. We further show that nonlinear perturbation diverges at a shorter time-scale in the presence of force, leading to a fast transition to turbulence. Interestingly, emergence of nonlinearity depends only on the force but not on the initial amplitude of perturbation, unlike original Landau equation based solution.
Homology and cohomology via the partial group algebra

We study partial homology and cohomology from ring theoretic point of view via the partial group algebra $\mathbb{K}_{par}G$. In particular, we link the partial homology and cohomology of a group $G$ with coefficients in an irreducible (resp. indecomposable) $\mathbb{K}_{par}G$-module with the ordinary homology and cohomology groups of $G$ with in general non-trivial coefficients. Furthermore, we compare the standard cohomological dimension $cd_{ \ \mathbb{K}}(G)$ (over a field $\mathbb{K}$) with the partial cohomological dimension $cd_{ \ \mathbb{K}}^{par}(G)$ (over $\mathbb{K}$) and show that $cd_{ \ \mathbb{K}}^{par}(G) \geq cd_{ \ \mathbb{K}}(G)$ and that there is equality for $G = \mathbb{Z}$.
Tillering and leaf area index in grasses in the vegetative phase

The relationship between tillering of a vegetative grass stand and Leaf Area Index (LAI) has been studied during sward establishment of perennial ryegrass and Italian ryegrass with different seedling densities and nitrogen fertilizer rates and on established swards of tall fescue during winter and early spring after different dates of last cut in autumn. The different experiments on different species led to the conclusion that in every instance the tillering rate slows down as soon as the LAI reaches a value of 3 and terminates rapidly at higher LAI, which corresponds with the almost complete extinction of light at the level of the tiller buds. The results confirm the direct role of light on morphogenesis previously demonstrated by several authors. The existence of such a limit of LAI helps to explain some contradictory effects of temperature or nitrogen on tillering.
Towards Open Ad Hoc Teamwork Using Graph-based Policy Learning

Ad hoc teamwork is the challenging problem of designing an autonomous agent which can adapt quickly to collaborate with teammates without prior coordination mechanisms, including joint training. Prior work in this area has focused on closed teams in which the number of agents is fixed. In this work, we consider open teams by allowing agents with different fixed policies to enter and leave the environment without prior notification. Our solution builds on graph neural networks to learn agent models and joint-action value models under varying team compositions. We contribute a novel action-value computation that integrates the agent model and joint-action value model to produce action-value estimates. We empirically demonstrate that our approach successfully models the effects other agents have on the learner, leading to policies that robustly adapt to dynamic team compositions and significantly outperform several alternative methods.
Local Competition and Uncertainty for Adversarial Robustness in Deep Learning

This work attempts to address adversarial robustness of deep networks by means of novel learning arguments. Specifically, inspired from results in neuroscience, we propose a local competition principle as a means of adversarially-robust deep learning. We argue that novel local winner-takes-all (LWTA) nonlinearities, combined with posterior sampling schemes, can greatly improve the adversarial robustness of traditional deep networks against difficult adversarial attack schemes. We combine these LWTA arguments with tools from the field of Bayesian non-parametrics, specifically the stick-breaking construction of the Indian Buffet Process, to flexibly account for the inherent uncertainty in data-driven modeling. As we experimentally show, the new proposed model achieves high robustness to adversarial perturbations on MNIST and CIFAR10 datasets. Our model achieves state-of-the-art results in powerful white-box attacks, while at the same time retaining its benign accuracy to a high degree. Equally importantly, our approach achieves this result while requiring far less trainable model parameters than the existing state-of-the-art.
Similarity of Precursors in Solid-State Synthesis as Text-Mined from Scientific Literature

Author(s): He, Tanjin; Sun, Wenhao; Huo, Haoyan; Kononova, Olga; Rong, Ziqin; Tshitoyan, Vahe; Botari, Tiago; Ceder, Gerbrand | Abstract: Collecting and analyzing the vast amount of information available in the solid-state chemistry literature may accelerate our understanding of materials synthesis. However, one major problem is the difficulty of identifying which materials from a synthesis paragraph are precursors or are target materials. In this study, we developed a two-step Chemical Named Entity Recognition (CNER) model to identify precursors and targets, based on information from the context around material entities. Using the extracted data, we conducted a meta-analysis to study the similarities and differences between precursors in the context of solid-state synthesis. To quantify precursor similarity, we built a substitution model to calculate the viability of substituting one precursor with another while retaining the target. From a hierarchical clustering of the precursors, we demonstrate that "chemical similarity" of precursors can be extracted from text data. Quantifying the similarity of precursors helps provide a foundation for suggesting candidate reactants in a predictive synthesis model.
Formation of Lysine from α, ε-Diaminopimelic Acid Contained in Rumen Bacterial Cell Walls by Rumen Ciliate Protozoa

Cell walls containing α,e-diaminopimelate-l,7-14C (DAP) was prepared from Escherichia coli isolated from the rumen. After incubation of ciliates with the cell walls, 22.0% of DAP contained in cell walls of E. coli was converted to lysine and pipecolate. Heat-treated mixed rumen bacteria and heat-treated cell walls of mixed rumen bacteria added to the culture medium of rumen ciliates increased 0.572 and 0.934 μmole/ml of sum of lysine and pipecolate, respectively.From these results, it is clear that rumen ciliate protozoa can form lysine from DAP contained in the mucopeptide of bacterial cell walls. One of the nutritional significance of inhabitation of ciliates in the rumen was revealed.
The costs and effectiveness of vigilance behaviour in the Dwarf Mongoose: implications for fitness and optimal group size

In a dwarf mongoose family group, guarding is performed almost exclusively by subordinate males. The amount of time this social category invests in vigilance varies with group size. When too few guards are present, although mean vigilance time/guard increases, the vigilance systems becomes inefficient and gaps occur between guards. The effectivity of vigilance is high, 9 3% of incipient raptor attacks being aborted by the guard giving warning beforehand. For ground predators, vigilance efficiency is 100% when guards are present. For dwarf mongoose family groups, predation mortality is shown to be the major cause of reduced reproductive success. The number of young surviving is positively correlated with group size. Group size is shown to be a function of the efficiency of group protection mechanisms such as vigilance and group attack of ground predators. Maximal fitness gains at the level of the individual are attained at a group size lower than the observed mean group size. This finding is related to the.
Is Network the Bottleneck of Distributed Training?

Recently there has been a surge of research on improving the communication efficiency of distributed training. However, little work has been done to systematically understand whether the network is the bottleneck and to what extent. In this paper, we take a first-principles approach to measure and analyze the network performance of distributed training. As expected, our measurement confirms that communication is the component that blocks distributed training from linear scale-out. However, contrary to the common belief, we find that the network is running at low utilization and that if the network can be fully utilized, distributed training can achieve a scaling factor of close to one. Moreover, while many recent proposals on gradient compression advocate over 100x compression ratio, we show that under full network utilization, there is no need for gradient compression in 100 Gbps network. On the other hand, a lower speed network like 10 Gbps requires only 2x-5x gradients compression ratio to achieve almost linear scale-out. Compared to application-level techniques like gradient compression, network-level optimizations do not require changes to applications and do not hurt the performance of trained models. As such, we advocate that the real challenge of distributed training is for the network community to develop high-performance network transport to fully utilize the network capacity and achieve linear scale-out.
Fossil Eucharitidae and Perilampidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Baltic Amber

Palaeocharis rex n. gen. and sp. (Eucharitidae: Eucharitinae) and Perilampus pisticus n. sp. (Perilampidae: Perilampinae) are described from Baltic amber. Perilampus renzii (Penalver & Engel) is transferred to Torymidae: Palaeotorymus renzii n. comb. Palaeocharis is related to Psilocharis Heraty based on presence of one anellus, linear mandibular depression, dorsal axillular groove, free prepectus and a transverse row of hairs on the hypopygium. This fossil is unique in comparison with extant Chalcidoidea because there are two foretibial spurs instead of a single welldeveloped calcar. Perilampus pisticus is placed into the extant Perilampus micans group because the frenum and marginal rim of the scutellum are visible in dorsal view and the prepectus forms a large equilateral triangle. The phylogenetic placement of both genera is discussed based on an analysis of both a combined morphological and molecular (28S and 18S) and morphology-only matrix. Morphological characters were used from an earlier study of Eucharitidae (Heraty 2002), with some characters revised to reflect variation in Perilampinae. Baltic amber is of Eocene age, which puts the age of divergence of these families at more than 40 mya.
Effects of extended wilting, shading and chemical additives on the fatty acids in laboratory grass silages

This work investigated the range of fatty acid concentrations in grass silages made from the regrowth of perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne using different techniques involving combinations of shading of the crop before cutting, wilting and the use of chemical additives. The effects of the different silage additives on overall fermentation were large, with many of the formic acid and formalin-treated silages having a very restricted fermentation. Nonetheless, effects on levels and proportions of fatty acids were numerically small. The major differences between silages were generated during field operations (shading and wilting), with little further changes in fatty acids within the silage clamp. The extended wilt had the most dramatic effect on fatty acids with a marked reduction in both total fatty acids (24·6 vs. 17·5 g kg−1 dry matter; s.e.d. = 0·65, P < 0·001) as well as in the proportion of total fatty acids as α-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3; 0·55 vs. 0·48; s.e.d. = 0·013, P < 0·01). Shading the grass with a black plastic sheet for 24 h before cutting had a similar effect.
Efecto del sistema y densidad de la almaciguera en el cultivo de cebolla (Allium cepa)

C. Gomez, and C. Oberpaur. 2007. Effect of density and seedbed system in onion (Allium ( cepa) production. Cien. Inv. Agr. 34(3):205-214. Production of onion (Allium cepa) seedlings for transplants is done directly in fl at soil conditions or in trays using reduced cell volumes and high plant density conditions, without consideration of the possible effect that reduced cell volume can have on crop growth. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the production of onion seedlings in two seedbed systems and their subsequent behavior in the fi eld. Seedling production and transplant establishment were determined with a long-day type of onion (cv. Grano de Oro) in the Metropolitan Region of Chile (33°-34° south latitude) from 2004 to 2005. The production of covered root transplants was performed in trays with 286 (18 cm 3 ), 432 (10 cm 3 ) and 814 (5 cm 3 ) cells each, equivalent to plant densities of 1144 (low), 1728 (medium) and 3256 (high) plants·m -2 , respectively. The production of bare root transplants was done in boxes with equal plant densities as in the tray system. Next, plants obtained from each seedbed system and plant density were fi eld transplanted. Based on the results obtained, neither plant density nor transplant production system affected the pseudo stem diameter 25 days after emergency (DAE). At 77 DAE, the pseudo stem diameters were 3.8 and 5.2 mm, the root dry weights (DW) were 4.8 and 6.2 g·plant -1 produced in high and low plant density, respectively. This suggests that the tray system had a minor effect on plant development. At 23 days after transplanting (DAT) differences in the pseudo stem diameter between the three densities were obtained, although differences between the bare and covered root systems were not statistically signifi cant. Plants obtained from high-density seedbeds showed a smaller pseudo stem diameter and lower canopy DW than plants produced in low-density seedbeds until 84 DAT. At harvest, no differences were observed in formation or among the quality categories of the onion. Therefore, it is feasible to produce onion seedlings to be transplanted with bare roots or covered roots, produced in high-density boxes or in 5 cm 3 cells, without affecting the fi nal quality of harvested onion bulbs.
Phenotypic characterization and molecular mapping of the Arabidopsis thaliana locus RPP5, determining disease resistance to Peronospora parasitica

Peronospora parasitica causes downy mildew on crucifers. An isolate of P. parasitica (denoted NoCO2) was identified that infected Arabidopsis plants of the land race Columbia (Col-0) but not plants of land race Landsberg erecta (La-er). Segregation analysis of F2 plants derived from a La-er x Col-0 cross established that the resistance was inherited as a single locus, denoted RPP5. Macroscopic and microscopic examinations of inoculated La-er and Col-0 cotyledons showed that restriction of fungal growth in La-er was accompanied by massive callose accumulation and death of plant cells in direct contact with points of attempted fungal penetration. La-er x Col-0 F1 plants exhibited an intermediate resistance response in all aspects of fungal development, indicating that RPP5 is semi-dominant in its action. F8 recombinant inbred lines generated between La-er and Col-0 were used to map RPP5 to a narrow interval (<1.1 cM) on chromosome 4, utilizing existing restriction fragment length polymorphic (RFLP) markers and newly generated random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The data provide a basis for the isolation of the RPP5 locus by positional cloning as a first step towards understanding recognitional specificity in plant-pathogen interactions at a molecular level.
Minerals Affect the Specific Diversity of Forest Soil Bacterial Communities

Minerals constitute an ecological niche poorly investigated in the soil, in spite of their important role in biogeochemical cycles and plant nutrition. To evaluate the impact of minerals on the structure of the soil bacterial communities, we compared the bacterial diversity on mineral surfaces and in the surrounding soil. Three pure and calibrated minerals (apatite, plagioclase and a mix of phlogopite-quartz) were buried into the organo-mineral layer of a forest soil. After a 4-year incubation in soil conditions, mineral weathering and microbial colonization were evaluated. Apatite and plagioclase were the only two significantly weathered minerals. The analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences generated by the cloning-sequencing procedure revealed that bacterial diversity was higher in the surrounding soil and on the unweathered phlogopite-quartz samples compared with the other minerals. Moreover, a multivariate analysis based on the relative abundance of the main taxonomic groups in each compartments of origin demonstrated that the bacterial communities from the bulk soil differed from that colonizing the minerals. A significant correlation was obtained between the dissolution rate of the minerals and the relative abundance of Beta-proteobacteria detected. Notably, many sequences coming from bacteria colonizing the mineral surfaces, whatever the mineral, harbored high similarity with efficient mineral weathering bacteria belonging to Burkholderia and Collimonas genera, previously isolated on the same experimental site. Taken together, the present results provide new highlights concerning the bacterial communities colonizing minerals surfaces in the soil and suggests that the minerals create true ecological niches: the mineralosphere.
Biofilm formation and motility of Xanthomonas strains with different citrus host range

Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) strain A is the causal agent of citrus bacterial canker (CBC) on most Citrus spp. and close relatives. Two restricted host range strains of CBC, Aw and A*, from Florida and southwest Asia, respectively, infect Mexican lime. Several studies have linked biofilm formation by Xcc to bacterial colonization prior to and after plant ingress, but none have evaluated connections between biofilm formation and the behaviour of different strains of Xcc on citrus hosts and non-hosts. In this study biofilm formation and swimming motility were evaluated for citrus pathogenic xanthomonads including wide and restricted host range strains of Xcc, X. alfalfae subsp. citrumelonis (Xac) (the causal agent of citrus bacterial spot) and X. campestris pv. campestris (Xc). Differential biofilm formation was observed in vitro and in planta among the Xanthomonas strains assayed. Minimal medium XVM2 increased biofilm formation, especially for those strains with a host range restricted to Mexican lime. In planta, strains produced more biofilm on leaves or fruits of their host than on non-hosts. Scanning electron microscopy of biofilms on leaf and fruit surfaces revealed differences in structure of bacterial aggregates with respect to the strain's host range. In addition, swimming motility varied widely depending on the host range of the strain. It was concluded that biofilm formation in vitro and in planta for strains of Xcc and Xac was related to their host range, as these processes affect colonization at the early stages of the infection process.