Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elastic and optical properties of sillenites: First principle calculations

Abstract In the present paper, we have investigated the electronic structure of some sillenites - Bi12MO20 (M = Ti, Ge, and Si) compounds based on the density functional theory. The mechanical and optical properties of Bi12MO20 have also been computed. The second-order elastic constants have been calculated, and the other related quantities have also been estimated in the present work. The band gap trend in Bi12MO20 can be understood from the nature of their electronic structures. The obtained electronic band structure for all Bi12MO20 compounds is semiconductor in nature. Similar to other oxides, there is a pronounced hybridization of electronic states between M-site cations and anions in Bi12MO20. Based on the obtained electronic structures, we further calculate the frequency-dependent dielectric function and other optical functions.
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion

ABSTRACT Herbivores can play an important role in determining arctic ecosystem function with effects determined in part by herbivore identity. We examined the impact of long-term (twenty-two years) small and large mammal herbivore exclusion in two arctic plant communities in northern Alaska: dry heath (DH) and moist acidic tundra (MAT). Our aims were to examine how herbivore exclusion influences (1) plant communities and (2) soil nutrient pools and microbial processes. Though herbivore absence increased moss and decreased evergreen shrub cover in MAT, there were few other significant effects on vegetation in either community. We also observed no influence of exclusion on most soil properties. However, in DH, phosphatase activity was greater in areas where small mammals alone were present, suggesting that they are altering phosphorus (P) availability, perhaps through herbivores’ influence on the plant community and subsequently on competition for P with the microbial community. We conclude that herbivore impacts in the Arctic are dependent on both the plant community and herbivore identity (size). We show the importance of understanding the roles of herbivores in the Arctic and contribute to a growing number of herbivore studies in a biome likely to experience future changes in herbivore communities and ecosystem function.
Emergence of a consonant bias during the first year of life: New evidence from own-name recognition.

Recent evidence suggests that during the first year of life, a preference for consonant information during lexical processing (consonant bias) emerges, at least for some languages like French. Our study investigated the factors involved in this emergence as well as the developmental consequences for variation in consonant bias emergence. In a series of experiments, we measured 5-, 8-, and 11-month-old French-learning infants orientation times to a consonant or vowel mispronunciation of their own name, which is one of the few word forms familiar to infants at this young age. Both 5- and 8-month-olds oriented longer to vowel mispronunciations, but 11-month-olds showed a different pattern, initially orienting longer to consonant mispronunciations. We interpret these results as further evidence of an initial vowel bias, with consonant bias emergence by 11 months. Neither acoustic-phonetic nor lexical factors predicted preferences in 8- and 11-month-olds. Finally, counter to our predictions, a vowel bias at the time of test for 11-month-olds was related to later productive vocabulary outcomes.
Book Reviews

Concentrating on the unity of its members as much as on their diversity, the latest edition of this detailed study of the animal kingdom aims to trace the evolution and relationships of all extant fauna from their unicellular ancestor. The text has been updated to merge molecular phylogeny with morphology, and space has been saved by removing much of the information on basic anatomy from earlier editions which the author feels is now well covered elsewhere. A phylogeny is proposed for the metazoan phyla which the author believes now matches molecules and morphology for most of the living groups. Fossil groups, by and large, have not been included. Although the origins of the metazoa are still subject to some debate the evidence from morphological and molecular analyses argues for at least a sister-group relationship with choanoflagellates, and this forms the backbone of the phylogeny described here. A possible ancestral metazoan is described and its relationships with the different groups of sponges, eventually leading to true metazoans, is outlined. The essential characters diagnostic of each phylum are described in detail and any issues raised are fully referenced for more detailed consideration. This means that a great deal of information can be reviewed in a relatively small space. It could be argued that greater use could have been made of comparative tables to summarise rather repetitive detail, but this is a minor criticism. Each phylum has its own short chapter, introduced by a review of its appropriate supraphyletic clade, and each chapter is supplied with comprehensive and up-to-date references. Many chapters list some of the more intriguing questions still awaiting investigation which could suggest a range of interesting projects for graduate students. There are numerous clear line drawings (some in colour) and a small number of photographs to illustrate key features. This book will be of particular value to researchers who require a broad overview of the animal kingdom, or of groups perhaps outside their immediate specialism.
The dynamic interplay between ATP/ADP levels and autophagy sustain neuronal migration in vivo

Cell migration is a dynamic process that entails extensive protein synthesis and recycling, structural remodeling, and considerable bioenergetic demand. Autophagy is one of the pathways that maintain cellular homeostasis. Time-lapse imaging of autophagosomes and ATP/ADP levels in migrating cells in the rostral migratory stream of mouse revealed that decreases in ATP levels force cells into the stationary phase and induce autophagy. Pharmacological or genetic impairments of autophagy in neuroblasts using either bafilomycin, inducible conditional mice, or CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing decreased cell migration due to the longer duration of the stationary phase. Autophagy is modulated in response to migration-promoting and inhibiting molecular cues and is required for the recycling of focal adhesions. Our results show that autophagy and energy consumption act in concert in migrating cells to dynamically regulate the pace and periodicity of the migratory and stationary phases to sustain neuronal migration.
Assessing the reliability of predicted plant trait distributions at the global scale

Abstract Aim Predictions of plant traits over space and time are increasingly used to improve our understanding of plant community responses to global environmental change. A necessary step forward is to assess the reliability of global trait predictions. In this study, we predict community mean plant traits at the global scale and present a systematic evaluation of their reliability in terms of the accuracy of the models, ecological realism and various sources of uncertainty. Location Global. Time period Present. Major taxa studied Vascular plants. Methods We predicted global distributions of community mean specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen concentration, plant height and wood density with an ensemble modelling approach based on georeferenced, locally measured trait data representative of the plant community. We assessed the predictive performance of the models, the plausibility of predicted trait combinations, the influence of data quality, and the uncertainty across geographical space attributed to spatial extrapolation and diverging model predictions. Results Ensemble predictions of community mean plant height, specific leaf area and wood density resulted in ecologically plausible trait–environment relationships and trait–trait combinations. Leaf nitrogen concentration, however, could not be predicted reliably. The ensemble approach was better at predicting community trait means than any of the individual modelling techniques, which varied greatly in predictive performance and led to divergent predictions, mostly in African deserts and the Arctic, where predictions were also extrapolated. High data quality (i.e., including intraspecific variability and a representative species sample) increased model performance by 28%. Main conclusions Plant community traits can be predicted reliably at the global scale when using an ensemble approach and high‐quality data for traits that mostly respond to large‐scale environmental factors. We recommend applying ensemble forecasting to account for model uncertainty, using representative trait data, and more routinely assessing the reliability of trait predictions.
Seasonal potential of Phragmites australis in nutrient removal to eliminate the eutrophication in Lake Burullus, Egypt

Abstract The present study was conducted to investigate the potential of the emergent macrophytes Phragmites australis to remediate nutrients and restore an eutrophic wetland (Lake Burullus, Egypt). The plant was sampled monthly for one year from 6 sites distributed equally along the northern and southern parts of this lake. Monthly significant variation in all investigated sediment and water nutrients for the northern and southern sites was recorded. The biomass of P. australis in the southern sites was greater than that of the northern sites; in addition, the above-ground biomass was greater than the below-ground biomass. The above-ground biomass increased from February until it reached its maximum during August and then decreased again. Likewise, the highest nutrient concentrations in the different tissues were recorded at the beginning of the growing season during winter and early spring and then gradually decreased with increasing plant biomass. Moreover, the nutrient content (g/m2) increased from the early growing season (February) and reached its peak during April–August and then decreased. Based on our results, P. australis could be used for the extraction of nutrients to reduce the eutrophication in Lake Burullus, if the above-ground biomass is harvested at its maximum value in August, as was the case regarding the maximum content of most nutrients.
Evolution of predation-related characters in neogene Atlantic Coastal plain corbulids and lucinids

The hypothesis of escalation proposes that biologic hazards, such as predation, have increased through the Phanerozoic and that these hazards are important agents of selection. Traits that give organisms an advantage over their enemies (predators, competitors, and dangerous prey) should become better expressed with time. The naticid predator-prey system is ideal for testing the hypothesis of escalation, because the characteristic predatory drill holes made by naticid gastropods in their hard-shelled prey produce a fossil record of predator-prey interaction. Three species from the bivalve families Corbulidae and Lucinidae from the US Atlantic Coastal Plain ranging in age from Miocene to Pleistocene were examined in this study. Anti-predatory related morphologic characters (valve thickness, internal volume, and cost-benefit ratio) were traced through the time interval studied. Valve thickness and cost-benefit ratio were hypothesized to increase with time. Internal volume was hypothesized to decrease with time. Three of nine predicted trends in anti-predatory morphology were confirmed. Valve thickness increased in Caryocorbula conradi. Cost-benefit ratio increased in C. conradi and Parvilucina crenulata. The evolution of anti-predatory traits was not correlated with changes in drilling predation intensity nor prey effectiveness. The evolution of anti-predatory morphology by the corbulids and lucinids may have been outpaced by the evolution of the naticid predators. Determining causes in the evolution of shell morphology is complicated, but the driving force of evolution is likely attributable to selection produced by predators, primary productivity, and abiotic factors.
INVESTIGATING SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS OF SURFACTANTS AND NANOPARTICLES (NPs) ON EMULSION VISCOSITY

Most oil producing fields have been exploited using primary (natural) recovery or secondary (waterflooding) which makes oil production a challenge with time. Chemical enhanced oil recovery is considered one of the methods to increase oil production via applying chemicals such as surfactants. Nevertheless, the usage of this method is hindered due to the cost of the materials involved in the process and that they might be environmentally unfriendly due to the usage of excess additives. One of the ways proposed has been to use emulsion flooding to increase oil production. These emulsions should be stable enough with high viscosity to give higher recovery. To achieve increased emulsion viscosity leading to stabilization and higher oil recovery, one of the suggested methods is application of synergistic effect between nanoparticles (NPs) and surfactants. This study focuses on measuring the viscosity of emulsions when employing the synergistic effects between surfactants and NPs with varying types of surfactants, and concentrations of the nanoparticles. Two types of surfactants have been studied, which are an anionic surfactant -sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Nanoparticles that were utilized in the study are nano-silica. It was found that with varying concentration of nanoparticles, the viscosity showed peak values at 0.5xSDS concentration (60 cP) and 1.75xCTAB concentration (107 cP) compared to 24 cP and 9 cP without the usage of NPs for SDS and CTAB, respectively. This has shown that synergistic effect is beneficial in increasing the emulsion viscosity, which can be implemented in the application of blocking pores with higher permeability, known as permeability profile modification as well as to enhance emulsion stability.
Studies on influence of rapeseed vegetation stages on level of phenolic compounds

Among the rapeseed-mustard (Brassica spp.) group of crops Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) is the principal crop which accounts for approximately 85% of the total acreage under rapeseed-mustard. Here in this study, a set of 225 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) developed through a cross between high yielding commercially released Indian mustard cultivars Rohini and PBR-97. were evaluated in F6:7 generation during the Rabi season of 2012 -2013 and data were recorded for various morphological and biochemical parameters such as plant height, main shoot length, fruiting zone length, siliqua length, seeds/siliqua, biological yield/plant, 1000-seed weight, harvest index, seed yield/plant, oil content, and glucosinolates, fiber and phenol content. Significant genetic variation was observed among RILs for all the traits based on analysis of variance along with high genetic advance and high heritability for seed yield/plant, biological yield, 1000-seed weight, fibre and glucosinolates content. Seed yield/plant was found to be significantly and positively correlated with plant height, biological yield, number of seeds/siliqua and 1000-seed weight. Among these RILs, 25 RILs were identified as highly promising RILs on the basis of seed yield/plant which can be further used for multilocation testing for varietal release or used as parents in mustard breeding programs.
α7 Nicotinic Receptor Transduces Signals to Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase to Block A β-Amyloid-induced Neurotoxicity*

Multiple lines of evidence, from molecular and cellular to epidemiological, have implicated nicotinic transmission in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we show the signal transduction mechanism involved in nicotinic receptor-mediated protection against β-amyloid-enhanced glutamate neurotoxicity. Nicotine-induced protection was suppressed by an α7 nicotinic receptor antagonist (α-bungarotoxin), a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002 and wortmannin), and a Src inhibitor (PP2). Levels of phosphorylated Akt, an effector of PI3K, and Bcl-2 were increased by nicotine. The α7 nicotinic receptor was physically associated with the PI3K p85 subunit and Fyn. These findings indicate that the α7 nicotinic receptor transduces signals to PI3K in a cascade, which ultimately contributes to a neuroprotective effect. This might form the basis of a new treatment for AD.
Relation between the hallux stability in standing position and 1st ray position in athletes of two different sports

The main goal of this work is to establish a connection between the position of the 1st Metatarsal (Mtt) bone and the hallux stability with regard to the effective activation of the windlass mechanism in soccer and judo athletes. To assess whether the position of the 1st Mtt affects the structure through which propulsion is performed while walking, and finally whether the position of the 1st Mtt affects which Mtt is more congested at the time of calcaneal elevation while walking will compare all soccer players and judo athletes. The statistical analysis was developed according to the SPSS software and we used a survey that included some instruments such as the Manchester and the VAS (Visual Analogic Scale), a Gurney, the Ultralight Podoscope and a Pressure Platform. Physical tests were performed to assess the position of the 1st Mtt (pressure ulcer), the stability of the hallux (standing position) and the lung test. The results showed that the dorsiflexion position of the soccer players, isolated from each of the sample groups, soccer players and judokas, was more common and that there was also a higher incidence of hallux instability. The results were more consistent among judo practitioners, since the number of athletes with hallux instability was higher in the dorsiflexion position than among those who showed stability; in the plantar flexion position, the situation was reversed, i.e. more athletes with stability outweighed the fractional analysis. However, in the fractional analyzes by mode, the relationships lose the statistical significance. In the relationship between the stability of the hallux and the last structure that leaves the ground on final propulsion, it has been found that in the presence of stability, the last structure that leaves the ground is the 2nd finger. Regarding the relationship between the position of the 1st Mtt and the structure that is most heavily overloaded at the heel lift, the overload is mainly on the 5th Mtt, regardless of the position of the 1st Mtt.
Is the RdNBR a better estimator of wildfire burn severity than the dNBR? A discussion and case study in southeast China

Abstract A growing number of wildfires around the world have been resulting in severe post-fire effects. Understanding the accurate distribution of the wildfire burn severity is particularly important for post-fire management. The differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and its relative dNBR (RdNBR) are the two main indices for burn severity assessment. In China, little information is available on the capabilities of the dNBR and RdNBR for the burn severity assessment. Moreover, differing results of the detection capabilities of the dNBR and RdNBR for the burn severity have been reported worldwide. This study aimed to assess the potential of the dNBR and RdNBR for the wildfire burn severity estimation in southeast China to influence the post-fire management. Landsat satellite imageries on 15 August 2017 (pre-fire) and 15 August 2019 (post-fire) and field-based burn severity surveys were used to develop effective burn severity models using regression methods. The results showed that the dNBR is a better and more reliable index for burn severity mapping than the RdNBR. Using the RdNBR to estimate burn severity likely leads to an underestimation. RdNBR was designed to normalize for variations in pre-fire vegetation and therefore should most useful in heterogenous landscapes, such as the field area, which has areas of grassland and areas of forest. However, we found the opposite pattern: for predicting burn severity, the dNBR resulted in higher R2 and smaller RMSE values than the RdNBR for forested areas alone, and for combined forested and grassland areas (i.e. the entire field area). For grassland areas alone, the dNBR had similar R2 and RMSE to that of the RdNBR. In brief, the inconsistent results of the detection capabilities of the dNBR and RdNBR for burn severity around the world are closely related to diverse local conditions. The RdNBR must be used with caution in estimating the burn severity at a specific site. Our study enriches the knowledge of the wildfire burn severity assessment in the southeast coast of China.
Challenges in Description of Nonlinear Waves Due to Sampling Variability

Wave description is affected by several uncertainties, with sampling variability due to limited number of observations being one of them. Ideally, temporal/spatial wave registrations should be as large as possible to eliminate this uncertainty. This is difficult to reach in nature, where stationarity of sea states is an issue, but it can in principle be obtained in laboratory tests and numerical simulations, where initial wave conditions can be kept constant and intrinsic variability can be accounted for by changing random seeds for each run. Using linear, second-order, and third-order unidirectional numerical simulations, we compare temporal and spatial statistics of selected wave parameters and show how sampling variability affects their estimators. The JONSWAP spectrum with gamma peakedness parameters γ = 1, 3.3, and 6 is used in the analysis. The third-order wave data are simulated by a numerical solver based on the higher-order spectral method which includes the leading-order nonlinear dynamical effects. Field data support the analysis. We demonstrate that the nonlinear wave field including dynamical effects is more sensitive to sampling variability than the second-order and linear ones. Furthermore, we show that the mean values of temporal and spatial wave parameters can be equal if the number of simulations is sufficiently large. Consequences for design work are discussed.