Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forces and constraints controlling podosome assembly and disassembly

Podosomes are a singular category of integrin-mediated adhesions important in the processes of cell migration, matrix degradation, and cancer cell invasion. Despite a wealth of biochemical studies, the effects of mechanical forces on podosome integrity and dynamics are poorly understood. Here, we show that podosomes are highly sensitive to two groups of physical factors. First, we describe the process of podosome disassembly induced by activation of myosin-IIA filament assembly. Next, we find that podosome integrity and dynamics depends upon membrane tension and can be experimentally perturbed by osmotic swelling and deoxycholate treatment. We have also found that podosomes can be disrupted in a reversible manner by single or cyclic radial stretching of the substratum. We show that disruption of podosomes induced by osmotic swelling is independent of myosin-II filaments. Inhibition of the membrane sculpting protein, dynamin-II, but not clathrin, resulted in activation of myosin-IIA filament formation and disruption of podosomes. The effect of dynamin-II inhibition on podosomes was however independent of myosin-II filaments. Moreover, formation of organized arrays of podosomes in response to microtopographic cues (the ridges with triangular profile) was not accompanied by reorganization of myosin-II filaments. Thus, mechanical elements such as myosin-II filaments and factors affecting membrane tension/sculpting independently modulate podosome formation and dynamics, underlying a versatile response of these adhesion structures to intracellular and extracellular cues.
Ecology, natural history and behaviour of Ithomiine butterflies and their mimics in Ecuador (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Ithomiinae).

The ithomiine butterfly species (Nymphalidae: Ithomiinae) which occur at Jatun Sacha Biological Station, Napo Province, Ecuador were found to participate in eight discrete mimicry complexes. These complexes involve a total of 124 insect species: 55 ithomiine species, 34 species which belong to other butterfly families or subfamilies, 34 moth species, and 1 species of damselfly. All species are illustrated and identified, and aspects of their behaviour are discussed. Literature on the chemical defences of the species is reviewed and a study of their ultraviolet reflectance patterns is presented. Data from a mark-release-recapture study show that the majority of individuals in the mimicry complexes studied were ithomiines. Hypotheses to explain polymorphism in Batesian and Mullerian mimics are discussed, in view of the finding that seven species of ithomiines, five other butterfly species, and the single damselfly species were polymorphic at Jatun Sacha.
Herbarium records reveal early flowering in response to warming in the southern hemisphere

Premise of the Study Herbarium specimens are increasingly used as records of plant flowering phenology, which has advanced for many species in response to climate change. However, most herbarium-based studies on plant phenology focus on taxa from temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. Here, we explore flowering phenologic responses to climate in a temperate/subtropical plant genus Protea (Proteaceae), an iconic group of woody plants with year-round flowering phenology and endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Protea is widely used in horticulture and is a flagship genus for the flora of the hyperdiverse Cape Floristic Region. Methods We used a database of 2154 herbarium records of 25 Protea species to explore patterns in flowering spanning the past 100 years. We used a circular sliding window analysis to characterize phenological patterns in these aseasonal species, plus a novel linear mixed effects model formulation to test how both site-to-site and year-to-year variation in temperature and precipitation affect flowering date across species. Results Both warmer sites and warmer years were associated with earlier flowering of 3–5 days/°C. In general, the timing of peak flowering was influenced more strongly by temperature than precipitation. Although species vary widely in when they flower during the year, their phenological responses to temperature are phylogenetically conserved, with closely related species tending to shift flowering time similarly with increasing temperature. Discussion Together, our results point to climate-responsive phenology for this important plant genus. Our results indicate that the subtropical, aseasonally-flowering genus Protea has temperature-driven flowering phenologic responses that are remarkably similar in magnitude to those of better-studied northern temperate plant species, suggesting a generality across biomes that has not been described elsewhere.
Why Is the Labor Share Declining?

The fraction of national income accruing to labor (the labor share) had been roughly constant in developed economies for much of the 20th century but has fallen since the 1980s. We review several of the leading explanations in the literature for the declining labor share. We then point to hitherto unexplored dimensions of the data and provide suggestive evidence for a new explanation. In particular, we show that the labor share began a steeper descent in 2000. This more recent break in the labor-share trend coincides with the rapid rise of software investment, which has left a larger impact on service industries (than manufacturing) and on high-skill, cognitive occupations (than middle-skill, routine occupations).
Labor markets in crisis: The causal impact of Canada's COVD19 economic shutdown on hours worked for workers across the earnings distribution

We use Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey to explore the labor market impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Specifically, we adopt a unique identification strategy to examine the heterogeneous causal effects of the COVID-19 economic shutdown by governments on hours worked across the earnings distribution in Canada, focusing on individuals who remained employed in March and April. Most early crisis analyses found that workers in the bottom of the earnings distribution experienced a much larger negative shock to hours worked than workers in the top of the earnings distribution. However, some low-income individuals are also working more as a result of the COVID-19 economic shutdown, and this nuance is missed when only considering the net effect. When we condition on whether workers lost or gained hours, we find that workers in the bottom of the earnings distribution experienced not only the largest percentage reduction in hours, but also the largest percentage increase in hours.
Supervised Pixel-Wise GAN for Face Super-Resolution

For many face-related multimedia applications, low-resolution face images may greatly degrade the face recognition performance and necessitate face super-resolution (SR). Among the current SR methods, MSE-oriented SR methods often produce over-smoothed outputs and could miss some texture details while GAN-oriented SR methods may generate artifacts which are harmful to face recognition. To resolve the above issues, this paper presents a supervised pixel-wise Generative Adversarial Network (SPGAN) that can resolve a very low-resolution face image of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16\times 16$</tex-math></inline-formula> or smaller pixel-size to its larger version of multiple scaling factors (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4\times$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> and even <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16\times$</tex-math></inline-formula>) in a unified framework. Being different from traditional unsupervised discriminators which generate a single number to represent the likelihood whether the input image is real or fake, the proposed supervised pixel-wise discriminator mainly focus on whether each pixel of the generated SR face image is as photo-realistic as its corresponding pixel in the ground-truth HR (high-resolution) face image. To further improve the face recognition performance of SPGAN, we take advantage of the face identity prior by sending two inputs to the discriminator, including an input face image (either a real HR face image or its corresponding SR face image) and its face features which are extracted from a pre-trained face recognition model. Due to the introduced face identity prior, the identity-based discriminator can pay more attention to texture details which are closely related to face recognition. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed SPGAN can achieve more photo-realistic SR images and higher face recognition accuracy than some state-of-the-art methods.
Nanopore-based DNA sequencing in clinical microbiology: preliminary assessment of basic requirements

Aim Identify basic requirements for a metagenomic nanopore sequencing protocol permitting frequent application in a clinical microbiology daily routine diagnostic setting. Background Nanopore sequencing with the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION device has a potential to markedly improve clinical diagnosis of infections. Reports have emerged recently that it may provide direct-from-clinical-sample information; for example, with urine samples, bronchial tuberculosis samples and orthopedic prostheses. However, the ideal protocol for clinical use remains to be determined, especially relating to detection of relevant pathogen quantities and to finding a reasonable level of economic costs. Results MinION can provide qualitatively and quantitatively correct identification of multiple species in metagenomics samples. For detection of clinically relevant quantities of bacteria (on a nanogram DNA level) there is a need for carrier DNA. Importantly, high-purity DNA and a naïve MinION flow cell seem to be critical parameters. Conclusions Our results suggest that high-purity clinical sample DNA, addition of carrier DNA and a naïve flow cell are critical factors for clinical use of MinION. A relatively high error rate may limit detection of antimicrobial resistance genes, and a realistic level of costs will require availability of a price-reduced and single-use flowcell.
Functional and Histomorphological Assessments of Liver and Kidney in Matured Female Albino Wistar Rats Following Ingestion of Citrullus lanatus Seed Extracts

Oil from different seeds in fruits has been exploited for nutritional and health benefits ranging from provision of essential nutrients for cellular metabolic processes to being an alternative route to the orthodox drugs in the quest for a better living. However, adverse consequences following consumption of this seed oils on both the liver and kidney are not well known. The present study was carried out to assess the integrity of the liver and kidney following the administration of different doses of Citrullus lanatus seed extracts (oil) to mature female albino Wistar rats. Twenty - four female albino Wistar rats weighing between 179 g – 257 g were randomly divided into four groups of six animals per group. Animals in group 1(control group) received normal rat chow placebo. The experimental groups 2, 3, and 4 received 932.0 mg, 1864.0 mg and 2796.0 mg seed oil extract / kg body weight in 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 ml respectively for twenty-one (21) days by oral gavaging. The effects of treatment on the integrity of the liver and kidney were assessed by measuring the activities of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) for liver and Na + , K + , Cl - , HCO 3 and Creatinine for kidney as well as the histomorphology of the liver and kidney for possible distortions. The results showed a dose-dependent decrease that was only significant (p<0.05) in group 4 relative to the control group for ALT, while both AST and ALP showed non-significant (p>0.05) changes. Furthermore, non-significant changes were recorded for Na + , K + , Cl - , HCO 3 and Creatinine. Histomorphologically, the liver and kidney integrity were not altered except for fatty infiltration of group 4 hepatocytes relative to control group and hyperchromasia of group 4 kidney relative to control. Generally, this study showed that Citrullus lanatus seed oil consumption results are of great advantage to liver and kidney tissues when consumed.
Effect of different Nitrogen fertilization on cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and development of diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella)

F U L L P A P E R Effect of different Nitrogen fertilization on cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and development of diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) Fatimah, S.N. , Norida, M. and Zaharah, S.S. Department of Agricultural Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Laboratory Climate-Smart Food Crop Production, Institute Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Dengue, Yellow Fever, Zika and Chikungunya epidemic arboviruses in Brazil: ultrastructural aspects

BACKGROUND The impact of arbovirus cocirculation in Brazil is unknown. Dengue virus (DENV) reinfection may result in more intense viraemia or immunopathology, leading to more severe disease. The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in the Americas provided pathogenicity evidence that had not been previously observed in flavivirus infections. In contrast to other flaviviruses, electron microscopy studies have shown that ZIKV may replicate in viroplasm-like structures. Flaviviruses produce an ensemble of structurally different virions, collectively contributing to tissue tropism and virus dissemination. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS In this work, the Aedes albopictus mosquito cell lineage (C6/36 cells) and kidney epithelial cells from African green monkeys (Vero cells) were infected with samples of the main circulating arboviruses in Brazil [DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, DENV-4, ZIKV, Yellow Fever virus (YFV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV)], and ultrastructural studies by transmission electron microscopy were performed. FINDINGS We observed that ZIKV, the DENV serotypes, YFV and CHIKV particles are spherical. ZIKV, DENV-1, -2, -3 and -4 presented diameters of 40-50 nm, and CHIKV presented approximate diameters of 50-60 nm. Viroplasm-like structures was observed in ZIKV replication cycle. MAIN CONCLUSIONS The morphogenesis of these arboviruses is similar to what has been presented in previous studies. However, we understand that further studies are needed to investigate the relationship between viroplasm-like structures and ZIKV replication dynamics.
Diurnal and day-to-day variation of urinary oxidative stress marker 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine

The urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels have been widely used as a biomarker of oxidative stress. The purpose of this study is to investigate the diurnal and day-to-day variations of urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels. For the diurnal variation, the urine samples were collected at the time of awakening and every 2 h, from 10:00 to 22:00, from 6 healthy participants. For the day-to-day variation, the urine samples were collected at the time of awakening for 35 consecutive days, from 27 healthy participants. As a result, no differences were observed in the diurnal urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels, and each subject had a characteristic 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine level. On the other hand, the daily 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine values showed a certain range of variation reflecting lifestyle factors, such as stress status, exercise, sleep time, drinking and diet. In conclusion, urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine may be a useful biomarker to control and prevent oxidative stress-related diseases, if the certain range of day-to-day variations of urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine is known. Even with only one measurement per year, the baseline urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine level could be achieved in a few years by incorporating the 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine measurement as part of an annual health check. As the number of subjects was limited, further studies are needed for practical applications.
CRIME: Input-Dependent Collaborative Inference for Recurrent Neural Networks

The excellent accuracy of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) for time-series and natural language processing comes at the cost of computational complexity. Therefore, the choice between edge and cloud computing for RNN inference, with the goal of minimizing response time or energy consumption, is not trivial. An edge approach must deal with the aforementioned complexity, while a cloud solution pays large time and energy costs for data transmission. Collaborative inference is a technique that tries to obtain the best of both worlds, by splitting the inference task among a network of collaborating devices. While already investigated for other types of neural networks, collaborative inference for RNNs poses completely new challenges, such as the strong influence of input length on processing time and energy, and is greatly unexplored. In this article, we introduce a Collaborative RNN Inference Mapping Engine (CRIME), which automatically selects the best inference device for each input. CRIME is flexible with respect to the connection topology among collaborating devices, and adapts to changes in the connections statuses and in the devices loads. With experiments on several RNNs and datasets, we show that CRIME can reduce the execution time (or end-node energy) by more than 25 percent compared to any single-device approach.
The intensity of COVID‐19 nonpharmaceutical interventions and labor market outcomes in the public sector

Abstract This paper examines whether the intensity of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has differentially impacted the public sector labor market outcomes. This extends the analysis of the already documented negative economic consequences of COVID‐19 and their dissimilarities with a typical economic crisis. To capture the intensity of the NPIs, we build a novel index (COVINDEX) using daily information on NPIs merged with state‐level data on out‐of‐home mobility (Google data). We show that among individuals living in a typical state, NPI enforcement during COVID‐19 reduces the likelihood of being employed (at work) by 5% with respect to the pre‐COVID period and the hours worked by 1.3% using data on labor market outcomes from the monthly Current Population Survey and difference‐in‐difference models. This is a sizable amount representing the sector with the higher job security during the pandemic. Public sector workers in a typical state are 4 percentage points more likely to be at work than salaried workers in the private sector and 7 percentage points more likely to be at work than self‐employed workers (the worst so far). Our results are robust to the endogeneity of the NPI measures and present empirical evidence of heterogeneity in response to the NPIs, with those in local employment being the hardest hit.
Current and Potential Spatial Distribution of Six Endangered Pine Species of Mexico: Towards a Conservation Strategy

Mexico is home to the highest species diversity of pines: 46 species out of 113 reported around the world. Within the great diversity of pines in Mexico, Pinus culminicola Andresen et Beaman, P. jaliscana Perez de la Rosa, P. maximartinenzii Rzed. , P. nelsonii Shaw, P. pinceana Gordon, and P. rzedowskii Madrigal et M. Caball. are six catalogued as threatened or endangered due to their restricted distribution and low population density. Therefore, they are of special interest for forest conservation purposes. In this paper, we aim to provide up-to-date information on the spatial distribution of these six pine species according to different historical registers coming from different herbaria distributed around the country by using spatial modeling. Therefore, we recovered historical observations of the natural distribution of each species and modelled suitable areas of distribution according to environmental requirements. Finally, we evaluated the distributions by contrasting changes of vegetation in the period 1991–2016. The results highlight areas of distribution for each pine species in the northeast, west, and central parts of Mexico. The results of this study are intended to be the basis of in situ and ex situ conservation strategies for the endangered Mexican pines.
Classification of Hyperspectral Images via Multitask Generative Adversarial Networks

Deep learning has shown its huge potential in the field of hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. However, most of the deep learning models heavily depend on the quantity of available training samples. In this article, we propose a multitask generative adversarial network (MTGAN) to alleviate this issue by taking advantage of the rich information from unlabeled samples. Specifically, we design a generator network to simultaneously undertake two tasks: the reconstruction task and the classification task. The former task aims at reconstructing an input hyperspectral cube, including the labeled and unlabeled ones, whereas the latter task attempts to recognize the category of the cube. Meanwhile, we construct a discriminator network to discriminate the input sample coming from the real distribution or the reconstructed one. Through an adversarial learning method, the generator network will produce real-like cubes, thus indirectly improving the discrimination and generalization ability of the classification task. More importantly, in order to fully explore the useful information from shallow layers, we adopt skip-layer connections in both reconstruction and classification tasks. The proposed MTGAN model is implemented on three standard HSIs, and the experimental results show that it is able to achieve higher performance than other state-of-the-art deep learning models.
Globally Exponentially Convergent Continuous Observers for Velocity Bias and State for Invariant Kinematic Systems on Matrix Lie Groups

In this article globally exponentially convergent continuous observers for invariant kinematic systems on finite-dimensional matrix Lie groups has been proposed. Such an observer estimates, from measurements of landmarks, vectors, and biased velocity, both the system state and the unknown constant bias in velocity measurement, where the state belongs to the state-space Lie group and the velocity to the Lie algebra of the Lie group. The main technique is to embed a given system defined on a matrix Lie group into Euclidean space and build observers in the Euclidean space. The theory is illustrated with the special Euclidean group in three dimensions, and it is shown that the observer works well even in the presence of measurement noise.
Reading aloud to first grade students: A case study of Saudi Arabia

Abstract The purpose of this study was two-fold: To understand how reading aloud can help improve the cognitive learning processes of first grade students in Saudi Arabia; and to analyze different reading aloud techniques and their effects on the students’ learning attitudes and motivation in the classroom. The applied research required two first grade classes in which two different reading aloud techniques were conducted twice a week over a six-week period. More specifically, one group received a traditional reading experience, while the other received an interactive one. According to the results, although both groups showed improvements in all areas, the group that received the interactive reading experience had higher vocabulary retention and better lexical analysis and listening skills than the traditional reading group. The implication of the findings is that interactive reading is better suited to the characteristics of Saudi Arabian students than traditional reading.