Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transfer of Septin Rings to Cytokinetic Remnants Directs Age-Sensitive ER stress Surveillance Cell Cycle Re-entry

During cell division, cells must actively pass on organelles. Previously, we discovered the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress surveillance (ERSU) pathway that ensures the inheritance of functional ER. Activation of the ERSU causes the septin ring to mislocalize, which blocks ER inheritance and cytokinesis. Here, we found that the septin ring mislocalizes to previously utilized cell division sites called cytokinetic remnants (CRMs). The transfer of the septin ring to CRMs requires Nba1, a negative polarity component that normally prevents septin ring formation at CRMs. Furthermore, septin ring movement to CRMs relies on the ERSU component Slt2, which is recruited by binding Bem1. During ER stress, Bem1 also binds the GTP exchange factor Cdc24, without activating Cdc42, a GTPase that normally establishes polarized growth. Failure to translocate septin rings to CRMs delays the cell’s ability to re-enter cell division when ER homeostasis is re-established. Thus, ER stress considers the history of previous cell cycle for future cell cycle re-entry upon ER stress recovery.
Restoring bird pollination of Fuchsia excorticata by mammalian predator control

Many restoration projects aim to increase populations of native fauna and flora, but benefits to the ecological interactions between species are unknown. The restoration of bird pollination services to Fuchsia excorticata (tree fuchsia) was examined at Maungatautari, in the Waikato Region, New Zealand. At Maungatautari, a pest-exclusion fence encloses ~3400 ha of native forest, within which most mammalian pests were eradicated between 2004 and 2007. In December 2010, 140 five-minute bird counts at Maungatautari and a non-treatment site, Pirongia Forest Park, indicated that tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) and bellbirds (Anthornis melanura), key pollinating species, were significantly more abundant at Maungatautari than Pirongia. We then examined whether greater bird numbers at Maungatautari translate into enhanced bird services. A previous study correlated visual pollen scores on F. excorticata flowers to fruit set, allowing rapid assessment of pollination levels. Pollination service to F. excorticata was significantly greater at Maungatautari, with good pollen loads on the stigmas of both female and hermaphrodite flowers there, compared with inadequate pollination on both sexes at Pirongia. Observations of bird visitors to F. excorticata flowers found significantly higher visitation rates at Maungatautari than Pirongia, consistent with the better pollination levels. Pollination levels of F. excorticata were compared with data from 68 sites from around New Zealand with a range of mammalian predator control levels. Sites that were pest-fenced, islands, or mainland islands (and assumed to have lower densities of mammalian pests) had good pollen scores on female plants, whereas at unmanaged sites females had inadequate pollination. This study indicates that higher abundance of pollinating birds as a result of mammalian pest control restores the pollination service to F. excorticata.
Development of new readout electronics for the ATLAS LAr Calorimeter at the sLHC

The readout of the ATLAS Liquid Argon (LAr) calorimeter is a complex multi-channel system to amplify, shape, digitize and process signals of the detector cells. The current on-detector electronics is not designed to sustain the ten times higher radiation levels expected at sLHC in the years beyond 2019/2020, and will be replaced by new electronics with a completely different readout scheme. The future on-detector electronics is planned to send out all data continuously at each bunch crossing, as opposed to the current system which only transfers data at a trigger-accept signal. Multiple high-speed and radiation-resistant optical links will transmit 100 Gb/s per front-end board. The off-detector processing units will not only process the data in real-time and provide digital data buffering, but will also implement trigger algorithms. An overview about the various components necessary to develop such a complex system is given. The current R&D activities and architectural studies of the LAr Calorimeter group are presented, in particular the on-going design of the mixed-signal and radiation tolerant front-end ASICs, the Silicon-on-Saphire based optical-link, the high-speed off-detector FPGA based processing units, and the power distribution scheme.
Specific spatio-temporal dynamics of absorptive fine roots in response to neighbor species identity in a mixed beech-spruce forest.

Absorptive fine roots are an important driver of soil biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the spatio-temporal dynamics of those roots in the presence of neighboring species remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to analyze shifts in absorptive fine-root traits in monoculture or mixtures of Fagus sylvatica [L. ] and Picea abies [L. ] Karst. We hypothesized that root competition would be higher under single-species than mixed-species interactions, leading to changes in (i) root survivorship, diameter and respiration and (ii) spatio-temporal patterns of root growth and death. Using minirhizotron methods, we monitored the timing and location of absorptive fine-root growth and death at an experimental forest in southern Germany from 2011 to 2013. We also measured root respiration in the spring and fall seasons of 2012 and 2013. Our findings show that the absorptive fine roots of F. sylvatica had a 50% higher risk of root mortality and higher respiration rates in the single-species compared to mixed-species zones. These results support our hypothesis that root competition is less intense for F. sylvatica in mixture versus monoculture. We were unable to find confirmation for the same hypothesis for P. abies. To analyze spatio-temporal patterns of absorptive fine-root production and mortality, we used a mixed-effects model considering root depth (space) and seasons (time) simultaneously. This analysis showed that F. sylvatica shifts root production towards shallower soil layers in mixed-species stands, besides significant seasonal fluctuations in root production depths for both species. Ultimately, the impact of neighbor species identity on root traits observed in this study has important implications for where, when and how fast root-facilitated carbon cycling takes place in single-species versus mixed-species forests. In addition, our study highlights the need for inclusion of absorptive fine-root spatio-temporal dynamics when examining belowground plant interactions and biogeochemical cycles.
Working memory and reading comprehension: The relationship between central executive functioning and discourse-level reading ability

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that a relationship exists between reading comprehension and working memory (WM). However, there are inconsistencies in the literature regarding which executive functions (EFs) of WM contribute to overall reading comprehension ability. This study attempted to address why these inconsistencies exist by investigating to what extent the ability to manipulate, integrate, and update information quickly and efficiently was related to adults’ overall reading comprehension. Fifty-one participants, aged between 18 and 56 years without any cognitive impairments, completed a standardised reading comprehension assessment and a novel computer-based task which assessed propositional-level and discourse-level reading comprehension, respectively. Additionally, participants completed a cognition battery which assessed WM, inhibitory and attentional control, attention, cognitive flexibility and episodic memory. The findings indicated that context (i.e., low, medium and high) had a significant effect on discourse-level reading comprehension ability. This was accompanied by a significant relationship between WM, its central EFs and adults’ propositional-level reading comprehension. Unexpectedly, WM and the EFs did not significantly account for individual differences in discourse-level ability comprehension performance. Moreover, inhibition and attention negatively predicted participants’ discourse-level reading comprehension ability. Sound understanding of the relationship between WM and its central EFs has important practical implications for developing training programs aiming to improve children and adult’s executive skills and academic performance. Key words: working memory (WM), executive functions (EFs), situation model construction, adults, propositional-level reading comprehension, discourse-level reading comprehension.
Evaluation of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) germplasm collection of Tamil Nadu for -linolenic acid, sesamin and sesamol content

A germplasm collection of Tamil Nadu comprising of nine varieties and six landraces were analyzed for their ω3 fatty acid content, lignans such as sesamin and sesamol. The percentage of ALA ranges from 0.1 to 0.55%. A wide variation was observed in sesamol content. The highest sesamol content of 0.547 mg/g was found in a variety SVPR1. The sesamin content ranged between 2.03 and 6.45 mg/g. A negative relationship was observed between total oil content and ALA. White sesame seeds had higher sesamol content whereas black varieties revealed higher sesamin content. Key words: ω3 fatty acid, sesame, sesamin, sesamol, Tamil Nadu germplasm.
Image-Based Matching for Natural Knee Kinematics Measurement Using Single-Plane Fluoroscopy

The purpose of the present study is to develop a direct and accurate method for measuring knee kinematics by using single-plane fluoroscopy. The 3-dimensional (3D) position of the bone (in other words, the 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) parameters) was recovered by matching the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) generated from the 3D volume model of the bone on the basis of the fluoroscopic image. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the overall rotation parameters was within 2.1 degrees. For the translation parameters RMSE took its maximal value of 3.6 mm in the out-of-plane direction. This indicates that the present method has potential for clinical application.
Autoresonant excitation and evolution of nonlinear waves:mThe variational approach

It is shown that a large class of multidimensional nonlinear waves can be excited and controlled in adiabatically varying systems driven by an externally launched pump wave. The excitation proceeds via the trapping into the resonance, while later the nonlinear wave evolves by being phase locked with the pump wave in an extended region of space and/or time despite the variation of system’s parameters. This automatic phase locking ~autoresonance! yields a possibility of shaping the parameters of the nonlinear wave by varying the nonuniformity and/or time dependence of the parameters of the system. The multidimensional theory of the autoresonance for driven nonlinear waves is developed on the basis of the averaged variational principle and is illustrated by an example of a driven sine-Gordon equation. @S1063-651X~97! 04202-5# PACS number~s! : 03.40. Kf; 52.35. Mw
A Concept of Word in Text: A Pivotal Event in Early Reading Acquisition

The purpose of this study was to examine a model of early reading acquisition that hinged on a phenomenon seldom explored in beginning reading research: a child's concept of word in text. Previous research in early literacy acquisition has centered on the role phonological awareness—the ability to consciously attend to and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language—plays in early reading development. However, a small but promising line of research suggests that children's ability to match spoken words to written words while reading connected text—a concept of word in text—is a pivotal event in early reading acquisition that bridges a primitive form of phonological awareness with a more sophisticated form of phonological awareness. In this study, 56 kindergarten children were assessed on measures of beginning consonant awareness, concept of word in text, full phoneme segmentation ability, spelling ability, and word recognition ability. Analysis of the data supported the proposed model and essentially replicated a previous study (Morris, 1993). Most important, the findings of this study strongly support the notion that a child's concept of word in text plays a linchpin role in early reading acquisition. The results of this general line of work may inform early identification for children at risk of reading failure, beginning reading instruction, and future research in early literacy acquisition.
Characterization and applications of novel DNA- and RNA-targeting CRISPR effectors

The development of molecular tools from natural discovery has played an integral role in the history of modern biology. Genome editing systems derived from the CRISPR bacterial immune system have enabled substantial increases in progress in applications such as forward and reverse genetics, protein tagging, gene therapy, and lineage tracing, among many others. While the initial DNA endonuclease family used in these contexts, Cas9, has demonstrated great utility, the discovery, characterization, and application of new programmable nucleic acid targeting systems could improve upon existing applications and provide new opportunities for the use of molecular tools. Here, we present several new families of single-effector CRISPR enzymes, including Cas12a and Cas13, and demonstrate their value for the targeting of either DNA or RNA in vivo and in vitro, for applications in genome editing, RNA knockdown, RNA editing, and diagnostics. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the CRISPR adaptive immune system, current approaches in genome editing, and a background of tools for RNA-targeting. Chapter 2 describes the characterization of a novel single-effector CRISPR system, the type V system, and its associated nuclease, Cpf1/Cas12a. We demonstrate the targeting rules for Cpf1 in vitro and in vivo and apply it for genome editing.
Preliminary analysis of PGRP-LC gene and structure characteristics in bumblebees

PGRP-LC is a significant pattern recognition receptor of the insect innate immune system that can recognize peptidoglycans and activate immune signaling pathways regulating the expression and release of antimicrobial peptides against infection. We for the first time analyzed the phylogenetic tree, purification and structure of bumblebee PGRP-LC. The results showed high conservation of bumblebee PGRP-LC among the 16 bumblebee species, and further phylogenetic analysis showed that the PGRP-LC phylogeny of different subgenera (Subterraneobombus, Megabombus, Melanobombus, Bombus) is consistent with that of the COI gene. Additionally, the phylogeny of PGRP-LCs among Bombus, Apis and the solitary bee Megachile rotundata coincides with the sociality evolution of bees. Moreover, bumblebee PGRP-LC (Bl-PGRP-LC) shares the Drosophila PGRP-LCx and PGRP-LCa topology, retaining conserved disulfide bonds and 80% binding residues involved in the interaction between TCT and PGRP-LCx. Therefore, Bl-PGRP-LC might share some similar binding characteristics with Drosophila PGRP-LCx. In addition, Bl-PGRP-LC has shorter β5 and β1 sheets, longer β2, β3, and β4 sheets and a shallow binding groove. To determine the characteristics of Bl-PGRP-LC, high-purity PGRP-LC inclusion bodies, soluble GST-tag Bl-PGRP-LC fusion protein and soluble pure Bl-PGRP-LC were obtained in vitro. The results will be helpful for further study of the function and structure of Bl-PGRP-LC.
Development of oral expression self-efficacy belief scale for pre-service teachers

This study aims to develop a scale to identify the oral expression self-efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers. The participants of this study consist of 426 students studying in faculty of education. During the process of the scale development, related literature was reviewed, a pool of items was created, experts’ opinions’ were collected, a pilot study was carried out and reliability and validity of the scale were measured. As a result of the exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses, the scale was determined to have 29 items. Factor loadings were valued from . 50 to . 76. Item-total correlation of the scale ranged from . 30 to . 69. The scale was identified to be one-dimensional which had a structure of 4 factors. Total variance explained by these four factors was 52%. χ2/df ratio was found to be 3.05 as a result of CFA. According the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the goodness of fix indexes were calculated as follows: CFI=. 97, IFI=. 97, SRMR=. 06, RMSEA=. 07 (90%, GA=.065; .074). The distinctiveness of the items was found to be significant as a result of 27% sub group and 27 % super group independent groups t-test. It was determined that the scale has one dimension but four factors. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the factors were calculated to range from . 70 to . 89. Cronbach’s alpha of the total scale was calculated as . 94. As a result of these findings, it can be asserted that the scale is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to identify the oral expression self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers.
Long-Term Monoculture Negatively Regulates Fungal Community Composition and Abundance of Tea Orchards

Continuous cropping frequently leads to soil acidification and major soil-borne diseases in tea plants, resulting in low tea yield. We have limited knowledge about the effects of continuous tea monoculture on soil properties and the fungal community. Here, we selected three replanted tea fields with 2, 15, and 30 years of monoculture history to assess the influence of continuous cropping on fungal communities and soil physiochemical attributes. The results showed that continuous tea monoculture significantly reduced soil pH and tea yield. Alpha diversity analysis showed that species richness declined significantly as the tea planting years increased and the results based on diversity indicated inconsistency. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed that monoculture duration had the highest loading in structuring fungal communities. The relative abundance of Ascomycota, Glomeromycota, and Chytridiomycota decreased and Zygomycota and Basidiomycota increased with increasing cropping time. Continuous tea cropping not only decreased some beneficial fungal species such as Mortierella alpina and Mortierella elongatula, but also promoted potentially pathogenic fungal species such as Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, and Microidium phyllanthi over time. Overall, continuous tea cropping decreased soil pH and potentially beneficial microbes and increased soil pathogenic microbes, which could be the reason for reducing tea yield. Thus, developing sustainable tea farming to improve soil pH, microbial activity, and enhanced beneficial soil microbes under a continuous cropping system is vital for tea production.
Gender Pay Gap and Typically Female Jobs

where w is the hourly wage, X are vectors of explanatory variables and β are vectors of estimated coefficients obtained by separated OLS regressions for males (index M) and females (index F); the bar over a variable indicates its average value over the sample. The first term shows the part of the wage gap that can be ascribed to average differences in individual characteristics between both groups. The second component accounts for the part that can be attributed to differences in the valuation of the characteristics between the groups and can be interpreted as an approximation of wage discrimination. This decomposition method doesn’t account for possible biases arising from two basic individuals’ decisions: the decision to work and the choice of occupation. The first one could create a problem of sample selection bias, whereas the second one could generate an endogeneity bias. In modeling the decision whether or not to work we account for the possibility that individuals with a paid job may be a non-random subsample of the individuals in the original sample. As the origin of the selection could be related to earnings, one needs to explicitly consider this process in the estimation of the wage equation. Moreover, it is important to control for the endogeneity of occupation as there are reasons to believe that unobserved individual characteristics may not only influence the worker’s decision about which job to take, but they may also affect earnings. Part of the wage gap is due to the crowding of females in particular occupations, and we have to consider that this segregation is, at least in part, fruit of individuals’ decisions: women and men could have different preferences regarding job characteristics, with males generally placing greater emphasis on earnings in respect of females that tend more often to reconcile job time with family commitments; individuals self-select into different occupations and this self-selection may affect their earnings. To account for the selectivity process we employ, for females, a bivariate selectivity model (Sorensen, 1989) that consists of two simultaneous equations, one for the binary choice to work or not, and another for the binary outcome, “Typically female job” (T=1) or “Other job” (T=0), through a bivariate probit with selection. The vector of parameters’ estimates are
Forgiving Significant Interpersonal Offenses: The Role of Victim/Offender Racial Similarity

The influence of victim/offender racial similarity on victim forgiveness was investigated in a study of interpersonal transgressions. It was hypothesized that racial similarity between victim and offender would influence forgiveness only for transgressions that were less distressing for the victim. Participants were 104 adults (45 Black and 59 White) who provided a narrative description of a significant interpersonal transgression they had experienced and completed measures of transgression-related distress and forgiveness. Forgiveness was measured as positive (benevolence) and negative (revenge, avoidance) motivations toward the offender. For negative motive- tions, revenge and avoidance, there was no effect of racial similarity: more severe distress was associated with less forgiveness for all victim/offender pairings. However, the results revealed a significant interaction of victim/offender racial similarity and distress for positive motivations: Black victims reported increased benevolence towards Black offenders after more distressing transgressions. Victims in other racial combinations reported reduced benevolence for more distressing transgressions. In group favoring of Black offenders by Black victims may be an unexplored aspect of forgiveness. Little research has addressed the potential influence of context on interpersonal forgiveness, and this study suggests that these influences may play an important role.
The vacant set of two-dimensional critical random interlacement is infinite

For the model of two-dimensional random interlacements in the critical regime (i.e., $\alpha=1$), we prove that the vacant set is a.s. \ infinite, thus solving an open problem from arXiv:1502.03470. Also, we prove that the entrance measure of simple random walk on annular domains has certain regularity properties; this result is useful when dealing with soft local times for excursion processes.
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XII. CoRoT-12b: a short-period low-density planet transiting a solar analog star

We report the discovery by the CoRoT satellite of a new transiting giant planet in a 2.83 days orbit about a V = 15.5 solar analog star (M∗ = 1.08± 0.08 M� , R∗ = 1.1± 0.1 R� , Teff = 5675± 80 K). This new planet, CoRoT-12b, has a mass of 0.92± 0.07 MJup and a radius of 1.44± 0.13 RJup. Its low density can be explained by standard models for irradiated planets.