Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How to deal with data hungry V2X applications?

Current vehicular communication technologies were designed for a so-called phase 1, where cars needed to advise of their presence. Several projects, research activities and field tests have proved their effectiveness to this scope. But entering the phase 2, where awareness needs to be improved with non-connected objects and vulnerable road users, and even more with phases 3 and 4, where also coordination is foreseen, the spectrum scarcity becomes a critical issue. In this work, we provide an overview of various 5G and beyond solutions currently under investigation that will be needed to tackle the challenge. We first recall the undergoing activities at the access layer aimed to satisfy capacity and bandwidth demands. We then discuss the role that emerging networking paradigms can play to improve vehicular data dissemination, while preventing congestion and better exploiting resources. Finally, we give a look into edge computing and machine learning techniques that will be determinant to efficiently process and mine the massive amounts of sensor data.
Inhibition of aquaporin-1 prevents myocardial remodeling by blocking the transmembrane transport of hydrogen peroxide

Pharmacological inhibition of AQP1 prevents H2O2 transport and hypertrophy of cardiac myocytes. Help for hypertrophy One way that cardiomyocytes respond to injury or stress is by increasing in size (hypertrophy). Montiel et al. studied the role of oxidative stress in myocardial hypertrophy. They saw that the water channel aquaporin-1 (AQP1) was increased in mouse and human hypertrophic heart tissue and that AQP1 regulated hydrogen peroxide transport within myocytes. Deletion or pharmacological blockade of AQP1 abrogated hypertrophy in response to different stressors in cells and in a mouse model of angiotensin II–induced cardiac hypertrophy, identifying a potential therapeutic target for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Pathological remodeling of the myocardium has long been known to involve oxidant signaling, but strategies using systemic antioxidants have generally failed to prevent it. We sought to identify key regulators of oxidant-mediated cardiac hypertrophy amenable to targeted pharmacological therapy. Specific isoforms of the aquaporin water channels have been implicated in oxidant sensing, but their role in heart muscle is unknown. RNA sequencing from human cardiac myocytes revealed that the archetypal AQP1 is a major isoform. AQP1 expression correlates with the severity of hypertrophic remodeling in patients with aortic stenosis. The AQP1 channel was detected at the plasma membrane of human and mouse cardiac myocytes from hypertrophic hearts, where it colocalized with NADPH oxidase-2 and caveolin-3. We show that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), produced extracellularly, is necessary for the hypertrophic response of isolated cardiac myocytes and that AQP1 facilitates the transmembrane transport of H2O2 through its water pore, resulting in activation of oxidant-sensitive kinases in cardiac myocytes. Structural analysis of the amino acid residues lining the water pore of AQP1 supports its permeation by H2O2. Deletion of Aqp1 or selective blockade of the AQP1 intrasubunit pore inhibited H2O2 transport in mouse and human cells and rescued the myocyte hypertrophy in human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived engineered heart muscle. Treatment of mice with a clinically approved AQP1 inhibitor, Bacopaside, attenuated cardiac hypertrophy. We conclude that cardiac hypertrophy is mediated by the transmembrane transport of H2O2 by the water channel AQP1 and that inhibitors of AQP1 represent new possibilities for treating hypertrophic cardiomyopathies.
Secure Learning In Adversarial Environments

Great advancement in deep learning has led to state-of-the-art performance on a wide range of tasks, such as speech recognition, image classification, machine translation, and robotics. Devices and systems powered by deep learning and AI continue to permeate people’s daily lives and make increasingly important decisions. However, current learning systems have severe limitations. For example, we have little confidence how well a learned model will behave under new scenarios. Moreover, when machine learning models are exposed to adversarial behavior, they can be fooled, evaded, and misled in ways that can have profound security implications. For example, recent studies have shown that the current learning systems are vulnerable to attacks such as adversarial examples As machine learning techniques are incorporated into safety-critical systems—from financial systems to selfdriving cars to medical diagnosis—it is vitally important that we develop new techniques and approaches to increase the trustworthiness of machine learning models, so that they can make correct and calibrated decisions under new scenarios and even attacks. In this talk, I will discuss how to systematically explore new directions towards trustworthy machine learning. In particular, I plan to introduce the sensing-reasoning certifiable machine learning pipeline which aims to improve the certifiable robustness of ML by integrating domain knowledge expressed as logic rules. In addition, I will introduce leveraging game theoretic analysis to proactively obtain domain knowledge and further improve the robustness of ML systems.
Feathering the Nest: Food Supplementation Influences Nest Construction by Blue (Cyanistes Caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major)

Food supplementation can potentially provide additional energy and/or liberate time usually devoted to foraging, enabling birds to invest more in activities, such as nest construction, that provide long-term fitness benefits. Although nest construction can represent large temporal and energetic investments in a breeding attempt, few studies have investigated how it is influenced by food supplementation. We studied the effects of food supplementation on nest construction by Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major). We found that food supplementation advanced nest construction and egg laying in both species. Food supplementation also resulted in truncation of the nest construction period of Blue Tits, but not Great Tits. The duration of the nest-lining period was not influenced by food supplementation in either species. Unexpectedly, food supplementation resulted in significantly shallower nests in Blue Tits but not in Great Tits. We conclude that food availability can constrain nest construction behaviour and that these constraints can be released by the provision of supplementary foods prior to and throughout nest construction.
The Impact of Fruit Etiolation on Quality of Seeds in Tobacco

Seed’s maturity and integrity are essential requirements for germination, and they rely on nutrients availability and a correct phytohormones’ balance. These aspects are prerequisites for prompt germination at the end of the dormancy period and strictly depend on chloroplast metabolism and photosynthesis. In the present work, capsules of Nicotiana tabacum were grown in dark during the whole post-anthesis period. Among others, photosynthetic rates, dormancy, and phytohormones levels in seeds were found to be significantly different with respect to controls. In particular, etiolated capsules had expectedly reduced photosynthetic rates and, when compared to controls, their seeds had an increased mass and volume, an alteration in hormones level, and a consequently reduced dormancy. The present findings show how, during fruit development, the presence of light and the related fruit’s photosynthetic activity play an indirect but essential role for reaching seeds maturity and dormancy. Results highlight how unripe fruits are versatile organs that, depending on the environmental conditions, may facultatively behave as sink or source/sink with associated variation in seed’s reserves and phytohormone levels.
IL-33 Alarmin and Its Active Proinflammatory Fragments Are Released in Small Intestine in Celiac Disease

Initially described as Th2 promoter cytokine, more recently, IL-33 has been recognized as an alarmin, mainly in epithelial and endothelial cells. While localized in the nucleus acting as a gene regulator, it can be also released after injury, stress or inflammatory cell death. As proinflammatory signal, IL-33 binds to the surface receptor ST2, which enhances mast cell, Th2, regulatory T cell, and innate lymphoid cell type 2 functions. Besides these Th2 roles, free IL-33 can activate CD8+ T cells during ongoing Th1 immune responses to potentiate its cytotoxic function. Celiac Disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by a predominant Th1 response leading to multiple pathways of mucosal damage in the proximal small intestine. By immunofluorescence and western blot analysis of duodenal tissues, we found an increased expression of IL-33 in duodenal mucosa of active CD (ACD) patients. Particularly, locally digested IL-33 releases active 18/21kDa fragments which can contribute to expand the proinflammatory signal. Endothelial (CD31+) and mesenchymal, myofibroblast and pericyte cells from microvascular structures in villi and crypts, showed IL-33 nuclear location; while B cells (CD20+) showed a strong cytoplasmic staining. Both ST2 forms, ST2L and sST2, were also upregulated in duodenal mucosa of CD patients. This was accompanied by increased number of CD8+ST2+ T cells and the expression of T-bet in some ST2+ intraepithelial lymphocytes and lamina propria cells. IL-33 and sST2 mRNA levels correlated with IRF1, an IFN induced factor relevant in responses to viral infections and interferon mediated proinflammatory responses highly represented in duodenal tissues in ACD. These findings highlight the potential contribution of IL-33 and its fragments to exacerbate the proinflammatory circuit and potentiate the cytotoxic activity of CD8+ T cells in CD pathology.
COVID-19 Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors: A Look at the Evidence

The Covid-19 pandemic is with no doubt the biggest health crisis of the 21st century. The disease is caused by a virus of the Coronaviridae family and is closely related to the virus responsible for the severe acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Since December 2019, the virus has continued to spread way beyond the location of the first recorded cases (Wuhan, China). As of now, over 5 million cases have been diagnosed with the disease worldwide and over 300 thousand have died. COVID-19 patients suffer from respiratory symptoms that can rapidly turn into potentially fatal acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a portion of patients. Although many drugs and vaccines are currently under clinical trials, there is no currently approved treatment or vaccine. It is therefore critical to correctly identify risk factors that lead to the exacerbation of symptoms in highly susceptible groups. Groups that are at high risk include those aged 55 or older especially those with underlying conditions such as cardiovascular diseases. Certain ethnicities such as African-Americans have been found to be at a higher risk and males seem to be higher both in numbers as well as severity of cases. It is hypothesized that these groups are at risk as their molecular landscape is more permissive of viral infection and growth. Different occupations, especially those related to health-care as well as populations that do not cultivate a mask-wearing culture are at higher risk due to environmental exposure. In this article, we examine the evidence regarding different groups that are more sensitive to the disease and review hypotheses pertaining to COVID-19 infection and prognosis. Risk factors that can be related to the molecular landscape of COVID-19 infection as well as those related to environmental and occupational conditions are discussed.
Fire, humans and climate as drivers of environmental change on Broughton Island, New South Wales, Australia

In Australia, the drivers of precolonial fire regimes remain contentious, with some advocating an anthropogenic-dominated regime, and others highlighting the importance of climate, climatic variability or alternatively some nexus between climate and human activity. Here, we explore the inter-relationships between fire, humans and vegetation using macroscopic charcoal, archaeology and palynology over the last ~5430 cal. year BP from Broughton Island, a small, near-shore island located in eastern Australia. We find a clear link between fire and the reduction of arboreal pollen and rainforest indicators on the island, especially at ~4.0 ka and in the last ~1000 years. Similarities with comparable palaeoenvironmental records of fire in the region and a record of strong El Niño (dry, fire-prone) events supports the contention that climate was a significant influence on the fire regimes of Broughton Island. However, two periods of enhanced fire activity, at ~4000 years BP and ~<600 years BP have weaker links to climate, and perhaps reflect anthropogenic activity. Changes to the fire regime in the last ~600 years corresponds with the earliest evidence of Indigenous archaeology on the island, and coincides with implications that Polynesian people were present in the region. After the mid-Twentieth Century a human-dominated fire regime is also an obvious feature of the reconstructed fire record on Broughton Island.
Wetland Governance: Contested Aspirations and Reflexive Roles of Local Professionals Toward Worlding Cities in Tai Lake Basin

This paper examines the contested agendas generated by Tai Lake Basin’s (TLB) recent wetland constructions and how these dynamics have stimulated the particular aspirations concerning nature among various local actors. Through interviews with local ecologists, landscape architects, and environmental engineers, this paper details how they convergently subscribe to the ethical claims of humans and nature during the decision making in constructing wetlands. I termed these dynamic considerations as ‘Ecological Governmentality. ’ Under the influence of environmental conservation as a global consensus, the idea of ‘wetland’ has regained prevalence among Chinese cities’ plans and policies in recent decades. In the TLB, one of the most developed regions in China’s southeast coastal areas, over 800 ‘wetland parks’ have been established. Situated in the basin context, this paper further problematizes three modalities of wetland construction in the case of Suzhou city, namely: National Certificated Wetland Parks propelled by international environmental conservation agendas, Urban Wetland Landscape Parks associated with urban redevelopment, and Engineering Constructed Wetlands generated by the opening niche market for municipal waterworks. The construction of these parks has made prominent attempts to rewild urban environment through re-territorialization, design, and technology innovations intersected with moral claims that go beyond pure scientific concerns of ecology. Building on the concept of ‘worlding practices’ and ‘governmentality,’ three cases in this paper illustrate how the mainstreaming of wetlands in Suzhou has been materialized along with the shared notion of city branding from global neoliberal urbanization. More specifically, this paper explores the diverse materialization through the lens of contested ethical aspirations and transferred roles taken by different actors in the local wetland governance. The emerging ‘Ecological Governmentality’ in wetland construction helps to consolidate the unique ecological imaginary in China and diversify the Chinese cities’ globalization in the making.
Polite Speech Emerges From Competing Social Goals

Language is a remarkably efficient tool for transmitting information. Yet human speakers make statements that are inefficient, imprecise, or even contrary to their own beliefs, all in the service of being polite. What rational machinery underlies polite language use? Here, we show that polite speech emerges from the competition of three communicative goals: to convey information, to be kind, and to present oneself in a good light. We formalize this goal tradeoff using a probabilistic model of utterance production, which predicts human utterance choices in socially sensitive situations with high quantitative accuracy, and we show that our full model is superior to its variants with subsets of the three goals. This utility-theoretic approach to speech acts takes a step toward explaining the richness and subtlety of social language use.
STK35 Is Ubiquitinated by NEDD4L and Promotes Glycolysis and Inhibits Apoptosis Through Regulating the AKT Signaling Pathway, Influencing Chemoresistance of Colorectal Cancer

The development of colorectal cancer (CRC) is often sporadic, but its etiology is multifactorial. Chemoresistance of CRC leads to tumor recurrence and poor prognosis in patients. The phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT) can activate metabolic reprogramming toward cellular glycolysis. Serine/threonine kinase 35 (STK35) regulates the cell cycle and is frequently associated with cancer progression, whereas little is known about its specific roles in CRC. In the current study, bioinformatics analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between STK35 and CRC prognosis. STK35 knockdown and overexpressing CRC cells were established to examine its functions in CRC. Fluorouracil (5-FU) was utilized to evaluate the effect of STK35 on CRC chemoresistance. Moreover, co-immunoprecipitation was performed to explore the ubiquitination of STK35. STK35 was highly expressed in CRC, and its protein expression was negatively correlated with the survival of CRC patients. Furthermore, STK35 overexpression could promote glycolysis, suppress apoptosis, upregulate p-AKT, and counteract the antitumor functions of 5-FU and neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated gene 4-like (NEDD4L) in CRC cells. NEDD4L was associated with and could ubiquitinate STK35. STK35 could be a prognostic biomarker for CRC prognosis and has promotive effects on CRC cellular activities, partially through the AKT pathway. Moreover, STK35 also interferes with the chemosensitivity of CRC.
Coastal Ocean Darkening Effects via Terrigenous DOM Addition on Plankton: An Indoor Mesocosm Experiment

Human activities, increasing precipitation, and changes in land run-off deliver a large input of allochthonous nutrients into coastal waters including terrigenous dissolved organic matter (tDOM). Increased subsidies of tDOM into the coastal water are expected to reduce light availability and thus might be one of the factors causing coastal ocean darkening. To investigate the effect of increased tDOM input and thus limitation in light availability on primary production as well as the transfer to higher trophic levels (zooplankton), we conducted a large-scale indoor mesocosm “Planktotrons” experiment with natural (pelagic and benthic) plankton communities from the North Sea. We simulated a coastal ocean system with daily light and tidal cycles for 35 days. The experimental treatments included a light gradient consisting of three levels of tDOM addition (i.e., low tDOM, medium tDOM, and high tDOM) and a control without tDOM addition. Results showed that tDOM addition reduced the light availability by 27% (low tDOM addition), 62% (medium tDOM addition) and 86% (high tDOM addition). Light reduction through tDOM addition negatively influenced phytoplankton biomass during the first half of the experiment (<18 days) mainly in the “medium tDOM” and “high tDOM” treatments. The tDOM addition changed the phytoplankton community composition, potentially due to adaptations to different light conditions. Neither phytobenthos biomass nor composition was significantly affected by tDOM addition, probably because the tidal cycle assured sufficient light availability during low tide. Overall, our results indicate that the tDOM addition negatively influenced phytoplankton biomass and composition via light availability and tDOM effects were also observed on the zooplankton level (biomass and C:N ratio). Our experiment demonstrates possible implications of coastal darkening under climate-driven environmental changes on primary producers and their interactions in the aquatic food web.
COVID‐19 Impact on the Concentration and Composition of Submicron Particulate Matter in a Typical City of Northwest China

In this study, we evaluated the variations of air quality in Lanzhou, a typical city in Northwestern China impacted by the COVID‐19 lockdown. The mass concentration and chemical composition of non‐refractory submicron particulate matter (NR‐PM1) were determined by a high‐resolution aerosol mass spectrometer during January‐March 2020. The concentration of NR‐PM1 dropped by 50% from before to during control period. The five aerosol components (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, chloride, and organic aerosol [OA]) all decreased during the control period with the biggest decrease observed for secondary inorganic species (70% of the total reduction). Though the mass concentration of OA decreased during the control period, its source emissions varied differently. OA from coal and biomass burning remained stable from before to during control period, while traffic and cooking related emissions were reduced by 25% and 50%, respectively. The low concentration during the control period was attributed to the lower production rate for secondary aerosols.
Plant waste residues as inducers of extracellular proteases for a deuteromycete fungus Trichoderma atroviride

The ability of Trichoderma atroviride F-534 to utilize plant waste byproducts derived from processing of vegetables and fruits, as the major source of organic carbon and nitrogen for growth and protease production, was tested. The submerged cultivation of T. atroviride F-534 in the mineral base of the Czapek–Dox medium supplemented with plant waste byproducts resulted into copious biomass formation and was accompanied by secretion of several proteolytic enzymes. Zymography analysis of fungal culture filtrates showed that the high-molecular weight (HMW) protease(s) (from 100 kDa to 230 kDa) represent the major portion of secreted enzymes. Serine-type proteases and metalloproteases were predominant, although all known types of proteolytic enzymes were detected dependent on the type of inducer (substrate). The most conspicuous feature of secreted proteases was that the zymography patterns were unique for each plant material tested. These results confirm our previous finding obtained with purified proteins. Results also suggest that HMW protease(s) may participate in the heterotrophic/saprophytic/mode of life of this fungus. Their identity remains, however, obscure.
Susceptibility of poultry red mites to entomopathogens.

The killing efficacy of the entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana and Trichoderma album as well as the bacteria Bacillus nigateria israelensis against the poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae De Geer, 1778 were experimentally evaluated. In spite of Dermanyssus gallinae is a major pest in the poultry production, no information is available on the susceptibility of these mite to entomopathogens. Therefore, infection experiments with two fungi and one bacterial species were carried out in the laboratory. Beauveria bassiana and Trichoderma album were tested in assays in which the mites were exposed to high doses of conidia. Beauveria bassiana and Trichoderma album caused high mortalities within the first 5 and 10 days of exposure as well as the bacteria Bacillus nigateria israelensi. Trichoderma album and Bacillus nigateria israelensi proved to be fatal against the poultry red mite D. gallinae, to our knowledge, this is the first record. Trichoderma album and Beauveria bassiana mixture in built-up litter were highly fatal to poultry red mite.