Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectrality as ethical gift and the chance for justice: living on and dispossession in James Joyce’s “The Dead” and John Banville’s Snow

ABSTRACT This essay will explore the theoretical pertinence of the spectre in modern and contemporary Irish fiction as dislocating the sense of history as the modality of the present. I argue for the intertextuality residing between James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” and John Banville’s novel Snow not on the basis of a model of artistic derivativeness or disavowal, but as part of a dynamic of spectral inheritance that forces us to redefine notions of epistemic and ontological closure. Banville’s image of being a “survivor” of Joyce provides me with the analytical apparatus to explore how survivability crucially depends on giving the past its futural chance. It is my argument that these conditions of living on and reckoning with the ghost in Joyce and Banville put in place a utopic and an-archic consideration of justice, which can ultimately only be given (over) to the ghostly other within the self.
Synthesis of Some New 1, 2, 4‐Triazol‐3‐one Derivatives and Investigation of Biological Activity

Schiff bazlari mukemmel karakteristiklige, dogal biyolojik maddelerle yapisal benzerliklere ve sentetik esneklige sahiptirler. Primer aminlerin aldehidler ile Schiff baz-bimolekuler kondenzasyon urunleri, organik sentezde degerli ara maddeleri temsil eder. Salisilaldehitden tureyen Schiff bazlarinin bitki buyume duzenleyici, antimikrobiyen veya antimikotik aktivitesi oldugu bildirilmistir. Bir dizi Schiff bazinin kantitatif yapi-antitumor aktivite iliskisini aciklayan calismalarda, salisilaldehitlerden elde edilen ligandlarda en iyi korelasyonun saglandigi gosterilmistir. Bu calismada substitue amino bilesiklerinin 5-Bromosalisilaldehit ile reaksiyonundan 6 yeni Schiff bazlari sentezlendi ve yapilari, spektroskopik verilerle aydinlatildi. Bu bilesik serisinin biyolojik aktiviteleri degerlendirildi. Sonuclar, sentezlenen yeni bilesiklerin etkili antioksidan ve antiureaz aktiviteye sahip oldugunu gostermektedir.
Methodology based on Computer Vision and Machine Learning to guide the Design of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems using Personalized Gestural Interaction

People who have motor disabilities associated with some difficulty in speech demand alternative means to interact with other people and the environment in which they are inserted. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) refers to all communication forms that can complement or replace speech. The practice of AAC mediated by computational applications represents a very attractive alternative. For people with motor and speech difficulties, gestural interaction can be a way to make interaction with AAC systems feasible. In this thesis, a methodology called MyPGI (Methodology to yield Personalized Gestural Interaction) was developed and validated to guide the design of AAC systems for people with motor and speech difficulties in order to promote greater autonomy for them in handling computer systems and for monitoring by their caregivers. The methodology uses Computer Vision and Machine Learning techniques to enable non-invasive and personalized gestural interaction using low-cost devices. MyPGI was applied and evaluated in real case studies with people with disabilities, informing the design of an interactive system named PGCA (Personal Gesture Communication Assistant) to allow the creation and use of personalized gestural languages for people with severe motor and speech difficulties. This thesis, defended at the Federal University of Parana's Graduate Program in Informatics, shows conceptual, methodological, and technical contributions, with publications in high-level vehicles, registered software, and social technology available for free and open use.
Towards Usability Heuristics for Interactive Web Maps

Interactive web maps are tools used to disseminate geographic information. These, unlike printed maps, allow for more significant interaction and manipulation of spatial data. However, the transformation from the physical to the digital environment often presents problems regarding the non-use of cartographic standards and user communication difficulty with an interactive map interface. In order to cover this gap, this study proposes new interface usability heuristics for interactive web maps. Following a consolidated methodology, we performed the recommended steps, from the exploratory stage to the definition of heuristics in the specification stage. Thus, we present a new set of heuristics to support the development and evaluation of maps' usage in this context.
From now on: experiences from user-based research in remote settings

The COVID-19 disease changed our society in many ways. The social distancing restrictions became mandatory as governments measure to limit the virus spread. These restrictions forced medical appointments, events, meetings, classes, and research experiments, to name a few, to move to an online format. In this new scenario, researchers were also required to redesign their studies, especially the user-based ones. While the virus is still a threat, researchers focus on understanding its long-term effects in research. From this perspective, we explored experiences from three case studies carried out last year: a focus group, a communicability evaluation, and a user observation study. We report on adaptations, challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned in conducting researches with human participation during the social restrictions. The main contribution of this work is a reflection on difficulties, advantages, and changes that may remain in a post-pandemic period from the experiences we met as Human-Computer Interaction researchers in conducting such remote studies. We conclude that the three methods analyzed could be successfully performed with small adjustments without compromising the user involvement in performing the tasks of each study.
New solutions for periodic interfacial gravity waves

Abstract Two-dimensional periodic interfacial gravity waves travelling between two homogeneous fluids of finite depth are considered. A boundary-integral-equation method coupled with Fourier expansions of the unknown functions is used to obtain highly accurate solutions. Our numerical results show excellent agreement with those already obtained by Maklakov & Sharipov using a different scheme (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 856, 2018, pp. 673–708). We explore the global bifurcation mechanism of periodic interfacial waves and find three types of limiting wave profiles. The new families of solutions appear either as isolated branches or as secondary branches bifurcating from the primary branch of solutions.
Supercritical Water Oxidation as a Pretreatment Method for Stable Carbon Isotope Ratio Analysis of Rice

The present study applies supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) as a pretreatment method for the stable carbon isotope ratio analysis of rice. In this study, three kinds of polished rice with different locations of production were treated by SCWO using a batch-type reactor. At a temperature of 500°C, pressure of 25 MPa, and reaction time of 120 min with an excessive amount of oxygen, more than 99% of the rice-derived organic carbon was converted into carbon dioxide without generating any other C-containing gases. Utilizing TiO 2 as a catalyst, 99.5% of rice-derived organic carbon was selec- tively converted into CO 2 within 15 min. In each case, the stable carbon isotope ratio of generated CO 2 was successfully obtained using isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The δ 13 C value of CO 2 from the SCWO treatment of rice was compared with that of CO 2 from the catalytic combustion of rice.
Thermally evaporated CZTSe thin films for solar cell application: Study on the effect of annealing time

ABSTRACT In this paper, Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation method and annealed at 300°C for three different annealing time (2, 4, and 6 h) in air atmosphere. The XRD studies indicates that the as deposited films shows amorphous nature and annealed films confirms the formation of CZTSe compound and its average crystallite size increase with increase in annealing time. Among the films, the 2 h annealed film shows higher crystallinity. AFM images show bigger size particels for annealed films. DRS spectra of all the films show good optical absorption in the entire visible range and the band gap is found in the range of 1.45–1. 54 eV. Therefore the annealed films show good photosensing behavior.
Dysfunction of cAMP-PKA-calcium signaling axis in striatal medium spiny neurons: a role in schizophrenia and Huntington’s disease pathogenesis

Background Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) are preferentially lost in Huntington’s disease. Genomic studies also implicate a direct role for MSNs in schizophrenia, a psychiatric disorder known to involve cortical neuron dysfunction. It remains unknown whether the two diseases share similar MSN pathogenesis or if neuronal deficits can be attributed to cell type-dependent biological pathways. Transcription factor BCL11B, which is expressed by all MSNs and deep layer cortical neurons, was recently proposed to drive selective neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease and identified as a candidate risk gene in schizophrenia. Methods Using human stem cell-derived neurons lacking BCL11B as a model, we investigated cellular pathology in MSNs and cortical neurons in the context of these disorders. Integrative analyses between differentially expressed transcripts and published GWAS datasets identified cell type-specific disease-related phenotypes. Results We uncover a role for BCL11B in calcium homeostasis in both neuronal types, while deficits in mitochondrial function and protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent calcium transients are detected only in MSNs. Moreover, BCL11B-deficient MSNs display abnormal responses to glutamate and fail to integrate dopaminergic and glutamatergic stimulation, a key feature of striatal neurons in vivo. Gene enrichment analysis reveals overrepresentation of disorder risk genes among BCL11B-regulated pathways, primarily relating to cAMP-PKA-calcium signaling axis and synaptic signaling. Conclusions Our study indicates that Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia are likely to share neuronal pathogenesis where dysregulation of intracellular calcium levels is found in both striatal and cortical neurons. In contrast, reduction in PKA signaling and abnormal dopamine/glutamate receptor signaling is largely specific to MSNs.
Genetic patterns in Montipora capitata across an environmental mosaic in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i

Spatial genetic structure (SGS) is important to a population’s ability to adapt to environmental change. For species that reproduce both sexually and asexually, the relative contribution of each reproductive mode has important ecological and evolutionary implications because asexual reproduction can have a strong effect on SGS. Reef building corals reproduce sexually, but many species also propagate asexually under certain conditions. In order to understand SGS and the relative importance of reproductive mode across environmental gradients, we evaluated genetic relatedness in almost 600 colonies of Montipora capitata across 30 environmentally characterized sites in Kāne’ohe Bay, O’ahu, Hawai’i using low-depth restriction digest associated sequencing. Clonal colonies were relatively rare overall but influenced SGS. Clones were located significantly closer to one another spatially than average colonies and were more frequent on sites where wave energy was relatively high, suggesting a strong role of mechanical breakage in their formation. Excluding clones, we found no evidence of isolation by distance within sites or across the bay. Several environmental characteristics were significant predictors of the underlying genetic variation (including degree heating weeks, time spent above 30°C, depth, sedimentation rate and wave height); however, they only explained 5% of this genetic variation. Our results show that colony fragmentation contributes to the ecology of M. capitata at local scales and that genetic diversity is maintained despite strong environmental gradients in a highly impacted ecosystem, suggesting potential for broad adaptation or acclimatization in this population.
Heterogeneity and developmental dynamics of LYVE-1 perivascular macrophages distribution in the mouse brain

Brain perivascular macrophages (PVMs) are border-associated macrophages situated along blood vessels in the Virchow-Robin space and are thus found at a unique anatomical position between the endothelium and the parenchyma. Owing to their location and phagocytic capabilities, PVMs are regarded as important components that regulate various aspects of brain physiology in health and pathophysiological states. Here, we used LYVE-1 to identify PVMs in the mouse brain using brain-tissue sections and cleared whole-brains to learn about how they are distributed within the brain and across different developmental postnatal stages. We find that LYVE-1+ PVMs associate with the vasculature in different patterns and proportions depending on vessel diameter or arterio-venous differentiation. LYVE-1+ PVMs relate to blood vessels in a brain-region-dependent manner. We show that their postnatal distribution is developmentally dynamic and peaks at P10-P20 depending on the brain region. We further demonstrate that their density is reduced in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease proportionally to beta-amyloid deposits. In conclusion, our results reveal unexpected heterogeneity and dynamics of LYVE-1+ PVMs, with selective coverage of brain vasculature, compatible with potential unexplored roles for this population of PVMs in postnatal development, and in regulating brain functions in steady-state and disease conditions.
Cytoplasmic dynein-1 cargo diversity is mediated by the combinatorial assembly of FTS–Hook–FHIP complexes

In eukaryotic cells, intracellular components are organized by the microtubule motors cytoplasmic dynein-1 (dynein) and kinesins, which are linked to cargos via adaptor proteins. While ∼40 kinesins transport cargo toward the plus end of microtubules, a single dynein moves cargo in the opposite direction. How dynein transports a wide variety of cargos remains an open question. The FTS-Hook-FHIP (“FHF”) cargo adaptor complex links dynein to cargo in mammals and fungi. As human cells have three Hooks and four FHIP proteins, we hypothesized that the combinatorial assembly of different Hook and FHIP proteins could underlie dynein cargo diversity. Using proteomic approaches, we determine the protein ‘interactome’ of each FHIP protein. Live-cell imaging and biochemical approaches show that different FHF complexes associate with distinct motile cargos. These complexes also move with dynein and its cofactor dynactin in single-molecule in vitro reconstitution assays. Complexes composed of FTS, FHIP1B, and Hook1/Hook3 co-localize with Rab5-tagged early endosomes via a direct interaction between FHIP1B and GTP-bound Rab5. In contrast, complexes composed of FTS, FHIP2A and Hook2 colocalize with Rab1A-tagged ER-to-Golgi cargos and FHIP2A is involved in the motility of Rab1A tubules. Our findings suggest that combinatorial assembly of different FTS-Hook-FHIP complexes is one mechanism dynein uses to achieve cargo specificity.
Compositional analysis of Sindbis virus ribonucleoproteins reveals an extensive co-opting of key nuclear RNA-binding proteins

The expansion of tropical mosquito habitats and associated arboviruses is a risk for human health, and it thus becomes fundamental to identify new antiviral strategies. In this study we employ a new approach to elucidate the composition of the ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) of a prototypical arbovirus called Sindbis (SINV). SINV RNPs contain 453 cellular and 6 viral proteins, many of these proteins are nuclear in uninfected cells and redistribute to the cytoplasm upon infection. These findings suggest that SINV RNAs act as ’spiderwebs’, capturing host factors required for viral replication and gene expression in the cytoplasm. Functional perturbation of several of these host proteins causes profound effects in virus infection, as illustrated here with the tRNA ligase complex. Moreover, inhibition of viral RNP components with available drugs hampers the infection of a wide range of viruses, opening new avenues for the development of broad-spectrum therapies. Research highlights SINV RNA interactome includes 453 cellular and 6 viral proteins. Nuclear RBPs that interact with SINV RNA are selectively redistributed to the cytoplasm upon infection The tRNA ligase complex plays major regulatory roles in SINV and SARS-CoV- 2 replication The SINV RNA interactome is enriched in pan-viral regulators with therapeutic potential.
iLQR-VAE : control-based learning of input-driven dynamics with applications to neural data

Understanding how neural dynamics give rise to behaviour is one of the most fundamental questions in systems neuroscience. To achieve this, a common approach is to record neural populations in behaving animals, and model these data as emanating from a latent dynamical system whose state trajectories can then be related back to behavioural observations via some form of decoding. As recordings are typically performed in localized circuits that form only a part of the wider implicated network, it is important to simultaneously learn the local dynamics and infer any unobserved external input that might drive them. Here, we introduce iLQR-VAE, a control-based approach to variational inference in nonlinear dynamical systems, capable of learning both latent dynamics, initial conditions, and ongoing external inputs. As in recent deep learning approaches, our method is based on an input-driven sequential variational autoencoder (VAE). The main novelty lies in the use of the powerful iterative linear quadratic regulator algorithm (iLQR) in the recognition model. Optimization of the standard evidence lower-bound requires differentiating through iLQR solutions, which is made possible by recent advances in differentiable control. Importantly, the recognition model is naturally tied to the generative model, greatly reducing the number of free parameters and ensuring high-quality inference throughout the course of learning. Moreover, iLQR can be used to perform inference flexibly on heterogeneous trials of varying lengths. This allows for instance to evaluate the model on a single long trial after training on smaller chunks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of iLQR-VAE on a range of synthetic systems, with autonomous as well as input-driven dynamics. We further apply it to neural and behavioural recordings in non-human primates performing two different reaching tasks, and show that iLQR-VAE yields high-quality kinematic reconstructions from the neural data.
Identification of Iron-Sulfur (Fe-S) and Zn-binding Sites Within Proteomes Predicted by DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 Program Dramatically Expands the Metalloproteome

DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 software has ushered in a revolution in high quality, 3D protein structure prediction. In very recent work by the DeepMind team, structure predictions have been made for entire proteomes of twenty-one organisms, with >360,000 structures made available for download. Here we show that thousands of novel binding sites for iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters and zinc ions can be identified within these predicted structures by exhaustive enumeration of all potential ligand-binding orientations. We demonstrate that AlphaFold2 routinely makes highly specific predictions of ligand binding sites: for example, binding sites that are comprised exclusively of four cysteine sidechains fall into three clusters, representing binding sites for 4Fe-4S clusters, 2Fe-2S clusters, or individual Zn ions. We show further: (a) that the majority of known Fe-S cluster and Zn-binding sites documented in UniProt are recovered by the AlphaFold2 structures, (b) that there are occasional disputes between AlphaFold2 and UniProt with AlphaFold2 predicting highly plausible alternative binding sites, (c) that the Fe-S cluster binding sites that we identify in E. coli agree well with previous bioinformatics predictions, (d) that cysteines predicted here to be part of Fe-S cluster or Zn-binding sites show little overlap with those shown via chemoproteomics techniques to be highly reactive, and (e) that AlphaFold2 occasionally appears to build erroneous disulfide bonds between cysteines that should instead coordinate a ligand. These results suggest that AlphaFold2 could be an important tool for the functional annotation of proteomes, and the methodology presented here is likely to be useful for predicting other ligand-binding sites.
Expression analysis and single-nucleotide polymorphisms of MLPH and PMEL17 genes associated with melanin deposition in Xuefeng black-bone chickens

Melanin deposition related genes such as MLPH and PMEL17 play an important role in black-bone chicken. This study was aimed to identify and associate SNPs in the MLPH and PMEL17 genes with melanin content of pectoral muscle (MCPM) in Xuefeng black-bone chicken. A total of 120 Xuefeng black-bone chickens at 120-day-old were randomly selected to measure blackness of pectoral muscle (BPM), according to the degree of BPM selected 22 high blackness (HB) and 22 low blackness (LB) chickens to determine the MCPM, and extract DNA and mRNA. The results indicated that the MCPM in the HB group was higher than in the LB group (P < 0.01), and the L value in the HB group was lower than in the LB group (P < 0.01). And we measured the mRNA expression levels of MLPH and PMEL17 genes in pectoral muscle by quantitative real-time PCR. The results revealed that the mRNA expression levels of MLPH gene (P < 0.05) and PMEL17 gene (P < 0.01) in the HB group was higher than in the LB group, and the mRNA relative expression level of MLPH and PMEL17 genes with MCPM was positive correlation (P < 0.01). And the sequencing results found that a total of 17 SNPs were found in MLPH gene, the C-1411T was associated with MCPM (P < 0.05), there was no difference in MCPM among other locus (P > 0.05). And there were 10 SNPs in PMEL17 gene, the G-1843C, C-2812T, and G-2794A were associated with MCPM (P < 0.05), there was no difference in the MCPM among other locus (P > 0.05). These SNPs could be molecular markers for breeding selection of blackness traits.