Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trait-mediated apparent competition in an intraguild predator–prey system

Apparent competition is of broad interest due to its effects on community structure and potential applications in agriculture, restoration, and medicine. It is well-established that apparent competition can result from changes in predator abundance or behavior caused by interactions with alternate prey, but no previous empirical study has demonstrated that apparent competition can also result from prey-induced changes in predator morphology. This trait-mediated alternative mechanism of apparent competition would expand the range of conditions under which apparent competition might occur in nature and identify new ways to generate or modify apparent competition in applied contexts. Here, as a proof of concept, we show that trait-mediated apparent competition can arise from inducible offenses and show how it operates using experiments involving three ciliates. When it feeds on Colpidium kleini, the intraguild predator Tetrahymena vorax increases in size to the extent that it can then consume Paramecium aurelia, an even larger prey. When feeding only on bacteria, however, Tetrahymena remains smaller and is unable to consume Paramecium. This trait-mediated indirect effect leads to the predatory exclusion of Paramecium, while Tetrahymena and Colpidium coexist. Developmental expansions such as those underlying the interactions observed in our study are not limited to ciliates, such as Tetrahymena, but occur among many diverse taxa and may have a surprising degree of influence over the structure and dynamics of food webs.
Multidimensional optical video signals superposition for measurement offset and rotation angle with additive and multiplicative noise

This article was described the task offset and rotate measurement for video signal superposition. The developed algorithm is generalization of Lucas-Kanade model. Another name of this model is optical flow algorithm. The original algorithm allows to rate offsets parameters, but developed algorithm also allows to rate rotate angle. The concept of superposition has based on Taylor series of signal and sinus and cosines replacement on approximate function.
Evaluating the influence of the refractive index dispersion of a harmonic lens on focusing properties

We performed theoretical and numerical analysis of the focusing properties of a harmonic diffractive lens taking into account the dispersion of the refractive index. It was shown that the harmonic lens is characterized not only by the appearance of additional local foci, but also by a shift of the main foci even for multiple wavelengths, which is associated with the chromatic dispersion of the lens material.
Bathing Water Quality Forecast for Chennai Coastal Waters

ABSTRACT Panda, U.S.; Pradhan, U.K.; Sujith Kumar, S. ; Naik, S. ; Begum, M. ; Mishra, P., and Ramana Murthy, M.V. , 2020. Bathing water quality forecast for Chennai coastal waters. In: Sheela Nair, L. ; Prakash, T.N. ; Padmalal, D. , and Kumar Seelam, J. (eds.), Oceanic and Coastal Processes of the Indian Seas. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 89, pp. 111-117. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Risks associated with the non-compliance of bathing water quality have been increasing and becoming a challenge to maintain and manage the coastal waters. Especially, along the coastal cities, the complex nature of sources and their variation due to diverse urban runoff, industrial discharges, port activities and fluxes from different sources are deteriorating the coastal water quality which directly affects the health of beach goers, tourist, coastal communities. The Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 has classified the seawater, class-II criteria for bathing, contact water sports and commercial fishing for Indian coastal waters. Chennai, one of the largest coastal metropolitan cities with a population of 4.65 million, is a major industrial hub having unsafe coastal waters. It's water quality faces toxic and dangerous deterioration due to domestic and industrial wastes. This paper presents an integrated modelling and forecast system developed for Chennai coastal waters through data assimilation using in situ water quality data, deterministic hydrological, hydrodynamic and water quality models. The coupled hydrodynamic-water quality model with input from catchment hydrology solves transport and dispersion of pollutants along the flow pattern. Forcing parameters were downscaled from global models to input to the local domain. 5-day forecast of sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and coliform are generated with confidence from validation. This predictive model and forecasting is helpful to beach managers and policy makers for better management.
An ancient African radiation of corvoid birds (Aves: Passeriformes) detected by mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data

The Malaconotidae, Platysteiridae and Vangidae represent an African and Malagasy assemblage of closely related corvoid taxa with distinctive morphology. Their relationships with their putative Asian closest relatives, and thus their biogeographic history, have not hitherto been thoroughly evaluated. We present evidence that the African and Malagasy groups originated through a single African colonization event c. 37.7 ± 4.6 Myr BP. Three main groups that differ in their foraging behaviour diverged c. 35.8 ± 4.5 Myr BP, suggesting that an African radiation occurred around that time. Several disperal events out of Africa to Madagascar (Vangidae) and Indo‐Malaya (Philentoma, Hemipus and Tephrodornis) took place about 28.9 ± 4.0 Myr BP (Oligocene), a period when faunistic exchanges between Eurasia and Africa seem to have been common. Our estimation of the colonization of Madagascar by the Vangidae is 28.9 ± 4.0 Myr BP, in congruence with the estimated colonization of Madagascar by several African vertebrate groups (carnivorous mammals, snakes, sylvioid passerines, treefrogs, turtles).
Indian Ocean Warming Trends and Forcing Mechanism with Emphasis on Northeastern Tropical Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT Tejas, D.M. ; Gnanaseelan, C. ; Rashmi A.K. , and Deepa, J.S. , 2020. Indian Ocean warming trends and forcing mechanism with emphasis on northeastern tropical Indian Ocean. In: Sheela Nair, L. ; Prakash, T.N. ; Padmalal, D. , and Kumar Seelam, J. (eds.), Oceanic and Coastal Processes of the Indian Seas. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 89, pp. 15-19. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Subsurface temperature variability in the northeastern Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) is addressed in this study. The recent decade witnessed strong positive trends in the warming of subsurface waters of Indian Ocean. On the other hand the net heat flux in to the ocean is showed a negative trend in the last decade citing the oceanic process as the primary cause of temperature variability and trends. The present study is focused on understanding the temporal evolution of the subsurface temperature structure of the northeastern TIO from the latter part of the twentieth century. Long term trends and time series are examined to see whether they result from low-frequency variability. It is seen that, strong warming in the northeastern TIO is closely related with phase change in the decadal oscillation of temperature as well as equatorial Indian Ocean dynamics. Associated circulation over this region supports the findings. The equatorial Kelvin wave after mid 2000s also seems to play a crucial role in the evolution of subsurface temperature patterns.
Calculation of Karhunen-Loeve functions of given correlation function

To analyze the ability of certain beams to maintain information stability under the influence of random fluctuations of the optical medium, numerical calculations based on turbulence simulators such as diffusers, scattering screens and turbulence cells are used. These turbulence simulators can be generated via the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, which is a basis of the eigenfunctions of the correlation operator. In this paper, we consider an analytical calculation of the Karhunen-Loeve functions for a two-dimensional correlation function defined in the form of a Gaussian function, as well as numerical calculation for various four-dimensional correlation functions.
Resistance to dislodgement: habitat and size-specific differences in morphology and tenacity in an intertidal snail

An organism's ability to persist on wave-swept rocky shores is determined, in part, by its ability to resist dislodgement by waves. Resistance to dislodgement depends on hydrodynamic forces and on the ability of an organism to resist those forces by adhering to the substratum. In intertidal snails the structure upon which waves act is the shell and the structure that adheres is the muscular foot. We quantified: (1) shell size (defined as the maximum projected surface area, MPSA); (2) shell shape; (3) foot area; (4) maximum force to dislodge a snail in shear; and (5) tenacity (force per foot area required to dislodge) of the herbivorous intertidal snail Littorina obtusata. We compared individuals that were collected from habitats characterized by differences in exposure to waves. Wave-exposed snails were smaller (lower average MPSA). In addition, snails at the wave-exposed site were shorter, and had larger foot area and greater dislodgement force than did protected snails of similar MPSA. The greater dislodgement force at the exposed site was due to larger foot area, not to greater tenacity. In fact, sizespecific tenacity of snails from the protected habitat was greater Within each site, shape changed with size. Although shell width, length and MPSA scaled isometrically, shell height did not; longer shells were relatively short. Nor did foot area scale isometrically with MPSA; larger snails had relatively smaller foot areas. Assuming that MPSA is directly proportional to speed-specific drag, which is reasonable for bluff bodies, we found that dislodgement force was proportional to drag. This result suggests that increasing tenacity compensated for underscaling of foot area. In fact tenacity did increase with foot area, although only significantly so at the wave-exposed site.
Prevalence, progression and implications of breast artery calcification in patients with chronic kidney disease across stages of disease

Breast artery calcification (BAC) is increasingly recognized as a specific marker of medial calcification and may help to identify risk factors of medial artery calcification. Amongst these are high age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Present retrospective observational cohort study focused on the latter patient group with CKD and aimed to define the prevalence and progression rate of BAC in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients across stages of disease, to define clinical and biochemical correlates of BAC and to explore the association of BAC with incident cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The main findings of the present observational study are as follows: (a) BAC is common in CKD and its prevalence, severity and rate of progression increase parallel to the degree of kidney dysfunction; (b) inflammation and hyperphosphatemia are (nontraditional) risk factors for BAC in CKD patients; and (c) BAC associates with a dismal cardiovascular outcome in renal transplant recipients. In conclusion, BAC is common among CKD patients, progresses at a slower pace in Tx patients as compared to CKD5D patients, and associates with dismal cardiovascular outcomes. BAC score, kidney function and serum phosphate at baseline seem to be important determinants of progression. BAC is not routinely mentioned in mammogram reports, while the measurement of BAC may offer a personalized, non-invasive approach to risk-stratify CKD patients for cardiovascular disease at no additional cost or radiation since a majority of women over the age of 40 undergo regular breast cancer screening.
Pathogenicity of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Sacc. causal agent of anthracnose in different varieties of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) determined by levels of cross-reactive antigens shared by host and pathogen

Pathogenicity test of the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Sacc. , causal agent for anthracnose in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), was performed in 28 commercially cultivated eggplant varieties by analysing the antigenic patterns of host and pathogen. Through initial screening following detached leaf inoculation technique and whole plant inoculation technique, Pusa purple long (Ppl) variety was found to be the most susceptible while Shamala variety (Shav) was the most resistant. Cross-reactive antigens (CRA) shared by susceptible varieties and C. gloeosporioides was detected by immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Such antigens could not be detected between the resistant varieties and the pathogen and also between a nonpathogen (Alternaria porri) and all the test varieties. However, ELISA showed that low levels of common antigens were present between all combinations. The level of CRA was found to decrease with increasing resistance. Indirect immunogold labeling followed by silver enhancement revealed that CRA were concentrated mainly in the cell wall regions throughout the tissue. The level of CRA was found to correlate to the pathogenicity of C. gloeosporioides in different eggplant varieties. ELISA may therefore be used to screen the commercially cultivated eggplant varieties for resistance to C. gloeosporioides.
In vitro Neo-Genesis of Tendon/Ligament-Like Tissue by Combination of Mohawk and a Three-Dimensional Cyclic Mechanical Stretch Culture System

Tendons and ligaments are pivotal connective tissues that tightly connect muscle and bone. In this study, we developed a novel approach to generate tendon/ligament-like tissues with a hierarchical structure, by introducing the tendon/ligament-specific transcription factor Mohawk (MKX) into the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) line C3H10T1/2 cells, and by applying an improved three-dimensional (3D) cyclic mechanical stretch culture system. In our developed protocol, a combination of stable Mkx expression and cyclic mechanical stretch synergistically affects the structural tendon/ligament-like tissue generation and tendon related gene expression. In a histological analysis of these tendon/ligament-like tissues, an organized extracellular matrix (ECM), containing collagen type III and elastin, was observed. Moreover, we confirmed that Mkx expression and cyclic mechanical stretch, induced the alignment of structural collagen fibril bundles that were deposited in a fibripositor-like manner during the generation of our tendon/ligament-like tissues. Our findings provide new insights for the tendon/ligament biomaterial fields.
Targeting Autophagy Facilitates T Lymphocyte Migration by Inducing the Expression of CXCL10 in Gastric Cancer Cell Lines

Autophagy is a type of cellular catabolic degradation process that occurs in response to nutrient starvation or metabolic stress, and is a valuable resource for highly proliferating cancer cells. Autophagy also facilitates the resistance of cancer cells to antitumor therapies. However, the involvement of autophagy in regulating CXCL10 expression in gastric cancer (GC) cells and T lymphocyte migration remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of autophagy inhibition on CXCL10 expression and T lymphocyte infiltration in GC and elucidate the underlying mechanism. Analysis of public databases revealed a positive correlation between CXCL10 expression and both prognosis of patients with GC and the expression profile of T lymphocyte markers in the GCs. Chemotaxis and spheroid infiltration assays revealed that CXCL10 induced T lymphocyte migration and infiltration into GC spheroids, an in vitro three-dimensional cell culture model. In addition, in vitro autophagy inhibition in GC cells increased CXCL10 expression under both normal and hypoxic culture conditions. Further investigation on the underlying mechanism showed that in vitro autophagy inhibition suppressed the JNK signaling pathway and further enhanced CXCL10 expression in GC cells. Collectively, our results provide novel insights for understanding the role of autophagy in regulation of intra-tumor immunity.
Early Cretaceous Terrestrial Milankovitch Cycles in the Luanping Basin, North China and Time Constraints on Early Stage Jehol Biota Evolution

This research analyzes the cyclostratigraphy of the lacustrine Dabeigou Formation (DBG) of early Jehol Biota age (∼130–135 Ma) in the Luanping Basin, northern China. A high-resolution (2 cm interval), 117.82-m-long magnetic susceptibility (MS) stratigraphic series was measured along the Yushuxia section. MS is positively correlated with thorium, potassium and uranium concentrations associated with gamma ray intensity, and represents a proxy for detrital influx to the Luanping Basin. Power spectral analysis identifies a hierarchy of sedimentary cycles with wavelengths of 16.38 m, 5.85–3.28 m, 1.88–1.33 m, and 0.98–0.7 m, which are interpreted to represent Earth’s orbital eccentricity, obliquity and precession index cycles. Objective testing of the MS series supports the interpretation of Milankovitch cycles, indicating an average sedimentation rate of 4.642–4.723 cm/kyr. A floating astronomical time scale with a duration of 2478 kyr is established from interpreted 405 kyr long orbital eccentricity cycles along the MS series. The 405-kyr tuned DBG MS time series closely matches the predicted orbital eccentricity of the La2004 astronomical solution from 130.787 to 133.265 Ma, providing independent temporal constraints on early stage Jehol Biota evolution. Finally, this estimated time interval for the DBG MS time series indicates that it occurred entirely within the Weissert Event.
Immunophenotyping Reveals No Significant Perturbation to PBMC Subsets When Co-cultured With Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Caco-2 Cells Exposed to X-Rays

In vitro co-culture models between tumor cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) allow studying the interplay between these cell populations, potentially gaining insight into the in vivo response of the immune system to the presence of the tumor, as well as to possible other agents as radiation used for therapeutic purposes. However, great care is needed in the experimental optimization of models and choice of conditions, as some setups might offer a limited possibility to capture subtle immune perturbations. A co-culture model of PBMCs from healthy donors and colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells was successfully adopted in a previous work to measure effects on Caco-2 and modulation of signaling when these latter are irradiated. We here tested if the same experimental setting allows to measure perturbations to the main PBMC subsets: we performed immunophenotyping by means of flow cytometry and quantified helper and cytotoxic T cells, NK cells, and B cells, when PBMCs are cultured alone (control), in presence of non-irradiated Caco-2 cells or when these latter are exposed to a 10 Gy X-ray dose from a conventional radiotherapy accelerator. To measure a baseline response in all experimental conditions, PBMCs were not further stimulated, but only followed in their time-evolution up to 72 h post-irradiation of Caco-2 and assembly of the co-culture. In this time interval PBMCs maintain a high viability (measured via the MTT assay). Caco-2 viability (MTT) is slightly affected by the presence of PBMCs and by the high radiation dose, confirming their radioresistance. Immunophenotyping results indicate a large inter-individual variability for different population subsets already at the control level. We analyzed relative population changes and we detected only a small but significant perturbation to cytotoxic T cells. We conclude that this model, as it is, is not adequate for the measurements of subtler immune perturbations (if any, not washed-out by inter-individual differences). For this purpose, the model needs to be modified and further optimized e.g., including a pre-treatment strategy for PBMCs. We also performed a pooled analysis of all experimental observations with principal component analysis, suggesting the potential of this tool to identify subpopulations of similarly-responding donors.
Studies on Stress Corrosion Cracking of Vit 105 Bulk Metallic Glass

The project “Stress Corrosion Cracking of Zr-based Bulk Metallic Glasses” (SCC of Zr-BMGs) within PP1594 mainly dealt with mechanical–corrosive interactions and failure of this class of metastable materials. It focused on one of the most application-relevant zirconium (Zr)-BMG, Vit(reloy) 105, with composition Zr52.5Cu17. 9Ni14.6Al10Ti5 (at.%). Even though this BMG is known as an extraordinary glass former, the metallurgical processing is still a critical issue. In contrast to conventional processing, i.e., arc melting of master alloy ingots from single constituents, a different route using binary pre-alloys for the master alloys production was applied and led to superior mechanical properties upon mechanical testing under tensile and three-point-bending (3PB) conditions in air. As a reference and for a detailed understanding of failure, fracture, and cracking of Zr-based BMG in air, notched specimen 3PB experiments with in situ microscopic observation were done and the still controversial interpretation of the mechanical behavior of BMG in the framework of fracture mechanics was addressed. The specimen from the in situ 3PB tests served for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations on the structural nature of shear bands in BMG on the atomistic scale. Altogether, complete crack paths could be observed and analyzed, and based on this, details of the shear band-driven crack growth are described. While in first SCC studies using a newly developed setup full cross section (3PB) bars were investigated, in recent in situ experiments, notched specimens were tested in 0.01 M NaCl, yielding strong evidence for a catastrophic failure due to hydrogen embrittlement (HE). The known susceptibility to pitting corrosion in halide-containing environments is only the initial stage for failure under SCC conditions. Once pitting is initiated, the local electrode potential is severely reduced. Further, the hydrolysis reaction of oxidized Zr4+ to zirconyl ions ZrO2+ during local BMG dissolution produces H+ and, thus, a local acidic environment that enables proton reduction and hydrogen absorption in the stressed BMG region. The peculiar failure and fracture surface characteristics as well as the proven local reduction of the pH value in the vicinity of the notch during in situ experiments clearly account for the proposed HE-SCC failure mechanism.
SenseMood: Depression Detection on Social Media

More than 300 million people have been affected by depression all over the world. Due to the medical equipment and knowledge limitations, most of them are not diagnosed at the early stages. Recent work attempts to use social media to detect depression since the patterns of opinions and thoughts expression of the posted text and images, can reflect users' mental state to some extent. In this work, we design a system dubbed SenseMood to demonstrate that the users with depression can be efficiently detected and analyzed by using proposed system. A deep visual-textual multimodal learning approach has been proposed to reveal the psychological state of the users on social networks. The posted images and tweets data from users with/without depression on Twitter have been collected and used for depression detection. CNN-based classifier and Bert are applied to extract the deep features from the pictures and text posted by users respectively. Then visual and textual features are combined to reflect the emotional expression of users. Finally our system classifies the users with depression and normal users through a neural network and the analysis report is generated automatically.