Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The first record of the genus Vejdovskybathynella Serban and Leclerc, 1984 (Syncarida, Bathynellacea, Bathynellidae) in the Iberian Peninsula: three new species

Three new species of the genus Vejdovskybathynella are described from caves in northern Spain. It is the first time that this genus has been documented in the Iberian Peninsula. Vejdovskybathynella edelweiss n. sp. has several unique features: the setal formula of the antenna (0/2+exp/2+0/1+0/0+0/2+2/4); the form of the segments and claws of the mandibular palp of the mandible of the male; exopod of the female thoracopod VIII similar in size to the endopod (exopod is always longer than the endopod); small frontal projection of the basipod of the male thoracopod VIII, large or very large is common; the form and size of the lobes of the male thoracopod VIII is unique; the second spine of the furcal rami 2.5 times longer than the first spine. Vejdovskybathynella caroloi n. sp. has a unique male thoracopod VIII with a spur in the exopod that is a feature unknown in the genus, and additionally, this species has the smallest endopod of the thoracopod VIII male of the entire genus; the presence of three aesthetascs in segments VI and VII of the antennule had not been observed in this genus until now; the form of the segments of the mandibular palp of the mandible of the male are unique; the distal spine of the sympod of the uropod is larger than in other species, whereas in the rest of the species of the genus they are equal in size. Vejdovskybathynella pascalis n. sp. is the smallest species of the genus and has two and three aesthetascs in segments VI and VII of the antennule, respectively; it is the only species of the genus that has one seta on segment I and two setae on segment IV of the antenna; it has a unique male thoracopod VIII with a small spur on the frontal projection of the basipod and with the endopod larger than all other species in spite of its small size; the basal spine of the sympod of the uropod is smaller than the other three.
REVISION OF THE AUSTRALIAN GENUS ENOGGERA GIRAULT (HYMENOPTERA: PTEROMALIDAE: ASAPHINAE)

The 5 known species of the endemic Australian genus Enoggera Girault are described or redescribed, and illustrated. Enoggera is redescribed. E. nassaui (Girault) and E. reticulata sp.n. parasitise the eggs of paropsine chrysomelids (Coleoptera); between 1985 and 1987 both were introduced to southern Africa as agents for the biocontrol of Trachymela tincticollis (Blackburn), a pest of Eucalyptus trees. The hosts of Enoggera polita Girault, E. sulcata sp.n. and E. tanythrix sp.n. are unknown.
Symbiotic Algae-free Strains of The Green Paramecium Paramecium bursaria Produced by Herbicide Paraquat

Abstract The green paramecium, Paramecium bursaria, has endosymbiotic algae in the cytoplasm. Here, we report that all endosymbiotic algae are destroyed, producing symbiotic algae-free strains of paramecia, when green paramecia are cultivated in the presence of a herbicide paraquat.
Sequential colonization by river periphyton analysed by microscopy and molecular fingerprinting

Summary 1. An artificial glass substratum was incubated in the River Danube for a period of 28 days in order to detect the sequential colonization of microorganisms. 2. Light and fluorescent microscopy showed that microalgae and the picoalgal fraction on the slides increased rapidly over the first 2 weeks of colonization. Diatoms were numerically the most abundant component of the periphyton and their species richness and diversity increased rapidly in the early phase of colonization whereas diversity subsequently increased moderately. 3. Evenness of the diatom community was initially high, lower in the intermediate phase and again higher later on. Succession involving early, intermediate and late colonizer species was observed. Community composition during the first 5 days of colonization was very different from later stages whereas there were only minor changes subsequently. 4. Molecular community analysis by means of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR amplified 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes pointed to even larger differences between the composition of samples obtained early and late in the period. 5. The number of 18S rRNA and 16S rRNA terminal restriction fragments (T-RF-s) was variable over the colonization period and the fragment patterns of both the bacterial and eukaryotic portion of the microbial community were variable, with most T-RF-s unique to a single sample, suggesting a wide diversity and dynamic properties of periphytic organisms.
BRACHIOPOD-BASED OXYGEN-ISOTOPE THERMOMETER: UPDATE AND REVIEW

In the early 1950’s, McCrea and Epstein and co-workers laid the foundation for the oxygen isotopebased thermometers. Many variations of the thermometer have been since formulated based on synthetic and biogenic carbonates. Overall, the use and application of oxygen isotope thermometers must consider and be specific as to the mineralogy, and whether it is synthetic, abiogenic or biogenic carbonate. Here, we propose an updated and refined oxygen-isotope thermometer based on a large database of articulated brachiopods from high to low latitudes, cold to warm and shallow to deep-water regimes. In general, brachiopodbased oxygen isotopes are offset from abiogenic calcite precipitated in thermodynamic equilibrium by about -1 ‰. They maintain this offset and that allows for the determination of robust ambient water temperatures over the full marine spectrum. Thus, the specific brachiopod-based oxygen-isotope thermometer applies, with few exceptions, to most modern articulated brachiopods, and potentially their ancient counterparts, and it is as follows: T°C =17.3750 – 4.2535 (δc-δw) + 0.1473 (δc-δw)2 (N=578, r2 = 0.980) Furthermore, it is imperative that mineralogy and taxa be considered for their appropriateness in the application of oxygen isotope thermometers on synthetic, abiogenic and biogenic marine carbonates. Articulated brachiopods are ideal recorders of oceanographic parameters due to their sessile nature, widespread distribution, high abundance in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, high resilience to most environmental stresses (e.g., climate change global warming, ocean acidification), and the resistance of the calcite shell – the archive – to post-depositional diagenetic
Analysis of Pathotypic and Genotypic Diversity of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in China

Virulence analysis and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were used to evaluated the population structure of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) from the main rice-growing region in China. The pathotype of Xoo was determined for 103 strains by inoculating 13 near-isogenic rice lines using IR24 as the recurrent parent. Sixty-one pathotypes was shared by these strains, on the basis of the consensus of three clustering statistics, and four clusters for pathotype were formed. Cluster 2 consists of strains with high molecular polymorphorism and many pathotypes that are either virulent to a majority of the 13 major resistance (R) genes or avirulent only to Xa21, and is geographically dispersed. The resistance gene Xa21 has broader resistance than others to the strains tested. A probe from a member of the avrBs3/pthA type III effector family, 1376 bp SphI-digested fragment, was used to screen the genomes of 52 strains tested. Four common bands were found in the DNA fingerprint pattern of Xoo, suggesting basic patterns of evolutionary relationship for members of avrBs3/pthA family and/or the pathogen. Each distinct RFLP banding pattern of each strain was considered as a haplotype; 42 haplotypes were revealed by the probe and divided into four lineages by the same statistics method. It was observed that some isolates with different pathotypes shared the same haplotype and others with different haplotypes harboured identical pathotype. There was a weak correlation between virulent pathotypes and molecular haplotypes.
Gaze-Aware Mixed-Reality: Addressing Privacy Issues with Eye Tracking

Current Mixed Reality (MR) systems rely on a variety of sensors (e.g., cameras, eye tracking, GPS) to create immersive experiences. Data collected by these sensors are necessary to generate detailed models of a user and the environment that allow for different interactions with the virtual and the real world. Generally, these data contain sensitive information about the user, objects, and other people that make up the interaction. This is particularly the case for MR systems with eye tracking, because these devices are capable of inferring the identity and cognitive processes related to attention and arousal of a user. The goal of this position paper is to raise awareness on privacy issues that result from aggregating user data from multiple sensors in MR. Specifically, we focus on the challenges that arise from collecting eye tracking data and outline different ways gaze data may contribute to alleviate some of the privacy concerns from ag-gregating sensor data.
Separating and Characterizing Functional Nitrogen Degraders via Magnetic Nanoparticle-Mediated Isolation

Magnetic nanoparticle-mediated isolation (MMI) is a new method for isolating active functional microbes from complex microorganisms without substrate labeling. In this study, the composition and properties of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were characterized by a number of techniques, indicating that MNPs have characteristics such as microinterfaces and can be efficiently fixed on the surface of microbial cells. It also introduced the MMI technology in activated sludge after stable long-term treatment. With further addition of promotor carbon sources, the enrichment of the functional nitrogen degraders in MMI was significantly higher than in samples without MNPs, showing the advantages of MMI in identifying the active degraders. Redundancy analysis (RDA) also showed that the functional nitrogen degraders such as Comamonadaceae_unclassified and Thiobacillus absolutely dominated in situ ammonia degradation, and the change in dominant genera had the same trend as the degradation rate of ammonia nitrogen. In the magnetically functionalized system, the separated functional nitrogen degraders significantly improved ammonia nitrogen degradation efficiency, making it basically stable at more than 80%, up to 91.6%. These results prove that the complex flora created after the addition of MNPs is more adaptable to newly introduced pollutants, and MMI is a powerful tool for studying pollutant-degrading microorganisms under in situ conditions.
Seasonal dynamics of above‐ and below‐ground biomass and nitrogen partitioning in Miscanthus × giganteus and Panicum virgatum across three growing seasons

The first replicated productivity trials of the C4 perennial grass Miscanthus × giganteus in the United States showed this emerging ligno‐cellulosic bioenergy feedstock to provide remarkably high annual yields. This covered the 5 years after planting, leaving it uncertain if this high productivity could be maintained in the absence of N fertilization. An expected, but until now unsubstantiated, benefit of both species was investment in roots and perennating rhizomes. This study examines for years 5–7 yields, biomass, C and N in shoots, roots, and rhizomes. The mean peak shoot biomass for M. × giganteus in years 5–7 was 46.5 t ha−1 in October, declining to 38.1 t ha−1 on completion of senescence and at harvest in December, and 20.7 t ha−1 declining to 11.3 t ha−1 for Panicum virgatum. There was no evidence of decline in annual yield with age. Mean rhizome biomass was significantly higher in M. × giganteus at 21.5 t ha−1 compared to 7.2 t ha−1 for P. virgatum, whereas root biomass was similar at 5.6–5.9 t ha−1. M. × giganteus shoots contained 339 kg ha−1 N in August, declining to 193 kg ha−1 in December, compared to 168 and 58 kg ha−1 for P. virgatum. The results suggest substantial remobilization of N to roots and rhizomes, yet still a substantial loss with December harvests. The shoot and rhizome biomass increase of 33.6 t ha−1 during the 2‐month period between June and August for M. × giganteus corresponds to a solar energy conversion of 4.4% of solar energy into biomass, one of the highest recorded and confirming the remarkable productivity potential of this plant.
A REVIEW ON FACE DETECTION UNDER OCCLUSION BY FACIAL ACCESSORIES

- Occlusion detection in face verification is an essential problem nowadays. The facial landmark hidden by some object is termed as facial occlusion. Facial occlusions due to sunglasses, scarf etc can affect the performance of any face recognition system. This paper presents a survey on face detection under the case of occlusion. Occlusion at faces may be leads to performance degradation of face detection algorithms. There have been many methods developed for detecting occlusion in present and previous works. The aim of developing such an intelligent system is to detect the face under various performance reducing parameters. This paper reviews the performances of the best techniques used in facial occlusion detection.
Local Effects of Payments for Environmental Services on Poverty

We estimate local effects of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programs on poverty in Costa Rica between 2007 and 2009. Using household surveys and spatial geographic data, we are able to control for socioeconomic and geographic characteristics at the individual and census tract level. We find that the effects are insignificant at a national level. However, this reflects countervailing forces. We find that PES coverage increases poverty in low-slope places and decreases poverty in high-slope places. These results are robust to demographic characteristics of the individuals. However, the magnitudes of the impacts are very low, even when they are statistically significant. We conclude that the PES program has not increased or decreased poverty substantially in Costa Rica. Policymakers could increase the impact on poverty by focusing their efforts in low-slope areas; however, as others have shown, such a focus could also reduce the impact on avoided deforestation.
Ecologic correlation between underlying population level morbidities and COVID-19 case fatality rate among countries infected with SARS-CoV-2

Background: The ongoing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented in scope. High income countries (HIC) seemingly account for the majority of the mortalities considering that these countries have screened more persons. Low middle income countries (LMIC) countries may experience far worse mortalities considering the existence of a weaker health care system and the several underlying population level morbidities. As a result, it becomes imperative to understand the ecological correlation between critical underlying population level morbidities and COVID-19 case fatality rates (CFR). Method: This is an ecological study using data on COVID-19 cases, prevalence of COPD, prevalence of tobacco use, adult HIV prevalence, quality of air and life expectancy. We plotted a histogram, performed the Shapiro-Wilk normality test and used spearman correlation to assess the degree of correlation between COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) and other covariates mentioned above. Result: As at the 31st of March 2020, there were a total of 846,281 cases of COVID-19 from 204 countries and a global case fatality rate of 5% (range 0% to 29%). Angola and Sudan both had the highest CFR of 29%, while Italy had the highest number of deaths (i.e. 12,428) as at 31st of March 2020. Adult HIV prevalence has a significant but weak negative correlation with CFR (correlation coefficient = - 0.24, p value =0.01) while all the other variables have positive correlation with CFR due to COVID-19 though not statistically significant. Of the 204 countries analyzed, only 11 countries (i.e. 5%) had complete datasets across all 5 population level morbidities (i.e. prevalence of COPD, prevalence of tobacco use, life expectancy, quality of air, and adult HIV prevalence variables). Correlations of CFR from these 11 countries were similar to that from the 204 countries except for the correlation with quality of air and prevalence of tobacco use. Conclusion: While we interpret our data with caution given the fact that this is an ecological study, our findings suggest that population level factors such as prevalence of COPD, prevalence of tobacco use, life expectancy and quality of air are positively correlated with CFR from COVID-19 but, adult HIV prevalence has a weak and negative correlation with COVID-19 CFR and would require extensive research.
Detached Eddy Simulation of the flow behind an isolated propeller

The turbulent flow behind a rotating marine propeller is analysed by integration of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier– Stokes Equations with both the Spalart & Allmaras (1994) eddy viscosity model and by a Detached Eddy Simulation approach (Spalart et al 1997) in order to assess advantages and limits of the two different turbulence models. As far as global quantities (like thrust and torque) are concerned, it is shown that the two methods perform equally well. On the contrary, local flow features (like the evolution of the wake or the onset of tip vortices instability) are capured by DES, whereas the eddy viscosity modelling proves to be overly dissipative.
Interspecies Differences in Proteome Turnover Kinetics Are Correlated With Life Spans and Energetic Demands

Cells continually degrade and replace damaged and old proteins. However, the high energetic demand of protein turnover generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) that compromise the long-term health of the proteome. Thus, the relationship between aging, protein turnover and energetic demand remains unclear. Here, we used a proteomic approach to measure rates of protein turnover within primary fibroblasts isolated from a number of species with diverse lifespans including the longest-lives rodent, the naked mole rat and the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale. We show that organismal lifespan is negatively correlated with turnover rates of highly abundant proteins. In comparison to mice, cells from long-lived naked mole rats have slower rates of protein turnover, lower levels of ATP production and reduced ROS levels. Despite having slower rates of protein turnover, naked mole rat cells tolerate protein misfolding stress more effectively than mouse cells. We suggest that in lieu of rapid constitutive turnover, long-lived species may have evolved more energetically efficient mechanisms for selective detection and clearance of damaged proteins.
The Arabidopsis O-fucosyltransferase SPINDLY regulates root hair patterning independently of gibberellin signaling

ABSTRACT Root hairs are able to sense soil composition and play an important role in water and nutrient uptake. In Arabidopsis thaliana, root hairs are distributed in the epidermis in a specific pattern, regularly alternating with non-root hair cells in continuous cell files. This patterning is regulated by internal factors such as a number of hormones, as well as by external factors like nutrient availability. Thus, root hair patterning is an excellent model for studying the plasticity of cell fate determination in response to environmental changes. Here, we report that loss-of-function mutants for the Protein O-fucosyltransferase SPINDLY (SPY) show defects in root hair patterning. Using transcriptional reporters, we show that patterning in spy-22 is affected upstream of GLABRA2 (GL2) and WEREWOLF (WER). O-fucosylation of nuclear and cytosolic proteins is an important post-translational modification that is still not very well understood. So far, SPY is best characterized for its role in gibberellin signaling via fucosylation of the growth-repressing DELLA protein REPRESSOR OF ga1-3 (RGA). Our data suggest that the epidermal patterning defects in spy-22 are independent of RGA and gibberellin signaling. Summary: The O-fucosyltransferase SPY regulates root hair patterning independently of DELLA proteins and gibberellin signaling when modulating epidermal tissue patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana roots.
The kinase Isr1 negatively regulates hexosamine biosynthesis in S. cerevisiae

The S. cerevisiae ISR1 gene encodes a putative kinase with no ascribed function. Here, we show that Isr1 acts as a negative regulator of the highly-conserved hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP), which converts glucose into uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc), the carbohydrate precursor to protein glycosylation, GPI-anchor formation, and chitin biosynthesis. Overexpression of ISR1 is lethal and, at lower levels, causes sensitivity to tunicamycin and resistance to calcofluor white, implying impaired protein glycosylation and reduced chitin deposition. Gfa1 is the first enzyme in the HBP and is conserved from bacteria and yeast to humans. The lethality caused by ISR1 overexpression is rescued by co-overexpression of GFA1 or exogenous glucosamine, which bypasses GFA1’s essential function. Gfa1 is phosphorylated in an ISR1-dependent fashion and mutation of ISR1-dependent sites ameliorates the lethality associated with ISR1 overexpression. Isr1 contains a phosphodegron that is phosphorylated by Pho85 and subsequently ubiquitinated by the SCF-Cdc4 complex, largely confining Isr1 protein levels to the time of bud emergence. Mutation of this phosphodegron stabilizes Isr1 and recapitulates the overexpression phenotypes. As Pho85 is a cell cycle and nutrient responsive kinase, this tight regulation of Isr1 may serve to dynamically regulate flux through the HBP and modulate how the cell’s energy resources are converted into structural carbohydrates in response to changing cellular needs. Author Summary Protein phosphorylation is an essential regulatory mechanism that controls most cellular processes, integrating a variety of environmental signals to drive cellular growth. Yeast encode over 100 kinases, yet many remain poorly characterized. The S. cerevisiae gene ISR1 encodes a putative kinase with no ascribed function. Here, we show that ISR1 decreases the synthesis of a critical structural carbohydrate, uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc), by mediating inhibition of one of the enzymes responsible for its synthesis, Gfa1. UDP-GlcNAc is the precursor to protein glycosylation, GPI anchor formation, and chitin synthesis, the first two of which are essential and conserved in humans. Throughout the cell cycle, and in response to changing environmental conditions, the cell must balance its use of glucose for energy production and generation of these structural carbohydrates. Here we show that Isr1 is regulated by both cell cycle and nutrient changes, and is rapidly degraded in a phosphorylation dependent manner. Isr1-mediated inhibition of UDP-GlcNAc synthesis may serve as a mechanism of dynamically regulating how the cell utilizes glucose in response to its environment.