Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental evolution of immunological specificity

Significance Innate immune memory (i.e., immune priming) is found in many invertebrates. In some cases, immune priming provides protection against infection only when the same bacteria are used for priming and challenge; that is, priming can be specific. However, we still know little about the conditions favoring the evolution of immunological specificity. We present evidence that immune priming and its specificity can rapidly evolve in an insect through experimental selection by repeated bacterial exposure. Our populations evolved treatment-specific differences in expression profiles of immune, metabolic, and transcription-regulatory genes, pointing to similar mechanisms acting in vertebrate trained immunity. Hence, immune memory combines deeply rooted resemblances across systems with enormous evolutionary plasticity. Memory and specificity are hallmarks of the adaptive immune system. Contrary to prior belief, innate immune systems can also provide forms of immune memory, such as immune priming in invertebrates and trained immunity in vertebrates. Immune priming can even be specific but differs remarkably in cellular and molecular functionality from the well-studied adaptive immune system of vertebrates. To date, it is unknown whether and how the level of specificity in immune priming can adapt during evolution in response to natural selection. We tested the evolution of priming specificity in an invertebrate model, the beetle Tribolium castaneum. Using controlled evolution experiments, we selected beetles for either specific or unspecific immune priming toward the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens, Lactococcus lactis, and 4 strains of the entomopathogen Bacillus thuringiensis. After 14 generations of host selection, specificity of priming was not universally higher in the lines selected for specificity, but rather depended on the bacterium used for priming and challenge. The insect pathogen B. thuringiensis induced the strongest priming effect. Differences between the evolved populations were mirrored in the transcriptomic response, revealing involvement of immune, metabolic, and transcription-modifying genes. Finally, we demonstrate that the induction strength of a set of differentially expressed immune genes predicts the survival probability of the evolved lines upon infection. We conclude that high specificity of immune priming can evolve rapidly for certain bacteria, most likely due to changes in the regulation of immune genes.
A Lightweight Leddar Optical Fusion Scanning System (FSS) for Canopy Foliage Monitoring

A growing need for sampling environmental spaces in high detail is driving the rapid development of non-destructive three-dimensional (3D) sensing technologies. LiDAR sensors, capable of precise 3D measurement at various scales from indoor to landscape, still lack affordable and portable products for broad-scale and multi-temporal monitoring. This study aims to configure a compact and low-cost 3D fusion scanning system (FSS) with a multi-segment Leddar (light emitting diode detection and ranging, LeddarTech), a monocular camera, and rotational robotics to recover hemispherical, colored point clouds. This includes an entire framework of calibration and fusion algorithms utilizing Leddar depth measurements and image parallax information. The FSS was applied to scan a cottonwood (Populus spp.) stand repeatedly during autumnal leaf drop. Results show that the calibration error based on bundle adjustment is between 1 and 3 pixels. The FSS scans exhibit a similar canopy volume profile to the benchmarking terrestrial laser scans, with an r2 between 0.5 and 0.7 in varying stages of leaf cover. The 3D point distribution information from FSS also provides a valuable correction factor for the leaf area index (LAI) estimation. The consistency of corrected LAI measurement demonstrates the practical value of deploying FSS for canopy foliage monitoring.
Differential introgression across newt hybrid zones: Evidence from replicated transects

Genomic heterogeneity of divergence between hybridizing species may reflect heterogeneity of introgression, but also processes unrelated to hybridization. Heterogeneous introgression and its repeatability can be directly tested in natural hybrid zones by examining multiple transects. Here, we studied hybrid zones between the European newts Lissotriton montandoni and two lineages of Lissotriton vulgaris, with replicate transects within each zone. Over 1,000 nuclear genes located on a linkage map and mitochondrial DNA were investigated using geographical and genomic clines. Overall, the five transects were all similar, showing hallmarks of strong reproductive isolation: bimodal distribution of genotypes in central populations and narrow allele frequency clines. However, the extent of introgression differed between the zones, possibly as a consequence of their different ages, as suggested by the analysis of heterozygosity runs in diagnostic markers. In three transects genomic signatures of small‐scale (~2 km) zone movements were detected. We found limited overlap of cline outliers between transects, and only weak evidence of stronger differentiation of introgression between zones than between transects within zones. Introgression was heterogeneous across linkage groups, with patterns of heterogeneity similar between transects and zones. Predefined candidates for increased or reduced introgression exhibited only a subtle tendency in the expected direction, suggesting that interspecific differentiation is not a reliable indicator for the strength of introgression. These hierarchically sampled hybrid zones of apparently different ages show how introgression unfolds with time and offer an excellent opportunity to dissect the dynamics of hybridization and architecture of reproductive isolation at advanced stages of speciation.
Phytochemicals in Daucus carota and Their Health Benefits—Review Article

Carrots are a multi-nutritional food source. They are an important root vegetable, rich in natural bioactive compounds, which are recognised for their nutraceutical effects and health benefits. This review summarises the occurrence, biosynthesis, factors affecting concentration, and health benefits of phytochemicals found in Daucus carota. Two hundred and fifty-five articles including original research papers, books, and book chapters were analysed, of which one hundred and thirty articles (most relevant to the topic) were selected for writing the review article. The four types of phytochemicals found in carrots, namely phenolics, carotenoids, polyacetylenes, and ascorbic acid, were summarised. These chemicals aid in the risk reduction of cancer and cardiovascular diseases due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, plasma lipid modification, and anti-tumour properties. Numerous factors influence the amount and type of phytochemicals present in carrots. Genotype (colour differences) plays an important role; high contents of α and β-carotene are present in orange carrots, lutein in yellow carrots, lycopene in red carrots, anthocyanins in the root of purple carrots, and phenolic compounds abound in black carrots. Carotenoids range between 3.2 mg/kg and 170 mg/kg, while vitamin C varies from 21 mg/kg to 775 mg/kg between cultivars. Growth temperatures of carrots influence the level of the sugars, carotenoids, and volatile compounds, so that growing in cool conditions results in a higher yield and quality of carrots, while higher temperatures would increase terpene synthesis, resulting in carrots with a bitter taste. It is worthwhile to investigate the cultivation of different genotypes under various environmental conditions to increase levels of phytochemicals and enhance the nutritional value of carrot, along with the valorisation of carrot by-products.
Multi-Purpose Nanovoid Array Plasmonic Sensor Produced by Direct Laser Patterning

We demonstrate a multi-purpose plasmonic sensor based on a nanovoid array fabricated via inexpensive and highly-reproducible direct femtosecond laser patterning of thin glass-supported Au films. The proposed nanovoid array exhibits near-IR surface plasmon (SP) resonances, which can be excited under normal incidence and optimised for specific applications by tailoring the array periodicity, as well as the nanovoid geometric shape. The fabricated SP sensor offers competitive sensitivity of ≈ 1600 nm/RIU at a figure of merit of 12 in bulk refractive index tests, as well as allows for identification of gases and ultra-thin analyte layers, making the sensor particularly useful for common bioassay experiments. Moreover, isolated nanovoids support strong electromagnetic field enhancement at lattice SP resonance wavelength, allowing for label-free molecular identification via surface-enhanced vibration spectroscopy.
Site-Specific Microbial Decomposer Communities Do Not Imply Faster Decomposition: Results from a Litter Transplantation Experiment

Microbes drive leaf litter decomposition, and their communities are adapted to the local vegetation providing that litter. However, whether these local microbial communities confer a significant home-field advantage in litter decomposition remains unclear, with contrasting results being published. Here, we focus on a litter transplantation experiment from oak forests (home site) to two away sites without oak in South Tyrol (Italy). We aimed to produce an in-depth analysis of the fungal and bacterial decomposer communities using Illumina sequencing and qPCR, to understand whether local adaptation occurs and whether this was associated with litter mass loss dynamics. Temporal shifts in the decomposer community occurred, reflecting changes in litter chemistry over time. Fungal community composition was site dependent, while bacterial composition did not differ across sites. Total litter mass loss and rates of litter decomposition did not change across sites. Litter quality influenced the microbial community through the availability of different carbon sources. Additively, our results do not support the hypothesis that locally adapted microbial decomposers lead to a greater or faster mass loss. It is likely that high functional redundancy within decomposer communities regulated the decomposition, and thus greater future research attention should be given to trophic guilds rather than taxonomic composition.
Printable Stretchable Silver Ink and Application to Printed RFID Tags for Wearable Electronics

A printable elastic silver ink has been developed, which was made of silver flakes, dispersant, and a fluorine rubber and could be sintered at a low temperature. The printed elastic conductors showed low resistivity at 21 μΩ·cm, which is about 13.2 times of bulk silver (1.59 μΩ·cm). Their mechanical properties were investigated by bending, stretching, and cyclic endurance tests. It was found that upon stretching the resistance of printed conductors increased due to deformation and small cracks appeared in the conductor, but was almost reversible when the strain was removed, and the recovery of conductivity was found to be time dependent. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags were fabricated by screen printing the stretchable silver ink on a stretchable fabric (lycra). High performance of tag was maintained even with 1000 cycles of stretching. As a practical example of wearable electronics, an RFID tag was printed directly onto a T-shirt, which demonstrated its normal working order in a wearing state.
Footedness related differences in femoral bone mineral density in elderly women with osteoporosis

Abstract Purpose: The presumed link between lateralized habitual motor activity and bilateral skeletal asymmetry, as result of bone functional adaptation, is the basis for inferences about bone mineral distribution; consequently, bone loss and osteoporosis. As there is no research connecting directly footedness with osteoporosis, the present study was designed to investigate their relation, in elderly women with osteoporosis. Methods: A sample of 420 white, Caucasian race women, older than 65 years, with previous diagnosis of osteoporosis, was recruited for the study. Finally, 164 women met the inclusion criteria and participated. The femoral neck and total hip bone mineral density (BMD) differences between right and left hips of 105 right-footed and 59 non-right-footed women, and the between footedness groups differences of the above right-left BMD differences, were measured with Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA). Results: In right-footers, total hip right-left BMD differences were statistically significant, favoring left femur [t(104) = –2.79, p < . 01, two tailed]. In non-right-footers, femoral neck right-left BMD differences were statistically significant, favoring right femur [t(58) =2.025, p < . 05, two tailed]. Femoral neck and total hip right-left BMD differences of right- versus non-right-footed women were statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The dominance of the right lower limb had an asymmetric effect on left total hip BMD, while non-right-footedness favored right femoral neck BMD. The findings highlighted the influence of load bearing effects of the body weight and muscle contractions on femoral BMD. We noted a possible association between footedness and BMD, as a result of bone functional adaptation.
Advances in Microwave Near-Field Imaging: Prototypes, Systems, and Applications

Microwave imaging employs detection techniques to evaluate hidden or embedded objects in a structure or media using electromagnetic (EM) waves in the microwave range, 300 MHz-300 GHz. Microwave imaging is often associated with radar detection such as target location and tracking, weather-pattern recognition, and underground surveillance, which are far-field applications. In recent years, due to microwaves' ability to penetrate optically opaque media, shortrange applications, including medical imaging, nondestructive testing (NDT) and quality evaluation, through-the-wall imaging, and security screening, have been developed. Microwave near-field imaging most often occurs when detecting the profile of an object within the short range (when the distance from the sensor to the object is less than one wavelength to several wavelengths) and depends on the electrical size of the antenna(s) and target.
CLN2INV: Learning Loop Invariants with Continuous Logic Networks

Program verification offers a framework for ensuring program correctness and therefore systematically eliminating different classes of bugs. Inferring loop invariants is one of the main challenges behind automated verification of real-world programs which often contain many loops. In this paper, we present Continuous Logic Network (CLN), a novel neural architecture for automatically learning loop invariants directly from program execution traces. Unlike existing neural networks, CLNs can learn precise and explicit representations of formulas in Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) for loop invariants from program execution traces. We develop a new sound and complete semantic mapping for assigning SMT formulas to continuous truth values that allows CLNs to be trained efficiently. We use CLNs to implement a new inference system for loop invariants, CLN2INV, that significantly outperforms existing approaches on the popular Code2Inv dataset. CLN2INV is the first tool to solve all 124 theoretically solvable problems in the Code2Inv dataset. Moreover, CLN2INV takes only 1.1 seconds on average for each problem, which is 40 times faster than existing approaches. We further demonstrate that CLN2INV can even learn 12 significantly more complex loop invariants than the ones required for the Code2Inv dataset.
Population Synthesis of Black Hole Binaries with Normal-star Companions. I. Detached Systems

Optical observations of normal stars in binary systems with massive unseen objects have been proposed to search for candidate black holes (BHs) and provide a direct measurement of their dynamical masses. In this paper, we have performed binary population synthesis calculations to simulate the potential population of detached binaries containing BHs and normal-star companions in the Galaxy. We focus on the influence of the BH progenitors. In the traditional model, BHs in binaries evolve from stars more massive than ∼25M⊙. However, it is difficult for this model to produce BH low-mass X-ray binaries. Recent investigations of massive star evolution have suggested that the BH progenitors have masses as low as ∼15M⊙. Based on this model, we provide the expected distributions of various parameters for detached BH binaries with normal-star companions, including the component masses, the orbital parameters of the binary systems, the radial velocity semi-amplitudes, and the astrometric signatures of the optical companions. Our calculations show that there are thousands of such detached binaries in the Galaxy, and hundreds of them are potentially observable systems with luminous companions brighter than 20 mag. In addition, detached BH binaries are dominated by those with main-sequence companions and only a small percent of them are expected to have giant companions.
Testing emission models on the extreme blazar 2WHSP J073326.7+515354 detected at very high energies with the MAGIC telescopes

Extreme high-energy-peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are an emerging class of blazars. Their typical two-hump-structured spectral energy distribution (SED) peaks at higher energies with respect to conventional blazars. Multiwavelength (MWL) observations constrain their synchrotron peak in the medium to hard X-ray band. Their gamma-ray SED peaks above the GeV band, and in some objects it extends up to several TeV. Up to now, only a few EHBLs have been detected in the TeV gamma-ray range. In this paper, we report the detection of the EHBL 2WHSP J073326.7+515354, observed and detected during 2018 in TeV gamma rays with the MAGIC telescopes. The broad-band SED is studied within an MWL context, including an analysis of the Fermi-LAT data over 10 yr of observation and with simultaneous Swift-XRT, Swift-UVOT, and KVA data. Our analysis results in a set of spectral parameters that confirms the classification of the source as an EHBL. In order to investigate the physical nature of this extreme emission, different theoretical frameworks were tested to model the broad-band SED. The hard TeV spectrum of 2WHSP J073326.7+515354 sets the SED far from the energy equipartition regime in the standard one-zone leptonic scenario of blazar emission. Conversely, more complex models of the jet, represented by either a two-zone spine-layer model or a hadronic emission model, better represent the broad-band SED.
Detection of exoplanet as a binary source of microlensing events in WFIRST survey

We investigate the possibility of exoplanet detection orbiting source stars in microlensing events through WFIRST observations. We perform a Monte Carlo simulation on the detection rate of exoplanets via microlensing, assuming that each source star has at least one exoplanet. The exoplanet can reflect part of the light from the parent star or emit internal thermal radiation. In this new detection channel, we use microlensing as an amplifier to magnify the reflection light from the planet. In the literature, this mode of detecting exoplanets has been investigated much less than the usual mode in which the exoplanets are considered as one companion in binary-lens events. Assuming 72 d of observation per season with the cadence of 15 min, we find the probability of rocky planet detection with this method to be virtually zero. However, there is non-zero probability, for the detection of Jovian planets. We estimate the detection rates of the exoplanets by this method, using WFIRST observation to be $0.012{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in single-lens events and $0.9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in the binary-lens events.
HaarPooling: Graph Pooling with Compressive Haar Basis

Deep Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are instrumental in graph classification and graph-based regression tasks. In these tasks, graph pooling is a critical ingredient by which GNNs adapt to input graphs of varying size and structure. We propose a new graph pooling operation based on compressive Haar transforms, called HaarPooling. HaarPooling is computed following a chain of sequential clusterings of the input graph. The input of each pooling layer is transformed by the compressive Haar basis of the corresponding clustering. HaarPooling operates in the frequency domain by the synthesis of nodes in the same cluster and filters out fine detail information by compressive Haar transforms. Such transforms provide an effective characterization of the data and preserve the structure information of the input graph. By the sparsity of the Haar basis, the computation of HaarPooling is of linear complexity. The GNN with HaarPooling and existing graph convolution layers achieves state-of-the-art performance on diverse graph classification problems.
Weak crossed product orders arising from partitions of a finite group

Let R be a complete discrete valuation ring with quotient field K, L a finite Galois extension of K with Galois group G and S the integral closure of R in L. In this article, using elements of the monoid Sl(G), the set of semilinear maps of G on the set of natural numbers introduced in [8], we construct certain crossed product orders in the case that the extension S/R is unramified. We associate an element of Sl(G) to every crossed product order and give a criterion for inflating idempotent 2-cocycles.
High-Performance Metallic Amorphous Magnetic Flake-Based Magnetodielectric Inductors

Flake-shaped FeSi-based metallic amorphous alloy particles, having an aspect ratio as high as 175:1, were prepared by ball-milling gas-atomized amorphous powders of an effective diameter of 20 µm. The starting powder has a saturation magnetic flux density Bs of 1.5 T and a coercivity Hc of 94 A/m. The aspect ratio of the flakes, as well as their magnetic properties, were controlled by milling process parameters, such as duration, speed, and the type, mass, and diameter of the milling balls. To minimize the oxidation of the charge, the powders were handled in an argon gas-purged glove box, milled in toluene, and subsequently dried in vacuo. Subsequently, soft magnetodielectric composites were prepared by suspending and aligning the FeSi-based powders in paraffin wax or epoxy resin. The composites were then pressed into toroids for measurements of their high-frequency complex permeability by a vector network analyzer. The influence of the flakes’ aspect ratio and volume loading fraction on the permeability of the composites were investigated. Results indicate that the composite permeability increases with the flakes’ aspect ratio. For example, for a given loading factor of 30 vol.%, the composite permeability at 0.1 GHz nearly tripled and approached the value of 10 by increasing the aspect ratio of the FeSi-based inclusions from 1 (spheres) to greater than 175:1 (flakes).
Simplicity of reduced group Banach algebras.

Let G be a discrete group. Suppose that the reduced group C*-algebra of G is simple. We use results of Kalantar-Kennedy and Haagerup, and Banach space interpolation, to prove that, for p in (1,infinity), the reduced group L^p operator algebra F^p_r(G) and its *-analog B^{p,*}_r(G) are simple. If G is countable, we prove that the Banach algebras generated by the left regular representations on reflexive Orlicz sequence spaces and certain Lorentz sequence spaces are also simple. We prove analogous results with simplicity replaced by the unique trace property. For use in the Orlicz sequence space case, we prove that if p is in (1,infinity), then any reflexive Orlicz sequence space is isomorphic (not necessarily isometrically) to a space gotten by interpolation between l^p and some other Orlicz sequence space.