Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When to Follow the Tip: Security Games with Strategic Informants

Although security games have attracted intensive research attention over the past years, few existing works consider how information from local communities would affect the game. In this paper, we introduce a new player -- a strategic informant, who can observe and report upcoming attacks -- to the defender-attacker security game setting. Characterized by a private type, the informant has his utility structure that leads to his strategic behaviors. We model the game as a 3-player extensive-form game and propose a novel solution concept of Strong Stackelberg-perfect Bayesian equilibrium. To compute the optimal defender strategy, we first show that although the informant can have infinitely many types in general, the optimal defense plan can only include a finite (exponential) number of different patrol strategies. We then prove that there exists a defense plan with only a linear number of patrol strategies that achieve the optimal defender's utility, which significantly reduces the computational burden and allows us to solve the game in polynomial time using linear programming. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments to show the effect of the strategic informant and demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.
Human Gaze Assisted Artificial Intelligence: A Review

Human gaze reveals a wealth of information about internal cognitive state. Thus, gaze-related research has significantly increased in computer vision, natural language processing, decision learning, and robotics in recent years. We provide a high-level overview of the research efforts in these fields, including collecting human gaze data sets, modeling gaze behaviors, and utilizing gaze information in various applications, with the goal of enhancing communication between these research areas. We discuss future challenges and potential applications that work towards a common goal of human-centered artificial intelligence.
Early development and larval survival of Psammechinus miliaris under deep-sea temperature and pressure conditions

The aim of this study was to analyse the tolerance of the planktonic stages of Psammechinus miliaris to hydrostatic pressure and temperature. Embryos of Psammechinus miliaris were subjected to different combinations of pressure and temperature for 3, 6 and 12 h. The percentage of embryos at each stage and the percentage of embryos developing abnormally were measured. Larvae at the gastrula and prism stages were subjected to pressure and temperature combinations for 24 h and the larval survival was calculated measuring the percentage of swimming larvae. Both embryos and larvae could survive at greater pressures than the known adult depth limits. Larvae showed a much greater potential than embryos for surviving deeper, with approximately 100% of both gastrulae and prisms surviving up to 200 atm at 5°C. These results are similar to other shallow-water species of Echinoida. Thus larval tolerance of high pressure and low temperature may have been important for the success of this group in colonizing the deep-sea.
Multistate Mark-Recapture Analysis Reveals no Effect of Blood Sampling on Survival and Recapture of Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus)

ABSTRACT. The experimentally supported and prevailing opinion is that blood sampling has few to no long-term effects on survival of birds when conducted properly, and blood sampling has become a vital addition to the toolbox of many ornithologists. However, many of the studies that concluded that blood sampling had negligible effects on birds used approaches that did not account for temporary emigration and probability of capture. To date, the only study to have done so found that blood sampling had a strong negative effect on survival. We conducted a mark-recapture analysis of 8 years of banding and bleeding data on Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) to determine whether survival was negatively influenced by blood sampling. Our analyses adjusted for temporary emigration and probability of recapture and accounted for (1) transitions between the bled and the nonbled state and (2) a change in protocol roughly midway through the study that resulted in a change from single to often multiple (and larger) draws of blood per year from single individuals. We found that survival rates of nonbled (0.61) and bled (0.67) males were statistically indistinguishable and that bled females had a higher probability of survival than nonbled females (0.68 and 0.58, respectively). The change to larger and more frequent blood samples was also not associated with a change in survival. Our data show that when accepted protocols were followed, blood sampling had no detectable influence on the survival of adult Eastern Kingbirds. Whether this applies generally awaits analyses using similarly rigorous methods on other species.
Recurrent selection with glufosinate at low rates reduces the susceptibility of a Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum population to glufosinate

Repeated applications of herbicides at the labelled rates have often resulted in the selection and evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds capable of surviving the labelled and higher rates in subsequent generations. However, the evolutionary outcomes of recurrent herbicide selection at low rates are far less understood. In this study of an herbicide-susceptible population of Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum, we assessed the potential for low glufosinate rates to select for reduced susceptibility to the herbicide, and cross-resistance to herbicides with other modes of action. Reduced susceptibility to glufosinate was detected in progeny in comparison with the parental population following three rounds of selection at low glufosinate rates. Differences were mainly observed at the 0.5X, 0.75X, and 1X rates. Comparing the parental susceptible population and progeny from the second and third selection cycle, the percentage of surviving plants increased to values of LD50 (1.31 and 1.16, respectively) and LD90 (1.36 and 1.26, respectively). When treated with three alternative herbicides (glyphosate, paraquat, and sethoxydim), no plants of either the parental or successive progeny populations survived treatment with 0.75X or higher rates of these herbicides. The results of this study provide clear evidence that reduced susceptibility to glufosinate can evolve in weed populations following repeated applications of glufosinate at low herbicide rates. However, the magnitude of increases in resistance levels over three generations of recurrent low-rate glufosinate selection observed is relatively low compared with higher levels of resistance observed in response to low-rate selection with other herbicides (three fold and more).
Bifurcation and sensitivity analysis reveal key drivers of multistability in a model of macrophage polarization

In this paper, we present and analyze a mathematical model for polarization of a single macrophage which, despite its simplicity, exhibits complex dynamics in terms of multistability. In particular, we demonstrate that an asymmetry in the regulatory mechanisms and parameter values is important for observing multiple phenotypes. Bifurcation and sensitivity analyses show that external signaling cues are necessary for macrophage commitment and emergence to a phenotype, but that the intrinsic macrophage metabolism is equally important. Based on our numerical results, we formulate hypotheses that could be further investigated by in vitro experiments to deepen our understanding of macrophage polarization. 2010 MSC 93A30, 34C23, 49Q12, 92C42, 37N25
Demographic meta-analysis: synthesizing vital rates for spotted owls

Summary 1. Effective resource management ultimately influences vital rates of fecundity and survival for target species. Meta-analysis can be used to combine results from multiple demographic studies replicated in time and space to obtain estimates of vital rates as well as metrics of population growth. 2. Wo rkshop formats were used to conduct meta-analyses of mark‐recapture experiments on spotted owls Strix occidentalis in the western USA. The implied motivation for demographic studies of spotted owls has been that changes in vital rates and population growth, λ , reflect the success of conservation strategies, but how to interpret results may not be obvious. Demographic analysis is of little practical utility until vital rates can be linked to management. In the case of spotted owls, future meta-analyses must focus on co-variation between vital rates and habitat variables, and experiments will be necessary. 3. Sensitivity of population growth to variation in vital rates is central to demographic analysis, but results must be interpreted cautiously because these sensitivities are not likely to identify the vital rates most responsible for variation in population size, and cannot reveal which vital rates will be most responsive to conservation investments. 4. Difficulties in documenting dispersal seriously compromised estimates of juvenile survival and thereby biased estimates of λ pm from a projection matrix, a problem that was resolved in later workshops by estimating λ RJS directly using a reparameterized Jolly‐Seber mark‐recapture method. 5. Several sources of bias for estimates of vital rates and λ were reviewed. Bias exists in meta-analysis estimates of λ combined over spatial replicates because λ is a non-linear function of vital rates. Bias also exists in estimates of average population growth where λ t varies over time. This problem can be reduced by calculating the geometric mean of λ . Research to measure biases associated with the estimation of vital rates and the selection of study areas will be necessary to validate meta-analyses of demography for spotted owls. 6. Synthesis and applications. Meta-analysis is ideally suited to studies of the demography of long-lived species because of the large areas involved, high costs for each individual study, and multiple jurisdictions within which the organisms occur. Mixed models selected using information‐theoretic approaches provide a powerful way to combine research results from several studies in a meta-analysis.
INVESTIGATIONS ON THE HEAVY METAL RESISTANT BACTERIAL ISOLATES IN VITRO FROM INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS

Heavy metals are widespread persistent inorganic pollutants and are not easily removable from the environment and are also indestructible, unlike many other organic pollutants that can be chemically or biologically degraded, hence, heavy metals constitute a global environmental problem. Heavy metal tolerable bacteria are currently favoured for their capacity to depollute the environment and hence regarded as instruments for bioremediation of metals. This study aimed to isolate heavy metal tolerant and antibiotic sensitive and resistant bacteria from industrial Effluent from Kanpur, U.P., India, Initially, a total of 28 isolates were screened from industrial effluent of which seven isolates were selected based on high level of heavy metal and antibiotic resistances. On the basis of cultural, morphological and biochemical analysis, the isolates were authentically identified as Pseudomonas spp. and Bacillus spp. maximum microbial tolerance of Bacillus spp. (B-2) was recorded to Cr (350 μg /ml) and lowest to Cu (240 μg/ml) whereas maximum microbial tolerance of Pseudomonas spp. (P-3) was recorded to Cr (300 μg/ml, and lowest to Pb and Cu. Thus, heavy metal tolerance test isolates showed maximum microbial tolerance to Cr and minimum tolerance to Pb and Cu. This study suggests that the isolated Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. have the properties to resist a wide range of heavy metals and antibiotics.
Special Issue Guest Editorial: Teaching in alternative and flexible education settings

Introduction In both pre-service and in-service teacher education there is increasing recognition of the diverse settings in which teachers work. Despite the power of default discourses of ‘what schools are’ (see Johnston & Hayes, 2008; Tyack & Cuban, 1995) the educational landscape is varied in terms of organisational structures and educational approaches. This special issue takes as its starting point the diversity of educational provision at secondary school level – and focuses on one specific set of providers: alternative and flexible education settings. These schools and programs are aimed at young people who – for whatever reason – are unlikely to complete upper secondary qualifications (‘Year 12’ in Australia) in more traditional settings but who nevertheless would like to achieve such educational credentials (Mills & McGregor, 2014; Te Riele, 2007). Recent policy and economic pressures – not only in Australia (CoAG, 2009) but also internationally (e.g. European Union, 2011) – have led to increased demand for such alternative pathways to school completion. As a result, in many countries alternative and flexible education settings are now a small but significant part of the education sector in which teachers work. This makes an investigation of teaching in these settings of interest in its own right, as recognition of the relevance of these settings as workplaces and the implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education to support teachers’ work in these sites. Moreover, these settings are of interest as incubators of change and as showcases of innovation. They share an intention to change the way education is offered, since previous schooling experiences did not work well for their students. Much of the onus for this changed approach is on the staff: teachers as well as youth workers and other support staff. To borrow Richard Teese’s (2006) phrase: these staff are ‘condemned to innovate’. Staff in these schools have a willingness to change default schooling practices and find out what works best for their students. They also are well-placed to try out different approaches, due to the smaller size of these schools and programs, and the acceptance of their different purpose by students, teachers, parents and even the relevant ‘quality assurance’ inspectorate. The work of educators in alternative and flexible education settings therefore has the potential to inform change in mainstream schooling. The reforms that make schooling work better for marginalised students in these programs can improve schooling for most students in regular schools as well. However, too often alternative programs are seen as marginal to mainstream schooling. The questions posed by Holdsworth over a decade ago are still relevant: “Are we ready to recognise that the educational learnings from these ‘alternatives’ need to ‘come in from the cold’? Are we ready to shift these practices from the margins to the centre of what we do? ” (2004, p.12).
Prime editing efficiently generates W542L and S621I double mutations in two ALS genes in maize

Prime editing is a novel and universal CRISPR/Cas-derived precision genome-editing technology that has been recently developed. However, low efficiency of prime editing has been shown in transgenic rice lines. We hypothesize that enhancing pegRNA expression could improve prime-editing efficiency. In this report, we describe two strategies for enhancing pegRNA expression. We construct a prime editing vector harboring two pegRNA variants for W542L and S621I double mutations in ZmALS1 and ZmALS2 . Compared with previous reports in rice, we achieve much higher prime-editing efficiency in maize. Our results are inspiring and provide a direction for the optimization of plant prime editors.
Solving Analogies on Words based on Minimal Complexity Transformation

Analogies are 4-ary relations of the form "A is to B as C is to D". When A, B and C are fixed, we call analogical equation the problem of finding the correct D. A direct applicative domain is Natural Language Processing, in which it has been shown successful on word inflections, such as conjugation or declension. If most approaches rely on the axioms of proportional analogy to solve these equations, these axioms are known to have limitations, in particular in the nature of the considered flections. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach, based on the assumption that optimal word inflections are transformations of minimal complexity. We propose a rough estimation of complexity for word analogies and an algorithm to find the optimal transformations. We illustrate our method on a large-scale benchmark dataset and compare with state-of-the-art approaches to demonstrate the interest of using complexity to solve analogies on words.
Explanation Perspectives from the Cognitive Sciences - A Survey

With growing adoption of AI across fields such as healthcare, finance, and the justice system, explaining an AI decision has become more important than ever before. Development of human-centric explainable AI (XAI) systems necessitates an understanding of the requirements of the human-in-the-loop seeking the explanation. This includes the cognitive behavioral purpose that the explanation serves for its recipients, and the structure that the explanation uses to reach those ends. An understanding of the psychological foundations of explanations is thus vital for the development of effective human-centric XAI systems. Towards this end, we survey papers from the cognitive science literature that address the following broad questions: (1) what is an explanation, (2) what are explanations for, and 3) what are the characteristics of good and bad explanations. We organize the insights gained therein by means of highlighting the advantages and shortcomings of various explanation structures and theories, discuss their applicability across different domains, and analyze their utility to various types of humans-in-the-loop. We summarize the key takeaways for human-centric design of XAI systems, and recommend strategies to bridge the existing gap between XAI research and practical needs. We hope this work will spark the development of novel human-centric XAI systems.
Nuclear Pif1 is Post Translationally Modified and Regulated by Lysine Acetylation

In S. cerevisiae, the Pif1 helicase functions to impact both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA replication and repair processes. Pif1 is a 5’-3’ helicase, which preferentially unwinds RNA-DNA hybrids and resolves G-quadruplex structures. Further, regulation of Pif1 by phosphorylation negatively impacts its interaction with telomerase during double strand break repair. Here, we report that in addition to phosphorylation, Pif1 is also modified by lysine acetylation, which influences both its cellular and core biochemical activities. Using Pif1 overexpression toxicity assays, we determined that the acetyltransferase NuA4 (Esa1) and deacetylase Rpd3 are primarily responsible for dynamically acetylating nuclear Pif1. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that Pif1 was modified throughout the protein’s sequence on the N-terminus (K118, K129), helicase domain (K525, K639, K725), and C-terminus (K800). Acetylation of Pif1 exacerbated its overexpression toxicity phenotype, which was alleviated upon deletion of its N-terminus. Biochemical assays demonstrated that acetylation of Pif1 stimulated its helicase activity, while maintaining its substrate preferences. Additionally, both the ATPase and DNA binding activities of Pif1 were stimulated upon acetylation. Limited proteolysis assays indicate that acetylation of Pif1 induces a conformational change that may account for its altered enzymatic properties. We propose an acetylation-based model for the regulation of Pif1 activities, addressing how this post translational modification can influence its role as a key player in a multitude of DNA transactions vital to the maintenance of genome integrity.
Activation of Human Vδ2+ γδ T Cells by Staphylococcus aureus Promotes Enhanced Anti-Staphylococcal Adaptive Immunity

Key Points S. aureus–infected DCs induce Vδ2+ cell IFN-γ secretion via cell contact and IL-12. Vδ2+ IFN-γ secretion promotes reciprocal enhancement of DC activation. Coculturing infected DCs with γδ T cells enhances CD4+ cell responses to S. aureus. Murine studies have shown the potential for γδ T cells to mediate immunity to Staphylococcus aureus in multiple tissue settings by the secretion of diverse cytokines. However, the role played by γδ T cells in human immune responses to S. aureus is almost entirely unknown. In this study, we establish the capacity of human Vδ2+ γδ T cells for rapid activation in response to S. aureus. In coculture with S. aureus–infected monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs), Vδ2+ cells derived from peripheral blood rapidly upregulate CD69 and secrete high levels of IFN-γ. DCs mediate this response through direct contact and IL-12 secretion. In turn, IFN-γ released by Vδ2+ cells upregulates IL-12 secretion by DCs in a positive feedback loop. Furthermore, coculture with γδ T cells results in heightened expression of the costimulatory molecule CD86 and the lymph node homing molecule CCR7 on S. aureus–infected DCs. In cocultures of CD4+ T cells with S. aureus–infected DCs, the addition of γδ T cells results in heightened CD4+ T cell activation. Our findings identify γδ T cells as potential key players in the early host response to S. aureus during bloodstream infection, promoting enhanced responses by both innate and adaptive immune cell populations, and support their consideration in the development of host-directed anti–S. aureus treatments.
Sjögren’s Syndrome Minor Salivary Gland CD4+ Memory T Cells Associate with Glandular Disease Features and Have a Germinal Center T Follicular Helper Transcriptional Profile

To assess the types of salivary gland (SG) T cells contributing to Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), we evaluated SG T cell subtypes for association with disease features and compared the SG CD4+ memory T cell transcriptomes of subjects with either primary SS (pSS) or non-SS sicca (nSS). SG biopsies were evaluated for proportions and absolute numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. SG memory CD4+ T cells were evaluated for gene expression by microarray. Differentially-expressed genes were identified, and gene set enrichment and pathways analyses were performed. CD4+CD45RA− T cells were increased in pSS compared to nSS subjects (33.2% vs. 22.2%, p < 0.0001), while CD8+CD45RA− T cells were decreased (38.5% vs. 46.0%, p = 0.0014). SG fibrosis positively correlated with numbers of memory T cells. Proportions of SG CD4+CD45RA− T cells correlated with focus score (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001), corneal damage (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001), and serum Ro antibodies (r = 0.40, p < 0.0001). Differentially-expressed genes in CD4+CD45RA− cells indicated a T follicular helper (Tfh) profile, increased homing and increased cellular interactions. Predicted upstream drivers of the Tfh signature included TCR, TNF, TGF-β1, IL-4, and IL-21. In conclusion, the proportions and numbers of SG memory CD4+ T cells associate with key SS features, consistent with a central role in disease pathogenesis.