Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal changes of impala (Aepyceros melampus, Lichtenstein, 1812) faecal helminth egg counts through a one-year period

The study was done in Lake Mburo area, Uganda, consisting of Lake Mburo National Park and surrounding ranches. The study involved monitoring changes of output of helminth eggs per gram (e.p.g.) by impala for 12 months. Fresh faecal samples, 178 in total, were collected from the rangeland and subjected to floatation and culture tests. There was a peak faecal e.p.g. output from March to April and from October to November. This period coincided with time of high rainfall and calving peak of impala. There was no faecal e.p.g. observed during the dry spell from June to July. Resume Cette etude fut menee dans la region du Lac Mburo en Uganda, comprenant le Lake Mburo National Park et les ranchs avoisinants. Elle a implique la surveillance continue des variations de l’expulsion d’oeufs d’helminthes par gramme (e.p.g.) par les impalas durant 12 mois. Au total, 178 echantillons fecaux frais furent collectes dans la zone d’etude et soumis a des tests de flottation et de culture. On a constate un pic d’expulsion d’e.p.g. fecaux de mars a avril et d’octobre a novembre. Cette periode coincidait a l’epoque des fortes pluies et du pic des mises bas de l’impala. On n’a observe aucune e.p.g. fecale durant la periode seche de juin a juillet.
Wood-density variation of Norway spruce in relation to nutrient optimization and fibre dimensions

The effect of fertilization on wood density, fibre length, fibre diameter, lumen diameter, proportion of cell wall area, and cell wall thickness of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) were studied in a nutrient optimization experiment in northern Sweden. On the fertilized plots, all essential macronutrients and micronutrients were supplied in irrigation water every second day during the growing season. After 12 years' treatment, data were collected from 24 trees (40 years old) on the fertilized and control plots. Fertilization increased radial growth more than threefold, especially earlywood width, and decreased wood density by over 20% at 1.3 and 4 m height. The decrease in wood density was closely related to the proportion of latewood. The absolute wood density also decreased across the whole annual ring but proportionately more in latewood than in earlywood. A close relationship was found between the wood density and fibre properties, especially with the proportion of cell wall in a cross section o.
Effect of dietary Mirex and PCB's in combination with food deprivation and testosterone administration on thyroid activity and bioaccumulation of organochlorines in rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri Richardson

Serum thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyroninc (T3) levels were significantly lower in fish fed a high PCB diet (500 mg/kg) in comparison to those fed the control diet. The differences in serum thyroid hormone levels between the PCB-fed group and those fed the control diet were not evident after 14 days food deprivation nor after testosterone-injection. The low PCB diet (50 mg/kg) was without effect on serum T4 and T3 levels regardless of the treatment. Trout fed the highest Mirex diet (50 mg/kg) had T3 levels which were significantly lower and a T4 T3 ratio which T3was still evident after 14 days food deprivation but after testosterone administration the serum T3 levels in the control fish had fallen to levels similar to those in the Mirex-fed group. The low Mires diet (5 mg/kg) was without effect on serum T4 and T3 levels regardless of treatment. Serum T4 and T3 levels in fish fed a mixed PCB (50 mg/kg) and Mirex (5 mg/kg) diet were not significantly different from controls but T3 levels were significantly higher than in control fish after 14 days food deprivation and subsequent testosterone administration. There were no appearence difference in anterior pituitary or thyroid histology between the different groups. The hepatosomatic index (HSI) in PCB-fed trout was significantly larger than in controls in the fed groups, but not after 14 days food deprivation and subsequent testosterone administration. There was a five-fold difference in carcass PCB hioaccumulation between fish fed the two PCB-conlaminated diets, despite a 10-fold difference in dietary levels of the organochlorine. Similarly despite 10-fold differences in dietary Mirex levels in fish fed the 5 and 50 mg/kg and the 50 and 500 mg/kg diets, there were only 4–56–and 1–35-fold increases in carcass Mirex content, respectively. Trout fed the mixed Mirex-PCB diet had PCB levels of only 60.2% of those fed comparable levels of PCB alone (50 mg/kg) but contained similar levels of Mirex to those fed Mirex alone (a mg/kg).
Molecular and physiological diversity in the bipolar lichen-forming fungus Xanthoria elegans

Genetic and physiological diversity was assessed in isolates of the lichen-forming fungus Xanthoria elegans originating from a range of geographic localities and climatic regimes including polar and temperate regions. In vitro cultures were established and isolates examined by production of multi-locus RAPD markers and by sequence comparison of the ITS region of the rDNA tandem repeat unit. Both molecular techniques revealed significant variability. Phylogenetic analysis of RAPD profiles (226 markers) clustered isolates from particular locations together and Mantel's test showed a correlation between genetic divergence and extent of geographic separation. Phylogenies based on ITS sequence divergence were not well supported and did not correlate with the geographic origin of samples, suggesting a single locus approach to be less informative than RAPD data in a study of this nature. Physiological investigations also revealed significant variability between isolates with different geographic origins. Temperature had a significant effect on relative growth rate (RGR) such that X. elegans originating from sites with lower mean annual temperatures had significantly higher RGRs at all test temperatures between 2° and 18°C. Enhanced metabolic activity might be an adaptation for growth in colder climates. The results demonstrate high genetic diversity within this morphologically variable species in response to geographic and environmental factors, and are discussed in relation to data obtained for non-lichenised fungal species and the possibility of cryptic speciation.
A Survey of Essential Genome Stability Genes Reveals That Replication Stress Mitigation Is Critical for Peri-Implantation Embryogenesis

Murine development demands that pluripotent epiblast stem cells in the peri-implantation embryo increase from approximately 120 to 14,000 cells between embryonic days (E) 4.5 and E7.5. This is possible because epiblast stem cells can complete cell cycles in under 3 h in vivo. To ensure conceptus fitness, epiblast cells must undertake this proliferative feat while maintaining genome integrity. How epiblast cells maintain genome health under such an immense proliferation demand remains unclear. To illuminate the contribution of genome stability pathways to early mammalian development we systematically reviewed knockout mouse data from 347 DDR and repair associated genes. Cumulatively, the data indicate that while many DNA repair functions are dispensable in embryogenesis, genes encoding replication stress response and homology directed repair factors are essential specifically during the peri-implantation stage of early development. We discuss the significance of these findings in the context of the unique proliferative demands placed on pluripotent epiblast stem cells.
Non-Coding RNAs Operate in the Crosstalk Between Cancer Metabolic Reprogramming and Metastasis

Metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from a primary tumor to a secondary site, represents one of the hallmarks of malignancies and the leading cause of cancer-related death. The process of metastasis is a result of the interaction of genetic heterogeneity, abnormal metabolism, and tumor microenvironments. On the other hand, metabolic reprogramming, another malignancy hallmark, refers to the ability of cancer cells to alter metabolic and nutrient acquisition modes in order to support the energy demands for accomplishing the rapid growth, dissemination, and colonization. Cancer cells remodel metabolic patterns to supplement nutrients for their metastasis and also undergo metabolic adjustments at different stages of metastasis. Genes and signaling pathways involved in tumor metabolic reprogramming crosstalk with those participating in metastasis. Non-coding RNAs are a group of RNA molecules that do not code proteins but have pivotal biological functions. Some of microRNAs and lncRNAs, which are the two most extensively studied non-coding RNAs, have been identified to participate in regulating metabolic remodeling of glucose, lipid, glutamine, oxidative phosphorylation, and mitochondrial respiration, as well as the process of metastasis involving cell motility, transit in the circulation and growth at a new site. This article reviews recent progress on non-coding RNAs operating in the crosstalk between tumor metabolic reprogramming and metastasis, particularly those influencing metastasis through regulating metabolism, and the underlying mechanisms of how they exert their regulatory functions.
Auxetic MEMS sensor

In this paper, an auxetic design is proposed for the flexible membrane of a piezoelectric pulse sensor and computationally analyzed for a high-sensitivity vibration sensing in micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS). Auxetics are metamaterial structures with negative Poisson’s ratio which enables sensor’s flexible diaphragm to be expanded in both longitudinal and transverse directions easily. The sensitivity of a pulse sensor with an auxetic membrane was studied and compared to an equivalent plain membrane when the substrate was under harmonic bending. The sensing response was determined for the both models using detailed Finite Element Model (FEM) simulations. The sensor with the auxetic membrane demonstrated excellent sensitivity output over a harmonic pressure input which shows its strong potential for high-sensitive MEMS sensing applications. A detailed fabrication process is also discussed.
Microbial Life Deep Under the Seafloor—A Story of Not Giving Up

Below the seafloor are trillions of single-celled microbial life. Marine sediments bury these microorganisms deeper and deeper. Meanwhile, the microorganisms face increasing pressures and temperatures and reduced amounts of food and water. Although they are living in difficult conditions, these microorganisms stay alive and maintain their communities. To date, we know that these microbial communities can survive for millions of years, at 2.5 km below the seafloor, and at temperatures over 100°C. Scientists use multiple approaches to study these fascinating microorganisms.
Genotype × environment interactions in maize hybrids from temperate or highland tropical origin

Exotic germplasm is often used in maize (Zea mays L.) breeding programs. However, the occurrence of genotype × environment interactions (GEIs) may mask the potential utility of exotic material. Our objective was to understand better GEIs for temperate, temperate x highland, and highland tropical maize genotypes cultivated under temperate or highland tropical conditions. We related yield instability to GEIs observed for vegetative or flowering traits, and determined the response of these vegetative or flowering traits to temperature and photoperiod. Forty-one hybrids grown in four environments were observed for several pre-flowering, flowering, and yield traits. Grain yield variation was related to two major adaptation factors: disease resistance and planting-to-silking duration (PSD). Yield variations were also related to variation in traits measured before flowering, such as emergence duration or early growth. For emergence duration, leaf stage at a given date, or leaf size, one simple temperature covariate accounted for more than half of the interaction sum of squares. Temperate x highland tropical hybrids had an intermediate behavior and were more stable than the pure temperate or pure highland tropical hybrids. For total number of leaves, photoperiod at tassel initiation explained a higher proportion of the interaction sum of squares than temperature. The response of highland tropical hybrids to photoperiod was larger than for the temperate hybrids. We recommend breeders who wish to introduce exotic material into adapted material utilize mass selection and/or advanced backcrossing, with marker assisted selection for specific traits with low heritability, such as cold tolerance.
Data quantity is more important than its spatial bias for predictive species distribution modelling

Biological records are often the data of choice for training predictive species distribution models (SDMs), but spatial sampling bias is pervasive in biological records data at multiple spatial scales and is thought to impair the performance of SDMs. We simulated presences and absences of virtual species as well as the process of recording these species to evaluate the effect on species distribution model prediction performance of 1) spatial bias in training data, 2) sample size (the average number of observations per species), and 3) the choice of species distribution modelling method. Our approach is novel in quantifying and applying real-world spatial sampling biases to simulated data. Spatial bias in training data decreased species distribution model prediction performance, but only when the bias was relatively strong. Sample size and the choice of modelling method were more important than spatial bias in determining the prediction performance of species distribution models.
What you see is what you get: measure ABR video streaming QoE via on-device screen recording

Analyzing delivered QoE for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming over cellular networks is critical for a host of entities including content providers and mobile network providers. However, existing approaches mostly rely on network traffic analysis. In addition to potential accuracy issues, they are challenged by the increasing use of end-to-end network traffic encryption. In this paper, we explore a very different approach to QoE measurement --- utilizing the screen recording capability widely available on commodity devices to record the video displayed on the mobile device screen, and analyzing the recorded video to measure the delivered QoE. We design a novel system VideoEye to conduct such screen-recording-based QoE analysis. We identify the various technical challenges involved, including distortions introduced by the screen recording process that can make such analysis difficult. We develop techniques to accurately measure video QoE from the screen recordings even in the presence of recording distortions. Our evaluations demonstrate that VideoEye accurately detects important QoE indicators including the track played at different points in time, and stall statistics. The maximal error in detected stall duration is 0.5 s. The accuracy of detecting the displayed tracks is higher than 97%.
Finger Vein Recognition Based on Multi-Task Learning

In finger vein recognition, traditional methods for extracting ROI based on edge detection, sliding window detection of joint lines, etc. need to set a fixed threshold, which contains many parameters that need to be adjusted. In the case of large illumination changes or poor image quality, the extracted results are not accurate enough. The existing feature extraction method also has a fixed operator pattern and limited extracted feature patterns. Therefore, a large amount of effective feature information is wasted. In this paper, a multi-task neural network model algorithm is proposed, which uses the multi-task learning method to jointly optimize the ROI extraction task and the feature extraction task. This method not only improves the overall data processing efficiency of finger vein recognition system, but also improves the quality of extracted vein features. At the same time, we explore the use of improved loss function based on softmax to train our model. Our model is better than traditional methods and single task neural network model algorithm in MMCBNU [16] FV-USM [17] and DUMLA-HMT [18] data sets.
An Interpolation Comparative Analysis for Missing Internet Traffic Data

In this paper, we compared interpolation techniques for fixing the missing of internet traffic data. These techniques consist of 2-D interpolation, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), and correlation. We test various types of missing data with missing probability of 0.02 and 0.98. The interpolation technique performance is shown using Normalized Mean Square Error (NMSE) parameters. Simulation results show that all interpolation methods have the ability to recover lost information. 2-D interpolation and KNN suitable for small probability of missing while correlation is suitable for large probability of missing.
Neuronal circuitry underlying female aggression in Drosophila

Aggressive social interactions are used to compete for limited resources and are regulated by complex sensory cues and the organism’s internal state. While both sexes exhibit aggression, its neuronal underpinnings are understudied in females. Here, we describe a set of connected neurons in the adult Drosophila melanogaster central brain that drive female aggression. We identified a population of sexually dimorphic aIPg neurons whose optogenetic activation increased, and genetic inactivation reduced, female aggression. Analysis of GAL4 lines identified in an unbiased screen for increased female chasing behavior revealed the involvement of another sexually dimorphic neuron, pC1d, and implicated pC1d and aIPg neurons as core nodes regulating female aggression. pC1d activation increased female aggression and electron microscopy (EM) connectomic analysis demonstrated that aIPg neurons and pC1d have strong reciprocal connections. Our work reveals important regulatory components of the neuronal circuitry that underlies female aggressive social interactions and provides tools for their manipulation.
Deep Metric Learning Network using Proxies for Chromosome Classification and Retrieval in Karyotyping Test

In karyotyping, the classification of chromosomes is a tedious, complicated, and time-consuming process. It requires extremely careful analysis of chromosomes by well-trained cytogeneticists. To assist cytogeneticists in karyotyping, we introduce Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM which is a metric learning based network using proxies with a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) designed for chromosome classification. RexNeXt-50 is used as a backbone network. To apply metric learning, the fully connected linear layer of the backbone network (ResNeXt-50) is removed and is replaced with CBAM. The similarity between embeddings, which are the outputs of the metric learning network, and proxies are measured for network training. Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM is validated on a public chromosome image dataset, and it achieves an accuracy of 95.86%, a precision of 95.87%, a recall of 95.9%, and an F-1 score of 95.79%. Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM which is the metric learning network using proxies outperforms the baseline networks. In addition, the results of our embedding analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of using proxies in metric learning for optimizing deep convolutional neural networks. As the embedding analysis results show, Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM obtains a 94.78% Recall@1 in image retrieval, and the embeddings of each chromosome are well clustered according to their similarity.
An eye color mutant (tan) in the tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis palpalis (Diptera: Glossinidae)

A nondeleterious eye color mutant, tan, is described as the first visible mutant in Glossina palpalis palpalis (Robineau-Desvoidy). The locus for tan is on the X chromosome approximately 24 recombination units from the locus for testicular esterase (Est-t). Homozygous (tan/tan) females and hemizygous (tan/Y) males have compound eyes and ocelli that are pink (instead of dark brown) while the flies are alive but these fade to a tan color after death. No other differences in physical appearance of flies were found. General bionomic features of tan flies are not significantly different from those of wild-type flies. The mutant flies have a lower propensity for mating than do wild-type flies in the laboratory and there is assortative mating. Approximately half the offspring produced by tan females, which had mated twice, are sired by the second mate. Wild-type and tan adults excrete kynurenine and both types have tryptophan oxygenase and kynurenine formamidase. The lesion causing the abnormal eye color in the .
Ledidi: Designing genomic edits that induce functional activity

The development of modern genome editing tools has enabled researchers to make edits with high precision, but has left unsolved the problem of designing these edits. We propose Ledidi, an approach that treats the design of genomic edits as an optimization problem where the goal is to produce the desired output from a predictive model. The discrete nature of biological sequences makes direct optimization challenging, but we overcome this by using the Gumbel-Softmax reparameterization trick. We validate Ledidi by pairing it with the Basenji model, which makes predictions for thousands of functional profiles, and designing edits that affect CTCF binding and induce cell type-specific binding of JUND.
Healthcare Center IoT Edge Gateway Based on Containerized Microservices

The growth of ubiquitous healthcare systems, particularly for general and residential healthcare, is increasing dramatically. One of the most significant components of such systems is the gateway, which acts as a middleware between Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cloud application services. Here, we propose an IoT edge gateway framework based on docker container technology as the legacy virtualization technology to empower microservice architectures for aiding multiple-device real-time monitoring in locations such as nursing homes and residential care centers. The framework is used to identify IoT devices and the gateway itself in home networks for restricting access only to authorized users and non-manipulated devices. We propose the use of state-of-the-art hardware-based security supporting the mutual authentication process with the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm as well as integrity protection to validate the device, gateway, and cloud platform integrity to identify manipulation and detect unauthorized changes by signing these data. This approach can prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. As a result, we can implement each service located in this proposed IoT edge gateway framework to enhance capabilities in edge analytics by adding hardened security with the average latency time at 2.373 ms.
Coral calcification from skeletal records revisited

Skeletal growth records in annually banded massive coral skeletons are an under- exploited archive of coral responses to environmental changes. Average linear extension and calcifi- cation rates in Indo-Pacific Porites are linearly related to average water temperatures through 23 to 30°C. Assessing long-term trends in Porites extension and density requires caution as there is evi- dence of an age effect whereby in earlier growth years corals will tend to extend less and form a higher density skeleton than in later years. This does not appear to affect calcification rates. Coral growth characteristics at 2 of 3 reefs in the central Great Barrier Reef provide evidence of a recent decline. This is of concern, although the exact causes cannot be identified. International efforts are required to make full use of both coral growth histories and geochemical tracers contained in massive coral skeletons to understand the nature and significance of recent trends and their possible links with environmental changes such as ocean chemistry, warming tropical oceans and increased frequency of coral bleaching events.