Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decreased utilization of allocentric coordinates during reaching movement in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Despite numerous reports of abnormalities in limb motor controls in spatial orientation in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. We studied the influence of allocentric coordinates on ongoing reaching movements, which has been reported to strongly affect the reaching movements of typically developing (TD) individuals. ASD and TD participants observed a target presented randomly on one of the four corners of a frame on a screen. After it disappeared, another frame was presented slightly shifted leftward/rightward. The participants touched the memorized position of the target relatively congruent with a reference frame (allocentric condition) or ignoring it (egocentric condition). Results suggested that touch positions were less affected by shift directions of reference frame in the allocentric condition in ASD participants, so that they tended to reach in egocentric manner. Our findings demonstrate that decreased utilization of visual landmarks in ongoing movement may underlie motor disabilities in autism.
Vision Transformer for Automatic Student Engagement Estimation

Availability of the internet and quality of content attracted more learners to online platforms that are stimulated by COVID-19. Students of different cognitive capabilities join the learning process. However, it is challenging for the instructor to identify the level of comprehension of the individual learner, specifically when they waver in responding to feedback. The learner's facial expressions relate to content comprehension and engagement. This paper presents use of the vision transformer (ViT) to model automatic estimation of student engagement by learning the end-to-end features from facial images. The ViT architecture is used to enlarge the receptive field of the architecture by exploiting the multi-head attention operations. The model is trained using various loss functions to handle class imbalance. The ViT is evaluated on Dataset for Affective States in E-Environments (DAiSEE); it outperformed frame level baseline result by approximately 8% and the other two video level benchmarks by 8.78% and 2.78% achieving an overall accuracy of 55.18%. In addition, ViT with focal loss was also able to produce well distribution among classes except for one minority class.
Census of the mountain gorilla Gorilla beringei beringei population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Mountain gorillas Gorilla beringei beringei are Critically Endangered, with just two small populations: in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in south-western Uganda and the nearby Virunga Volcanoes on the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. A survey of the Bwindi population was carried out in 2002 and results were compared with the previous census in 1997. Our estimate of total population size increased over that period by c. 7% to 320 individuals and the structure and distribution of the population were largely unchanged. Signs of human disturbance were more common in 2002 than 1997, and gorillas tended to be found in areas of relative low disturbance. This suggested that disturbance could be a constraint on population growth and distribution but demographic stochasticity may also be responsible for the observed level of population change over a short time period. Other potential limiting factors, including habitat availability and disease, are discussed. While conservation activities in Bwindi have probably contributed to the stability of the population, strengthening of law enforcement and continued vigilance are needed to ensure the population's long-term growth and survival.
The phylogenetic placement of the rare North American band-winged grasshopper Shotwellia isleta Gurney, 1940 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Oedipodinae)

Th e phylogenetic placement of the North American band-winged grasshopper Shotwellia isleta (Gurney 1940) (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Oedipodinae) has been investigated. Th is rare and unique species of grasshopper belongs to a monotypic genus known only from a few isolated locations in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico and New Mexico, USA. Th e taxonomic status of Shotwellia has been uncertain and historically classifi ed in very diff erent ways relative to other genera. We conducted the fi rst molecular phylogenetic cladistic analysis of Shotwellia and of the Chortophaga (Saussure) genus group in which it is currently classifi ed, using three mitochondrial genes (16S, 12S and cytochrome c oxidase II), 14 morphological characters and two behavioral characters. Our analysis supports the current monotypic status of the genus Shotwellia within the Chortophaga genus group and indicates that Shotwellia is sister to the other genera in that group. Shotwellia isleta is a species of conservation concern, and our fi eld sampling indicates that it is a rare specialist of freshwater ephemeral desert lake beds that are being impacted by human activity. Understanding the phylogeny of S. isleta provides a basis from which biological, evolutionary and conservation inferences can be made.
End-to-end trainable system for enhancing diversity in natural language generation

Natural Language Generation plays an important role in the domain of dialogue systems as it determines how the users perceive the system. Recently, deep-learning based systems have been proposed to tackle this task, as they generalize better and do not require large amounts of manual effort to implement them for new domains. However, deep learning systems usually produce monotonous sounding texts. In this work, we present our system for Natural Language Generation where we control the first word of the surface realization. We show that with this simple control mechanism it is possible to increase the lexical variability and the complexity of the generated texts. For this, we apply a character-based version of the Semantically Controlled Long Short-term Memory Network (SC-LSTM), and apply its specialized cell to control the first word generated by the system. To ensure that the surface manipulation does not produce semantically incoherent texts we apply a semantic control component, which we also use for reranking purposes. We show that our model is capable of generating texts that are more sophisticated while decreasing the number of semantic errors made during the generation.
Redes de Investigación Ecológica y Socio-Ecológica a Largo Plazo (LTER y LTSER) en Iberoamérica: Los casos de México y España

Las profundas diferencias economicas entre los paises, combinadas con igualmente diferentes contextos historicos, sociales y culturales complican enormemente la organizacion de procesos de investigacion cientifica a escala regional y global. Los diferentes paises miembros de la Red Internacional de Investigacion Ecologica a Largo Plazo (ILTER) han armado sus propias redes atendiendo a las necesidades, caracteristicas y restricciones nacionales, pero con miras a participar de manera firme en el proceso internacional. En este articulo se presenta una resena pormenorizada de las experiencias de dos paises iberoamericanos, Mexico y Espana, en su proceso de conformacion de redes LTER nacionales. Los paises comparten muchas similitudes culturales, pero con algunas diferencias importantes que han determinado la forma particular en que cada uno de ellos ha disenado e implementado sus propias redes LTER. Se aborda para ambos casos el proceso de conformacion de sus Redes Nacionales en el contexto de su entorno internacional. Asimismo, describe brevemente la manera como ambos grupos estan participando en un primer esfuerzo de la red ILTER por detonar un proyecto de colaboracion cientifica a nivel internacional sobre las relaciones existentes entre los motores socioeconomicos y los servicios ambientales de los ecosistemas.
Predicting Impacts of Offshore Monoculture Farm Expansion in Ultra-Oligotrophic Waters of the Levantine Basin

The aim of this brief research report was to define the consequential shifts in biomass and trophic structure of an ecosystem surrounding an offshore monoculture fish farm in Israel. It attempts to clarify the impact of the industry expansion and input of artificial fish pellets on functional group biomasses. We account for the direct addition of artificial food pellets, the metabolic wastes from the caged fish in a mass-balance food web model (Ecopath), as well as the temporal expansion of the farm’s production capacity to 21,000 t over a 30-year period (Ecosim). In the static mass-balance model of the food web, the addition of the fish cages at its current production size of 1000 t does not adversely affect the system, and trophic energy transfer is still dependent on primary production versus the detrital pathway. The model suggests a semi-stable ecosystem with low trophic interactions. With time, the increase in fish farming at the site is characterized by an increase of all functional group biomasses at the site over the 30-year period. The accumulation in detritus most notably correlates to greater biomass for all benthic functional niches and their secondary consumers. It is, therefore, apt to develop an indicator species list to indicate negative site disturbance. In summary, the sediment column condition will be the main indicator for ecosystem stability, as well as the increase in apex predators that are attracted to the site from the accumulation of discards at the cage bottom.
Differential transcriptional reprogramming by wild type and lymphoma-associated mutant MYC proteins as B-cells convert to lymphoma-like cells

The transcription factor MYC regulates the expression of a vast number of genes and is implicated in various human malignancies, for which it’s deregulation by genomic events such as translocation or amplification can be either disease-defining or associated with poor prognosis. In hematological malignancies MYC is frequently subject to missense mutations and one such hot spot where mutations have led to increased protein stability and elevated transformation activity exists within its transactivation domain. Here we present and characterize a model system for studying the effects of gradually increasing MYC levels as B-cells progress to lymphoma-like cells. Inclusion of two frequent lymphoma-associated MYC mutants (T58A and T58I) allowed for discrimination of changes in the MYC regulatory program according to mutation status. Progressive increase in MYC levels significantly altered the transcript levels of 7569 genes and subsets of these were regulated differently in mutant MYC proteins compared to WT MYC or between the mutant MYC proteins. Functional classification of the differentially regulated genes based on expression levels across different MYC levels confirmed previously found MYC regulated functions such as ribosome biogenesis and purine metabolism while other functional groups such as the downregulation of genes involved in B-cell differentiation and chemotaxis were novel. Gene sets that were differently regulated in cells overexpressing mutant MYC proteins contained an over-representation of genes involved in DNA Replication and transition from the G2 phase to mitosis. The cell model presented here mimics changes seen during lymphoma development in the Eμ-Myc mouse model as well as MYC-dependent events associated with poor prognosis in a wide range of human cancer types and therefore constitutes a relevant cell model for in vitro mechanistic studies of wild type and mutant MYC proteins in relation to lymphoma development.
The pioneer factor GAF is essential for zygotic genome activation and chromatin accessibility in the early Drosophila embryo

Following fertilization, the genomes of the germ cells are reprogrammed to form the totipotent embryo. Pioneer transcription factors are required for remodeling the chromatin and driving the initial wave of zygotic gene expression. In Drosophila melanogaster, the pioneer factor Zelda is essential for development through this dramatic period of reprogramming, known as the maternal- to-zygotic transition (MZT). However, it was unknown whether additional pioneer factors were necessary for this transition. We identified an additional maternally encoded factor required for development through the MZT, GAGA Factor (GAF). GAF is needed to activate widespread zygotic transcription and to remodel the chromatin accessibility landscape. We demonstrated that Zelda preferentially controls expression of the earliest transcribed genes, while genes expressed during widespread activation are predominantly dependent on GAF. Thus, progression through the MZT requires coordination of multiple pioneer factors, and we propose that as development proceeds transcriptional control is gradually transferred from Zelda to GAF.
The Effect of Goal Visualization on Goal Pursuit: Implications for Consumers and Managers

This research demonstrates that as people approach a goal, external representations, which increase the ease of visualizing the goal, enhance goal pursuit. Specifically, consumers judge easy-to-visualize goals to be closer than difficult-to-visualize goals, which in turn increases effort and commitment. Ease of visualization affects performance in swimming competitions and the physical effort exerted in the lab. Visualization also affects commitment toward savings, willingness to wait for service, and performance in a simulated sales task. Importantly, the beneficial effects of visualization exist only when people are close to the goal. In addition, the effect of visualization attenuates when the goal is split into subgoals. Managers can use these results to enhance consumer goal pursuit, influence consumer satisfaction in online service encounters, and motivate employees to improve performance. In these varied contexts, visual representations of goal progress (e.g., progress bars) enhance motivation as people approach their goal.
Clot perviousness is associated with first pass success of aspiration thrombectomy in the COMPASS trial

Background Clot density (Hounsfield units, HU) and perviousness (post-contrast increase in the HU of clot) are thought to be associated with clot composition. We evaluate whether these imaging characteristics were associated with angiographic outcomes of aspiration and stent retriever thrombectomy in COMPASS: a trial of aspiration thrombectomy versus stent retriever thrombectomy as first-line approach for large vessel occlusion. Methods Clot density and perviousness were measured by two independent operators who were blind to all the final angiographic and clinical outcomes. The association of clot density and perviousness with the Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction (TICI) scale after first pass was assessed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Results Among all patients enrolled in COMPASS, 165 were eligible for the post-hoc analysis (81 patients in the aspiration first and 84 in the stent retriever first groups). Overall mean perviousness of clot was significantly higher in patient with mTICI 2b-3 after first pass (28.6±22.9 vs 20.3±19.2, p=0.017). Mean perviousness among patients who achieved TICI 2c/3 versus TICI 2b versus TICI 0-2a in the aspiration first group varied significantly (32.6±26.1, 35.3±24.4, and 17.7±13.1, p=0.013). The association of perviousness with first pass success was not significant in the stent retriever group. Using multivariate analysis, high perviousness (defined as cut-off >27.6) was an independent predictor of TICI 2b-3 (OR 3.82, 95% CI 1.10 to 13.19; p=0.034). Conclusions Clot perviousness is associated with first pass angiographic success in patients treated with the aspiration first approach for thrombectomy.
Pengaruh Pemberian Yoghurt Kacang Merah terhadap Kadar Kolesterol Total pada Wanita Dislipidemia

Latar Belakang : Dislipidemia merupakan salah satu faktor risiko terjadinya penyakit jantung dan pembuluh darah. Kacang merah mengandung proantosianidin, isoflavon dan serat yang mampu menurunkan kadar kolesterol total. Bakteri asam laktat yang terkandung dalam yoghurt menurunkan kadar kolesterol total melalui inkorporasi dengan membran sel bakteri, perubahan aktivitas garam empedu terhidrolasi, dan peningkatan aktivitas isoflavon . Tujuan: Menganalisis pengaruh pemberian yoghurt kacang merah terhadap kadar kolesterol total pada wanita dislipidemia Metode : Jenis penelitian adalah true experiment dengan rancangan pre-post-test with control group. Subjek penelitian adalah 26 wanita pre-menopause dengan kadar kolesterol total ≥200 mg/dL (tanpa obat) yang dibagi menjadi dua kelompok, 13 pada kelompok kontrol dan 13 pada kelompok perlakuan. Kelompok perlakuan mendapatkan 225 ml yoghurt kacang merah/hari selama 15 hari. Kedua kelompok mendapatkan konseling gizi di awal penelitian. Kadar kolesterol total diukur menggunakan metode CHOD-PAP. Asupan makanan selama intervensi diukur dengan metode food recall 3x24 jam dan dianalisis dengan nutrisurvey. Aktivitas fisik dianalisis dengan IPAQ. Analisis data menggunakan uji Paired t-test, Wilcoxon, Independent t-test dan Mann Whitney. Hasil : Ada penurunan rerata kadar kolesterol total kelompok perlakuan dari 248,5 ±28,4 mg/dL menjadi 205,2±31,1 mg/dL (p=0,0001) dan kelompok kontrol dari 233,5±16,6 mg/dL menjadi 213,0±20,6 mg/dL (p=0,009). Penurunan kadar kolesterol total pada kelompok perlakuan lebih tinggi (43,3 mg/dL atau 17,7%) daripada kelompok kontrol (20,5 mg/dL atau 8,6%) dengan p=0,001. Kadar kolesterol total 46,2% subjek kelompok perlakuan dan 23,1% subjek kelompok kontrol menjadi normal setelah perlakuan. Kesimpulan : Pemberian yoghurt kacang merah 225 ml/hari selama 15 hari menurunkan kadar kolesterol total pada wanita pre-menopause dengan dislipidemia yang diberi konseling gizi.
Optogenetic control of PRC1 reveals that bridging fibers promote chromosome alignment by overlap length-dependent forces

During metaphase, chromosome position at the spindle equator is regulated by the forces exerted by kinetochore microtubules and polar ejection forces. However, the role of forces arising from mechanical coupling of sister kinetochore fibers with bridging fibers in chromosome alignment is unknown. Here we develop an optogenetic approach for acute removal of PRC1 to disassemble bridging fibers, and show that they promote chromosome alignment. Tracking of the plus-end protein EB3 revealed longer antiparallel overlaps of bridging microtubules upon PRC1 removal, which was accompanied by misaligned and lagging kinetochores. Kif4A/kinesin-4 and Kif18A/kinesin-8 were found within the bridging fiber and lost upon PRC1 removal, suggesting that these proteins regulate the overlap length of bridging microtubules. We propose that PRC1-mediated crosslinking of bridging microtubules and recruitment of kinesins to the bridging fiber promotes chromosome alignment by overlap length-dependent forces transmitted to the associated kinetochores fibers.
Targeting IgG Autoantibodies for Improved Cytotoxicity of Bactericidal Permeability Increasing Protein in Cystic Fibrosis

In people with cystic fibrosis (PWCF), inflammation with concurrent infection occurs from a young age and significantly influences lung disease progression. Studies indicate that neutrophils are important effector cells in the pathogenesis of CF and in the development of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA). ANCA specific for bactericidal permeability increasing protein (BPI-ANCA) are detected in people with CF, and correlate with infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The aim of this study was to determine the signaling mechanism leading to increased BPI release by CF neutrophils, while identifying IgG class BPI-ANCA in CF airways samples as the cause for impaired antimicrobial activity of BPI against P. aeruginosa. Plasma and/or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) was collected from PWCF (n = 40), CF receiving ivacaftor therapy (n = 10), non-CF patient cohorts (n = 7) and healthy controls (n = 38). Plasma and BAL BPI and BPI-ANCA were measured by ELISA and GTP-bound Rac2 detected using an in vitro assay. The antibacterial effect of all treatments tested was determined by colony forming units enumeration. Levels of BPI are significantly increased in plasma (p = 0.007) and BALF (p < 0.0001) of PWCF. The signaling mechanism leading to increased degranulation and exocytosis of BPI by CF neutrophils (p = 0.02) involved enhancement of Rac2 GTP-loading (p = 0.03). The full-length BPI protein was detectable in all CF BAL samples and patients displayed ANCA with BPI specificity. IgG class autoantibodies were purified from CF BAL complexed to BPI (n=5), with IgG autoantibody cross-linking of antigen preventing BPI induced P. aeruginosa killing (p < 0.0001). Results indicate that the immune-mediated diminished antimicrobial defense, attributed to anti-BPI-IgG, necessitates the formation of a drug/immune complex intermediate that can maintain cytotoxic effects of BPI towards Gram-negative pathogens, with the potential to transform the current treatment of CF airways disease.
Astrocyte-neuron crosstalk through Hedgehog signaling mediates cortical circuit assembly

Neuron-glia relationships play a critical role in the regulation of synapse formation and neuronal specification. The cellular and molecular mechanisms by which neurons and astrocytes communicate and coordinate are not well understood. Here we demonstrate that the canonical Sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway is active in cortical astrocytes, where it acts to coordinate layer-specific synaptic connectivity and functional circuit development. We show that Ptch1 is a Shh receptor that is expressed by cortical astrocytes during development and that Shh signaling is necessary and sufficient to promote the expression of layer-specific astrocyte genes involved in regulating synapse formation and function. Loss of Shh in layer V neurons reduces astrocyte complexity and coverage by astrocytic processes in tripartite synapses, moreover, cell-autonomous activation of Shh signaling in astrocytes promotes cortical excitatory synapse formation. Together, these results suggest that Shh secreted from deep layer cortical neurons acts to specialize the molecular and functional features of astrocytes during development to shape circuit assembly and function.
Alternative isoforms of KDM2A and KDM2B lysine demethylases negatively regulate canonical Wnt signaling

A precisely balanced activity of canonical Wnt signaling is essential for a number of biological processes and its perturbation leads to developmental defects or diseases. Here, we demonstrate that alternative isoforms of the KDM2A and KDM2B lysine demethylases have the ability to negatively regulate canonical Wnt signaling. These KDM2A and KDM2B isoforms (KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF) lack the N-terminal demethylase domain, but they are able to bind to activated promoters in order to repress them. We have observed that KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF bind to and repress the promoters of AXIN2 and CYCLIN D1, two canonical Wnt signaling target genes. Moreover, KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF can repress a Wnt-responsive luciferase reporter. The transcriptional repression mediated by KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF, but also by KDM2A-LF, is dependent on their DNA binding domain, while the N-terminal demethylase domain is dispensable for this process. Surprisingly, KDM2B-LF is unable to repress both the endogenous promoters and the luciferase reporter. Finally, we show that both KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF are able to interact with TCF7L1, one of the transcriptional mediators of canonical Wnt signaling. KDM2A-SF and KDM2B-SF are thus likely to affect the transcription of the TCF7L1 target genes also through this interaction.