Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An ecological framework for informing permitting decisions on scientific activities in protected areas

There are numerous reasons to conduct scientific research within protected areas, but research activities may also negatively impact organisms and habitats, and thus conflict with a protected area’s conservation goals. We developed a quantitative ecological decision-support framework that estimates these potential impacts so managers can weigh costs and benefits of proposed research projects and make informed permitting decisions. The framework generates quantitative estimates of the ecological impacts of the project and the cumulative impacts of the proposed project and all other projects in the protected area, and then compares the estimated cumulative impacts of all projects with policy-based acceptable impact thresholds. We use a series of simplified equations (models) to assess the impacts of proposed research to: a) the population of any targeted species, b) the major ecological assemblages that make up the community, and c) the physical habitat that supports protected area biota. These models consider both targeted and incidental impacts to the ecosystem and include consideration of the vulnerability of targeted species, assemblages, and habitats, based on their recovery time and ecological role. We parameterized the models for a wide variety of potential research activities that regularly occur in the study area using a combination of literature review and expert judgment with a precautionary approach to uncertainty. We also conducted sensitivity analyses to examine the relationships between model input parameters and estimated impacts to understand the dominant drivers of the ecological impact estimates. Although the decision-support framework was designed for and adopted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for permitting scientific studies in the state-wide network of marine protected areas (MPAs), the framework can readily be adapted for terrestrial and freshwater protected areas.
Cortactin stabilization of actin requires actin-binding repeats and linker, is disrupted by specific substitutions, and is independent of nucleotide state

The actin-binding protein cortactin promotes the formation and maintenance of actin-rich structures, including lamellipodial protrusions in fibroblasts and neuronal dendritic spines. Cortactin cellular functions have been attributed to its activation of the Arp2/3 complex, which stimulates actin branch nucleation, and to its recruitment of Rho family GTPase regulators. Cortactin also binds actin filaments and significantly slows filament depolymerization, but the mechanism by which it does so and the relationship between actin binding and stabilization are unclear. Here we elucidated the cortactin regions that are necessary and sufficient for actin filament binding and stabilization. Using actin cosedimentation assays, we found that the cortactin repeat region binds actin but that the adjacent linker region is required for binding with the same affinity as full-length cortactin. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to measure the rates of single filament actin depolymerization, we observed that cortactin–actin interactions are sufficient to stabilize actin filaments. Moreover, conserved charged residues in repeat 4 were necessary for high-affinity actin binding, and substitution of these residues significantly impaired cortactin-mediated actin stabilization. Cortactin bound actin with higher affinity than did its paralog, hematopoietic cell-specific Lyn substrate 1 (HS1), and the effects on actin stability were specific to cortactin. Finally, cortactin stabilized ADP–actin filaments, indicating that the stabilization mechanism does not depend on the actin nucleotide state. Together, these results indicate that cortactin binding to actin is necessary and sufficient to stabilize filaments in a concentration-dependent manner, specific to conserved residues in the cortactin repeats, and independent of the actin nucleotide state.
Gram-negative bacteria in cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a recessive genetic disease caused by a mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) gene. One of the consequences of a dysfunctional CFTR protein is impaired mucocillary clearance, which allows the colonisation of microbial pathogens in the lung. The CF lung is colonised predominately by bacteria; with Burkholderia cepacia complex, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus being the most important pathogens. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Gram-negative bacterium, has the highest prevalence of these bacteria, occurring in up to 80% of adults infected with CF. During CF lung infection this bacterium will undergo phenotypic and genotypic adaptations allowing its persistence. The Burkholderia cepacia complex, the second most significant Gram-negative bacteria in the CF lung, is a lot less widespread than P. aeruginosa. However, this does not diminish the importance of the B. cepacia complex; as it is often associated with poor prognosis and can be transmitted from patient to patient. While the B. cepacia complex and P. aeruginosa are arguably the most important Gram-negative pathogens in CF, various other Gram-negative bacteria have been isolated from the CF lung but their role in infection has not been clarified.
Origin of the poxviral membrane: A 50-year-old riddle

Over the past half century, fundamental questions regarding the structure and origin of poxviral membranes have confounded researchers. Poxviruses are DNA viruses that infect vertebrates and invertebrates and are distantly related to other nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs), including phycodnaviruses, iridoviruses, asfarviruses, mimiviruses, and additional giant viruses. The poxviruses replicate entirely within the cytoplasm, cause human and zoonotic diseases, and are useful vaccine vectors [1]. The brick-shaped infectious mature virion (MV) has a nucleoprotein core enclosed by a lipoprotein envelope and arises from the spherical immature virion (IV). During replication, the MVs of some poxviruses are wrapped with a second membrane that facilitates intracellular transport, exocytosis, and dissemination. The membrane of the MV is referred to here as an envelope and the second one as a wrapping membrane. This short review describes the convoluted path leading to our current understanding of the structure and formation of the poxvirus envelope, obtained mainly through studies of vaccinia virus (VACV), the prototype poxvirus. Readers interested in the wrapping membrane are referred to a recent article [2] and references therein that posit their formation from modified Golgi cisternae following retrograde transport of a key viral protein.
Differentiation of Serum sLOX-1 and NO Levels in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients with Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis and Those Without Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis.

Background Soluble LOX-1 (sLOX-1) and nitric oxide (NO) are potential biomarkers for vascular oxidative stress that affect to atherosclerotic plaque. Atherosclerotic narrowing of the internal carotid artery is a well-known cause of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Objective To measure serums LOX-1and NO levels in acute ischemic stroke patients with or without ICA stenosis after 24-hour stroke symptom onset. Material and Method 118 patients with AIS within 24 hours-stroke symptom onset. Peripheral venous blood of all patients was collected for measuring blood sugar, cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-c and LDL-c concentrations by standard laboratory techniques. Serum sLOX-1 and NO concentrations were measured by ELIZA kits. The patients were divided into two groups i.e. non-internal carotid artery stenosis (NICAS, n = 65) and internal carotidartery stenosis (ICAS, n = 53) by measuring internal carotid artery stenosis by ultrasound carotid duplex. Results Baseline characteristics were not significantly different between NICAS and ICAS except LDL-c levels. Serum NO level had significantly lower in ICAS (50.09±7.36 μmol/l) when compared with NICAS (54.85±11.81 μmol/l). sLOX-1 had significantly higher in ICAS (1.82±0.34 ng/ml) compared with NICAS (1.13±0.40 ng/ml). Conclusion There are higher sLOX-1 and lower NO levels in AIS patients with ICAS when comparing those with NICAS. These parameters may become the novel potential biomarkers for predicting risk to acute ischemic stroke.
Cultural Biases in Migration: Estimating Non-Monetary Migration Costs

Ever since Sjaastad (1962), researchers have struggled to quantify the psychic costs of migration. We monetize psychic cost as the wage premium for moving to a culturally different location. We combine administrative social security panel data with a proxy for cultural difference based on historical dialect dissimilarity between German counties. Conditional on geographic distance and pre-migration wage profiles, we find that migrants demand a (indexed with respect to local rents) wage premium of about 1 (1.5) percent for overcoming one standard deviation in cultural dissimilarity. The effect is driven by males and those who earn above average occupational wages before migration, more pronounced for geographically short moves, and persistent over time.
Superpixel based spectral classification of hyperspectral images in different spaces

In this paper, superpixel based spectral classification of hyperspectral images are compared using different spaces. In conventional pixel-wise HSI classification systems only use spectral information. Unlike conventional pixel-wised HSI classification, superpixel based HSI classification consider both spectral and spatial information of HSI. Support vector machine (SVM) is used as the classification method. Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) superpixel algorithm is used to segment hyperspectral dataset into superpixels. Classification performance of hyperspectral data is compared in RGB space, LAB space, PCA space, Spectral space, and SVM. The classification performances of the methods used are tested for two different sets of data and the classification performance results are compared. It is shown that superpixel based spectral classification in PCA space and LAB space gives better classification accuracy.
PRECURSORS OF THE INTERNET ADDICTION AMONG ADULTS ? THE IMPACT OF SELF-CONCEPT , STRESS AND INTERNET USAGE CONTROL ON THE INTERNET

This research identifies what are the socio-psychological variables influencing adults’ Internet usage which has negative social and psychological impacts on them. That is, self concept(self-esteem, self-control, and self-efficacy in cyberspace), stress levels, and the Internet usage control have direct and moderate impacts on the Internet addiction. This research shows that the lower one's self-esteem and self control are, the more likely he/she is addicted to the Internet. Among Internet addicts, the chance of finding people with higher self-efficacy in cyberspace, under higher level of stress, or under higher level the Internet usage control increases than non-addicts. We also analyze the moderating effect of the Internet usage control by identifying what differences may arise when self-concept and stress influences the Internet addiction, depending upon the degree of the Internet usage control in each high or low Internet usage control group. The moderating effect of Internet usage control between self-concept, stress level and Internet addition is significant.
Rule- and Learning-based Methods for Bridging Resolution in the ARRAU Corpus

We present two systems for bridging resolution, which we submitted to the CRAC shared task on bridging anaphora resolution in the ARRAU corpus (track 2): a rule-based approach following Hou et al. 2014 and a learning-based approach. The re-implementation of Hou et al. 2014 achieves very poor performance when being applied to ARRAU. We found that the reasons for this lie in the different bridging annotations: whereas the rule-based system suggests many referential bridging pairs, ARRAU contains mostly lexical bridging. We describe the differences between these two types of bridging and adapt the rule-based approach to be able to handle lexical bridging. The modified rule-based approach achieves reasonable performance on all (sub)-tasks and outperforms a simple learning-based approach.
Tsc1 Regulates the Balance Between Osteoblast and Adipocyte Differentiation Through Autophagy/Notch1/β‐Catenin Cascade

A reduction in trabecular bone mass is often associated with an increase in marrow fat in osteoporotic bones. The molecular mechanisms underlying this inverse correlation are incompletely understood. Here, we report that mice lacking tuberous sclerosis 1 (Tsc1) in Osterix‐expressing cells had a significant decrease in trabecular bone mass characterized by decreased osteoblastogenesis, increased osteoclastogenesis, and increased bone marrow adiposity in vivo. In vitro study showed that Tsc1‐deficient bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) had decreased proliferation, decreased osteogenic differentiation, and increased adipogenic differentiation in association with the downregulation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. Mechanistically, TSC1 deficiency led to autophagy suppression and consequent Notch1 protein increase, which mediated the GSK3β‐independent β‐catenin degradation. Together, our results indicate that Tsc1 controls the balance between osteoblast and adipocyte differentiation of BMSCs. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Detection & identification of human body using FA based algorithms

Computer Vision has progressively engrossed in the field where one can grasp different scenes of deportment, looks, person activities, giving an appropriate interface for interlacing with persons and building comparable models for persons for unlike goal. Technique for discernment of person with a data set must serve the function of building the model. The segmentation scenario involving extrication of definite feature, elimination of backdrop and variation in the person's aspect like size, color, shape etc. Person detection is being applied to the consistent image sets, contiguous collection of images, real time Person's snapshot. Algorithm considered in the process of extrication include characteristic scenario with the appearance scenario to be applied for detecting people.
Developing a Robust Recombination Contact to Realize Monolithic Perovskite Tandems With Industrially Common p-Type Silicon Solar Cells

Although two-terminal perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells have rapidly increased in efficiency, they have only been demonstrated with n-type silicon, which currently constitutes less than 5% of the global photovoltaics market. In this paper, we realize the first two-terminal perovskite tandem with p-type silicon by developing a recombination contact that enables voltage addition without damaging either subcell. We find that silicon interband recombination contacts are limited by a SiOx charge-extraction barrier, which forms during oxidative top-cell fabrication. A sputtered 30-nm indium tin oxide layer is found to protect the silicon cell surface from oxidation, while forming a recombination contact with the p-type nickel oxide hole transport layer for the perovskite top cell. Using this recombination contact we achieve voltage addition between the perovskite top cell and aluminum back-surface field p-type silicon bottom cell. We also find that minimizing moisture on the nickel oxide surface is important for achieving a stable open-circuit voltage under illumination. The recombination contact developed herein could play an important role in near-future developments.
Funding a PAYG Pension System: The Case of Italy

Italy is characterised by a mature pay-as-you-go social security system and by particularly adverse population projections. Given these trends, the social security contribution rate is expected to increase above its current high level. This hinders the development of employer-provided pension funds and introduces a significant wedge between labour cost and earnings that discourages both labour demand and labour supply. Any proposal to reduce payroll taxes and to reform the system in the direction of partial funding has to cope with the state of Italian public finances. Italy has to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact that imposes constraints on budget deficit and debt trends. Using micro data from the Bank of Italy"s Survey of Household Income and Wealth and official population projections, we estimate future employment trends under different demographic and macroeconomic scenarios and compute the cost of the transition. We show that it would be substantially reduced if positive effects on employment were induced by the payroll tax reduction.
An algorithm for control of prosthetic foot by gait characteristics

Out of the 5.4 million persons with disability, a majority has locomotor disability and the most common reason is amputation. A significant number of amputees are transtibial amputees (TTA). Traditional powered prosthesis depends on the myoelectric signal from the muscles in the stump of residual limb, which is already a weak source of signal. This study attempts to establish relation between the muscles of the thigh and the muscles of the lower limb and thus, predict intention for ankle movement using the muscles of thigh of the TTA making use of the cyclic nature of gait. The prediction is based on the detection of muscle activity, extracting a trigger signal and generating a suitable response based on the natural angular rotation of ankle in a non-amputee. EMG data was measured for ten healthy individuals along with the goniometer data for measuring the ankle rotation. The recorded data was processed to obtain trigger signals to drive a simulated virtual foot. The averaged ankle rotation per gait cycle is standardized and used as the effective movement of the simulated foot. With additional improvement in timing and speed adaptation, this method can prove to be a better solution for myoelectric prosthesis, especially in cases where the residual limb cannot generate usable myoelectric signals.
New insights on innate B‐cell immunity in transplantation

Innate B cells and natural antibodies (Nabs) have been extensively studied in normal physiological conditions as well as in several diseases. However, their significance in the context of ABO‐compatible solid organ transplantation is only emerging. This review summarizes recent studies exploring these often neglected innate immune elements in situations related to sensitization and clinical graft rejection. A focus is placed on class‐switched IgG Nabs that develop amidst inflammation, rather than IgM Nabs abundant at the steady state, as new evidence point to their implication in serum reactivity to HLA and kidney graft failure. The involvement of innate B cells in the pathophysiology of CAV is also presented. Lastly, we discuss key questions that need answering to understand whether and how innate B‐cell immunity contributes to the outcome of solid organ transplantation.
CHANGES IN COW ACTIVITY , MILK YIELD , AND MILK CONDUCTIVITY BEFORE CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS OF KETOSIS , AND ACIDOSIS

The objective of the research: to assess changes in milk yield, animal activity, and milk conductivity before clinical diagnosis of ketosis, and acidosis. For the purpose of the present research, in total 90 fresh dairy cows were selected (up to 60 days-in-milk). They were grouped according to the disease as follows: cows with ketosis (n = 30), acidosis (n = 30), and control group, i.e., healthy cows (n = 30). The parameters recorded by the herd management software were analyzed for 12 days before clinical diagnosis of the disease and during its course. In cows sick with ketosis the milk yield showed a tendency of most significant decrease 8 days before clinical symptoms. On the day of disease detection, the activity was found to increase by 21.5 %, when compared to the day 12 before emergence of clinical symptoms of the disease (p<0.0001), however this increase was most pronounced 2 days before the detection of the disease (3.1–3.7 %; p<0.001). The major increase in milk conductivity was observed 2 days before the emergence of clinical symptoms (3.1–3.7 %; p<0.001). In cows sick whit acidosis the milk yield tended to decrease most significantly 6 days (p<0.01) before the emergence of clinical symptoms. The variation of animal activity in the period under research was diverse. Its significant increase was observed 2 days before the emergence of clinical symptoms of the disease (y = 2.9x + 20.667; R2 = 0.839). Starting with days 6–7 before the detection of disorders under consideration, a gradual increase in milk conductivity was observed. Indicators recorded by the herd management software and assessed during the period of investigation are considered to serve as the diagnostic algorithm for ketosis and acidosis.
GreenApps: A Platform For Cellular Edge Applications

This paper presents the design, implementation and deployment of GreenApps, a ground-up platform that enables off-grid, near off-line and highly available cellular applications in rural contexts. The GreenApps platform enables rapid development and deployment of almost-always available applications that can be executed locally on top of open-sourced cellular base stations. The GreenApps platform has been deployed in two rural regions in Kumawu, Ghana and Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua and supports different community-centric applications.
Shear Stress and VE-Cadherin: The Molecular Mechanism of Vascular Fusion

Objective— Vascular fusion represents an important mechanism of vessel enlargement during development; however, its significance in postnatal vessel enlargement is still unknown. During fusion, 2 adjoining vessels merge to share 1 larger lumen. The aim of this research was to identify the molecular mechanism responsible for vascular fusion. Approach and Results— We previously showed that both low shear stress and DAPT (N-[N-(3,5-difluorophenacetyl)-L-alanyl]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester) treatment in the embryo result in a hyperfused vascular plexus and that increasing shear stress levels could prevent DAPT-induced fusion. We, therefore, investigated vascular endothelial-cadherin (VEC) phosphorylation because this is a common downstream target of low shear stress and DAPT treatment. VEC phosphorylation increases after DAPT treatment and decreased shear stress. The increased phosphorylation occurred independent of the cleavage of the Notch intracellular domain. Increasing shear stress rescues hyperfusion by DAPT treatment by causing the association of the phosphatase vascular endothelial-protein tyrosine phosphatase with VEC, counteracting VEC phosphorylation. Finally, Src (proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src) inhibition prevents VEC phosphorylation in endothelial cells and can rescue hyperfusion induced by low shear stress and DAPT treatment. Moesin, a VEC target that was previously reported to mediate endothelial cell rearrangement during lumenization, relocalizes to cell membranes in vascular beds undergoing hyperfusion. Conclusions— This study provides the first evidence that VEC phosphorylation, induced by DAPT treatment and low shear stress, is involved in the process of fusion during vascular remodeling.