Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance Comparison of Bootstrapped Statistical Taggers on Urdu Tweets

- Twitter, a social media platform has experienced substantial growth over the last few years. Thus, huge number of tweets from various communities is available and used for various NLP applications such as Opinion mining, information extraction, sentiment analysis etc. One of the key pre-processing steps in such NLP applications is Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging. POS tagging of Twitter data (also called noisy text) is different than conventional POS tagging due to informal nature and presence of Twitter specific elements. Resources for POS tagging of tweet specific data are mostly available for English. Though, availability of tagset and language independent statistical taggers do provide opportunity for resource-poor languages such as Urdu to expand coverage of NLP tools to this new domain of POS tagging for which little effort has been reported. The aim of this study is twofold. First, is to investigate how well the statistical taggers developed for POS tagging of structured text fare in the domain of tweet POS tagging. Secondly, how can these taggers be used to overcome the bottleneck of manually annotated corpus for this new domain. To this end, Stanford and MorphoDiTa taggers were trained on 500 Urdu tweet gold-standard corpus and were utilized for semi-automatic corpus annotation in bootstrapped
Toxic effect of two heavy metals on Thais luteostoma and its influential factors

The toxic effect of Cu2+ and Cd2+ on Thais luteostoma and its influential factors were studied under laboratory conditions.Results showed that the toxicity of Cu2+ was stronger than the Cd2+,the median lethal concentrations of 72 h and the 96 h were 0.94 mg L-1 and 0.17 mg L-1 for Cu2+,2.00 mg L-1 and 1.11 mg L-1 for Cd2+. The combined toxin effect of Cu2+ and Cd2+ were studied under laboratory conditions.The result was that the median lethal concentrations of 72 h and the 96 h were 0.86 mg L-1 and 0.16 mg L-1,respectively.The combined effect of Gu2+ and Cd 2+ on Thais luteostoma was antagonistic.We also found temperature has significant influence on the toxicity of Cu2+,the higher of the temperature,the stronger of the toxicity.However,size seemed to have little influence on the toxicity of the Cu2+.
HYBRID FE2O3-AU NANOPARTICLES: SYNTHESIS AND PHOTOTHERMAL PROPERTIES

We describe the synthesis and properites of hybrid Fe 2 O 3 -Au nanoparticles synthesized using a wet chemical approach. These nanoparticles are compared with Fe 2 O 3 and Au nanoparticles prepared in corresponding manners. We investigate the visible light photothermal properties of these different nanoparticles. It is found that the hybrid Fe 2 O 3 -Au nanoparticles are able to photothermally heat aqueous solutions as efficiently as pure Au nanoparticles, even with a significantly smaller concentration of Au. Importantly, the hybrid structures retain the properties of both materials, creating a multifunctional structure with excellent magnetic and plasmonic properties.
Co-evolution of Initial Configuration and Control in Evolutionary Robotics

In evolutionary robotics, we evaluate individuals by placing them in an initial conﬁguration in the environment, and then measure their ﬁtness over a period of time. The choice of initial conﬁguration has a direct impact on the ﬁtness of an individual and thereby also the overarching evolutionary process. In this paper, we propose the concept of dynamic initial conﬁgurations, which is an initial conﬁguration that is neither random nor ﬁxed, but develops dynamically in response to the evolutionary process. As an example we have implemented a competitive co-evolutionary algorithm where initial conﬁgurations and controllers are evolved together to solve an obstacle avoidance task of a mobile robot. We show that, while a evolutionary approach taken from literature consistently fails, the co-evolutionary approach succeeds in 22 out of 25 runs. This example demonstrates the beneﬁt of dynamic initial conﬁgurations, but more work is needed to establish if the concept generalizes to more complex tasks, environments and morphologies.
The final fate of NHC stabilized dicarbon

Abstract In this paper we report the outcome of the reduction of NHC stabilized acetylenic dications, [NHC-Cn-NHC]2+ for n=2 and 4. The target compounds were NHC stabilized di- and tetracarbon in the form of NHC-Cn-NHC. However, upon chemical reduction, decomposition ensues with release of the free NHC. This effect is also observed in electrochemical studies. This lends credence to Bestman’s hypothesis that two donor ligands cannot stabilize Cn for n=even numbers.
Editor's Note: Targeted Gene Silencing Using RGD-Labeled Chitosan Nanoparticles

The editors are publishing this note to alert readers to a concern about this article (1): in Supplementary Fig. S6B, one of the representative CD31 images was duplicated between the “FAK/CH-NPþDocetaxel” and “FAK/RGD-CH-NPþDocetaxel” groups. MD Anderson’s Office of Research Oversight and Integrity evaluated this error and data from the authors; while the Office concluded it had no concerns regarding this publication, it recommended correction of the scientific record. The authors apologize for this error.
Cloacal temperature responses of broiler chickens administered with fisetin and probiotic (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and exposed to heat stress

Abstract There is dearth information on the role of fisetin as an antistress agent in ameliorating heat stress in broiler chickens. Here, we experimentally compared probiotic, an antioxidant and antistress agent, with fisetin, an antioxidant agent with little or no report on its antistress effect. Sixty-day-old broiler chickens (Arbo Acre breed) were allotted into 4 groups of 15 birds each as follows; control, fisetin, probiotic, and fisetin + probiotic groups, respectively. All administrations were performed orally through gavage for the treatment groups. The environmental and cloacal temperature (CT) parameters were measured bi-hourly at Days 21, 28, and 35 from 7:00 to 7:00 hr, during the period of study. The environmental parameters exceeded the thermoneutral zone for broiler chickens. The probiotic-supplemented group had the least overall mean CT values all through the experimental period. Based on our findings, fisetin was not a potent antistress agent in mitigating heat stress in birds.
Crowdsourcing usage, task assignment methods, and crowdsourcing platforms: A systematic literature review

Crowdsourcing is simply the outsourcing of different tasks or work to a diverse group of individuals in an open call for the purpose of utilizing human intelligence. Crowdsourcing nowadays used to support and enhance software engineering in different aspects. In this proposed study, a systematic literature review was conducted for the last 10 years from 2010 to 2019. During the filtering process, a total of 120 relevant studies have been identified, and then the most relevant 70 studies were selected to include as part of the current study. The proposed study shows the effect of task assignment in crowdsourcing, such as if a task is assigned to an appropriate worker or an inappropriate worker, what will be the consequences. The study also highlights crowdsourcing usage in the field of software engineering. All the existing task assignment methods used for assigning the task to make crowdsourcing activity more effective have been analyzed. The study also highlights all the available crowdsourcing platforms used for a variety of task to be performed. The study concludes by identifying the issues regarding the task assignment and to specify the methods for enhancement in the assignment of tasks for future research in crowdsourcing.
Efficient access to triarylmethanes through decarboxylation

A new synthetic approach has been developed for efficient access to triarylmethanes by palladium catalyzed decarboxylative cross coupling reactions. The reaction features sp2–sp3 coupling where benzoic acids upon decarboxylation reacted with diaryl methyl iodides having both electron donating and withdrawing functionalities, leading to the synthesis of diverse triarylmethanes.
Chemogenetic Inhibition of Corticostriatal Circuits Reduces Cued Reinstatement of Methamphetamine Seeking

Methamphetamine (meth) causes enduring changes within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the nucleus accumbens (NA). Projections from the mPFC to the NA have a distinct dorsal-ventral distribution, with the prelimbic (PL) mPFC projecting to the NAcore, and the infralimbic (IL) mPFC projecting to the NAshell. Inhibition of these circuits has opposing effects on cocaine relapse. Inhibition of PL-NAcore reduces cued reinstatement of cocaine seeking and IL-NAshell inhibition reinstates cocaine seeking. Meth, however, exhibits a different profile, as pharmacological inhibition of either the PL or IL decrease cued reinstatement of meth-seeking. The potentially opposing roles of the PL-NAcore and IL-NAshell projections remain to be explored in the context of cued meth seeking. Here we used an intersectional viral vector approach that employs a retrograde delivery of Cre from the NA and Cre-dependent expression of DREADD in the mPFC, in both male and female rats to inhibit or activate these parallel pathways. Inhibition of the PL-NAcore circuit reduced cued reinstatement of meth seeking under short and long-access meth self-administration and after withdrawal with and without extinction. Inhibition of the IL-NAshell also decreased meth cued reinstatement. Activation of the parallel circuits was without an effect. These studies show that inhibition of the PL-NAcore or the IL-NAshell circuits can inhibit reinstated meth seeking. Thus, the neural circuitry mediating cued reinstatement of meth seeking is similar to cocaine in the dorsal, but not ventral, mPFC-NA circuit.
Estimating dispersal using close kin dyads: The kindisperse R package

Investigating dispersal in animal populations can be difficult, particularly for taxa that are hard to directly observe such as those that are small or rare. A promising solution may come from new approaches that use genome-wide sequence data to detect close kin dyads and estimate dispersal parameters from the distribution of these dyads. These methods have so far only been applied to mosquito populations. However, they should have broad applicability to a range of taxa, although no assessment has yet been made on their performance under different dispersal conditions and study designs. Here we develop an R package and Shiny app, kindisperse, that can be used to estimate dispersal parameters from the spatial distribution of close kin. Kindisperse can handle study designs that target different life stages and allows for a range of dispersal kernel shapes and organismal life histories; we provide implementation examples for a vertebrate (Antechinus) and an invertebrate (Aedes). We use simulations run in kindisperse to compare the performance of two published close kin methodologies, showing that one method produces unbiased estimates whereas the other produces downward-biased estimates. We also use kindisperse simulations to investigate how study design affects dispersal estimates, and we provide guidelines for the size and shape of sample sites as well as the number of close kin needed for accurate estimates. kindisperse is easily adaptable for application to a variety of research contexts ranging from invasive pests to threatened species where non-invasive DNA sampling can be used to detect close kin.
Chromosome-level genome assembly of Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata Sieb. et Zucc.) reveals conserved chromosomal segments in woody rosids

Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata Sieb. et Zucc.), unlike other Castanea species, is resistant to most diseases and wasps. However, genomic data of Japanese chestnut that could be used to determine its biotic stress resistance mechanisms have not been reported to date. In this study, we employed long-read sequencing and genetic mapping to generate genome sequences of Japanese chestnut at the chromosome level. Long reads (47.7 Gb; 71.6× genome coverage) were assembled into 781 contigs, with a total length of 721.2 Mb and a contig N50 length of 1.6 Mb. Genome sequences were anchored to the chestnut genetic map, comprising 14,973 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and covering 1,807.8 cM map distance, to establish a chromosome-level genome assembly (683.8 Mb), with 69,980 potential protein-encoding genes and 425.5 Mb repetitive sequences. Furthermore, comparative genome structure analysis revealed that Japanese chestnut shares conserved chromosomal segments with woody plants, but not with herbaceous plants, of rosids. Overall, the genome sequence data of Japanese chestnut generated in this study is expected to enhance not only its genetics and genomics but also the evolutionary genomics of woody rosids.
Cellular organization in lab-evolved and extant multicellular species obeys a maximum entropy law

The prevalence of multicellular organisms is due in part to their ability to form complex structures. How cells pack in these structures is a fundamental biophysical issue, underlying their functional properties. However, much remains unknown about how cell packing geometries arise, and how they are affected by random noise during growth - especially absent developmental programs. Here, we quantify the statistics of cellular neighborhoods of two different multicellular eukaryotes: lab-evolved “snowflake” yeast and the green alga Volvox carteri. We find that despite large differences in cellular organization, the free space associated with individual cells in both organisms closely fits a modified gamma distribution, consistent with maximum entropy predictions originally developed for granular materials. This ‘entropic’ cellular packing ensures a degree of predictability despite noise, facilitating parent-offspring fidelity even in the absence of developmental regulation. Together with simulations of diverse growth morphologies, these results suggest that gamma-distributed cell neighborhood sizes are a general feature of multicellularity, arising from conserved statistics of cellular packing.
Outer Hair Cell Power Output and the Cellular Origins of Distortion Products

Outer hair cells (OHCs) are the cellular motors in the mammalian inner ear responsible for sensitive high-frequency hearing. Motor function requires expression of the protein prestin (SLC26A5) in the OHC lateral membrane, and ultrafast mechano-electrical transduction (MET) in the apical hair bundle. In the present report, electrical power consumption and mechanical power output of isolated OHCs and membrane patches are examined. Results reveal that power output by the prestin-motor complex is tuned to a best frequency and peaks at a frequency much higher than implied by the low-pass characteristic of traditional nonlinear capacitance, and much higher than the whole-cell resistive-capacitive corner frequency. The RC paradox is resolved by showing the passive membrane capacitance simply stores and releases potential energy without interfering with or diminishing power conversion by the prestin-motor complex. The NLC speed paradox is resolved by showing that the phase of the electrical charge displacement shifts 90° as the frequency is increased, as required to output power, thereby causing the real part of the NLC to be low pass while attaining motor function through the imaginary part at high frequencies. Power output by the MET-dependent hair bundle motor is also examined, with results indicating the somatic motor provides a bulk of the high-frequency power output. Results further demonstrate how nonlinearity of the prestin-motor complex and nonlinearity of the MET apparatus combine to generate distinct level-dependent cubic and quadratic distortion products near the best frequency (BF) location in the cochlea and basal to BF.
Calcium-binding protein S100A6 interaction with VEGF receptors integrates signaling and trafficking pathways

The mammalian endothelium which lines all blood vessels responds to soluble factors which control vascular development and sprouting. Endothelial cells bind to vascular endothelial growth factor A via two different receptor tyrosine kinases (VEGFR1, VEGFR2) which regulate such cellular responses. The integration of VEGFR signal transduction and membrane trafficking is not well understood. Here, we used a yeast-based membrane protein screen to identify VEGFR-interacting factor(s) which modulate endothelial cell function. By screening a human endothelial cDNA library, we identified a calcium-binding protein, S100A6, which can interact with either VEGFR. We found that S100A6 binds in a calcium-dependent manner to either VEGFR1 or VEGFR2. S100A6 binding was mapped to the VEGFR2 tyrosine kinase domain. Depletion of S100A6 impacts on VEGF-A-regulated signaling through the canonical mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Furthermore, S100A6 depletion caused contrasting effects on biosynthetic VEGFR delivery to the plasma membrane. Co-distribution of S100A6 and VEGFRs on tubular profiles suggest the presence of transport carriers that facilitate VEGFR trafficking. We propose a mechanism whereby S100A6 acts as a calcium-regulated switch which facilitates biosynthetic VEGFR trafficking from the TGN-to-plasma membrane. VEGFR-S100A6 interactions thus enable integration of signaling and trafficking pathways in controlling the endothelial response to VEGF-A.
Exploring Pathways of Socioeconomic Inequity in Vegetable Expenditure Among Consumers Participating in a Grocery Loyalty Program in Quebec, Canada, 2015–2017

Vegetable consumption remains consistently low despite supportive policy and investments across the world. Vegetables are available in great variety, ranging in their processing level, availability, cost, and arguably, nutritional value. A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted in Quebec, Canada to explore pathways of socioeconomic inequity in vegetable expenditure. Data was obtained for consumers who participated in a grocery loyalty program from 2015 to 2017 and linked to the 2016 Canadian census. Vegetable expenditure share (%) was examined as a fraction of the overall food basket and segmented by processing level. Panel random effects and tobit models were used overall and to estimate the stratified analysis by median income split. Consumers allocated 8.35% of their total food expenditure to vegetables, which was mostly allocated to non-processed fresh (6.88%). Vegetable expenditure share was the highest in early winter and lowest in late summer. In the stratified analysis, the low-income group exhibited less seasonal variation, allocated less to fresh vegetables, and spent more on canned and frozen compared to the high-income group. Measures of socioeconomic status were all significant drivers of overall vegetable consumption. Consumers with high post-secondary education in the low-income group spent 2% more on vegetables than those with low education. The complexity of observed expenditure patterns points to a need for more specific vegetable consumption guidelines that include provisions by processing level. Implications for education, marketing, intersectional policies, and the role of government are discussed. Governments can scale present efforts and catalyze health-promoting investments across local, state, national, and global food systems.
Diminishing Opportunities for Sustainability of Coastal Cities in the Anthropocene: A Review

The world is urbanizing most rapidly in tropical to sub-temperate areas and in coastal zones. Climate change along with other global change forcings will diminish the opportunities for sustainability of cities, especially in coastal areas in low-income countries. Climate forcings include global temperature and heatwave increases that are expanding the equatorial tropical belt, sea-level rise, an increase in the frequency of the most intense tropical cyclones, both increases and decreases in freshwater inputs to coastal zones, and increasingly severe extreme precipitation events, droughts, freshwater shortages, heat waves, and wildfires. Current climate impacts are already strongly influencing natural and human systems. Because of proximity to several key warming variables such as sea-level rise and increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, coastal cities are a leading indicator of what may occur worldwide. Climate change alone will diminish the sustainability and resilience of coastal cities, especially in the tropical-subtropical belt, but combined with other global changes, this suite of forcings represents an existential threat, especially for coastal cities. Urbanization has coincided with orders of magnitude increases in per capita GDP, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn has led to unprecedented demand for natural resources and degradation of natural systems and more expensive infrastructure to sustain the flows of these resources. Most resources to fuel cities are extracted from ex-urban areas far away from their point of final use. The urban transition over the last 200 years is a hallmark of the Anthropocene coinciding with large surges in use of energy, principally fossil fuels, population, consumption and economic growth, and environmental impacts such as natural system degradation and climate change. Fossil energy enabled and underwrote Anthropocene origins and fueled the dramatic expansion of modern urban systems. It will be difficult for renewable energy and other non-fossil energy sources to ramp up fast enough to fuel further urban growth and maintenance and reverse climate change all the while minimizing further environmental degradation. Given these trajectories, the future sustainability of cities and urbanization trends, especially in threatened areas like coastal zones in low-income countries in the tropical to sub-tropical belt, will likely diminish. Adaptation to climate change may be limited and challenging to implement, especially for low-income countries.
Expression of Cathepsins B, D, and G in Extracranial Arterio-Venous Malformation

Objectives: We have previously identified a population of cells that expressed stemness-associated markers in extracranial arterio-venous malformation (AVM) and demonstrated expression of cathepsins B, D, and G on embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like populations in other vascular anomalies. This study investigated the expression of cathepsins B, D, and G, and their localization in relation to this primitive population in extracranial AVM. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was performed on AVM tissue samples from 13 patients to demonstrate expression of cathepsins B, D, and G. Western blotting was performed on four AVM tissue samples and three AVM-derived primary cell lines to confirm protein expression of cathepsins B and D proteins. RT-qPCR was performed on three AVM-derived primary cell lines to demonstrate transcript expression of cathepsins B, D, and G. Enzymatic activity assays were performed on three AVM-derived primary cell lines to investigate if cathepsins B and D were active. Localization of the cathepsins was investigated using immunofluorescence dual-staining of the cathepsins with the ESC markers OCT4 and SOX2, and mast cells marker chymase on two of the 13 AVM tissue samples. Results: Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated expression of cathepsins B, D, and G in all 13 AVM tissue samples. Western blotting showed expression of cathepsins B and D proteins in all four AVM tissue samples and all three AVM-derived primary cell lines. RT-qPCR demonstrated transcripts of cathepsins B, D, and G in all three AVM-derived primary cell lines. Enzymatic activity assays showed that cathepsins B and D were active. Immunofluorescence staining showed expression of cathepsins B and D on the OCT4+/SOX2+ endothelium and media of the lesional vessels and cells within the stroma in AVM nidus. Cathepsin G was expressed on the chymase+ phenotypic mast cells. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the novel finding of the expression of cathepsins B, D, and G in AVM. Cathepsins B and D were expressed by the primitive population, and cathepsin G was localized to mast cells, within the AVM nidus.