Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PNAS proof Embargoed until 3 PM ET Monday publication weekof Climatic dipoles drive two principal modes of North American boreal bird irruption

Pine Siskins exemplify normally boreal seed-eating birds that can be sparse or absent across entire regions of North America in one year and then appear in large numbers the next. These dramatic avian “irruptions” are thought to stem from intermittent but broadly synchronous seed production (masting) in one year and meager seed crops in the next. A prevalent hypothesis is that widespread masting in the boreal forest at high latitudes is driven primarily by favorable climate during the two to three consecutive years required to initiate and mature seed crops in most conifers. Seed production is expensive for trees and is much reduced in the years following masting, driving boreal birds to search elsewhere for food and overwintering habitat. Despite this plausible logic, prior efforts to discover climate-irruption relationships have been inconclusive. Here, analysis of more than 2 million Pine Siskin observations from Project FeederWatch, a citizen science program, reveals two principal irruption modes (North-South and WestEast), both of which are correlated with climate variability. The North-South irruption mode is, in part, influenced by winter harshness, but the predominant climate drivers of both modes manifest in the warm season as continental-scale pairs of oppositely signed precipitation and temperature anomalies (i.e., dipoles). The climate dipoles juxtapose favorable and unfavorable conditions for seed production and wintering habitat, motivating a push-pull paradigm to explain irruptions of Pine Siskins and possibly other boreal bird populations in North America.
PNAS proof Embargoed until 3 PM ET Monday publication weekof A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar

Departamento de Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, and Marine International Campus of Excellence (CEIMAR) Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199-PACEA, University of Bordeaux, F-33615 Pessac, France; Department of Archaeology, Cultural, and Religious Studies, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway; Gibraltar Caves Project, Gibraltar; The Gibraltar Museum, Gibraltar; Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, 43007 Tarragona, Spain; Research Laboratory for Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2HU, United Kingdom; Museo Histórico Municipal de Villamartín, 11650 Villamartin, Spain; Department of Plant Biology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain; and Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Parameterisation of a Stochastic Model for Human Face Identi cation

Stochastic modelling of non-stationary vector timeseries based on HMMs has been very successful for speech applications [5]. Recently it has been applied to a range of image recognition problems [7, 9]. Previously reported work [6] has investigated the use of HMMs to model human faces for identi cation purposes. Faces can be intuitively divided into regions such as the mouth, eyes, nose, etc., and these regions can be associated with the states of an HMM. The identi cation performance of a top-bottom HMM compares favourably with some of the well-known algorithms, for example eigenfaces as detailed in [8]. However, the HMM parameterisation in the work presented so far was arrived at by subjective intuition. This paper presents experimental results which show how identi cation rates vary with HMM parameters, and which indicate the most sensible choice of parameters. The paper is organised as follows: section 2 gives an overview of the HMM-based approach; section 3 details the training and recognition processes; section 4 describes the experimental setup; section 5 presents the identi cation results; section 6 concludes the paper.
Nearly Exact Bayesian Estimation of Non-Linear No-Arbitrage Term Structure Models

We propose a general method for the Bayesian estimation of nonlinear no-arbitrage term structure models. The main innovations we introduce are: <br><br>1) a computationally efficient method, based on deep learning techniques, for approximating no-arbitrage model-implied bond yields to any desired degree of accuracy; and <br><br>2) computational graph optimizations for accelerating the MCMC sampling of the model parameters and of the unobservable state variables that drive the short-term interest rate. <br><br>We apply the proposed techniques for estimating a shadow rate model with a time-varying lower bound, in which the shadow rate can be driven by both spanned unobservable factors and unspanned macroeconomic factors.
Topographic Analysis of Landing Areas of Apollo Moon Missions

The Apollo program was NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) human spaceflight program, accomplishing landing of the first humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. Ever since there have been scientific and public questions about its legitimacy and claims that the associated Moon landings were staged by NASA and/or other organizations. In this paper we examine a number of the Apollo mission images through (i) a comparison with simulated views of Google Earth (Moon) and (ii) a photographic analysis of some of their features using Photoshop®. The functionality of latitude, longitude, elevation and elevation profile of Google Earth is addressed by means of a comparison with other available programs possessing the same features like NASA’s Moon Trek and Alcyone Lunar Calculator. The topographic analysis through Google Moon simulations indicate that the landscapes in Apollo mission images used were inaccurate presentations of reality and there are incorrect elevations and serious land feature omissions. Moreover, the Photoshop® analysis shows conclusively that images were staged, manipulated or altered.
Ingestive processes and digestion of highly digestible pastures by strip-grazing dairy cows

Three grazing experiments and one stall feeding experiment were conducted to gain an understanding of the relationships between grazing behaviour and rumen fermentation pattern in lactating dairy cows strip-grazing highly digestible pastures. An understanding of these relationships is fundamental to elucidating the mechanisms underlying the interaction between grazing cows and supplements which impacts upon the profitability of supplement fceding in the wide range of feeding systems in Northern Victoria. Grazing experiments examined the effects of pasture type, pasture allowance and cereal grain supplements on daily intake, intake rate, rumen fermentation patterns, pasture degradation rates and rumen digesta pools. The stall feeding experiment attempted to determine the effect of rumina I fluid pH on neutral detergent fibre (NDF) degradation in highly digestible pasture. The type of pasture grazed was found to have important influences on the fermentation patterns which suggests that different supplementary feeding and grazing management strategies may be required for annual clover-based pastures compared to perennial ryegrass-based pastures. The pasture allowance offered to the cows also had important influences on the diurnal grazing and rumen fermentation patterns. Work in this thesis hilighted the need for methods that provide accurate estimation of intake as interactions between pasture allowance and intake and supplementary feeding and intake are used in decision support models to predict production responses to and prolitability of different feeding decisions. An important finding was that rumina I fluid plI's were below 6.0 for a large part of the day in all grazing experiments however there were no conclusive signs of clinical or subclinical acidosis. Important also was that ruminal conditions (concentrations of volatile Catty acids and ammonia, digesta pools) showed large diurnal l1uctuations related to grazing patterns in a strip-grazing management system. The effects of these low ruminal Iluid pI! 's and large l1uctations in rumen conditions on the degradation rate of NDF in highly digestible pasture arc still unclear. Ilowever, it was clear that cereal grain supplefm:nts reduced the degradation rate ofNDF. While research ill this thesis has provided Ilew knowledge on the effects of pasture type and supplementary feeding on the fermentation in the rumen or grazing dairy cows, it has also emphasized till: L:omplcxity of the intcrctiol1s between the sward, supplementary feeding and the cow. A more complete undestunding of the processes involved would be required to better predict cow performance across the range of management systems that exist. For example the relationship between plant cell wall chemistry and the rumen microbe is complex and not completely understood under rumen conditions when cows are grazing highly digestible pastures. Characterisation of the populations of bacteria at the low ruminal fluid pH observed when cows graze highly digestible pastures is also required.
Physicochemical properties of sweet potato starches and their application in noodle products

Starches isolated from 3 Chinese sweet potato varieties (XuShu18, SuShu2, and SuShu8) differed in granule size and particle size distribution as well as in protein, lipid and phosphorus contents but the amylose contents were similar for these starches (19.3-20.0%). The pasting behavior, swelling pattern, and syneresis properties were investigated and found to vary. On comparison, the physicochemical properties of the sweet potato starches rather differ from those of potato and mung bean starches. The quality of the starch noodle made from SuShu8 starch was well comparable to that made from mung bean starch, and better than that made from SuShu2 and XuShu18 starches as evaluated by both instrumental and sensory analysis. Correlation between starch noodle quality and gel properties of the original starches was established in order to be able to predict the suitability of a starch for starch noodle manufacture. It was found that differently sized granule fractions showed a difference in ash, amylose and phosphorus content, as well as in gel firmness and freeze-thaw stability. The small size ( hydroxypropylated ) were also evaluated for the ability to manufacture high quality White Salted Noodle (WSN) by replacing the commonly used wheat flour up to 20%. It was found that only the use of acetylated starches could significantly improve WSN quality resulting in decreasing cooking loss, and increasing softness, stretchability and slipperiness. The cold peak breakdown (CPBD) of the composite flour, as measured in 1.5% NaCl solution, showed a significant correlation with the cooking loss, stretch stiffness and stretchability of WSN. Moreover, acetylated starch from potato and sweet potatoes were studied with respect to the degree of substitution (DS) and acetyl group distribution in differently sized granule fractions. The DS of the fractionated starches increased with decreasing starch granule size dimension. The DS of the amylopectin populations of differently sized granule fractions showed the same trends as the original starches, while the DS of the amylose populations were quite constant. It was confirmed that the acetylation only occurred in the outer lamellae of the crystalline region, but took place in all amorphous regions of starch granules. The acetyl group distribution is more heterogeneous in the amylose populations isolated from small size granule fractions.
Evolución Microestructural de un Acero Inoxidable Superdúplex Bajo Ciclos Térmicos de Corta Duración (Microstructural evolution of a superduplex stainless steel under short duration thermal cycles)

Resumen Este trabajo investiga el efecto de los ciclos termicos sobre la microestructura de un acero inoxidable superduplex especificamente sobre la formacion de fase sigma. Los ciclos termicos examinados son similares a los que se producen en la zona afectada termicamente del acero inoxidable cuando se aplica el proceso de soldadura GTAW. Las temperaturas y tiempo de permanencia para el ciclo termico se determinan usando un modelo de distribucion de temperatura tipico. La aplicacion de los ciclos termicos permite conocer la evolucion microestructural del acero en el rango de 475°C a 1100°C con un tiempo corto de calentamiento y determinar la temperatura de formacion y disolucion de la fase sigma, pasando por su temperatura de maxima formacion. Se examina la formacion preferencial y la composicion quimica de la fase sigma. Palabras-claves: fase sigma, ciclos termicos, acero inoxidable superduplex, zona afectada termicamente.Abstract: This work investigates the effect of thermal cycling on the microstructure of a stainless steel superduplex, specifically on the sigma phase formation. The examined thermal cycles are similar to those produced in the heat affected zone of stainless steel when applying GTAW welding process. The temperatures and residence time for the cycle was determined using a typical thermal model of temperature distribution. The application of thermal cycles shows the microstructural evolution of steel in the range of 475°C to 1100°C with a short heating time and determines the temperature of formation and disolution of the sigma phase, and its maximum temperature of formation. The formation mechanism and chemical composition of the sigma phase is also examined. Key-words: sigma phase, thermal cycle, stainless steels superduplex, heat affected zone.
Numerical Simulations of Wake Flows of Wind Farm with Fourteen Wind Turbines

The wake interaction phenomenon among wind turbines has a great influence on aerodynamic power output, wind speed deficit turbulence stress and wake vortex structure, which indicates that more attention should be placed on the wake interaction for the optimal arrangement of wind farm. In this present study, firstly a numerical validation of aerodynamics for the two offset model wind turbines using actuator line model and CFD technique. The results obtained from the present simulations are compared to the data from the experiment “Blind Test 3” and other simulation models. Based on the simulations results, the present study shows good agreement with the experimental results. Then considering the uniform inflow condition, the complex phenomenon of wake interaction in wind farm containing fourteen wind turbines is simulated using a numerical method. Large eddy simulations combined with an actuator line model are conducted in the in-house CFD code FOWT-UALM-SJTU Solver. The motivation for this work is to create a sound methodology for performing the simulation of large wind farms. To better understand the wake interaction phenomenon, the aerodynamic power coefficients and basic features of both the near and far wake, including the distribution characteristics of the mean wake velocity and vortex structures are studied in detail.
Hybrid Base Complex: Extract and Visualize Structure of Hex-dominant Meshes.

Hex-dominant mesh generation has received significant attention in recent research due to its superior robustness compared to pure hex-mesh generation techniques. In this work, we introduce the first structure for analyzing hex-dominant meshes. This structure builds on the base complex of pure hex-meshes but incorporates the non-hex elements for a more comprehensive and complete representation. We provide its definition and describe its construction steps. Based on this structure, we present an extraction and categorization of sheets using advanced graph matching techniques to handle the non-hex elements. This enables us to develop an enhanced visual analysis of the structure for any hex-dominant meshes.We apply this structure-based visual analysis to compare hex-dominant meshes generated by different methods to study their advantages and disadvantages. This complements the standard quality metric based on the non-hex element percentage for hex-dominant meshes. Moreover, we propose a strategy to extract a cleaned (optimized) valence-based singularity graph wireframe to analyze the structure for both mesh and sheets. Our results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid base complex provides a coarse representation for mesh element, and the proposed valence singularity graph wireframe provides a better internal visualization of hex-dominant meshes.
Circ-LDLRAD3/miR-655-3p/MAPK1 axis enhances cell migration and invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a prevalent histological subtype of thyroid cancer, whose occurrence and development may be related to circRNA dysregulation. This research proposed to unravel circ-LDLRAD3-related mechanisms in PTC. First, circ-LDLRAD3, miR-655-3p . and MAPK1 levels in PTC were quantitatively measured. Then, plasmid vectors or oligonucleotides that interfere with circ-LDLRAD3, miR-655-3p, or MAPK1 were transfected into PTC cells, followed by the analysis of proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. Finally, the targeted binding sites between miR-655-3p and circ-LDLRAD3 or MAPK1 were predicted by starBase and experimentally verified. Statistically, PTC samples expressed high circ-LDLRAD3 and MAPK1 and low miR-655-3p. Knocking down circ-LDLRAD3 or enhancing miR-655-3p hindered PTC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, and forced apoptosis. circ-LDLRAD3 bound to miR-655-3p to affect MAPK1 expression. Elevating MAPK1 rescued circ-LDLRAD3 knockdown-allowed obstruction of PTC cell growth. In conclusion, circ-LDLRAD3 stimulates PTC development by releasing miR-655-3p-targeted MAPK1.
Statistical Assessment of Radiation Exposure Risks of Farmers’ in Odo Oba, Southwestern Nigeria

The toxicity risks of being over exposed to ionizing radiation in the environments are of great concern to scientists. The distribution of radioactivity concentrations of thorium, uranium and potassium were studied in randomly selected soil samples from ten (10) farm locations in Odo Oba, southwestern Nigeria in order to determine the radiological risks of farmers’ exposure to radionuclides. The radioactivity concentrations of thorium, potassium, and uranium varied from 11.37 to 101.91 Bq kg -1, 788.76 to 1693.30 Bq kg-1, and 12.35 to 50.64 Bq kg-1 respectively. The mean estimation of thorium and potassium are greater than the global average by factors of 1.5 and 2.7, while that of uranium fall below the global average. The estimation of radioactivity ratios showed that depletion of uranium and enrichment of thorium occur in the study area. The estimated radiological risks showed that the mean values of Dose Rate (DR), Annual Effective Dose (AED), Annual Gonadal Equivalent Dose (AGED), Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) and Gamma Radiation Hazard Index (Iγr) are greater than the global average by the factors of 1.42, 1.43, 2.04, 1.24 and 1.36 respectively. However, the mean of External Radiation Hazard Index (HExt ) fall below the global average. The descriptive analysis revealed that 92.3% of the analyzed variables showed positive skewness, while 69% showed positive kurtosis as well. However, multivariate analyses involving Pearson’s correlation, Factor Analysis (FA), Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) were further used to explain the correlations among the data sets. It was affirmed from the multivariate analysis that the radiological hazards occur as a result of contributions from the three naturally occurring radionuclides (that is, thorium, uranium and potassium). The values obtained in this study revealed that the sampled locations are contaminated zones for farmers.
Commentary on the power of predictability: patterns of signals in early life shape neurodevelopment and mental health trajectories.

As Davis and Glynn observe in the introduction to their review, early life adversity is a significant impediment to healthy child development. Whereas some theoretical accounts emphasize the sheer number of physical and psychosocial risk factors children experience (Evans, Li, & Whipple, Psychological Bulletin, 2013, 139, 1342), Davis and Glynn review a program of research that is aligned with models highlighting the types of adversity children encounter. They expand on accounts that differentiate threat from deprivation (McLaughlin & Sheridan, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2016, 25, 239) to draw attention to the role of unpredictability in children's development.
Re-evaluating the mythical divide between traditional and novel cardiovascular risk factors in rheumatoid arthritis

Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are conventionally classified as ‘traditional‘ and ‘novel‘. We argue that this classification is obsolete and potentially counterproductive. Further, we discuss problems with the common practice of adjusting for traditional CV risk factors in statistical analyses. These analyses do not target well-defined effects of RA on CV risk. Ultimately, we propose a future direction for cardiorheumatology research that prioritises optimising current treatments and identifying novel therapeutic targets over further categorisation of well-known risk factors.
Stem Cell Repor ts

Myeloid cells, which originate from hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs), play a crucial role in mitigating infections. This study aimedto explorethe impactof mesenchymal stem/stromal cells(MSCs) on the differentiationof HSPCsandprogenitorsthroughthe C-C motif chemokine CCL2/CCR2 signaling pathway. Murine MSCs, identiﬁed as PDGFR a + Sca-1 + cells (P a S cells), were found to secrete CCL2, particularly in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation. MSC-secreted CCL2 promoted the differentiation of granulocyte/ macrophage progenitors into the myeloid lineage. MSC-derived CCL2 plays an important role in the early phase of myeloid cell differentiation in vivo . Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis conﬁrmed that CCL2-mediated cell fate determination wasalso observed in human bone marrow cells. These ﬁndings provide valuable insights for investigating the in vivo effects of MSC transplantation.
Aneuploidy Can Be an Evolutionary Diversion on the Path to Adaptation

Abstract Aneuploidy is common in eukaryotes, often leading to decreased fitness. However, evidence from fungi and human tumur cells suggests that specific aneuploidies can be beneficial under stressful conditions and facilitate adaptation. In a previous evolutionary experiment with yeast, populations evolving under heat stress became aneuploid, only to later revert to euploidy after beneficial mutations accumulated. It was therefore suggested that aneuploidy is a “stepping stone” on the path to adaptation. Here, we test this hypothesis. We use Bayesian inference to fit an evolutionary model with both aneuploidy and mutation to the experimental results. We then predict the genotype frequency dynamics during the experiment, demonstrating that most of the evolved euploid population likely did not descend from aneuploid cells, but rather from the euploid wild-type population. Our model shows how the beneficial mutation supply—the product of population size and beneficial mutation rate–determines the evolutionary dynamics: with low supply, much of the evolved population descends from aneuploid cells; but with high supply, beneficial mutations are generated fast enough to outcompete aneuploidy due to its inherent fitness cost. Our results suggest that despite its potential fitness benefits under stress, aneuploidy can be an evolutionary “diversion” rather than a “stepping stone”: it can delay, rather than facilitate, the adaptation of the population, and cells that become aneuploid may leave less descendants compared to cells that remain diploid.