Revisiting the morphology and systematic placement of the enigmatic Cretaceous ommatid beetle Bukhkalius lindae (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae)

The systematic position of Bukhkalius lindae (Jarzembowski et al. 2017) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is revised based on a re-examination of the type specimen. Our observation confirms that B. lindae lacks unique apomorphies of Tetraphalerus Waterhouse, in which it was originally placed, including complete antennal grooves and mushroom-shaped micro-tubercles. It is well justified to place it into a separate genus, i.e., Bukhkalius Kirejtshuk & Jarzembowski, 2020. The incomplete but distinct antennal grooves and the Tetraphalerus-like mouthparts of B. lindae suggest that it has a close affinity to Tetraphalerus. Therefore, B. lindae may represent a missing link bridging the morphological gap between extant ommatid subfamilies Tetraphalerinae and Ommatinae

New species of Paraodontomma from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber with muscle tissue preservation (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae)

The third member of the extinct ommatid genus Paraodontomma is reported from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Our observation confirms the transverse ridges on elytra as a diagnostic character for the genus. Paraodontomma leptocristatum sp. nov. differs from previously reported congeners mainly in head subquadrate and without prominent protuberances, pronotal disc without prominent ridges, elytral ridges indistinct, and teeth along elytral margins not forming a wavy pattern. Musculature is preserved in the newly discovered specimen of P. leptocristatum, which further demonstrates the preservation potential and irreplaceable value of amber fossils

Atypical ‘long-tailed’ cockroaches arose during Cretaceous in response to angiosperm terrestrial revolution

Typical cockroaches are flat, broad, with large pronotum and wings covering the body. This conserved morphotype dates back to the Carboniferous, during which the ancestral cockroaches, or roachoids, originated. On the other hand, the ovipositor of cockroaches gradually reduced during the Mesozoic, coupled with a major shift of reproductive strategy. By the Cretaceous, long external ovipositors became rare, most cockroaches used very short or even hidden internal ovipositors to fabricate egg cases (oothecae), which is an innovation for egg protection. Here, we describe two cockroaches from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber: Ensiferoblatta oecanthoides gen. et sp. nov. (Ensiferoblattidae fam. nov.) and Proceroblatta colossea gen. et sp. nov. They are slim, elongate, fusiform, with longitudinal pronotum, and have long external ovipositors. The combination of these traits represents a unique morphotype, which resembles crickets and katydids (Ensifera) more than general cockroaches. Ensiferoblatta and Proceroblatta may be arboreal, feeding on and/or laying eggs into certain angiosperms that newly emerged. Their open habit causes latent impairment to viability, and may contribute to their extinction. These new taxa are the youngest members of the ancient, extinct group of cockroaches, namely Eoblattodea, which are characterized by long ovipositors. We speculate that the extinction of certain gymnosperm hosts almost ended the 200-My triumph of Eoblattodea. Despite an attempt to adapt to angiosperm hosts, Ensiferoblatta, Proceroblatta and suchlike cockroaches as an evolutionary dead end failed to save Eoblattodea from extinction. The lack of protection for eggs (maternal care in particular) might accelerate the extinction of Eoblattodea as a whole

The Art of SOCRATIC QUESTIONING: Zero-shot Multimodal Reasoning with Recursive Thinking and Self-Questioning

Chain-of-Thought prompting (CoT) enables large-scale language models to solve complex reasoning problems by decomposing the problem and tackling it step-by-step. However, Chain-of-Thought is a greedy thinking process that requires the language model to come up with a starting point and generate the next step solely based on previous steps. This thinking process is different from how humans approach a complex problem e.g., we proactively raise sub-problems related to the original problem and recursively answer them. In this work, we propose Socratic Questioning, a divide-and-conquer fashion algorithm that simulates the self-questioning and recursive thinking process. Socratic Questioning is driven by a Self-Questioning module that employs a large-scale language model to propose sub-problems related to the original problem as intermediate steps and Socratic Questioning recursively backtracks and answers the sub-problems until reaches the original problem. We apply our proposed algorithm to the visual question-answering task as a case study and by evaluating it on three public benchmark datasets, we observe a significant performance improvement over all baselines on (almost) all datasets. In addition, the qualitative analysis clearly demonstrates the intermediate thinking steps elicited by Socratic Questioning are similar to the human's recursively thinking process of a complex reasoning problem.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure, 2 algorithm

Expression and clinical significance of <i>Pax6</i> gene in retinoblastoma

AIM: To discuss the expression and clinical significance of <i>Pax6 </i>gene in retinoblastoma(Rb). <p>METHODS: Totally 15 cases of fresh Rb organizations were selected as observation group and 15 normal retinal organizations as control group. Western-Blot and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)methods were used to detect <i>Pax6</i> protein and <i>Pax6 </i>mRNA expressions of the normal retina organizations and Rb organizations. At the same time, Western Blot method was used to detect the <i>Pax6</i> gene downstream MATH5 and BRN3b differentiation gene protein level expression. After the comparison between two groups, the expression and clinical significance of <i>Pax6</i> gene in Rb were discussed. <p>RESULTS: In the observation group, average value of mRNA expression of <i>Pax6</i> gene was 0.99±0.03; average value of <i>Pax6</i> gene protein expression was 2.07±0.15; average value of BRN3b protein expression was 0.195±0.016; average value of MATH5 protein expression was 0.190±0.031. They were significantly higher than the control group, and the differences were statistically significant(<i>P</i><0.05). <p>CONCLUSION: Abnormal expression of <i>Pax6</i> gene is likely to accelerate the occurrence of Rb

Improved production of a recombinant lipase expressed in and its application for conversion of microalgae oil to biodiesel

Part 2: Trust and PrivacyInternational audienceTrust and privacy have been widely studied as key issues and success factors for e-commerce. The advent of m-commerce calls for revisiting these concepts and re-examining their antecedents in the mobile context. This paper attempts a comparative approach to the issues of trust and privacy in e-commerce and m-commerce. It investigates how trust and privacy are differentiated with the shift from the context of e-commerce to the context of m-commerce. Our analysis is supported by the results of an exploratory qualitative study in m-commerce

Fossils reshape the Sternorrhyncha evolutionary tree (Insecta, Hemiptera)

The Sternorrhyncha, which comprise about 18,700 described recent species, is a suborder of the Hemiptera, one of big five most diverse insect orders. In the modern fauna, these tiny phytophages comprise insects of great ecological and economic importance, like aphids (Aphidomorpha), scale insects (Coccidomorpha), whiteflies (Aleyrodomorpha) and psyllids (Psylloidea). Their evolutionary history can be traced back to the Late Carboniferous, but the early stages of their evolution and diversification is poorly understood, with two known extinct groups—Pincombeomorpha and Naibiomorpha variously placed in classifications and relationships hypotheses. Most of the recent Sternorrhyncha groups radiated rapidly during the Cretaceous. Here we report the new finding of very specialised sternorrhynchans found as inclusions in mid-Cretaceous amber from Kachin state (northern Myanmar), which represent another extinct lineage within this hemipteran suborder. These fossils, proposed to be placed in a new infraorder, are revealed to be related to whiteflies and psyllids. We present, also for the first time, the results of phylogenetic analyses covering extinct and extant lineages of the Sternorrhyncha

Impact of an Innovative Tuberculosis Financing and Payment Model on Health Service Utilization by Tuberculosis Patients in China: Do the Poor Fare Better than the Rich?

Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence is closely associated with poverty in China, and poor patients face more barriers to treatment. Using an insurance-based approach, the China-Gates TB program Phase II was implemented between 2012 and 2014 in three cities in China to improve access to TB care and reduce the financial burden on patients, particularly among the poor. This study aims to assess the program effects on service use, and its equity impact across different income groups