Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Relationship between the Inter-Annual Variability of Satellite-Derived Vegetation Phenology and a Proxy of Biomass Production in the Sahel

Abstract: In the Sahel region, moderate to coarse spatial resolution remote sensing time series are used in early warning monitoring systems with the aim of detecting unfavorable crop and pasture conditions and informing stakeholders about impending food security risks. Despite growing evidence that vegetation productivity is directly related to phenology, most approaches to estimate such risks do not explicitly take into account the actual timing of vegetation growth and development. The date of the start of the season (SOS) or of the peak canopy density can be assessed by remote sensing techniques in a timely manner during the growing season. However, there is limited knowledge about the relationship between vegetation biomass production and these variables at the regional scale. This study describes the first attempt to increase our understanding of such a relationship through the analysis of phenological variables retrieved from SPOT-VEGETATION time series of the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR). Two key phenological variables (growing season length (GSL); timing of SOS) and the
Edinburgh Research Explorer Fine-structure molecular epidemiological analysis of Staphylococcus aureus recovered from cows

Sixty-three Staphylococcus aureus isolates recovered from bovine sources in the USA and the Republic of Ireland were characterized by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), ribotyping, and random ampliﬁed polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction (RAPD–PCR) typing at two separate laboratories. The S . aureus isolates were assigned by MLEE to 10 electrophoretic types (ETs) (Index of Discrimination, D (cid:175) 0 (cid:177) 779). In contrast, the same isolates were assigned to 13 ribotypes ( D (cid:175) 0 (cid:177) 888), and to 12 RAPD types ( D (cid:175) 0 (cid:177) 898). A common clone, ET3, of worldwide distribution, was represented by six distinct combinations of ribotypes and RAPD types. S . aureus clones recovered from cows in Ireland were also associated with mastitis in dairy cows in the USA. These ﬁndings are consistent with the hypothesis that only a few specialized clones of S . aureus are responsible for the majority of cases of bovine mastitis, and that these clones have a broad geographic distribution.
Reduced Regional Brain Cortical Thickness in Patients with Heart Failure

Aims Autonomic, cognitive, and neuropsychologic deficits appear in heart failure (HF) subjects, and these compromised functions depend on cerebral cortex integrity in addition to that of subcortical and brainstem sites. Impaired autoregulation, low cardiac output, sleep-disordered-breathing, hypertension, and diabetic conditions in HF offer considerable potential to affect cortical areas by loss of neurons and glia, which would be expressed as reduced cortical thicknesses. However, except for gross descriptions of cortical volume loss/injury, regional cortical thickness integrity in HF is unknown. Our goal was to assess regional cortical thicknesses across the brain in HF, compared to control subjects. Methods and Results We examined localized cortical thicknesses in 35 HF and 61 control subjects with high-resolution T1-weighted images (3.0-Tesla MRI) using FreeSurfer software, and assessed group differences with analysis-of-covariance (covariates; age, gender; p<0.05; FDR). Significantly-reduced cortical thicknesses appeared in HF over controls in multiple areas, including the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, more markedly on the left side, within areas that control autonomic, cognitive, affective, language, and visual functions. Conclusion Heart failure subjects show reduced regional cortical thicknesses in sites that control autonomic, cognitive, affective, language, and visual functions that are deficient in the condition. The findings suggest chronic tissue alterations, with regional changes reflecting loss of neurons and glia, and presumably are related to earlier-described axonal changes. The pathological mechanisms contributing to reduced cortical thicknesses likely include hypoxia/ischemia, accompanying impaired cerebral perfusion from reduced cardiac output and sleep-disordered-breathing and other comorbidities in HF.
Evaluation of Cognitive Functioning in the Context of Rehabilitation for Visual Impairment in Older Adults: A Case Series

ABSTRACT Aims: As the risk of visual impairment increases with age, so does the risk of developing cognitive impairment. Detection of cognitive deficits in people with visual impairments is a challenge and it remains unclear to what extent cognitive issues impact daily habits and the rehabilitation process. The present study aimed to (1) verify the consistency between the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (“Blind” versions) and the therapist's observations of elderly individuals in low-vision rehabilitation (LVR), and (2) document how cognitive difficulties may influence LVR and the satisfactory carrying-out of life habits. Methods: Six elderly individuals who received LVR completed the MMSE and MoCA (“Blind” versions) and Assessment of Life Habits (LIFE-H). The therapist rated the achievement of rehabilitation objectives, clients' cognitive functioning and its impact on the rehabilitation process. Results: All participants obtained scores within the normative score range for both tests except for one participant on the MoCA. The therapist perceived that four out of six participants had cognitive difficulties significant enough to hinder the rehabilitation process and these persons required more adaptations to therapy. All participants were satisfied with their life habits despite remaining functional limitations and the need for assistance. Conclusions: In this sample, standardized cognitive tests had limited utility to predict the complexity of LVR. Even if present, cognitive difficulties do not preclude rehabilitation for even severe visual impairment in elderly persons and does not imply significantly longer or more intense rehabilitation.
Task effects in bilingual idiom comprehension

Abstract The purpose of the experiments reported here is to explore the effects of task (implicit vs. explicit) on the activation of literal and figurative meanings of English idiomatic expressions in the course of their processing by Spanish–English bilinguals varying along their dominance in English or Spanish. Two experiments were carried out using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task: an implicit lexical decision task and an explicit meaningfulness judgment task. Stimuli included literally plausible English idioms (e.g. kick the bucket, which has both a figurative meaning – ‘to die’, and a literal interpretation – ‘to strike a pail with one’s foot’). Mixed Linear Model analyses were conducted on the lexical decision and meaningfulness judgment data, with context (literal vs. figurative vs. control) and target type (literal vs. figurative) as within-subject factors, and bilingual dominance (Spanish-dominant vs. English-dominant) as a between-subject factor. Results showed strong salience effects in the implicit task and strong context effects in the explicit task. Specifically, only literal target activation was found for Spanish-dominant participants in the implicit, lexical decision task, as opposed to English-dominant participants, where both literal and figurative meanings were equally strongly activated. In the explicit, meaningfulness judgment task, regardless of language dominance, congruent targets (both literal-congruent and figurative-congruent) were recognized faster than incongruent ones, both by English- and Spanish-dominant participants.
I hardly see my baby: challenges and highlights of being a New Zealand working mother of an infant

ABSTRACT Combining motherhood and paid work presents a significant challenge for many women. We asked 2388 working New Zealand mothers of infants about their biggest highlight and challenge since the birth of their child. Thematic analysis revealed the top three reported highlights were Enjoyment of the Child (40%), Child Development (29%) and Attributes of the Child (16%). The top three challenges included Time Management (24%), difficulties with maternal role and responsibilities (21%) and work-related challenges (18%). Using logistic regression, working was more likely to be reported as a challenge by mothers who worked longer hours, returned to work when their infants were younger, had greater household incomes, or expressed concern about negative career consequences if they stayed on leave. Working was less likely to be reported as a challenge for mothers whose infants had health or developmental problems and who ‘wanted to get out of the house’. Practical implications are explored.
The Role of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography in the Prognostication, Diagnosis, and Management of Thyroid Carcinoma

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) plays an increasingly important role in the prognostication, diagnosis, and management of thyroid carcinoma. For patients diagnosed with primary or persistent/recurrent thyroid carcinoma, a finding of FDG-PET positivity implies a more aggressive tumor biology and a distinct mutational profile, both of which carry prognostic significance. Therefore, FDG-PET positivity may be a useful potential risk factor for preoperative risk stratification in primary thyroid carcinoma. This information may help in the planning of subsequent treatment strategy such as the extent of thyroidectomy, prophylactic central neck dissection, and radioiodine ablation. FDG-PET scan has also been found to be a useful adjunct in characterizing indeterminate thyroid nodules on fine needle aspiration cytology. However, larger-sized prospective studies are required to validate this finding. FDG-PET or FDG-PET/CT scan has become the imaging of choice in patients with a negative whole-body radioiodine scan, but with an abnormally raised thyroglobulin level after total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation.
Developmental trajectories as autism phenotypes

Numerous studies of Autism Spectrum Disorder have attempted to link behavioral phenotypes to genetic findings. Reliance on cross‐sectional behavioral data in samples that span wide age ranges may have limited this endeavor because ASD behaviors are not static within individuals across development. This study uses quantitative methods to describe specific aspects of changes in autism‐related and more general behaviors in order to yield trajectories that could be used in place of single time‐point data as behavioral phenotypes in neurobiological studies of both Autism Spectrum Disorders and overlapping conditions. Building on previous analyses, we examined trajectories of parent‐reported social‐communication deficits, social adaptive functioning, and two types of repetitive behaviors, repetitive sensory motor (RSM) behaviors and insistence on sameness (IS) behaviors, in a relatively large sample of participants referred for possible autism at age 2 years and followed into young adulthood (n = 85). A strength of this sample was the diverse range of outcomes, including young adults with intellectual disability and persistent autism related difficulties, those with IQs in the borderline or average range who continued to experience functional impairment related to Autism Spectrum Disorders, and a small group of young adults (n = 8) with IQs in the average range who were judged to be functioning socially and adaptively at age‐appropriate levels at age 19 years, despite a previous childhood diagnosis of autism.
PENGARUH MOTIVASI KERJA, LINGKUNGAN KERJA DAN DISIPLIN KERJA TERHADAP KINERJA PEGAWAI PADA BAPPEDA PROVINSI SULAWESI TENGAH

The Objectives of this research are : (1) to know and analyze effect of job motivation, work environment and job discipline on personnel performance at Regional Develompment Planning Agency, Central Sulawesi Province, (2) to know and analyze effect of job motivation on personnel performance, (3) to know and analyze the effect of work environment on personnel perfomance, (4 ) to know and analyze the effect of job discipline on personnel perfomance. This is a causal descriptive research to investigate the relationship among job motivation, work environment, job discipline, and personnel performance variables involving 169 respondents that have been determined using census method. The result of multiple linear regressions show that: (1) job motivation, work environment and job discipline perfoms positive and significant effects on personnel perfomance of Regional Develompment Planning Agency, Central Sulawesi Province, (2) job motivation performs significant effect on personnel perfomance, (3) work environment performs significant effect on personnel perfomance, (4) job discipline performs significant effect on personnel perfomance at Regional Develompment Planning Agency, Central Sulawesi Province
You are what you post in “circle of friends” of WeChat: Self-presentation and identity production from a personality perspective

Social media services have become increasingly important in Chinese people’s daily lives, and among them, WeChat is one of the most popular applications. There have been studies examining individuals’ practices of self-presentation and identity production in various online platforms, and they have found the impact of anonymity on users’ presentation and construction of self. However, little is known about whether users present their actual self or construct new identities different from those in their offline life. To fill this gap, this study explores the association between expression of personality traits on circle of friends and their actual personality traits in offline life. Participants were 93 college students from China. Their personality traits were measured through Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory, and their posts on circle of friends platform were extracted and split into words by Chinese Lexical Analysis System. The results showed consistency in the dimension of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness, except for neuroticism, suggesting that the contents posted on circle of friends platform can reflect the user’s real personality traits. As an instrumental tool developed in this study, the semantic cues were further discussed regarding its usefulness in evaluating subjects’ personality traits.
The meaning and making of childhoods in kinship care – young adults’ narratives

ABSTRACT This article draws on interviews with 26 young adults (15 women and 11 men, aged 19–29) who grew up in long-term kinship care in Norway, and explore how they portray their childhoods. Our starting point is that the foster child status provide cultural and public narratives, images and positions for the young adults to employ when interpreting childhood experiences. The question we ask is how this status is made relevant in the production of childhood narratives. Doing this, we seek to gain insights into how the formal aspect of kinship care can influence on childhood understandings. Based on how childhood experiences are (re)constructed and how the young adults position themselves and their foster parents in their narratives, we have constructed four ways of portraying childhoods in kinship care, as: normal, supported, struggling and neglected. The article clarifies the criteria for constructing the different types of childhood, and discusses how the foster child status is made relevant in each type.
Family-centred care in family-specific teams

Objective: To evaluate the perceptions and views of parents and rehabilitation and special education professionals on the family-centredness of care delivered and received. Design: Descriptive study with comparison of ratings in family-specific teams. Setting: Five paediatric facilities in the Netherlands. Subjects: Parents of children with cerebral palsy and professionals providing their children's rehabilitation and educational services. Main measures: The Dutch Measure of Processes of Care for families (MPOC-NL) and the Measure of Processes of Care for service providers (MPOC-SP). Data were collected and analysed per family. Results: In total 38 MPOC-NLs and 204 MPOC-SPs were returned. The family-specific team analysis of importance ratings yielded significant differences (P < 0.05) on all domains between parents, rehabilitation professionals and special education professionals. For Enabling and partnership (P < 0.01) and Specific information about the child (P < 0.01), parents considered the behaviours to be significantly more important than rehabilitation professionals. The problem-score analyses showed that in all domains a considerable number of parents (19—38%) did not receive the care they deemed important. Conclusion: Family-specific analyses of MPOC importance ratings revealed differences in attitudes towards importance of specific care behaviours of team members, which subsequently may have caused the relatively high incidence of parents not receiving the care they deemed important. This underscores the need to explore and attune opinions on what constitutes proper service delivery.
Trump and the Populist Authoritarian Parties: The Silent Revolution in Reverse

Growing up taking survival for granted makes people more open to new ideas and more tolerant of outgroups. Insecurity has the opposite effect, stimulating an Authoritarian Reflex in which people close ranks behind strong leaders, with strong in-group solidarity, rejection of outsiders, and rigid conformity to group norms. The 35 years of exceptional security experienced by developed democracies after WWII brought pervasive cultural changes, including the rise of Green parties and the spread of democracy. During the past 35 years, economic growth continued, but virtually all of the gains went to those at the top; the less-educated experienced declining existential security, fueling support for Populist Authoritarian phenomena such as Brexit, France’s National Front and Trump’s takeover of the Republican party. This raises two questions: (1) “What motivates people to support Populist Authoritarian movements? ” And (2) “Why is the populist authoritarian vote so much higher now than it was several decades ago in high-income countries? ” The two questions have different answers. Support for populist authoritarian parties is motivated by a backlash against cultural change. From the start, younger Postmaterialist birth cohorts supported environmentalist parties, while older, less secure cohorts supported authoritarian xenophobic parties, in an enduring intergenerational value clash. But for the past three decades, strong period effects have been working to increase support for xenophobic parties: economic gains have gone almost entirely to those at the top, while a large share of the population experienced declining real income and job security, along with a large influx of immigrants and refugees. Cultural backlash explains why given individuals support Populist Authoritarian movements. Declining existential security explains why support for these movements is greater now than it was thirty years ago.
Converting-enzyme inhibition corrects the altered adrenal response to angiotensin II in essential hypertension.

Of patients with essential hypertension, 30% to 50% do not modulate adrenal and renovascular responsiveness to angiotensin II (AII) with changes in sodium intake. To define the role of AII in mediating these altered responses, the adrenal and renal vascular responses to AII infusion (0.3, 1.0, 3.0 ng/kg/min) were assessed on a sodium-restricted intake in 31 patients with essential hypertension and 13 normotensive controls before and after 72 hours of converting-enzyme inhibition. Forty percent of the hypertensive patients had a subnormal adrenal response to AII. There were no differences between the normal and abnormal responding hypertensive patients in a number of clinical and biochemical factors except that the "abnormal responders" had a significantly (p less than 0.03) greater control AII level (37 +/- 3 vs 29 +/- 3 pg/ml) and lower control plasma aldosterone level (14 +/- 2 vs 22 +/- 3 ng/dl) than the "normal responders. " When a converting-enzyme inhibitor was administered, no change in adrenal responsiveness to AII occurred in the normotensive controls or the hypertensive normal responders. In the hypertensive abnormal responders, both the threshold sensitivity and the entire dose response curve was significantly (p less than 0.01) enhanced following short-term converting-enzyme inhibition. This increased sensitivity could not be explained by differences in AII increment with AII infusions, in basal aldosterone levels, or in blood pressure or basal AII response to converting-enzyme inhibition. Since they occurred whether captopril or enalapril (MK 421) were used, this phenomenon is likely to be a specific effect of converting-enzyme inhibition. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Experimental paleoecology (resurrection ecology): Chasing Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis

Taking an experimental approach to paleoecology, we evaluated the prey portion of Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis by retrieving diapausing eggs from lake sediments for laboratory tests of evolutionary responses. The sediments consisted of core samples from Portage Lake (Michigan), which were dated by a combination of varve counts and radioisotope (137Cs and 210Pb) techniques. The sedimentary record of Portage Lake documented several major environmental changes (mining, channeling, post‐1950s eutrophication) over the past century. Remains of Leptodora, Chaoborus, and Polyphemus from sediments and historic fish surveys suggested a changing balance of invertebrate and vertebrate (fish) predators. Daphnia retrocurva was present in Portage Lake for over 80 yr and replaced Daphnia dentifera during the eutrophication period. Against the background of environmental change, we tested a part of the Red Queen hypothesis (i.e., that the prey species D. retrocurva must be continually evolving relative to its primary invertebrate predator, just to remain in place). We examined D. retrocurva morphology and genetics through time by retrieving and hatching diapausing eggs from different sediment strata for genetic characterization and by common garden experiments (i.e., isolates reared under the same environmental conditions). Mitochondrial DNA 12S/16S analyses and allozyme electrophoresis were used to characterize hatchlings from various levels. Allele frequencies at one allozyme (Pgi) locus in D. retrocurva differed over the eutrophication phase, suggesting founder effects, natural selection, or both. Common garden experiments with D. retrocurva hatchlings documented significant microevolutionary adjustments in both helmet and spine lengths, supporting the hypothesis of continual evolution in prey against a changing balance of predation.
Why Open Source Software Can Succeed

Abstract The paper discusses three key economic problems raised by the emergence of Open Source: motivation, co-ordination, and diffusion. First, the movement took off through the activity of a community that did not follow profit motivations. Second, a hierarchical co-ordination emerged without proprietary rights. Third, Open Source systems diffused in environments dominated by proprietary standards. The paper shows that recent developments in the theory of diffusion of technologies with network externality may help to explain these phenomena. A simulation model based on heterogeneous agents is developed in order to identify the relevant factors in the diffusion of the technology.