Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aboveground Tree Biomass for Pinus ponderosa in Northeastern California

Forest managers need accurate biomass equations to plan thinning for fuel reduction or energy production. Estimates of carbon sequestration also rely upon such equations. The current allometric equations for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) commonly employed for California forests were developed elsewhere, and are often applied without consideration potential for spatial or temporal variability. Individual-tree aboveground biomass allometric equations are presented from an analysis of 79 felled trees from four separate management units at Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest: one unthinned and three separate thinned units. A simultaneous set of allometric equations for foliage, branch and bole biomass were developed as well as branch-level equations for wood and foliage. Foliage biomass relationships varied substantially between units while branch and bole biomass estimates were more stable across a range of stand conditions. Trees of a given breast height diameter and crown ratio in thinned stands had more foliage biomass, but slightly less branch biomass than those in an unthinned stand. The observed variability in biomass relationships within Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest suggests that users should consider how well the data used to develop a selected model relate to the conditions in any given application.
Thyroid Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration: The Positive Influence of On-Site Adequacy Assessment and Number of Needle Passes on Diagnostic Cytology Rate

Objective: Nondiagnostic cytology is the most important limitation of thyroid ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA). This study aimed to identify factors associated with the adequacy rate of thyroid US-FNA. Study Design: Consecutive thyroid US-FNAs (2006-2013) were retrospectively included. Attending radiologists, radiology fellows and radiology residents performed US-FNA, usually involving 2-3 needle passes. In more recent years, rapid on-site adequacy assessment (ROSAA) was performed to ensure specimen adequacy. US characteristics, procedural variations and cytology results were extracted from US and pathology reports and statistically evaluated. Results: Diagnostic cytology was obtained in 64.6% of 1,381 thyroid US-FNAs. Factors associated with nondiagnostic cytology were ROSAA (74.6% diagnostic cytology, OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.71), ≥3 clinic visits for US-FNA of the same thyroid nodule (54.7%, OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.16-2.10) and increased intranodular vascularization (51.8%, OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.17-2.57). With ROSAA, an increasing number of needle passes demonstrated improving adequacy rates. The adequacy rate was not operator-dependent. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that ROSAA improves the adequacy rate of thyroid US-FNA. Without ROSAA, we recommend performing at least 3 needle passes. Less diagnostic cytology is obtained from nodules with increased intranodular vascularization or from those undergoing US-FNA ≥3 times.
Spacing techniques in second language vocabulary acquisition: Short-term gains vs. long-term memory

This article reports the results of two experiments using the spacing technique (Leitner, 1972; Landauer & Bjork, 1978) in second language vocabulary acquisition. In the past, studies in this area have produced mixed results attempting to differentiate between massed, uniform and expanded intervals of spacing (Balota, Duchek, & Logan, 2007). A particular problem has been the point of testing that did not draw a clear line between short-term gains and long-term retention (Roediger & Karpicke, 2010). The experiments presented in this article addressed this issue. In the first experiment, 76 university students enrolled in a Beginning German class learned 24 content and 15 function words during a practice phase with a ‘one plus three’ design followed by three delayed post-tests. Results showed that in regards to short-term gains, the expanded group obtained higher mean scores than the uniform group, whereas in the long-term test it was the other way round. The second experiment used the same methodology with one exception: the practice phase was increased to a ‘one plus four’ design. Results confirmed those of the first experiment; in addition it was shown that function words are particularly difficult to recall for students using the expanded interval.
Stability analysis of network-based cooperative resource allocation strategies

Resource allocation involves deciding how to divide a resource of limited availability across multiple demands in a way that optimizes current objectives (e.g., allocating a processor's computing resources to the demand presented by tasks in order to maximize task completion throughput). In "distributed" resource allocation there are multiple resource types each of which can be subdivided, but then each can only be allocated to a subset of the demands (e.g., in a multiprocessor system where each processor can only process certain task types). In this paper we focus on one type of cooperative resource allocation problem where via an imperfect communication network multiple processors can share the workload presented by multiple task types. We introduce asynchronous "cooperative" resource allocation strategies, and show that they lead to the cumulative demand being bounded by a constant. We demonstrate via simulations when they might be superior to one noncooperative strategy.
Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology and the Body-in-Space Encounters of Visually Impaired Children

In this paper I argue that new social geographies of impairment present a conceptually sophisticated, but limiting, view of the impaired body as a container of social disadvantage. They say much less about how people with impairments routinely exercise agency in everyday life vis-à-vis the restrictive sociospatial circumstances in which they find themselves. I address this problem by developing a phenomenology of visually impaired children's everyday body-in-space encounters with their home and urban environments. This illustrates the various and creative ways in which visually impaired children routinely exercise agency within their home and urban environments.
The polyunsaturated fatty acids of marine dinoflagellates.

SYNOPSIS. Eight photosynthetic and one heterotrophic, marine dinoflagellates were cultured axenically in chemically defined media and their fatty acids characterized. Palmitic, octadecatetraenoic and docosahexaenoic were the most typical fatty acids. Photosynthetic forms also contained the polyunsaturates icosapentaenoic acid and α-linolenic acid, the latter as a relatively minor component. The galactolipids of one photosynthetic species, Glenodinium sp. , were isolated and their fatty acids analyzed. Octadecatetraenoic acid was the predominant fatty acid, particularly of the monogalactosyl diglyceride fraction. The relationship of these findings to the body of knowledge of the photosynthesis-associated lipids of eucaryotic microbes and to the ecology of polyunsaturated fatty acids in marine food chains is discussed.
Government of the People, By the People: A Look at Trust in eGovernment

Many factors contribute to the willingness of individual citizens to adopt eGovernment systems for filing taxes online, for voting on the Internet, for online licensing, and other digital processes. The growing interest in eGovernment has brought some attention to the concept of eVoting. Various dimensions of trust, along with usability and system ease-of-use, play key roles in influencing citizen intentions to adopt to eVoting system. The present study indicates that, among other factors, citizens’ perceptions that they share the same values as the individual people who are affiliated with providing eGovernment (and eVoting) services are especially instrumental. This study shows that the perception that the agency is made of “people like me” is associated with increased trust in the agency, which in turn is associated with increased levels of other factors that contribute to the intention to vote electronically over the Internet.
Correlating dental caries with oral bacteria and the buffering capacity of saliva in children in Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Caries is associated with high counts of mutans streptococci (MS), lactobacillus (LB), and a low saliva buffering capacity (BC). No study using odds ratios (OR) has correlated caries and these factors and no similar study has been done in Saudi Arabia before. Objectives: To determine: The prevalence of caries, the number of colony forming units (CFUs) of MS and LB, the saliva buffering capacity (BC) and the relationship between these factors. Materials and Methods: This was an analytical cross sectional study on children from Madinah. Caries was recorded using dmft/DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth). The scores for MS and LB and the BC of saliva was calculated using the Caries Risk Test (CRT)®. Results: A total of 316 students were examined; two-thirds (62%) were female and 25% were caries free. Saliva was collected from 235 participants and the majority had high MS and LB scores (66 and 71%, respectively) while 25% had a low saliva BC. The odds for those who had high LB and MS CFUs, were 9 and 4 times more at risk to developing dental caries and those with a low BC had significantly more caries (P = 0.03). The likelihood for those having severe caries and high counts of LB and MS was 25 (P < 0.01) and 6 (P = 0.042) times greater, respectively, compared to those with no or mild caries. Those with multiple risk factors were more likely to have caries compared to those with single or no risk factors present. Conclusions: The prevalence of caries was relatively high and many respondents had greater than 105 CFUs/ml of MS and LB. Almost all with a low BC had severe caries. There was a strong correlation between high MS, high LB, and low BC and the high prevalence of caries; hence the combination of these factors could be confidently used to predict caries in this population.
Robust Object Co-Segmentation Using Background Prior

Given a set of images that contain objects from a common category, object co-segmentation aims at automatically discovering and segmenting such common objects from each image. During the past few years, object co-segmentation has received great attention in the computer vision community. However, the existing approaches are usually designed with misleading assumptions, unscalable priors, or subjective computational models, which do not have sufficient robustness for dealing with complex and unconstrained real-world image contents. This paper proposes a novel two-stage co-segmentation framework, mainly for addressing the robustness issue. In the proposed framework, we first introduce the concept of union background and use it to improve the robustness for suppressing the image backgrounds contained by the given image groups. Then, we also weaken the requirement for the strong prior knowledge by using the background prior instead. This can improve the robustness when scaling up for the unconstrained image contents. Based on the weak background prior, we propose a novel MR-SGS model, i.e., manifold ranking with the self-learned graph structure, which can infer suitable graph structures in a data-driven manner rather than building the fixed graph structure relying on the subjective design. Such capacity is critical for further improving the robustness in inferring the foreground/background probability of each image pixel. Comprehensive experiments and comparisons with other state-of-the-art approaches can demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed work.
Lactation and infant nutrition.

Lactation is of great importance to infant nutritional needs. It is difficult to generalize about infant growth expectations since there are variations among communities and since there may be some modification of infant feeding practices. The choice of an appropriate standard is even more difficult to estimate since they are interdependent on energy intakes. However, the balance between energy and protein content in breastmilk appears to be fairly constant through lactation and among communities. It is likely that for normally growing children exclusive breastfeeding is not likely to result in a serious mineral or nutrient deficiency. Discussion is included about measurement of breastmilk output and the various means to do so in order to calculate energy and nutrient requirements. Currently, controversy surrounds the timing of milk supplements for those infants being breastfed. A general guideline seems to be that weaning should be avoided before age 4 months in industrialized countries. The various problems which are reiterated are: growth targets, nutritional requirements, optimization of lactation, and the weanling dilemma. A rational public health target should be normal growth and the maintenance of a normal nutritional status. Nutritional requirements must be sensibly set because if the target is too high it will be dismissed as impractical; if it is too low, it will fail to meet the needs of a substantial portion of the population. It seems wise to concentrate on achieving an optimal start to lactation in the early weeks when it appears likely that the breastfeeding potential is being determined. Since normal growth in infancy is an appropriate health goal, breastfeeding should perhaps be utilized to the maximum and be backed by systematic supplementation at a time when growth would likely falter. More attention must be directed toward prevalent weaning strategies.
The Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes of Prospective Teachers in Lebanon: A Comparative Study

This paper presents data arising from a study of final-year primary and secondary teaching students in Lebanon using an equivalent Australian sample as a comparative reference group. It was found that the Lebanese students lagged behind their Australian counterparts with respect to their knowledge of global environmental issues, and displayed a narrower awareness of national environmental issues. Despite higher scores on the environmental attitudes scale that was administered, they were more likely to be sceptical about the potential of school environmental education to inculcate environmentally responsible attitudes and behaviour. Recommendations focus on boosting the profile of environmental education at school and pre-service teacher education levels in Lebanon.
Investing in mental health and well-being: findings from the DataPrev project

A systematic review was conducted to determine the extent to which an economic case has been made in high-income countries for investment in interventions to promote mental health and well-being. We focused on areas of interest to the DataPrev project: early years and parenting interventions, actions set in schools and workplaces and measures targeted at older people. Economic evaluations had to have some focus on promotion of mental health and well-being and/or primary prevention of poor mental health through health-related means. Studies preventing exacerbations in existing mental health problems were excluded, with the exception of support for parents with mental health problems, which might indirectly affect the mental health of their children. Overall 47 studies were identified. There was considerable variability in their quality, with a variety of outcome measures and different perspectives: societal, public purse, employer or health system used, making policy comparisons difficult. Caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting results, but the case for investment in parenting and health visitor-related programmes appears most strong, especially when impacts beyond the health sector are taken into account. In the workplace an economic return on investment in a number of comprehensive workplace health promotion programmes and stress management projects (largely in the USA) was reported, while group-based exercise and psychosocial interventions are of potential benefit to older people. Many gaps remain; a key first step would be to make more use of the existence evidence base on effectiveness and model mid- to long-term costs and benefits of action in different contexts and settings.
The Salience of Race in Everyday Life

This article focuses on Black customers' shopping experiences in both Black and White neighborhoods, drawing on 75 in-depth interviews of Black shoppers in New York City and Philadelphia. Previous research focuses on the prejudicial attitudes of the business owners in predominantly Black neighborhoods, yet none of the studies include the customers' views. Customers report that most merchant-customer interactions in Black neighborhoods are positive rather than negative, and more poignantly, Blacks are treated worse when they shop in predominantly White neighborhoods. Black customers respond to the negative treatment by wearing their class, but this is no guarantee that they will be treated fairly.
Breast cancer mortality among American Indian and Alaska Native women, 1990-2009.

OBJECTIVES We compared breast cancer death rates and mortality trends among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and White women using data for which racial misclassification was minimized. METHODS We used breast cancer deaths and cases linked to Indian Health Service (IHS) data to calculate age-adjusted rates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by IHS-designated regions from 1990 to 2009 for AI/AN and White women; Hispanics were excluded. Mortality-to-incidence ratios (MIR) were calculated for 1999 to 2009 as a proxy for prognosis after diagnosis. RESULTS Overall, the breast cancer death rate was lower in AI/AN women (21.6 per 100,000) than in White women (26.5). However, rates in AI/ANs were higher than rates in Whites for ages 40 to 49 years in the Alaska region, and ages 65 years and older in the Southern Plains region. White death rates significantly decreased (annual percent change [APC] = -2.1; 95% CI = -2.3, -2.0), but regional and overall AI/AN rates were unchanged (APC = 0.9; 95% CI = 0.1, 1.7). AI/AN women had higher MIRs than White women. CONCLUSIONS There has been no improvement in death rates among AI/AN women. Targeted screening and timely, high-quality treatment are needed to reduce mortality from breast cancer in AI/AN women.
Inference processes in causal analogies

In recent papers, Lee & Holyoak (2007, 2008a, 2008b) argue that extant models of analogy fail to explain how people draw inferences from causal analogies. In the current research, we argue that structure-mapping theory sufficiently explains the analogical inferences drawn from these causal analogies, and that, contrary to L&H‘s claims, the effect inference can indeed be evaluated by a post-analogical causal reasoning process. In Study 1, we present evidence that – consistent with SMT (Gentner, 1983), and counter to L&H – when relational inferences are considered, the inductive strength of these causal analogies matches their similarity. In Study 2, we provide evidence that, by analogical mapping, the base analog makes two contributions to the reasoner‘s knowledge about the causal system in the target, and argue that this analogically-constructed causal model is subsequently used to determine the presence of the effect. In an SME (Falkenhainer et al., 1989) simulation, we show that ―outsourcing‖ the effect inference to a simple post-analogical calculation can match L&H‘s human data very closely. In short, although we agree with Lee & Holyoak that analogy is important for learning about causal systems, we maintain that analogy is a domain-general process. Models of analogical processing need not—and should not—subsume causal inferencing processes.
Contribution Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase C 677 T Polymorphism and Cognitive Function in Older Women

1 Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. 2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. 3 Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. 4 Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA. 5 Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. 6 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Bureaucracy and Beyond: The Impact of Ethics and Governance Procedures on Health Research in the Social Sciences

This piece has been written in response to a recent article published in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) which exposed the red tape restricting health research in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Whilst the THES article was critical of NHS ethical review and research governance, it still views a streamlined version of the process as necessary for the protection of researchers and respondents. Drawing on the recent experience of applying for ethical approval and research governance for a qualitative study on gender and genetics, this paper examines the review process and the restrictive paperwork and procedures that surround it, focusing in particular on the impact this has on social science research. The argument will be put forward that while all research, whether clinical or social, is hampered by the bureaucracy surrounding the review process, social research is further alienated by it. This is because the paperwork and processes involved are set up to evaluate clinical, not social, research. Furthermore, the process is caught up in a culture of fear that breeds mistrust towards ‘outsiders’ wishing to conduct research in the NHS. The revision of NHS ethical review has to go further than mere bureaucratic streamlining - it needs to be made more relevant and accessible to health researchers working across a range of disciplines.
On White Shame and Vulnerability

Abstract In this paper I address a tension in Vice’s claim that humility and silence offer effective moral responses to white shame. Vice describes these twin virtues using inward-turning language of moral self-repair, but she also acknowledges that this ‘personal, inward directed project’ has relational dimensions. Her failure to explore the relational strand, however, leaves her description of white shame sounding solitary and penitent. My response develops the missing relational dimensions of white shame and humility arguing that this strand, once visible, complicates Vice’s project by (1) challenging her unitary and homogenous view of white identity, and (2) demonstrating the important role vulnerability plays in our understandings of white shame.
A Comparison of the Psychosocial Maladjustment of Adult Males and Females Sexually Molested as Children

The long-term sequelae of child sexual abuse were investigated through comparison of matched numbers of nonclinical samples of adult males (n = 24) and females (n = 28) molested as children, and control group subjects on a variety of outcome measures. Results support the association between childhood sexual abuse and adult psychosocial dysfunction for both male and female victims, with victims of both sexes showing more dysfunction than controls on the MMPI, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Male victims were found to be more likely to have an adolescent perpetrator than females, while females were found to be more likely to have been molested through an incestuous relationship than male victims. Support for the presence of identity conflicts and rumination in males, and body image disturbances in females is discussed.