Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contrasting metacommunity structure and beta diversity in an aquatic‐floodplain system

Habitat connectivity and dispersal interact to structure metacommunities, but few studies have examined these patterns jointly for organisms across the aquatic-terrestrial ecotone. We assessed metacommunity structure and beta diversity patterns of instream benthic invertebrates, riparian carabid beetles (Order: Coleoptera; Family: Carabidae) and riparian spiders (Order: Araneae) at fifteen sites in a river-floodplain system. Sampling took place over a three-year period (2010–2012) in the Rhine-Main-Observatory LTER site on the Kinzig River, central Germany. This allowed disentangling the combined influence, and temporal variability, of habitat connectivity (i.e. between aquatic and terrestrial) and dispersal ability (i.e. between spiders and beetles, and aerial and aquatic dispersing invertebrates) on the dominant paradigms structuring these metacommunities. We found mostly consistent differences in the manner that metacommunities were structured between groups, with lower levels of variability explained for beetles compared to the other groups. Beetles were consistently structured more by turnover than nestedness components, with greater beta diversity than expected by chance and a minor spatial compared to environmental signal emerging with variance partitioning. Conversely, spiders and benthic invertebrates had lower beta diversity and greater nestedness than null expectation, and a clearer spatial signal controlling metacommunity structure. Our results suggest varying levels of mass effects and species sorting shape river-floodplain metacommunities, depending on habitat connectivity and dispersal ability. That is, greater connectivity and lower fragmentation along the river compared to the terrestrial zone promoted mass effects, and differences in overall dispersal ability and mode (i.e. active and passive) for instream and riparian communities shifted paradigms between mass effects and species sorting.
An anti‐nicotinic cognitive challenge model using mecamylamine in comparison with the anti‐muscarinic cognitive challenge using scopolamine

AIMS The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist scopolamine is often used for proof-of-pharmacology studies with pro-cognitive compounds. From a pharmacological point of view, it would seem more rational to use a nicotinic rather than a muscarinic anticholinergic challenge to prove pharmacology of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist. This study aims to characterize a nicotinic anticholinergic challenge model using mecamylamine and to compare it to the scopolamine model. METHODS In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-way cross-over trial, 12 healthy male subjects received oral mecamylamine 10 and 20 mg, intravenous scopolamine 0.5 mg and placebo. Pharmacokinetics were analysed using non-compartmental analysis. Pharmacodynamic effects were measured with a multidimensional test battery that includes neurophysiological, subjective, (visuo)motor and cognitive measurements. RESULTS All treatments were safe and well tolerated. Mecamylamine had a tmax of 2.5 h and a Cmax of 64.5 ng ml-1 for the 20 mg dose. Mecamylamine had a dose-dependent effect decreasing the adaptive tracking performance and VAS alertness, and increasing the finger tapping and visual verbal learning task performance time and errors. Scopolamine significantly affected almost all pharmacodynamic tests. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that mecamylamine causes nicotinic receptor specific temporary decline in cognitive functioning. Compared with the scopolamine model, pharmacodynamic effects were less pronounced at the dose levels tested; however, mecamylamine caused less sedation. The cognitive effects of scopolamine might at least partly be caused by sedation. Whether the mecamylamine model can be used for proof-of-pharmacology of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists remains to be established.
Car MAX-DOAS measurements around entire cities: quantification of NOx emissions from the cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen (Germany)

Abstract. We present car Multi-Axis (MAX-) DOAS observations of tropospheric NO2 carried out on circles around the cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen (Germany) on 24 August 2006. Together with information on wind speed and direction, the total emissions of the encircled source(s) are quantified from these measurements. In contrast to recent similar studies based on zenith scattered sun light (elevation angle of 90°), we use a MAX-DOAS instrument mounted on a car, which observes scattered sun light under different elevation angles (here 45°, and 90°). Compared to simple zenith sky observations, MAX-DOAS observations have higher sensitivity and reduced uncertainty, and avoid systematic offsets in the determination of the vertically integrated trace gas concentration. The determination of the absolute value of the integrated tropospheric trace gas concentrations is especially important for the calculation of absolute trace gas fluxes through arbitrary transects. However, even if emission sources are completely surrounded, systematic offsets in the measured vertically integrated trace gas concentration can lead to errors in the determined total emissions, especially for observations around extended areas. In this study we discuss and quantify different error sources. In most cases, the largest error source is the variability and imperfect knowledge of the wind field. In addition – depending on the trace species observed - also chemical transformations between the emission sources and the measurement location have to be considered. For that purpose we use local observations within the encircled area to quantify and/or correct these errors. From our observations we derive a total NOx emission from the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area of (7.4±1.8)×1024 molec/sec, which if assumed to be constant throughout the year would correspond to a total emission of 17 830±4340 t/yr (calculated with the mass of NO2 t/yr, consistent with existing emission estimates. From our observations it is also possible to separately determine the average influx into the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area (5.4±0.9×1024 molec/sec or 13 010±2170 t/yr) and the average outflux (12.8±1.8×1024 molec/sec or 13 010±4340 t/yr).
Coatings for fresh fruits and vegetables

The practice of coating fruits and vegetables dates back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, where, in China, commodities were commonly dipped in hot waxes to encourage fermentation (Kaplan, 1986; Yehoshua, 1987). In the last several decades, coatings composed of lipid, polysaccharide, and protein, alone or in combination, have been applied on fresh fruits and vegetables to retard moisture loss, improve appearance by imparting shine to the surface, provide a carrier for fungicides or growth regulators, and create a barrier for gas exchange between the commodity and the external atmosphere (Grant and Burns, 1994). Coatings are also applied for processed foods, from meat, poultry, and seafood, to candies and nuts for many of the same reasons as they are applied on fruits and vegetables. Depending on the surface characteristics of food items and the purpose of coatings, different coating 10
Neurological evidence for the role of construal level in future-directed thought

Abstract The ability to mentally represent future events is a significant human psychological achievement. A challenge that people encounter is that they often lack detailed specifics about distant relative to near future events. Construal level theory proposes that people represent distant future events by their abstract and essential features—a process referred to as high-level construal. As events become temporally proximal, people represent events by their increasingly available and reliable concrete and idiosyncratic features—a process referred to as low-level construal. The present fMRI experiment provides direct neural evidence for these assertions. Using the why–how localizer as a measure of construal level, results revealed brain regions associated with both temporal distance and high-level construal (medial prefrontal cortex), as well as temporal proximity and low-level construal (precuneus). We discuss the implications of these findings for the neuroscience of mental time travel and cognitive representation.
Crowdsourced Corpus with Entity Salience Annotations

In this paper, we present a crowdsourced dataset which adds entity salience (importance) annotations to the Reuters-128 dataset, which is subset of Reuters-21578. The dataset is distributed under a free license and publish in the NLP Interchange Format, which fosters interoperability and re-use. We show the potential of the dataset on the task of learning an entity salience classifier and report on the results from several experiments.
The Effects of Focus Attention Instructions on Strength Training Performances

This study compared the effects of internal, external and control focus of attentions instructions on high intensity (85% 1RM) bench press and deadlift performance. Thirty male recreationally active patrons of a fitness centre volunteered for the study. Participants performed both exercises under three conditions (i.e. internal, external and control focus of attentions) conducted in a randomized order. Participants performed all exercise to momentary muscular failure (MMF) and the repetitions were analysed to be compared between each conditions. Participants were instructed to focus on the movement during internal focus conditions while were instructed to focus on the barbell during external focus conditions. Control group were not receiving any focus attention instruction. Repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyse the repetitions performed following the instructions provided. Results showed that the types of instruction significantly affect the repetitions to failure of both the bench press and deadlift exercises. Participants perform significantly more repetitions during external focus instruction compared to control (p<0.001) and internal focus instruction (p<0.001) for both bench press and deadlift exercises. Participants were also shown to perform significantly more repetitions during control instruction compared to internal instruction (p<0.001) for both bench press and deadlift exercises. Results from this study suggest that externally focused instructions improve performance on maximum strength training while at the same time the internal focus instructions will decrease performance.
Improving object localization using macrofeature layout selection

A macrofeature layout selection is proposed for object detection. Macrofeatures [2] are mid-level features that jointly encode a set of low-level features in a neighborhood. Our method employs line, triangle, and pyramid layouts, which are composed of several local blocks in a multi-scale feature pyramid. The method is integrated into boosting for detection, where the best layout is selected for a weak classifier at each iteration. The proposed algorithm is applied to pedestrian detection and compared with several state-of-the-art techniques in public datasets.
Effects of competition on the cost and quality of inpatient rehabilitation care under prospective payment.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of competition in postacute care (PAC) markets on resource intensity and outcomes of care in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) after prospective payment was implemented. DATA SOURCES Medicare claims, Provider of Services file, Enrollment file, Area Resource file, Minimum Data Set. STUDY DESIGN We created an exogenous measure of competition based on patient travel distances and used instrumental variables models to estimate the effect of competition on inpatient rehabilitation costs, length of stay, and death or institutionalization. DATA EXTRACTION METHODS A file was constructed linking data for Medicare patients discharged from acute care between 2002 and 2003 and admitted to an IRF with a diagnosis of hip fracture or stroke. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Competition had different effects on treatment intensity and outcomes for hip fracture and stroke patients. In the treatment of hip fracture, competition increased costs and length of stay, while increasing rates of death or institutionalization. In the treatment of stroke, competition decreased costs and length of stay and produced inferior outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The effects of competition in PAC markets may vary by condition. It is important to study the effects of competition by diagnostic condition and to study the effects across populations that vary in severity. Our finding that higher competition under prospective payment led to worse IRF outcomes raises concerns and calls for additional research.
Self-Esteem’s Relations to Empathy and Parenting

The article is looking into theoretical and research relations between self-esteem, empathy and parenting. The empirical study was carried out among 199 undergraduate US students and measured empathy (Empathy Quotient and Interpersonal Reactivity Index), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and perceived parenting (Parental Bonding Instrument). The results showed no direct relation between empathy and self-esteem, as measured by the instruments in this sample. The care dimension of the perceived parenting style of both parents predicted self-esteem levels. Future research is recommended to confirm findings and identify possible mediator between empathy and self-esteem.
The West Falmouth Oil Spill: ∼100 Kg of Oil Found to Persist Decades Later

In order to investigate the long-term fate of petroleum hydrocarbons in salt marsh sediments in Wild Harbor (West Falmouth, MA) impacted by the Florida spill of 1969, 26 sediment cores were collected and analyzed for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). The results from this effort indicate that the distribution of petroleum hydrocarbons is spatially heterogeneous, oil compounds are generally located at sediment depths of 4 to 20 cm in areas closest to the banks of the marsh, and ∼ 100 kg of petroleum residues can be found to persist in intertidal sediments that were originally the most impacted.
Heat girdling does not affect xylem integrity: an in vivo magnetic resonance imaging study in the tomato peduncle.

Heat girdling is a method to estimate the relative contribution of phloem vs xylem water flow to fruit growth. The heat girdling process is assumed to destroy all living tissues, including the phloem, without affecting xylem conductivity. However, to date, the assumption that xylem is not affected by heat girdling remains unproven. In this study, we used in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) velocimetry to test if heat girdling can cause xylem vessels to embolize or affect xylem water flow characteristics in the peduncle of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv Dirk). Anatomical and MRI data indicated that, at the site of girdling, all living tissues were disrupted, but that the functionality of the xylem remained unchanged. MRI velocimetry showed that the volume flow through the secondary xylem was not impeded by heat girdling in either the short or the long term (up to 91 h after girdling). This study provides support for the hypothesis that in the tomato peduncle the integrity and functionality of the xylem remain unaffected by heat girdling. It therefore confirms the validity of the heat girdling technique as a means to estimate relative contributions of xylem and phloem water flow to fruit growth.
Current Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological Treatments of Panic Disorder/Agoraphobia

Panic disorder (PD) is one of the most common anxiety disorders, with a lifetime prevalence of about 5% in the general population and up to 8.3% in clinical settings, and is still associated with relevant impairment of the quality of life [1]. Despite this, there have been only few therapeutic advances in the past years and several critical issues remain open. PD is a heterogeneous psychiatric condition characterized by a discrete period of intense fear or discomfort in the absence of real danger that is accompanied by somatic or cognitive symptoms. The attack has a sudden onset and builds to a peak rapidly, generally in 10 minutes or less, and is accompanied by a sense of imminent danger or impending doom and an urge to escape. The anxiety of PD is different from generalized anxiety, infact the first is discrete, paroxysmal and severe [2]. The disorder is characterized by repeated unexpected panic attacks, persistent anticipatory anxiety and behavioral modification as a direct result of the attacks. A lot of patients show also agoraphobia, often associated with situational panic attacks. PD pathophysiology is still unclear and several potential mechanisms may be involved. Instability of respiratory regulation and/or an abnormally sensitive central neural network of CO2/H+ chemoreception has been implicated both in experimentally induced panic attacks by CO2 inhalation and lactate infusions and in spontaneous panic [3,4]. Crucial advances might be made if panic attacks could be evoked in the laboratory so that the underlying mechanisms might be deconstructed. PD is relatively unique among psychiatric illnesses, in that symptoms resembling the illness can be provoked by a number of chemicals called panicogens. Moreover, the biological mechanisms of the panicogens themselves might tell us a lot about the neurobiology of the illness. Examples of agents with the potential ability to evoke panic attacks include carbon dioxide (CO2), sodium lactate, doxapram, cholecystokinin (CCK-4) and related agonists, flumazenil, caffeine, adrenergic agonists (isoproterenol, yohimbine, epinephrine), serotonin receptor activators (d-fenfluramine, metachlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP), and perhaps opioid receptor antagonists. The symptoms provoked by these agents can closely resemble naturally occurring attacks [5]. Other mechanisms have been implicating in PD pathophysiology: the inappropriate activation of a central fear network, including the amygdala and its connections with hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus as well Abstract
Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Glucose Isomerase Crystallization

A quantitative study using laser confocal microscopy combined with differential interference microscopy on the kinetics and thermodynamics of the crystallization of glucose isomerase is presented. Fundamental crystallization parameters are determined from the kinetics of step advancement and rates of two-dimensional (2D) nucleation. The ruling mass transfer pathway and accompanying activation barriers are discussed. In brief, the solubility exhibits normal temperature dependence and the crystallization enthalpy is the thermodynamic driving force. The diminishing entropic cost for higher PEG concentrations is attributed to water structuring and a decrease in water activity. The prominent step generation mechanism is homogeneous 2D nucleation for high supersaturations. At low driving forces 2D nucleation occurs on anomalously hyperactive sites and the step edge free energies for homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation are determined. The number of nucleation centers for both mechanisms are estimated and fr.
Investigation of toxic factors affecting cells of rat brains exposed to 3-methylcatechol

The aim of this work was to study the effects of 3MC on the peroxidation of biomolecules in nuclear fractions and nonsynaptic mitochondrial respiration in organelles obtained from rat brains. The cytotoxicity towards rat primary astrocytes in vitro was also tested. 3MC at 1mM oxidized consuming oxygen at a rate of 1.98 ± 0.19 µM. min-1 and formed reactive quinones. At the same concentration, 3MC induced peroxidation of biomolecules in nuclear fractions obtained from rat brain homogenates and inhibited state 2 FADH2-linked respiration in nonsynaptic mitochondria. Furthermore, 3MC oxidized in the culture medium, leading to the formation of quinones. This toluene metabolite was cytotoxic to rat primary astrocytes. The concentration that killed 50% of cells after 72 h was 107 mM. The results of the study indicated a direct relationship between cytotoxicity and 3MC oxidation.
Optimal growth of Central and East Pacific ENSO events

Central Pacific (CP)‐type and Eastern Pacific (EP)‐type El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are investigated using linear inverse modeling. Optimal initial conditions and growth rates for CP or EP ENSO events are identified explicitly using a CP or EP ENSO norm. The dominant difference in initial conditions that lead to CP and EP ENSO events is the role of the second empirical orthogonal function of tropical sea surface temperature, which represents the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM). Optimal initial conditions for CP‐type ENSO events include warm SST anomalies in the central subtropical Pacific (a characteristic of the PMM) while optimal initial conditions for EP‐type ENSO events are focused in the eastern equatorial Pacific and Southern Hemisphere subtropics along about 25°S. Thermocline anomalies differ in initial structures and in their influence on SST for CP and EP events. Results point to different roles of the PMM and thermocline variations in the evolution of CP and EP ENSO events.
Building Global Capacity for Conducting Operational Research Using the SORT IT Model: Where and Who?

Setting Research capacity is weakest in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where operational research is highly relevant and needed. Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) courses have been developed to train participants to conduct and publish operational research and influence policy and practice. Twenty courses were completed in Asia, Africa, Europe and the South Pacific between 2009 and 2014. Objectives In the 20 completed SORT IT courses, to assess where the research was conducted, who was trained, who became facilitators in subsequent courses and course outcomes. Design A cohort study of completed SORT IT courses Results There were 236 participants (41% female) including 64 nationalities who conducted research in 59 countries, mostly from Asia and Africa (mean course duration = 9.7 months). Most participants (68%) were from government health programs and non-governmental agencies. A total of 213(90%) participants completed all milestones successfully with 41(19%) becoming subsequent course facilitators, 88% of whom were from LMICs. Of 228 manuscripts submitted to scientific journals, 197(86%) were either published or in press; in 86%, the principal investigator (first author) was a LMIC national. Papers were published in 23 scientific journals (impact factor 0.5–4.4) and covered 21 disease categories (median publication time = 5.7 months). Published papers (186) had 94,794 cumulative article views/downloads. Article views/downloads for immediate open access articles were double those from closed access journals. Conclusion The SORT IT model has been effective in training personnel to produce relevant operational research in LMICs. It merits continued commitment and support for further scale-up and development.
Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis with photodynamic therapy.

Claes D. Enk, MD, PhD; Clemens Fritsch, MD; Flory Jonas, BSc; Abedelmajeed Nasereddin, MPH; Arieh Ingber, MD; Charles L. Jaffe, PhD; Thomas Ruzicka, MD, PhD; Hadassah-Germany Skin Center, Hadassah Medical Organization–Hebrew University Medical School (Drs Enk and Ingber and Ms Jonas), and Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School (Drs Nasereddin and Jaffe), Jerusalem, Israel, and Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany (Drs Fritsch and Ruzicka)