Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Broad-scale determinants of non-native fish species richness are context-dependent

Identifying the factors determining the non-native species richness (NNSR) in a given area is essential for preventing species invasions. The relative importance of human-related and natural factors considered for explaining NNSR might depend upon both the spatial scale (i.e. the extent of the gradients sampled) and the historical context of the area surveyed. Here, using a worldwide database of freshwater fish occurrences, we tested whether the relative influence of human and ecological determinants of non-native fish species establishment at the scale of the biogeographic realm was consistent (i) with that observed worldwide, and (ii) among the different biogeographical realms. The prominent role of human activity in shaping the global (i.e. worldwide) pattern of NNSR cannot be directly extrapolated to the biogeographic realms. Furthermore, the relationships between human and ecological determinants and NNSR vary strikingly across biogeographic realms, revealing a strong context dependency of the determinants of NNSR. In particular, the human-related factors play a predominant role in explaining the establishment of non-native species in economically developed realms, while in the other realms environmental characteristics of the river basins best explained geographical patterns of NNSR. In the face of future biological invasions, considering both the spatial scale and the historical context of the surveyed area is crucial to adopt effective conservation strategies.
Haematologic profile revisited: adult Cholistani breeding bulls as a model.

Cholistani breed of cattle is a Zebu (Bos indicus)or humped breed of Indian origin which has a remarkable potential of thermo-tolerance and tick -resistance. It is being reared by the nomadic herders of C holistan desert of Pakistan under pastoral system and is a vital socio -economic asset of local nomads. A pilot study was conducted to assess various haematologic parameters in five adult Cholistani breeding bulls aged 5 -11 years. These bulls were kept unde r naturally prevailing climatic conditions at Semen Production Unit, Karaniwala, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Blood samples were
Gamma-linolenic acid supplementation for prophylaxis of atopic dermatitis--a randomized controlled trial in infants at high familial risk.

BACKGROUND Studies suggest that low concentrations of n-6 long-chain polyenes in early life are correlated to atopic disease in later life. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to investigate the possible preventive effect of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) supplementation on the development of atopic dermatitis in infants at risk. DESIGN In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, formula-fed infants (n = 118) with a maternal history of atopic disease received borage oil supplement (containing 100 mg GLA) or sunflower oil supplement as a placebo daily for the first 6 mo of life. Main outcome measures were the incidence of atopic dermatitis in the first year of life (by UK Working Party criteria), the severity of atopic dermatitis (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis; SCORAD), and the total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) concentration at the age of 1 y. RESULTS The intention-to-treat analysis showed a favorable trend for severity of atopic dermatitis associated with GLA supplementation ( x+/- SD SCORAD: 6.32 +/- 5.32) in the GLA-supplemented group as compared with 8.28 +/- 6.54 in the placebo group (P = 0.09; P = 0.06 after adjustment for total serum IgE at baseline, age 1 wk), but no significant effects on the other atopic outcomes. The increase in GLA concentrations in plasma phospholipids between baseline and 3 mo was negatively associated with the severity of atopic dermatitis at 1 y (Spearman's correlation coefficient = -0.233, P = 0.013). There was no significant effect on total serum IgE concentration. CONCLUSION Early supplementation with GLA in children at high familial risk does not prevent the expression of atopy as reflected by total serum IgE, but it tends to alleviate the severity of atopic dermatitis in later infancy in these children.
Dietary fat and plasma total homocysteine concentrations in 2 adult age groups: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

BACKGROUND The intake of n-3 (formerly called omega-3) fatty acids (FAs) may be inversely associated with plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations, but the epidemiologic data are sparse. OBJECTIVE We examined the association between dietary fat and tHcy in a Norwegian population. DESIGN A cross-sectional, population-based study of 5917 subjects in 2 age groups (47-49 and 71-74 y old) was conducted with the use of food-frequency questionnaires and measurement of plasma tHcy concentrations. RESULTS The intake of saturated FAs (SFAs) was positively and significantly (P for trend < 0.001) associated with tHcy concentrations; the difference in plasma tHcy concentrations between the highest and lowest quartiles of SFAs was 8.8%. The intake of marine very-long-chain n-3 FAs was inversely associated with tHcy concentrations; the difference in plasma tHcy concentrations between the lowest and the highest quartiles was -5.0% (P for trend < 0.001). Intakes of total and monounsaturated fat also were positively associated with plasma tHcy concentrations (P for trend < 0.001 and < 0.005, respectively), whereas the intake of polyunsaturated fat was positively associated with tHcy concentrations only in the younger subjects (P for trend = 0.03). The associations were weakened by additional adjustment for B vitamin intake but remained significant for SFA intake (P < 0.001). When stratified for total B vitamin intake, the inverse association between tHcy concentrations and very-long-chain n-3 FAs was significant only in the highest quartile of B vitamin intake (P for trend = 0.001), regardless of supplement use. CONCLUSIONS High intakes of SFAs are associated with high plasma concentrations of tHcy. The inverse association between dietary intakes of very-long-chain n-3 FAs and plasma tHcy concentrations is apparent only at high B vitamin intakes.
Kidnaping of Juveniles: Patterns From NIBRS.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is committed to improving the justice system’s response to crimes against children. OJJDP recognizes that children are at increased risk for crime victimization. Not only are children the victims of many of the same crimes that victimize adults, they are subject to other crimes, like child abuse and neglect, that are specific to childhood. The impact of these crimes on young victims can be devastating, and the violent or sexual victimization of children can often lead to an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. The purpose of OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children Series is to improve and expand the Nation’s efforts to better serve child victims by presenting the latest information about child victimization, including analyses of crime victimization statistics, studies of child victims and their special needs, and descriptions of programs and approaches that address these needs.
Bumble bee pollen use and preference across spatial scales in human‐altered landscapes

While the discussion of native pollinator decline has grown dramatically worldwide, information on how native pollinators utilise floral resources in natural and human‐altered landscapes remains relatively limited. Specifically, little is known about the collection of pollen, an essential component of larval and adult bee food, and whether pollen collection patterns change across habitats, spatial scales, and/or native and non‐native floral resource distributions. In this study, the pollen collection patterns and preferences of the yellow‐faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, were examined across a gradient of natural and human‐altered sites. Three hypotheses were investigated: (i) landscape‐scale (2 km) but not local‐scale (250 m) floral and habitat composition factors are most predictive of bee‐collected pollen composition; (ii) collection of native pollen is greater in sites with greater proportions of natural habitat at landscape scales; and (iii) bees exhibit greater ‘preference’ for native versus non‐native pollen. Bombus vosnesenskii collected more species of pollen when landscape‐scale riparian forest cover was low but local‐ and landscape‐scale floral species richness was high. Also, B. vosnesenskii collected pollen from a wide range of plant families and did not exhibit a significant preference for native versus non‐native species. Finally, preference analysis indicated that the only significant preference exhibited by B. vosnesenskii during the study period was for Heteromeles arbutifolia, a native shrub. Overall, results from this study reveal the importance of species‐rich floral patches (native and non‐native) for pollinator provisioning across natural and human‐altered landscapes.
Active vibration control for a CNC milling machine

There is a requirement for improved three-dimensional surface characterisation and reduced tool wear when modern computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools are operating at high cutting velocities, spindle speeds and feed rates. For large depths of cut and large material removal rates, there is a tendency for machines to chatter caused by self-excited vibration in the machine tools leading to precision errors, poor surface finish quality, tool wear and possible machine damage. This study illustrates a method for improving machine tool performance by understanding and adaptively controlling the machine structural vibration. The first step taken is to measure and interpret machine tool vibration and produce a structural model. As a consequence, appropriate sensors need to be selected and/or designed and then integrated to measure all self-excited vibrations. The vibrations of the machine under investigation need to be clearly understood by analysis of sensor signals and surface finish measurement. The active vibration control system has been implemented on a CNC machine tool and validated under controlled conditions by compensating for machine tool vibrations on time-varying multi-point cutting operations for a vertical milling machine. The design of the adaptive control system using modelling, filtering, active vibration platform and sensor feedback techniques has been demonstrated to be successful.
Intrinsic and internalized modes of teaching motivation

Purpose - – The introduction of New Public Management in the German system of higher education raises issues of the academics’ motivation to do research and to teach. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence-based findings about contextual factors which influence intrinsic and related modes of internalized teaching motivation in German higher education institutions. The paper discusses parallels between internalized forms of motivation and public service motivation (PSM). In accordance with self-determination theory (SDT), the paper empirically tests factors which correlate with autonomous motivation to teach. The paper also addresses the issue of the crowding effect of intrinsic motivation by selective incentives. Design/methodology/approach - – The analyses are based on the data of two online surveys among German professors ( Findings - – The results support the basic claims of the SDT that intrinsic teaching motivation is facilitated by social relatedness, competence, and partly by autonomy for German professors, too. If teaching is managed by objective agreements intrinsic motivation is significantly decreased. Originality/value - – The authors translated, reformulated, and applied the SDT framework to academic teaching. The analysis presents evidence that the management of autonomy-supportive work environmental factors is also superior to selective incentives in higher education institutions. The study on academic teaching motivation is a specific contribution to PSM research. Academic teaching in public higher education institutions is a service to the public.
Contrasting bee foraging in response to resource scale and local habitat management

It is hypothesized that two main factors drive the foraging patterns of native and exotic species: food resource availability and habitat composition. These factors are particularly relevant for native bees and exotic honeybees, essential crop pollinators that are sensitive to floral resources and habitat management, and that have recently exhibited alarming population declines. Mechanisms driving native and exotic bee foraging patterns may critically depend on floral resource availability and habitat composition, yet the impacts of these factors on bee foraging have never been simultaneously analyzed. In a coffee producing region in southern Mexico, we investigated the influence of coffee floral resource levels and habitat management on native and exotic bee foraging. We measured the amount of flowering coffee available at multiple spatial scales within two distinct agroforestry habitat types (high-shade and low-shade coffee) and recorded visits to coffee flowers, documenting bee species, visit duration and visit frequency. We observed a significantly greater number of visits in high-shade coffee habitats than in low-shade coffee habitats for both native and exotic bees. In high-shade coffee habitats, native solitary bee and native social bee visitation decreased significantly in response to increasing floral resource availability, exhibiting a ‘dilution effect’ at the smallest spatial scale. In contrast, in low-shade coffee habitats, Africanized honeybees exhibited a ‘concentration effect’, increasing visitation significantly in response to increasing floral resource availability at the largest spatial scale. This study is the first to show that foraging patterns of native bees and exotic honeybees contrast in response to floral resource level and scale and that this response is mediated by the vegetation management of the local habitat.
Measurement of Crestal Cortical Bone Thickness at Implant Site: A Cone Beam Computed Tomography Study.

AIM Dental implants have emerged as a new treatment modality for the majority of patients complaining of missing teeth. Bone quantity and bone quality are among various factors which ensure the longevity of dental implant in the patient's mouth. The assessment of cortical bone thickness of the outer layer and the cancellous bone density by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has proved beneficial for the patient. This study aimed at presurgical measurement of crestal bone thickness at various implant sites using CBCT images. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was conducted in the Department of Prosthodontics in the year 2015. It included 218 patients who wanted to replace missing teeth. Patients were subjected to CBCT scan using NewTom CBCT machine operating at 120 kVp and 5 mA with a resolution of 0.1 × 0.1 × 0.1 mm3. New Net Technologies (NNT) software with a slice thickness of 0.1 mm was used in this study. A total of 780 implant sites were identified on images of 218 patients. In all patients, the measurement of crestal bone thickness in the region of implant site was performed with NNT software. The buccolingual measurement of crestal bone was done in cross sections obtained after CBCT Results: Out of 218 patients, males were 110 and females were 108. The difference between gender was nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Out of 780 implant sites, 370 were in the maxilla and 410 were in mandible. The difference was nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Out of 780 implant sites, 210 were in anterior maxilla and 160 were in the posterior maxilla. Totally, 235 sites were in anterior mandible and 175 were in the posterior mandible. The distribution was nonsignificant (p = 0.15). The mean crestal bone thickness in anterior maxilla was 0.82 mm, in posterior maxilla was 0.76 mm, in anterior mandible was 1.08 mm, and in posterior mandible was 1.18 mm. The difference among regions was significant (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION The highest thickness of cortical bone was observed in posterior mandible followed by anterior mandible, anterior maxilla, and posterior maxilla. Thus, considering the less cortical thickness in the posterior maxillary region, the implant placement should be done with proper attention. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Dental implant is the need of the hour. It is beneficial to patients in terms of longer survival rates. With CBCT, all measurements, such as bone quality and quantity have become easy because of three-dimensional nature. This has proved to be beneficial in the analysis of cortical bone thickness as well as measuring the distance from anatomical structures.
Credit Cards and Inflation

The introduction and widespread use of credit cards increases trading efficiency but, by also increasing the velocity of money, it causes inflation, in the absence of monetary intervention. If the monetary authority attempts to restore pre-credit card price levels by reducing the money supply, it might have to sacrifice the efficiency gains. When there is default on credit cards, there is even more inflation, and less efficiency gains. The monetary authority might then have to accept less than pre-credit card efficiency in order to restore pre-credit card price levels, or else it will have to accept inflation if it is unwilling to cut efficiency below pre-credit card levels. This could be a source of stagflation.
Species–area relationships and biodiversity loss in fragmented landscapes

Abstract To estimate species loss from habitat destruction, ecologists typically use species–area relationships, but this approach neglects the spatial pattern of habitat fragmentation. Here, we provide new, easily applied, analytical methods that place upper and lower bounds on immediate species loss at any spatial scale and for any spatial pattern of habitat loss. Our formulas are expressed in terms of what we name the ‘Preston function’, which describes triphasic species–area relationships for contiguous regions. We apply our method to case studies of deforestation and tropical tree species loss at three different scales: a 50 ha forest plot in Panama, the tropical city‐state of Singapore and the Brazilian Amazon. Our results show that immediate species loss is somewhat insensitive to fragmentation pattern at small scales but highly sensitive at larger scales: predicted species loss in the Amazon varies by a factor of 16 across different spatial structures of habitat loss.
Nitrogen Transfers and Transformations in Row-Crop Ecosystems

Nitrogen (N) is an essential constituent of both proteins and nucleic acids, crucial components of all living things. Humans depend on agricultural systems to provide most of their daily protein, prompting Liebig (1840) to note that agriculture’s principal objective is the production of digestible N. Today’s intensive agriculture is built on a foundation of N augmentation via the use of synthetic fertilizers and cultivation of N-fixing crops on a massive scale. Globally, the addition of this fixed N to cropping systems is now greater than natural terrestrial N fixation (Galloway et al. 2004, Vitousek et al. 2013) and is a pervasive and fundamental feature of modern crop management (Robertson and Vitousek 2009). The net benefit to humans of this additional N to agriculture is immense—it has enabled greater food production and unprecedented increases in human population (Smil 2002). At the same time, however, this anthropogenic acceleration of the global N cycle has caused serious environmental problems including contributing to climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion, eutrophication and harmful algal blooms, poor air quality, biodiversity loss, and degradation of drinking water supplies (Galloway et al. 2008). Here, we summarize findings on the cycling of N in agricultural ecosystems of the Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research site (KBS LTER). KBS LTER results illustrate a number of opportunities to manage agricultural N in ways that improve N conservation and reduce the escape of fixed N to the environment; they also reveal needs for future research to fill knowledge gaps and more fully document the complex cycling of N in cropping systems that range from conventional to organic and from annual to perennial. Millar, N. and G. P. Robertson. 2015. Nitrogen transfers and transformations in row-crop ecosystems. Pages 213-251 in S. K. Hamilton, J. E. Doll, and G. P. Robertson, editors. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes: Long-Term Research on the Path to Sustainability. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Nutrient Metabolism—Research Communication Well-Characterized Garlic-Derived Materials Are Not Hypolipidemic in APOE*3-Leiden Transgenic Mice

Garlic is reported to have beneficial effects on risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, including normalization of plasma lipid levels. However, numerous studies do not support this beneficial effect of garlic on plasma lipids. This contradiction may result from the use of different garlic-derived materials, experimental designs, and/or animal models. The present study investigated the hypolipidemic effect of garlic-derived materials in APOE*3Leiden mice, a model well suited for drug and dietary intervention studies of hyperlipidemia. APOE*3-Leiden mice were fed a garlic-derived sulfur-rich compound, either allicin (0.29 g L drinking water) or diallyldisulfide (0.27 g kg diet), or powdered garlic, of either the kwai (42 g kg diet) or morado (42 g kg diet) variety. The amounts of garlic-derived materials supplied allowed free intake of allicin or allicin equivalents (diallyldisulfide, kwai, or morado) at 44 mg kg body wt d . Mice were fed a nonpurified diet for 4 wk, followed by a Western diet for 8 wk, both supplemented with the garlic-derived materials. These diets had no consistent effect on plasma lipids and did not affect lipoprotein profiles, which are markers for wholebody cholesterol synthesis and intestinal sterol absorption. The current data indicate that the postulated effects of garlic on cardiovascular disease are not caused via modulation of plasma lipid levels. J. Nutr. 134: 1500–1503, 2004.
Loss of skeletal muscle during systemic chemotherapy is prognostic of poor survival in patients with foregut cancer

Malnutrition, weight loss, and muscle wasting are common in patients with foregut cancers (oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, and bile ducts) and are associated with adverse clinical outcomes. However, little is known about the changes in body composition that occur in these patients during chemotherapy and its impacts clinical outcomes.
Total body protein in healthy adolescent girls: validation of estimates derived from simpler measures with neutron activation analysis.

BACKGROUND Little recent and accurate information about body protein content in healthy adolescent girls is available. OBJECTIVE The objective was to assess the total body nitrogen (TBN) and total body protein (TBPr) contents of fat-free mass (P:FFM) in a group of healthy adolescent girls and to validate previously published TBN prediction equations. DESIGN TBN was measured with in vivo neutron activation analysis (TBNNAA). Bone mineral density and FFM were measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (FFMDXA), total body water and FFM were measured with bioimpedance analysis, and FFM was assessed by measuring skinfold thicknesses in 51 girls with a mean (+/- SD) age of 14.7 +/- 0.7 y. The validity of the TBN prediction equations was assessed with Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS TBNNAA in our adolescent group was higher (1.49 kg) than values reported in earlier studies of women (1.25 and 1.31 kg), and P:FFM was slightly higher (23%) than that documented in adults (19-21%). Previously published TBN equations showed either systematic bias or wide limits of agreement. CONCLUSION A predictive equation derived from the present study population based on FFMDXA improves the prediction of TBN for groups of young girls but may not be helpful for individuals in clinical settings.