Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Priority Areas for Large Mammal Conservation in Equatorial Guinea

Hunting is one of the main driving forces behind large mammal density distribution in many regions of the world. In tropical Africa, urban demand for bushmeat has been shown to dominate over subsistence hunting and its impact often overrides spatial-ecological species characteristics. To effectively protect remaining mammal populations the main factors that influence their distribution need to be integrated into conservation area prioritisation and management plans. This information has been lacking for Río Muni, Equatorial Guinea, as prior studies have been outdated or have not systematically covered the continental region of the country. In this study we evaluated: 1) the relative importance of local vs. commercial hunting; 2) wildlife density of protected vs. non-protected areas; and 3) the importance of ecological factors vs. human influence in driving mammal density distribution in Río Muni. We adopted a systematic countrywide line transect approach with particular focus on apes and elephants, but also including other mammal species. For analysis of field data we used generalised linear models with a set of predictor variables representing ecological conditions, anthropogenic pressure and protected areas. We estimate that there are currently 884 (437–1,789) elephants and 11,097 (8,719–13,592) chimpanzees and gorillas remaining in Río Muni. The results indicate strong hunting pressures on both local and commercial levels, with roads demonstrating a negative impact on elephants and overall mammal body mass. Protected areas played no role in determining any of the mammal species distributions and significant human hunting signs were found inside these protected areas, illustrating the lack of environmental law enforcement throughout the country. Río Muni is currently under-represented in conservation efforts in Western Equatorial Africa, and we recommend a focus on cross-boundary conservation, in particular in the Monte Alén-Monts de Cristal and Río Campo Ma’an conservation landscapes, where the highest densities and diversity of large mammals remain.
Genetic Affinities between Trans-Oceanic Populations of Non-Buoyant Macroalgae in the High Latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere

Marine biologists and biogeographers have long been puzzled by apparently non-dispersive coastal taxa that nonetheless have extensive transoceanic distributions. We here carried out a broad-scale phylogeographic study to test whether two widespread Southern Hemisphere species of non-buoyant littoral macroalgae are capable of long-distance dispersal. Samples were collected from along the coasts of southern Chile, New Zealand and several subAntarctic islands, with the focus on high latitude populations in the path of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current or West Wind Drift. We targeted two widespread littoral macroalgal species: the brown alga Adenocystisutricularis (Ectocarpales, Heterokontophyta) and the red alga Bostrychia intricata (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta). Phylogenetic analyses were performed using partial mitochondrial (COI), chloroplast (rbcL) and ribosomal nuclear (LSU / 28S) DNA sequence data. Numerous deeply-divergent clades were resolved across all markers in each of the target species, but close phylogenetic relationships – even shared haplotypes – were observed among some populations separated by large oceanic distances. Despite not being particularly buoyant, both Adenocystisutricularis and Bostrychia intricata thus show genetic signatures of recent dispersal across vast oceanic distances, presumably by attachment to floating substrata such as wood or buoyant macroalgae.
Robustness analysis of discrete predictor-based controllers for input-delay systems

In this article, robustness to model uncertainties are analysed in the context of discrete predictor-based state-feedback controllers for discrete-time input-delay systems with time-varying delay, in an LMI framework. The goal is comparing robustness of predictor-based strategies with respect to other (sub)optimal state feedback ones. A numerical example illustrates that improvements in tolerance to modelling errors can be achieved by using the predictor framework.
Foaming behavior of aluminum foam precursor using only friction heat of rotating tool

A friction heat foaming process (FHFP) was proposed for the foaming of an aluminum (Al) foam precursor that uses only friction heat. The precursors of the Al foam were also fabricated from Al plates by friction stir welding (FSW). It was shown that the precursor can be foamed using only the generated friction heat in only several tens of seconds. Consequently, Al foam can be fabricated using only friction based processes from the fabrication of the precursor to the foaming of the precursor. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2016034]
Original Mycobacterial Sin, a consequence of highly homologous antigens?

The role of antigens shared between Mycobacteria in in-vivo cross-reactive immune responses in host animals, have been reported to be responsible for reduced BCG vaccination e ﬃ cacy as well reduced speci ﬁ city of routine immunological diagnostic tests. This presents with signi ﬁ cant disease control challenges in humans and animals. The present review highlights the results of previous studies on the e ﬀ ect of pre-sensitization to environmental mycobacteria on either pathogenic mycobacteria and/or M. bovis BCG, in experimental animals. It also takes an in-depth view into assessing the genetic similarities and relationships between atypical mycobacteria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and how they might explain the immunological imprint of environmental mycobacteria in directing the hosts ’ immune response upon subsequent exposure to other classes of mycobacteria. The outcome of this review suggests that genetic closeness between particular atypical mycobacteria and MTBC usually indicate a higher level of homology for certain shared protective antigens. This ultimately results in a higher level of cross reactive immune responses as compared with other atypical mycobacteria that are further away genetically. This would explain the di ﬀ erent e ﬀ ects of environmental mycobacteria on MTBC that have been reported in the di ﬀ erent studies. In other words the direction of the host immune system in response to exposure to MTBC would depend on the type of environmental mycobacteria that was encountered in the initial exposure. We also explain these mycobacterial interactions in the context of the phenomenon of “ Original Mycobacterial Sin ” . The e ﬀ ects of these inevitable mycobacterial interactions on ﬁ eld diagnosis and control by vaccination and how to circumvent them are discussed.
Optimising Bait for Pitfall Trapping of Amazonian Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae)

The accurate sampling of communities is vital to any investigation of ecological processes and biodiversity. Dung beetles have emerged as a widely used focal taxon in environmental studies and can be sampled quickly and inexpensively using baited pitfalls. Although there is now a wealth of available data on dung beetle communities from around the world, there is a lack of standardisation between sampling protocols for accurately sampling dung beetle communities. In particular, bait choice is often led by the idiosyncrasies of the researcher, logistic problems and the dung sources available, which leads to difficulties for inter-study comparisons. In general, human dung is the preferred choice, however, it is often in short supply, which can severely limit sampling effort. By contrast, pigs may produce up to 20 times the volume. We tested the ability of human and pig dung to attract a primary forest dung beetle assemblage, as well as three mixes of the two baits in different proportions. Analyses focussed on the comparability of sampling with pig or human-pig dung mixes with studies that have sampled using human dung. There were no significant differences between richness and abundance sampled by each bait. The assemblages sampled were remarkably consistent across baits, and ordination analyses showed that the assemblages sampled by mixed dung baits were not significantly different from that captured by pure human dung, with the assemblages sampled by 10% and 90% pig mixes structurally most similar to assemblages sampled by human dung. We suggest that a 10:90 human:pig ratio, or similar, is an ideal compromise between sampling efficiency, inter-study comparability and the availability of large quantities of bait for sampling Amazonian dung beetles. Assessing the comparability of assemblage samples collected using different baits represents an important step to facilitating large-scale meta-analyses of dung beetle assemblages collected using non-standard methodology.
Energy- and Area-Efficient Spin–Orbit Torque Nonvolatile Flip-Flop for Power Gating Architecture

This paper proposes two enhanced architectures for spin–orbit torque nonvolatile flip-flop (SOT-NVFF), namely, parallel programming scheme (pSOT-NVFF) and series programming scheme (sSOT-NVFF). At given SOT magnetic tunnel junction (SOT-MTJ) technology, the pSOT-NVFF achieves 29% lower backup energy with nearly 50% shorter backup delay compared with previous parallel architectures and the sSOT-NVFF offers at least 42% lower backup energy with 52% higher speed compared with others. Further analysis of the two proposed architectures showed a preferred window of operation for each architecture as a function of heavy metal electrode resistance (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{R}_{HM}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). In particular, sSOT-NVFF is preferred, from speed and energy perspectives, for SOT-MTJs with small <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{R}_{HM}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (i.e., hundreds of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> to tens of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{k}\Omega$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), while pSOT-NVFF is preferred for SOT-MTJs with large <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{R}_{HM}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the range of hundreds of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{k}\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Further study indicates that our NVFF is robust, stable, and functional even with process variations.
Food insufficiency among HIV-infected crack-cocaine users in Atlanta and Miami

Abstract Objective To measure the occurrence and correlates of food insufficiency among HIV-infected crack-cocaine users in Atlanta and Miami, USA. Design Non-probability cross-sectional sample. Setting Inner-city hospitals in Atlanta and Miami. Subjects Two hundred and eighty-seven HIV-infected crack users. Results One-third (34 %) of respondents experienced food insufficiency within 30 d of interview. Increased odds of food insufficiency was associated with current homelessness (adjusted OR = 3·78, 95 % CI 1·70, 8·41), living alone (adjusted OR = 2·85, 95 % CI 1·36, 5·98), religious service attendance (adjusted OR = 2·34, 95 % CI 1·02, 5·38) and presence of health insurance (adjusted OR = 2·41, 95 % CI 1·06, 5·54). Monthly income greater than $US 600 (adjusted OR = 0·19, 95 % CI 0·06, 0·58) was associated with decreased odds of food insufficiency, and less than weekly crack use was marginally associated with decreased odds of food insufficiency (adjusted OR = 0·39, 95 % CI 0·13, 1·08). Conclusions Food insufficiency is very prevalent among HIV-infected urban crack-cocaine users in Atlanta and Miami. Correlates of food insufficiency confirm the social vulnerability of these individuals. Routine assessment for food insecurity should become a routine component of treatment and prevention programmes in at-risk populations.
Exploring the Active Site of the Tungsten, Iron-Sulfur Enzyme Acetylene Hydratase

ABSTRACT The soluble tungsten, iron-sulfur enzyme acetylene hydratase (AH) from mesophilic Pelobacter acetylenicus is a member of the dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductase family. It stands out from its class as it catalyzes a nonredox reaction, the addition of H2O to acetylene (H—C≡C—H) to form acetaldehyde (CH3CHO). Caught in its active W(IV) state, the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of AH offers an excellent starting point to tackle its unique chemistry and to identify catalytic amino acid residues within the active site cavity: Asp13 close to W(IV) coordinated to two molybdopterin-guanosine-dinucleotide ligands, Lys48 which couples the [4Fe-4S] cluster to the W site, and Ile142 as part of a hydrophobic ring at the end of the substrate access channel designed to accommodate the substrate acetylene. A protocol was developed to express AH in Escherichia coli and to produce active-site variants which were characterized with regard to activity and occupancy of the tungsten and iron-sulfur centers. By this means, fusion of the N-terminal chaperone binding site of the E. coli nitrate reductase NarG to the AH gene improved the yield and activity of AH and its variants significantly. Results from site-directed mutagenesis of three key residues, Asp13, Lys48, and Ile142, document their important role in catalysis of this unusual tungsten enzyme.
Pre-discharge anemia as a predictor of adverse clinical outcomes in patients with acute decompensated heart failure

Background/Aims The impact of the timing of anemia during hospitalization on future clinical outcomes after surviving discharge from an index heart failure (HF) has been poorly studied in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Methods A total of 384 surviving patients with acute ADHF were divided into two groups: an anemia group (n = 270, 199 anemia at admission and 71 pre-discharge anemia) and a no anemia group (n = 114). All-cause mortality and HF re-hospitalization were compared between groups. Results During the follow-up period (median, 528 days), death occurred in 60 patients (15.6%) and HF re-hospitalization occurred in 131 patients (34.1%). Overall anemia was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 3.01; p = 0.039), but not HF re-hospitalization (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.59 to 1.42; p = 0.707). Pre-discharge anemia was significantly associated with increased mortality (HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.01 to 2.82; p = 0.048), but anemia at admission did not predict increased mortality or re-hospitalization. Conclusions Pre-discharge anemia, rather than anemia at admission, was identified as an independent predictor of mortality in patients with ADHF after surviving discharge. The results of the present study suggest that the identification and optimal management of anemia during hospitalization are important in patients with ADHF.
Birds Shed RNA-Viruses According to the Pareto Principle

A major challenge in disease ecology is to understand the role of individual variation of infection load on disease transmission dynamics and how this influences the evolution of resistance or tolerance mechanisms. Such information will improve our capacity to understand, predict, and mitigate pathogen-associated disease in all organisms. In many host-pathogen systems, particularly macroparasites and sexually transmitted diseases, it has been found that approximately 20% of the population is responsible for approximately 80% of the transmission events. Although host contact rates can account for some of this pattern, pathogen transmission dynamics also depend upon host infectiousness, an area that has received relatively little attention. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of pathogen shedding rates of 24 host (avian) – pathogen (RNA-virus) studies, including 17 bird species and five important zoonotic viruses. We determined that viral count data followed the Weibull distribution, the mean Gini coefficient (an index of inequality) was 0.687 (0.036 SEM), and that 22.0% (0.90 SEM) of the birds shed 80% of the virus across all studies, suggesting an adherence of viral shedding counts to the Pareto Principle. The relative position of a bird in a distribution of viral counts was affected by factors extrinsic to the host, such as exposure to corticosterone and to a lesser extent reduced food availability, but not to intrinsic host factors including age, sex, and migratory status. These data provide a quantitative view of heterogeneous virus shedding in birds that may be used to better parameterize epidemiological models and understand transmission dynamics.
Napping reduces emotional attention bias during early childhood.

Sleep loss alters processing of emotional stimuli in preschool-aged children. However, the mechanism by which sleep modifies emotional processing in early childhood is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that a nap, compared to an equivalent time spent awake, reduces biases in attention allocation to affective information. Children (n = 43; M = 55.40 months, SD = 8.05 months) completed a Dot Probe task, which provides a measure of attention biases to emotional stimuli, following a mid-day nap and an equivalent interval spent awake. No emotional attention biases emerged when children napped. However, when nap-deprived, children exhibited biases towards negative and positive stimuli. This emotional bias after wake was greater in children who napped habitually. Gender differences also emerged such that females were more attentive to positive emotional stimuli whereas males showed heightened attention to negative emotional stimuli, regardless of having napped or not. Moreover, greater slow wave activity (SWA) during the nap was associated with faster responding, which suggests that SWA may promote efficiency of attention allocation. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JIoZ8mzxQgg.
Non-human orthologs encode Wdnm 1-like protein lnc-DC

In a recent publication in , Wang . found a long noncoding RNA Science et al (lncRNA) expressed in human dendritic cells (DC), which they designated . Based on lentivirus-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) experiments in lnc-DC human and murine systems, they concluded that is important in lnc-DC differentiation of monocytes into DC. However, Wang . did not mention that et al their so-called “mouse ” gene was already designated “ lnc-DC ortholog ” and is known to encode a small secreted protein. We found that Wdnm1-like incapacitation of the open reading frame (ORF) is very rare among Wdnm1-like mammals, with all investigated primates except for hominids having an intact ORF. The null-hypothesis by Wang et al. therefore should have been that the human transcript might only represent a non-functional relatively young lnc-DC evolutionary remnant of a protein coding locus. Whether this null-hypothesis can be rejected by the experimental data presented by Wang . depends in et al part on the possible off-target (immunogenic or otherwise) effects of their RNAi procedures, which were not exhaustive in regard to the number of analyzed RNAi sequences and control sequences. If, however, the conclusions by Wang . on their human model are correct, and they may be, current et al knowledge regarding the locus suggests an intriguing combination Wdnm1-like of different functions mediated by transcript and protein in the maturation of several cell types at some point in evolution. We feel that the article by Wang et . tends to be misleading without the discussion presented here. al Johannes M. Dijkstra ( ) Corresponding author: Dijkstra@fujita-hu.ac. jp Dijkstra JM and Ballingall KT. How to cite this article: Non-human orthologs encode Wdnm1-like protein [version 2; referees: 3 lnc-DC 2014, :160 (doi: ) approved] F1000Research 3 10.12688/f1000research.4711. 2 © 2014 Dijkstra JM and Ballingall KT. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated Licence with the article are available under the terms of the (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed. 11 Jul 2014, :160 (doi: ) First published: 3 10.12688/f1000research.4711. 1 1
Population distribution and trends of California spotted owls

Distribution Geographic Range Following Verner et al.’s (1992) technical assessment of the California spotted owl (CASPO), we divided the range of the California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) into two major physiographic provinces: the Sierra Nevada and the mountains of southern California (Tehachapi Pass was the demarcation between the regions). Verner et al. (1992) noted that these provinces are geographically distinct and that movement of owls between them is probably rare, which remains true today (see “Population and Conservation Genetics of California Spotted Owls” section below). The California spotted owl is also found in the coastal mountains north to Monterey Bay, but much less is known about owl numbers and locations along the coast (see figs. 4-1 and 4-2). That portion of the southern Cascade Range that abuts the Sierra Nevada has been considered to encompass the range of the California spotted owl on the east side of California (see chapter 2). Where the ranges of the northern (S. o. caurina) and California spotted owls meet, a hybrid zone occurs in the area of contact near the Pit River (Barrowclough et al. 2011; see chapter 2). Hereafter, we refer to owls occurring south of the Pit River as belonging to the Sierra Nevada population of California spotted owls. Within the Sierra Nevada population, the distribution of owls is relatively contiguous. The majority of owls occur within the mid-elevation, mixed-conifer forests on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. Some owls also occur at lower elevations in the oak woodlands of the western foothills in the southern Sierra Nevada, at higher elevations in red-fir forests, and in conifer forests on the eastern slope of the mountains (Verner et al. 1992). In contrast, the owl population in central and southern California is more fragmented because owls inhabit major mountain ranges and mountain complexes that are isolated to varying degrees, which limits movement of individuals among these mountain ranges. In this chapter, we focus almost solely on the Sierra Nevada population of owls while deferring discussion of southern California to chapter 9. However, when discussing general properties of