Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ecological and genetic responses of avifauna in species depauperate island ecosystems.

Understanding patterns in species abundance, distribution, and assemblages is an important component of biogeographical ecology, species diversity, and conservation. Ecological release and the taxon cycle are two theories proposed to describe patterns in species distribution and abundance on islands. These interlinked theories attempt to explain what happens to species when they enter novel, species-depauperate island ecosystems and how they change and evolve over time and space. Developing our knowledge of these two processes is not only important to understanding the evolutionary history of taxa but could help us understand how invasive species respond to island environments, how species may respond under changing conditions of climate change, and species susceptibility to extinction. The aim of this study is to test for the presence of ecological release and the taxon cycle across Macaronesia. The thesis addresses criticisms of previous studies by using novel tools such as the availability of large-scale datasets of species distribution, biodiversity, and modern molecular tools to provide a temporal scale to the study and modern statistical techniques to model the taxon cycle and alternative models. Predictions associated with ecological release and the taxon cycle are tested across multiple island groups, species, and at different scales, using genetic, morphological, and ecological data, comparable species, habitats, and climates. The results identified a consistent trend in niche expansion and density compensation in many of the focal species across a number of islands compared to mainland populations, thus supporting the presence of ecological release. Density compensation was also found when examining published estimates of abundance across European islands. A significant non-linear relationship between species age, abundance, and distribution was found in the birds across Macaronesia. Models for both distribution and abundance show a complex, consistent pattern of increase then decrease with lineage age. Trends throughout the thesis supported the presence of the taxon cycle across the Macaronesian islands, with patterns of expansion in distribution and abundance (ecological release) in more recent, younger colonists and contraction in range, niche shift, and decrease in abundance in more established, older species. Both ecological release and the taxon cycle may be important to better understand species invasions, speciation, and susceptibility to extinction. However, further research is needed into the factors that drive these mechanisms and influence the magnitude in species responses.
Toxic effects of mycotoxins in humans.

Mycotoxicoses are diseases caused by mycotoxins, i.e. secondary metabolites of moulds. Although they occur more frequently in areas with a hot and humid climate, favourable for the growth of moulds, they can also be found in temperate zones. Exposure to mycotoxins is mostly by ingestion, but also occurs by the dermal and inhalation routes. Mycotoxicoses often remain unrecognized by medical professionals, except when large numbers of people are involved. The present article reviews outbreaks of mycotoxicoses where the mycotoxic etiology of the disease is supported by mycotoxin analysis or identification of mycotoxin-producing fungi. Epidemiological, clinical and histological findings (when available) in outbreaks of mycotoxicoses resulting from exposure to aflatoxins, ergot, trichothecenes, ochratoxins, 3-nitropropionic acid, zearalenone and fumonisins are discussed.
The impact of old age on surgical outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy for distal bile duct cancer

Backgrounds/Aims To compare surgical results and survival of two groups of patients, age ≥70 vs. age <70, who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy and to identify the safety of this procedure for elderly patients for the treatment of distal common bile duct (CBD) cancer. Methods Between January 2003 and December 2009, 55 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for the treatment of distal CBD cancer at Keimyung University Dong San Medical Center were enrolled in our study. Results Of 55 patients, 28 were male and 27 female. Nineteen were over 70 years old (older group) and 36 were below 70 years (younger group). The mean ages of the two groups of patients were 73.5 years and 60.5 years respectively. Although patients of the older group had significantly more comorbid diseases, perioperative results including operation time, amount of intraoperative bleeding, duration of postoperative hospital stay and postoperative complications were not significantly different. A higher level (more than 5 mg/dl) of preoperative initial bilirubin showed significant correlations with operative morbidity by univariate analysis, and age was not an independent risk factor of operative morbidity. Overall 5 year survival of older and younger groups were 45.9% and 39.5% respectively (p=0.671) and disease-free 5-year survival were 31.7% and 31.1%, respectively (p=0.942). Conclusions Surgical outcomes of elderly patients were similar to those of younger patients, despite a higher incidence of comorbid disease. This results shows that pancreaticoduodenectomy can be applied safely to elderly patients.
Correlates of Injury Among ED Visits: Effects of Alcohol, Risk Perception, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking Behaviors

This cross-sectional study used a random sample of 412 Emergency Department (ED) patients to test the following hypothesizes: 1) injury would be positively associated with problem drinking and recent drinking; 2) impulsivity and sensation seeking would be positively associated with injury, while risk perception would be negatively associated with injury. Results show recent drinking is associated with 2-fold increase in the odds of injury [OR and 95%; CI = 2.34 (1.07–5.10)] while problem drinking and personality factors were unrelated to injury. Other significant predictors were gender and age. Findings suggest a need for alcohol screening for patients who check themselves into the ED due to injury.
Transplant renal artery stenosis: clinical manifestations, diagnosis and therapy

Transplant renal artery stenosis (TRAS) is a well-recognized vascular complication after kidney transplant. It occurs most frequently in the first 6 months after kidney transplant, and is one of the major causes of graft loss and premature death in transplant recipients. Renal hypoperfusion occurring in TRAS results in activation of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system; patients usually present with worsening or refractory hypertension, fluid retention and often allograft dysfunction. Flash pulmonary edema can develop in patients with critical bilateral renal artery stenosis or renal artery stenosis in a solitary kidney, and this unique clinical entity has been named Pickering Syndrome. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of TRAS can prevent allograft damage and systemic sequelae. Duplex sonography is the most commonly used screening tool, whereas angiography provides the definitive diagnosis. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with stent placement can be performed during angiography if a lesion is identified, and it is generally the first-line therapy for TRAS. However, there is no randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy and safety of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty compared with medical therapy alone or surgical intervention.
More Than a Pore: The Cellular Response to Cholesterol-Dependent Cytolysins

Targeted disruption of the plasma membrane is a ubiquitous form of attack used in all three domains of life. Many bacteria secrete pore-forming proteins during infection with broad implications for pathogenesis. The cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDC) are a family of pore-forming toxins expressed predominately by Gram-positive bacterial pathogens. The structure and assembly of some of these oligomeric toxins on the host membrane have been described, but how the targeted cell responds to intoxication by the CDCs is not as clearly understood. Many CDCs induce lysis of their target cell and can activate apoptotic cascades to promote cell death. However, the extent to which intoxication causes cell death is both CDC- and host cell-dependent, and at lower concentrations of toxin, survival of intoxicated host cells is well documented. Additionally, the effect of CDCs can be seen beyond the plasma membrane, and it is becoming increasingly clear that these toxins are potent regulators of signaling and immunity, beyond their role in intoxication. In this review, we discuss the cellular response to CDC intoxication with emphasis on the effects of pore formation on the host cell plasma membrane and subcellular organelles and whether subsequent cellular responses contribute to the survival of the affected cell.
Role for Mismatch Repair Proteins Msh2, Mlh1, and Pms2 in Immunoglobulin Class Switching Shown by Sequence Analysis of Recombination Junctions

B cells from mice deficient in mismatch repair (MMR) proteins show decreased ability to undergo class switch recombination in vitro and in vivo. The deficit is not accompanied by any reduction in cell viability or alterations in the cell cycle in B cells cultured in vitro. To assess the role of MMR in switching we examined the nucleotide sequences of Sμ-Sγ3 recombination junctions in splenic B cells induced in culture to switch to IgG3. The data demonstrate clear differences in the sequences of switch junctions in wild-type B cells in comparison with Msh2-, Mlh1-, and Pms2-deficient B cells. Sequences of switch junctions from Msh2-deficient cells showed decreased lengths of microhomology between Sμ and Sγ3 relative to junctions from wild-type cells and an increase in insertions, i.e., nucleotides which do not appear to be derived from either the Sμ or Sγ3 parental sequence. By contrast, 23% of junctions from Mlh1- and Pms2-deficient cells occurred at unusually long stretches of microhomology. The data indicate that MMR proteins are directly involved in class switching and that the role of Msh2 differs from that of Mlh1 and Pms2.
The emergence of plant community dynamics and functional traits in response to the hydrological regime - a modelling approach

I Abstract To predict vegetation response to today’s rapid changes in the hydrological regime due to climate change and other anthropogenic alterations calls for a truly dynamic representation of vegetation in a coupled vegetation-hydrology model. However, existing models are deficient to capture the complex, spatiotemporal dynamics of multi-species natural ecosystems because they model few plant functional types or life forms defined a priori by a small set of postulated characteristics. This dissertation aims to surpass this deficiency and refine the prediction of plant community dynamics and functional trait composition in response to the hydrological regime. Therefore, I developed a novel, highly dynamic, spatially-explicit, individual-based model that simulates plant functional trait abundance solely as a function of soil water potentials and individual behavior. An important innovation is that the model is devoid of a priori defined functional trait trade-offs but instead is able to represent continuous variation of functional traits. The model is used for simulation experiments to investigate possible changes in the function and structure of plant communities subjected to gradients of soil water availability. I show that plant functional traits and their combinations (plant functional types) segregate in a predictable manner across the full range of soil water availability confirming accumulating evidence of hydrological niche segregation from field experiments. Interestingly, this segregation was not a consequence of universal functional trait trade-offs and trait correlations. Instead the correlation intensities, including the classical competition-colonization trade-off, were a function of the soil water availability. Furthermore, the entire biomass-density relationship of the plant communities, among this the value of the slope of the classical self-thinning line, was strongly and consistently modified by water stress. Specifically, the growth reduction in water stressed communities decreased the potential for density-dependent mortality which consequently steepened the thinning slope in communities with high density and levelled the thinning slope in communities with low density. Remarkably, temporally-varying soil water promoted diversity even in humid climates. This suggests that the
Cigarette and alcohol usage by southwestern American Indians.

The Indian patients over 15 years of age who were admitted to the medical service of the Phoenix Public Health Service Indian Hospital from 1961 through 1965 were interviewed concerning cigarette and alcohol usage. For uniformity, all of the information which is utilized was obtained by one interviewer. Multiple hospital admissions with repeated interviews occurred for several patients, but each individual is included in the study only once. The Phoenix Public Health Service Indian Hospital is a referral center for an Indian beneficiary population of over 48,000, located in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. The tribal distribution of hospital admissions was: Pima, 35.1 per cent; Apache, 21.3 per cent; Navajo, 10.2 per cent; Papago, 8.0 per cent; Hopi, 6.3 per cent; other southwestern tribes (Maricopa Yavapai, Cocopah, Yuma, Hualapai, Havasupai, Chemehuevi, Mohave, Shoshone, Ute, Paiute and Washoe), 15.9 per cent; and nonsouthwestern Indians, 3.2 per cent. Although criteria for evaluation of cigarette smoking are relatively straightforward and noncontroversial, it is much more difficult to categorize the extent to which alcohol is used. Lifetime histories were considered. Cigarette smoking was classified as follows: none; light (less than one-half package a day) ; moderate (between one-half and one package daily) ; and heavy (greater than one package daily). For alcohol usage, the "quantity-frequency index" of Mulford and Miller1 was used. The four cate-
Comparison of the Anticoagulant and Antithrombotic Effects of Synthetic Thrombin and Factor Xa Inhibitors

Summary The anticoagulant effect of selected synthetic inhibitors of thrombin and factor Xa was studied in vitro in commonly used clotting assays. The concentrations of the compounds doubling the clotting time in the various assays were mainly dependent on their thrombin inhibitory activity. Factor Xa inhibitors were somewhat more effective in prolonging the prothrombin time compared to the activated partial thromboplastin time, whereas the opposite was true of thrombin inhibitors. In vivo, in a venous stasis thrombosis model and a thromboplastin-induced microthrombosis model in rats the thrombin inhibitors were effective antithrombotically whereas factor Xa inhibitors of numerically similar IQ value for the respective enzyme were not effective at equimolar dosage The results are discussed in the light of the different prelequisiles and conditions for inhibition of thrombin and factor Xa in the course of blood clotting.
Enhanced spatial-range mean shift color image segmentation by using convergence frequency and position

Mean shift is robust for image segmentation through local mode seeking. However, like most segmentation schemes it suffers from over-segmentation due to the lack of semantic information. This paper proposes an enhanced spatial-range mean shift segmentation approach, where over-segmented regions are reduced by exploiting the positions and frequencies at which mean shift filters converge. Based on our observation that edges are related to spatial positions with low mean shift convergence frequencies, merging of over-segmented regions can be guided away from the perceptually important image edges. Simulations have been performed and results have shown that the proposed scheme is able to reduce the over-segmentation while maintaining sharp region boundaries for semantically important objects.
Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Case of Kuwait

This article examines the relationship among perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, and employee citizenship behavior in Kuwaiti business organizations. Employees’ affective organizational commitment is proposed to mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support and employee citizenship behavior. Data were collected from 261 employees affiliated with 9 Kuwait business organizations. These businesses represented firms in the banking, and financial industries. Results indicate that: (1) perceived organizational support is positively related to affective organizational commitment and (2) affective organizational commitment mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support, and organizational citizenship behavior.
Generation of superoxide anion and chemiluminescence by human monocytes during phagocytosis and on contact with surface-bound immunoglobulin G

Extent of O-2-release and chemiluminescence, attributed to singlet oxygen, has been compared in human monocytes and neutrophils during phagocytosis, stimulation by the surface-active agent phorbol myristate acetate, or contact with aggregated IgG in a model of immune complex disease. Monocytes generated O-2-and chemiluminescence with each of the three stimuli, although values were significantly less than those of neutrophils from the same individuals. Lymphocytes had no significant activity in either assay with any stimulus. Oxygen metabolites released from mononuclear phagocytes are highly reactive and could play a part in both the beneficial and detrimental aspects of chronic inflammation.
The P2X7 Receptor Supports Both Life and Death in Fibrogenic Pancreatic Stellate Cells

The pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) have complex roles in pancreas, including tissue repair and fibrosis. PSCs surround ATP releasing exocrine cells, but little is known about purinergic receptors and their function in PSCs. Our aim was to resolve whether PSCs express the multifunctional P2X7 receptor and elucidate how it regulates PSC viability. The number of PSCs isolated from wild type (WT) mice was 50% higher than those from the Pfizer P2X7 receptor knock out (KO) mice. The P2X7 receptor protein and mRNA of all known isoforms were expressed in WT PSCs, while KO PSCs only expressed truncated versions of the receptor. In culture, the proliferation rate of the KO PSCs was significantly lower. Inclusion of apyrase reduced the proliferation rate in both WT and KO PSCs, indicating importance of endogenous ATP. Exogenous ATP had a two-sided effect. Proliferation of both WT and KO cells was stimulated with ATP in a concentration-dependent manner with a maximum effect at 100 µM. At high ATP concentration (5 mM), WT PSCs, but not the KO PSCs died. The intracellular Ca2+ signals and proliferation rate induced by micromolar ATP concentrations were inhibited by the allosteric P2X7 receptor inhibitor az10606120. The P2X7 receptor-pore inhibitor A438079 partially prevented cell death induced by millimolar ATP concentrations. This study shows that ATP and P2X7 receptors are important regulators of PSC proliferation and death, and therefore might be potential targets for treatments of pancreatic fibrosis and cancer.
Bacteria DNA sequence compression using a mixture of finite-context models

The ability of finite-context models for compressing DNA sequences has been demonstrated on some recent works. In this paper, we further explore this line, proposing a compression method based on eight finite-context models, with orders from two to sixteen, whose probabilities are averaged using weights calculated through a recursive procedure. The method was tested on a total of 2,338 sequences belonging to bacterial genomes, with sizes ranging from 1,286 to 13,033,779 bases, showing better compression results than the state-of-the-art XM DNA coding algorithm and also faster operation.
Cadmium Stress Disrupts the Endomembrane Organelles and Endocytosis during Picea wilsonii Pollen Germination and Tube Growth

As one of the most severe pollutants, cadmium has been reported to be harmful to plant cells, but the effects of cadmium on gymnosperm pollen germination and tube growth and the mechanism of this involvement are still unclear. Here, we report that cadmium not only strongly inhibited P. wilsonii pollen germination and tube growth, but also significantly altered tube morphology in a dose-dependent manner. Time-lapse images obtained with a laser scanning confocal microscope revealed that endocytosis was dramatically inhibited by cadmium stress. Further investigation with ER-Tracker dye indicated that cadmium stress reduced the number of the Golgi apparatus, and induced dilation of ER. Additionally, Lyso-Tracker staining showed that cadmium distinctly promoted the formation of acidic organelles in pollen tubes, likely derived from the dilated ER. Taken together, our studies indicated that P. wilsonii pollens were highly susceptible to cadmium stress, and that cadmium stress strongly inhibited pollen germination and tube growth by disrupting the endomembrane organelles, inhibiting endo/exocytosis, and forming acidic vacuoles, resulting in swollen tube tips and irregularly broadened tube diameters. These findings provide a new insight into the effects of cadmium toxicity on the tip growth of pollen tubes.
Visualizing Uncertainty About the Future

We are all faced with uncertainty about the future, but we can get the measure of some uncertainties in terms of probabilities. Probabilities are notoriously difficult to communicate effectively to lay audiences, and in this review we examine current practice for communicating uncertainties visually, using examples drawn from sport, weather, climate, health, economics, and politics. Despite the burgeoning interest in infographics, there is limited experimental evidence on how different types of visualizations are processed and understood, although the effectiveness of some graphics clearly depends on the relative numeracy of an audience. Fortunately, it is increasingly easy to present data in the form of interactive visualizations and in multiple types of representation that can be adjusted to user needs and capabilities. Nonetheless, communicating deeper uncertainties resulting from incomplete or disputed knowledge—or from essential indeterminacy about the future—remains a challenge.
Cultural and social factors and quality of life of Maori in advanced age. Te puawaitanga o nga tapuwae kia ora tonu - Life and living in advanced age: a cohort study in New Zealand (LiLACS NZ).

AIM To establish 1) the socioeconomic and cultural profile and 2) correlates of quality of life (QOL) of Maori in advanced age. METHOD A cross sectional survey of a population based cohort of Maori aged 80-90 years, participants in LiLACS NZ, in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. Socioeconomic and cultural engagement characteristics were established by personal interview and QOL was assessed by the SF-12. RESULTS In total 421 (56%) participated and 267 (63%) completed the comprehensive interview. Maori lived with high deprivation areas and had received a poor education in the public system. Home ownership was high (81%), 64% had more than 3 children still living and social support was present for practical tasks and emotional support in 82%. A need for more practical help was reported by 21%. Fifty-two percent of the participants used te reo Maori me nga tikanga (Maori language and culture) daily. One in five had experienced discrimination and one in five reported colonisation affecting their life today. Greater frequency of visits to marae/sacred gathering places was associated with higher physical health-related QOL. Unmet need for practical help was associated with lower physical health-related QOL. Lower mental health-related QOL was associated with having experienced discrimination. CONCLUSION Greater language and cultural engagement is associated with higher QOL for older Maori and unmet social needs and discrimination are associated with lower QOL.