Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ecosystem services, human well-being, and policies in coupled human and natural systems

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, HUMAN WELL-BEING, AND POLICIES IN COUPLED HUMAN AND NATURAL SYSTEMS By Wu Yang Over the past decades, human activities have led to unprecedented biodiversity losses and socioeconomic costs. Unless effective changes in policies, institutions, and practices are made, the deterioration is predicted to be even graver in the future. The fundamental challenge to reverse the situation for achieving both environmental and socioeconomic sustainability lies in improving the understanding and management of human-nature interactions. To address such challenge, this dissertation focuses on improving the understanding of linkages between ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being (HWB), and examining complex policy effects on both ES and HWB. Specific objectives are to: (1) develop an integrated approach to understand the linkages between ES and HWB; (2) understand the effects and underlying mechanisms of indirect and direct drivers, including group size, on collective action and ES management outcomes; (3) test the interaction effects of different policies on HWB; (4) understand the effects of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs on both ES and HWB; and (5) examine the effects of the post-disaster reconstruction policy on both ES and
The Effects of Self-Regulated Learning on Community College Students' Metacognition and Achievement in Developmental Math Courses.

THE EFFECTS OF SELF-REGULATED LEARNING ON COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS’ METACOGNITION AND ACHIEVEMENT IN DEVELOPMENTAL MATH COURSES Karen D. Y. Campbell Old Dominion University, 2013 Director: Dr. Linda Bol The effects o f training in self-regulation on metacognition and math achievement were investigated in this study. The moderator effect o f gender, age and ethnicity on the relationships between training and the outcomes o f metacognition and math achievement were also explored. The participants for this study were 116 community college students enrolled in developmental math courses during the spring semester. Teachers volunteered their classes for the study; there were a total o f 16 classes participating in the study over two four-week terms. Classrooms were bifurcated and students were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. Participants in the treatment group completed four self-regulated learning exercises modeled after Zimmerman’s (2002) cyclical self­ regulated learning model. The exercises were completed weekly and repeated for a total o f three weeks. Participants from both the treatment and control group completed a final exam to measure math achievement and an abbreviated version of the MSLQ to measure metacognition skills the last week of class. There was a significant difference between the two groups, suggesting that training in self-regulated learning improves math achievement and metacognitive skills o f students in developmental math courses. Further investigation o f the effects o f training in self-regulated learning on math achievement and metacognition was explored by math subject. A significant difference was found in the lower level developmental math classes for Unit 2 (Decimals and Percent). Students in the treatment group had higher math achievement scores. For Unit 3 (Algebra Basics), there was a significant difference on the MSLQ scores (metacognition) favoring the treatment group. The findings suggest that training in self-regulated learning improves math achievement and metacognition levels o f students taking the lower level developmental math courses. Moderator effects o f the demographic variables were not observed, indicating that neither the relationship between training in self-regulated learning and math achievement nor the relationship between training in self-regulation learning and metacognition varied across gender, ethnicity, and age.
Exactly solvable relativistic model with the anomalous interaction

A special class of Dirac-Pauli equations with time-like vector potentials of an external field is investigated. An exactly solvable relativistic model describing the anomalous interaction of a neutral Dirac fermion with a cylindrically symmetric external electromagnetic field is presented. The related external field is a superposition of the electric field generated by a charged infinite filament and the magnetic field generated by a straight line current. In the nonrelativistic approximation the considered model is reduced to the integrable Pron'ko-Stroganov model.
Lipidomics Reveals Early Metabolic Changes in Subjects with Schizophrenia: Effects of Atypical Antipsychotics

There is a critical need for mapping early metabolic changes in schizophrenia to capture failures in regulation of biochemical pathways and networks. This information could provide valuable insights about disease mechanisms, trajectory of disease progression, and diagnostic biomarkers. We used a lipidomics platform to measure individual lipid species in 20 drug-naïve patients with a first episode of schizophrenia (FE group), 20 patients with chronic schizophrenia that had not adhered to prescribed medications (RE group), and 29 race-matched control subjects without schizophrenia. Lipid metabolic profiles were evaluated and compared between study groups and within groups before and after treatment with atypical antipsychotics, risperidone and aripiprazole. Finally, we mapped lipid profiles to n3 and n6 fatty acid synthesis pathways to elucidate which enzymes might be affected by disease and treatment. Compared to controls, the FE group showed significant down-regulation of several n3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), including 20:5n3, 22:5n3, and 22:6n3 within the phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine lipid classes. Differences between FE and controls were only observed in the n3 class PUFAs; no differences where noted in n6 class PUFAs. The RE group was not significantly different from controls, although some compositional differences within PUFAs were noted. Drug treatment was able to correct the aberrant PUFA levels noted in FE patients, but changes in re patients were not corrective. Treatment caused increases in both n3 and n6 class lipids. These results supported the hypothesis that phospholipid n3 fatty acid deficits are present early in the course of schizophrenia and tend not to persist throughout its course. These changes in lipid metabolism could indicate a metabolic vulnerability in patients with schizophrenia that occurs early in development of the disease.
Prevalence and patterns of infection in critically ill trauma patients admitted to the trauma ICU, South Africa.

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to determine if any patterns of infection or bacterial resistance existed in critically ill polytrauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at the CM Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH). METHODS This was a prospective, single-center study of patient laboratory records of 73 critically injured polytrauma patients admitted to an ICU. The data collected from each patient, beginning with admission and extending until discharge from the ICU, included age, gender, admission hemoglobin levels, injury severity score, length of ICU stay, microbiological cultures and sensitivity (MCS), and types and numbers of surgical procedures. RESULTS Upon admission to the ICU, the injury severity score (ISS) was 40.86 (± 15.64). In total, 73.98% of the patients required the use of a ventilator during their ICU stay. The most prevalent organisms isolated from specimens were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (30.1%), Klebsiella species (25.7%), Acinetobacterbaumanni (16.4%), and Staphylococcus aureus (5.8%). Multi-drug resistance (MDR) was identified in 63% of patients, with Klebsiella (73.91%) and Pseudomonas (65.21%) occurring most frequently. Multivariate analysis showed MDR to be the only significant predictor associated with a higher risk for hospital mortality when age, gender, ventilation, duration of ICU stay, ISS score, and the number of surgeries undergone was taken into account. CONCLUSION Critically ill polytrauma patients are at particularly high risk for Gram-negative sepsis.
An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electric Appliance Holdings and Consumption

Recent micro-simulation studies of the demand for clectricity hy residences have attempted to modlel jointly the demand for appliance and the denmanid for electricity by appliance. Within this context it becomes important to test the statistical exogeneity of appliance dummy variables typically included in demand for electricity equations. If, as the theory would suggest, the demand for durables and their use are related decisions by the consumer, specifications which ignore this fact will lead to biased and inconsistent estimates of price and income elasticities. The present paper attempts to test this bias using a subsample of the 1975 survey of 3249 households carried out by the Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies (WCMS) for the Federal Energy Administration. We discuss and derive a unified model of the demand for consumer durables and the derived demand for electricity. To determine the magnitude of the bias resulting from estimating a unit electricity" consumption (UEC) equation bv ordinary least squares when unobserved factors influence both choice of appliances and intensity of use. we intr-oduce and cstimate a joint water-heat space-heat choice model, and concluide with the consistent estimation and specification of demand for electricity equations.
Atypical antipsychotics clozapine and quetiapine attenuate prepulse inhibition deficits in dopamine transporter knockout mice

Sensorimotor gating disruptions are seen in various psychiatric illnesses with putatively different pathologies, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Interestingly, mice lacking the dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) gene display markedly increased levels of DA, deficits in sensorimotor gating, and hyperactivity relative to wild-type mice. Atypical antipsychotics are effective treatments of schizophrenia and manic symptoms, presumably in part by antagonizing DA receptors. Here we report that treatment with clozapine (3 mg/kg) or quetiapine (2.5 mg/kg) attenuated prepulse inhibition deficits in male DAT knockout mice. Thus male DAT knockout mice may provide a useful animal model for predicting the efficacy of novel drugs in treating psychiatric illnesses characterized by a dysregulated DA system.
Cysteine Peptidases as Schistosomiasis Vaccines with Inbuilt Adjuvanticity

Schistosomiasis is caused by several worm species of the genus Schistosoma and afflicts up to 600 million people in 74 tropical and sub-tropical countries in the developing world. Present disease control depends on treatment with the only available drug praziquantel. No vaccine exists despite the intense search for molecular candidates and adjuvant formulations over the last three decades. Cysteine peptidases such as papain and Der p 1 are well known environmental allergens that sensitize the immune system driving potent Th2-responses. Recently, we showed that the administration of active papain to mice induced significant protection (P<0.02, 50%) against an experimental challenge infection with Schistosoma mansoni. Since schistosomes express and secrete papain-like cysteine peptidases we reasoned that these could be employed as vaccines with inbuilt adjuvanticity to protect against these parasites. Here we demonstrate that sub-cutaneous injection of functionally active S. mansoni cathepsin B1 (SmCB1), or a cathepsin L from a related parasite Fasciola hepatica (FhCL1), elicits highly significant (P<0.0001) protection (up to 73%) against an experimental challenge worm infection. Protection and reduction in worm egg burden were further increased (up to 83%) when the cysteine peptidases were combined with other S. mansoni vaccine candidates, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (SG3PDH) and peroxiredoxin (PRX-MAP), without the need to add chemical adjuvants. These studies demonstrate the capacity of helminth cysteine peptidases to behave simultaneously as immunogens and adjuvants, and offer an innovative approach towards developing schistosomiasis vaccines
Poverty on the cheap: estimating poverty maps using aggregated mobile communication networks

Governments and other organisations often rely on data collected by household surveys and censuses to identify areas in most need of regeneration and development projects. However, due to the high cost associated with the data collection process, many developing countries conduct such surveys very infrequently and include only a rather small sample of the population, thus failing to accurately capture the current socio-economic status of the country's population. In this paper, we address this problem by means of a methodology that relies on an alternative source of data from which to derive up to date poverty indicators, at a very fine level of spatio-temporal granularity. Taking two developing countries as examples, we show how to analyse the aggregated call detail records of mobile phone subscribers and extract features that are strongly correlated with poverty indexes currently derived from census data.
Evalution of Renal Involvement in Patients with Behçet Disease: Need to be Aware About Potential Hypertension in Long Term Follow Up?

Summary Backround The aim of this study was to evaluate frequency and severity of kidney involvement with some clinical, ultrasonography and color Doppler measurements in patients with Behçet disease. Material/Methods This study was including 32 patients with Behçet disease and 32 healthy sex and age-matched control subjects. Patients were divided into two groups as period of disease 0–6 years and 7 years and above to evaluate effect of duration of disease. We evaluated some biochemical tests in both blood and urine related to renal functions, blood pressure values. Gray scale and color Doppler findings were noted. Results Renal artery volume flow in patients with a duration of 7 years or above was significantly decreased compared to control group (p<0.05). However, gray scale ultrasound and color Doppler measurements reveal there was not statistically significant change compared to control group. There was no biochemical abnormalities in any patient. Four patients had elevated blood pressure but mean blood pressure values were not statistically different compared to volunteers. Conclusions Renal involvement ratios varies in different studies but not common. End stage renal failure can be seen very rare. Furthermore, vasculitic changes can lead renal artery narrowness and can result to decrease in renal blood flow. It has a potential to activate renin angiotensin aldosterone cascade to elevate blood pressure. We must be aware about blood pressure of patients with Behçet disease, especially with long term follow up.
Immunization with Cocktail of HIV-Derived Peptides in Montanide ISA-51 Is Immunogenic, but Causes Sterile Abscesses and Unacceptable Reactogenicity

Background A peptide vaccine was produced containing B and T cell epitopes from the V3 and C4 Envelope domains of 4 subtype B HIV-1 isolates (MN, RF, CanO, & Ev91). The peptide mixture was formulated as an emulsion in incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA). Methods Low-risk, healthy adult subjects were enrolled in a randomized, placebo-controlled dose-escalation study, and selected using criteria specifying that 50% in each study group would be HLA-B7+. Immunizations were scheduled at 0, 1, and 6 months using a total peptide dose of 1 or 4 mg. Adaptive immune responses in16 vaccine recipients and two placebo recipients after the 2nd immunization were evaluated using neutralization assays of sera, as well as ELISpot and ICS assays of cryopreserved PBMCs to assess CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses. In addition, 51Cr release assays were performed on fresh PBMCs following 14-day stimulation with individual vaccine peptide antigens. Results 24 subjects were enrolled; 18 completed 2 injections. The study was prematurely terminated because 4 vaccinees developed prolonged pain and sterile abscess formation at the injection site-2 after dose 1, and 2 after dose 2. Two other subjects experienced severe systemic reactions consisting of headache, chills, nausea, and myalgia. Both reactions occurred after the second 4 mg dose. The immunogenicity assessments showed that 6/8 vaccinees at each dose level had detectable MN-specific neutralizing (NT) activity, and 2/7 HLA-B7+ vaccinees had classical CD8 CTL activity detected. However, using both ELISpot and ICS, 8/16 vaccinees (5/7 HLA-B7+) and 0/2 controls had detectable vaccine-specific CD8 T-cell responses. Subjects with moderate or severe systemic or local reactions tended to have more frequent T cell responses and higher antibody responses than those with mild or no reactions. Conclusions The severity of local responses related to the formulation of these four peptides in IFA is clinically unacceptable for continued development. Both HIV-specific antibody and T cell responses were induced and the magnitude of response correlated with the severity of local and systemic reactions. If potent adjuvants are necessary for subunit vaccines to induce broad and durable immune responses, careful, incremental clinical evaluation is warranted to minimize the risk of adverse events. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00000886
Mapping QTL Associated with Photoperiod Sensitivity and Assessing the Importance of QTL×Environment Interaction for Flowering Time in Maize

Background An understanding of the genetic determinism of photoperiod response of flowering is a prerequisite for the successful exchange of germplasm across different latitudes. In order to contribute to resolve the genetic basis of photoperiod sensitivity in maize, a set of 201 recombinant inbred lines (RIL), derived from a temperate and tropical inbred line cross were evaluated in 5 field trials spread in short- and long-day environments. Methodology/Principal Findings Firstly, QTL analyses for flowering time and photoperiod sensitivity in maize were conducted in individual photoperiod environments separately, and then, the total genetic effect was partitioned into additive effect (A) and additive-by-environment interaction effect (AE) by using a mixed-model-based composite interval mapping (MCIM) method. Conclusions/Significance Seven putative QTL were found associated with DPS thermal time based on the data estimated in individual environments. Nine putative QTL were found associated with DPS thermal time across environments and six of them showed significant QTL×enviroment (QE) interactions. Three QTL for photoperiod sensitivity were identified on chromosome 4, 9 and 10, which had the similar position to QTL for DPS thermal time in the two long-day environment. The major photoperiod sensitive loci qDPS10 responded to both short and long-day photoperiod environments and had opposite effects in different photoperiod environment. The QTL qDPS3, which had the greatest additive effect exclusively in the short-day environment, were photoperiod independent and should be classified in autonomous promotion pathway.
TSMP: TIME SYNCHRONIZED MESH PROTOCOL

The Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol (TSMP) enables reliable, low power, secure communication in a managed wireless mesh network. TSMP is a medium access and networking protocol designed for the recently ratified Wireless HART standard in industrial automation. TSMP benefits from synchronization of nodes in a multi-hop network to within a few hundred microseconds, allowing scheduling of collision-free pair-wise and broadcast communication to meet the traffic needs of all nodes while cycling through all available channels. Latency and reliability guarantees can be traded off for energy use, though our focus has been on providing high reliability (>99.9%) networks at the lowest power possible. TSMP has been demonstrated in multi-hop networks exceeding 250 nodes per access point, thousands of nodes with multiple access points, radio duty cycles of 0.01%, and with devices at radically different temperatures and traffic levels. With the 802.15. 4 physical layer and 10 ms time slots, TSMP can theoretically achieve a secure payload throughput of 76 kbps at a single egress point.
Autologous Graft versus Host Disease: An Emerging Complication in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Autologous graft versus host disease (autoGVHD) is a rare transplant complication with significant morbidity and mortality. It has been hypothesized that patients with multiple myeloma might be predisposed to autoGVHD through dysregulation of the immune response resulting from either their disease, the immunomodulatory agents (IMiDs) used to treat it, or transplant conditioning regimen. Hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) products were available from 8 multiple myeloma patients with biopsy-proven autoGVHD, 16 matched multiple myeloma patients who did not develop autoGVHD, and 7 healthy research donors. The data on number of transplants prior to developing autoGVHD, mobilization regimens, exposure to proteasome inhibitors, use of IMiDs, and class I human leukocyte antigen types (HLA A and B) were collected. The HPC products were analyzed by flow cytometry for expression of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25, CD56, and FoxP3. CD3+ cell number was significantly lower in autoGVHD patients compared to unaffected controls (P = 0.047). On subset analysis of CD3+ cells, CD8+ cells (but not CD4+ cells) were found to be significantly lower in patients with autoGVHD (P = 0.038). HLA-B55 expression was significantly associated with development of autoGVHD (P = 0.032). Lower percentages of CD3+ and CD8+ T-cells and HLA-B55 expression may be predisposing factors for developing autoGVHD in myeloma.
Navigational Map Reading: Predicting Performance and Identifying Relative Influence of Map-Related Abilities

Abstract Most of us know people who “cannot read a map” and others who seem to navigate intuitively. Such discrepancy in ability is puzzling, given that most people navigate to and between locations many times every day. In many cases the locations are those that are destinations we visit regularly (school, work, home, store), but people are also frequently faced with the task of navigating to a new location, whether it is a store not previously visited or a vacation destination. Why do such differences exist and can we identify some of the human traits or abilities that lead to such differences? This article presents results from empirical research designed to investigate these differences. Three research questions were asked: (1) Can a reliable and valid navigational map reading test instrument be designed? (2) To what extent does the instrument predict navigational map reading? and (3) What is the relative influence of individual map-related abilities on overall navigational map reading? A Navigational Map Reading Ability Test (NMRAT) was designed to measure five map-related abilities, and a Real World Map Navigation Exercise (RWMNE) was developed to assess the validity of the NMRAT. Forty-four subjects completed both the test and the exercise. Results demonstrate that, overall, the NMRAT is both reliable and valid as an indicator of navigational map reading ability. Results also show that the five map-related abilities exert different influence on the overall task of map navigation.