Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deterring deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Environmental monitoring and law enforcement

This paper evaluates the impact of law enforcement and monitoring on deforestation. It focuses on DETER, a satellite-based system for real-time detection of deforestation, which is the key tool for targeting law enforcement activities in the Brazilian Amazon. DETER cloud coverage, which limits satellite visibility, is shown to be correlated with environmental nes. Cloud coverage is then used as a source of exogenous variation in the number of nes for the estimation of the e ect of monitoring on deforestation. Deforestation observed from 2007 through 2011 was 75% smaller than it would have been in the absence of nes. More stringent monitoring had no impact on municipality-level agricultural production.
Biodiversity improves the ecological design of sustainable biofuel systems

For algal biofuels to become a commercially viable and sustainable means of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, growers are going to need to design feedstocks that achieve at least three characteristics simultaneously as follows: attain high yields; produce high quality biomass; and remain stable through time. These three qualities have proven difficult to achieve simultaneously under the ideal conditions of the laboratory, much less under field conditions (e.g., outdoor culture ponds) where feedstocks are exposed to highly variable conditions and the crop is vulnerable to invasive species, disease, and grazers. Here, we show that principles from ecology can be used to improve the design of feedstocks and to optimize their potential for “multifunctionality. ” We performed a replicated experiment to test these predictions under outdoor conditions. Using 80 ponds of 1,100 L each, we tested the hypotheses that polycultures would outperform monocultures in terms of the following functions: biomass production, yield of biocrude from biomass, temporal stability, resisting population crashes, and resisting invasions by unwanted species. Overall, species richness improved stability, biocrude yield, and resistance to invasion. While this suggests that polycultures could outperform monocultures on average, invasion resistance was the only function where polycultures outperformed the best single species in the experiment. Due to tradeoffs among different functions that we measured, no species or polyculture was able to maximize all functions simultaneously. However, diversity did enhance the potential for multifunctionality—the most diverse polyculture performed more functions at higher levels than could any of the monocultures. These results are a key finding for ecological design of sustainable biofuel systems because they show that while a monoculture may be the optimal choice for maximizing short‐term biomass production, polycultures can offer a more stable crop of the desired species over longer periods of time.
The impact of trait mindfulness on relational outcomes in novice yoga practitioners participating in an academic yoga course

Abstract Objective: This study examined the role of dispositional mindfulness in impacting the relational benefits of yoga in novice practitioners in an undergraduate academic yoga course. Participants: 21 college students enrolled in a yoga course throughout a 15-week academic semester (January–April 2016). Methods: Participants attended lab assessments at the beginning and end of the semester and were asked to complete eight consecutive Internet-based daily surveys across six separate bursts, yielding 48 data points for each participant. Results: Multivariate time-series analyses revealed within-person subgroup differences such that in general, those in the high trait mindfulness group gleaned benefits from yoga practice with respect to relational outcomes. Conclusions: This study demonstrated trait mindfulness impacts relational outcomes in novice yoga practitioners, suggesting those low in trait mindfulness may not garner immediate relational benefits from yoga and could benefit from additional strategies to bolster against any negative influences of initiating yoga practice.
Postseismic deformation induced by brittle rock damage of aftershocks

[1] Large earthquakes are commonly followed by abundant aftershocks that are densely located around the coseismic rupture zone. Laboratory experiments indicate that “microscopic” brittle rock failures (acoustic emission) are associated collectively with a “macroscopic” damage-related inelastic relaxation. Utilizing basic relations between local brittle failures and gradual inelastic strain in a viscoelastic damage rheology model, we develop connections between aftershock decay rates and the aftershocks-induced component of geodetic deformation. The discussed mechanism is relevant for postseismic relaxation produced by sources located within the seismogenic zone, and especially in regions that overlap locations of high aftershocks activity. Assuming the Omori-Utsu decay rate for aftershocks, we find that the temporal decay of the damage-related postseismic relaxation follows a generalized power-law relation with the standard Omori-Utsu law as a limit case. The results provide a way for estimating the separate contributions to observed postseismic displacements that stem from brittle failures in the seismogenic zone (aftershocks) and other (aseismic) processes. Using the obtained theoretical expectations, we analyze postseismic displacements measured by GPS stations around the North Anatolian fault ∼3 months following the 1999 M7.4 Izmit earthquake. We find that the observed postseismic displacements decay slower than the aftershock seismicity. Based on our theoretical results, we conclude that up to 50% of the measured surface displacements at near-fault sites can be attributed to aftershock-induced inelastic deformation in the seismogenic zone. The remainder postseismic deformation can generally be explained by relaxation in the deeper ductile substrate.
Fire disaster preparedness and situational analysis in higher learning institutions of Tanzania

Fire disasters are accompanied with devastating impact affecting both lives and properties. The magnitude of the impacts has been severe in places with low levels of fire disaster preparedness. A study was conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to investigate the level of fire disaster preparedness considering the availability and condition of firefighting facilities as well as the knowledge on fire management among the selected 10 higher learning institutions. Information for the buildings was obtained from the interviews with the managers of the buildings and field observations; information on the user’s preparedness was obtained from interviews using structured questionnaire conducted with the users of the buildings including the visitors. Results from the studied buildings indicated that 60% of the firefighting facilities were not regularly serviced; 50% stored some hazardous materials; 70% of them had not enough water storage for firefighting purposes; 60% had no identifiable fire assembly points; and 90% of the sessions conducted in the buildings involved more than 100 people in a single venue. Further results indicated that 51% of the respondents were not able to operate the installed firefighting facilities; 80.7% of the respondents had never received any training on firefighting and prevention; 95.6% of the respondents had never participated in any fire drills; and 81.5% of them were not aware of the fire responder’s contacts. General situation indicated that higher learning institutions are not well prepared to manage fire outbreaks suggesting that plans to rectify the situation are imperative.
Evaluation of Distillers Grains Components for Finishing Beef Cattle

A finishing experiment was conducted to determine the value of the fiber in distillers grains plus solubles for cattle. The experiment utilized 800 crossbred yearling steers (initial BW = 415 kg; SD = 24 kg) fed in 100 pens (8 steers/pen and one of 5 treatments; n=20 pens/treatment). Cattle were split into four blocks by starting blocks each week for four consecutive weeks. Cattle were limit fed 5 d prior to starting experiment and were weighed on day 0 and 1 for an accurate initial BW. The five treatments consisted of a corn control diet (CON), 20 (20MDGS) or 40% (40MDGS) modified distillers grains plus solubles (MDGS), and two diets containing corn germ meal and corn bran balanced to equal the fiber content of the two MDGS diets (20FIB and 40FIB). Performance data were based on 134 d (blocks 1, 2, 3) or 148 d (block 4) with carcass data being collected at slaughter and following a 48 hr chill. Initial BW (P = 0.63) was not influenced by treatment. Intakes were impacted by treatment (P < 0.01) and DMI increased quadratically (P < 0.01) as MDGS increased with steers fed 20MDGS having the greatest DMI. Steers fed 40MDGS or 40FIB had similar DMI (P = 0.76), whereas steers fed 20MDGS consumed more (P < 0.01) than steers fed 20FIB. When 20FIB and 40FIB were fed, DMI increased linearly (P = 0.01) relative to CON. Dietary treatment impacted ADG (P < 0.01) with ADG increasing quadratically (P = 0.02) as MDGS inclusion increased, and equal ADG between 20MDGS and 40MDGS (P = 0.96). Feeding 20FIB and 40FIB numerically reduced ADG but not statistically, (P > 0.14) compared to CON. As a result of increased ADG, G:F increased linearly (P < 0.01) for steers fed MDGS. When steers were fed 20FIB or 40FIB, G:F decreased linearly (P < 0.01) due to an increase in DMI and numerical decrease in ADG compared to CON. The
Serum of sickle cell disease patients contains fetal hemoglobin silencing factors secreted from leukocytes

Background The mechanisms that regulate fetal hemoglobin (HbF) expression in sickle cell disease (SCD) remain elusive. We previously showed that steady-state SCD patients with high HbF levels due to a γ-globin gene mutation demonstrate strong inverse correlations between HbF levels and leukocyte counts, suggesting that leukocytes play a role in regulating HbF in SCD. Materials and methods To further investigate the role of leukocytes in HbF expression in SCD, we examined the presence of HbF silencing factors in the serum of 82 SCD patients who received hydroxyurea (HU) therapy. Results HU-mediated HbF induction was associated with elevated total hemoglobin levels and improved red blood cell parameters, but there was no correlation with reticulocyte or platelet counts. Importantly, we again found that HU-induced HbF levels correlated with reductions in both neutrophils and lymphocytes/monocytes, indicating that these cell lineages may have a role in regulating HU-mediated HbF expression. Our in vitro studies using CD34+-derived primary erythroblasts found that patient serum preparations include HbF silencing factors that are distinct from granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and the activity of such factors decreases upon HU therapy. Conclusion Together, these results demonstrate the importance of leukocyte numbers in the regulation of HbF levels for SCD patients both in steady state and under HU therapy, and that leukocytes secrete HbF silencing factors that negatively affect HbF expression in erythroid-lineage cells in SCD.
Unusual location of the glomus tumour in the liver

Rationale: Liver glomus tumor is very rare, and only 6 cases have been reported. Herein, we report another case of liver glomus tumor and the clinicopathological features are summarized. Patient concerns: An 18-year-old male patient was admitted due to hypertension and arrhythmia for 4 days. Diagnoses: Abdominal enhanced CT revealed a 6.0-cm solid and cystic mass in the left liver lobe. The mass was collected by hepatic lobectomy. Microscopically, the tumor cells were round or oval, and had no malignant features and no evident atypia. Immumohistochemically, tumor cells were positive for positive for SMA and vimentin, but partially positive for syn, CD34 and desmin. He was pathologically diagnosed with liver glomus tumor. Interventions: The patient underwent a left hepatic lobectomy. Outcomes: After surgery, this patient was followed up for 6 months, and metastasis/recurrence was not observed. Lessons: Primary liver glomus tumor has no specific clinical manifestations, and imaging examinations have limitations for its diagnosis. Immunostaining for SMA and vimentin is necessary to prove the diagnosis. Complete resection is strongly advised and it has a favorable prognosis.
Cross-Linguistic Distributional Analyses with Frequent Frames: the Cases of German and Turkish

Syntactic categories (e.g., nouns and verbs) are the basic building blocks of grammar. Hence, establishing the syntactic categories of words is an essential step in the acquisition of syntax. As syntactic categories are not directly labeled in the speech directed to children (and also to adults), an important question is how children acquire knowledge about this crucial aspect of their language. While there are no unique markers of syntactic categories, various kinds of correlational cues have been shown to be informative about word categories, such as phonological properties of words (Cassidy & Kelly, 1991; Kelly, 1992; Monaghan, Christiansen, & Chater, 2007; Shi, Morgan, & Allopenna, 1998) and semantic commonalities across words that belong to the same syntactic category (Braine, 1976; Grimshaw, 1981; Pinker, 1984; Schlesinger, 1971). Maratsos and Chalkley (1980) proposed that distributional information in the input—e.g., word co-occurrence patterns—could be a cue for categorizing words. The idea stemmed from the observation that words occurring in the same linguistic context often belong to the same grammatical category (Bloomfield, 1933; Harris, 1951). For example, the fact that cat and mat in (1) are both preceded by the same word would be evidence for a distributional learner that cat and mat belong to the same category.
Extending Shelf Life of Indonesian Soft Milk Cheese (Dangke) by Lactoperoxidase System and Lysozyme

Dangke, a type of fresh soft cheese made of bovine and buffalo milk, is a traditional dairy product used in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is prepared from fresh milk using the conventional method, which easily destroys the quality. This study was conducted to assess whether using lactoperoxidase system and lysozyme as preservative agents could suppress the growth of bacteria in dangke. The pH value, total microbial count, and hardness of dangke were determined to measure the quality. Lactoperoxidase and lysozyme were purified from fresh bovine milk, and their purity was confirmed using SDS-PAGE. The combination of lactoperoxidase system and lysozyme was able to remarkably suppress the total microbial count in dangke from 7.78 ± 0.67 to 5.30 ± 0.42 log CFU/ml during 8 h of storage at room temperature. Preserving dangke in this enzyme combination affected its hardness, but there was no remarkable change in the pH value. Results of this study may provide knowledge to utilize a new method to preserve the quality of dangke.
Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders: Play behaviors with infant siblings and social responsiveness

Mother–infant interactions are a proximal process in early development and may be especially salient for children who are at risk for social difficulties (i.e. infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder). To inform how indices of maternal behaviors may improve parent-mediated interventions designed to mitigate autism spectrum disorder risk, the present study explored maternal social responsiveness ratings and social behaviors during dyadic play interactions. Dyads were recruited from families with at least one older child with autism spectrum disorder (high-risk group, n = 90) or families with no history of autism spectrum disorder (low-risk group, n = 62). As part of a prospective study, interactions were coded when infant siblings were 6, 9, and 12 months of age, for gaze, affect, vocalizations, and multimodal bids or responses (i.e. social smiles). Maternal social responsiveness was indexed via the Social Responsiveness Scale. Mothers in both risk groups had comparable Social Responsiveness Scale scores and social behaviors during play. Two maternal behaviors emerged as positive correlates of infant social behaviors and are thus of high relevance to parent-mediated interventions. Specifically, more maternal positive affect and the use of multimodal bids or responses were associated with more infant positive affect, vocalizations, gaze to face, and multimodal bids or responses.
Histone arginine methylation by Prmt5 is required for lung branching morphogenesis through repression of BMP signaling

ABSTRACT Branching morphogenesis is essential for the successful development of a functional lung to accomplish its gas exchange function. Although many studies have highlighted requirements for the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway during branching morphogenesis, little is known about how BMP signaling is regulated. Here, we report that the protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (Prmt5) and symmetric dimethylation at histone H4 arginine 3 (H4R3sme2) directly associate with chromatin of Bmp4 to suppress its transcription. Inactivation of Prmt5 in the lung epithelium results in halted branching morphogenesis, altered epithelial cell differentiation and neonatal lethality. These defects are accompanied by increased apoptosis and reduced proliferation of lung epithelium, as a consequence of elevated canonical BMP-Smad1/5/9 signaling. Inhibition of BMP signaling by Noggin rescues the lung branching defects of Prmt5 mutant in vitro. Taken together, our results identify a novel mechanism through which Prmt5-mediated histone arginine methylation represses canonical BMP signaling to regulate lung branching morphogenesis. Summary: Prmt5 methylates H4R3 of the Bmp4 chromatin symmetrically, which in turn suppresses canonical BMP signaling to regulate lung branching morphogenesis.
Modelling size-at-age in wild immature female octopus: a bioenergetics approach

The population dynamics of cephalopods are poorly understood because intra-specific size-at-age is characteristically variable. Much of the variation observed is attributed to temperature and food, but other generally overlooked factors such as hatchling size and inherent growth capacities also affect size-at-age. In the present paper, we investigated the relative influence of the principal abiotic (environmental temperature) and biotic (food consumption, hatchling size, inherent growth capacity) factors affecting size-at-age in immature octopus. Using a bioenergetics model and size-at-age data of wild-caught immature Octopus pallidus, we simulated the juvenile growth trajectories of individuals hatched in different seasons (summer, autumn and winter) based on food availability, metabolism, environmental temperature and individual variability, under an assumption of 2- phase growth. Simulations predict that the effect of hatchling size on size-at-age was secondary to that of inherent growth capacity. Projections suggest that wild immature populations comprise a mixture of individuals displaying exponential growth and 2-phase growth and that the proportion of each depends primarily on the individuals’ inherent growth capacities and food availability. High food intake was projected to decrease the number of individuals displaying 2-phase growth by delaying the transition between the 2 growth phases, resulting in larger individuals. Overall, individuals hatched in summer grew to larger sizes and matured earlier than individuals hatched in autumn or winter, independent of food availability. The size-at-age distribution of the summer and autumn cohorts tended to become bimodal under certain food intake levels, which highlights the importance of coupling size data with accurate age estimates in future octopus population studies.
Joint Beam and Channel Tracking for Two-Dimensional Phased Antenna Arrays

Analog beamforming is a low-cost architecture for millimeter-wave (mmWave) mobile communications. However, it has two disadvantages for serving fast mobility users: (i) the mmWave beam in the wireless channel and the beam steered by analog beamforming have small angular spreads which are difficult to align with each other and (ii) the receiver can only observe the mmWave channel in one beam direction and rely on beam-probing algorithms to check other directions. In this paper, we develop a beam probing and tracking algorithm that can efficiently track fast-moving mmWave beams. This algorithm has several salient features: (1) fading channel supportive: it can simultaneously track the channel coefficient and two-dimensional (2D) beam direction in fading channel environments; (2) low probing overhead: it achieves the minimum probing requirement for joint beam and channel tracking; (3) fast tracking speed and high tracking accuracy: its tracking error converges to the minimum Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) in static scenarios in theory and it outperforms several existing tracking algorithms with lower tracking error and faster tracking speed in simulations.
Study of two-photon decays of pseudoscalar mesons via $J/\psi$ radiative decays

Using a sample of $4.48\times10^{8}$ $\psi(3686)$ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we study the two-photon decays of the pseudoscalar mesons $\pi^0$, $\eta$, $\eta^\prime$, $\eta(1405)$, $\eta(1475)$, $\eta(1760)$, and $X(1835)$ in $J/\psi$ radiative decays using $\psi(3686)\to\pi^{+}\pi^{-}J/\psi$ events. The $\pi^0$, $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$ mesons are clearly observed in the two-photon mass spectra, and the branching fractions are determined to be $B(J/\psi\to\gamma\pi^{0}\to3\gamma)=(3.57\pm0.12\pm0.16)\times10^{-5}$, $B(J/\psi\to\gamma\eta\to3\gamma)=(4.42\pm0.04\pm0.18)\times10^{-4}$, and $B(J/\psi\to\gamma\eta'\to3\gamma)=(1.26\pm0.02\pm0.05)\times10^{-4}$, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. No clear signal for $\eta(1405)$, $\eta(1475)$, $\eta(1760)$ or $X(1835)$ is observed in the two-photon mass spectra, and upper limits at the $90\%$ confidence level on the product branching fractions are obtained.
1 MULTIPLEX LIGATION-DEPENDENT PROBE AMPLIFICATION IDENTIFIES LDLR ABNROMALITIES IN FAMILIAL HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA PATIENTS WITH APPARENTLY NORMAL LDLR SEQUENCE

Autosomal dominant (AD) familial hypercholesterolemia (FH, MIM 143890) typically results from mutations in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor gene (LDLR), which are commonly diagnosed using exon-by-exon screening methods, such as exon-by-exon sequence analysis (EBESA) of genomic DNA (gDNA). However, many patients with FH have no LDLR mutation identified by this method. Part of the diagnostic gap is due to genetic heterogeneity of AD FH, but another possible explanation is inadequate sensitivity of EBESA to detect certain mutation types, such as large deletions or insertions in LDLR. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) is a new method that detects larger gDNA alterations that are overlooked by EBESA. We hypothesized that some FH patients with no LDLR mutation detectable by EBESA would have an abnormal LDLR MLPA pattern. In 70 unrelated FH patients, 44 had LDLR mutations detected by EBESA, including missense, RNA splicing, nonsense or small deletion mutations, while five had the APOB R3500Q mutation. Among the remaining 21 AD FH patients with apparently no LDLR mutation, we found abnormal LDLR MLPA patterns in 12 and demonstrated the deleted sequence in five of these. The findings indicate that MLPA may be a useful new adjunctive tool for the molecular diagnosis of FH.