Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial and temporal variability of immature green turtle abundance and somatic growth in Puerto Rico

Understanding conservation needs relies on robust estimates of key population parameters, such as survival, abundance and somatic growth. We investigated the somatic growth and abundance dynamics of 2 aggregations of immature green turtles, at Tortuga Bay and Puerto Manglar (Culebra, Puerto Rico), throughout 15 yr of capture-mark-recaptures. We used nonlinear models to investigate the effects of carapace length, sampling year, growth interval and the pres- ence of fibropapillomas on growth rates, and used the size-specific growth rate function to esti- mate how long turtles remain at each bay. Abundances were estimated and compared with time- specific growth rate functions, to infer density-dependency effects on somatic growth rates, and trends in abundance were evaluated by fitting generalized linear models. We found foraging site specific growth rates and report the highest mean somatic growth rate for green turtles in the wild (6.1 ± 1.7 cm yr �1 , at Puerto Manglar). The size-specific growth rate function was monotonic at both sites, with growth rates declining continuously with increasing carapace length. We inferred minimum ages at maturity of 14 and 22 yr, for Puerto Manglar and Tortuga Bay turtles, respec- tively. Throughout the 15 yr of this study there was a positive trend in aggregation size at Puerto Manglar (mean annual increase of 10.9%), which was not observed at Tortuga Bay. Our study highlights the influence of geography and habitat quality on somatic growth rates, and delivers robust demographic estimates valuable for local and regional assessments of the conservation sta- tus of the green turtle.
Severity of the Apnea-Hypopnea Sleep Syndrome in Patients withRheumatoid Arthritis and Spondyloarthropathies. Modulation of the SleepApnea Index with Anti-TNF-ÃÂ± Inhibitors

Objective: To evaluate severity of the sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthropathies (SpA). To study the behavior of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in patients treated with anti-TNF-α. Materials and methods: An observational, retrospective study was conducted in patients with RA and SpA (study group) and with osteoarthritis (control group) who have SAHS symptoms. AHI (expressed in median and 25- 75 percentiles), mean oxygen saturation (SaO2 ) and information on associated cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) were collected. This information was also collected in the anti-TNF-α treated study group. Results: The study group (75 patients [48 with RA and 27 with SpA], 36 men) were younger (53.1 ± 10.6 vs. 57.2 ± 9.6 years, p=0.022) compared to the control group (58 patients, 23 men). The study group had a higher incidence of hypercholesterolemia (62.7% vs. 17.2%, p<0.001) and ischemic heart disease (17.3% vs. 3.4%, p=0.013). Sixteen patients of the study group were treated with anti-TNF-α. Patients in the study group had higher AHI than the control group (median 37.4 vs. 27.8, p=0.025). Those treated had a similar value to the control group (29.1 vs. 27.8, NS) and a lower value compared to the non-treated (29.1 vs. 36.8, p=0.052). No differences in the SaO2 were observed. Conclusions: Patients with SAHS and inflammatory arthritis are younger and have more CV risk factors than those who have non-inflammatory arthropathy. Patients with SAHS and inflammatory arthritis treated with TNF-α inhibitors have a lower AHI than those treated only with disease modifying drugs and one that is similar to patients with non-inflammatory arthropathy. This suggests improvement of the SAHS.
Vertical structuring of gigantic jets

Gigantic Jets (GJs) are initiated deep inside the thundercloud as intracloud discharges whose upward‐directed leaders manage to escape through the thundercloud top and propagate up to the ionosphere. The speed at which leaders propagate is limited by the air heating of every newly formed leader section, rate of which is slower at upper altitudes in the Earth's atmosphere. Despite the expected deceleration of an upward‐directed leader, GJs are observed to accelerate as they approach the ionosphere. In this letter, we discuss the dependence of the leader speed on current density in the leader stem, and we propose a simple time‐dynamic model for GJ propagation that includes the effects of the expansion of the streamer zone adjacent to the leader head. We propose that the GJ acceleration is a consequence of its vertical structuring and, therefore, can be used to trace the transition altitude between the leader and streamer zone sections of GJs.
Regulation of life history in the brackish cladoceran, Daphniopsis australis (Sergeev and Williams, 1985) by temperature and salinity

Temperature and salinity variations affect aquatic biodiversity by altering the life history of poikilotherms and regulating their population dynamics. This study aimed to reveal the response of the brackish cladoceran, Daphniopsis australis exposed to three temperatures (16, 20 and 25°C) cross-classified with three salinities (17, 22 and 27). Our results show a significant interactive effect of temperature and salinity on most life history variables. The individual parameters including longevity, total egg clutch, egg development time, offspring production and total moulting were negatively related to the elevations of temperature and salinity. High salinity dampened the positive relationship between age at first reproduction and increasing temperatures. Population parameters including age-specific survivorship, age-specific fecundity, net reproductive rate and generation time were negatively affected by the increasing temperature and salinity. The intrinsic growth rate showed a unimodal distribution with peak population growth occurred at 20°C and 22 salinity, indicating the optimal condition for population growth. The poor performance of growth, reproduction and development occurred at 25°C and 27 salinity. Considering the dual effects of thermal and saline fluctuation, the life history of D. australis is more greatly impacted by temperature rather than salinity, which can contribute to the explanation of seasonal dynamics of brackish water cladocera in salt lakes.
Effect of green tea by-product on performance and body composition in broiler chicks

This experiment was conducted to determine the optimum level of green tea by-product (GTB) in diets without antibiotics and to evaluate its effect on broiler performances. A total of 140 Ross broilers were kept in battery cages for a period of 6 weeks. Dietary treatments used in this experiment were antibiotic free group (basal diet as a control), antibiotic added group (basal+0.05% chlortetracycline), GTB 0.5% (basal+GTB 0.5%), GTB 1% (basal+GTB 1%) and GTB 2% (basal+GTB 2%). Antibiotic added group showed significantly higher body weight gain than other treatments (p 0.05). The addition of green tea by-product to diets tended to decrease blood LDL cholesterol content compared to control group although there were no significant differences among treatments (p>0.05). Addition of green tea by-product increased docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in blood plasma and tended to decrease cholesterol content in chicken meat, but a significant difference was not observed (p>0.05). The values of TBA in chicken meat decreased in groups fed diets with green tea-by product and antibiotics compared to control group (p<0.05). The crude protein content in chicken meat was decreased slightly in treatments with green tea by-product and antibiotics supplementation. The abdominal fat was increased in chickens fed with diets with green tea by-product compared to the control (p<0.05). (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2003. Vol 16, No. 6 : 867-872)
Kiloparsec-scale Simulations of Star Formation in Disk Galaxies. IV. Regulation of Galactic Star Formation Rates by Stellar Feedback

Star formation from the interstellar medium of galactic disks is a basic process controlling the evolution of galaxies. Understanding the star formation rate (SFR) in a local patch of a disk with a given gas mass is thus an important challenge for theoretical models. Here we simulate a kiloparsec region of a disk, following the evolution of self-gravitating molecular clouds down to subparsec scales, as they form stars that then inject feedback energy by dissociating and ionizing UV photons and supernova explosions. We assess the relative importance of each feedback mechanism. We find that H2-dissociating feedback results in the largest absolute reduction in star formation compared to the run with no feedback. Subsequently adding photoionization feedback produces a more modest reduction. Our fiducial models that combine all three feedback mechanisms yield, without fine-tuning, SFRs that are in excellent agreement with observations, with H2-dissociating photons playing a crucial role. Models that only include supernova feedback—a common method in galaxy evolution simulations—settle to similar SFRs, but with very different temperatures and chemical states of the gas, and with very different spatial distributions of young stars.
Credit Spread Determinants and Interlocking Contracts : A Clinical Study of the Ras Gas Project

A popular approach to modeling and valuing firms views them as webs of contracts between stakeholders. This paper provides an in-depth study of the allocation of residual risks not explicitly managed through such interlocking contracts in the context of project finance. Focusing on the case of the Ras Gas project, we relate its credit spreads as measure of investor risk perceptions to firm-specific risk factors in the context of 25-year supply agreements, debt covenants and a debtservice guarantee contingent on output prices. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that unmanaged risk factors affecting the supply agreement drive Ras Gas’ credit spreads, but not managed ones. Interpreting our findings as evidence for the nexus of contracts view of the firm, we discuss some implications for financial design and valuation.
Argentine stem weevil damage to high sugar ryegrass infected with AR1 under field conditions

Previous laboratory based studies indicate that, compared to standard cultivars, high sugar grasses (HSG) can have lower endophyte and peramine concentrations and suggest that N fertilisation may result in further reductions in endophyte and alkaloid. This could reduce the resistance of HSG, particularly at high N inputs, to Argentine stem weevil (ASW), but the interaction needs testing under field conditions. The present objective was to determine the effect of ryegrass cultivar on ASW damage, and possible interactions with N fertiliser. ASW damage, endophyte and peramine concentration were measured in three perennial ryegrass cultivars, (HSG diploid, standard diploid and a tetraploid) containing AR1 endophyte, under high and no N fertiliser application. The proportion of tillers damaged by ASW adults or larvae did not differ significantly between cultivars. However, ASW adults tended (P<0.10) to prefer the standard diploid and tetraploid cultivars over the HSG cultivar. Our results are in keeping with previous observations that higher sugar diploid cultivars may have lower endophyte and peramine content than a STD diploid cultivar, but this does not appear to have reduced resistance to ASW. Lack of differences in N content of herbage leaves, between the N fertiliser treatments, likely due to compensating changes in clover content of pastures, meant little effect of N application was seen in this field trial.
Displaying jealous behavior versus experiencing jealousy

Jealous behavior is the manifestation of complex behavioral interactions initiated by an individual who aims to maintain an important social relationship that is threatened by a rival. Researchers prefer to focus on the emotion thought to control this behavior, “jealousy,” before understanding the mechanisms of the behavior. Researchers conducting recent behavioral studies on jealous behavior in dogs are still struggling to find strong experimental evidence. Thus, the positive correlation between amygdala activation and reported aggression in dogs described in Cook et al.’s target article is far from constituting evidence for “jealousy” in dogs. Judit Abdai is a doctoral candidate working currently as an assistant research fellow at the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Hungary. Her main interest is in animal-robot interaction. Website Ádám Miklósi, Professor and Head, Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, is leader of the Comparative Ethology Research Group funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as well as cofounder and leader of the Family Dog Project, and author of the book Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and
White dwarf dynamical interactions and fast optical transients

This work was partially funded by the MINECO grant AYA2014-59084-P and by the AGAUR (EG-B). CB acknowledges support from grants NASA ADAP NNX15AM03G S01 and NSF/AST-1412980. We acknowl- edge the useful comments of our referee, which helped in improving the original version of the paper.
Di-nitrogen fixation at the early and late growth stages of soybean

Soybean derives a significant portion of the required nitrogen (N) from the symbiosis with rhizobia bacteria. However, information on the available genetic variation for N 2 fixation capacity in different growth stages of soybean is limited. The objective of this study was to investigate the N 2 fixation capacity of 22 soybean lines compared with that of non-nodulating and supernodulating checks at the early and late growth stages and identify the most informative traits for selection. Two cycles of greenhouse experiments were carried out to estimate the percentage of N derived from the atmosphere (%Ndfa) as well as 10 different traits related to N 2 fixation. The results showed that %Ndfa was significantly different among the lines at the early and late growth stages. SPAD readings showed the highest correlation with the early N 2 fixation, whereas shoot dry weight with the late N 2 fixation. Early and late %Ndfa could be used to select superior lines for N 2 fixation and study the underlying physiological and molecular mechanism.
Enhancement of water solubility of felodipine by preparing solid dispersion using poly-ethylene glycol 6000 and poly-vinyl alcohol

In the present study, solid dispersion (SD) of felodipine was prepared to enhance its water solubility.The SD was prepared by using polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a carrier with different drug polymer ratios using different techniques (physical mixing and solvent evaporation). The product was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in vitro dissolution rate studies. Phase solubility analysis was performed in aqueous solution for drug polymer interactions. DSC and XRD analysis demonstrated the conversion of felodipine to amorphous form with both physical mixture (PM) and SD. SD with PVA released 95% of the drug in 85 min as compared with 89% of drug released in 90 min by SD with PEG 6000.Thus, SD with both polymers increased drug release, particularly greater in the case of PVA than PEG 6000.
Paediatric Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia

Blood-Injection-Injury phobia is a major health issue throughout the life span. It usually starts in early childhood. Avoidance of health care is seen in such individuals. Children with blood injection injury phobia have uncontrollable fear of blood, injury, injections and needles. Because of the intense fear, these children will do everything possible to avoid it. Various physical symptoms including increased heart rate, chest discomfort, trembling movements, feeling of choking and syncope may occur in these children on mentioning about blood, needles or any injury. Vasovagal fainting with diphasic response pattern occurs in about twenty percent of children on exposure to the phobic stimulus. Other anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also occur co-morbidly in children with blood-injection-injury phobia which makes the prognosis poor. Avoidance of health care due to phobia causes significant negative impact on health outcomes. Hence early diagnosis and urgent management of blood-injection-injury phobia in children is essential.
Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures

This paper discusses the fronting of a focal constituent to a clause-initial position which, in various languages, is associated with an import of unexpectedness. We provide prosodic and syntactic evidence from Italian showing that this phenomenon has distinctive grammatical properties with respect to other instances of “focus fronting”. We argue that the fronted constituent bears narrow focus, and that the unexpectedness import conveys that the asserted proposition is less likely than one or more distinct focus alternatives (see Grosz 2011). We characterize this import as a conventional implicature, and we argue that likelihood is interpreted with respect to an informative modal base which is shared by the conversational community (the context set). We show that the unexpectedness import expressed by a speaker can be accepted or rejected by the other discourse participants: thus, it qualifies as an evaluative commitment of the speaker and, when accepted by the interlocutors, it can give rise to a shared evaluation. http://dx.doi. org/10.3765/sp.9. 3 BibTeX info
Organizational Conditioning of Job Satisfaction. A Model of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is an important predictor of job switching. Knowledge of the predictors of job satisfaction offers business owners and management staff the ability to shape the work environment so that the most valuable, loyal, and experienced employees can be retained in the company. The objective of this project is to test a model of job satisfaction based on person-organization fit (P-O fit), perceived organizational support (POS), and perceived supervisor support (PSS). The study examines whether PSS directly relates to employee job satisfaction or whether P-O fit or POS mediate in this relationship. Additionally, it is examined whether POS is a moderating variable between P-O fit and job satisfaction. The study was conducted using a sample 484 employees of a company in the IT sector. It turns out that POS, and P-O fit to the organization are variables that act as partial mediator between PSS and job satisfaction. The relationship between PSS and POS is both direct and indirect. P-O fit is a partial mediator of this relationship, while POS is both a partial mediator and a moderator between P-O fit and job satisfaction. Among employees who POS to be high, consistency between an employee’s and the organization’s values is indirectly connected with job satisfaction, whereas among employees who POS to be low, this relationship is both direct and indirect. In their operations, employers should focus on shaping managers’ attitudes towards their subordinates in an appropriate direction, as managers significantly influence employees’ perceived organizational support and job satisfaction.
Factors affecting seismic moment release rates in subduction zones

The amount of shallow seismic activity in subduction zones varies greatly from region to region. We quantify this seismicity by calculating seismic moment release rates and seismic slip rates for 24 subduction zones. To calculate the moment release, we sum the seismic moment for all interplate thrust-type events with surface wave magnitude Ms≥7.0, occurring from 1904 to 1980. We present a time history plot of the seismic moment release for each subduction zone; these exhibit the differences in the seismic release patterns. For subduction zones where the time window of our study is not representative, the total moment release is corrected using information on repeat times. The moment release rates are compared with various subduction parameters in order to determine which factors influence the degree of coupling. These parameters include the age of the subducting lithosphere, absolute velocities of the upper and subducting plates, convergence velocity, and length, maximum depth, and dip of the Wadati-Benioff zone. The moment release rate decreases as the age of the subducting lithosphere increases, when the zones belonging to a single subducting plate are considered. This age versus moment release relation is consistent for the zones in which the Pacific, Cocos, Philippine Sea, and Indian plates are subducting. The moment release rates for the subduction zones in which the Pacific plate is subducting are much higher than for zones of other plates with similar age. The age versus moment release relation holds among the zones which belong to one subducting plate; however, zones with similar ages but belonging to different plates do not have the same moment release rates. This suggests that within a single plate the age is the dominating factor affecting the strength of seismic coupling but that each plate as a whole has a characteristic moment release budget. Zones with retreating upper plates tend to have lower moment release rates. The moment release rate does not increase with convergence velocity; no simple relationship was found between these two parameters. The moment release rate depends most clearly on the age of the subducting lithosphere and the absolute velocity of the upper plate. These are the two independent subduction zone parameters among the variables considered. The other variables depend on these two parameters.
Experimental field cultivation of in vitro propagated high-yield varieties of Tropaeolum majus L

About 10,000 mass propagated clonal progenies of the medicinal plant Tropaeolum majus L. had been cultivated in an experimental field trial to analyze the large scale cultivation of nasturtium-plants for pharmaceutical utilization. The glucotropaeolin contents of the eight Tropaeolum -clones, which had been established and propagated by in vitro -culture techniques, had been monitored and compared with unselected plants from commercial seed mixtures ( sm -plants). Whereas the intra-clonal variation of the glucosinolate levels was significantly lower than the variability of the sm-plants, the glucotropaeolin content in the clonal progenies was markedly lower than in both, in the clonal mother plants as well as in the sm -plants. The proposed explanation for this phenomenon is based on the fact that the genetically identical cloned plants reveal only a very narrow phenotypical amplitude, which accordingly resulted in designated glucosinolate levels due to the certain environmental situations. However, under changing conditions, the corresponding glucotropaeolin content might be much lower. In contrast, the sm -plants reveal – due to the strong genetic heterogeneity – a much broader phenotypical amplitude of their physiological characteristics. Consequently, under changing growth conditions various individual plants may accumulate high amounts of glucotropaeolin. These coherences explain both, firstly, the finding that the clonal mother plants revealed very high glucotropaeolin levels under the certain – maybe spatial limited cultivation conditions – whereas their progenies accumulate far less glucosinolates; and secondly, that the average content in the sm-plants is higher than the mean content of the clonal progenies. These data suggest that the much cheaper growing of nasturtium plants from seeds should be favoured over the more sophisticated in vitro -propagation techniques. Anyhow, for industrial farming there is one great advantage for the usage of in vitro generated Tropaeolum plants: the selected, high glucosinolate -nasturtium clones all reveal a compact growth with short tendrils. Therefore, the mechanical harvest of the corresponding clonal progenies, is quite unproblematic in comparison to the difficile harvest of sm -plants, most exhibiting tendrils of several meters.