Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of tidal phase on patterns of ichthyoplankton abundance in the vicinity of an estuarine front, Botany Bay, Australia

Abstract The influence of oceanography on abundance patterns of ichthyoplankton was compared at different phases of the tide in the vicinity of an estuarine front in Botany Bay, Australia. Fronts were observed at high, ebb, low and flood tides, but the most conspicuous colour discontinuities were found on ebb and flood tides. Greatest differences in water density were found across the frontal region on ebb tides. Because rainfall was low, density differences were primarily due to differences in temperature. There was strong advection of drogues into fronts and along frontal margins on ebb and flood tides. Thus, particles are ‘ jetted ’ along fronts. Total ichthyoplankton was always greatest in fronts on low tides (by 1·5–4 times). Rank abundance of ichthyoplankton in the plume, front and ocean, at other phases of the tide (flood, high, ebb), varied among days. Great differences in the composition of ichthyoplankton were found between the plume, front and ocean at all phases of the tide, but differences were most clear on ebb and low tides. Some types of fish were always most abundant in the front (e.g. Exocoetidae), or the plume and front (e.g. Gobiidae, Pleuronectidae, Hemiramphidae, Blenniidae), regardless of the state of the tide. Some pelagic juveniles were only found in tows that contained drift algae, especially in the front. The ‘ jetting ’ of larvae along topographically stable fronts on flood tides may influence spatial patterns of recruitment in bays and estuaries. The intensity of differences in water density across the frontal region, between the plume and ocean, did not explain the relative abundance patterns of fish. The authors argue that a combination of physical advection, responses by ichthyoplankton to the biological attributes of fronts (e.g. abundance of food), lag effects (i.e. response of plankton to aggregation), and differences in larval supply (from spawning) were responsible for patterns of abundance in different water masses at scales of less than 15 km.
Chronological Revision of Preclassic Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala: Implications for Social Processes in the Southern Maya Area

Kaminaljuyú has been an important focus of archaeological research since the 1930s, and the chronologies of various sites of the Southern Maya Area are linked directly to that of Kaminaljuyú. The implications of the currently prevalent chronology of Kaminaljuyú are that various social and political institutions developed significantly earlier in the Southern Maya Area than in the Maya Lowlands during the Preclassic period. Our evaluations of new and existing radiocarbon dates through the application ofBayesian statistics, as well as ceramic cross-dating, indicate that the Middle and Late Preclassic portions of the Kaminaljuyú sequence need to be shifted forward in time by roughly 300 years. Our chronological revisions have the following important implications: (1) many centers in the Southern Maya Area suffered political disruptions around 400 B.C., roughly at the same time as La Venta and the centers in the Grijalva region of Chiapas; and (2) highly centralized polities with divine rulers and their depictions on stelae developed roughly contemporaneously in the Southern Maya Area and in the Maya Lowlands after 100 B.C.
Comparison of caspofungin and amphotericin B for invasive candidiasis.

BACKGROUND Caspofungin is an echinocandin agent with fungicidal activity against candida species. We performed a double-blind trial to compare caspofungin with amphotericin B deoxycholate for the primary treatment of invasive candidiasis. METHODS We enrolled patients who had clinical evidence of infection and a positive culture for candida species from blood or another site. Patients were stratified according to the severity of disease, as indicated by the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) score, and the presence or absence of neutropenia and were randomly assigned to receive either caspofungin or amphotericin B. The study was designed to compare the efficacy of caspofungin with that of amphotericin B in patients with invasive candidiasis and in a subgroup with candidemia. RESULTS Of the 239 patients enrolled, 224 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis. Base-line characteristics, including the percentage of patients with neutropenia and the mean APACHE II score, were similar in the two treatment groups. A modified intention-to-treat analysis showed that the efficacy of caspofungin was similar to that of amphotericin B, with successful outcomes in 73.4 percent of the patients treated with caspofungin and in 61.7 percent of those treated with amphotericin B (difference after adjustment for APACHE II score and neutropenic status, 12.7 percentage points; 95.6 percent confidence interval, -0.7 to 26.0). An analysis of patients who met prespecified criteria for evaluation showed that caspofungin was superior, with a favorable response in 80.7 percent of patients, as compared with 64.9 percent of those who received amphotericin B (difference, 15.4 percentage points; 95.6 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 29.7). Caspofungin was as effective as amphotericin B in patients who had candidemia, with a favorable response in 71.7 percent and 62.8 percent of patients, respectively (difference, 10.0 percentage points; 95.0 percent confidence interval, -4.5 to 24.5). There were significantly fewer drug-related adverse events in the caspofungin group than in the amphotericin B group. CONCLUSIONS Caspofungin is at least as effective as amphotericin B for the treatment of invasive candidiasis and, more specifically, candidemia.
Prospective study of dietary carbohydrates, glycemic index, glycemic load, and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in middle-aged Chinese women.

BACKGROUND Much uncertainty exists about the role of dietary glycemic index and glycemic load in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, especially in populations that traditionally subsist on a diet high in carbohydrates. METHODS We observed a cohort of 64,227 Chinese women with no history of diabetes or other chronic disease at baseline for 4.6 years. In-person interviews were conducted to collect data on dietary habits, physical activity, and other relevant information using a validated questionnaire. Incident diabetes cases were identified via in-person follow-up. Associations between dietary carbohydrate intake, glycemic index, and glycemic load and diabetes incidence were evaluated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS We identified 1,608 incident cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus in 297,755 person-years of follow-up. Dietary carbohydrate intake and consumption of rice were positively associated with risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. The multivariable-adjusted estimates of relative risk comparing the highest vs the lowest quintiles of intake were 1.28 (95% confidence interval, 1.09-1.50) for carbohydrates and 1.78 (95% confidence interval, 1.48-2.15) for rice. The relative risk for increasing quintiles of intake was 1.00, 1.04, 1.02, 1.09, and 1.21 (95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.43) for dietary glycemic index and 1.00, 1.06, 0.97, 1.23, and 1.34 (95% confidence interval, 1.13-1.58) for dietary glycemic load. CONCLUSION High intake of foods with a high glycemic index and glycemic load, especially rice, the main carbohydrate-contributing food in this population, may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese women.
OmniLedger: A Secure, Scale-Out, Decentralized Ledger via Sharding

Designing a secure permissionless distributed ledger (blockchain) that performs on par with centralized payment processors, such as Visa, is a challenging task. Most existing distributed ledgers are unable to scale-out, i.e., to grow their total processing capacity with the number of validators; and those that do, compromise security or decentralization. We present OmniLedger, a novel scale-out distributed ledger that preserves longterm security under permissionless operation. It ensures security and correctness by using a bias-resistant public-randomness protocol for choosing large, statistically representative shards that process transactions, and by introducing an efficient cross-shard commit protocol that atomically handles transactions affecting multiple shards. OmniLedger also optimizes performance via parallel intra-shard transaction processing, ledger pruning via collectively-signed state blocks, and low-latency "trust-but-verify" validation for low-value transactions. An evaluation of our experimental prototype shows that OmniLedger’s throughput scales linearly in the number of active validators, supporting Visa-level workloads and beyond, while confirming typical transactions in under two seconds.
Correlation between Zinc Level in Hippocampal Mossy Fibers and Spatial Memory in Aged Rats

The importance of zinc for development and function of the central nervous system (CNS) is well documented. In the brain, there are two operationally distinct pools of the substance:' the enzymatic, or general metabolic, pool, and the ionic pool. The enzymatic zinc, which is firmly incorporated into the structure of zinc metalloenzymes, plays no unique role in neural tissue. The ionic zinc (Zn"). which is the fraction of tissue zinc that can be demonstrated histochemically, appears, on the other hand, to be intimately associated with the secretory-signaling functions of certain neur0ns.I This pool of zinc, therefore, is particularly important from a neurobiological point of view. The highest levels of the ion occur in the hippocampal mossy fiber (MF) pathway. This system forms a dense plexus of terminals on apical dendrites of CA3 pyramidal neurons and is involved in the modulation of processes related to spatial learning and memory.2 The synaptic terminals of the mossy fibers are uniquely rich in Zn2+, which is actively taken up3 and stored in a pool of synaptic vesicles. Stimulation of the MF can induce Zn r e l e a ~ e , ~ suggesting that the ion may affect neuro t ransmi~s ion . ~~ In particular, it has been observed that a reduction of the hippocampal Zn levels, obtained with chelating agents, can induce in adult animals spatial memory deficits.I During aging, the decrease of zinc bioavailability ,' as measured by the decrement in serum Zn levels, could therefore affect CNS functions by altering the hippocampal pool of Zn*+. Since aged rats develop spatial memory impairment to a variable degree, in this study particular attention was devoted to the relationship between memory performance and hippocampal zinc levels.
From Linear Separability to Unimodality: A Hierarchy of Pseudo-Boolean Functions

When an injective pseudo-Boolean function $f:B^n \to \mathbb{R}$ is minimized, where $B^n = \{ 0,1 \}^n$ is the set of vertices of the unit-hypercube, it is natural to consider so-called greedy vertex-following algorithms. These algorithms construct a sequence of neighbouring (Hamming distance 1) vertices with decreasing f-value. The question arises as to when such algorithms will find the global optimum given any starting point. This paper describes a hierarchy of such classes of functions that are shown to strictly contain each other. These classes are, in increasing order of generality, the threshold, the saddle-free, the pseudomodular, the completely unimodal, the unimodal, and the unimin (respectively, unimax) functions. Some considerations as to the complexity of the above-mentioned class of algorithms are also made.
Envelope gene sequences which encode the gp52 protein of spleen focus-forming virus are required for the induction of erythroid cell proliferation

A series of insertion-deletion mutants was constructed in a molecularly cloned DNA copy of the Friend strain of spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV). The mutants were produced by inserting a synthetic oligonucleotide linker containing the recognition sequence of SalI endonuclease into several different locations of the SFFV DNA. Three classes of mutants were isolated: insertion-deletion mutants in the 5' half of the SFFV genome, in the long terminal repeat of the SFFV genome, and in the env gene of the SFFV genome. The env gene mutant has a deletion of sequences shared in common between the env gene of SFFV and the env genes of mink cell focus-inducing murine leukemia viruses. From analyses of the biological activity of the various mutants and a biologically active subgenomic SFFV DNA fragment described herein, we can deduce that the coding sequence encompassing the env gene of SFFV is required for the biological activity. This region, required for the pathogenic phenotype, cannot be larger than 1.5 kilobase pairs, a size only slightly more than that sufficient to encode the nonglycosylated precursor of the gp52 env gene product.
Endogenous hyaluronan in the normal and traumatized rabbit iris.

PURPOSE Hyaluronan concentration in the iris tissue after iridectomy was studied in order to establish the influence of trauma on the production of hyaluronan in the anterior chamber of the eye and whether the iris participates in this process or not. METHOD Hyaluronan was measured with a radiometric assay at different time points after surgery and identified with specific histochemical staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The concentration of hyaluronan in iris tissue peaked two days after surgery, reaching an average of 115.3 (S.E.M.:+/-12.2) microg/g. It then decreased slowly to almost normal values after 3 to 5 weeks. Histochemistry demonstrated the most intense hyaluronan staining in the iris stroma and in iridial processes around the iridectomy two days after the operation. Our findings indicate in situ synthesis of hyaluronan in the iris tissue.
Foetal growth and duration of gestation relative to water chlorination

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of exposure to chlorination byproducts during pregnancy on foetal growth and duration of pregnancy. METHODS A population based study was conducted of 137 145 Norwegian children born alive in 1993–5. Information was obtained from the Norwegian medical birth registry, waterwork registry, and social science data service. The outcomes of interest were birth weight, low birth weight (<2500 g), small for gestational age, and preterm delivery (gestational age <37 weeks). The exposure assessment was based on quality of drinking water in the municipality where the mother lived during pregnancy. Municipal exposure was calculated with information on chlorination and the amount of natural organic matter in raw water measured as colour in mg precipitate/l. The main exposure category was high colour and chlorination, which was contrasted with the reference category of low colour and no chlorination. RESULTS In logistic regression analysis adjusting for confounding, the risks of low birth weight (odds ratio (OR) 0.97, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.89 to 1.06) and small for gestational age (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.10) were not related to exposure. Contrary to the hypothesis, the risk of preterm delivery was slightly lower among the exposed than the reference category (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.99). The risks of the studied outcomes were similar in newborn infants exposed to high colour drinking water without chlorination and chlorinated drinking water with low colour compared with the reference category. CONCLUSIONS The present study did not provide evidence that prenatal exposure to chlorination byproducts at the relatively low concentrations encountered in Norwegian drinking water increases the risk of the studied outcomes.
Presence and localization of T‐cell subsets in relation to melanocyte differentiation antigen expression and tumour regression as assessed by immunohistochemistry and molecular analysis of microdissected T cells

Melanoma‐associated antigens may be the driving force behind the lymphocytic infiltrates in melanomas and the occurrence of melanoma regression. To investigate the clinical relevance of melanoma differentiation antigens (MDAs) as T‐cell targets, the relationship between the presence and localization of T‐cell subsets and the expression of MDAs was studied by immunohistochemistry and the diversity of CD8+ T cells in regressive melanomas was assessed using laser‐assisted microdissection. While MDA expression as well as T‐cell subset distribution, as assessed by immunohistochemical analysis, was heterogeneous within and between lesions, they were histologically independent phenomena. In four lesions studied in detail by PCR analysis of microdissected T cells, a limited T‐cell diversity and evidence for clonally expanded tumour infiltrating lymphocytes were found. However, no major differences in T‐cell diversity, as assessed by PCR analysis, between peri‐and intra‐tumoural areas became apparent, this despite the known clinical significance of the specific localization of a T‐cell infiltrate. T cells of clonal origin did not show preferential localization to regressive tumour areas. Moreover, clonally related cells were found in two lesions with a non‐brisk infiltrate, while in two lesions with a brisk infiltrate (clinically, a good prognostic factor) no evidence for clonally expanded tumour infiltrating lymphocytes was found. These data support the notion that specific immune reactivity and homing of specific cells to the tumour can occur in melanoma patients. However, they also show that the presence of clonally expanded T cells in the tumour is not necessarily associated with an effective anti‐tumour immune response and may, for instance, represent regulatory cells. It appears that the clinical impact of an anti‐tumour immune response is largely decided at the tumour site, where micro‐environmental conditions dictate the functional state of the T cells. Full understanding of these processes can only be achieved by performing more dynamic analyses of the local host–tumour interactions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Challenges faced by small to medium scale enterprises: a case study of Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe

The study sought to assess the challenges faced by Small to Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe using data from 2010-2012.The other objectives were to discover whether SMEs were getting loans from financial institutions, to examine the impact of government policies on SMEs and to come up with strategies that lead to a vibrant SMEs sector. The descriptive survey method was used to elicit information from the respondents and a case study approach was used. The study was confined to Chitungwiza area where a sample of 100 SMEs was adopted. Data was obtained through interviews and distribution of questionnaires. From the research findings, it emerged that SMEs are not getting enough financial support from financial institutions. The study also revealed that an unstable macroeconomic environment was hindering SMEs sector growth. The study recommended that the government should set up a loan guarantee scheme and SMEs should formalize their activities to get financial support from the financial institutions.
Cascading effects of host size and host plant species on parasitoid resource allocation

1. The bottom‐up factors that determine parasitoid host use are an important area of research in insect ecology. Host size is likely to be a primary cue for foraging parasitoids due to its potential influence on offspring development time, the risk of multiparasitism, and host immunocompetence. Host size is mediated in part by host‐plant traits that influence herbivore growth and potentially affect a herbivore's quality as a host for parasitoids.
Relationship between observational learning and health belief with physical activity among adolescents girl in Isfahan, Iran

Background: Physical activities among adolescents affects health during pubescence and adolescence and decrease in physical activities among adolescents has become a global challenge. The aim of the present study was to define the relation between the level of physical activity among adolescent girls and their health beliefs as personal factor and level of observational learning as environmental factor. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 400 students aged from 11 to 19 years in Isfahan, Iran. Information regarding the duration of physical activity with moderate/severe intensity was measured in four dimensions of leisure time (exercising and hiking), daily activities, and transportation-related activities using the International Physical Activity questionnaire. Health belief structures included perceived sensitivity, intensity of perceived threat, perceived benefits, and barriers and self-efficacy; observational learning was measured using a researcher-made questionnaire. Results: Results showed that perceived barriers, observational learning, and level of self-efficacy were related to the level of physical activity in all dimensions. In addition, the level of physical activity at leisure time, transportation, and total physical activity were dependent on the intensity of perceived threats (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study showed that the intensity of perceived threats, perceived barriers and self-efficacy structures, and observational learning are some of the factors related to physical activity among adolescent girls, and it is possible that by focusing on improving these variables through interventional programs physical activity among adolescent girls can be improved.
A temporal analysis shows major histocompatibility complex loci in the Scandinavian wolf population are consistent with neutral evolution

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has an integral role in the immune system, and hence diversity at its genes may be of particular importance for the health of populations. In large populations, balancing selection maintains diversity in MHC genes, but theoretical expectations indicate that this form of selection is absent or inefficient in small populations. We examine the level of diversity at three MHC class II loci in the wolf population of Scandinavia, a population naturally recolonized with a genetic contribution from as few as three founders, and in four neighbouring wolf populations. In the Scandinavian wolf population, two alleles were found for each locus and the distribution of alleles is compatible with their linkage into two haplotypes. Changes in the level of heterozygosity over time since recolonization demonstrate the effects of the proposed arrival of an immigrant wolf. The maintenance of diversity is shown to be compatible with a neutral, random allocation of alleles, in conjunction with crossing between packs. A total of 15 DRB1, seven DQA and 10 DQB1 alleles are found in four neighbouring wolf populations, with substantial sharing across populations. Even in these larger populations, bottlenecks and fragmentation with consequent genetic drift are likely to have resulted in few indicators for balancing selection and significant differentiation of populations.