Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the LPJmL4-SPITFIRE vegetation-fire model for South
America using satellite data

Abstract. Vegetation fires influence global vegetation distribution, ecosystem functioning, and global carbon cycling. Specifically in South America, changes in fire occurrence together with land use change accelerate ecosystem fragmentation and increase the vulnerability of tropical forests and savannas to climate change. Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) are valuable tools to estimate the effects of fire on ecosystem functioning and carbon cycling under future climate changes. However, fire-enabled DGVMs have partly poor performances in capturing the magnitude, spatial patterns, and temporal dynamics of burnt area as observed by satellites. As fire is controlled by the interplay of weather conditions, vegetation properties and human activities, fire modules in DGVMs can be improved in various aspects. As a starting point, we here focus on improving the controls of climate and hence fuel moisture content on fire danger in the LPJmL4-SPITFIRE DGVM in South America and especially for the Brazilian fire-prone biomes Caatinga and Cerrado. We therefore test two alternative model formulations (standard Nesterov index and a newly implemented water vapor pressure deficit) for climate effects on fire danger within a formal model-data integration setup where we estimate model parameters against satellite data sets of burnt area (GFED4) and above ground biomass of trees. Our results show that the optimized model improves the representation of spatial patterns and the seasonal to inter-annual dynamics of burnt area especially in the Cerrado/Caatinga region. In addition, the model improves the simulation of above-ground biomass and plant functional types (PFTs). We obtained the best results by using the water vapor pressure deficit (VPD) for the calculation of fire danger. The VPD includes, in comparison to the Nesterov index, a representation of the air humidity and the vegetation density. This work shows the successful application of a systematic model-data integration setup, as well as the integration of a new fire danger formulation, in order to optimize a process-based fire-enabled DGVM. It further highlights the potential of this approach to achieve a new level of accuracy in comprehensive global fire modelling and prediction.
Bromocriptine and Dopamine Mediate Independent and Synergistic Apoptotic Pathways in Pituitary Cells

Dopamine (DA) agonists are the primary treatment choice for prolactinoma, effectively suppressing prolactin expression and reducing tumour size. However, the intracellular pathway(s) through which either DA or its agonists impact on proliferation or lead to tumour shrinkage are incompletely understood. To identify the mediators in the apoptotic cascades after DA or DA agonist challenges we used a well-characterized model system, the rodent somatolactotroph cell line GH3. In these cells, we show that apoptosis induced by the DA agonist bromocriptine (BC), but not DA, is initiated through activation of the JNK pathway. However, both DA and BC activate the terminal effector caspase, caspase-3. Kinetic studies and chemical inhibitor co-incubation experiments support a role for JNK activation preceding caspase-9 activation in BC challenged cells, however, engagement of these mediators was not apparent in DA challenge cells. These studies suggest that apoptosis induced by BC or DA is mediated through distinct and independent pathways that converge with activation of the terminal caspase, caspase-3. These observations were further reinforced by our findings that DA and BC, in co-incubation experiments, synergistically induce apoptosis. These findings raise the possibility that drugs acting through the same pathway as DA may be clinically beneficial when combined with BC.
Derivation of Ca2+ signals from puff properties reveals that pathway function is robust against cell variability but sensitive for control

Ca2+ is a universal second messenger in eukaryotic cells transmitting information through sequences of concentration spikes. A prominent mechanism to generate these spikes involves Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ store via inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-sensitive channels. Puffs are elemental events of IP3-induced Ca2+ release through single clusters of channels. Intracellular Ca2+ dynamics are a stochastic system, but a complete stochastic theory has not been developed yet. We formulate the theory in terms of interpuff interval and puff duration distributions because, unlike the properties of individual channels, they can be measured in vivo. Our theory reproduces the typical spectrum of Ca2+ signals like puffs, spiking, and bursting in analytically treatable test cases as well as in more realistic simulations. We find conditions for spiking and calculate interspike interval (ISI) distributions. Signal form, average ISI and ISI distributions depend sensitively on the details of cluster properties and their spatial arrangement. In contrast to that, the relation between the average and the standard deviation of ISIs does not depend on cluster properties and cluster arrangement and is robust with respect to cell variability. It is controlled by the global feedback processes in the Ca2+ signaling pathway (e.g., via IP3-3-kinase or endoplasmic reticulum depletion). That relation is essential for pathway function because it ensures frequency encoding despite the randomness of ISIs and determines the maximal spike train information content. Hence, we find a division of tasks between global feedbacks and local cluster properties that guarantees robustness of function while maintaining sensitivity of control of the average ISI.
An Incomplete Markets Explanation of the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity Puzzle

A large literature attributes failure of uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) to the existence of a time‐varying risk premium. This paper presents a mechanism in a simple two‐country two‐good endowment economy with incomplete markets that generates sizeable deviations from UIP. In a parameterization where international wealth effects are important, liquidity constraints on an internationally traded bond and agents’ strong resulting precautionary motives successfully generates a time‐varying risk premium: countries that have accumulated large outstanding external positions have, being closer to the constraints, stronger precautionary motives and their asset carries a risk premium.
Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) Expression on Endothelial Cells in Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma: A Review of 70 cases and Tissue Microarray Analysis

Objective: To examine the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and its related molecules (cellular repressor of E1A-stimulated genes [CREG], osteopontin [OPN], proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src [c-Src], and vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]) in juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) and explore the correlation between clinical prognosis and HIF-1α expression. Methods: The study performed a retrospective review of the clinical records of patients with JNA treated between 2003 and 2007. Specimens were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for HIF-1α, CREG, OPN, c-Src, and VEGF expression, and microvessel density (MVD) was assessed by tissue microarray. The correlation between expression levels and clinicopathological features including age, tumor stage, intraoperative blood loss, and recurrence was analyzed. Results: HIF-1α, CREG, OPN, c-Src, and VEGF were upregulated in endothelial cells (ECs) of patients with JNA, and strong correlations in the expression of these molecules were observed. HIF-1α expression was higher in young patients (P = .032) and in recurrent cases (P = .01). Survival analysis showed that low HIF-1α levels in ECs predicted longer time to recurrence (log rank test P = .006). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that HIF-1α was a prognostic factor for recurrence (area under the curve = 0.690, P = .019). No correlation was found between the expression of molecules and Radkowski stage or intraoperative blood loss. Conclusion: In cases of JNA treated surgically, HIF-1α expression in ECs is a useful prognostic factor for tumor recurrence.
Second-language processing of English mass-count nouns by native-speakers of Korean

This study deals with the English mass-count distinction and how it cues meaning. 40 native speakers of Korean processed common nouns in their L2 (English) and in Korean. English native speakers performed the same English task. Anglophones individuated both count nouns and mass nouns denoting collections of entities. They were also acutely sensitive to plural-marking as a cue to the meaning of ambiguous “flexible” nouns denoting either bounded entities or substances. Koreans were target-like on 3 classes of English nouns but were insensitive to plural-marking on English flexible nouns. A comparison of English- and Korean-language tasks revealed that Koreans were using the same types of responses on semantically similar Korean and English items, consistent with the hypothesis that they use lexical semantics (not grammar) to arrive at an interpretation. Our study shows that Koreans perform at native-like levels on a judgement task involving the 3 most common classes of English nouns while remaining insensitive to English plural-marking. Learners do not make use of the mass-count syntax of English to interpret common nouns and appear not to have learnt plural-marking.
The Value of Export Incentives

This study develops a methodology for the comparative analysis of industry-specific export incentives. The impact of different export incentives extended to the textiles sector in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is analyzed using industry-level data for the years 2001–11. Our findings show that Bangladesh operates a highly export-oriented regime – of the three countries, the value of its export incentives is highest. The study suggests that, in order to maintain its competitiveness in textile exports, Pakistan needs to enhance its export incentives, particularly for value-added textiles.
The Importance of Reported Sleep Symptoms and Mental Health Problems in Pediatric Age: A Study in Primary Care

Background: The persistence of sleep problems has been documented in several studies and it has been found that early sleep problems may predict emotional and behavioral problems at later ages. Despite growing interest in the epidemiological study of mental health in the pediatric population, there are no studies in Latin America that have addressed the coexistence of sleep disturbances and psychopathological problems in children and adolescents seeking primary health care services. Objective: Determine the frequency of reports of sleep disturbances, their diagnostic efficiency and association with other psychopathological symptoms and syndromes in a cohort of the clinical population of children and adolescents seeking treatment at a primary health care center in Mexico City. Method: Information was obtained from 846 consecutive attendants aged 4 to 16 years. Subject to their informed consent, the children’s parents answered the Brief Screening and Diagnostic Questionnaire as an initial evaluation of a follow-up study. The report of frequent sleep problems and frequent nightmares were asked in the questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were used to study the strength of the association between the two symptoms of sleep problems and the rest of the symptoms investigated using the questionnaire as well as for the psychopathological syndromes obtained through the questionnaire. Results: A robust association was found between sleep disturbances and caseness. Sleep disturbances were associated with other non-specific manifestations such as irritability and physical complaints without a medical diagnosis, and mainly with anxiety syndromes. Nightmares on pre-puberal age may be indicative of possible (severe) early onset affective disorders. Conclusion: Sleep symptoms throughout the pediatric age should be subject to clinical monitoring since their presence is associated with potential neuro-developmental disorders and other central nervous system conditions.
Audit of healthy lifestyle behaviors among patients with diabetes and hypertension attending ambulatory health care services in the United Arab Emirates

Background: Knowledge is limited on healthy lifestyle behaviors and their associations with glycemic and blood pressure control among patients with diabetes and hypertension in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Objective: To examine healthy lifestyle behaviors and their associations with glycemic and blood pressure control among patients with hypertension and diabetes, and improvement after the implementation of an intervention in a Chronic Disease Program. Subjects: All patients with diabetes or hypertension attending seven primary health care centers in Al Ain, UAE during a designated three-week period in July and August 2009. Method: Nurses conducted an audit of patients’ adherence to health lifestyle behaviors related to meal planning, smoking, exercise, blood glucose and blood pressure monitoring at home, and foot and eye exams in the Chronic Disease Program clinics after a self-management intervention. A perceived knowledge score and discussion scores (based on the frequency the patients discuss diabetes and hypertension management issues with their providers) were calculated. Data were analyzed using linear regression and odds ratios. Results: Patients reported acceptable rates of adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors, including a low smoking rate (6% in males), following a meal plan and exercising (88.6% and 78.7%, respectively). Among patients with diabetes, 59% tested their blood glucose levels at least once a week compared to only 15.3% of those with hypertension monitoring their blood pressure levels at home. Only 33% of the participants were following the current physical activity recommendations. Healthy lifestyle behaviors fell into the following clusters: meal planning with exercise (odds ratio (OR): 8.9 [3.3–23.7]), meal planning with foot exams (OR: 10.6 [3.4–32.9]) and exercising and foot exams (OR: 5.2 [1.9–14.2]). Conclusion: This practice-based audit provides an essential assessment for future interventions to improve adherence to healthy life style behaviors among patients with diabetes and hypertension attending primary health clinics in the UAE.
Optimisation of Savannah Land Cover Characterisation with Optical and SAR Data

Accurately mapping savannah land cover at the regional scale can provide useful input to policy decision making efforts regarding, for example, bush control or overgrazing, as well as to global carbon emissions models. Recent attempts have employed Earth observation data, either from optical or radar sensors, and most commonly from the dry season when the spectral difference between woody vegetation, crops and grasses is maximised. By far the most common practice has been the use of Landsat optical bands, but some studies have also used vegetation indices or SAR data. However, conflicting reports with regards to the effectiveness of the different approaches have emerged, leaving the respective land cover mapping community with unclear methodological pathways to follow. We address this issue by employing Landsat and Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR) data to assess the accuracy of mapping the main savannah land cover types of woody vegetation, grassland, cropland and non-vegetated land. The study area is in southern Africa, covering approximately 44,000 km2. We test the performance of 15 different models comprised of combinations of optical and radar data from the dry and wet seasons. Our results show that a number of models perform well and very similarly. The highest overall accuracy is achieved by the model that incorporates both optical and synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data from both dry and wet seasons with an overall accuracy of 91.1% (±1.7%): this is almost a 10% improvement from using only the dry season Landsat data (81.7 ± 2.3%). The SAR-only models were capable of mapping woody cover effectively, achieving similar or lower omission and commission errors than the optical models, but other classes were detected with lower accuracies. Our main conclusion is that the combination of metrics from different sensors and seasons improves results and should be the preferred methodological pathway for accurate savannah land cover mapping, especially now with the availability of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Our findings can provide much needed assistance to land cover monitoring efforts to savannahs in general, and in particular to southern African savannahs, where a number of land cover change processes have been related with the observed land degradation in the region.
Reducing the stigma of mental illness

This paper presents a narrative review of anti-stigma programming using examples from different countries to understand and describe current best practices in the field. Results highlight the importance of targeting the behavioural outcomes of the stigmatization process (discrimination and social inequity), which is consistent with rights-based or social justice models that emphasize social and economic equity for people with disabilities (such as equitable access to services, education, work, etc.). They also call into question large public education approaches in favour of more targeted contact-based interventions. Finally, to add to the research base on best practices, anti-stigma programs are encouraged to create alliances with university researchers in order to critically evaluate their activities and build better, evidence informed practices.
Radiological Studies Reveal Radial Differences in the Architecture of the Polysaccharide Capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans

ABSTRACT The polysaccharide capsule of the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is an important virulence factor, but relatively little is known about its architecture. We applied a combination of radiological, chemical, and serological methods to investigate the structure of this polysaccharide capsule. Exposure of C. neoformans cells to gamma radiation, dimethyl sulfoxide, or radiolabeled monoclonal antibody removed a significant part of the capsule. Short intervals of gamma irradiation removed the outer portion of the cryptococcal capsule without killing cells, which could subsequently repair their capsules. Survival analysis of irradiated wild-type, acapsular mutant, and complemented mutant strains demonstrated that the capsule contributed to radioprotection and had a linear attenuation coefficient higher than that of lead. The capsule portions remaining after dimethyl sulfoxide or gamma radiation treatment were comparable in size, 65 to 66 μm3, and retained immunoreactivity for a monoclonal antibody to glucuronoxylomannan. Simultaneous or sequential treatment of the cells with dimethyl sulfoxide and radiation removed the remaining capsule so that it was not visible by light microscopy. The capsule could be protected against radiation by either of the free radical scavengers ascorbic acid and sorbitol. Sugar composition analysis of polysaccharide removed from the outer and inner parts of the capsule revealed significant differences in glucuronic acid and xylose molar ratios, implying differences in the chemical structure of the constituent polysaccharides. Our results provide compelling evidence for the existence of two zones in the C. neoformans capsule that differ in susceptibility to dimethyl sulfoxide and radiation and, possibly, in packing and composition.
Oxidative stress and the muscle reflex in heart failure

Muscle contraction stimulates thin fibre muscle afferents and evokes a reflex increase in blood pressure. In heart failure (HF) this reflex is accentuated. Of note, superoxide and other reactive oxygen species are increased in HF. In this report, we tested the hypothesis that excess superoxide contributes to the exaggerated muscle reflex in HF. HF was induced in rats by coronary artery ligation. Electrically induced 30 s hindlimb muscle contraction in decerebrate rats with myocardial infarction (MI) (left ventricular fractional shortening (FS) = 24 ± 1%; n= 15) evoked larger (P < 0.05) increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) as compared to control rats (FS = 47 ± 1%; n= 14). In the MI rats, the pressor and RSNA responses to contraction were reduced by intra‐arterial injection into the hindlimb circulation of tempol (10 mg), a superoxide dismutase mimetic (ΔMAP: 22 ± 2 vs. 11 ± 1 mmHg; ∫ΔRSNA: 1032 ± 204 vs. 431 ± 73 arbitrary units (a.u.); before vs. after tempol; P < 0.05). Tempol also attenuated the RSNA response to 1 min intermittent (1–4 s stimulation to relaxation) bouts of static contraction in the MI rats (116 ± 17 vs. 72 ± 11 a.u.; P < 0.05; n= 16). In the control rats, tempol had no effect on these responses. These results suggest that excess superoxide in HF sensitizes mechanically sensitive muscle afferents engaged during contraction. We hypothesize that oxidative stress contributes to the exaggerated muscle reflex in HF.
MAC Protocols for Wake-Up Radio: Principles, Modeling and Performance Analysis

In wake-up radio (WuR) enabled wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a node triggers a data communication at any time instant by sending a wake-up call (WuC) in an on-demand manner. Such wake-up operations eliminate idle listening and overhearing burden for energy consumption in duty-cycled WSNs. Although WuR exhibits its superiority for light traffic, it is inefficient to handle high traffic load in a network. This paper makes an effort towards improving the performance of WuR under diverse load conditions with a twofold contribution. We first propose three protocols that support variable traffic loads by enabling respectively clear channel assessment (CCA), backoff plus CCA, and adaptive WuC transmissions. These protocols provide various options for achieving reliable data transmission, low latency, and energy efficiency for ultralow power consumption applications. Then, we develop an analytical framework based on an M/G/1/2 queue to evaluate the performance of these WuR protocols. Discrete-event simulations validate the accuracy of the analytical models.