Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term trends in coast live oak and tanoak stands affected by Phytophthora ramorum canker (Sudden Oak Death)

Permanent plots were established in 2000 to examine how tree and site factors affect risk of Phytophthora ramorum stem canker (sudden oak death [SOD]) and determine how affected stands change over time due to disease. P. ramorum canker was prevalent in the sampled coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) or tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) stands in 2000. In September of each year from 2000 through 2008, we collected data on P. ramorum symptoms, tree condition, tree failures, regeneration, and various other factors in 150 circular plots (8 m radius) at 12 locations in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties. Disease development patterns over time differed between tanoak and coast live oak populations in the study (fig. 1). The increase in disease incidence between 2000 and 2008 was greater for tanoaks (31 to 49 percent) than for coast live oak (23 to 33 percent). Disease incidence in coast live oaks increased strongly from 2005 through 2007. This increase was associated with abundant late season rains that provided favorable conditions for disease spread in spring 2005 and spring 2006. Tanoak showed a less much pronounced increase in disease incidence for these two years. Based on time lags between favorable conditions for infection and the appearance of visible symptoms, most coast live oaks had latent periods from 0.5 to 1 year, whereas the minimum latent period in tanoaks was commonly about a year.
Variant 3: Pregnant woman. Right lower quadrant pain, fever, leukocytosis. Suspected appendicitis. Initial imaging.

Procedure Appropriateness Category Relative Radiation Level CT abdomen and pelvis with IV contrast Usually Appropriate ☢☢☢ US abdomen May Be Appropriate O US pelvis May Be Appropriate O MRI abdomen and pelvis without and with IV contrast May Be Appropriate O MRI abdomen and pelvis without IV contrast May Be Appropriate O CT abdomen and pelvis without IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢ Radiography abdomen Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢ Fluoroscopy contrast enema Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ CT abdomen and pelvis without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢☢ WBC scan abdomen and pelvis Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢☢
Can Hearts and Minds Be Bought? The Economics of Counterinsurgency in Iraq

We develop and test an economic theory of insurgency motivated by the informal literature and by recent military doctrine. We model a three-way contest between violent rebels, a government seeking to minimize violence by mixing service provision and coercion, and civilians deciding whether to share information about insurgents. We test the model using panel data from Iraq on violence against Coalition and Iraqi forces, reconstruction spending, and community characteristics (sectarian status, socioeconomic grievances, and natural resource endowments). Our results support the theory’s predictions: improved service provision reduces insurgent violence, particularly for smaller projects and since the “surge” began in 2007.
International Reserves and Rollover Risk

We study the optimal accumulation of international reserves in a quantitative model of sovereign default with long-term debt and a risk-free asset. Keeping higher levels of reserves provides a hedge against rollover risk, but this is costly because using reserves to pay down debt allows the government to reduce sovereign spreads. Our model, parameterized to mimic salient features of a typical emerging economy, can account for significant holdings of international reserves, and the larger accumulation of both debt and reserves in periods of low spreads and high income. We also show that income windfalls, improved policy frameworks, and an increase in the importance of rollover risk imply increases in the optimal holdings of reserves that are consistent with the upward trend in reserves in emerging economies. It is essential for our results that debt maturity exceeds one period. (JEL E21, E43, F32, F34, H63)
International Trade and Macroeconomic Dynamics with Heterogeneous Firms

We develop a stochastic, general equilibrium, two-country model of trade and macroeconomic dynamics. Productivity differs across individual, monopolistically competitive firms in each country. Firms face a sunk entry cost in the domestic market and both fixed and per-unit export costs. Only relatively more productive firms export. Exogenous shocks to aggregate productivity and entry or trade costs induce firms to enter and exit both their domestic and export markets, thus altering the composition of consumption baskets across countries over time. In a world of flexible prices, our model generates endogenously persistent deviations from PPP that would not exist absent our microeconomic structure with heterogeneous firms. It provides an endogenous, microfounded explanation for a Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson effect in response to aggregate productivity differentials and deregulation. Finally, the model successfully matches several moments of U.S. and international business cycles.
Continuity and Discontinuity in Land Use Changes: A Case Study in Northern Lao Villages

This article highlights land use changes of composite swidden farming villages in the northern part of Laos under the drastic transformation of political and economic systems at national and regional levels, including civil war, independence, implementation of a planned economy and the introduction of a marketoriented economy, during the last several decades. Interpretation of remotely sensed images and farming system analysis of the selected study villages revealed the extensive development of agriculture coupled with a rapid deforestation in the 1970s and the early 80s and the intensification of land use and commercialization of farming in the following period. These findings suggest two kinds of mechanisms of land use changes: continuous and gradual changes under a social regime and discontinuous and drastic changes when the social regime collapses. This article concludes that the latter mechanism is much more destructive and exploitative than the former and dominates the long-term tendency of land use changes.
Order Matters: Children's Evaluation of Underinformative Teachers Depends on Context.

The ability to evaluate "sins of omission"-true but pragmatically misleading, underinformative pedagogy-is critical for learning. This study reveals a developmental change in children's evaluation of underinformative teachers and investigates the nature of their limitations. Participants rated a fully informative teacher and an underinformative teacher in two different orders. Six- and 7-year-olds (N = 28) successfully distinguished the teachers regardless of the order (Experiment 1), whereas 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 82) succeeded only when the fully informative teacher came first (Experiments 2 and 3). After seeing both teachers, 4-year-olds (N = 32) successfully preferred the fully informative teacher (Experiment 4). These results are discussed in light of developmental work in pragmatic implicature, suggesting that young children might struggle with spontaneously generating relevant alternatives for evaluating underinformative pedagogy.
A Drosophila Model to Image Phagosome Maturation

Phagocytosis involves the internalization of extracellular material by invagination of the plasma membrane to form intracellular vesicles called phagosomes, which have functions that include pathogen degradation. The degradative properties of phagosomes are thought to be conferred by sequential fusion with endosomes and lysosomes; however, this maturation process has not been studied in vivo. We employed Drosophila hemocytes, which are similar to mammalian professional macrophages, to establish a model of phagosome maturation. Adult Drosophila females, carrying transgenic Rab7-GFP endosome and Lamp1-GFP lysosome markers, were injected with E. coli DH5α and the hemocytes were collected at 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes after infection. In wild-type females, E. coli were detected within enlarged Rab7-GFP positive phagosomes at 15 to 45 minutes after infection; and were also observed in enlarged Lamp1-GFP positive phagolysosomes at 45 minutes. Two-photon imaging of hemocytes in vivo confirmed this vesicle morphology, including enlargement of Rab7-GFP and Lamp1-GFP structures that often appeared to protrude from hemocytes. The interaction of endosomes and lysosomes with E. coli phagosomes observed in Drosophila hemocytes was consistent with that previously described for phagosome maturation in human ex vivo macrophages. We also tested our model as a tool for genetic analysis using 14-3-3ε mutants, and demonstrated altered phagosome maturation with delayed E. coli internalization, trafficking and/or degradation. These findings demonstrate that Drosophila hemocytes provide an appropriate, genetically amenable, model for analyzing phagosome maturation ex vivo and in vivo.
Journal of International Women's Studies Journal of International Women's Studies

This study was undertaken to determine the impact of the Rural Financial Institution Building Program (RUFIN) on the productivity of women-owned farms and non-farm enterprises in Northern Nigeria. The study utilized primary data collected through a questionnaire administered to 390 beneficiaries and an equal number of non-beneficiaries selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure. The productivity of women-owned enterprises was determined using Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which was measured as a ratio of the total annual output of the enterprise to the product of capital input, labor input, and total material input. The propensity score matching approach was used to analyze data because of its aptness for overcoming selection bias in an intervention project like RUFIN. Four matching algorithms were tried, which include Nearest Neighbour Matching, Radius Matching, Epanechnikov Kernel Matching, and Stratification methods. Results showed the treatment (RUFIN) had a significant effect on the productivity of women-owned enterprises at 1% probability level, irrespective of the matching method. For the selected stratification matching method, the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) was 1.673, indicating participation in RUFIN increases the enterprise productivity of a given beneficiary by 1.673. The study concludes that RUFIN had positive impacts on the productivity of beneficiaries. It is recommended that institutionalized development programs that mirror the design and implementation approach of Rural Financial Institution Building Program (RUFIN) should be promoted across national and sub-national governments of Nigeria as a means
Analysis of the Impact of Acidity and Alkalinity on the Microbial Community Structure in Urban Rivers

: To address the impact of low-temperature pH on the microbial community structure of river sediment in urban rivers during winter, the sediment of the Pi River was sampled to investigate. Four experimental samples were designed by varying the pH to 5.0, 7.0, and 8.5 based on the original sample (pH = 5.5) and the characteristics of the microbial community were analyzed using the high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the samples contained 23 phyla, 68 classes, and 100 genera of bacteria, of which Sphingomonales and Burkholderiales were the dominant genera. The highest abundance of Sphingomonales was 20%, whereas the highest abundance of Burkholderiales was up to 15% in the acid samples. The abundance of Proteobacteria was the highest in the original and alkaline samples, followed by Bacteroides and the number of other genera in alkaline and neutral samples is more than that in acidic samples. In addition, the abundance of Nitrosomonadales was more than 5% in the original, alkaline, and neutral samples and less than 1% in acidic conditions. The microbial community of the acid sample was quite different from the other three samples, with less richness and uniformity, which indicated that the acid pH had a great impact on the microbial community and the denitrifying bacteria were less active at the low-temperature condition in winter. This study provides a reference for the microbial community structure of the Pi River and a scientific basis for effectively addressing urban pollution in river management
Constitutive models and finite elements for plasticity in generalised continuum theories

The mechanical behaviour of geomaterials (e.g. soils, rocks and concrete) under plastic deformation is highly complex due to that fact that they are granular materials consisting of discrete non-uniform particles. Failure of geomaterials is often related to localisation of deformation (strain-localisation) with excessive shearing inside the localised zones. The microstructure of the material then dominates the material behaviour in the localised zones. The formation of the localised zone (shear band) during plastic deformation decreases the material strength (softening) significantly and initiates the failure of the material. There are two main approaches to the numerical modelling of localisation of deformation in geomaterials; discrete and continuum. The discrete approach can provide a more realistic material description. However, in the discrete approach, the modelling of all particles is complicated and computationally very expensive for a large number of particles. On the other hand, the continuum approach is more flexible, avoids modelling the interaction of individual particles and is computationally much cheaper. However, classical continuum plasticity models fail to predict the localisation of deformation accurately due to loss of ellipticity of the governing equations, and spurious mesh-dependent results are obtained in the plastic regime. Generalised plasticity models are proposed to overcome the difficulties encountered by classical plasticity models, by relaxing the local assumptions and taking into account the microstructure-related length scale into the models. Among generalised plasticity models, Cosserat (micropolar) and stain-gradient models have shown significant usefulness in modelling localisation of deformation in granular materials in the last few decades. Currently, several elastoplastic models are proposed based on Cosserat and straingradient theories in the literature. The individual formulation of the models has been examined almost always in isolation and are paired with specific materials in a mostly arbitrary fashion. Therefore, there is a lack of comparative studies between these
On the Σ-invariants of wreath products

We present a full description of the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariant of restricted permutational wreath products of groups. We also give partial results about the 2-dimensional homotopical invariant of such groups. These results may be turned into a full picture of these invariants when the abelianization of the basis group is infinite. We apply these descriptions to the study of the Reidemeister number of automorphisms of wreath products in some specific cases.
Clinical and comparative utility of afatinib in non-small cell lung cancer

: The first targeted agents approved for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) gefitinib and erlotinib, have an impressive activity in the presence of activating mutations of the EGFR gene. However, all patients develop acquired resistance principally through secondary mutations (T790M), HER2 amplification, MET amplification, and other molecular aberrations. An attempt to overcome EGFR TKI resistance has been through the development of irreversible blockers. Afatinib is an irreversible inhibitor of the tyrosine kinase activity of all members of the HER family. The pharmacologic properties of afatinib (formation of covalent bonds, inhibition of other family members, and in vitro and in vivo activity on T790M mutation positive tumors) made this drug particularly appealing to study in clinic. Therefore, an intense program of clinical research (LUX-Lung program) was started and clinical results have shown very encouraging activity profiles in patients harboring EGFR activating mutations and in those with acquired resistance to reversible TKIs.
Profiling cellular diversity in sponges informs animal cell type and nervous system evolution

Description Sponges and evolutionary origins Sponges represent our distant animal relatives. They do not have a nervous system but do have a simple body for filter feeding. Surveying the cell types in the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris, Musser et al. found that many genes important in synaptic communication are expressed in cells of the small digestive chambers. They found secretory machinery characteristic of the presynapse in small multipolar cells contacting all other cells and also the receptive apparatus of the postsynapse in the choanocytes that generate water flow and digest microbial food. These results suggest that the first directed communication in animals may have evolved to regulate feeding, serving as a starting point on the long path toward nervous system evolution. —BAP Specialized cells mediate targeted communication around digestive chambers in the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris. The evolutionary origin of metazoan cell types such as neurons and muscles is not known. Using whole-body single-cell RNA sequencing in a sponge, an animal without nervous system and musculature, we identified 18 distinct cell types. These include nitric oxide–sensitive contractile pinacocytes, amoeboid phagocytes, and secretory neuroid cells that reside in close contact with digestive choanocytes that express scaffolding and receptor proteins. Visualizing neuroid cells by correlative x-ray and electron microscopy revealed secretory vesicles and cellular projections enwrapping choanocyte microvilli and cilia. Our data show a communication system that is organized around sponge digestive chambers, using conserved modules that became incorporated into the pre- and postsynapse in the nervous systems of other animals.
Liquid biopsy in ovarian cancer : the potential of circulating miRNAs and exosomes D 193

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trsl. 2018.1 Ovarian cancer still remains the most lethal female cancer, since in most cases it is diagnosed at an advanced stage. Usually after completion of primary treatment chemoD201X X resistance occurs, and recurrent disease is finally observed. Liquid biopsy, based on minimally invasive and serial blood tests, has the advantage of following tumor evolution in real time, offering novel insights on precision medicine. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating cell-free microRNAs (cfmiRNAs) and circulating exosomes represent the major components of liquid biopsy analysis. Liquid biopsy has been already implemented in ovarian cancer, and most studies so far are mainly focused on CTCs and ctDNA. This review is mainly focused on the clinical potential of circulating miRNAs and exosomes as a source of liquid biopsy biomarkers in ovarian cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and response to treatment. (Translational Research 2018; 000:1 15)
Effects of fire on Eurasian badger's trophic ecology in cork oak woodlands of SW Portugal

Se ha estudiado la disponibilidad de alimento y la dieta de dos grupos sociales de tejon, Meles meles, despues de un incendio en e! alcornocal de la sierra de Grandola, en e! suroeste de Portugal, comparandolo con la situacion anterior al incendio. Se han detectado efectos negativos de! fuego en los dos recursos clave de la especie: frutos y artropodos. Sin embargo, la disponibilidad total de alimento en e! area de estudio no ha resultado muy deteriorada puesto que e! ano posterior al incendio ha sido moderadamente productivo. A pesar de las variaciones registradas en la alimentacion tras e! incendio, se ha mantenido la tendencia ya verificada de predominio de! consumo de aceituna en invierno y de artropodos en primavera. Ademas, se concluye que la aceituna es e! recurso preferido, comprobandose la teoria en vigor que postula que e! tejon es, en ambientes mediterraneos, una especie generalista con especializaciones estacionales. A pesar de que la abundancia de los recursos no ha sido afectada, su distribucion y la riqueza de los fragmentos de! habitat favorable para la alimentacion, han sido alteradas. Asi, la ausencia de impacto en la alimentacion no es garantia de que la especie no se haya visto perturbada. Las hipotesis de reduccion de! tamano de! grupo social y/o aumento del area de! territorio para superar las dificultades de la nueva situacion nutritiva se discuten en e! ambito de la Teoria de la Dispersion de los Recursos aplicada a los recursos alimentarios.
Estudio por nanoindentación de 3Y-TZP envejecida por degradación hidrotérmica

La circona tetragonal policristalina estabilizada con 3% molar de itria (3Y-TZP) puede transformarse espontaneamente a la fase monoclinica en presencia de vapor de agua a temperaturas relativamente bajas, lo cual conlleva una reduccion drastica en las propiedades mecanicas superficiales para tiempos de degradacion cortos y en las propiedades mecanicas de volumen para tiempos largos. En este trabajo se presenta un estudio del comportamiento mecanico bajo indentacion de 3Y-TZP degradada hidrotermicamente a 131°C durante tiempos entre 5 y 60 horas. La investigacion se centra principalmente en analizar la respuesta mecanica del material bajo indentacion en funcion del espesor de la capa degradada utilizando para ello tanto un penetrador puntiagudo Berkovich como un penetrador esferico. Se determina el modulo elastico a diferentes profundidades en la capa degradada y se detecta que varia en la direccion del espesor La variacion observada se analiza en terminos de la poblacion de microfisuras formada en la seccion transversal y observada mediante corte por haz de iones focalizados. Tambien se analiza en terminos de la fraccion de volumen de fase monoclinica medida a traves del espesor mediante espectroscopia micro-Raman. --- Tetragonal zirconia polycrystals doped with 3% molar yttria (3Y-TZP) can transform spontaneously to the monoclinic phase in the presence of water vapour at relatively low temperatures. This can originate a drastic reduction of surface mechanical properties after relatively short times of degradation and of the bulk mechanical properties after long times. In this paper we present a study of the surface mechanical behaviour of the degraded layer of 3Y-TZP after hydrothermal degradation at 131 °C for times between 5 and 60 hours by using nanoindentation. Research is focused in the analysis the mechanical behaviour under nanoindentation by using a sharp Berkovich indenter as well as a spherical indenter. The elastic modulus is determined at different depths in the degraded layer. The observed variation is discussed in terms of the microcrack a population detected in the cross section of the degraded layer prepared by machining by a focus ion beam and also in terms of the analysis of the volume fraction of monoclinic phase by micro-Raman spectroscopy.
Inclusion of Green-themed Serious Games based on Emerging Technologies into Non-green-themed Higher Education Courses

This paper explores the inclusion of serious games focused on sustainability topics in courses primarily focused on non-green topics to promote green education. Using mixed-method research, including interviews with lecturers and teaching assistants, and a student questionnaire, we identified 19 modalities (i.e., strategies for inclusion of serious games) and grouped them into seven categories. While the interest in this teaching innovation exists, potential difficulties were also identified. The findings will be used to develop multilingual green-themed serious games and incorporate them into non-environmental courses to promote sustainable education. Overall, this study aims to contribute to a more sustainable society and better education for all learners.