Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Moment Magnitude–Local Magnitude Calibration for Earthquakes off Canada's West Coast

Local magnitude ( M L ) values of earthquakes off Canada9s west coast are known to be underestimated by at least 0.5 magnitude units compared with other magnitude scales. Moment magnitude ( M w ), derived from moment tensor analysis, provides the most robust estimate of the magnitude of earthquakes. Moment tensor analysis of regional seismic data in western Canada is now possible due to the installation of more than 40 three-component broadband stations in western Canada, the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and southeast Alaska. Moment tensor solutions are now possible down to M ∼4.0. More than 230 regional moment tensor solutions have been calculated off Canada9s west coast at the Geological Survey of Canada for 1995–2002. These solutions, along with 14 previous solutions by Oregon State University in 1994–1995 and 13 Harvard solutions for 1984–1993, allow a systematic M w – M L calibration for earthquakes in this region. The study area extends from the Queen Charlotte Islands region in the north to the area off the west coast of southern Vancouver Island. At the northern end of the study area, where there is little oceanic crust in the source-receiver travel path, M w is systematically larger than M L by 0.28 ± 0.08 magnitude units. At the southern end of the study area, where there is a significant amount of ocean crust in the source-receiver travel path, M w is systematically larger than M L by 0.62 ± 0.08 magnitude units. Calibration of M L with M w will allow the western Canadian earthquake database to be used more effectively for tectonic studies and seismic hazard analysis.
Fungal Systematics and Evolution

Geodina salmonicolor is shown to be a synonym of G. guanacastensis, the type and only species of the genus. Comparisons of ITS rDNA sequences of a paratype and two recent collections of G. guanacastensis with published ITS sequences of G. salmonicolor, from the Dominican Republic, show that these are nearly identical. When G. salmonicolor was erected no sequences of the type species were available. Morphological comparisons supports the conspecificity. Details regarding the description of G. salmonicolor are pointed out. A four-gene phylogeny places Geodina and Wynnea as a supported sister group to the rest of the Sarcoscyphaceae. Species in these genera share morphological traits of cyanophobic spore markings, dark angular outer excipular cells that give rise to hairs and the origin of several apothecia from a common basal stalk. Their occurrence on soil rather than on wood or plant material distinguish them from other Sarcoscyphaceae. Based on morphology, phylogenic relationships and trophic interactions we erect a new family, Wynneaceae, for Geodina and Wynnea.
Tropical lake surface temperatures from locally received NOAA-11 AVHRR d— comparison with in situ measurements

Abstract The estimation of tropical lake surface temperature from locally received NOAA AVHRR data was investigated. The applicability of published sea surface temperature algorithms in estimating the tropical lake surface temperature of Lake Malawi was confirmed; the most accurate algorithm being that of McClain et al( 1985) with a root mean square deviation of 0-45 K. Other published algorithms tested required localised bias correction. Newly derived algorithms showed the advantage of the triple window approach, with a correlation coefficient of 0-92 between the estimated and measured temperatures.
Copy number of FCGR3B, which is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, correlates with protein expression and immune complex uptake

Copy number (CN) variation (CNV) has been shown to be common in regions of the genome coding for immune-related genes, and thus impacts upon polygenic autoimmunity. Low CN of FCGR3B has recently been associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). FcγRIIIb is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked, low affinity receptor for IgG found predominantly on human neutrophils. We present novel data demonstrating that both in a family with FcγRIIIb-deficiency and in the normal population, FCGR3B CNV correlates with protein expression, with neutrophil uptake of and adherence to immune complexes, and with soluble serum FcγRIIIb. Reduced FcγRIIIb expression is thus likely to contribute to the impaired clearance of immune complexes, which is a feature of SLE, explaining the association between low FCGR3B CNV and SLE that we have confirmed in a Caucasian population. In contrast, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated systemic vasculitis (AASV), a disease not associated with immune complex deposition, is associated with high FCGR3B CN. Thus, we define a role for FCGR3B CNV in immune complex clearance, a function that may explain why low FCGR3B CNV is associated with SLE, but not AASV. This is the first report of an association between disease-related gene CNV and variation in protein expression and function that may contribute to autoimmune disease susceptibility.
Disentangling unspeciﬁc and speciﬁc transgenerational immune priming components in host-parasite interactions

Exposure to a pathogen primes many organisms to respond faster or more eﬃciently to subsequent exposures. Such priming can be unspeciﬁc or speciﬁc, and has been found to extend across generations. Disentangling and quantifying speciﬁc and unspeciﬁc eﬀects is essential for understanding the genetic epidemiology of a system. By combining a large infection experiment and mathematical modeling, we disentangle diﬀerent transgenerational eﬀects in the crustacean model Daphnia magna exposed to diﬀerent strains of the bacterial parasite Pasteuria ramosa . In the experiments, we exposed hosts to a high-dose of one of three parasite strains, and subsequently challenged their oﬀspring with multiple doses of the same or a diﬀerent strain, i. e. homologously or heterogously. We ﬁnd that exposure to Pasteuria decreases the susceptibility of a host’s oﬀspring by approximately 50%. This transgenerational protection is not larger for homologous than for heterologous parasite challenges. Our work represents an important contribution not only to the analysis of immune priming in ecological systems, but also to the experimental assessment of vaccines. We present for the ﬁrst time an inference framework to investigate speciﬁc and unspeciﬁc eﬀects of immune priming on the susceptibility distribution of hosts — eﬀects that are central to understanding immunity and the eﬀect of vaccines.
PUBLISHED VERSION

Pathologies of central nervous system (CNS) functions are involved in prevalent conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and Parkinson’s disease. Notable pathologies include dysfunctions of circadian rhythm, central metabolism, cardiovascular function, central stress responses, and movement mediated by the basal ganglia. Although evidence suggests exercise may benefit these conditions, the neurobiological mechanisms of exercise in specific brain regions involved in these important CNS functions have yet to be clarified. Here we review murine evidence about the effects of exercise on discrete brain regions involved in important CNS functions. Exercise effects on circadian rhythm, central metabolism, cardiovascular function, stress responses in the brain stem and hypothalamic pituitary axis, and movement are examined. The databases Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched for articles investigating regional brain adaptations to exercise. Brain regions examined included the brain stem, hypothalamus, and basal ganglia. We found evidence of multiple regional adaptations to both forced and voluntary exercise. Exercise can induce molecular adaptations in neuronal function in many instances. Taken together, these findings suggest that the regional physiological adaptations that occur with exercise could constitute a promising field for elucidating molecular and cellular mechanisms of recovery in psychiatric and neurological health conditions.
Domestic Resources for Development Financing In Namibia ? Constraints and Opportunities

Namibia is classified as an upper middle-income country with an estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of USD6745 (constant 2000 exchange rate) in 2012 (IMF, 2013). Namibia has historically been one of the main recipients of official development assistance (ODA) in Africa, with an average Country Programmable Aid (CPA) per capita of USD139.4 between 2009 and 2011 ? more than three times the continental average of USD40.1 and more than six times the amount received by South Africa over the same period. Although aid disbursements to Namibia have been on a general upward trend since 2005, they are projected to decline over the next few years, with the CPA per capita declining from the 2009? 2011 average of USD139.4 to USD127.2 by 2016. (? ) http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper127.pdf
Examining the Interactions Related to Role Modeling in an Elementary Out-reach Program (Work in Progress)

Merredith received all four of her degrees from Tufts (B.A. English, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, M.A. Education, PhD in Engineering Education). Her research interests focus on how children engage in designing and constructing solutions to engineering design problems and evaluating students’ design artifacts. Her outreach work focuses on creating resources for K-12 educators to support engineering education in the classroom. She is also the founder of STOMP (stompnetwork.org)
IS INTERNATIONAL TOURISM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19 ? A PRELIMINARY CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON SMALL ISLANDS

: This article aims at analysing the role of international tourism attractiveness as a potential factor for the outbreak and the spread of the recent COVID-19 disease across the world with a special focus on small island economies. Econometric testing is implemented over a cross-country sample including 205 countries/territories (with 58 small islands) after controlling for several usual suspects. The results state a positive and significant relationship between COVID-19 prevalence and inbound tourism arrivals per capita. Thus international tourism must be seen as one of the main responsible factors for the recent pandemic, validating the “tourism -led vuln erability hypothesis”. Accordingly, this finding suggests that the tourism specialization model in the context of small islands is too vulnerable to be considered as sustainable in the medium and long-run. Policymakers must opt for economic diversification when possible.
Liver transplant outcomes in HIV-infected patients : a systematic review and meta-analysis with a synthetic cohort

This article is very interesting because it describes systematically 15 cohort studies and 49 case series with individual patient data. It is now generally accepted that liver transplantation in HIV-infected patients is feasible; in HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infected patients, we and others have demonstrated that survival at 1 year after liver transplantation ranges from 58% to 89% [2,3]; when we compared these rates with a series of mono-infected patients, survival was lower in the co-infected group, the 2-year and 5-year patient survival rates being 73% vs. 91% and 51% vs. 81%, respectively, (P1⁄4 0.004). Moreover, concerning HIV/hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infected patients, survival was excellent, the rate reaching 100% survival at 5 years [4]. In the study by Cooper et al. [1], some points need to be detailed or explained and discussed.
Summer storms trigger soil N2O efflux episodes in forested catchments

Climate change and climate‐driven feedbacks on catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry have the potential to alter the aquatic versus atmospheric fate of nitrogen (N) in forests. This study investigated the hypothesis that during the forest growth season, topography redistributes water and water‐soluble precursors (i.e., dissolved organic carbon and nitrate) for the formation of gaseous N species. Soil nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen (N2) efflux and soil physical and chemical properties were measured in a temperate forest in Central Ontario, Canada from 2005 to 2010. Hotspots and hot moments of soil N2O and N2 efflux were observed in topographic positions that accumulate precipitation, which likely triggered the formation of redox conditions and in turn intercepted the conversion of nitrate N flowing to the stream by transforming it to N2O and N2. There was a strong relationship between precipitation and N2O efflux (y = 0.44x1.22, r2 = 0.618, p < 0.001 in the inner wetland; y = 1.30x1.16 r2 = 0.72, p < 0.001 in the outer wetland) and significantly different N2:N2O ratios in different areas of the wetland (19.6 in the inner wetland and 10.1 in the outer wetland). Soil N2O + N2 efflux in response to precipitation events accounted for 16.1% of the annual N input. A consequence of the higher frequency of extreme precipitation events predicted under climate change scenarios is the shift from an aquatic to atmospheric fate for N, resulting in a significant forest N efflux. This in turn creates feedbacks for even warmer conditions due to increased effluxes of potent greenhouse gases.
THE TRADEOFF BETWEEN FERTILITY AND EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE KOREAN DEVELOPMENT PATH

Unified Growth Theory suggests the demographic transition and the associated rise in human capital formation were critical forces in the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth. This paper provides empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis based on the Korean industrialization in the late 20th century. Using a fixed effects model and a fixed effect two-stage least squares model, this study exploits variations in fertility and in human capital formation across regions in Korea over the period 1970 to 2010. This analysis finds a virtuous cycle, where technological progress increased the demand for human capital, leading to an increase in the level of education and, in turn, to a demographic transition. This establishes the existence of a quantity–quality tradeoff on the Korean development path.
Origin and characteristics of ancient organic matter from a high-1 elevation Lateglacial Alpine Nunatak (NW Italy) 2

In high-mountain areas, Pleistocene glaciations and erosion-related processes erased most of the pre-22 existing landforms and soils. However, on scattered stable surfaces, ancient soils can be locally 23 preserved for long periods, retaining valuable paleoenvironmental information. Such relict surfaces 24 survived during glaciations either through coverage by non-erosive, cold-based, ice or as nunataks
Attribution of extreme weather and climate events overestimated by unreliable climate simulations

Event attribution aims to estimate the role of an external driver after the occurrence of an extreme weather and climate event by comparing the probability that the event occurs in two counterfactual worlds. These probabilities are typically computed using ensembles of climate simulations whose simulated probabilities are known to be imperfect. The implications of using imperfect models in this context are largely unknown, limited by the number of observed extreme events in the past to conduct a robust evaluation. Using an idealized framework, this model limitation is studied by generating large number of simulations with variable reliability in simulated probability. The framework illustrates that unreliable climate simulations are prone to overestimate the attributable risk to climate change. Climate model ensembles tend to be overconfident in their representation of the climate variability which leads to systematic increase in the attributable risk to an extreme event. Our results suggest that event attribution approaches comprising of a single climate model would benefit from ensemble calibration in order to account for model inadequacies similarly as operational forecasting systems.
Transparency and trust. An experimental study of online disclosure and trust in government

Transparency has been trumpeted by many as the key to trust in government. The assumption is that if government organisations open up and show the public what decisions are made, how they are made and what the results are, people will automatically have more trust in government. But does transparency really lead to more trust? Or will it only provide critical citizens with more information to blame government again and again for small mistakes? Transparency and Trustexamines the effects of transparency on trust in a government organisation. By using an experimental method this study moves beyond normative or correlational research on transparency. In doing so, causal inferences regarding the relation between transparency and trust are allowed. Several objects of transparency and dimensions of information are being put to the test in three experiments. The experiments show that transparency is merely a ‘hygiene factor’: it does not contribute to higher levels of trust and it can even lead to lower levels of trust if people are disappointed with the degree to which government is transparent. This conclusion challenges current overly optimistic assumptions concerning the effect of transparency on trust.
Efficiency of Some Meteorological Drought Indices in Different Time Scales (Case Study: Tajan Basin, Iran)

Drought is a climatic phenomenon that causes much detrimental influence on ecological environments. This research investigates the performance of meteorological drought indices in different time scales in the Tajan basin in Iran. Indices undergone in this study include: Percent Normal Precipitation Index (PNPI), Z-Score Index (ZSI), Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), China Z Index (CZI), Modified CZI (MZCI), and Decile Precipitation Index (DPI). In this study, we used data of annual and monthly precipitation from meteorological stations in the basin. Drought indices were determined at time scales of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 year of minimum precipitation with very intense drought and the method of correlation coefficients between drought indices values and monthly precipitation. The results showed that DPI was the best index at annual time scale, while at the time scale of 1,6,12 and 24-months, PNPI was the best index. MCZI was the best index for time scales of 9 and 48-months, and the ZCI had the maximum efficiency for a three-month scale.
Cattle Fattening System and its Structure in Urban and Peri-Urban Kebeles of Dessie and Kombolcha Towns, Ethiopia

: The aim of this research was to investigate the cattle fattening system and its structure in urban and peri-urban kebeles of Dessie and Kombolcha towns, Ethiopia where scientific intervention could be initiated for further improvement in fattening practices. In this study structured questionnaire administered to a total of 337 cattle fattener households (190 from Dessie and 147 from Kombolcha towns). Complete enumeration techniques were applied to select urban and peri-urban kebeles . The data generated included cattle fattening system, livestock production system, reason of cattle fattening and livestock holdings, fattening experiences and cattle fattening structure. The results indicated that the byproduct based and a combination of traditional plus byproduct based cattle fattening systems was identified. Byproduct based cattle fattening system was dominantly practiced in urban kebeles whereas a combination of traditional and byproduct based cattle fattening practices was adopted by farmers in the peri-urban kebeles of both study towns. In both study towns cattle fattening systems was structured into urban and peri-urban categories based on kebele location and feed resources access. Besides, urban cattle fattening once more structured into three basic enterprises. Therefore, to boost up the newly emerging urban as well as peri-urban cattle fattening sector it is sensible to treat them according to their classification.
Journal of Population Therapeutics & Clinical Pharmacology

Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are affected by new generation quinolone antibiotics (Ciprofloxacin & Ofloxacin) as well as Immunepotent CRP (IMP-CRP) when it comes to lymphocyte populations and immune mediator production. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of quinolones, Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin on the immune system, focusing on the mechanisms of oxidative activity of monocytes, lymphocyte populations and their production of cytokines; contributing to the body of knowledge of these antibiotics; since they are the most used and considered as the new generation. On the other hand, the action of IMP-CRP is evaluated, which has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activity; on these same parameters, which had not previously been considered. After treating the individuals' blood with quinolones and Immune potent CRP and its various combinations, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated by density gradient from the peripheral blood of healthy people. NBT was used to detect monocyte oxidative activity, flow cytometry was used to measure the percentage of B, NK and selected T cells, and ELISA was used to measure the production of the cytokines IL-2, IL-10, and IFN-γ. MTT was used to measure relative cell viability. The results revealed that the medications did not influence the ability of the PBMCs to live. There was no noticeable variation in the oxidative activity of monocytes between treatments and controls, nor was there a discernible difference in the percentages of any of the cell populations studied. IL-2 production was increased in Ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin treatments (p<0.02) but unaffected in Immune potent CRP and combination therapies. Treatments with Ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and Immune potent CRP were observed to reduce IL-10 production (p<0.046). Treatments with Ciprofloxacin had no effect on IFN-γ production; however, treatments with ofloxacin (50 g/mL), Immune potent CRP, and their combinations significantly reduced IFN-γ production (p 0.01). Despite the fact that Ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and Immune potent CRP did not affect PBMCs viability, phagocyte activity, or lymphocyte populations, these antibiotics were able to alter cytokine production of IL-2, IL-10, and IFN-γ.
Opportunities and Knowledge Sharing: The case of the United

Purpose: We seek to examine the interplay between perceived training opportunities (PTOs) and knowledge sharing in the context of the emerging economic setting of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We also examined the moderating role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and engagement in social interaction on the relationship between PTOs and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a survey method to collect the data and tested the proposed hypotheses by using the partial structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Data is based on 815 responses across a range of sectors in the country context of the UAE. Findings: Our findings indicate that PTOs are positively related to knowledge sharing. Notably, the results show that the proposed relationship between PTOs and knowledge sharing is negatively and significantly moderated by intrinsic motivation. Moreover, the moderating role of extrinsic motivation and engagement in social interaction were insignificant. Originality/value: At a theoretical level, this article provides an individual level analysis, which indicates that PTOs pave the way for intraorganizational knowledge sharing; hence, they offer insights into the mechanisms in which PTOs impact on knowledge sharing. This article also contributes to our general understanding on human resource management (HRM) practices and knowledge sharing in the context of the emerging economy of the UAE; the latter has a number of implications for both, theory and practice as outlined in this study.