Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Density dependence in roe deer population dynamics

Density dependence on individual and cohort level was investigated experimentally in a twelve-year study on free living roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) population in Sweden. The deer were protected for 4 years, which caused density to increase from 9 to 36 deer/km2. Then density was reduced to 8 deer/km2 by two seasons of intensive culling. After this the population has been allowed to recover. The study was based on radio telemetry with 382 marked deer. Food availability and browsing pressure was monitored by an exclosure study. Density dependence was demonstrated in important components of demography, i.e. body weight, growth, fecundity and survival. I also found that negative effects of high density experienced during the first two years of life will affect the deer for the rest of their lives (cohort effects). Fecundity (ovulation), fawn/marked doe in fall and body weight were found to decrease in all age classes after the density increase. Likewise, body size decreased in age classes raised during the period with high density. Long-term consequences of early development on lifetime reproduction and survival were significant. Survival decreased in all age classes, also in the prime age animals. Lowest survival and strongest density effects were found in juveniles. The negative effect on survival persisted in all age classes at least for three years after peak density. I hypothesize that much of this time lag was a cohort effect coupled to lasting effects on body mass. Male summer territory size decreased significantly with increasing population density, as did winter range size in both sexes. I suggest that much of the effect of deer density on winter home range size was coupled to the solitary behavior and social system of roe deer, with possible effects of dominance rank also outside the mating season. Further, no relationship was found between population density and the main winter food, standing bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) biomass, but a significant effect on the twig abundance was observed. Finally, I found indications of food limitation that might be both dampened and fortified by density independent changes in the environment.
Effects of Subterranean Limestone Sinks and Agricultural Development on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities of Canyon Creek (Wyoming)

Abstract This study documented and assessed benthic macroinvertebrate communities on a section of Canyon Creek through Tensleep Preserve in Washakie County, Wyoming, USA. Data for these communities are compared with previous samples collected downstream on agricultural land, as well as upstream and downstream from two subterranean, limestone sinks on the preserve. A shift from Plecoptera, Coleoptera, and Ephemeroptera to mainly Ephemeroptera to mainly Trichoptera was observed from the uppermost to the lowermost sites; Chironomidae and Diptera dominated the previously sampled section. High proportions of scrapers in sampled communities on the preserve beginning downstream of the upstream sink system suggested a prevalence of autochthonous detritus over allochthonous detritus at these sites. Macroinvertebrate community compositions and calculated metrics indicated high water quality for sites on the preserve and lower water quality for the agriculturally impacted sites. Ten taxa recorded from samples between the subterranean sinks were not recorded elsewhere. The mayfly Ameletus validus was abundant at the exit of the upper sink system at which the substrate was lined with irregular limestone slabs, and this taxon may be limited to the interior of this sink. Neothremma is identified as a feasible indicator taxon for climate change.
Use of hormone replacement therapy and risk of breast cancer: nested case-control studies using the QResearch and CPRD databases

Abstract Objective To assess the risks of breast cancer associated with different types and durations of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Design Two nested case-control studies. Setting UK general practices contributing to QResearch or Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), linked to hospital, mortality, social deprivation, and cancer registry (QResearch only) data. Participants 98 611 women aged 50-79 with a primary diagnosis of breast cancer between 1998 and 2018, matched by age, general practice, and index date to 457 498 female controls. Main outcome measures Breast cancer diagnosis from general practice, mortality, hospital, or cancer registry records. Odds ratios for HRT types, adjusted for personal characteristics, smoking status, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, family history, and other prescribed drugs. Separate results from QResearch or CPRD were combined. Results Overall, 33 703 (34%) women with a diagnosis of breast cancer and 134 391 (31%) controls had used HRT prior to one year before the index date. Compared with never use, in recent users (<5 years) with long term use (≥5 years), oestrogen only therapy and combined oestrogen and progestogen therapy were both associated with increased risks of breast cancer (adjusted odds ratio 1.15 (95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.21) and 1.79 (1.73 to 1.85), respectively). For combined progestogens, the increased risk was highest for norethisterone (1.88, 1.79 to 1.99) and lowest for dydrogesterone (1.24, 1.03 to 1.48). Past long term use of oestrogen only therapy and past short term (<5 years) use of oestrogen-progestogen were not associated with increased risk. The risk associated with past long term oestrogen-progestogen use, however, remained increased (1.16, 1.11 to 1.21). In recent oestrogen only users, between three (in younger women) and eight (in older women) extra cases per 10 000 women years would be expected, and in oestrogen-progestogen users between nine and 36 extra cases per 10 000 women years. For past oestrogen-progestogen users, the results would suggest between two and eight extra cases per 10 000 women years. Conclusion This study has produced new generalisable estimates of the increased risks of breast cancer associated with use of different hormone replacement preparations in the UK. The levels of risks varied between types of HRT, with higher risks for combined treatments and for longer duration of use.
Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea

I first visited Indonesia in the mid to late 1980s, when the only available field guide to birds covered just Java and Bali (MacKinnon 1988). It was not until 1993 that a guide to all of the Greater Sundas, including Borneo and Sumatra, was published (MacKinnon & Phillipps 1993), and another four years before a guide to the birds of Sulawesi, the Lesser Sundas and Moluccas (Coates & Bishop 1997) appeared. The latter two books, and a couple of recent field guides for Borneo (Myers 2009; Phillipps & Phillipps 2009), have until now been the only available field guides for the vast contiguous biogeographic regions of the Greater Sunda islands (Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali) and Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and the Lesser Sundas). The aforementioned books, with exception of the Borneo guides, have meant that recent visitors to the region have had to make do with books that are now thoroughly outdated. During the last 5-6 years, James Eaton and his team have worked tirelessly, gathering data from publications, museums, fellow birders, and in particular from the field, to produce what has to be one of the most important field guides of recent times. Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea is truly a landmark publication, and the book itself excels in filling the niche for a desperately needed, thoroughly modern, user-friendly field guide to the birds of this fascinating, highly diverse region.
Invariant Image Recognition of Objects Using the Radon Transform

- One of the types of tasks solved using computer vision may be such a task as determining and isolating a test object from a series of images. For this, a very important point is the definition of invariant features. The aim of the study is to develop a method for quick image verification using invariant projection features. For this, the principles of finding invariant signs of images are examined using medical electrocardiographic images using the Monte Carlo method and the possibility of recognizing it using the Radon transform. Invariant features that are independent of the physical and psychoemotional state of a person are identified, allowing biometric identification of a person. It was determined that the most informative invariant features of electrocardiographic images are the amplitude values in the S-and T-regions of the electrocardiogram. The Monte Carlo method was used to sample the significance of the considered features characterizing the electrocardiogram. The combined use of these features allows biometric identification of the person with high accuracy.
The Vulnerability and Resilience of African Food Systems, Food Security, and Nutrition in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the globe, ebbing and flowing from one region to the next, new infections and deaths continue to rise (Johns Hopkins 2020). Some of the first documented cases in Africa occurred in areas frequented by foreign tourists. Early on, the disease also circulated among Africa’s jet-setting political classes that had spent time in other regions of the world with higher infection rates. Since then, infections have taken off in the continent’s urban areas that are better connected globally via trade and travel. From there, it has spread to smaller cities, towns, and then to rural areas, a process known as hierarchical diffusion (Moseley 2020a). Unfortunately, there is another scourge that accompanies COVID-19, and that is a global hunger pandemic. In April 2020, the director of the World Food Programme warned that an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020 because of the coronavirus. This comes on top of the 821 million people in the world who are already food insecure (Khorsandi 2020). Increasingly, scholars of food security, food systems, and poverty have come to realize that the hunger and malnutrition associated with COVID-19 may actually kill or debilitate more people than the disease itself, especially in regions of the world with weaker social safety nets (Fanzo 2020; HLPE 2020a, 2020b; UN 2020).
Using Augmented Holographic UIs to Communicate Automation Reliability in Partially Automated Driving

Drivers are assumed to actively supervise the road in partially automated driving, but a growing body of research shows that they become more complacent in system operation and fail to continuously monitor the road, which results in mode confusion. Lack of transparent communication of automation mode and its level of reliability has been discussed as a main underlying cause of these challenges. Our study ________________________________ ___ _______ ___ _______ ___ _
Politicians, Social Media, and Digital Publics: Old Rights, New Terrain

In this interdisciplinary roundtable discussion, five scholars interested in political communication work through the democratic dilemmas created when privately owned social media platforms are used as digital public squares by elected officials in the United States. This conversation unfolds in the context of ongoing legal cases that challenge politicians’ efforts to block select interlocutors and bar them from participation. We grapple with the tension between politicians’ use of social media to broadcast their own messages as a form of publicity with the desire by some members of the public that politicians be transparent online by allowing the electorate to question or even criticize them. Through this discussion, we weigh the importance of the right to criticize the government and its leaders alongside the realities of contentious content on social media platforms that are rife with abusive content, in a cultural context marked by social inequalities.
Economics of visceral energy metabolism in ruminants: Toll keeping or internal revenue service?

Measurements across a range of productive states show that the portal-drained viscera and liver, or the total splanchnic tissues, account for 40 to 50% of body oxygen consumption or heat. This high rate of metabolism is in part attributable to high rates of protein turnover and thus, AA utilization, as well as other “service” functions supporting nutrient assimilation and “waste management. ” This metabolic intensity and the anatomic position of absorptive and liver tissues have led to the assumption that the tissues that assimilate and process incoming nutrients from the diet exact a toll in payment for their entry. This “toll” is believed to reduce the extent to which absorbed nutrients gain admission to the arterial blood pool and reach “productive” organs such as the mammary gland or skeletal muscle. Measurements of net nutrient flux generally support this concept of splanchnic metabolism “restricting entry” and, thus, dictating supply. On a net basis the appearance of the major carbon-based nutrients absorbed into the portal vein is typically low compared to their rate of disappearance from the gut lumen. An alternative interpretation is that this low net recovery of absorbed nutrients across splanchnic tissues is attributable to extensive metabolism of nutrients from the arterial pool, which masks true rates of absorption. In this scenario, any tax to support community services is paid using internal funds. Measurements of nutrient kinetics, based on isotopic labeling, support the latter scenario. In the case of the liver, catabolism of AA is driven in part by supply and demand, with overpopulation dealt with by deportation, restructuring, or the metabolic equivalent of cremation. Similarly, relative rates of AA metabolism by the gut and mammary gland vary with requirement. Metabolism of many energy-yielding nutrients varies with supply, demand, and the need for community services such as waste management.
Reactive Postural Responses After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Their Association With Musculoskeletal Injury Risk in Collegiate Athletes: A Study Protocol

Background: Deficits in neuromuscular control are widely reported after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). These deficits are speculated to contribute to the increased rate of musculoskeletal injuries after mTBI. However, a concrete mechanistic connection between post-mTBI deficits and musculoskeletal injuries has yet to be established. While impairments in some domains of balance control have been linked to musculoskeletal injuries, reactive balance control has received little attention in the mTBI literature, despite the inherent demand of balance recovery in athletics. Our central hypothesis is that the high rate of musculoskeletal injuries after mTBI is in part due to impaired reactive balance control necessary for balance recovery. The purpose of this study is to (1) characterize reactive postural responses to recover balance in athletes with recent mTBI compared to healthy control subjects, (2) determine the extent to which reactive postural responses remain impaired in athletes with recent mTBI who have been cleared to return to play, and (3) determine the relationship between reactive postural responses and acute lower extremity musculoskeletal injuries in a general sample of healthy collegiate athletes. Methods: This two-phase study will take place at the University of Utah in coordination with the University of Utah Athletics Department. Phase 1 will evaluate student-athletes who have sustained mTBI and teammate-matched controls who meet all the inclusion criteria. The participants will be assessed at multiple time points along the return-to-play progress of the athlete with mTBI. The primary outcome will be measures of reactive postural response derived from wearable sensors during the Push and Release (P&R) test. In phase 2, student-athletes will undergo a baseline assessment of postural responses. Acute lower extremity musculoskeletal injuries for each participant will be prospectively tracked for 1 year from the date of first team activity. The primary outcomes will be the measures of reactive postural responses and the time from first team activity to lower extremity injury. Discussion: Results from this study will further our understanding of changes in balance control, across all domains, after mTBI and identify the extent to which postural responses can be used to assess injury risk in collegiate athletes.
Incidence and Abundance of Bees and Wasps (Hymenoptera) in Centipedegrass Lawns in Georgia

Abstract We surveyed the occurrence of bees and wasps (Hymenoptera) in nine centipedegrass lawns in central and south Georgia in 2019 that had no prior exposure to insecticides. In each lawn, an area of 9.3 m2 was marked and not mowed while the remainder of the lawn area was mowed regularly. When each centipedegrass lawn reached anthesis, pan traps filled with soapy water were placed in nonmowed and mowed areas of each lawn. After 3 d, trap contents were collected and transported to the laboratory for insect sorting and identification. Each lawn site was sampled 3–5 times. Of 173 total bees collected from the centipedegrass lawns, 79.2% were Lasioglossum spp. followed by 6.9% Halictus and 4% Melissodes. Only four Bombus spp. were collected, while other bees collected were Augochlorella spp. , Agapostemon spp. , Megachile, Apis, Peponapis, Ceratina, Ptilothrix, Svastra, and Nomia spp. Most of the Lasioglossum spp. were collected in August (48.6%) and September (26.6%). Lasioglossum spp. were sampled from all centipedegrass lawns; however, Halictus spp. and Melissodes spp. were collected only from one lawn in south Georgia. Captures were similar regardless of collection from mowed or nonmowed areas. Most of the bees were collected in pan traps that were blue or yellow in color; whereas, wasps were captured primarily in yellow-colored traps.
Improving interactions between parents, teachers, and staff and individuals with developmental disabilities: a review of caregiver training methods and results

Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) depend on caregivers to meet physical, emotional, and social needs. This makes relationships with caregivers particularly important to quality of life. Without intervention, social interactions may be limited and ineffective, affecting relationships with caregivers and thus quality of life for individuals with DD. Training may improve interactions between caregivers and individuals with DD. Training content and methods, however, are heterogenous. A review was conducted to identify common elements and methods and analyze variables shown to be most effective in improving outcomes for caregivers and individuals with DD. In general, studies of professional caregiver training (e.g. teachers, staff members) focused primarily on increasing positive interactions or praise, while parent training studies focused more broadly on parenting skills, of which positive interaction was one facet. Training methods differed, but there was some evidence to suggest that those studies that included some element of in situ practice and feedback yielded more robust effects. While caregiver acceptability and/or satisfaction surveys were administered in the majority of studies, fewer studies attempted to measure the satisfaction of individuals with DD. Future research topics are presented in light of these findings.
Derivation and Differentiation of Adipose-Tissue Regulatory T Cells: A Stepwise, Multi-Site Process

CD4+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) not only enforce peripheral tolerance and restrain self-reactive immune responses, but also maintain organismal homeostasis and safeguard the function of parenchymal tissues. A paradigmatic tissue–Treg population resides in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and regulates organismal metabolism by interacting with adipocytes and local immunocytes. Compared with their lymphoid-tissue counterparts, VAT–Tregs have a distinct T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire and transcriptional profile, allowing them to maintain and function in the unique tissue microenvironment. However, when, where, and how VAT–Tregs acquire their distinct features and what signals drive their phenotypic diversification have just started to be unraveled. Here we summarize the recent advances in our understanding on the mechanisms of VAT–Treg derivation and differentiation. We discuss the origin and life history of VAT–Tregs, review the identification and characterization of a VAT–Treg precursor population in the secondary lymphoid organs, and highlight a stepwise reprogramming model of VAT–Treg differentiation that involves multiple stages at distinct locations. Lastly, we discuss whether a similar process may also be involved in the differentiation of Tregs from other non-lymphoid tissues and the imperative questions that remain to be addressed.
News Media vs. FRED-MD for Macroeconomic Forecasting

Using a unique dataset of 22.5 million news articles from the Dow Jones Newswires Archive, we perform an in depth real-time out-of-sample forecasting comparison study with one of the most widely used data sets in the newer forecasting literature, namely the FRED-MD dataset. Focusing on U.S. GDP, consumption and investment growth, our results suggest that the news data contains information not captured by the hard economic indicators, and that the news-based data are particularly informative for forecasting consumption developments.
PD-1 Blockade Reverses Obesity-Mediated T Cell Priming Impairment

Despite obesity reaching pandemic proportions, its impact on antigen-specific T cell responses is still unclear. We have recently demonstrated that obesity results in increased expression of PD-1 on T cells, and checkpoint blockade targeting PD-1/PD-L1 surprisingly resulted in greater clinical efficacy in cancer therapy. Adverse events associated with this therapy center around autoimmune reactions. In this study, we examined the impact of obesity on T cell priming and on autoimmune pathogenesis using the mouse model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), which is mediated by autoreactive myelin-specific T cells generated after immunization. We observed that diet-induced obese (DIO) mice had a markedly delayed EAE onset and developed milder clinical symptoms compared to mice on control diet (CD). This delay was associated with impaired generation of myelin-specific T cell numbers and concurrently correlated with increased PD-L1 upregulation on antigen-presenting cells in secondary lymphoid organs. PD-1 blockade during the priming stage of EAE restored disease onset and severity and increased numbers of pathogenic CD4+ T cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of DIO mice to similar levels to those of CD mice. Administration of anti–PD-1 after onset of clinical symptoms did not increase EAE pathogenesis demonstrating that initial priming is the critical juncture affected by obesity. These findings demonstrate that obesity impairs antigen-specific T cell priming, but this can be reversed with PD-1 blockade. Our results further suggest that PD-1 blockade may increase the risk of autoimmune toxicities, particularly in obesity.