Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Stakeholder Attitudes and Involvement in Habitat Conservation Plans and the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act (ESA), established in 1973, was a landmark piece of environmental legislation and remains the standard for endangered species conservation. Implementation of the ESA has often been framed as pitting economic development against species conservation, inciting passions for and against endangered species conservation. The strength of opposing public opinions is highlighted by high-profile controversies such as those around the snail darter, northern spotted owl and the greater sage grouse. In an attempt to reduce conflict, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) increasingly seeks to utilize collaborative, stakeholder-based processes that address stakeholder interests, attitudes, and values. In 1982, the ESA was amended to include a new tool, the Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP), to alleviate conflict between economic growth and the need to protect quality habitat for endangered species. This tool is intended to foster new stakeholder partnerships that allow creative, collaborative problem-solving. While research has investigated the biological scientific merits of HCPs, little attention has been given to important societal aspects, despite an emphasis on stakeholder involvement in HCP development. I used a mixed methods approach to examine the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions towards endangered species and habitat conservation planning held by USFWS employees, state fish and wildlife agency staff, participants involved with HCPs, and the general public in communities where HCP development is occurring, or has been completed. In-depth interviews and quantitative surveys are utilized to: 1) allow key stakeholders to describe the complex process of HCP development and, 2) test the assumptions and generalizability of themes raised by key stakeholders. This research provides important insight into the role of attitudes and perceptions in conservation planning, and identifies variables that have contributed to success and failure of existing approaches to developing HCPs. Broader impacts from this research include enhancing HCPs to better account for stakeholder needs, fostering dialogue on ways to advance successful participatory conservation, and, ultimately, promoting more effective collaborative conservation strategies that achieve ecological, economic, and societal outcomes.
Clinics in Oncology

Objective: Most clinical oral cancers develop from oral precancerous lesions. As an important proinflammatory cytokine, IL-6 has been suggested to be closely related to the occurrence and malignant transformation of oral precancerous lesions. This review will examine the expression and role of IL-6 in common oral precancerous lesions and the possible mechanisms of malignant transformation to identify new therapeutic targets and prevent cancer. Methods: A literature review based on PubMed publications in the last two decades was performed to summarize progresses of IL-6 in several common oral precancerous lesions. Results: Most studies have demonstrated that the level of IL-6 is increased in oral precancerous lesions compared with the control group, and there is a potential positive correlation between the level of IL-6 and the malignant transformation degree of lesions. In addition, IL-6 may promote the malignant transformation of oral precancerous lesions by regulating the methylation of tumor suppressor genes, affecting the status of fibroblasts and cancerous cells in the microenvironment, and inhibiting the infiltration and function of T cells. Conclusion: This review provides new ideas for how IL-6 promotes the malignant transformation of oral precancerous lesions, which is helpful for the development of related research in the future.
Effects Of Cultural Values And Emotional Intelligence On Job Satisfaction

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of cultural values and emotional intelligence levels of private sector employees in Northern Cyprus (KKTC) on job satisfaction. The study's population consists of private sector employees aged 18 to 65 in KKTC. A total of 306 individuals were included in the study using a randomized sampling method. A questionnaire consisting of five sections was used as the data collection tool. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0 software was used for data analysis. The study found negative and significant correlations between the participants' scores on the Power Distance sub-dimension of the Cultural Values Scale and their scores on the overall Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale, as well as the internal and external satisfaction sub-dimensions. Furthermore, positive and significant correlations were found between the participants' scores on the Uncertainty Avoidance, Collectivism, and Long-Term Orientation sub-dimensions of the Cultural Values Scale and their scores on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale, indicating that higher scores on these cultural values were associated with higher job satisfaction. The study did not find any significant correlations between the participants' scores on the Masculinity sub-dimension of the Cultural Values Scale and their scores on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale. Additionally, the study found positive correlations between the participants' scores on the Emotional Intelligence Scale, particularly on the sub-dimensions related to awareness of emotions, awareness of others' emotions, emotional use, and emotional regulation, and their scores on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale. This suggests that higher emotional intelligence is associated with higher job satisfaction. In this context, emphasizing the importance of teaching and developing emotional intelligence competencies in organizations to enhance job satisfaction is crucial. It also suggests that evolving cultural values in a way that promotes job satisfaction is essential for both organizations and employees' productivity. However, it is important to note that the study has certain limitations, such as a relatively small sample size and the reliance on self-reported questionnaire responses. Further research with larger and more diverse samples may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between cultural values, emotional intelligence, and job satisfaction.
More reliable pollen productivity estimates and relative source area of pollen in a forest-steppe ecotone with improved vegetation survey

Pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) and the relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) are critical to the reconstruction of past plant abundances. Extended R-value (ERV) models are commonly used for developing PPEs and estimating the RSAP. In this study, in the forest-steppe ecotone of northern China that is sensitive to climate change and significant in vegetation openness reconstruction, pollen data from surface sediment samples of 24 lakes and high-resolution data of vegetation within the lake basins were applied to ERV models to calculate the PPEs of Pinus, Quercus, Betula, Ulmus, Poaceae, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, and Cyperaceae and the RSAP of different lake sizes. The PPEs of arboreal pollen were higher than herbaceous pollen, and Chenopodiaceae had the highest productivity of herbaceous pollen taxa. The RSAP of lakes with an average lake radius of 400 m was estimated to be 1600 m. Our results suggested that PPEs and RSAP are region specific and that RSAP is also lake size specific even within the same region. Although environmental factors and imperfections in the ERV models may affect the accuracy of results, our study emphasized that a systematic vegetation survey considering zonal and azonal vegetation, the forest and steppe mosaic, and the vertical vegetation belt can help improve the PPEs and RSAP in areas with complicated vegetation distribution, such as the forest-steppe ecotone.
In Situ Enrichment of Ocean Crust Microbes on In Situ Enrichment of Ocean Crust Microbes on Igneous Minerals and Glasses Using an Osmotic Igneous Minerals and Glasses Using an Osmotic Flow ‐ Through Device Flow Through Device

[ 1 ] The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Hole 1301A on the eastern flank of Juan de Fuca Ridge was used in the first long ‐ term deployment of microbial enrichment flow cells using osmotically driven pumps in a subseafloor borehole. Three novel osmotically driven colonization systems with unidirectional flow were deployed in the borehole and incubated for 4 years to determine the microbial colonization preferences for 12 minerals and glasses present in igneous rocks. Following recovery of the colonization systems, we measured cell density on the minerals and glasses by fluorescent staining and direct counting and found some significant differences between mineral samples. We also determined the abundance of mesophilic and thermophilic culturable organotrophs grown on marine R2A medium and identified isolates by partial 16S or 18S rDNA sequencing. We found that nine distinct phylotypes of culturable mesophilic oligotrophs were present on the minerals and glasses and that eight of the nine can reduce nitrate and oxidize iron. Fe(II) ‐ rich olivine minerals had the highest density of total countable cells and culturable organotrophic mesophiles, as well as the only culturable organotrophic thermophiles. These results suggest that olivine (a common igneous mineral) in seawater ‐ recharged ocean crust is capable of supporting microbial communities, that iron oxidation and nitrate reduction may be important physiological characteristics of ocean crust microbes, and that hetero-geneously distributed minerals in marine igneous rocks likely influence the distribution of microbial communities in the ocean crust.
Shear turbulence in the high-wind Southern Ocean using direct measurements

The ocean surface boundary layer is a gateway of energy transfer into the ocean. Wind-driven shear and meteorologically forced convection inject turbulent kinetic energy into the surface boundary layer, mixing the upper ocean and transforming its density structure. In the absence of direct observations or the capability to resolve sub-grid scale 3D turbulence in operational ocean models, the oceanography community relies on surface boundary layer similarity scalings (BLS) of shear and convective turbulence to represent this mixing. Despite their importance, near-surface mixing processes (and ubiquitous BLS representations of these processes) have been under-sampled in high energy forcing regimes such as the Southern Ocean. With the maturing of autonomous sampling platforms, there is now an opportunity to collect high-resolution spatial and temporal measurements in the full range of forcing conditions. Here, we characterize near-surface turbulence under strong wind forcing using the first long-duration glider microstructure survey of the Southern Ocean. We leverage these data to show that the measured turbulence is significantly higher than standard shear-convective BLS in the shallower parts of the surface boundary layer and lower than standard shear-convective BLS in the deeper parts of the surface boundary layer; the latter of which is not easily explained by present wave-effect literature. Consistent with the CBLAST (Coupled Boundary Layers and Air Sea Transfer) low winds experiment, this bias has the largest magnitude and spread in shallowest 10% of the actively mixing layer under low-wind and breaking wave conditions, when relatively low levels of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in surface regime are easily biased by wave events. oceanographers use approximations called "boundary layer scalings" (BLS) to estimate the amount of turbulence caused by the wind. We compared turbulence measured by an underwater robot to turbulence estimated from wind speed to determine how well BLS performs in stormy places. We found that in both calm and stormy conditions, estimates are 10 times too large closest to the surface and 10 times too small deeper within the turbulently mixed surface ocean.
Water activity in ﬂ uence on the thermal resistance of Salmonella in soy protein powder at elevated temperatures

Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne illness associated with low-moisture foods. In addition to being able to survive in low-moisture environments during long storage, Salmonella has shown sharply increased thermal tolerance making it di ﬃ cult to control in low-moisture foods. This research utilized soy protein powder as a food career to study the thermal resistance of Salmonella under a wide range of temperatures and a w . Salmonella inoculated soy protein powder samples were pre-equilibrated to a w from 0.13 to 0.82 at room temperature, then subjected to heat treatment (60 – 99 °C) under isothermal conditions. The a w of soy protein powders at 25 to 99 °C were measured using high-temperature a w cells with humidity sensors. The D -values as a function of high-temperature a w from 0.25 to 0.70 showed a semi-log relationship under each treatment temperature level from 70 to 99 °C. Slightly downward trends were observed when the high-temperature a w was above 0.70, showing increased e ﬀ ectiveness of thermal inactivation. Results from this study provide insights to assist the design of thermal treatments for control of Salmonella in intermediate-and low-moisture foods.
A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL ANALYTICAL STUDY TO COMPARE FETO-MATERNAL OUTCOME IN A MOTHER AFTER SINGLE MISCARRIAGE WITH A MOTHER HAVING A SINGLE LIVE VAGINAL DELIVERY IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Background: Previous spontaneous abortion may adversely affect the feto-maternal outcome of subsequent pregnancies due to common pathogenic pathways. Materials and Methods: A prospective, observational, and comparative study was conducted in a tertiary care centre for one and a half years, where mothers (n=131) with history of either a spontaneous idiopathic miscarriage or a term vaginal delivery were studied with regards to feto-maternal outcome from 24 weeks period of gestation upto delivery. Results: There was a significantly increased tendency of conceiving at short inter-pregnancy interval in case group than in controls. Mothers with history of previous spontaneous abortion were at significantly (p<0.05) increased risk of first trimester vaginal bleeding (suggestive of threatened abortion), PROM, preterm deliveries as compared to mothers with history of previous single live vaginal birth. Rate of caesarean section was also significantly more in cases as compared to controls. Conclusion: The significantly increased adverse effects in pregnancies following miscarriages must be kept in mind by treating obstetricians and these can be prevented by proper pre-conceptional counselling, antenatal monitoring and timely intervention. A proper knowledge of the possible outcomes also helps to alleviate parental mental health issues.
On the Convergence of the Structural Estimation of Proximal Operator with Gaussian Processes (STEP-GP) Method with Adaptive Quantization for Communication-Eﬃcient Distributed Optimization

This technical note presents proof of the convergence of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) for addressing the sharing problem when applied in conjunction with two algorithms: 1) the stochastic STEP-GP algorithm and 2) its variant named LGP, which includes adaptive uniform quantization. For the case using LGP, the coordinator can assign diﬀerent quantization resolutions at each iteration and we assume that the number of bits that can be assigned is unrestricted and can go to inﬁnity. This document describes and analyzes the two methods for integrating learning and uniform quantization into the ADMM to reduce its communication overhead and a general formulation of their communication decision method. The problems are formulated for a multi-agent setting.
Development and characterization of EST-SSR derived functional domain marker (FDM) in Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean)

EST-SSR markers have been increasingly useful in crop improvement studies owing to their rapid and less expensive development, better chances of association with protein-coding regions and cross-taxon transferability. In the present study, SSR sequences were mined from 117,596 EST sequences of Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) (from NCBI) representing expressed cDNA data from different plant tissues (leaves, roots) grown under variable growth conditions. A total 1481, perfect non redundant SSR containing contig sequences were assembled that showed highest percentages of mononucleotide (44.8%) followed by trinucleotide (30.4%) di-nucleotide (14.0%), tetra-nucleotide (7.0%) and hexanucleotide (3.6%) repeat sequences. Among the distribution pattern, trinucleotide SSR sequences (65.4%) were found to be relatively frequent in the coding regions, the mononucleotide (25.6%) and dinucleotide (38.4%) SSRs were found to be highly frequent in the UTR region. Assembled SSR sequences were assigned to 2700 unique functional domain markers using the InterproScan program, the most significant were heat shock protein DnaJ, a cysteine-rich domain, RNA binding domain, S-adenosyl methionine decarboxylase, Brassinosteroid (BES1/BZR1) plant transcription factor, B3 DNA binding domain. Functional annotation results of selected 949 blasted EST-SSR sequences using BLAST2GO revealed its association with several important molecular functions (MF), biological processes (BP) and cellular components (CC) in P. vulgaris . Our results also showed a relatively higher density of SSR (1SSR/0.2kb) that were used to design 146 SSR primer pairs from 280 annotated sequences (52.1%) using Primer3 and successfully amplified in silico using FastPCR. The present findings report a new array of SSR markers with significant association with diverse functional domains that could be used in future studies on genetic diversity of common bean cultivars as well as in marker-assisted breeding.
Radiofrequency Ablation versus Surgical Resection in Elderly Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Although the disease burden of elderly cancer patients is rapidly increasing, reliable scientific information, value and preference information of domestic patients, and standardized guidelines for determining the treatment of elderly cancer patients are lacking. The aim of this study is to compare the therapeutic effects of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and surgery in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients aged 65 years or older. For the meta-analysis, the databases including PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, OVID Medline, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched. After the abstract-based review by two investigators, selected manuscripts were read in detail. The surgery group showed higher overall survival (OS) (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.22–1.70) and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.00–1.97) than the RFA group. This was also shown in small HCC of less than 3 cm (OS, HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.00–2.03; DFS, HR 1.32, 95% CI 0.91–1.91). This might be related to the high local recurrence in the RFA group (OR 4.90, 95% 2.16–11.08). On the other hand, adverse events were significantly lower in the RFA group (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14–0.36), which led to a decrease in the duration of hospital stay (mean difference −14.88 days, 95% CI −22.44–−7.32). In elderly HCC patients, survival in the surgery group was significantly higher than in the RFA group, but various complications tended to increase; so, appropriate patient selection is required.
New Insights in Treatment Options in Pediatric Urinary Tract Infection

Abstract Urinary tract infection (UTI) represents one of the most frequent infections with bacterial etiology during childhood. In infants and toddlers with fever without source UTI’ investigation should be carried out, since signs and symptoms are nonspecific. However, obtaining uncontaminated urine samples from these patients can be challenging and time consuming; all current collection methods (clean-catch, plastic collection bag, catheterization, etc) have disadvantages. Criteria for UTI definition are represented by the presence of significant number of a single uropathogen, this number being different depending on the collection method: at least 1000 colony-forming unit (CFU/ml) for catheter samples and at least 100.000 CFU/ml from midstream clean-catch samples or 50.000 CFU/ml and significant pyuria in a symptomatic or febrile child. Accurate diagnosis of UTI is essential to avoid any antibiotic overuse and expensive investigations. UTI caused by resistant bacterial strains has an increasing prevalence in children. In pediatric population, extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBLPE) represent the etiology of around 15% of UTIs. Because of limited therapeutic options the reintroduction of some old antimicrobial agents is necessary, therefore Nitrofurantoin and Fosfomycin, can represent alternatives for oral treatment and prophylaxis of UTIs in children or in case of resistance suspicion to other drug classes. It is important to recognize patients at risk, such as children with recurrent UTIs, kidney abnormalities, like vesicoureteral reflux and previous antibiotherapy, in order to recommend adequate empiric treatment, especially against resistant bacteria.
The Aquila Digital Community The Aquila Digital Community

: Bioﬁlm commonly forms on the surfaces of cellulosic biomass but its roles in cellulose degradation remain largely unexplored. We used Bacillus subtilis to study possible mechanisms and the contributions of two major bioﬁlm components, extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) and TasA protein, to submerged bioﬁlm formation on cellulose and its degradation. We found that bioﬁlm produced by B. subtilis is able to absorb exogenous cellulase added to the culture medium and also retain self-produced cellulase within the bioﬁlm matrix. The bacteria that produced more bioﬁlm degraded more cellulose compared to strains that produced less bioﬁlm. Knockout strains that lacked both EPS and TasA formed a smaller amount of submerged bioﬁlm on cellulose than the wild-type strain and also degraded less cellulose. Imaging of bioﬁlm on cellulose suggests that bacteria, cellulose, and cellulases form cellulolytic bioﬁlm complexes that facilitate synergistic cellulose degradation. This study brings additional insight into the important functions of bioﬁlm in cellulose degradation and could potentiate the development of bioﬁlm-based technology to enhance biomass degradation for biofuel production.