Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regeneration of an Atlantic forest formation in the understorey of a Eucalyptus grandis plantation in south-eastern Brazil

This note aims to provide data indicating the great potential of Eucalyptus plantations for the recuperation of degraded native tropical forests in Brazil. Cultivation of fast-growing Eucalyptus for charcoal, paper or wood production started in Brazil at the beginning of this century and by 1966 400,000 ha were covered with species of this genus. Rapid industrialization in the early 1970s favoured the expansion of this area to 1,052,000 ha in 1973, the world's largest area covered with Eucalyptus plantations at that time (Lima 1987). Current estimates are of nearly 3,900,000 ha (Instituto de Pesquisas Florestais IPEF, pers. comm.). In order to establish these artificial plantations, however, many native forests were cut, mostly in the cerrado and lower-montane Atlantic forest. The widespread substitution of natural heterogeneous forests by introduced forest monocultures produced some dramatic environmental consequences, as witnessed by the frequent problems that the Eucalyptus planters had with pests and diseases (Berti Filho & Fraga 1987, Zanuincio & Lima 1975). It has now become a priority to restore areas of native vegetation amidst Eucalyptus plantations with the joint aims of protecting water sources, sheltering local fauna, and providing alternative resources for pests and a breeding ground for their predators. To provide background data we carried out a survey in 1988 of regeneration of native trees in the understorey of a Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maiden plantation. The site was at CAF (Santa Barbara Agro-forestry Company), a charcoal
How Consumers’ Political Ideology and Status-Maintenance Goals Interact to Shape Their Desire for Luxury Goods

This research distinguishes between the goal of maintaining status and advancing status and investigates how consumers’ political ideology triggers sensitivity to a status-maintenance (vs. status-advancement) goal, subsequently altering luxury consumption. Because conservative political ideology increases the preference for social stability, the authors propose that conservatives (vs. liberals) are more sensitive to status maintenance (but not status advancement) and thus exhibit a greater desire for luxury goods when the status-maintenance goal is activated. Six studies assessing status maintenance using sociodemographic characteristics (Studies 1, 2, and 3a) and controlled manipulations, including ad framing (Study 3b) and semantic priming (Studies 4 and 5), provide support for this proposition. The studies show that the effect is specific to status maintenance and does not occur (1) in the absence of a status goal or (2) when the status-advancement goal (a focus on increasing status) is activated. Overall, the findings reveal that conservatives’ desire for luxury goods stems from the goal of maintaining status and offer insights into how luxury brands can effectively tailor their communications to audiences with a conservative ideology.
Routinely randomize potential sources of measurement reactivity to estimate and adjust for biases in subjective reports.

With the advent of online and app-based studies, researchers in psychology are making increasing use of repeated subjective reports. The new methods open up opportunities to study behavior in the field and to map causal processes, but they also pose new challenges. Recent work has added initial elevation bias to the list of common pitfalls; here, higher negative states (i.e., thoughts and feelings) are reported on the first day of assessment than on later days. This article showcases a new approach to addressing this and other measurement reactivity biases. Specifically, we employed a planned missingness design in a daily diary study of more than 1,300 individuals who were assessed over a period of up to 70 days to estimate and adjust for measurement reactivity biases. We found that day of first item presentation, item order, and item number were associated with only negligible bias: Items were not answered differently depending on when and where they were shown. Initial elevation bias may thus be more limited than has previously been reported or it may act only at the level of the survey, not at the item level. We encourage researchers to make design choices that will allow them to routinely assess measurement reactivity biases in their studies. Specifically, we advocate the routine randomization of item display and order, as well as of the timing and frequency of measurement. Randomized planned missingness makes it possible to empirically gauge how fatigue, familiarity, and learning interact to bias responses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
The effect of refuge trees on a paper birch ectomycorrhiza community

Live trees within forest disturbances could support refugia populations of ectomycorrhizae fungi from which to reestablish ectomycorrhiza communities during forest succession. The effectiveness of refuge paper birch trees (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) in maintaining a forest ectomycorrhiza community on birch seedlings, both in clearcuts and forests, in northwest British Columbia was examined. Seedlings next to refuge birch trees in clearcuts had equal levels of average morphotype richness and eveness as seedlings next to mature birch trees in forests. Seedlings outside of the rooting zone of refuge trees had significantly less average morphotype richness in both clearcuts and forests, decreasing by 38 and 15%, respectively. The ectomycorrhiza communities were also more unique (lower community similarity) next to refuge trees than for seedlings away from refuge trees, especially in clearcuts. These treatment effects could be explained by differences in the ability to disperse and establish between early-stage.
In Reply: Navigating personal risk in rhinologic surgery during the COVID‐19 pandemic

We read with great appreciation the letter by Drs Bleier and Welch, in which they highlighted population-specific factors among rhinologic patients that may elevate the false-negative rate (FNR) of severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral reverse transcriptase–polyacrylimide gel electrophoresis (RT-PCR) testing, complicating the reliance on a preprocedural negative test result in risk assessment and decisions regarding use of personal protective equipment (PPE). 1 We agree with their note of caution and the importance of carefully considering those factors, FNR among them, that combine to produce the overall risk of viral transmission to health-care workers and other patients. Consequently, the estimation of this overall risk, whether achieved through formal calculation or informal estimation, will benefit from attention to the relative contribution of additional factors and the added complexity of their interactions within a more comprehensive risk framework. As the authors detail with respect to FNR and allude to regarding negative predictive value (NPV), a novel pandemic poses specific challenges in assessing risk, as the data about the virus and its regional prevalence evolves. The interpretation of a negative test result, for example, is more directly related to the NPV than the FNR, because the NPV takes into account disease prevalence, which can change by several orders of magnitude within a given time period or region. For example, a surgeon performing an elective sinus surgery in a patient with a negative RT-PCR test in San Diego County on June 15, with active cases at 81 per 100,000, would be at a much lower risk of exposure, all other things being equal, than a surgeon performing the same procedure on a patient from neighboring Imperial County, where new cases were concurrently 1494 per 100,000.2 Within a hypothetical locale with a caseload approaching 0 per 100,000, the NPV approaches zero as well, regardless of the FNR. The analysis is further complicated when considering information other than the patient test results and the preva-
Lack of antidepressant effects of burst-suppressing isoflurane anesthesia in adult male Wistar outbred rats subjected to chronic mild stress

Post-ictal emergence of slow wave EEG (electroencephalogram) activity and burst-suppression has been associated with the therapeutic effects of the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), indicating that mere “cerebral silence” may elicit antidepressant actions. Indeed, brief exposures to burst-suppressing anesthesia has been reported to elicit antidepressant effects in a subset of patients, and produce behavioral and molecular alterations, such as increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), connected with antidepressant responses in rodents. Here, we have further tested the cerebral silence hypothesis by determining whether repeated exposures to isoflurane anesthesia reduce depressive-like symptoms or influence BDNF expression in male Wistar outbred rats (Crl:WI(Han)) subjected to chronic mild stress (CMS), a model which is responsive to repeated electroconvulsive shocks (ECS, a model of ECT). Stress-susceptible, stress-resilient, and unstressed rats were exposed to 5 doses of isoflurane over a 15-day time period, with administrations occurring every third day. Isoflurane dosing is known to reliably produce rapid EEG burst-suppression (4% induction, 2% maintenance; 15 min). Antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of isoflurane were assessed after the first, third, and fifth drug exposure by measuring sucrose consumption, as well as performance on the open field and the elevated plus maze tasks. Tissue samples from the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were collected, and levels of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) protein were assessed. We find that isoflurane anesthesia had no impact on the behavior of stress-resilient or anhedonic rats in selected tests; findings which were consistent—perhaps inherently related—with unchanged levels of BDNF.
Representing the middle-class ‘hipster’: Emerging modes of distinction, generational oppositions and gentrification

This article explores how representations of the ‘hipster’ in newspapers and on blogs are bound up with processes of class distinction in contemporary Britain. The analysis demonstrates that the hipster is a contested middle-class social type who is the object of both denigration and prestige. The hipster is typically represented as a young person associated with the middle-class fraction of the cultural intermediaries who is engaged in a particular set of reflexive and trendy consumption practices, often performed in gentrified urban spaces and linked to the creative industries. The article suggests that the disputed status of ‘hipster cool’ is indicative of shifting class distinctions in cultural taste and classificatory struggles within the middle class between generational groupings that involve questions of authenticity. Such contestations are reflected by the increasing legitimacy of emerging forms of cultural capital rooted in popular culture and embraced by young people, and the waning symbolic power of traditional highbrow culture associated with an older generation of middle-class people. It is also argued that the classificatory struggles over hipster tastes and lifestyles have a spatial dimension as bound up with the public controversies and social anxieties linked to gentrification in neoliberal Britain.
Laboratory Studies on the Chemo-sensory Reactions of Blowflies.

Attraction of various blowflies to sheep wool has been demonstrated under laboratory conditions using a choice-chamber technique. The attractive factor in wool is intimately associated with the wool fibre for it does not disappear during storage and it is not completely removed by washing. Only female flies were attracted to wool. The highest degree of attraction was obtained from fertilized females which had daily access to meat. Even in the absence of fertilization and meat, attraction was not completely abolished. The species and strains tested can be placed in the following order in terms of strength of response to sheep wool: Lucilia sericata (British), L. cuprina (tested on damp floor)>L. sericata (Danish: country)> L. sericata (Danish: city), L. sericata (Australian) > L. illustris, L. caesar. No response was given by Calliphora vomitoria. The olfactory organs involved in the response to wool are mainly on the antennae but antennaeless L. sericata and L. cuprina with some tarsi removed were still able to show some response to wool provided that they were tested on a damp floor. In the course of testing the olfactory responses it was also shown that the main humidity receptors are present on the antennae. The existence of a ‘wool-factor’ to which only certain strains of L. sericata and L. cuprina are specially sensitive offers a possible explanation for the greater efficiency of these species as myiasis-producing forms.
Establishment and characterization of a continuous cell line (GF‐1) derived from grouper, Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton): a cell line susceptible to grouper nervous necrosis virus (GNNV)

A new continuous cell line (GF-1) was established and characterized. The GF-1 cell line, derived from the fin tissue of a grouper, Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton), was maintained in L15 medium containing 5% foetal bovine serum (FBS) at 28 ∞C, and has been subcultured more than 160 times since 1995. The majority of GF-1 cells are fibroblast-like, together with some epithelioid cells. Spontaneous transformation of GF-1 cells occurred during subculture 50 to subculture 80, and led to an increase of plating efficiency, less requirement of FBS and de novo susceptibility to grouper nervous necrosis virus (GNNV). Cytopathic effects (CPEs) could be observed in GF-1 cells 3‐5 days postinfection with pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), hard clam reovirus (HCRV), eel herpes virus Formosa (EHVF) and GNNV. In addition, abundant GNNV particles were found in the cytoplasm of GNNV-infected GF-1 cells using electron microscopy and nucleic acids of GNNV virus were detected by polymerase chain reaction in the culture medium of GNNV-infected cells after CPE appeared. The experimental results indicated that GF-1 can effectively proliferate fish nodavirus and is a promising tool for studying fish nodavirus.
Mobilization of Adipose Stromal Cells in Obesity and Cancer by SPARC and its Proteolytic Isoforms

iii Table of contents v List of Tables vi List of Figures vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review 4 Chapter 3: Methods and Material 37 Chapter 4: Results 47 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 88 Chapter 6: Future direction 95 Bibliography 100 Vita 123
Within- and Among-Clutch Variation in Maternal Yolk Testosterone Level in the Black-Tailed Gulls Larus crassirostris

Abstract Mother birds can enhance growth and/or survival of chicks by supplying energetic and hormonal resources to the egg yolk (i.e. maternal effect). In several bird species, mothers supply higher level of testosterone to the eggs laid later within the clutch and enhance the growth of the chick to compensate for the disadvantage of the later hatching. As same as this within-clutch mechanism, mothers breeding later in the season can be expected to supply higher level of testosterone to the clutch. However, among-clutch seasonal variation in yolk testosterone levels has been rarely described. Here, we investigated among-clutch seasonal variation in the yolk testosterone level in Black-tailed Gulls Larus crassirostris, as well as within-clutch variation. Mean yolk testosterone level of eggs laid later within the clutch (“b-eggs”) was significantly higher than that of eggs laid earlier (“a-eggs”). The yolk testosterone levels of both a- and b-eggs of later breeders were significantly higher than those of earlier ones, while this trend was not observed in mean egg mass. Our results indicate that mothers establishing the clutch later in the season would invest more maternal testosterone into the clutch.
The Self-Perception Connection: Why Consumers Devalue Unattractive Produce

This research investigates the mechanism by which the aesthetic premium placed on produce contributes to consumers’ rejection of safe, edible, yet aesthetically unattractive, fruits and vegetables, which results in both financial loss to retailers and food waste. Further, the authors identify a novel way in which the devaluation of such produce can be reduced. Five experiments demonstrate that consumers devalue unattractive produce because of altered self-perceptions: merely imagining the consumption of unattractive produce negatively affects how consumers view themselves, lowering their willingness to pay for unattractive produce relative to equivalently safe but more attractive alternatives. This discrepancy in willingness to pay for unattractive versus attractive produce can be reduced by altering the self-diagnostic signal of consumer choices and boosting consumers’ self-esteem. An experiment in the field demonstrates the effectiveness of using easily implementable in-store messaging to boost consumers’ self-esteem in ways that increase consumers’ positive self-perceptions and, subsequently, their willingness to choose unattractive produce. This research, therefore, suggests low-cost yet effective strategies retailers can use to market unattractive produce, potentially raising retailer profits while reducing food waste.
Adipose mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles containing microRNA-26a-5p target TLR4 and protect against diabetic nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a complication of diabetes that is increasing in prevalence in China. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) carrying microRNAs (miRs) may represent a useful tool in the development of therapies for DN. Here, we report that EVs released by adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) during DN contain a microRNA, miR-26a-5p, that suppresses DN. Using bioinformatic analyses, we identified differentially expressed miRs in EVs from ADSCs and in DN and predicted downstream regulatory target genes. We isolated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from adipose tissues and collected EVs from the ADSCs. We exposed mouse glomerular podocytes and MP5 cells to high glucose (HG), ADSC-derived EVs, miR-26a-5p inhibitor/antagomir, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) plasmids, or the NF-κB pathway activator (phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate, or PMA). We used the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry to investigate the impact of miR-26a-5p on cell viability and apoptosis and validated the results of these assays with in vivo experiments in nude mice. We found that in DN, miR-26a-5p is expressed at very low levels, whereas TLR4 is highly expressed. Of note, EVs from ADSCs ameliorated the pathological symptoms of DN in diabetic mice and transferred miR-26a-5p to HG-induced MP5 cells, improving viability while suppressing the apoptosis of MP5 cells. We also found that miR-26a-5p protects HG-induced MP5 cells from injury by targeting TLR4, inactivating the NF-κB pathway, and downregulating vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA). Moreover, ADSC-derived EVs transferred miR-26a-5p to mouse glomerular podocytes, which ameliorated DN pathology. These findings suggest that miR-26a-5p from ADSC-derived EVs protects against DN.
System-level adjustments to elevated CO2 in model spruce ecosystems

Atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment and increasing nitrogen deposition are often predicted to increase forest productivity based on currently available data for isolated forest tree seedlings or their leaves. However, it is highly uncertain whether such seedling responses will scale to the stand level. Therefore, we studied the effects of increasing CO2 (280, 420 and 560 μL L-1) and increasing rates of wet N deposition (0, 30 and 90 kg ha-1 y-1) on whole stands of 4-year-old spruce trees (Picea abies). One tree from each of six clones, together with two herbaceous understory species, were established in each of nine 0.7 m2 model ecosystems in nutrient poor forest soil and grown in a simulated montane climate for two years. Shoot level light-saturated net photosynthesis measured at growth CO2 concentrations increased with increasing CO2, as well as with increasing N deposition. However, predawn shoot respiration was unaffected by treatments. When measured at a common CO2 concentration of 420 μL L-1 37% down-regulation of photosynthesis was observed in plants grown at 560 μL CO2 L-1. Length growth of shoots and stem diameter were not affected by CO2 or N deposition. Bud burst was delayed, leaf area index (LAI) was lower, needle litter fall increased and soil CO2 efflux increased with increasing CO2. N deposition had no effect on these traits. At the ecosystem level the rate of net CO2 exchange was not significantly different between CO2 and N treatments. Most of the responses to CO2 studied here were nonlinear with the most significant differences between 280 and 420 μL CO2 L-1 and relatively small changes between 420 and 560 μL CO2 L-1. Our results suggest that the lack of above-ground growth responses to elevated CO2 is due to the combined effects of physiological down-regulation of photosynthesis at the leaf level, allometric adjustment at the canopy level (reduced LAI), and increasing strength of below-ground carbon sinks. The non-linearity of treatment effects further suggests that major responses of coniferous forests to atmospheric CO2 enrichment might already be under way and that future responses may be comparatively smaller.
Direct oral anticoagulants compared to vitamin K antagonist for the management of left ventricular thrombus

Left ventricular (LV) thrombus is increasingly detected in patients with and without ischaemic heart disease due to the increased availability of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Risk factors include anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction, delayed reperfusion therapy, and non‐ischaemic cardiomyopathy with severe LV systolic dysfunction. We aimed to report the characteristics and outcomes of patients with LV thrombus treated with either vitamin K antagonist (VKA) or direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) with a view to describing differences in efficacy, specifically, subsequent thromboembolic events, thrombus resolution, and also side effects of therapy including clinically significant bleeding.
Relationships between physiological traits and productivity of sugarcane in response to water deficit

SUMMARY The relationships between physiological variables and sugarcane productivity under water deficit conditions were investigated in field studies during 2005 and 2006 in Weslaco, Texas, USA. A total of 78 genotypes and two commercial varieties were studied, one of which was drought-tolerant (TCP93-4245) and the other drought-sensitive (TCP87-3388). All genotypes were subjected to two irrigation regimes: a control well-watered treatment (wet) and a moderate water-deficit stress (dry) treatment for a period of 90 days. Maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), estimated chlorophyll content (SPAD index), leaf temperature (LT), leaf relative water content (RWC) and productivity were measured. The productivity of all genotypes was, on average, affected negatively; however, certain genotypes did not suffer significant reduction. Under water deficit, the productivity of the genotypes was positively and significantly correlated with Fv/Fm, SPAD index and RWC, while LT had a negative correlation. These findings suggest that genotypes exhibiting traits of high RWC values, high chlorophyll contents and high photosynthetic radiation use efficiency under low moisture availability should be targeted for selection and variety development in programmes aimed at improving sugarcane for drought prone environments.