Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lymphokine-activated killer cell phenomenon. Lysis of natural killer- resistant fresh solid tumor cells by interleukin 2-activated autologous human peripheral blood lymphocytes

Activation in lectin-free interleukin 2 (IL-2) containing supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes (PBL) from cancer patients or normal individuals resulted in expression of cytotoxicity toward 20 of 21 natural killer (NK)-resistant fresh solid tumor cells tested. Fresh solid tumor cells were resistant to NK-mediated lysis in 10 autologous patients' PBL-tumor interactions, and from 17 normal individuals tested against 13 allogeneic fresh tumors. Culture of PBL in IL-2 for 2-3 d was required for the lymphokine activated killers (LAK) to be expressed, and lytic activity toward a variety of NK- resistant fresh and cultured tumor targets developed in parallel. Autologous IL-2 was functional in LAK activation, as well as interferon- depleted IL-2 preparations. Irradiation of responder PBL before culture in IL-2 prevented LAK development. Precursors of LAK were present in PBL depleted of adherent cells and in NK-void thoracic duct lymphocytes, suggesting that the precursor is neither a monocyte nor an NK cell. LAK effectors expressed the serologically defined T cell markers of OKT.3, Leu-1, and 4F2, but did not express the monocyte/NK marker OKM-1. Lysis of autologous fresh solid tumors by LAK from cancer patients' PBL was demonstrated in 85% of the patient-fresh tumor combinations. Our data present evidence that the LAK system is a phenomenon distinct from either NK or CTL systems that probably accounts for a large number of reported nonclassical cytotoxicities. The biological role of LAK cells is not yet known, although it is suggested that these cells may be functional in immune surveillance against human solid tumors.
Effect of Bacterial Kidney Disease on Saltwater Adaptation of Coho Salmon Smolts

Abstract Coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch with clinical infections of bacterial kidney disease (BKD) had poorer survival in the laboratory after 30 d in salt water (50%) than in freshwater (85%). Osmoregulatory ability of infected fish was better after acclimation in 10‰ salinity water before transfer to 30‰, salinity water. Infected fish exercised overnight (3.0 body lengths/s) were unable to survive the seawater challenge, whereas uninfected fish similarly exercised survived with the same plasma Na+ levels as unexercised fish. Because BKD is present in most salmonid stocks, stress of seawater transfers should be minimized through acclimation and reduced exertion.
'Water Used to be Scattered in the Landscape': Local Understandings of Soil Erosion and Land Use Planning in Southern Zimbabwe

This article presents some local understandings of ecological history in a semi arid area of Zimbabwe as an exploration of how changes in land use that reflect both local initiative and state planning have transformed the hydrology of local catchments of heavy clay 'mopani soils' and greatly accelerated soil erosion. Local explanations provide a wide-ranging and challenging analysis of the dynamics of watersheds situated within a complex social and historical context. In conjunction with the spread of ox-ploughing and population growth and redistribution, a range of ill-conceived and authoritarian 'conservation' and 'development' interventions by the colonial state are argued by local intellectu als to be the major causes of accelerated soil erosion. Particular attention is given to how government imposed the deforestation and intensive use of difficult top land soils, and then transformed that uneven heterogeneous landscape into a smooth bare land connected by contour ridges and paths so that water concen trates, erodes, and then leaves the desiccating land to silt the rivers. The existence of sophisticated 'indigenous knowledge' systems in Africa has now been widely accepted, but this case study suggests that their very depth, variability and complexity means that attempts to harness local ecological knowledge for the understanding of or development action about environmental change may be more problematic than is often assumed. Researchers, government and conser vation and development organisations need to do much more than seek to 'tap' such knowledge. Real understandings and 'sustainable development' can only flow from new power relationships with rural people and their knowledge.
A Comparison of Preseason Forecasting Methods for Returns of Two British Columbia Sockeye Salmon Stocks

Abstract Preseason forecasts of salmon returns are crucial to the management of coastal Pacific salmon fisheries. Forecasts are used by both fishery managers and industry to plan harvest strategies for the coming season. Forecasts are also of considerable importance in deciding the allocation of catch among different areas and user groups. This paper outlines several models currently used to generate preseason forecasts of salmon returns. In addition, several forecasting models that have proven useful for modeling other resources are presented. The ability of these models to produce accurate forecasts was tested with data from fisheries for sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka in the Adams and Chilko rivers, British Columbia. Results of the forecasting study indicated that simple time-series models may provide more accurate forecasts of run size than currently used methods, such as Ricker stock-recruitment curves. In addition, naive combinations of forecasts from the competing models appear to perform at lea.
RESPONSE OF SOYABEAN CROPS TO MUCUNA PRURIENS GREEN MANURE IN SYMBIOSIS WITH COWPEA BRADYRHIZOBIA IN CONGO

ABSTRACT The use of Mucuna pruriens as source of N for the succeeding poor N-fixing soyabean genotypes was tested during the 1991/92 rainy season at the IDR site. Field studies revealed that M. pruriens produced 31 nodules plant−1 with a nodule mass of 306 mg plant−1 and a crop N yield of 340 kg ha−1. This high nodulation was attributed to a wide range of indigenous rhizobia identified as strains of Bradyrhizobia isolated from nodules of Stylosanthes gracilis (two isolates G7, G71), Crotalaria juncea (two isolates C4, C41), M. pruriens (two isolates II, 13), Mimosa pudica (three isolates W3, W31, W32) and Phaseolus vulgaris (one isolate H51), which formed nodules with dark red interiors on M. pruriens as revealed by the plant-infection test. The antibiotic resistance profile differed among the various isolates, and among isolates of the same plant of origin. Consequently, the use of Mucuna as green manure for the succeeding soyabean crops is quantified as a fertilizer-N equivalent of as much as 95 and 80 .
Improving 3-m Resolution Land Cover Mapping through Efficient Learning from an Imperfect 10-m Resolution Map

Substantial progress has been made in the field of large-area land cover mapping as the spatial resolution of remotely sensed data increases. However, a significant amount of human power is still required to label images for training and testing purposes, especially in high-resolution (e.g., 3-m) land cover mapping. In this research, we propose a solution that can produce 3-m resolution land cover maps on a national scale without human efforts being involved. First, using the public 10-m resolution land cover maps as an imperfect training dataset, we propose a deep learning based approach that can effectively transfer the existing knowledge. Then, we improve the efficiency of our method through a network pruning process for national-scale land cover mapping. Our proposed method can take the state-of-the-art 10-m resolution land cover maps (with an accuracy of 81.24% for China) as the training data, enable a transferred learning process that can produce 3-m resolution land cover maps, and further improve the overall accuracy (OA) to 86.34% for China. We present detailed results obtained over three mega cities in China, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach for 3-m resolution large-area land cover mapping.
BRAND IDENTITY AND ITS EFFECT ON
CONSUMER PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR IN
FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS (FMCG)
SECTOR OF AZERBAIJAN

РЕЗЮМЕ Идентичность Бренда и его влияние на поведение потребительских закупок в FMCG секторе Азербайджана Сеймур Малик ГУЛИЕВ Азербайджанский Государственный Нефт и Промышленности Университет, Баку, Азербайджан Маркетинг очень сильно развинулся в наши дни. В настоящее время компании используют подходы, ориентированные на потребителя, чтобы стимулировать их способность удовлетворять неисчислимые развивающиеся потребности и потребности продвинутых клиентов. Среди этих ориентированных на потребителя подходов брендинг стал одним из важнейших видов деятельности, необходимых для создания надежной клиентской базы и создания убедительного имиджа бренда. Брендинг - это метод, с помощью которого маркетолог пытается построить долгосрочные отношения с клиентами, изучая их потребности и желания, чтобы предложение (бренд) могло выполнить их общие цели. Основной целью статьи является определение идентичности бренда и ее влияния на поведение потребителей в секторе FMCG в Азербайджане. Для достижния цели, автор использовал количественные исследования. Автор проанализировал результаты собранных данных с помощью опроса. В результате выяснилось, что причины и демографические показатели влияют на приверженность потребителей к бренду. Ключевые слова: Брендинг, идентичность бренда, приверженность, поведение потребителей, FMCG
Major Causes of Organs and Carcass Condemnation and Financial Losses in Cattle Slaughtered at Adama Municipal Abattoir, Adama, Ethiopia

Abattoirs play an important role in examining signs, lesions or specific diseases of surveillance of various diseases that have human and animal health importance. Surveillance at the abattoir allows for all animals passing into the human food chain to be inspected. Monitoring and other conditions at slaughter have been recognized as one way of assessing the disease status of the herd. Abattoir data can be a source of valuable information on the incidence and epidemiology of animal disease conditions, to estimate the financial losses incurred through the condemnation of affected organs. The study was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017 in Adama municipal abattoir, at Adama. The aim of this study was to identify the significant causes of organ condemnation and to estimate the magnitude of the direct financial losses attributed to the condemned organs from cattle slaughtered in the abattoir. Standard antemortem and postmortem inspection procedures were followed throughout the study. The antemortem inspection was carried out on arrival and in the lairage and abnormalities encountered was recorded, followed by postmortem examination through their identification number to detect gross abnormalities and aesthetic reasons that rendered each organ to be rejected from the domestic market. The estimation of financial losses is based on the annual slaughter capacity of the abattoir and considering the market average price of each organ. The study revealed that from a total of 384 slaughtered animals 63 (16.40%) were found to have signs of detectable abnormalities in the antemortem inspection. The clinical signs observed during an antemortem inspection from 63 animals were depression (5.46%), nasal discharge (4.68%), coughing (2.46%), lameness (1.56%) and local swelling (). 18%). However, during postmortem inspection offal organs of slaughtered animals shown lesions and subjected to condemnation were liver (62.76%), lung (59.37%), and heart (9.37%). The identified microorganisms responsible for the condemnation of these organs in the study were fasciolosis (30.46%), hydatidosis (32.29%) and pericarditis (5.73%). The condemnation of this much organs resulted in a financial loss estimated to be 3,533,428.50 (ETB) or 152,763.862 USD annually. This study implies that high prevalence organ condemnation, particularly by parasitic infections. This warranties that awareness creation to animal owners on its animal husbandry management and animal health control measures like regular deworming.
Elevated atmospheric [CO2] promotes frost damage in evergreen tree seedlings

Growth under elevated [CO 2 ] promoted spring frost damage in field grown seedlings of snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng.), one of the most frost tolerant of eucalypts. Freezing began in the leaf midvein, consistent with it being a major site of frost damage under field conditions. The average ice nucleation temperature was higher in leaves grown under elevated [CO 2 ] (- 5.7 °C versus - 4.3 °C), consistent with the greater incidence of frost damage in these leaves (34% versus 68% of leaves damaged). These results have major implications for agriculture, forestry and vegetation dynamics, as an increase in frost susceptibility may reduce potential gains in productivity from CO 2 fertilization and may affect predictions of vegetation change based on increasing temperature.
GIVING NEW SORGHUM VARIETY OPTIONS TO RESOURCE-POOR FARMERS IN NICARAGUA THROUGH PARTICIPATORY VARIETAL SELECTION

SUMMARY In the dry areas of Nicaragua, white-grain sorghum is an important subsistence crop for resource-poor farmers. From 2002 to 2007, participatory varietal selection (PVS) was implemented in three regions with the aim of identifying new varieties matching small farmers' needs. This paper describes the general approach, the partnership and the methods used to identify farmers' selection criteria (FSC), as well as the evaluation of new germplasm using the scoring method. Data analysis involved relating farmers' evaluation data to agronomic data and farmers' selection decisions (FSD), using Spearman correlations and the chi-square test. In the three regions, higher grain yield and good grain quality for making tortillas were identified as the two main FSCs for both the ‘tortillero’ and ‘millón’ sorghum types; the ranking of the other important FSC differed between the sites and the sorghum types. Our data shows that farmers' scores for earliness were highly correlated with breeder's observations while farmers' assessments of grain yield were correlated with measured yield in half the cases, depending on their knowledge of the crop. The study shows that in evaluating grain quality the farmers used several specific traits which were not considered by breeders. Overall appreciation, grain yield and grain quality were the key farmers' criteria that contributed to FSD. The PVS work enabled breeders to obtain a better understanding of farmers' criteria as well as identifying new progenitors, which should be useful for the sorghum breeding schemes in Central America in the future. Furthermore, by exploring wide genetic diversity, it was possible to release several farmer-preferred and high-performing varieties within a fairly short period.
Symbiosis of Mycale (Mycale) vansoesti sp. nov. (Porifera, Demospongiae) with a coralline alga from North Sulawesi (Indonesia)

The symbiotic association between the new sponge species Mycale vansoesti and the coralline alga Amphiroa sp. from the Bunaken Marine Park (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) is described. The alga completely pervades the sponge. The color of the sponge ectosome is white, both on the external surface and on the atrial wall, but where the alga is present the sponge takes on the light pink color of the alga. The sponge spicular complement is characterized by mycalostyles, anisochelae of two types, sigmas (often “C” shaped), and extremely abundant toxas organized in bundles forming toxadragma. In the association, the sponge shows very low silicate value, and consequently the alga represents the main skeleton of the sponge. On the other hand, the sponge affects the morphology of the alga, leading to a cylindrical shape, with thalli running parallel to the sponge surface. This association seems to be obligate for the sponge, as we found no sponges of this species living in isolation.
Employing a Multi-Input Deep Convolutional Neural Network to Derive Soil Clay Content from a Synergy of Multi-Temporal Optical and Radar Imagery Data

Earth observation (EO) has an immense potential as being an enabling tool for mapping spatial characteristics of the topsoil layer. Recently, deep learning based algorithms and cloud computing infrastructure have become available with a great potential to revolutionize the processing of EO data. This paper aims to present a novel EO-based soil monitoring approach leveraging open-access Copernicus Sentinel data and Google Earth Engine platform. Building on key results from existing data mining approaches to extract bare soil reflectance values the current study delivers valuable insights on the synergistic use of open access optical and radar images. The proposed framework is driven by the need to eliminate the influence of ambient factors and evaluate the efficiency of a convolutional neural network (CNN) to effectively combine the complimentary information contained in the pool of both optical and radar spectral information and those form auxiliary geographical coordinates mainly for soil. We developed and calibrated our multi-input CNN model based on soil samples (calibration = 80% and validation 20%) of the LUCAS database and then applied this approach to predict soil clay content. A promising prediction performance (R2 = 0.60, ratio of performance to the interquartile range (RPIQ) = 2.02, n = 6136) was achieved by the inclusion of both types (synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and laboratory visible near infrared–short wave infrared (VNIR-SWIR) multispectral) of observations using the CNN model, demonstrating an improvement of more than 5.5% in RMSE using the multi-year median optical composite and current state-of-the-art non linear machine learning methods such as random forest (RF; R2 = 0.55, RPIQ = 1.91, n = 6136) and artificial neural network (ANN; R2 = 0.44, RPIQ = 1.71, n = 6136). Moreover, we examined post-hoc techniques to interpret the CNN model and thus acquire an understanding of the relationships between spectral information and the soil target identified by the model. Looking to the future, the proposed approach can be adopted on the forthcoming hyperspectral orbital sensors to expand the current capabilities of the EO component by estimating more soil attributes with higher predictive performance.
Effect of different filter methods on seawater quality at a marine scallop hatchery.

The effect of using two different filtering methods in the main seawater inlet to a scallop (Pecten maximus) hatchery in Norway was tested. Seawater was filtered through active filter media (AFM) and a protein skimmer, or through a drum filter and a protein skimmer. Seawater quality was characterized and tested on algal growth rate, egg development and larval activity. Tests were performed under winter and spring conditions (March, April and May 2009). Both seawater treatments reduced the dissolved organic carbon concentrations in the inlet seawater. The total bacterial number was stable in both seawater treatments, except for an increase in the drum filter in March. The bacterial community showed seasonal development: Actinobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria dominated in March, while Gammaproteobacteria dominated in April and May. In a cluster analysis, samples from both seawater treatments showed high similarity on similar sampling dates. Vibrio spp. occurred, but was never observed in seawater coming from the skimmer after the drum filter. This sampling point was often clustered as most similar to the incoming seawater. The fraction of scallop eggs that developed into veliger larvae increased from 10% to 50% during the sampling period, and no significant differences were found between the two seawater treatments. The fraction of 8 day old active larvae was lowest in March, in experiments with both undiluted and diluted (1:10, 1:100) seawater from both treatments. No significant difference in activity was found between the treatments, except for undiluted (April) and 100-fold dilution (April and May) from the drum filter, when the larval activity was significantly higher. The effect of both seawater treatments was tested by growing the diatom Chaetoceros muelleri in small volumes for 4-5 days. Daily growth rates (μ) varied between 0.75 and 1.15, and were highest in May. No significant difference in cell concentration was found between the treatments. The results showed that the skimmer attached to the drum filter had the best performance overall in reducing dissolved organic carbon and potentially lethal bacteria. These findings have important implications for hatchery seawater management protocols.
Total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol-racemic ketamine and propofol-S-ketamine: a comparative study and haemodynamic evaluation in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy

Intelisano T.R. , Kitahara F.R. , Otsuki D.A. , Fantoni D.T. , Auler Jr J.O. C. & Cortopassi S.R. G. 2008. Total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol-racemic ketamine and propofol-S-ketamine: A comparative study and haemodynamic evaluation in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy. Pesquisa Veterinaria Brasileira 28(4):216-222.
Antibiotic Resistance of Aeromonas spp. Isolated from Tropical Fish Imported from Singapore

Abstract To determine the scope of antibacterial resistance among Aeromonas spp. , bacterial cultures were taken from a variety of tropical fish species imported from Singapore. The samples were plated on Rimler-Shotts medium for bacterial isolation and identified with both the API20E and Nonfermenter Test Strip systems. Aeromonas hydrophila, A. sobria, and A. caviae were identified in monomicrobic and concomitant infections. Following identification of bacterial isolates, 11 antimicrobials routinely used in the tropical fish industry and 1 new fluoroquinolone were tested for their effectiveness against Aeromonas spp. with the Kirby-Bauer disk-diffusion technique. Aeromonas sobria proved to be the most resistant, often showing susceptibility to only 3 of 12 test drugs. Aeromonas hydrophila was consistently the least resistant. Based on these results, antimicrobial resistance appears to be a rapidly emerging problem in the pet fish industry.
Democratic Republic of the Congo Tropical Forest Canopy Height and Aboveground Biomass Estimation with Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Airborne LiDAR Data: The Effect of Seasonal Landsat Image Selection

Inventories of tropical forest aboveground biomass (AGB) are often imprecise and sparse. Increasingly, airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and satellite optical wavelength sensor data are used to map tree height and to estimate AGB. In the tropics, cloud cover is particularly prevalent and so several years of satellite observations must be considered. This may reduce mapping accuracy because of seasonal and inter-annual changes in the forest reflectance. In this paper, the sensitivity of airborne LiDAR and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) based dominant canopy height and AGB 30 m mapping is assessed with respect to the season of Landsat acquisition for a ~10,000 Km2 tropical forest area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A random forest regression estimator is used to predict and assess the 30 m dominant canopy height using LiDAR derived test and training data. The AGB is mapped using an allometric model parameterized with the dominant canopy height and is assessed by comparison with field based 30 m AGB estimates. Experiments are undertaken independently using (i) only a wet season Landsat-8 image, (ii) only a dry season Landsat-8 image, and (iii) both Landsat-8 images. At the study area level there is little reported sensitivity to the season of Landsat image used. The mean dominant canopy height and AGB values are similar between seasons, within 0.19 m and 5 Mg ha−1, respectively. The mapping results are improved when both Landsat-8 images are used with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values that correspond to 18.8% of the mean study area mapped tree height (20.4 m) and to 41% of the mean study area mapped AGB (204 Mg ha−1). The mean study area mapped AGB is similar to that reported in other Congo Basin forest studies. The results of this detailed study are illustrated and the implications for tropical forest tree height and AGB mapping are discussed.